Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 29: Under RKVY-RAFTAAR Project, tenth R-ABI Incubation Committee (RIC) meeting of Agri-Business Incubator, SKUAST-Jammu, was conducted under the chairmanship of Prof B N Tripathi, Vice Chancellor, SKUAST-Jammu.
Candidates were evaluated for admission to 7th batch of two months agri-entrepreneurship training programmes whereas incubates of 6th batch were evaluated for recommending them to Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, GoI for funding under RKVY-RAFTAAR Project. The funded start-ups of 2nd batch were evaluated for release of second instalment of grant-in-aid in their favour.
Certificates were also distributed to candidates of 6th batch for successful completion of their two month agri-entrepreneurship training programmes.
It is worth mentioning that one of start-up of SKUAST-Jammu had an interaction with Prime Minister during his visit to Palli village of Samba district on National Panchayati Raj Day.
Prof Tripathi, in his concluding remarks, said that special attention needs be given to the fact that business ideas should be commercially viable and profitable so that they can be sustainable in the long run. Motivating students to become agri-entrepreneurs; natural farming, infrastructure development, vocational education, brain storming on critical problems and hand holding of start-ups were listed as key action points by him.
Earlier, Prof Jyoti Kachroo, Head AEABM, PI, briefed about all the major activities and progress achieved in the recent past by Agri-Business Incubator, SKUAST-J. She also outlined that 68 startup in six batches of agri-entrepreneurs have already been incubated at SKUAST-Jammu and funding to the tune of Rs 2.33crores in total has been sanctioned in favor of 21 incubates.
The RIC members from different fields viz Prof Ashok Aima, former Vice Chancellor, CUJ; Prof Dileep Kachroo, ex-Registrar, SKUAST-Jammu; Prof S K Gupta, Director Research, SKUAST-Jammu; Mahesh Verma, Jt Director Marketing, Department of Agriculture; Urmil Lata, DGM, NABARD; Annil Suri, MD, AB Industries, Jammu and Dr Manisha Mani, ICAR-IARI nominee, New Delhi attended the meeting and evaluated the business ideas of the participants.
Co PIs of the project namely Prof Sudhakar Dwivedi, Dean, Students Welfare; Dr S P Singh, Assoc Prof and Dr Anil Bhat, Asst Prof Division of AEABM, were also present during the meeting. The proceedings of the meeting were conducted by Dr Yamini Raut & Tarunjeet Singh from ABI SKUAST-J who were supported by Dr Malika Sharma, Asst Prof AEABM. Vote of thanks was presented by Prof Sudhakar Dwivedi.
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