G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology

Coordinates: 29°01′N 79°29′E / 29.017°N 79.483°E / 29.017; 79.483
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology
Rural
AffiliationsUGC, ICAR, AICTE
Websitegbpuat.ac.in
Map

G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, also known as Pantnagar University, is the first agricultural university of

Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarakhand. The university is regarded as the harbinger of the Green Revolution in India.[1]

History

Pre-establishment groundwork (1949–1959)

The first Education Commission of India (1949) headed by

Sikh and other migrants from West Pakistan, in the aftermath of the partition of 1947.[4][5]

Encouraged by favourable view of the Damle team, two senior government officials- H S Sandhu and A N Jha visited United States to look for collaborations with US Universities. In consultation with

University of Illinois, the Pennsylvania State University and the University of Missouri
. The task of mentoring the proposed university in UP was assigned to the University of Illinois which signed a contract in 1959.

Initial years and development (1960–1972)

Main administrative building also called "Ghanta Ghar", which serves as VC office, is among the oldest buildings on campus.

The University was dedicated to the Nation by the first Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru, on 17 November 1960. In the early Days, Illinois faculty served the university in designing its education system and putting in place an effective research and extension system. Six to eight Illinois faculty used to stay in Pantnagar at a time serving between 2 and 4-year terms for a period of 12 years. Dr. William Thompson, a team member on site at Pantnagar, shared that it was unusual for the project to start a university in a place with nothing

All buildings and facilities had to be constructed in the jungle there. In 1965, drastic upheaval of the university board of directors, which was spurred by lack of state government support for the institution, caused removal of the entire administrative and governance team of the university. D P Singh was named vice chancellor of the university with complete control over its affairs until a new board of directors was chosen. Under Singh's leadership, many necessary upgrades took place, and the university flourished.[7] The University of Illinois left Pantnagar in 1972, when president Richard Nixon ordered Americans out of the near east.[8]

The UP Act XI-V of 1958– the founding legislative act was later amended under UP Universities Re-enactment and Amendment Act 1972 and the University was rechristened as Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology keeping in view the contributions of

Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant
. Pantnagar is a symbol of successful partnership between India and the
Public Law 480). The establishment of this university brought about a revolution in agricultural education, research and extension. It paved the way for setting up of 41 other state agricultural universities in the country.[9]

Role in ushering Green Revolution

Pantnagar University soon became a significant force in the development and transfer of High Yielding Variety seeds and related technology.[10] The Mexican wheat varieties, developed by Norman Borlaug were tested in Pantnagar[11][12] and locally adaptable selections, like Pantnagar Kalyan Sona[13] and other improved varieties were released for farmers. The university utilised its 16,000 acres (65 km2) of land to launch one of the largest seed production programs at that time, under the brand name Pantnagar Seeds, which became a household name in rural India. The contribution of the university was recognised by Norman Borlaug, who described Pantnagar as "Harbinger of Green Revolution".[14]

Campus

The University campus at Pantnagar is spread in an area of 12,661-acre (51.24 km2)

SIDCUL) for developing an Integrated Industrial estate,[17][18]
thus leaving 12,661-acre (51.24 km2) with the university. Remaining land was transferred to other industries, railways, airport etc.

The university campus is located at a distance of 250 km from

North Eastern Railways- Pantnagar (IR Code PBW) and Haldi Road (IR Code HLDD) are located in the campus at a distance of 4 km (east) and 3 km (west) respectively from administrative building. University shuttle service, local rickshaws, auto-rickshaws and matador vans connect various parts of the campus. Pantnagar is a purely residential university and comprises an independent township in itself.[19] Population of Pantnagar, prior to establishment of Industrial estate was 35,820 (Census, 2001). Pantnagar is a part of Pantnagar- Kichha assembly constituency.[20] The 'Concentric semicircles' or the 'rising sun' plan of the campus-centre was a brainchild of Department of Architecture of Illinois University.[21][22]

Administration and organization

In the Indian higher education system, Pantnagar is classified as a

board of management
, which is the highest executive body of the university and oversees primarily financial and administrative matters and also ratifies recommendations of other councils of the university.

Budget allocations for the university in Rs
crores (figure in parentheses are actual expenditures)[24][25][26]
State ICAR Other sources Total
2005–2006 91.365 (84.570) 26.970 (22.735) 24.286 (24.653) 142.621 (131.958)
2006–2007 105.068 (94.016) 28.331 (29.502) 11.467 (13.833) 144.866 (137.351)
2007–2008 120.596 (115.990) 46.012 (47.302) 18.028 (11.166) 184.636 (174.458)
2008–2009 144.416 (138.925) 37.066 (36.274) 19.712 (15.458) 201.194 (190.657)
2009–2010 118.035 (133.310) 24.469 (25.988) 14.808 (13.231) 157.312 (172.319)
2010–2011 166.127 (168.726) 28.365 (25.617) 9.637 (8.998) 204.129 (203.341)
2011–2012 197.974 (185.581) 33.754 (28.198) 9.237 (6.406) 240.965 (220.185)

The other councils are the Academic council, the Research council and the Extension education council.[27] Governor of Uttarakhand Lieutenant general Gurmit Singh is the present Chancellor and Dr. Manmohan Singh Chauhan is VC of the university.

The university is financed primarily from grant-in-aid of the state government and through grants received from the central government through Indian Council of Agricultural Research, besides income from student tuition fees, sponsored research, university farm, etc. Total allocated budget for the university in the year 2011–2012 stood at Rs 240 crores (~ US$50 million), which puts Pantnagar among top five agricultural universities in terms of financial resources.[26]

Recently, a high powered central government committee – the Committee to Advise on Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education (Yashpal Committee, 2009) — has recommended converting

agricultural universities into general universities encompassing all branches of studies.[28][29]

Academics

Colleges

Pantnagar is a

Uttarakhand University of Horticulture and Forestry. Distributed among colleges and other units of the university, there are 763 teachers and officers, 59 technical personnel, 631 administrative personnel and 1425 class III employees, amounting to a total staff strength of 2878 against a students strength of 2800–3000, which makes teacher taught ratio of about 1:6 and student-staff ratio about 1:1.[31]

List of colleges

No. College[32][33] Year founded Annual student intake Faculty strength
1 College of Agriculture 1960 425 170
2 College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences 1960 100 81
3 College of Technology 1962 532 98
4 College of Basic Sciences and Humanities 1963 185 72
5 College of Post Graduate Studies 1963 * **
6 College of Home Science 1971 125 25
7 College of Fisheries 1985 41 13
8 College of Agribusiness Management 1996 90 9
9 International School for Agriculture 2010 17 **

∗ Counted in associated College
** Participating faculty from various departments

Education system

The university shifted from a

percentages
, which are more commonly used in India.

Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA)

where:

  • is the number of courses,
  • is credits of the course,
  • is grade points for the course.

The university follows 100% internal evaluation on continuous basis. A course has typically 2 pre-final exams (popularly called as "hourlies"), 1 lab final exam and 1 semester-end final exam, totalling 4 evaluation cycles per semester. Typically, a UG student registers for 8 courses in a semester, leading to 8*4= 32 exams i.e. on an average basis, 1 exam on every fourth working day. [36]

Research

CIMMYT/CGIAR has described zero tillage technology based on the Pantnagar seed drill as the most widely adopted resource conserving technology in the Indo-Gangetic Plains, till date.[39]

Extension

Farmer Field Schools, Participatory technology development programs, radio and television broadcast, community radio based narrowcasting
, print media, Farmer's fairs, and other innovative communication technologies. The university maintains a State Agricultural Management and Extension Training Institute and a network of 11 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (Farm Science Centres, KVKs) located in various districts.

Student life

Residential life

Pantnagar is a

Silver Jublee, which commemorates 25 years of the university.

An evening at Gandhi Park, Pantangar

The names of newly constructed bhawans are inspired from the various geographical regions of the

'Golden Jublee', commemorating 50 years of the university. Most of older hostels are along the 'third arc' as per the original 'concentric semicircles' campus plan, while newer ones are on radial roads or other parts of the campus. There are two guest houses, Lambert's Square and International Guest House, which has a hostel wing for foreign students and an attached Farmer's Hostel. The hostels have student-managed or, in few cases, outsourced cafeteria
-style food services. All the faculty members and employees stay in bungalows and apartments on campus. Two Market Namely Chhoti (small) and Bari (big) markets are also present in the campus.

Extracurricular activities

Most of the students' activities are organised through college-level professional societies, like the Agriculture Society, the Engineering Society, the Management Society, etc. These societies organise popular fests, fairs, cultural nights, treasure hunts and competitions year round. Apart from these, there are departmental societies, hostel societies and other organisations like the Vivekanand Swadhyay Mandal, Sanskritic Chetna Parishad, etc. which organise popular student activities. The Pantnagar Chapter of SPIC MACAY regularly organises classical music and dance concerts by renowned artistes. CHETNA Student Wing is an extension of CHETNA NGO (Delhi) working for upliftment of underprivileged and poor children in the campus and nearby areas. The university also has a team of students and working staff of the university called E-Cell, that tries to aware students about entrepreneurial skills by organising workshops and inviting a lot of experts. This team also works for providing internships and jobs to the students.

The university National Cadet Corps (NCC) chapter organises basic military training and adventure sports for student-cadets. The Remount & Veterinary (R&V) core is a Cavalry regiment of NCC, which trains students for professional equestrianism (horse riding). Pantnagar is among very few universities in India to have a full-fledged Air Squadron under NCC Air Wing, which promotes aviation and airmanship among students through its activities organised in the airport near the university campus.

All undergraduate students of Pantnagar take part in community service, which fetches them two credits towards their degrees in form of a mandatory National Service Scheme course involving 240 hours/10 days of social service. Students also take part in liberal education courses offered by the university like dance, music, yoga, Indian cultural heritage, personality development, English vocabulary, Indian languages (Tamil, Punjabi), foreign languages (French, German), etc. Stevenson stadium is the hub of sports activities, which are organised through 17 sport clubs.

Notable alumni

See also

References

  1. ^ Pawar, Sharad (2008). "Inaugural address by Shri Sharad Pawar, Union minister of Agriculture and consumer affairs, Food and Public distribution at the Third National Conference on KVK at GBPUA&T, Pantnagar on December 27, 2008" (PDF). Government of India. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 January 2017. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  2. ^ "Report of the University Education Commission". Archived from the original on 5 February 2012. Retrieved 24 May 2012.
  3. ^ Rudra 1978:390
  4. JSTOR 3673807
    .
  5. ^ P. C. Tiwari and Bhagwati Joshi. Wildlife in the Himalayan foothills: conservation and management. Indus Publishing, 1997,
    ISBN 978-81-7387-066-8
  6. ^ GOI Ministry of Finance, Department of Economic Affairs 1959 Report on the Indo-U.S. Technical Co-operation Programme. New Delhi: GOI, p.157
  7. ^ "Institution-Building History of Illinois". College of ACES Illinois.
  8. ISBN 978-81-261-2185-4
    .
  9. ^ Randhawa, MS (1968). "Agricultural Universities in India: Progress and problems" (PDF). USAID.
  10. ^ a b Uttar Pradesh Agricultural University 163:14–19 and Charanjit Ahuja "One University That Actually Works" Indian Express, 9 March 1994, p.3
  11. ^ "Herdt, R.W. The Life and Work of Norman Borlaug, Nobel Laureate" (PDF). Rockefeller Foundation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 March 2009. Retrieved 28 November 2009.
  12. Live Mint
    . Retrieved 28 November 2009.
  13. ^ "VISION 2020:PERSPECTIVE PLAN" (PDF). Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture & Technology. Retrieved 6 November 2009.
  14. ISAAA
    . Retrieved 28 November 2009.
  15. ^ "Pantnagar University land not to be transferred any more (Hindi)". Navbharat Times. 7 June 2012. Retrieved 19 June 2012.
  16. ^ "VISION 2020:PERSPECTIVE PLAN" (PDF). Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture & Technology. Retrieved 6 November 2009.
  17. ^ "Industrial Estates". Archived from the original on 27 November 2011. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
  18. Rediff
    . Retrieved 6 November 2009.
  19. ISBN 81-7033-529-2
    .
  20. ^ "State Elections 2007". Election Commission of India. Retrieved 7 November 2009.
  21. ^ University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Architecture 1975 Campus Development Planning Study; G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology. Urbana: University of Illinois, p.4 and Uttar Pradesh Agricultural University 1963:27
  22. ^ Campus Development Planning Study, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, India, by Midwest Universities Consortium for International Activities, Illinois University at Urbana-Champaign. Dept. of Architecture, H James Miller, Wisconsin University-Milwaukee and others. Published by Graduate Division, Dept. of Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1976
  23. ^ "Agricultural Universities". ICAR. Retrieved 14 November 2009.
  24. ^ "Agricultural Research Data Book 2008" (PDF). Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, New Delhi. Retrieved 14 November 2009.
  25. ^ "Agricultural Research Data Book 2011". Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, New Delhi. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
  26. ^ a b "Agricultural Research Data Book 2012". Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, New Delhi. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
  27. ^ "University Right to Information Manual Vol I under RTI Act 2005" (PDF). GBPUA&T. Retrieved 14 November 2009.
  28. ^ "Yashpal Committee Report" (PDF). The Hindu. Chennai, India.
  29. ^ "Higher education body: Yashpal for change in plan - Indian Express". Archived from the original on 26 September 2009. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
  30. ^ "Government Gazette Extraordinary No. 178/XXXVI(3)/2011/24(1)/2011 )" (PDF). Government of Uttarakhand. The act has been notified on 28 April 2011, a new VC was appointed in September, property re-distribution between two universities is complete and the new university is beginning its session from 2012–2013
  31. ^ "Introduction to the university". GBPUAT. Retrieved 24 November 2009.
  32. ^ "Admission prospectus, 2009–2010" (PDF). GBPUA&T.
  33. ^ "Directory of Academic Staff (Right to Information Act Manual)" (PDF). GBPUA&T. These are actual figures for staff on current payroll. This does not include vacant positions
  34. ^ "Recommendations of IAUA Conventions". Indian Agricultural Universities Association. Retrieved 24 November 2009.
  35. ^ "Registrars office". GBPUA&T. Retrieved 24 November 2009.
  36. JSTOR 4366682
    .
  37. ^ Singh, BB. "Success of Soybean in India: The Early Challenges and Pioneer Promoters" (PDF). Asian Agri-History Foundation.[dead link]
  38. ^ William Shurtleff; Akiko Aoyagi. "History of Soybeans and Soyfoods: 1100 B.C. to the 1980s". Soyinfo Center, Lafayette, California.
  39. doi:10.22004/ag.econ.56093
    .
  40. ^ "Basix India - SANKAR DATTA".
  41. ^ "Assembly Elections 2022 Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh LIVE Results, Voting, Vidhan Sabha Election 2022 Results latest News".
  42. ^ "Indian fellow - AC Banerjea". Indian National Science Academy. 21 October 2017. Archived from the original on 4 December 2017. Retrieved 22 October 2017.
  43. ^ "Vrati on THSTI" (PDF). Translational Health Science and Technology Institute. 12 December 2017. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  44. ^ PTI (29 November 2019). "IOB elevates Bhuwan Chandra as CFO". @businessline. Retrieved 9 October 2021.

29°01′N 79°29′E / 29.017°N 79.483°E / 29.017; 79.483

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=G._B._Pant_University_of_Agriculture_and_Technology&oldid=1226650089"