The Indian scientists have great potential and they can take the agriculture to a new horizon, remarked the agriculture minister, Mr Radha Mohan Singh, while delivering the key note address at 41st Foundation Day celebrations of Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board (ASRB) on November 01, 2014. The agriculture minister complimented ASRB for its valuable contributions in selecting quality human resource for agricultural research and development. He highlighted various achievements and records of agricultural production in India emphasizing this had become possible only due to strong commitment of agricultural scientists and farmers who worked synergistically at farms and fields. He expressed satisfaction over the transparent process of recruitment that has earned credibility for the ASRB and urged to completely digitize the entire procedure to ensure further transparency.

Agriculture minister stressed upon various new initiatives being taken by the government to push up Indian agriculture further to new heights including over all development of villages to bring prosperity. Singh said steps are being taken to strengthen infrastructure of the KVKs spread across the country including significant increase in their numbers. Citing various examples, he expressed happiness over adoption of scientific and technological interventions at grass root level.

Agricultural minister released inaugural issue of the ASRB News (Hindi and English) and ASRB Profile (bilingual).

Dr S Ayyappan, secretary, DARE and DG, ICAR complimented ASRB for its achievements and glorious journey of four decades in bringing excellence to agricultural research system. He highlighted some of the key steps to ensure speedy recruitment of agricultural scientists maintaining high quality and transparency.

Dr J S Samra, CEO, National Rainfed Area Authority, government of India recalled the conditions in which ASRB was constituted and expressed his satisfaction over the performance of ASRB in view of its mandate and objectives. He made suggestions to further improve the services of ASRB for over all development of agricultural research in the country.

Earlier, Dr Gurbachan Singh, chairman, ASRB welcomed the chief guest and dignitaries and highlighted some of the significant achievements including new initiatives. Transformation from pen and paper examination to Computer based test for ARS-Preliminary and NET is one of the recent pioneer steps taken by the ASRB to upgrade and advance talent search, he added.

In the technical session, Prof. RaghavendraGadagkar, President, INSA delivered the Foundation Day Lecture on, 'War & Peace: Conflict & Cooperation in an Insect Society'. He underlined the infinite potential and critical linkage of scientific endeavors to national development. Prof. Gadagkar elaborated upon social behavior and structure of some of the insects based on his own research experiences in a lucid and interesting manner.