ICAR now and ahead…

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research is an autonomous apex body responsible for the organization and management of research and education in all disciplines of agricultural sciences: It has been reorganized twice. In 1965, the ICAR became the nodal agency for coordinating agricultural research in the country. It gained administrative control over the various institutes and commodity research institutes. Late Dr B.P. Pal took over as the first scientist VicePresident. Dr Pal instituted the Alndia Coordinated Research Projects on various crops to integrate different disciplines and different institutions and universities for an effective national grid of coordinated experiments, He has been internationally acclaimed for this contribution. In 1973, the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) was started by Dr M.S. Swaminathan, the first Director-General and Secretary to the Government of India, and Dr Pal?s successor, to enable scientists to move to other institutes within the system or sister organizations ? the CSIR, BARC, etc.