The deliberations that were held at National Agricultural Science Complex, New Delhi, were presided by Dr S Ayyappan, secretary, Department of Agriculture Research (DARE) and director general, Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR). In his opening remarks, Dr Ayyappan outlined the events that led to ICAR's decision to establish Indian Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology. He also informed that the IIAB has been envisioned to be a Deemed University to offer quality education and undertake cutting edge research in the field of Agricultural Biotechnology encompassing various sectors.

Dr S K Datta, deputy director general (crop science), ICAR underlined the importance of genetically modified (GM) crops in increasing crop productivity. He also suggested that research programmes of complementary nature could be taken up initially such as phenotyping stress-tolerant genotypes.
Dr. R. Ramani, director, IINRG and OSD of the Institute made presentation and briefed the gathering about the immediate plans of the institute.

Dr K.M.L. Pathak, deputy director general (DDG), (Animal Science); Dr B. Meenakumari, DDG (Fisheries); Dr Arvind Kumar, DDG (Education) and Dr N.K. Krishna Kumar, DDG (Horticulture) also participated in the consultation.
Thirty participants from different organizations and universities took part in the meet. The day-long deliberations encompassed all aspects of the Institute, including academic and organizational structure, activities, research priorities, infrastructure and management.

In his concluding remarks, Dr. Ayyappan thanked all the experts for their useful suggestions and participation in the meet. He assured that all efforts would be made to ensure recruitment of quality manpower as well as creation of good infrastructure.