 |
|
| Saturday,
April 5, 2003, Chandigarh, India
|
|
||||
|
|
Timely sowing of cotton advised Ludhiana, April 4 Dr Darshan Singh, Additional Director Research (Agriculture), PAU, said that integrated pest management (IPM) approach had been adopted to reduce the insecticide use, conservation and utilisation of beneficial insects and to obtain economically sustainable productivity. The IPM and all farm management activities were to be integrated throughout the cotton season and off season. Both varieties and cultural control practices were the most important components of IPM. According to Dr Darshan Singh, Punjab was leading in cotton productivity in India up to 1991-92. Area under cotton used to fluctuate between 6 to 7 lakh hectares. Highest average yield of 607 kg lint per hectare was obtained during 1991-92 crop season. But such a glorious position of cotton could not be maintained and a declining trend was experienced from 1993 onwards, as a result of which total production never exceeded a figure of 20 lakh bales. The situation turned alarming after 1997 with production of 7.51 lakh bales and the lowest production of 7 lakh bales in 1998 with an average yield of merely 201 kg lint per hectare. Dr Darshan Singh that the excessive rainfall during September-October, increased severity of American bollworm and other insect pests attacks and indiscriminate use of pesticides and their mixtures led to development of insecticide resistance in insects and resurgence of pests, particularly whitely, were some of the factors which led to the fall in cotton production. Dr Darshan Singh suggested to the farmers to sow ankur 651, white gold and LH-144 hybrids of American cotton and F-1861, F-1378, F-846 and LH-1556 American varieties and desi cotton varieties LD-327 and LD-694. Cotton in April can be sown after sugarcane, mustard, field peas, barley oats, senji, berseem. He maintained that sowing of cotton in April, using all recommended hybrids and varieties and proper spacing and judicious use of fertilisers, would help in better establishment of root and shoot ratio for increasing productivity, increased ecological resistance against insect pests especially
American bollworm through escape mechanism and minimum use of insecticides. Dr Darshan further said that the success of this strategy would depend on the availability of adequate canal water for timely sowing of the cotton crop in the state. |
Agro-biotech should get top
priority in PAU: expert Ludhiana, April 4 This was stated by Dr B.S. Ahloowalia, a scientist from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna, Austria, during a lecture on ‘Potential of agricultural biotechnology in Punjab’ at Wheat Auditorium in the university. The scientist was presenting suitable suggestions to the university scientists on the basis on his observations during his 40-day visit to the Department of Genetics and Biotechnology, PAU. Dr Ahloowalia said the bio-technological techniques could be divided into plant tissue culture and molecular techniques. The PAU authorities must undertake multiplication of super-elite and elite tissue culture material of plants of economic value. It also must develop distribution centre for mother cultures from virus free indexed plants of authentic varieties to private laboratories engaged in tissue culture of sugarcane, potato, garlic, ginger, strawberry, chrysanthemum, roses, tuber rose, cannas lily, tiger lily, colocasia, mint, medicinal and aromatic plants, banana and peach trees, plum, pear, citrus and kinnow, he said. He also pointed out that research must be initiated on radiation-induced mutants in combination with invitor culture to obtain cold-tolerant banana, dwarf plants of tress and shrubs such as those of oleander, cannas, gulmohar, plumaria and other ornamental plants. Since wheat is the life and blood of the farmers and consumers in Punjab, simpler methods of tissue culture through hybrid-embryo rescue and irradiation of inter-specific and inter-generic hybrids must be followed by the university, suggested the visiting professor. He said such genes should be incorporated that required low fertiliser input and water supply, besides enhancing resistance to heat and diseases. Giving suggestions in the field of molecular biology, Dr Ahloowalia said a basic course should be initiated in the stream that covered molecular techniques for all disciplines including animal, plant, soil, pathology, entomology, food technology, basic sciences and veterinary science. He said the course should cover basic techniques of DNA isolation, restriction, amplification and cloning DNA fragments and genes. Dr Ahloowalia also advised the university scientists to undertake functional genomics and proteomics of wheat with special emphasis to identify genes and proteins that determine quality of local breads (chapati, parantha, naan and kulcha) and those for making French bread, baked bread, biscuits, noodles and pasta. He said since IT and bio-tech go hand in hand, one computer with Internet facility should be provided to each faculty member and ultimately to each MSc as well as PhD student. The visiting scientist also gave recommendations on providing disease-indexing service of plants produced by the private tissue culture. It also must undertake investigations on the health status of the tissue culture derived planting material produced by the farmers to limit the number of conventional propagations. |
|
Centre
to promote IT education in colleges Ludhiana, April 4 For the placement of first batch of MSc (IT) students, who will be passing out in July 2003 from its affiliated colleges, a placement cell with a representative from each of the 13 colleges has been formed. The funds will be provided by the Dean, College Development Council, from the student fund. The first meeting of the placement committee will be held on April 10 for working out the operational details. |
|
Workshop
on science coverage in media Ludhiana, April 4 As many as 32 participants from various departments of the university and research centres were imparted skills in writing scripts for the electronic media. The team of resource persons for the workshop included Mr S.R. Grover, Director, All India Radio, Patna, Dr Gyan Singh, Editor, Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Abstracts, CSIR, New Delhi, Mr Manoj Patairiya, National Council for Science and Technology Communication, Dr Neelam Gulati Sharma from Punjab State Council of Science and Technology, Chandigarh, and Mr Arvind Kala from IIT Delhi. Presiding over the valedictory function today, Dr A.P.S. Mann, Dean, College of Basic Sciences and Humanities, said that several myths about technology
could be eradicated through enhanced science coverage. |
|
SLA
staff to move court Amloh, April 4 Mr Dhiman further stated that the union has decided at a meeting chaired by its state president Prem Chawla, to knock the doors of high court against the discrimination with
SLAs. |
|
A living classic of a novelist Man is generally alone in old age but he feels more lonely on his sick bed. Not that the members of the family desert him, but that he withdraws himself into the innermost recesses of his memories. This is what I observed on meeting Prof Surinder Singh Narula, renowned Punjabi novelist, on March 31, 2003. He laughingly told me that he served the Punjab Education Department as Professor of English for 27 years and six months and till date he had received pension for the same number of years and months. Paradoxically, he was given the status of Principal (PES Class I), retrospectively, after his retirement on November 8, 1975. Professor Narula has a comic view of life — a la Henry Fielding, who rubbed his shoulders with Samuel Richardson, the father of English novel. Historically speaking, he is second to none else but Nanak Singh, the father of Punjabi novel. He laughs heartily more at himself than at others. What does he think about his contribution to Punjabi fiction? “I wish I could have written less in Punjabi and devoted more time to my writings in English. But now, of course, it is too late.” He has suffered a lot, healthwise, during the past few years, but he is never found down in the dumps. He is fond of expressing his views in self-made quotations. In 1998 he was very ill and I went to enquire after his health in the hospital. In response to my worried looks, he promptly said, “Write of me as one who is a dead author but a living classic.” He is never short of words and can speak on any topic for any length of time and at any place. Once a story writer narrated his short story to a literary gathering and came down the stage. Promptly Prof Narula climbed up the stage and started narrating his short story impromptu, taking the last sentence of that short story as the first sentence of his own short story. This rare feat was greatly applauded by the audience. He bemoans that modern day writers do not reflect on life in their writings, although they take pains to reflect life in them. Most of the intellectuals are the victims of the dichotomy of their minds. There is a conflict between a value-based life and hunger for instant results by resorting to despicable methods. On his part, he nurses a grudge against the reading public which admires him sometimes for wrong reasons. His realism, he avers, is a façade that camouflages the absurdity of human situation - “Life is a splendid waste and the writer has to be choosy enough to reclaim something substantial out of this material. Nothing else but one’s own experience matters and life is a series of experiences.” Professor Narula was born in Amritsar on November 8, 1917, and took his master’s degree in English in 1942 from Khalsa College, Amritsar. He started his teaching career at Khalsa College, Rawalpindi in 1946. Earlier he was on the editorial board of Punj Darya (Lahore), a Punjabi monthly started by Prof Mohan Singh. In the twilight years of his life, he is mentally as agile as ever but physically he has weakened a lot. His wife had given up all hopes for his survival on February 24, when he had a severe attack of intestinal infection. Even now he is confined to bed and considers human life a bubble on the surface of water. Else it is - Murda bachche di tali te
Umar di lammi lakeer (Life is like a long life-line on the palm of a dead child) N.S. Tasneem |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 123 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
