NDRI remembers former Director
As part of the celebrations of the ongoing academic fortnight of the 21st convocation of ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute (ICAR-NDRI), Dr D Sundaresan Memorial Oration was held at the NDRI on Tuesday.
Dr Dheer Singh, Director and Vice-Chancellor of NDRI, presiding over the function, welcomed Dr Sanjay Kumar, Chairman, Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board, New Delhi, and said Dr Kumar, with his keen interest in medicinal, aromatic herbs and nutraceuticals, had contributed immensely to transcriptome and genome sequencing of Himalayan plants.
Dr Kumar received his post-doctoral training at Texas Tech University, Rothamsted Research, and Kansas State University, and has worked as Director, CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Palampur. He has also been the Chairman of ASRB, New Delhi.
During the oration ceremony, Dr Sanjay delivered a talk on “Nurturing Innovation and Value Creation for Bio-economy”, and said the core principle of bio-economy was rooted in replacing fossil-based resources with renewable biological alternatives, mitigating environmental impact and promoting resource efficiency.
This transition involved leveraging advancements in biotechnology, genetic engineering and bio-processing to convert biomass into valuable materials, chemicals, fuels and other products.
It aimed to protect the environment, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase food security, he added.
Dr Sanjay lauded the role NDRI played in the White Revolution, and the remarkable work done by the institute in the field of animal cloning.
Dr Ashish Kumar Singh, Joint Director (Academics), talked about Dr D Sundaresan, a former Director of ICAR-NDRI, in whose name the award is constituted.
Dr Singh said, under the leadership of Dr Sundaresan, NDRI developed two crossbred cattle named Karan Fries and Karan Swiss.
Dr Rajan Sharma, Joint Director (Research), delivered the vote of thanks.
