Scientists cold on ICAR revamp

A series of committees later, the Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR) could be looking at some heavy duty restructuring.The recom...

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A series of committees later, the Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR) could be looking at some heavy duty restructuring.

The recommendations of the ICAR Reorganisation Committee, headed by Council of Industrial and Scientific Research director-general R A Mashelkar, will be discussed threadbare on August 2, sources said. The recommendations of the Swaminathan committee on revamping the agriculture research system will also going to be taken up for discussion.

Overall, the buzz is that the ICAR restructure—in the works for many years now—may just get going. There have been five committees on the subject in the last two years; the Mashelkar panel was set up in 2004.

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But dissension is far from being a thing of the past. A fortnight before the scheduled discussion, the Mashelkar report is up on the ICAR website. ‘‘The report was loaded yesterday so that members of the scientific community could comment on it,’’ said an ICAR official. Mashelkar presented his recommendations on June 17.

Within the ICAR scientific community, apprehensions run high that the entire fabric of agriculture research as they know it could be dismantled, along with the discontinuation of multiple DDG and ADG posts.

The Mashelkar report talks about revamping almost every facet of ICAR, from restructuring the chain of command to modifying the governing body to bringing in greater participation of stakeholders, private sector, scientists and professionals. Basically, it suggests that the ICAR be remodelled along the lines of the CSIR.

And that is the major cause of unease among agriculture scientists. ‘‘There is a strong view in the council that the science model cannot be applied straight to agriculture. The realities and aims are different,’’ said a crop scientist.

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The report suggests ICAR develop ‘‘scientist-entrepreneur’’ scheme on the lines of a similar scheme in CSIR, a quick hire system of scientists—again, as in CSIR—provide for deputation of ICAR scientists, release ICAR processes to industry and allow professionals greater say in ICAR operations.

The report recommends that, as in the CSIR, the prime minister be named president of the ICAR society. ‘‘Such an action will give a strong signal to the R&D community and other sections of economy about the importance the government attaches to agriculture and its role in the national economy,’’ the report says.

The committee—other than Mashelkar, the members are Vijay Kelkar, former adviser to the Finance Minister, and biotechnologist Usha Barwale—expresses confidence that if all the proposals are accepted and implemented, ICAR will turn from a ‘‘good’’ organisation to a ‘‘great’’ organisation.

Mashelkar, when contacted, refused to comment.