Saturday, June 7, 2003
M A I N   F E A T U R E


The biotech man of Himachal
Ravi Bali

P.K. KhoslaHIMACHAL Pradesh is basically an agrarian state which has made a quantum leap in horticulture and vegetable production. However, the yield per unit area is much below international standards. Application of biotechnology to evolve high-yielding crops and varieties and produce transgenic crops will go a long way in promotion of diversification of farming in the state. P.K. Khosla, Adviser, Biotechnology, Himachal Pradesh, is busy giving the biotech projects a three-pronged push: strengthening the R & D in the universities and research institutes, linking biotechnology to the rural sector for harnessing entrepreneurship and employment generation and last, but not the least, attracting mega biotechnology-based industries in Himachal Pradesh.

"My ultimate dream is to make Himachal Pradesh economically and ecologically sound, prosperous and a model state of the country. For this purpose, harnessing its biodiversity by diversification into medicinal and aromatic plants and locally installed processing units for value-added finished goods is a must.

 


An action plan is being prepared in the state for undertaking mass-scale cultivation of herbal and aromatic plants to boost employment generation. In the long run, this will enable Himachal to stand on its own feet because the WTO regime is already being implemented in letter and spirit in the country. After taking a lead in the hydel power sector, organic farming of cash crops in Himachal Pradesh will earn it a unique status of becoming the BT state of India", says Khosla.

Khosla was born in Samrala in Ludhiana district of Punjab. He had his early education in Ludhiana and did his graduation from Government College, Ludhiana, and his post-doctorate from Oxford University, UK. He served in prestigious universities and was with the Dr Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry for 24 years.

Khosla, immediately after joining the Forest Faculty at Solan (Nauni) University, was shortlisted and picked up by the then Chief Minister of HP, late Y.S Parmar, in 1976 to accompany him as a team member on a world tour to study multipurpose trees for forest farming and mist propagation technology for mass production of planting material.

Another distinction, acknowledged by Panjab University in 1968, was that during his Ph.D in Botany, he was exempted from viva voce of the thesis by J.W Wright of Michigan University and F. Mergen of Yale University, USA, considering the in-depth analysis undertaken in the thesis. He was responsible for launching an era of research and development in agro-forestry, social forestry and tree improvement in the university system in India. It resulted in the HP Solan (Nauni) Campus of then HP University, Shimla, becoming the first university of its kind in India to start M.Sc Forestry in 1976.