On December 3, 2024, ICAR-CIRCOT, which was founded in 1924, celebrated 100 years of outstanding service to the country. The Honorable Vice President of India, Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar, served as the Chief Guest at a lavish closing ceremony held to mark this milestone. In his speech, Shri Dhankhar emphasized the difficulties farmers confront and the vital role that ICAR’s institutional support plays in reducing these strains. He reaffirmed that the Prime Minister’s ambition of making India a developed country is a real objective rather than just a pipe dream. He pointed out that in order to accomplish this, farmers must receive financial and technical assistance, which would have enormous benefits for the country. In order to empower farmers by allowing them to add value to their produce and obtain fair pricing, he called on ICAR and Agricultural Universities to work closely together. In addition to praising the ICAR-CIRCOT team for their hard work and accomplishments during the organization’s centennial year, Shri Dhankhar urged the scientific community to reflect, plan, and concentrate on finding solutions for farmers’ problems.
Dr. Himanshu Pathak, Secretary (DARE) and Director General (ICAR), New Delhi; Dr. S.N. Jha, Deputy Director General (Agricultural Engineering), ICAR, New Delhi; Shri C.P. Radhakrishnan, Hon’ble Governor of Maharashtra; Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Hon’ble Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare & Rural Development; and Shri Ramnath Thakur, Hon’ble Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare were among the distinguished dignitaries who attended the event.
The Hon’ble Vice President of India officially opened the Centenary Pillar, which ICAR-CIRCOT had built in honor of 100 years of exceptional research and development, in front of a distinguished group of guests. The Honorable Chief Guest presented three important publications from ICAR-CIRCOT during the event: Cotton: Grading, Ginning, Marketing, and By-product Utilization; Cotton in Indian Circular Economy: A Journey from Field to Fashion; and Contribution of ICAR-CIRCOT in Nation Building. As part of the ‘Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam’ campaign, Madam Dr. (Smt.) Sudesh Dhankhar and the Hon. Vice President of India planted seedlings.
Dr. S.N. Jha, DDG (Agricultural Engineering), ICAR, New Delhi, chaired a panel discussion on “Post-harvest Processing of Cotton in Amrit Kaal” during the morning session. Opening remarks were given by Dr. P.G. Patil, VC, MPKV, Rahuri, and Dr. C. D. Mayee, Ex-Chaiman, ASRB, New Delhi. Dr. Kartikeya Dhanda, secretary of the Textiles Committee in Mumbai; Dr. Ashok Athalye, professor of ICT in Mumbai; Dr. M. K. Sharma, full-time director and chief executive officer of M/s. BSI Ltd. in Nagpur; Dr. K. Narsaiah, ADG (Process Engineering); Dr. Y. G. Prasad, director of ICAR-CICR in Nagpur; Dr. R. Kachru, former ADG (PE), ICAR As part of the panel discussion at the Amrit Kaal, ICAR and Shri Ram Bohra from AICOSCA, Mumbai, offered their insightful opinions on post-harvest cotton processing, emphasizing important areas for the Institute to focus on. The Institute’s 100-year history of outstanding research was also highlighted by Dr. K. R. K. Iyer, the former director of ICAR-CIRCOT in Mumbai.
Simultaneously, Dr. Himanshu Pathak, Secretary (DARE) and Director General (ICAR), New Delhi, officially opened the Pilot Plant Facility for Protein Extraction and the Genome Editing Laboratory. These facilities are intended to translate innovative research into useful market applications.
Agri Startup Conclave 2024 was held from December 3–4, 2024, by the ICAR-CIRCOT RAFTAAR Agri Business Incubator as part of ICAR-CIRCOT’s Centenary Celebration. The subject of the event was “Fuelling Agri-Innovation: Empowering Entrepreneurial Passion for a Sustainable Future.”
At the grand closing ceremony of ICAR-CIRCOT’s centenary celebration, about 400 delegates from all over the nation took part, including researchers, students, directors of ICAR Institutes, vice chancellors of agricultural universities
