1st AIHAC Meeting of DBT PG Programme, March 28, 2025

The Department of Biotechnology organized the 1st Adhoc In-house Advisory Committee (AIHAC) meeting of DBT PG Programme on 28th March 2025 in the Conference Hall of VC Secretariat. Dr. Vinita N. Chaudhary, DBT representative from Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, Shri Vijayendra Singh, Zydus Life, Industry Expert, Dr. Krishna Mohan, Skill Expert, Hyderabad, Prof. Arvind Kumar, Academic Expert, Department of Biotechnology, Banaras Hindu University, Associate faculty of sister departments and Core faculty of the Department of Biotechnology, participated in the meeting for deliberations. 

Prof. Rizwanul Haque, Dean, School of Earth Biological and Environmental Sciences, CUSB, Gaya who was selected by members to chair the meeting due to prior engagement of HVC Prof. KN Singh. At the outset, the Chairman welcomed the AIHAC members & Coordinator of DBT PG Programme briefed about the role AIHAC in monitoring the programme. Prof. Rakesh Kumar, Head of the Department informed the committee about departmental activities including introduction, program, intake of students, academic activities. He informed that the departmental faculty had received 14 number of extramural grants of amount Rs.2.82 Crores from UGC, DAE, SERB, ICMR, Ayush, and infrastructure development grant from DST (Rs. Fifty-eight lakh only) and DBT (Rs. Ninety-one lakh seventy thousand only), respectively. Prof. Durg Vijai Singh, Coordinator, DBT PG Programme presented the progress report of the teaching and research activities of the department after getting the DBT grant to run the DBT PG Programme and admitting the students through GAT-B score. He informed that out of nine, four students of first batch of GAT-B 2023 qualified the GATE 2025 examination. 

Dr. Vinita Chaudhary suggested to associate with industry and skill experts and add/ align courses accordingly. Industrial expert, Skill Expert and Academic expert suggested to modify the course content and include skill-based hand on training, AI & Machine learning application in Biotechnology courses, sending students to the industries for summer training/internship, besides exploring collaboration with foreign institutions. Mentor from the industry and skill institution should be made part of Mentor-Mentee for better training and research outcome. Industry Expert and Skill experts agreed to associate with these programme and explore to signing MoU to facilitate and strengthen this association. Later on the committee interacted with MSc students admitted through GAT-B score and visited the laboratory. Overall committee members specially experts were satisfied with the progress of the teaching, clarity of students about programme, and future of biotechnology. Dr. Pratishtha Sonker, Assistant Professor, Department of Biotechnology delivered vote of thanks. Programme ended with national anthem.