Tezpur University, JNU win annual visitor's awards for central universities

Tezpur University has won the annual Visitor's Award for the 'Best University' and Prof. Rakesh Bhatnagar as well as the Molecular Parasitology Group of JNU have won the Visitor's Awards for 'Research' and 'Innovation' respectively.

President Pranab Mukherjee will present Visitor's Awards for the year 2016 at a function to be held at Rashtrapati Bhavan on March 14, as part of the 'Festival of Innovations'.

President Pranab Mukherjee had announced institution of these awards at the Vice Chancellors' Conference, 2014 with the aim of promoting healthy competition amongst Central Universities and motivating them to adopt best practices from across the world.

The Visitor's Award for 'Innovation' will be given to Prof. Rakesh Bhatnagar of Jawaharlal Nehru University for development of a genetically engineered vaccine and a therapeutic antibody against anthrax.

The Visitor's Award for 'Research' will be presented to the Molecular Parasitology Group of Jawaharlal Nehru University of pioneering work in the area of molecular parasitology, especially anti-malaria, leishmaniasis and amoebiasis.

The 'Best University' will receive a Citation and Trophy while winners of Visitor's Award for 'Innovation' and 'Research' will receive a Citation and cash award of Rs. one lakh.

For selecting the winners, online applications were invited from all Central Universities for each category. A Selection Committee headed by Omita Paul, Secretary to the President and with Secretaries of Department of Higher Education and Department of Science & Technology as well as Chairman, UGC; DG, CSIR etc as members chose the winners of the Awards.

A week-long 'Festival of Innovations' is being held in Rashtrapati Bhavan from March 12 to 19. It will commence with the inauguration of an exhibition of grassroot innovations on March 12, 2016 by President Pranab Mukherjee.

The festival will witness a number of exhibitions; roundtable discussions on different topics related to innovations; group discussions; an award for Gandhian Young Technological Innovation; a meeting of Innovation Clubs set up in institutions of higher education; a workshop for children and a hackathon etc.