STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Rural Technology Action Group (RuTAG) under the aegis of Office of Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) began a two-day meet at University of Jammu (JU) here on Wednesday.
The meet is initiated to discuss evolving relevant and useful technological solutions for the upliftment of the economy of the rural populace of the State.
Prof. I.A Hamal, Vice Chancellor, Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University, Prof. Khurshid Iqbal Indrabi, Vice Chancellor, University of Kashmir and Prof. Tej Pratap, Vice Chancellor, Sher-i-Kashmir University of Agriculture Science and Technology, Kashmir attended the meeting.
S. Chatterjee, Scientific Consultant gave an overview of RuTAG. He said that a mission called RuTAG has been conceptualised by the office of Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA), Government of India. RuTAG is a synergising and catalysing mechanism to help improve the processes and devices used by the grass root people of India.
Prof. R.D Sharma, Vice Chancellor, University of Jammu in his inaugural address dwelt upon the relevance of RuTAG in upliftment of agriculture sector for improving life standard of the rural populace.
Earlier, Prof. M.K Dhar, Registrar, University of Jammu presented the welcome address.
RuTAG was established at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi in January, 2009. It is also located at IIT Bombay, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras, Roorkee and Ropar.
The opening remarks of the inaugural session were given by Rakesh Kumar Gupta Principal Secretary to the Governor J and K.
Dr. Mandeep K. Bhandari, CEO, SMVDSB called upon the RuTAG to bring scientific interventions in improving the quality of ‘Palki’ vis-à-vis the change in material and the design. Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine is one of the most visited shrines and people in large number and pony and Palki services are particularly used by women, children and infirm. Dr. Bhandari said that the though there are no complaints from the customers or the users (labourers), it would be prudent in case a technical study of the design can be conducted and some modifications proposed for making the Palki even more user friendly.
Vote of thanks was delivered by Prof Yash Paul Sharma, Department of Botany.
In the evening sessions, Dr. Ketaki Bapat highlighted the successful projects being run under RuTAG. Prof. S.K Saha, IIT Delhi gave a presentation on the initiatives of RuTAG at IIT Delhi. Dr. S.P Kimothi, ADG, ICAR gave a presentation highlighting interesting projects in Uttarakhand Himalaya.
Prof. Geeta Sumbali, J. K Sharma, Special Secretary to VC, Prof. Namrata Sharma, Dr. B.K Bajaj, Prof. A. K Koul, Dr. Parveen Lehna and other faculty members from the Department of Botany and Biotechnology were also present.
