Pune
Edition, 15th July 2008
Six-Member
State-Level Panel Has Started Hearing Proposals
Pune:
A six-member state-level panel, under former University
of Pune (UoP) vice-chancellor Ashok Kolaskar, has started
hearing the proposals of various universities for new biotechnology
colleges in their respective jurisdictions.
As a specialised area of study, biotechnology ranks among
the most sought-after courses owing to its application across
different areas like medicine, food science, agriculture
and genetic engineering, among others.
The panel has been set up by the state department for higher
and technical education to scrutinise each proposal and
ensure that the institutions have the requisite infrastructure,
teaching and supporting system for offering degree and post-graduate
level courses in biotechnology.
Besides Kolaskar, other members on the panel are Sushama
Chaphalkar, director, Vidya Pratishthan School of Biotechnology
at Baramati; S.S. Barve, head, department of biotechnology
at the Vaze-Kelkar College at Mulund in Mumbai; Jyoti Jadhav,
reader, Shivaji University, Kolhapur; Dipti Deobagkar, head,
department of zoology at University of Pune (UoP) and R.V.
Kirdak, director, higher education.
As per a government resolution (GR) issued on July 10, the
department had scheduled the hearing process for 11 am on
Monday at the Bioinformatics Centre of the UoP. Incidentally,
the day coincided with the auspicious occasion of Ashadhi
Ekadashi’, which is a public holiday in the state.
Speaking to TOI, Kolaskar said that representatives of five
institutions turned up for making presentations before the
panel.
“We have decided to schedule the next session on July
20 (Sunday) to ensure that more representatives get a chance
to make presentations,” he said.
Kolaskar said the panel also needed additional information
from certain institutions regarding their accreditation
status, number of permanent teaching staffers etc.
“It will take some time before we (panel) reach a
final decision on the number of institutions to be cleared
for the course,” he said.
The panel has received proposals from almost every university
including Mumbai, Pune, Amravati and Nagpur, he added.
