Sibal inaugurates Plant Genome Facility at NBRI

Lucknow, Aug 4 (UNI) Union Minister of State for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences (independent charge) Kapil Sibal today inaugurated a modern Plant Genomic Facility at the National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI) here.

The facility would contribute immensely in plant genetic and genome research and studies.

Addressing the gathering, Mr Sibal said agriculture and health were the two most important human enterprises of the country.

''The public has great expectations from the scientific community, who are creators of knowledge,'' he said urging NBRI scientists to make greater efforts in terms of investment and human resources to develop NBRI into a world class institute in the future.

Mr Sibal is also Vice President, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi.

Earlier, the Minister was welcomed by Dr Rakesh Tuli, Director, NBRI.

Mr Sibal said being an agriculture intensive country, it was important for scientists to reach out to farmers by providing them simpler technologies to enhance crop yield.

Congratulating NBRI for BT-cotton technology and conservation and sustainable utilisation of biodiversity, Mr Sibal said there was an urgent need to undertake mapping of the biodiversity in India.

He underlined that major areas of North East region of the country had yet to be documented for their rich biodiversity.

''In terms of Public Private Partnership, interaction between scientists and the industry was hardly known a decade back, but now it has become a reality.'' He said the government would make efforts to address the needs of the agribiotech industry, especially in terms of supply of germplasm.

The book, 'Botanic Garden - A National Facility', was released by the minister on the occasion.

UNI