G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology

Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology
गोविन्द बल्लभ पंत कृषि एवं प्रौद्योगिक विश्वविद्यालय
Motto "ग्रामाभ्युद यादेत देशाभ्युदयः"
Motto in English
 "The prosperity & development of our village is the prosperity of our nation"
Type Public, land-grant
Established 17 November 1960
Chancellor Governor of Uttarakhand
Vice-Chancellor Dr. Mangala Rai[1]
Undergraduates 2800–3000
Postgraduates 500
120
Location Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India
Campus Rural
Acronym GBPUAT
Affiliations UGC, ICAR, AICTE
Website www.gbpuat.ac.in

Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology (Hindi: गोविन्द बल्लभ पंत कृषि एवं प्रौद्योगिक विश्वविद्यालय , पंतनगर) also known as GBPUA&T, Pantnagar University or Pantvarsity is the first agricultural university of India. It was inaugurated by Jawaharlal Nehru on 17 November 1960 as the "Uttar Pradesh Agricultural University" (UPAU). Later the name was changed to "Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology" in 1972 in memory of the first Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, statesman and Bharat Ratna recipient Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant. The University was declared as the best among all the other State Universities in India, in 1997. The University lies in the campus-town of Pantnagar in the district of Udham Singh Nagar in the state of Uttarakhand. The university is regarded as the harbinger of Green Revolution in India.[2]

History

Pre-establishment groundwork (1949–1959)

The first Education Commission of India (1949) headed by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan recommended setting up rural universities in India on American land-grant model.[3] Uttar Pradesh (UP), under chief-ministership of Govind Ballabh Pant, took the first step and in 1954 invited an Indo- American team headed by Dr. K. R. Damle, the Vice-President of ICAR, to consider an area around Tarai State farm in erstwhile Nainital district as a possible site for a rural university.[4] This area was actually a dense forest near Himalayan foothills and the government was using this area to rehabilitate Hindu, Sikh and other migrants from West Pakistan, in the aftermath of the partition of 1947.[5][6] 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 dean Dr H W Hannah, the government of state of Uttar Pradesh presented a proposal to the Government of India in 1956 for establishing a Land-grant style university. Thereafter, a contract between the Government of India, the Technical Cooperation Mission and few US land grant universities, was signed to promote agricultural education in India.[7] The US universities included the University of Tennessee, the Ohio State University, the Kansas State University, the 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.[8] The University of Illinois left Pantnagar in 1972, when president Richard Nixon ordered Americans out of the near east.[9]

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 United States. US greatly influenced the development of the university through its funding of several university programs. Many of the university's research activities were funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Indo-U.S. Technical Cooperation Programme, and the United States Agency for International Development (program 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.[10]

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.[11] The Mexican wheat varieties, developed by Norman Borlaug were tested in Pantnagar[12][13] and locally adaptable selections, like Pantnagar Kalyan Sona[14] 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".[15]

Campus

The University campus at Pantnagar is spread in an area of 10,016.29-acre (40.5345 km2)[16] which makes it the second largest university in the world, in terms of contiguous area. Before 2002, the university owned16,000-acre (65 km2),[17] out of which 3,339-acre (13.51 km2) was transferred to State Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand (SIDCUL) for developing an Integrated Industrial estate,[18][19] thus leaving 12,661-acre (51.24 km2) with the university. Remaining land was transferred to other industries, railways, airport etc. Moscow State University is built vertically and has a larger total floor area but occupies a smaller piece of land. Berry College occupies 28,000-acre (110 km2) of contiguous land, and Paul Smith's College occupies 14,200-acre (57 km2) of land in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York, but neither is a university. Duke University occupies 8,709-acre (35.24 km2), but they are not contiguous.[20] The United States Air Force Academy has a contiguous 18,000-acre (73 km2) at its disposal, but it is not a university. Dartmouth College, with a large land grant,[21] owns more than 50,000-acre (200 km2),but only 269 acres (109 ha) of those are part of the campus.[22][23]

The University Library building of the university, hosts biggest library of the university.

Stanford University owns 8,183-acre (33.12 km2), which makes it the third largest university in the world, in terms of contiguous area.[24]Sewanee: The University of the South occupies 13,000-acre (53 km2) in its "Domain", making it largest contiguous university campus.

The university campus is located at a distance of 250 km from Delhi in Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand. The nearby towns are Rudrapur (16 km), Haldwani (25 km), Kichha (13 km) and Nainital (65 km). Two National Highways- NH 87 and Bareilly- Nainital highway touch the campus. Pantnagar Airport, operated by Airports Authority of India is located in the campus, 2.5 km west of main administrative building. Two railway stations of 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.[25] Population of Pantnagar, prior to establishment of Industrial estate was 35,820 (Census, 2001). Pantnagar is a part of Pantnagar- Kichha assembly constituency.[26] The 'Concentric semicircles' or the 'rising sun' plan of the campus-centre was a brainchild of Department of Architecture of Illinois University.[27][28]

Administration and organization

In the Indian higher education system, Pantnagar is classified as a State Agricultural University (SAU).[29] The university is in the jurisdiction of the state government.

The administrative setup of the university

The Governor of the state is ex-officio Chancellor of the university and (s)he appoints a Vice-chancellor (VC), who functions as a full-time Chief executive of the university. The VC chairs a 13-membered 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.

The other councils are the Academic council, the Research council and the Extension education council.[30] Governor of Uttarakhand Dr. Krishan Kant Paul is the present Chancellor and Dr. Mangala Rai 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 SAUs in terms of financial resources.[31]

Budget allocations for GBPUA&T, Pantnagar in Rs crores (figure in parentheses are actual expenditures)[31][31][31]
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)

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.[32][33] There is also a popular demand to convert Pantnagar University into a Central University.[34]

Academics

Colleges

Pantnagar is a non-affiliating university and its academic activities are organized through its nine constituent colleges (faculties),which run large undergraduate (UG) programs. All Masters and PhD students are part of College of Post Graduate Studies, however they have strong association with one of the other colleges as per their academic major. Prior to 2012, the university also had two off-campus colleges namely, 'College of Forestry and Hill Agriculture, Ranichauri' (founded 1991) and 'Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali College of Horticulture, Bharsar' (founded 2002). However, recently, through an act of Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly[35] these colleges have been transferred to newly incorporated 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.[36]

List of colleges

No. College[37][38] Year founded Annual student intake Faculty strength
1College of Agriculture 1960 425 170
2College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences 1960 255 81
3College of Technology 1962 532 98
4College of Basic Sciences and Humanities 1963 185 72
5College 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 trimester to a semester system in the 1980s to reduce the workload on students.[39] There are 200–210 net instructional days per year, which is highest in India.[40] The minimum duration of all UG programs of the university is 8 semesters (4 years), except BVSc&AH (10 semesters, 5-year). All the UG programs are infused with extensive practical training and include one semester of compulsory internship/ work experience. All Masters programs are of 4 semester (2 years), except MCA (6 semester/ 3 years). Normal duration for PhD is 6 semesters. The university follows a credit based GPA system for evaluation. In 1998, it shifted from the US style 5-point and letter grade system to a 10-point GPA based system, for easy conversion to percentages, which are more commonly used in India.

Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA)
CGPA \,\! = {\sum_{i=1}^N C_i . {GP}_i \over \sum_{i=1}^N C_i}

where:

  • N is the number of courses,
  • C_i is credits of the i^{th} course,
  • {GP}_i is grade points for the i^{th} 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. Since its inception, Pantnagar University is known for its academic rigour for keeping its students always busy.[41]

Rankings

According to the QS World University Rankings for BRICS 2015, a ranking of the top universities in the five BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), has placed the university amongst the top 150[42] universities.

Research

Being an Agriculture and Technology university, the main focus of research is on agriculture and engineering. Research is coordinated by a Directorate of Experiment Station and carried out through ~70 subject-matter departments spread across colleges, 14 specialised research centres located in the campus, 7 dedicated off-campus research stations and 10 off-campus horticultural research-cum-extension centres. So far, the university has released 211 varieties, many of which played important role in Green Revolution.[11] The work of the university in introducing soybean as a crop in India is well known.[43][44] As Uttarakhand has been declared an 'Organic state', the present thrust of research is on Organic farming and Biological pest control. The university has developed a pregnancy diagnostic kit for cattle and its Salmonellosis vaccine for poultry is in advanced trials. In 1991, engineers of the university developed a 'Zero-till Ferti seed drill' for No-till farming along with National Agro Industries Ludhiana Punjab, which has been immensely popular in Haryana, Punjab and other areas of Indo-gangetic plains. 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.[45]

Extension

Extension is one of the three mandates of the university. University organises informal continuing education programs for rural people for achieving better diffusion of innovation. The university reaches out to a wider clientele through short term training programs at its campuses, 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 residential university. Hostel accommodation is compulsory, except for the wards of university employees who live in the campus. In the Pantnagar campus, there are 23 hostels (called bhawans), including seven for girls, two for married couples and one for working women. The older hostels are named after important personalities of India: Mohandas K. Gandhi, Subhas Chandra Bose, Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Govind Ballabh Pant, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Rabindranath Tagore, Sarojini Naidu, Kasturba Gandhi, Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya, Chittaranjan Das (I and II) and Vivekananda with the exception of a hostel named Silver Jublee, which commemorates 25 years of the university. The names of newly constructed bhawans are inspired from the various geographical regions of the Uttarakhand — Gangotri, Yamunotri, Shivalik, Mandakini, Bhagirathi, Alaknanda etc. — with an exception of a new hostel named 'Golden Jublee', commemorating 50 years. 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 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 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. ↑ "Scientist Mangala Rai is Pantvarsity VC". The Tribune (Chandigarh). Retrieved 18 March 2015.
  2. ↑ 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.
  3. ↑ http://education.nic.in/cd50years/n/75/7Y/toc.htm
  4. ↑ Rudra 1978:390
  5. ↑ Ajay S. Rawat. Deforestation and Forest Policy in the Lesser Himalayan Kumaon: Impacts on Peasant Women and Tribal Populations. Mountain Research and Development, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Nov. 1995), pp. 311–322, http://jstor.org/pss/3673807
  6. ↑ P. C. Tiwari and Bhagwati Joshi. Wildlife in the Himalayan foothills: conservation and management. Indus Publishing, 1997, ISBN 978-81-7387-066-8
  7. ↑ GOI Ministry of Finance, Department of Economic Affairs 1959 Report on the Indo-U.S. Technical Co-operation Programme. New Delhi: GOI, p.157
  8. ↑ "Institution-Building History of Illinois". College of ACES Illinois.
  9. ↑ Singh, Naunihal (2005). India and the United States. Anmol Publications PVT. LTD. ISBN 978-81-261-2185-4.
  10. ↑ Randhawa, MS (1968). "Agricultural Universities in India: Progress and problems" (PDF). USAID.
  11. 1 2 Uttar Pradesh Agricultural University 1963:14–19 and Charanjit Ahuja "One University That Actually Works" Indian Express, 9 March 1994, p.3
  12. ↑ "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 2009-11-28.
  13. ↑ "Samanth Subramanian, How Borlaug's dwarfs came to stand tall in India's agronomy". Live Mint. Retrieved 2009-11-28.
  14. ↑ "VISION 2020:PERSPECTIVE PLAN" (PDF). Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture & Technology. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
  15. ↑ "Academics & Scientists: Raising Perception of Credibility" (PDF). ISAAA. Retrieved 2009-11-28.
  16. ↑ "Pantnagar University land not to be transferred any more (Hindi)". Navbharat Times. Retrieved 2012-06-19.
  17. ↑ "VISION 2020:PERSPECTIVE PLAN" (PDF). Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture & Technology. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
  18. ↑ http://sidcul.com/sidculweb/inner_pages.aspx?cat_id=3&art_id=7
  19. ↑ "With $2 bn in kitty, this is the next boom town". Rediff. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
  20. ↑ "Quick Facts about Duke". Duke News & Communications. Duke University.
  21. ↑ "Second College Grant". Dartmouth Outing Club. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
  22. ↑ "Dartmouth College: College Life". America's Best Colleges 2008. U.S. News & World Report. 2007.
  23. ↑ "About Dartmouth: Facts". Dartmouth College. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
  24. ↑ "Stanford University: Information from Answers.com".
  25. ↑ Husain, Majid (1999). Human Geography. Rawat Publications. ISBN 81-7033-529-2.
  26. ↑ "State Elections 2007". Election Commission of India. Retrieved 2009-11-07.
  27. ↑ 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
  28. ↑ 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
  29. ↑ "Agricultural Universities". ICAR. Retrieved 2009-11-14.
  30. ↑ "University Right to Information Manual Vol I under RTI Act 2005" (PDF). GBPUA&T. Retrieved 2009-11-14.
  31. 1 2 3 4 "Agricultural Research Data Book 2012". Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, New Delhi. Retrieved 2013-05-20.
  32. ↑ The Hindu (PDF) (Chennai, India) http://hindu.com/nic/yashpalcommitteereport.pdf. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  33. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20150206190505/http://indianexpress.com/news/higher-education-body-yashpal-for-change-in-plan/518072/. Archived from the original on 6 February 2015. Retrieved 6 February 2015. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  34. ↑ Central University Pantnagar and visionless politics Nainital Samachar (Hindi), 15 January 2010
  35. ↑ "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
  36. ↑ "Introduction to the university". GBPUAT. Retrieved 2009-11-24.
  37. ↑ "Admission prospectus, 2009–2010" (pdf). GBPUA&T.
  38. ↑ "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
  39. ↑ "Recommendations of IAUA Conventions". Indian Agricultural Universities Association. Retrieved 2009-11-24.
  40. ↑ "Registrars office". GBPUA&T. Retrieved 2009-11-24.
  41. ↑ "Banerjee, S. 1978. Miniature Green Revolution Society" 13. Economic and Political Weekly: 902–904. JSTOR 4366682.
  42. ↑ http://www.topuniversities.com/universities/gb-pant-university-agriculture-technology-pantnagar/undergrad
  43. ↑ Singh, BB.Success of Soybean in India: The Early Challenges and Pioneer Promoters. Asian Agri-History Foundation ( http://agrihistory.org/pdf/successofsoyabean.pdf)
  44. ↑ William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi. History of Soybeans and Soyfoods: 1100 B.C. to the 1980s. Soyinfo Center, Lafayette, California (http://www.soyinfocenter.com/HSS/indian_subcon2.php)
  45. ↑ "Luxmi, Vijay, Erenstein, O., and Gupta, Raj K. 2007. IMPACT OF ZERO TILLAGE IN INDIA’S RICE-WHEAT SYSTEMS" (PDF). CGIAR. Retrieved 2009-11-27.
  46. ↑ http://vsmpantnagar.org/yuva2011/details#manthan
  47. ↑ http://bjp.org/en/media-resources/press-releases/press-dr-sudhanshu-trivedi
  48. ↑ http://bloomberg.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=229801654
  49. ↑ http://basixindia.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=115&Itemid=138

External links

Coordinates: 29°03′N 79°31′E / 29.050°N 79.517°E / 29.050; 79.517

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