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| Friday,
December 6, 2002, Chandigarh, India |
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Need to achieve 8 pc GDP growth rate stressed Ludhiana, December 5 Dr Katyal was addressing the 10th annual convocation of the College of Agriculture, Punjab Agricultural University, at Pal Auditorium here. Dr Katyal, an alumnus of the college, said after the Green Revolution and production of foodgrain for our population, the country was aiming at an evergreen revolution. Launching of hunger-free areas programmes and passing of the National Food Security Act was a step in this direction, he said. Dr Katyal emphasised the need for a proper planning approach to achieve the targeted GDP growth rate of 8 per cent during 2002-07, as envisaged in the recently approved Draft Tenth Five-Year Plan, wherein agriculture had been identified as a major engine for growth. Another important area of concern referred to by him was development of human resources. ‘‘The present gigantic achievements in agriculture are attributed to the human resource developed by the agricultural education system. This development has to be vigorously continued in a reoriented and restricted way to meet the requirements of the day without any scope for complacency’’, underlined Dr Katyal. Showing concern for the environment, Dr Katyal said the environment was under constant threat from deforestation, excessive use of hazardous chemicals and emission of noxious gases in the atmosphere, “Global warming has put the survival of mankind in danger” he remarked. The World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in August and September, had taken serious note of various aspects of environment degradation. He called upon the scientists and planners to evolve strategies to put the world on a more sustainable course. He appealed to the people to make out every effort to check environment degradation, to provide environmental security for the future generations. Citing the example of Punjab, Dr Katyal remarked that in Punjab, 15 million tonnes of paddy and wheat straw was burnt every year, causing air pollution. A total of 248 students were awarded graduate degrees. The roll of honour, carrying a gold medal and certificate for registering the highest academic performance for the three academic sessions, was awarded to Atul Puri, Shilpa sood and Blossom, while Davinder Singh, Mandeep, Gaurav Jawala Jindal, Harmandeep Singh Khurana, Navdeep Gill and Payal were among the other gold medallists. The silver plaque was awarded to Ms Nivedita Dhiman. Earlier, highlighting the achievements of the college in his convocation report, Dr M S Tiwana, Dean, said the College of Agriculture had made significant contributions to the development of new cultivars and associated cultural technologies. “The release of one single high-yielding wheat variety ‘PBW 343’ has added crores to the income of farmers’’, said Dr Tiwana. A large number of faculty members from the college received recognition and prestigious awards from various organisations. Dr G.S. Nanda was awarded the Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Memorial Prize, and Gurdev Singh Khush got the distinguished professor award and honour of Parman Party. Dr P.R. Gajri and Dr V.K. Arora of the Department of Soils were also honoured with the Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Memorial
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Educated
people must join politics: Vaishnav Ludhiana, December 5 Summing up the proceedings, Mr P.H. Vaishnav, former Chief Secretary, Punjab, who was chief guest on the occasion, remarked that democracy was an evolutionary process. He agreed with the speakers saying that there was need for caution. He said although there were certain unfortunate developments, but still there was a ray of hope. He pointed out eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Mr Vaishnav maintained that there was a need for the educated people to join politics. He regretted that the educated middle class had stopped participating in the political activities. He pointed out they were more concerned with their jobs, business and other professions but not politics. This, he said, led to a vacuum in the system that leads to various problems. He remarked, “We should not take democracy for granted”. Paying tributes to Aruna Asaf Ali, Mr Vaishnav said today’s youth needs to seek inspiration from great leaders like her who committed herself first to the freedom movement and subsequently to the values of democracy and secularism. He said India was lucky enough to have had good leaders who were groomed during the freedom struggle and who came from good family backgrounds and had good educational background. Some of the students were remarkably outstanding in their presentation. Particularly those from the outside colleges were equally brilliant and best. The overall trophy went to the Government College for Boys, Ludhiana. While Harpreet Kaur of Malwa Central College of Education, Bikramjeet Singh of Government College for Boys, Ludhiana, and Digesh of SD Kamla Lotia College bagged first, second and third prizes, respectively, Sukhandeep Kaur of Mata Ganga College, Kota, got the consolation prize. Other participants in the debate included Munish of Kamla Lotia College, Jasleen of Malwa Central College, Neha Saini and Saridhi of Government College for Women, Kumd of Government College for Boys, Ganga Ram and Rajvir of the Government College, Karamsar, Simranjit of Mata Ganga College, Kota, Sandeep of GTB College, Dakha and Mennakshi and Puneet from Malwa College, Samrala. Mr N.S. Tanseem, Mr Bajaj and Mr A.S. Bhullar were the judges. Mrs Oshima Raikhy, managing trustee of the Aruna Asaf Ali Trust, was also present on the occasion.
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Ethiopian
Ambassador visits PAU Ludhiana, December 5 Dr Fersside, while talking to the mediapersons today during his one-day visit to Punjab Agricultural University to explore the areas where the scientists could help his country, said the PAU had achieved a lot in agricultural research, improving the per hectare yield of agricultural produce, and in the field of agricultural engineering. He said Ethiopia was basically an agriculture state and looking towards the developed agricultural techniques of India to raise its production and importing latest irrigation technology from India, particularly Punjab. He said India had made rapid development in the field of industry, technology and agriculture engineering and it could help Ethiopia in a big way in the development of human resources. He said India and Ethiopia were friends and had been adopting similar policies at the international level. Dr Fersside said that a large number of Ethiopian students were studying in Indian universities, which was instrumental in the transfer of Indian technology to Ethiopia. He added that Ethiopia was a good market for the Indian produce of industry and agriculture. Answering to a query about international terrorism, the Ambassador said his country was against terrorism and it supported India on the issue. Later, Dr Fersside visited departments and experimental areas in the PAU and showed keen interest in the research work being done there. Dr K.S. Aulakh, Vice-Chancellor, while welcoming the guest said the university had a good experience of working with its Ethiopian counterparts and scientists from the PAU had also worked in Ethiopian universities at different levels. He assured all help and assurance in the field of agriculture, research and engineering development in Ethiopia. |
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