Ludhiana, August 22
The State Variety Approval Committee (SVAC) has approved five crop varieties for release in the state. The varieties, which are of wheat, gram and sunflower, were approved in a meeting of the SVAC held at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) here yesterday.

The varieties, which would be released include — Durum Wheat PBW-343, Kabuli Gram BG-1053, Lentil LL-699, Sunflower DK-3890 and PAC-302. According to Dr G.S. Nanda, Director, Research (Designate), PAU, the Durum wheat variety had been approved for release in the state under timely sown irrigation conditions. He said that this variety had recorded a yield of 5.22 tons per hectare with 6.5 and 6.8 per cent superiority over the other varieties.

He said that it had bold and hard grains with low yellow berry and all other desirable quality characters. It matured earlier than the check variety. It was resistant to rusts, karnal bunt of wheat and had field resistance to loose smut.

Kabuli gram variety had an average yield of 2.01 tons per hectare against check variety L-550 and registered 5.33 per cent superiority over the check. This bold-seeded variety was moderately resistant to wilt complex.

The new lentil variety had an average yield of 1.25 tons per hectare against check variety. It was moderately resistant to Ascochyta blight disease and had bold seeds.

Dr Nanda, talking to the mediapersons, said that the future thrust of the PAU research would be to evolve new varieties which would meet the international quality standards.

Ludhiana, August 22
“The Indian designers have all the qualities of top designers of the world. They have the potential, creativity and imagination and if a right track is provided to their perception, they can prove to be the top designers in the world”, said Ms Magda Prats, a Spanish designer from Barcelona, who was in the city yesterday to encourage and share her ideas on the textile industry with the students of the National Institute of Fashion Designing (NIFD).

Ms Prats is presently working as a fashion product manager in the Iceberg Design S.L, Barcelona. She has been designing clothes for over past 20 years and feels that the traditional Indian outfit, saree, is the most elegant dress in the world. “But unfortunately, we can not afford to wear it because of our fast life-style”, she adds.

The Spanish designer is impressed by the top Indian designer, Ms Ritu Beri. “I’m really impressed by Ritu Beri’s collections. Her collections are appreciated by European, French and Italian women. Though I have not been able to meet her personally yet I am her admirer”, she said.

It may be mentioned that Prats has also attended the wedding collection exhibition at Delhi recently, in which top Indian designers displayed their creations. She had all the praises for Indian embroideries. “The embroideries are marvellous with so much efforts put in them. We don’t have time for hand embroideries because they are time consuming and need a lot of patience and perfection. The labour is also expensive in our country”, she said. She revealed that elite class Spanish ladies preferred the Indian pashmina shawls.

The designer also revealed that majority of the Spanish women wear short kurtas (kameez) with trousers and the European women preferred Indian style salwar-kameez.

Magda Prats extended her help to the students of the NIFD. She felt that the institute was a perfect one which provided opportunities to students to display their imagination and creativity. “If the students are taught to design according to the European tastes, they can be the top designers in the world. Indian designs are fantastic”. She said that students should express their ideas and try to promote the textile industry. Ms Prats will also visited Patiala and Sunet to know how the artisans work and give a new life to a simple cloth.