Postgraduate Education in PGR at NBPGR

The management of plant genetic resources has developed into an important technical, socio-economic and political concern over the past 50 years or so. With the ratification of the CBD in 1992, considerable awareness was raised about the importance of conserving biodiversity, its sustainable use and the need for equitable benefit-sharing arrangements. The need of trained manpower from many countries particularly from developing world was realized to carry out various bioresource management tasks. The value and use of wild and cultivated genetic resources for breeders and other researchers have now come of age. In India, the intake of first batch of postgraduate students in Plant Genetic Resources (PGR) discipline of Post-graduate School, Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI, a deemed-to-be-University), New Delhi took place in 1997 at the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) for Master’s course. The Ph.D. courses in PGR started since 2004-05 academic session. So far, till 2017-18, a total of 58 M.Sc. and 20 Ph.D. degrees have been awarded in PGR discipline. The four major theme areas of postgraduate research have been: assessment of genetic diversity and population structure of crop landraces; species relationships and molecular phylogeny; seed conservation and related supportive research, and biotechnology and germplasm conservation.MoU between NBPGR and IARI for PG Education in PGR

Brief description of M.Sc. and Ph.D. courses in PGR

As in other disciplines of IARI, the M.Sc. and Ph.D. courses in PGR are being conducted in trimesters under course credit systems. The M.Sc. course is of two years duration divided into six trimesters. To complete the Ph.D. course a student normally takes 3-4 years. The Ph.D. course is also conducted under course credit system. There are a total of 24 courses designed for the PGR discipline. These include both regular courses and also advanced courses.  Both M.Sc. and Ph.D. programmes in PGR have research components as well. A M.Sc. student has to submit a thesis as partial fulfilment of the degree. For Ph.D. the research topic is more elaborate. For M.Sc. degree, the thesis is basically indicative of a students’ potentiality for conducting research whereas all Ph.D. students are supposed to write at least two quality research papers in peer reviewed journal(s) before submitting their thesis for award of the degree.

System of Admission

(i) M.Sc. degree courses: The students are selected through an all India Entrance Test conducted by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).
(ii) Ph.D. degree courses: Admission is made by IARI through an all India Entrance Test conducted by the Institute.

Number of seats

There is scope for enrolment of four students for M.Sc. and five students for Ph.D. courses in PGR. In addition, there is scope for enrolment of one or two foreign student in each course.

Courses being offered  in PGR discipline*

Code	Name	L	P
PGR 501*	Germplasm Exploration and Plant Systematics	2	1
PGR 502*	Plant Diversity and Conservation	2	1
PGR 503*	Germplasm Characterization and Evaluation***	1	1
PGR 504	Genetic Enhancement for PGR Utilization***	1	1
PGR 505*	Economic Botany	2	1
PGR 506	Information Management in PGR	1	1
PGR 507*	PGR Exchange and Quarantine	2	1
PGR 508	Genomics in PGR management	1	1
PGR 509	Plant Biosecurity	1	0
PGR 510	Principles of Genetics for PGR Management	2	0
PGR 511	Principles of Plant Breeding for PGR Management	1	1
PGR 512	Concepts in Conservation Genetics	1	1
PGR 501*	Germplasm Exploration and Plant Systematics	2	1
	Major courses (minimum 20 credits from above courses including *marked Courses)	20
	Minor courses	08
	Supporting courses	06
	Common compulsory courses	05
PGR 591	Seminar	01
PGR 599	Thesis/Research	30
	Total Credits	70
PGR 601*	Recent Advances in Germplasm Conservation	1	1
PGR 602*	Phenomics and Genomics for PGR Utilization***	1	1
PGR 603*	Economic Botany and Crop Diversification	1	1
PGR 604	PGR Policies and Regulatory Mechanisms	1	0
PGR 605	Molecular Population Genetics in PGR Management	2	1
PGR 606	Plant Taxonomy, Ecogeography and Ecology	1	1
PGR 607	In situ-on farm conservation	1	1
PGR 608	Genomic tools and current applications	2	1
PGR 609*	Intellectual Property Rights and Regulatory Mechanisms (e-course)	1	0
	Major courses (Minimum 12 credits from above courses including *marked Courses)	12
	Minor courses	06
	Supporting courses	05
PGR 691	Seminar I	01
PGR 692	Seminar II	01
PGR 699	Thesis/Research	75
	Total Credits	100
Comprehensive (Pre-qualifying) Examination	(Non-credit of 100 marks)	Satisfactory / Not satisfactory

* :Compulsory courses recommended by BSMA

*** : cross link with other Divisions, will be offered by the but Faculty of PGR will teaching

* A compulsory course PGS 503 (Intellectual property and its management in agriculture) for all Ph.D. students of PG School, IARI is also offered in PGR discipline

Priority areas in Postgraduate Research in PGRThe major priority areas for future postgraduate research in PGR discipline are as follows:

• Assessment of diversity loss over time and space and approaches to measuring genetic erosion on-farm.
• Identification of genetically important crop populations, and farming systems that are priorities for conservation in traditional production systems and investigating different options for “adding value” to these populations in a given social, economic and ecological context.
• Development of molecular markers for economically important traits in plant genetic resources.
• Characterization of germplasm for enhanced utilization using tools of comparative genomics.
• Study of gene flow in indigenous crop plant-wild relatives complexes.
• DNA bar-coding system for identification of wild relatives and molecular phylogeny of indigenous crop taxa.
• Providing scientific basis for seed conservation strategies and for devising effective seed conservation protocols.
• Strategies for exploitation of genomic resources for improved utilization of genetic resources.
• Investigating molecular aspects of seed longevity.
• Investigating seed storage behaviour as a prerequisite for storage strategy and factors responsible for recalcitrance in seeds.
• Development of cost-effective in vitro conservation and cryopreservation protocols.

Major theme areas of post-graduate research	No. of thesis
Assessment of diversity in crop landrace populations and on-farm management of crop diversity	43
Species relationships and molecular phylogeny	2
Seed storage and related research	8
Biotechnological approaches for conservation of vegetatively propagated crop germplasm	7

List of students awarded degrees with chairperson – year wise

S.No.	YEAR	Student Name	Chairperson	Award/Distinction received, if any
M.Sc. Students
1.	1999	Anandhan, S.	Dr. P.L. Gautam
2.	2000	Yogesh K. Dwivedi	Dr. J.L. Karihaloo
3.	2000	M. Hema K. Reddy	Dr. B.B. Mandal
4.	2000	Parvin M. Kamble	Dr. B.B. Singh
5.	2000	M. Selvendran	Dr. J.L. Karihaloo	IARI Merit Medal
6.	2001	S.K. Tiwari	Dr. J.L. Karihaloo
7.	2001	Y. Amaravathi	Dr. P.L. Gautam	IARI Merit Medal
8.	2001	Priyadarshini Sanghamitra	Dr. B.B. Mandal
9.	2001	Dayanand Mandal	Dr. S.S. Malik
10.	2002	T. Chandrasekhar	Dr. J.L. Karihaloo
11.	2002	C. Palrasu	Dr. Mahendra Singh
12.	2002	S. Murugesan	Dr. S.S. Malik
13.	2003	Manjegowda, S.J.	Dr. B.S. Dhillon
14.	2003	D. Kumutha	Dr. Mahendra Singh	IARI Merit Medal
15.	2003	K. Lakshmi	Dr. S.S. Malik
16.	2004	Manjunatha, T.	Dr. I.S. Bisht
17.	2004	H. Mohan	Dr. B.S. Dhillon	IARI Merit Medal
18.	2004	Suma, A.	Dr. A.K. Singh
19.	2005	Sunaina Singh	Dr. J.L. Karihaloo	Award of BEST STUDENT OF THE YEAR
20.	2005	K. Venkatesan	Dr. I.S. Bisht
21.	2005	Santosh Kumar	Dr. A.K. Singh
22.	2006	R. Senthilkumaran	Dr. I.S. Bisht
23.	2006	Saravanan, M.	Dr. K.V. Bhat
24.	2006	Ashok K. Mahariya	Dr. B.B. Mandal
25.	2007	Avinash Pandey	Dr. K.V. Bhat
26.	2007	Ramya, P.	Dr. K.V. Bhat	IARI Merit Medal
27.	2007	Adhini S. Pazhany	Dr. B.B. Mandal
28.	2008	Fikirte, A.	Dr. A.K. Singh
29.	2008	Gopala  Sundararaj, S.	Dr. R.K. Tyagi	IARI Merit Medal
30.	2008	Vishal Singh	Dr. Veena Gupta
31.	2009	Santhoshkumar, G.	Dr. Veena Gupta
32.	2010	Sathiyamoorthy, G.	Dr. I.S. Bisht
33.	2010	Shephalika Amrapali	Dr. R.P. Dua
34.	2010	Ajit Uchoi	Dr. S.K. Malik
35.	2011	Rohini, M.R.	Dr. S.K. Malik
36.	2011	Subhash Chander	Dr. Shashi Bhalla
37.	2012	Kuldeep Tripathi	Dr. (Mrs.) Shashi Bhalla
38.	2012	Krishna Prakash	Dr. (Mrs.) Anjula Pandey
39.	2012	Gopal Singh Jatav	Dr. (Mrs.) Rekha Chaudhury
40	2013	Manish Kumar Mittal	Dr. M. C. Yadav
41	2013	Rahul Chandora	Dr. M. Dutta
42	2013	Vikash Chandra Tyagi	Dr. (Mrs.)Rekha Chaudhury
43	2014	Badal Singh	Dr. Sunil Archak
44	2014	Anil Patidar	Dr. M.C. Yadav
45	2014	Pavan K. Malav	Dr. Anjula Pandey
46	2014	Padmavati G. Gore	Dr. (Mrs.) Shashi Bhalla	IARI Merit Medal
47	2015	Sushil Kumar,C	Dr. Sunil Archak
48	2015	Jagdish Goyanka	Dr. Anuradha Agrawal
49	2015	Rakesh Kumar.B	Dr. (Mrs.) G.J. Randhawa
50	2015	Shailendra Solanki	Dr. (Mrs.) Ambika Baldev G.
51	2016	Mr. Kuwardadra Sahadeo Indaldas	Dr. (Mrs.) G.J. Randhawa
52	2016	Mr. Shivam Kumar	Dr Mukesh K. Rana
53	2016	Mr. Hari Prasath, S	Dr. K.C. Bhatt
54	2016	Mr. Shyam Kumar	Dr Anuradha Agrawal
55	2017	Mr. Anto James	Dr. Mukesh K Rana
56	2017	Ms. Manju Kumari	Dr. (Mrs.) Ambika Baldev G.
57	2017	Mr. Prabakaran S.	Dr Jalli Radhamani
58	2017	Mr. Sunil Naik S	Dr. Anuradha Agrawal

Ph.D. Students
1.	2007	Nidhi Verma	Dr. I.S. Bisht
2.	2007	Shailesh Tiwari	Dr. B.B. Mandal
3.	2008	Santosh Kumar	Dr. I.S. Bisht
4.	2009	Manjunatha, T.	Dr. I.S. Bisht
5.	2009	Sunaina Singh	Dr. K.V. Bhat	IARI Merit Medal
6.	2010	Avinash Pandey	Dr. I.S. Bisht
7.	2010	Venkatesan, K.	Dr. K.V. Bhat
8.	2011	Ramya, P.	Dr. K.V. Bhat
9.	2011	Saravanan, M.	Dr. K.V. Bhat
10	2013	Logapriyan M.	Dr. I.S. Bisht
11	2013	Gayacharan	Dr. I.S. Bisht
12	2013	Santosh Kumar G.	Dr. (Mrs.) Veena Gupta
13	2014	Rajappa J.J.	Dr. K.V. Bhat
14	2015	Kuldeep Tripathi	Dr. (Mrs.) Shashi Bhalla
15	2016	Mr. Ajit Uchoi	Dr S.K. Malik
16	2016	Mr. Sangh Chandramohan	Dr Veena Gupta
17	2017	Mr. Subhash Chander	Dr. K.V. Bhat
18	2017	Mr. P. Kiran Babu	Dr. R.K. Tyagi
19	2017	Mr. Yegappa Hipparagi	Dr. (Mrs.) Veena Gupta
20	2017	Mr. Nemappa Lambani	Dr. S.K. Malik

List of foreign students

S.No.	Year	Name of the foreign student	Chairperson	Country
M. Sc. Students
1.	2001	Dayanand Mandal	Dr. S.S. Malik	Nepal
2.	2008	Fikerte, A.	Dr. A.K. Singh	Ethiopia

List of Students’ publications

S.No.	Author(s)	Title of the article	Name of the Journal	Volume, Page Number, Year
1.	Karihaloo, J.L., Y.K. Dwivedi, Sunil Archak and Ambika Baldev Gaikwad	Analysis of genetic diversity of Indian mango cultivars using RAPD markers.	Journal Hort. Sci. Biotech.	78: 285- 89, 2003
2.	Bhat, K.V, Y. Amravati, P.L. Gautam and K.C. Velayudhan	AFLP characterization and classification of Indian banana and plantation cultivars.	Plant Genetic Resources Characterization & Utilization	2: 121-130, 2004
3.	Venkatesan, K., I.S. Bisht, K.V. Bhat, K. Elayaraja and K.C. Muneem	Morphological diversity in naked barley landraces from north-western Himalayas of India.	Indian Journal of Plant Genetic Resources	18: 175-186, 2005.
4.	Venkatesan, K., I.S. Bisht and K.V. Bhat	Diversity in Himalayan hull-less (Hordeum vulgare L.) landraces using AFLP and STMS markers.	Indian Journal of Plant Genetic Resources	19: 19-29, 2006.
5.	Kumar, Santosh, J. Radhamani, Anirudh K. Singh and K.S. varaprasad	Germination and seed storage behaviour in Pongamia pinnataL.	Current Science	93:910-911, 2007.
6.	Manjunatha, T., I.S. Bisht, K.V. Bhat and B.P. Singh	Genetic diversity in barley (Hordeum vulgare ssp. Vulgare) landraces from Uttaranchal Himalaya of India.	Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution	54: 55-65, 2007.
7.	Singh, S., J.L. Karihaloo and A.B. Gaikwad	DNA fingerprinting of some mango (Mangifera indica L.) cultivars using anchored-ISSR markers	Journal Biochem. Biotech.	162: 113-117, 2007.
8.	Verma, S., J.L. Karihaloo, S.K. Tiwari., A.K. Koul and R. Mangotra	Genetic diversity inEremostanchys superba royle ex Benth. (Lamiaceae), an endangered Himalayan species, analyzed using RAPD markers.	Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution	54: 221-229, 2007
9.	Senthilkumaran, R.,  I.S. Bisht, K.V. Bhat and J.C. Rana	Diversity in buckwheat (Fagopyrum spp.) landraces populations from north-western Indian Himalayas.	Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution	55:297-302, 2008.
10.	Verma, Nidhi,  I.S.Bisht, K.S. Negi and D.K.Hore	Morphological diversity inPerilla frutescens (L.) Britt landraces from the Indian Himalayas.	Pusa AgriScience,	31: 15-24, 2008.
11	Nidhi Verma, M.K. Rana, K.S.Negi, Gunjeet Kumar, K.V.Bhatt, Y.J.Park and I.S.Bisht	Assessment of genetic diversity in Indian Perilla frutescens (L.) Britton landraces using STMS markers.	Indian Journal of Biotechnology	9:43-49, 2010.
12	Verma, Nidhi, M.K. Rana, Gunjeet Kumar, Aparajita Mohanty and I.S.Bisht	Genetic diversity of Perilla frutescens (L.) Britton using RAPD markers.	International Journal of Tropical Agriculture	2:  383-386, 2009.
13	Kumar, S., I.S. Bishtand K.V. Bhat and P.S. Mehta	Diversity among different populations of a locally common rice landrace under static (ex situ) and dynamic (in situ) management from north-western Indian Himalayas.	PusaAgriscience	32:1-10, 2010.
14	Kumar, S., I.S. Bishtand K.V. Bhat	Population structure of rice (Oryza sativa L.) landraces under farmer management.	Annals of Applied Biology	156: 137-146, 2010.
15	Verma, Nidhi,  M.K. Rana, K.S.Negi, Gunjeet Kumar, K.V.Bhatt, Y.J.Park and I.S.Bisht	Assessment of genetic diversity in Indian Perilla frutescens (L.) Britton landraces using STMS markers.	Indian Journal of Biotechnology	9:43-49, 2010.
16	Kumar S, IS Bisht and KV Bhat	Population structure of rice (Oryza sativa L.) landraces under farmer management.	Annals of Applied Biology	156: 137-146, 2010.
17	Kumar, S., A. Pandey, I. S. Bisht, K. V. Bhat and P. S. Mehta	Diversity among different populations of a locally common rice (Oryza sativaL.) landrace from north-western Indian Himalayas.	Plant Genetic Resources	8:151-158, 2010.
18	Sundarraj, S.G., A. Agrawal and R.K. Tyagi	Encapsulation for in vitro short-term storage and exchange of ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.) germplasm.	Scientia Horticulturae	125: 761-776, 2010.
19	Manjunatha, T.,  I .S. Bisht and K. V Bhat	Genetic structure of hull-less barley (Hordeum vulgare L. subsp. vulgare) landrace populations from North-western Indian Himalayas.	Indian Journal of Biotechnology,	10: 25-32, 2011.
20	Pandey A, IS Bisht,  KV Bhat and PS Mehta	Role of informal seed system in promoting landrace diversity and their on-farm conservation: a case study of rice in Indian Himalayas.	Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution	58: 1213-1224, 2011.
21	Pandey A, I S Bisht, KV Bhat	Population structure of rice (Oryza sativa) landraces from high altitude area of Indian Himalayas.	Annals of Applied Biology	160: 16-24, 2012.

List of Professors

S.No	Name		Period
1	Dr. B. B. Singh		1997-98
2	Dr. B.B. Mandal		1998-2007
3	Dr. S.S. Malik		January – July 2008
4	Dr. I.S. Bisht		August 2008 – March, 2015
5	Dr. Rekha Chaudhury		April 2015 – 10 May 2018
6	Dr. Veena Gupta		10 May 2018  Continuing

List of HODs (For the period 1997-2018)

S.No	Name	Period
1	Dr. P.L. Gautam	August 1997- April 2000
2	Dr. G.D. Sharma (Officiating)	May 2000 – August 2000
3	Dr. B.S. Dhillon	September 2000- July 2005
4	Dr. J.L. Karihaloo (Officiating)	August 2005 – January 2006
5	Dr. A.K. Singh (Officiating)	February 2006 – May 2006
6	Dr. S.K. Sharma	June 2006 – July 2010
7	Dr. D.C. Bhandari (Officiating)	July 2010- October 2010
8	Dr. K.C. Bansal	October 2010- August 2016
9	Dr. Kuldeep Singh	August 2016- continuing

List of the Faculty Members

S. No	Name	Designation	Division/Unit
1	Dr. Veena Gupta	Principal Scientist	Professor
2	Dr. Rekha Chaudhury	Principal Scientist	TCCU
3	Dr. Anjula Pandey	Principal Scientist	PECD
4	Dr. K.C. Bhatt	Principal Scientist	PECD
5	Dr. Pratibha Brahmi	Principal Scientist	PGR Policy
6	Dr. Anuradha Agrawal	Principal Scientist	TCCU
7	Dr.  Ruchira Pandey	Principal Scientist	TCCU
8	Dr. Kalyani Srinivasan	Principal Scientist	GCD
9	Dr. Neelam Sharma	Principal Scientist	TCCU
10	Dr. Neeta Singh	Principal Scientist	GCD
11	Dr. J Radha Mani	Principal Scientist	GCD
12	Dr. Kavita Gupta	Principal Scientist	PQD
13	Dr. V Celia Chalam	Principal Scientist	PQD
14	Dr. Vandana Tyagi	Principal Scientist	GEX
15	Dr. (Mrs.) G J Randhawa	Principal Scientist	Division of Genomic Resources
16	Dr. Mukesh Kumar Rana	Principal Scientist	Division of Genomic Resources
17	Dr. (Mrs.) Ambika Baldev	Principal Scientist	Division of Genomic Resources
18	Dr. Baleshwar Singh	Principal Scientist	PQD
19	Dr. Archana P. Raina	Principal Scientist	GED
20	Dr. K.K. Gangopadhyay	Principal Scientist	GED
21	Dr. S.K. Yadav	Principal Scientist	GEX
22	Dr. Sandhya Gupta	Principal Scientist	TCCU
23	Dr. Rakesh Singh	Principal Scientist	Division of Genomic Resources
24	Dr. Anjali Kak	Principal Scientist	GCD
25	Dr. Manjusha Verma	Principal Scientist	Division of Genomic Resources
26	Dr. Sunil Archak	Principal Scientist	Division of Genomic Resources
27	Dr. Zakaullah Khan	Principal Scientist	GED
28	Dr. Mool Chand Singh	Principal Scientist	PQD
29	Dr. M.C. Yadav	Principal Scientist	Division of Genomic Resources
30	Dr. Sundeep Kumar	Principal Scientist	Division of Genomic Resources
31	Dr. S. Rajkumar	Sr. Scientist	Division of Genomic Resources
32	Dr. Rajesh Kumar	Sr. Scientist	Division of Genomic Resources
33	Dr. Lalit Arya	Principal Scientist	Division of Genomic Resources
34	Dr. Amit Kumar	Scientist	Division of Genomic Resources
35	Dr. R. Parimalan	Scientist	Division of Genomic Resources
36	Dr.  D.B. Parakh	Principal Scientist	PQD
37	Dr. Sherry Jacob	Scientist	GCD
38	Dr. Dinesh Prasad Semwal	Sr. Scientist	PECD
39	Dr. Rakesh Bhardwaj	Principal Scientist	GED
40	Dr. Vikender Kaur	Scientist	GED
41	Dr. K.Pradheep	Scientist	PECD
42	Dr.Rashmi Yadav	Scientist	GED
43	Monika Singh	Scientist	Duvusuib if Genomic Resources
44	Dr Kuldeep Tripathi	Scientist	GED
45	Dr S.P. Ahlawat	PS & HoD	PECD

  External Student – Approved-Guidelines-students-research-degree-programmes-11-12-2012