112th FOCARS Inaugurated at ICAR-NAARM

April 11, 2023, Hyderabad

The 112th Foundation Course for Agriculture Research Service (FOCARS) was inaugurated by Dr Himanshu Pathak, Secretary DARE and DG, ICAR on today.

Dr Pathak, in his inaugural address briefed about the ICAR system and stated that scientists are free to do research in their respective field without any restriction and ICAR will provide necessary facilities and other resources from its end which can be augmented by individual scientists through funding from other sources.

Dr Pathak mentioned that there are no competitors and they will be competing against themselves during their entire career. He also congratulated and complimented all the trainees for their selection and joining agriculture research service and wished them bright future and illustrious career in ICAR.

The Guest of Honour was Dr. MV Gupta, Padmasree Awardee and World Food Prize Winner. Dr Gupta, advised the FOCARS trainees to look for solutions from available resources and emphasise the need for engaging all stakeholders including farmers, industry and market before formulating research projects in their career.

All the trainees took oath of allegiance to serve the country and constitution of India administered by Dr Ch Srinivasa Rao, Director, ICAR-NAARM, Hyderabad.

Dr Rao explained about the new innovations brought in this FOCARS as per the changing needs of young scientists. These include interactive sessions with young scientists, women directors on work life balance, industries perspective including startups.

Dr G Venkateswarlu, Joint Director, ICAR-NAARM earlier welcomed the Chief Guest and Guest of Honour.

The scientists who got selected through ARS exam will undergo 3 months Foundation Course for Agriculture Research Service (FOCARS) training at NAARM. There were 115 trainees joined in this course including 42 female scientists. The trainees represented more than 24 states and 38 disciplines across agriculture and allied science

Dr A Dhandapani and Dr Sanjiv Kumar are the coordinators of 112th FOCARS.

(Source: ICAR-NAARM, Hyderabad)