(a) whether the government have received the Hemendra Kumar Committee report;
(b) if so, the details of the recommendations made by the Committee; and
(c) the steps the Government propose to take to implement the said recommendations?
(a) whether the government have received the Hemendra Kumar Committee report;
(b) if so, the details of the recommendations made by the Committee; and
(c) the steps the Government propose to take to implement the said recommendations?
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE (SHRI HUKUMDEO NARAYAN YADAV)
(a) Yes, Sir. The report has been submitted to the President, ICAR Society and Union Agriculture Minister.
(b) As at Annexure `A`.
(c) Administrative arrangements have been made to process the recommendations for decisions.
Annexure-A
1. The composition of the Governing Body should be revised to include representatives of two State Governments, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Secretary, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and Chairman, APEDA. The representation of Vice Chancellors of SAUs and Directors of ICAR Institutes should be reduced to four from six. The tenure of members from these categories be fixed for a period of three years and the positions should be filled up by rotation. (Para 2.4)
2. An annual conference of the Agriculture Ministers of all the states should be convened under the Chairmanship of Union Agriculture Minister with the specific agenda of reviewing the research priorities of the ICAR. (Para 2.9)
3. Five of the DDGs currently at headquarters should be moved to 5 geographical regions of the country with substantial delegation of powers to handle both research and administrative issues concerning ICAR Institutes located within the region. They should be responsible for integrating the research work within the region. (Para 2.10)
4. The number of DDGs at headquarters should be frozen to 4. Thematic areas be merged into Plant Sciences, Life Sciences and Human Resources to be handled by three DDGs. The fourth DDG will be responsible for strategic planning, policy formulation and monitoring etc. The DDGs at headquarters should act as advisers to DG and deal with larger national issues concerning policy thrusts, strategic planning, interaction with external agencies, international cooperation etc in their respective sectors. They will be assisted by the ADGs for specific thematic areas. Detailed job descriptions for these positions should got prepared by ICAR and if necessary, a small task force should be created for this purpose. (Para 2.11)
5. The Regional DDGs should be assisted by thematic ADGs whose specialization should depend upon the regional needs. (Para 2.12)
6. The Regional DDGs should head the Regional Committees already created by ICAR. (Para 2.13)
7. Non RMP scientists should not be posted to headquarters and existing set of such officials should be reverted to laboratories and Institutes. (Para 2.14)
8. An Executive Committee under the Chairmanship of DG, ICAR with Secretary, DoA & C or his nominee, DDGs at headquarters, a representative of DARE, Secretary, ICAR, Directors of NCAP and IASRI, one eminent scientist, a representative of IIMs as members and DDG (Policy & Planning) as Member- Secretary should be constituted for strategic planning, implementation and monitoring. This committee should meet once a quarter. (Paras 2.16 & 3.11)
9. Marketing and IPR being important areas, should be supervised by DDG (Policy & Planning) with earmarked ADGs to handle each of the subjects and to ensure that commercialization is accorded its due priority in the organization. (Para 2.17)
10. Institutes located within the same city having same or similar mandates with independently built infrastructure should be merged. A small committee headed by an eminent scientist should be set up to examine the rationale of continuing NRCs in the present form. (Para 2.18)
11. IASRI and NCAP should be integrated / merged and assigned the role of policy adviser. (Para 2.19)
12. ICAR should take an early decision on the proposals received about delegation of administrative and financial powers to IMCs, National Institutes and other Institutes. While operationalisation of the delegations, it should be ensured that delegation is precisely delineated. (Para 2.22)
13. ICAR should consider adopting CSIR model regarding performance linked budgeting with suitable modifications wherever necessary. (Para 2.23)
14. National Institutes which have a much better scope for generating resources should be mandated to generate a predecided percentage of resources and they should be allowed to retain it over and above the budgetary allocations. (Para 2.24)
15. The National Professor Scheme should be reviewed and the necessity of continuing it should be examined. (Para 2.25)
16. The Regional DDGs may be delegated powers to approve foreign deputations in such cases where government funds are not involved, directly or indirectly, except those cases where inter-ministry coordination is necessary. (Para 2.26)
17. A review should be carried out at every Institute`s level to ensure that the human resources available are rationally and optimally deployed. This work could be entrusted to regional DDGs. (Para 2.29)
18. The scientific monitoring of the work of ICAR Institutes should continue to be done by ICAR. ICAR should also continue to exercise administrative control over them. (Para 3.9)
19. Small teams should be constituted by the Executive Committee to make field visit to ICAR Institutes to assess the progress of scientific work and interact with farmers to assess the impact of the work being done by the Institutes at the field level. This team should provide inputs to the Executive Committee. (Para 3.14)
20. The QRT Reports should be placed before the Executive Committee. Action Taken Report on the QRT recommendations be placed before the Governing Body. (Para 3.16)
21. The financial support from ICAR to SAUs should be raised gradually over a period of 5 years to 20% of the funds available with ICAR. (Para 4.17)
22. The State Government should be urged to levy a 1% cess on agricultural produce marketed. The additional resources so generated should be passed on to SAUs. (Para 4.18)
23. 20% of the financial assistance given by ICAR to SAUs should be linked to reforms within the SAU system. Objective criteria, which may include rationalization of structure, elimination of wastes and duplication, right sizing of staff etc should be evolved for this purpose. (Para 4.19)
24. Opening of new SAUs and creation of new facilities, bifurcation of an existing SAU etc should be strongly discouraged. There should be a moratorium on construction of new buildings in SAUs. Any new facility should be created only if State Government provides funds to meet expenses for first five years. (Para 4.21)
25. PG course in any discipline should normally run only at one place. If any SAU has it at more than one place, situation should be reviewed. If any faculty does not conform to norms, then financial support for it should be discontinued. (Para 4.22)
26. The necessity of increasing internal resource generation should be impressed upon SAUs. Possibility of increasing resource generation through selling of improved seeds, consultancy services, reserving seats for NRIs and foreign students etc should be explored. (Para 4.24)
27. SAUs should be permitted to exploit commercially technologies developed by them which are not to be directly passed on to the farmers. (Para 4.25)
28. SAUs should be asked to increase their resources by reduction in expenditure and additional resource generation by at least 5%. This can be raised to 10% after 5 years. (Para 4.27)
29. KVKs should be asked to conduct entrepreneurial development training programmes in the villages for which small registration fee could be charged from the participants. (Para 4.28)
30. It has been observed that for certain crops, AICRP, Directorate and Institutes are working with an element of duplication. In such cases AICRP should be merged with Directorate / Institute. (Para 4.32)
31. The SAU extension agency and the state extension agency should have adequate linkage. The scientists of KVK should be fully involved in this. (Para 4.36)
32. ICAR should undertake systematic human research planning exercise both at the national level and at the level of Institute. (Para 5.11)
33. The mismatch between priority research areas and the number of scientists working therein should be removed. The Institutes and the regional DDGs should be involved in such an exercise which should lead to an action plan. (Para 5.12)
34. Each Institute should prepare in advance, a one year, 5 years and 5 to 15 years plan of activities in core areas. The human resource planning should correspond to these plans. (Para 5.13)
35. It is important to ensure that narrow specialization does not lead to inter-disciplinary segregation and proliferation of Institutes. Attempts should be made to build inter-disciplinary research and collaboration and integrate related areas to encourage holistic approach to problems and solutions. (Para 5.14)
36. Recruitment should be based on specific needs of the Institutes. Scientists working in areas which have ceased to be focus of work in any Institute should be relocated to such Institute where such work is of interest. (Para 5.15)
37. The centralized recruitment of scientists by ASRB should be based on the need/ vacancies assessed by DDG (HR)/ Institute in the context of proper human resource planning. Appropriate changes should be made from time to time in the technology / methodology and syllabi of examination conducted by ASRB to reflect the changing development in agricultural sciences and priorities of ICAR and its Institutes. (Para 5.17)
38. The post of Director, NAARM, Hyderabad which is of the rank of DDG should be downgraded to the level of ADG and transferred to headquarters and renamed as DDG (Human Resources). The Director, NAARM should report to DDG (Human Resources). DDG (Human Resources) should be responsible for all human resource management functions. (Para 5.20)
39. ASRB should be restructured to serve better the goals and missions of ICAR. DDG (HR) should review and evolve human resource management policies of ICAR and monitor the implementation of such policies. (Paras 5.18 and 5.21)
40. Promotions in ICAR should be based on proper assessment of performance. Flexible complementing system should be adopted once again. The serving scientists may be given option to carry on with the present system or being covered under the flexible complementing system. (Para 5.23)
41. There should be incentive for a scientist to continue to work in research area. A cool off system for scientists occupying RMP be introduced. A scientist working on RMP should be considered for another RMP after completion of tenure only if he has worked in research area for three years. (Para 5.25)
42. The draft Performance Appraisal Report developed by ICAR should be reviewed as it requires changes. (Para 5.28)
43. The IVLP has performed well in some Institutes. Scientists who volunteer to work in IVLP should be suitably rewarded. (Para 5.29)
44. NAARM does not seem to meet the future requirement of training. Additional infrastructure should be created at headquarters to meet the future needs. (Para 5.30)
45. Every Institute should prepare an annual calendar of training programme for its officials to ensure that scientists and others are given training in the latest developments at sufficient intervals. The training should be linked to the goals and objectives of the Institute. (Para 5.33)
46. Scientists who are chosen to take on administrative/ managerial positions should be given adequate training in management skills, accounting etc. Similarly all officers in the area of finance and administration should be trained to sensitize them to the specific nature of scientific administration. (Para 5.34)
47. Training in Participatory Rural Appraisal techniques should be imparted to scientists. NAARM should be equipped to handle this training. Other organizations like Centre for Rural Studies attached to LBSNAA, Mussoorie, NIRD, Hyderabad and National Centre for Values and Ethics could also be involved in imparting this training, considering the large numbers to be trained. (Para 5.35)
48. Integration of administrative and finance cadres at headquarters and field should be done. Also the two cadres should be merged. In the short run posts on administration and finance sides could be kept separate but in due course even the posts should be combined. (Para 5.39)
49. Each regional DDG should be assisted by a Director (Finace & Administration), one Deputy Secretary for Finance and one for Administration and two Under Secretary level officers. In the short run, officials from the organized service cadres within the region may be taken to fill up the post of Director. In the long run ICAR officials should be groomed for this post. (Para 5.40)
50. An experienced officer in personnel function from civil services or from within the ICAR of the rank of Director may be posted to help DDG (HR). (Para 5.41)
51. There should be accent on developing younger scientists in the ICAR. A scheme may be framed for training young scientists below 40 years of age in frontier areas of agricultural science. A minimum number of 200 such scientists should be trained over a period of 5 years. (Para 5.42)
52. The country should take steps to achieve a leadership role in frontier areas of agriculture science and technology. A world class institution in agricultural science technology should be set up. A small Task Force should be set up to give a concrete shape to this concept, working out the financial implications, method of financing, the areas of activity etc. (Para 5.43)
53. For taking decision on the recommendations of the Committee within a reasonable timeframe, the report and views of DG, ICAR on the recommendations should be placed before ICAR Society within about a month. Matters requiring Cabinet approval should be put upto it within one month of the decision of the Society. (Para 6.2)
54. An institutionalized arrangement should be made for monitoring the implementation of decisions on the recommendations of the Committee. A cell under senior Director level officer be created within ICAR for this purpose. (Para 6.3)