​ICAR-CIRCOT conducted 30th Research Advisory Committee (RAC) Meeting

The 30th RAC meeting of ICAR-CIRCOT, Mumbai was held during May 9-10, 2024 in hybrid mode in Video Conference Room. The meeting was chaired by Dr. S. M. Ilyas, Former Vice Chancellor, Narendra Dev University of Agriculture and Technology, Faizabad & Chairman RAC, in the presence of RAC Members, Dr. S. Sreenivasan, Former Director, ICAR-CIRCOT, Dr. Pitam Chandra Former ADG (PE), Dr. Gopal P. Agarwal, Former Prof. IIT, Dr. Borkar, Professor VJTI, Dr. K. Narsaiah, ADG (PE) and Dr. S. K. Shukla, Director ICAR-CIRCOT. Dr. W. L. Waghmare, Director DoCD and Shri. Sachin Kulkarni, IMC members in RAC, participated in the meeting online. The meeting was attended by all the Heads of Division and Scientists of the Institute.

At the outset Dr. S. K. Shukla, Director, ICAR-CIRCOT, welcomed all the members with a bouquet of flowers and presented the achievements made by the institute through all its activities in the last one year. He also presented major research achievements and other activities undertaken by the institute. He highlighted technologies developed, commercialized, skill development and commercial services undertaken and revenue generated by the institute. He briefed about the future challenges in the research on post- harvest processing of cotton and priorities of institute for the coming years.

Dr. V. G. Arude, Member Secretary, RAC, presented the Action Taken Report (ATR) on the proceedings of the 29th RAC.

On the occasion 4 publications were released at the hands of the Chairman, RAC and members. The publications are

Dr. S. M. Ilyas, Chairman RAC expressed that Cotton is a Prima donna for the institute. He congratulated the institute for having achieved such a place of pride. He suggested that the traditional along with forward looking research is the need of the time. He appreciated that despite the limitations on the scientific staff, the facilities created in the institute is made good use of and advised that there should not be overloading of the work among the staff. The Institute should allocate the resources for priority areas keeping in view the limited scientific staff. The research projects should be done coherently and scientifically to substantiate the claim. He suggested to set a bar for fixing the fees for commercialization and consultancy service offered by the institute to the stakeholders. He reiterated that the institute should collaborate with crop scientist especially in the field of crop physiology. Chairman stated that it was a good learning experience and urged that the institute shall continue to rise and continue to give glory and win a place among the stakeholders. He thanked and appreciated the Director, Scientists and the Member Secretary RAC for the elucidation about the institute.

Dr. K. Narsaiah, ADG (PE) expressed that ICAR-CIRCOT is usually a good performer in every parameter set by the Engineering SMD. The institute is frontrunner in revenue generation as well as establishing research collaboration. He emphasized that the institute should focus on improving the research publications. He wished that the institute should play a major role in achieving the government target of $100 billion in textile exports.

Dr. Pitam Chandra, reiterated that CIRCOT is pioneer in nanotechnology research in ICAR, has made significant contribution in the field of cotton technology and is now exploring biomass utilization. The institute should have under its gamut the complete set of technologies to create a circular agro economy that aims to maximize the returns from cotton production. He emphasized that the institute should come up with solid prediction on what is possible and what is not, in the domain of post-harvest processing of cotton.

All other RAC members also put forth their views and perspective about research activities being conducted at ICAR-CIRCOT and suggested the future course of action.

A lecture on the occasion of RAC on the topic entitled ‘Production of Edible Starch from Non-Food Low Value Cellulose' was delivered by Dr. S. Sreenivasan, RAC Member & Former Director, ICAR-CIRCOT, Mumbai

Vote of thanks was proposed by Dr. V. G. Arude, Principal Scientist & RAC Member Secretary.