The first Sensitization cum requirement analysis workshop on NISAGENET, for the institutions located in the eastern region of the country, was organised, at Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar during 28-29 April 2005 as per the following programme.

28-04-2005	Thursday
09.30 – 10.00	Registration of the participants at RAU
10.00 – 11.15	Inaugural Session ·        Welcome address by Dean, FBSH, RAU ·        Introduction on NISAGENET by Dr. R.C. Goyal, Principal Scientist and Principal Investigator, NISAGENET ·        Inaugural Address for NISAGENET workshop by Dr. S.D. Sharma, Director, IASRI, New Delhi ·        Chairman's remarks by Dr. A.P. Mishra, Dean, College of Agricultural Engineering , RAU ·        Vote of thanks by Dr. S.P. Singh, Nodal Officer, RAU
11:30 – 13:00	Session I ·        Presentation on Sensitization cum Requirement Analysis for NISAGENET
13:00 – 14:00	Lunch Break
14:00 – 17:00	Session II ·        Data requirement of NISAGENET ·        Discussion on schedules I, II & III designed for primary data collection
29-04-2005	Friday
10.00 – 13.00	Session III ·        Discussion on schedules IV, V & VI designed for primary data collection ·        Discussion on Requirement Analysis for NISAGENET
13:00 – 14:00	Lunch Break
14:00 – 17:00	Session IV ·        Recommendations and finalization of schedules and Requirement Analysis document ·        Valedictory function chaired by the Vice Chancellor, RAU

Forenoon tea break : 11:15 – 11:30

Afternoon tea break: 15:15 – 15:30

The Nodal Officers from the following universities were invited to participate in this workshop.

Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa, Bihar-848125

Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, Assam-785013

Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswa Vidyalaya, Mohanpur, west Bengal-741252

Uttar Bang Krishi Viswa Vidyalaya, Coochbehar, West Bengal-736165

WB University of Animal & Fishery Sciences, Kolkata, West Bengal-700037

Central Agricultural University, Imphal, Manipur-795004

Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi, Jharkhand-834006

Orissa University of Agriculture & Technology, Bhubaneshwar, Orissa-751003

Indira Gandhi Krishi Viswa Vidyalaya, Raipur, Chhattisgarh-492012

Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, UP - 221005

Narendra Dev University of Agriculture & Technology, Faizabad, UP– 224229

Allahabad Agricultural Institute, Allahabad , UP - 211007

28th April, 2005 Thursday

Inaugural Session

The workshop started on 28th April, 2005 in the morning at 9:30 AM with registration of the participants. The inaugural function and workshop technical sessions were arranged in the VC’s conference hall. The inaugural function was chaired by Dr. A.P. Mishra, Dean, College of Agricultural Engineering, RAU, Pusa. The Chief Guest of the inaugural session was Dr S.D. Sharma, Director, IASRI, New Delhi. The participants were welcomed to the workshop by Dr R A Singh, Dean, Faculty of Basic Sciences and Humanities, RAU Pusa. After the welcome address, the participants introduced themselves to the audience. Dr. R.C. Goyal, Principal Investigator of NISAGENET gave brief introduction to the AP Cess funded project, its objectives and the role and responsibilities of participating organisations. The chief guest Dr. S.D. Sharma, Director, IASRI highlighted various key points of the project including National Statistical Commission recommendations and the statistical data requirements of the Department of Secondary & Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. Dr A.P. Mishra, Dean Faculty of Ag. Engineering and Chairman of the inaugural session delivered his remarks. Dr SP Singh, Nodal Officer and Chairman, Department of Statistics, Mathematics and Computer Application, RAU, Pusa proposed the vote of thanks.

 

Session I: Presentation on Sensitization cum Requirement Analysis for NISAGENET

After the inaugural session Dr R.C. Goyal, PI gave a detailed presentation on objectives of the workshop and the need for Sensitization cum Requirement Analysis for NISAGENET project and highlighted the following:

Recommendations of National Statistical Commission (NSC)

Data requirements of Ministry of HRD

Organisational structure network of NISAGENET

Objectives and information base of NISAGENET

Establishment and strengthening of Coordinating Unit and Lead Center IASRI, New Delhi with overall responsibilities.

Establishment of NISAGENET Units at each Participating Organizations and their responsibilities

Collection and compilation of data on Agricultural Education

Designing, Development and Implementation of NISAGENET

Need of Publications of Annual Statistical Bulletins on Agricultural Education in India

Requirement Analysis including general users, National Agricultural Research System(NARS) Managers and the Ministry of HRD, Government of India's expectations from the NISAGENET

 

Finally Dr. Goyal concluded that the NISAGENET system should provide a unified information system for collection, compilation and analysis of information about the activities of the agricultural education system in India . It will be possible to provide all the information as desired by the NSC. Apart from meeting NSC recommendations, the Information related to General aspects & Academics of the Universities, Infrastructural facilities, Budget provision, Manpower employed, R&D activities of all the SAU’s and Deemed universities of ICAR will be made available through a single source of information. From this information system, the Annual Publications and statistical bulletins on Agricultural Education may be published.

 

 

Session II: Data requirement of NISAGENET and discussion on schedules I, II & III designed for primary data collection

For primary data collection six schedules has been designed by the lead center IASRI to broadly cover general aspects and academic data of the universities, infrastructural facilities in the universities, budget provision, manpower employed and research & development activities. Schedules numbered I, II & III are designed to cover the data for the following items:

 

Academic Information - Schedule – I

General information about universities & its affiliated colleges

Details about administrative heads

Disciplines /UG/ PG/ M.Sc. / Ph.D. programs in the university

Training programs organised

Mode of admission to different programs

Strength of students

Scholarships and reservations in different programs

Placement Cell

Infrastructural Facilities - Schedule - II

Laboratory facilities

Lecture rooms

Opportunities for improving competence of Faculty

Sports/cultural facilities

Hostel facilities

Library facilities

Medical facilities

Budget Information - Schedule - III

University financial receipts from different sources

Source-wise income of university

Funds allocation to different colleges

Details of budget expenditure

In this session schedules numbered I, II & III were presented one by one for discussion and valuable comments of the participants. Eight Nodal Officers present from different universities discussed each item of the schedules and provided constructive suggestions for data quantity and quality improvement. The feasibility of obtaining information on the data items was discussed at length.  It was suggested that schedules should be accompanied with the illustrative descriptions of the data items and the definitions of terms and concepts used. The suggestions of the various participants were noted down for modifications and inclusion into the schedule.

In this session the following participants actively participated in the discussions and suggestions for improvements in the basic data collection schedules:

Dr S D Sharma, Director, IASRI, New Delhi

Dr R C Goyal, PS and PI, NISAGENET, IASRI, New Delhi

S B Lal, Scientist, IASRI, New Delhi

P L Gupta, Technical Officer, IASRI, New Delhi

Dr S. P. Singh, Chairman and Professor, Deptt of SMCA, RAU, Pusa

Dr S K Acharjee, Associate Professor, BCKV, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal

Dr S C Sarkar, Reader, UBKV, Cooch Behar , West Bengal

Dr Kalyan Gadhei, Lecturer, BHU, Varanasi , UP

Dr Jogendra Arora, Programmer, CACIGAU, Raipur

Dr Sunil Kumar, Associate Professor, NDUAT, Faizabad

Dr H N Atibudhi, Professor, OUAT, Bhubaneswar

Dr R N Singh, Sr Scientist, ARI, Patna

29-04-2005 Friday

Session III: Discussion on schedules IV, V & VI designed for primary data collection

Schedules numbered IV, V & VI are designed to cover the data for the following items:

Manpower Information - Schedule - IV

Status of faculty members as sanctioned, in Position and vacant

Status of technical staff

Status of administrative staff

Status of auxiliary staff

Additional staff requirements

Personal Information - Schedule V

Background information

Academic details

Service particulars

Training programmes attended

Number of  publications

Varieties developed

Packages of practices developed

Awards and achievements

Achievements & Highlights - Schedule - VI

University academic achievements

University  R&D activities

Workshops organized and plan to organize in the coming year

Seminar/Conferences organised

Summer institutes

Field demonstrations

Women training programs

Kisan melas

University publications

Technologies developed

On-going research projects

In this session schedules numbered IV, V and VI were presented one by one for discussion and valuable comments of the participants. The participants discussed each item of the schedules and put more emphasis on the items included in the schedules and availability of the respective data. They also provided constructive suggestions for quantity and quality improvement of the data. The suggestions of the various participants were noted down for modifications and inclusion into the schedule.

Session IV: Requirement analysis document, recommendations and finalization of schedules:

In this session, Dr. R. C. Goyal made a presentation wherein the expectations and requirements of the users from the NISAGENET were discussed. Broadly three class of users' requirements were discussed as follows: 

General users' expectations from NISAGENET

NARS Management expectations/requirements

Government and Ministry of HRD expectations/requirements

Under general users' expectations from NISAGENET, it was felt that the system must have the capabilities to provide information as reports/queries on the following items:

• University Historical Information: Establishment & Growth
• Contact Details of University Academics and Officials

            Vice Chancellor

            Deans of Universities

            Registrar

            Director (Research/Extension/Student Welfare/Instruction) of SAUs

Dean / Associate Dean (Colleges)                 

            Principal of Colleges                       

            Comptroller

            Deputy Registrar

• Affiliated Colleges Information
• Bachelors, Masters &  Ph.D Programmes in various Disciplines
• Mode of Admission to various Programmes
• Prerequisite Qualification for Admission (General)
• Prerequisite Qualification for Admission (SC/ST/OBC/Handicapped)
• Scholarships available to Bachelors, Masters and Ph.D Programmes
• Proportion of Reservation

Under NARS Management Expectations/Requirements from NISAGENET, the system must have the capabilities to provide information as reports/queries on the following items:

• Bachelors, Masters and Ph. D. students admitted, and passed at university and country level
• College-wise number of students Bachelors, Masters and PhD degrees obtained
• Training programmes organized by SAUs
• Students Employed Through Employment Cell In SAUs
• University Financial Receipts
• Source-Wise Income Of University
• College-Wise Funds Allocation
• Budget Expenditure, Unit-Wise
• Faculty Status in the Universities
• Technical Staff status in the SAUs
• Administrative and other staff details
• Personal information of the faculty
• Research & development activities
• University publications
• New varieties developed
• Summer schools, Kisan mela’s and women training programmes etc. organised in the SAUs

Finally the Ministry of HRD requirements were also discussed.

Recommendations emerged from the workshop:

During the workshop sessions, the nodal officers suggested various requirements for the collection of data. The following recommendations were emerged:

 

·        There is a strong need to sensitize the data source managers (Deans/Registrars etc.) to provide all technical support to the Nodal Officers in providing data as per NISAGENET requirements. This may be achieved by organising orientation programs by the Nodal Officers at their respective universities. 

·        DDG (Education) and Director, IASRI may be requested to send letters to the VCs for providing technical support and directing the concerned authorities to provide the necessary data for NISAGENET.

·        Most of the participants suggested that more number of sensitization workshops should be organized at various SAU’s.

·        The nodal officers also requested that the fund allocation to their organizations is not sufficient.

·        It was also suggested that the TALLY software might be used to maintain the account of budget expenditure of NISAGENET.

·        In order to include the information of private agricultural colleges affiliated to other central universities, there is strong need to identify and locate agricultural colleges in different states. Then linkage may be established to collect necessary data by the Nodal Officers located nearer to such colleges. DDG (Education) and Director, IASRI may also be requested to write to private agricultural colleges for providing technical support and data for NISAGENET

 

Valedictory Function

The valedictory function was chaired by Dr S R Singh, Vice Chancellor, RAU, Pusa, Bihar. In his valedictory address he expressed the strong need of information system for agricultural education and appreciated the objectives of the NISAGENET. He assured full support in providing data for NISAGENET. He also suggested that NISAGENET should contain data with regard to agro climatic conditions of the agricultural universities/colleges. The system must have the capabilities to provide information on quality and quantity of the universities, colleges, faculty and the students, which may help and attract the foreign students to choose Indian Agricultural Universities for their higher education. He suggested several parameters for the assessment of the quality of teaching faculty, quality of students and quality of output from the universities. The PI expressed that some of the suggested parameters are available in the basic data collection schedules and remaining would be incorporated. Lastly Dr. S.D. Sharma, Director, IASRI, thanked the university authorities and the academicians, faculty and staff for the excellent arrangements made for organising the first sensitization workshop at RAU, Pusa, Bihar. Finally, the Press and Media (Press Reporters from Hindustan, Dainik Jagran and Aaj) were also thanked for giving wide coverage on daily workshop activities and importance of NISAGENET in the prominent Daily News Papers of the region. 

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