Inaugural session of 42nd Annual Meeting of PTCA-I & International Symposium on “Advances in Plant Biotechnology and Genome Editing'' (APBGE-2021) was held through “live” virtual mode here on Thursday. Chief guest Dr T. Mohapatra, Director General, ICAR and Secretary DARE in his inaugural address shared his views and highlighted impacts of modern technology in improving yield and quality.
Dr Mohapatra also appreciated IIAB for holding the international conference, which is being attended globally. He called upon scientists, national and international experts to deliberate on the recent advances and challenges in plant biotechnology with special reference to the agricultural and horticultural crops. He also stressed that the deliberations during the symposium will be very helpful for developing strategies for future research for ensuring food and nutritional security of the country.
Dr. Arunava Pattanayak, Director, in his address welcomed all the delegates and dignitaries to this conference which was being organized virtually because of COVID pandemic. Dr. Anil Kumar Singh, Convener of the symposium informed that more than 450 participants have registered for the symposium from India and abroad, including USA, UK. Sweden, Australia, Japan, South Korea etc. who will be deliberating on different aspects of biotechnology.
Prof. Pramod Tandon, an eminent biotechnologist, who is secretary of PTCA (I) also addressed the delegates and gave an historical account of this Association and its role in promotion of tissue culture and biotechnology in India. Prof. Sudhir Sopory, Ex Vice Chancellor, JNU who has long association with PTCA (I) also spoke on the occasion and discussed potentials of new tools and technologies in plant science. ‘
Dr. T.R. Sharma, Deputy Director General (Crop Science) delivered the inaugural lecture. He emphasized the contribution of tissue culture derived varieties in Indian agriculture, use of genomics and next generation sequencing technologies and genome editing techniques to improve plant traits. Dr. Soumen Naskar, Organizing Secretary of the symposium proposed the formal vote of thanks.