Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, Nov 29, 2002
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, Nov 29, 2002 |
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Industry & Economy
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Education Plan to stem substandard biotech academic courses Ajita Shashidhar
NEW DELHI, Nov. 28 THE Ministry of Human Resources Development (HRD) is likely to introduce a regulation to prevent the mushrooming of sub-standard biotechnology courses in the country. A discussion on this issue was taken up in the Ministry recently, on the recommendation of the Department of Biotechnology. The Biotechnology Department has reportedly pointed out there has been an unrealistic projection of the manpower requirement in this sector due to which a number of private engineering colleges have started offering biotech courses even at the B.Tech level. It was also pointed out many universities are offering bio-informatics courses at the undergraduate level, without adequate infrastructure and faculty support. Therefore, the quality of these students is a big question mark. According to an official from the HRD Ministry, "The total requirement of biotechnologists in India has been projected at 6,500 people, and that too with higher skills and degrees." The official also added that some colleges that have started courses on biotechnology do not even have departments of Chemistry or Chemical Engineering. The Department of Biotechnology has reportedly highlighted the need to set up a regulatory body for the maintenance of the standard of education, which could be under the name of All-India Board for Biotechnology Education and Training, under the AICTE. The department also said that there was a need to focus on post-graduate and research programmes on biotechnology, and B.Tech programmes should be restricted only to those institutions which have established departments of chemical engineering. The Biotechnology Department has also recommended not to sanction undergraduate programmes on bio-informatics, and to restrict such programmes only at the post-graduate level.
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