INDIAN AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS RESEARCH INSTITUTE

( I.C.A.R. )

Library Avenue, Pusa, New Delhi  110 012

National Information System on Agricultural Education Network in India

(NISAGENET)

Proceedings of the Workshop on 'Sensitization cum Requirement Analysis for NISAGENET' organized at Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, Pusa, New Delhi, during 7-8 June, 2005

1. Introduction
2. Inaugural Session
3. Workshop Session
4. Recommendations emerged from the workshop

Introduction

National Statistical Commission (NSC-2001) and the Department of Secondary & Higher Education of Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India recommended that educational statistics related to agricultural education should be regularly compiled by the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India on an annual basis and a mechanism for the purpose be established. Such statistics are needed for various policy and planning purposes for the educational and manpower planning in the country. To cater to such requirements, a project, 'National Information System on Agricultural Education (NISAGENET)' has been approved by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) under its AP Cess Fund Scheme. The project is being executed at the Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (IASRI), New Delhi . The project started on 1st January 2005 .

For implementation of the technical programme of the project, it has been proposed to organize two days workshops on ‘Sensitization cum Requirement Analysis for NISAGENET' at four locations to cover all the 42 participating organizations that includes State Agricultural Universities, ICAR Deemed to be Universities, Allahabad Agricultural Institute Deemed University, Central Universities and the Central Agricultural University, Imphal. The proposed schedule for the workshops at different locations is as follows:

S.No.

Name of host organisation

Proposed dates for the workshop

1

Rajendra Agricultural University, Samastipur, Pusa-848125, Bihar

28-29 April, 2005

2

MP University of Agriculture & Technology, Udaipur-313001, Rajasthan

17-18 May, 2005

3

Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore-641003, Tamil Nadu.

25-26 May, 2005

4

Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, New Delhi - 110012

07-08 June, 2005

The broad objectives of these workshops are as follows:

  • Sensitization of the policy makers, managers and other administrators about the need of timely providing the information as per NSC recommendations.
  • Establishing Linkages between Coordinating NISAGENET Unit and participating  organizations and their sub-centers.
  • Definition of Data requirements of NISAGENET. 
  • To discuss and finalise the schedules designed for data collection from the basic sources.
  • To discuss the requirement analysis document for possible improvements. 
  • To emphasize on technical support in designing and preparation of annual statistical report publications
  • To emphasize that the Internet connectivity, Computers and manpower assistance be provided by the SAU concerned to the local NISAGENET Unit.

    • The fourth Sensitization cum Requirement Analysis workshop on NISAGENET, for the institutions located in the Northern region of the country, was organised, at Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, Pusa, New Delhi during 7-8 June, 2005 as per the following programme.

    07-06-2005

    Tuesday

    09.30 – 10.00

    Registration of the participants at IASRI

     

    Inaugural Session at Auditorium, Computer Center Building, IASRI, New Delhi

    10.00 – 11.15

    Inaugural Session

    ·        Welcome address by Dr. V.K.Gupta, Joint Director, IASRI,NewDelhi

    ·        Brief Introduction on NISAGENET by Dr. R.C. Goyal, Principal Scientist and Principal Investigator, NISAGENET,IASRI,NewDelhi

    ·        Presidential address by Dr. S.D.Sharma, Director, IASRI, New Delhi

    ·        Inaugural address by Dr. S. Nagarajan, Director, IARI , New Delhi as Chief Guest

    ·        Vote of thanks by Dr. P.K.Malhotra, Head, Division of CA, IASRI,New Delhi

     

    Session I at Committee Room no.106, Trg. cum Admn. Block, IASRI, New Delhi

    11:30 – 13:00

    ·        Presentation on Sensitization cum Requirement Analysis for NISAGENET

    13:00 – 14:00

    Lunch Break

     

    Session II at Committee Room no.106, Trg. cum Admn. Block, IASRI, New Delhi

    14:00 – 17:00

    ·        Data requirement of NISAGENET

    ·        Discussion on schedules I, II , III & IVdesigned for primary data collection

    08-06-2005

    Wednesday

    Session III at Committee Room no.106, Trg. cum Admn. Block, IASRI, New Delhi

    10.00 – 13.00

     

    ·        Discussion on schedules V & VI designed for primary data collection

    ·        Discussion on Requirement Analysis for NISAGENET

    13:00 – 14:00

    Lunch Break

     

    Session IV at Committee Room no.106, Trg. cum Admn. Block, IASRI, New Delhi

    14:00 – 17:00

    ·        Discussion on recommendations of previous workshops held at RAU, Samastipur, MPUA&T, Udaipur and TNAU, Coimbatore

    ·        Recommendations and finalization of schedules and Requirement Analysis document

    ·        Valedictory function

    Forenoon tea break : 11:15 – 11:30

    Afternoon tea break: 15:15 – 15:30

    The Nodal Officers of the following 21 organizations were invited to participate in this workshop, 14 from North Zone, 7 from the organizations that could not participate in the workshops held in their respective zones, 5 from East zone and 1 each from South and West Zone:

    North Zone: 

  • CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hissar
  • National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal
  • CSK HP Krishi Viswa Vidyalaya, Palampurs
  • YS Parmar University of Horticulture & Forestry, Solan
  • SK University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology, Jammu
  • SK University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology, Srinagar
  • IARI, New Delhi
  • Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
  • Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh
  • IVRI, Izatnagar
  • U.P. Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Pashu Chikitsa Vigyan Vishwa Vidhyalaya Evem Go Anusandhan Sansthan,Mathura
  • SVP University of Ag. & Tech., Meerut
  • GB Pant Univ. of Ag. & Tech., Pantnagar
  • CSA University of Agriculture & Technology,Kanpur

    •  

    East Zone:

  • WB University of Animal & Fishery Sciences, Kolkata, West Bengal
  • Central Agricultural University, Imphal, Manipur
  • Allahabad Agricultural Institute, Allahabad, UP
  • Birsa Agricultural University, Kanke, Ranchi-834006,Jharkhand
  • Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, Assam

     

    West Zone: 

  • Maharashtra Animal & Fishery Sciences University ,Nagpur

     

    South Zone:

     

  • University of Agricultural Sciences, Banglore

    The organizations that could not participate in any of the workshops organized in the different zones of the country:

     

  • University of Agricultural Sciences, Banglore

  • Maharashtra Animal & Fishery Sciences University Nagpur

  • Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana

  • Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh

  • SVP University of Ag. & Tech., Meerut

     

    Following participants from various organizations attended the workshop at IASRI, New Delhi

  • Dr S D Sharma, Director, IASRI, New Delhi
  • Dr. P.K. Malhotra, Head, Division of CA, IASRI, New Delhi
  • Dr R C Goyal, PS and PI, NISAGENET, IASRI, New Delhi
  • Dr. H.K. Changmai, Assoc. Prof. Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat
  • Dr. R.S. Dalal, Director, HRM, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hissar
  • Dr. Rameshwar Singh, Pr. Scientist & Registrar, NDRI, Karnal
  • Dr. R.C. Nagpal, Tech. Officer, NDRI, Karnal
  • Dr. K.K. Katoch, Assoc. Director, CSK HP Krishi Viswa Vidyalaya, Palampur
  • Dr. Manoj Bhargava, Scientist, CSK HP Krishi Viswa Vidyalaya, Palampur
  • Dr. K.R. Sharma, Assoc. Professor, Dr. YSP University of Hort. & Forestry, Solan
  • Dr. B.B. Gupta, Assoc. Professor, SK University of Ag. Sci. & Tech., Jammu
  • Sh. Bashir Ahmad, Head, Lib. Services, SK University of Ag. Sci. & Tech., Srinagar
  • Dr. C.B. Jha, Network Manager, Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi, Jharkhand
  • Dr. N.J. Singh, Asstt. Professor, Central Agricultural University, Imphal, Manipur
  • Dr. Naveen Kalra, Head, Simulation & Informatics, IARI, New Delhi
  • Dr. Subhash Chander, Sr. Scientist, Simulation & Informatics, IARI, New Delhi
  • Dr. S. Elamathi, Asstt. Professor, Allahabad Agricultural Institute, Allahabad, UP
  • Dr. Rishendra Verma, Head, Division of Standardization, IVRI, Izatnagar
  • Dr. Mukesh Srivastava, Assoc. Professor, CS Azad Univ. of Ag. & Tech., Kanpur
  • Dr. P.K. Shukla, Director, Trg. & Pl. DDU Vet. & Animal Sci. University, Mathura
  • Dr. A.K. Agnihotri, Coordinator, P&T Cell, GB Pant Univ. of Ag. & Tech., Pantnagar
  • Dr. Satabdi Das, Scientist, WB Univ. of Animal & Fishery Sci., Kolkata
  • Dr. Vipin Laddha, Officer I/C, Centre for CIMCA, RAU, Bikaner
  • Dr. V.K. Sharma, Head, (DE), IASRI, New Delhi
  • Dr. V.K. Bhatia, Head, RCMU, IASRI, New Delhi
  • Dr. Rajender Prasad, National Scientist, IASRI, New Delhi
  • Dr. P.K. Batra, Pr. scientist, IASRI, New Delhi
  • Dr. R.C. Agarwal, Pr. Scientist, NBPGR, New Delhi

  • Dr. Anil Rai, Sr. Scientist, IASRI, New Delhi
  • Sh. Balbir Singh, Scientist (SG), IASRI, New Delhi
  • Sh. V.H. Gupta, Scientist (SG), IASRI, New Delhi
  • Sh. H.O. Agarwal, Scientist (SG) IASRI, New Delhi
  • Sh. N.K. Sharma, Scientist (SG), IASRI, New Delhi

  • Mohd. Samir Farooqui, Scientist, IASRI, New Delhi
  • Sh. K.K. Chaturvedi, Scientist, IASRI, New Delhi
  • Sh. S.N. Islam, Scientist, IASRI, New Delhi
  • Sh. Vipin Kumar Dubey, Scientist, IASRI, New Delhi
  • Sh. S B Lal, Scientist, IASRI, New Delhi
  • Ms. Rajni Grover, Technical Officer, IASRI, New Delhi
  • Sh. P L Gupta, Technical Officer, IASRI, New Delhi
  • Sh. Rajat Nayyar, Research Associate, IASRI, New Delhi
  • Ms. Deepika Kalra, Research Associate, IASRI, New Delhi
  • Sh. Gaurav Bachchhas, Senior Research Fellow, IASRI, New Delhi

    • 7th June, 2005 Tuesday

    Inaugural Session

    TThe workshop started on 7th June 2005 in the morning at 9:30 AM with registration of the participants. The inaugural function was arranged in the Auditorium of the institute and the technical sessions of the workshop were organized in the Committee Room of Training cum Administrative Block of the Institute. Dr. S.D. Sharma, Director, IASRI, New Delhi presided over the inaugural function. The Chief Guest of the inaugural function was Dr. S. Nagarajan, Director, IARI, New Delhi. The participants were welcomed to the workshop by Dr V.K. Gupta, Joint Director, IASRI, New Delhi. 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, the objectives of the workshop and the role and responsibilities of participating organisations. The chairman 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. S. Nagarajan, Director, IARI and chief guest delivered the inaugural address and in his remarks he emphasized to take suitable measures to minimize the gap creeping up in rural and urban agricultural education. He stressed for judicious planning of investment on education to improve and sustain the quality of education to meet the international standards. Dr P.K. Malhotra, Head, Division of Computer Applications, IASRI 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 - discussion on Schedule for Master Database tables and schedules I, II, III & IV designed for primary data collection

    To implement the technical program of the NISAGENET, it has been planned that Data Entry Software would be provided to each participating organizations to make the data entry at their respective locations. For primary data collection at their respective centers, six schedules have been designed.

     

    Schedule for Master Database tables 

    To develop university specific Data Entry Software for the participating organizations, a Schedule for Master Database tables has been designed to collect university specific mandatory information for master tables of NISAGENET database. It was presented and the suggestions of the participants were incorporated in the schedule. A copy of the schedule was provided to the concerned Nodal Officers to collect and provide the necessary master information to the lead centre at IASRI, New Delhi.

     Schedules for primary data collection:

     For primary data collection six schedules designed by the lead center IASRI broadly cover general aspects and academic data of the universities, infrastructural facilities in the universities, budget provision, manpower employed, personal information of the faculties and research & development activities. Schedules I, II, III & IV 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

    • 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


    •  

    In this session schedules numbered I, II , III & IV 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.


    08-06-2005 Wednesday

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

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

     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 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:

    • ·        An agenda item may be proposed to the Education Division, ICAR for discussion in the VC's conference to review the progress under NISAGENET by each university

    ·        The mechanism may be developed for the sustainability of this work after the project is over and may also be taken up in the VC's conference.

    ·        The Education Division, ICAR may earmark some amount (say 1 lakh) for each university out of the ICAR development assistance for the NISAGENET cell in each university.  It would provide support as well as sustainability.

    ·        NISAGENET should have the capability to provide information on the experts in various fields of specialization, enrolment/employment opportunities to the students in agricultural sciences, information on the emerging clientele based disciplines to meet the requirement of the growing agriculture based market.

    ·        The amount of contingency needs to be enhanced and Nodal Officers may be provided a computer or a laptop and a separate chamber with one or two associates for data entry.

    ·        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.

    ·        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.

    ·        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. H.S. Nainawatee, ADG(HRD II), ICAR, New Delhi. Dr. R C Goyal, PI, briefly highlighted the key features observed in the three workshops organised at RAU, Samastipur, MPUA&T, Udaipur and TNAU, Coimbatore. He also highlighted discussions held in different sessions and the recommendations emerged in the workshop being organised at IASRI during 7-8 June 2005. Dr. Nainawatee, ADG(HRD II) in his valedictory address, expressed the dire need of information system for agricultural education planning and appreciated the objectives of the NISAGENET. He requested the participating organizations to provide data for NISAGENET and assured full support of the education division of ICAR. Dr. V.K. Gupta, Joint Director, IASRI, appreciated the objectives of the project and suggested the NISAGENET team and participating organizations to put major emphasis on quality of data and timeliness of the project.   Dr. P.K. Malhotra, HD(CA), IASRI, New Delhi proposed vote of thanks.