{"id":9944,"date":"2025-03-20T16:51:07","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T16:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/?p=9944"},"modified":"2025-03-20T16:51:07","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T16:51:07","slug":"minister-animesh-tripura-biotechnology-department-wins-skoch-award-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/index.php\/2025\/03\/20\/minister-animesh-tripura-biotechnology-department-wins-skoch-award-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister Animesh: Tripura Biotechnology Department Wins SKOCH Award 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Agartala, March 20, 2025: <\/strong> The Tripura Biotechnology Department has been selected for the prestigious SKOCH Award 2025 at the national level for its College Biotech Club Project. The award will be presented on March 29 at the Habitat Centre, New Delhi. This was announced today by Science, Technology, and Environment Minister Animesh Debbarma at a press conference held at the Tripura State Pollution Control Board\u2019s conference hall in Agartala. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to reporters, the minister emphasized that SKOCH is an independent and well-known organization that evaluates innovative initiatives in good governance, environmental protection, and technology. \u201cThis year, nearly 400 projects from 27 states were submitted for the award. After rigorous evaluation, the College Biotech Club Project from Tripura has been selected,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notably, this is not the first time the Biotechnology Department has received national recognition. In 2022, it won the SKOCH Silver Award for its Bio-Village 2.0 project, which aimed at promoting sustainable rural development. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tripura\u2019s Growing Biotech Initiatives<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Highlighting the department\u2019s ongoing projects, the minister said that 24 Bio-Village 2.0 projects are currently being implemented across the state. \u201cWe have set a target to establish six more Bio-Villages in the 2025-26 financial year,\u201d<\/strong> he added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also revealed that a private biotech firm from Pune has expressed interest in collaborating on the Bio-Village 2.0 initiative and has already conducted field visits in Tripura. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The College Biotech Club initiative, which has been instrumental in developing innovative biotech solutions, has so far been implemented in 17 general degree colleges. The department now plans to extend it to medical, veterinary, agriculture, and fisheries colleges in 2025-26, with an increased financial grant of \u20b92.5 lakh per club. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through this initiative, students have been working on innovative biotechnology projects, including: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Use of Techocha fish for mosquito larvae control<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Improving the quality of aromatic rice using probiotics <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Advanced vermicomposting techniques<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Detection of water pollution using FRET technology <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, the Biotechnology Department, with central government support, is working on a project to develop alternative fish feed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boosting Science Education in Schools <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The department is also focusing on promoting biotechnology at the school level. So far, 172 higher secondary schools have set up DNA Clubs, with 50 more planned for 2025-26. These clubs provide hands-on scientific training in areas such as: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Blood group identification <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Herbal color production \u2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mushroom cultivation <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 DNA extraction from fruits <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Development of herbal gardens <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each school under this program receives \u20b92 lakh in financial assistance over four years, along with technical support. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other Key Developments <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minister also spoke about several other upcoming initiatives: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Discussions are underway with private companies for recycling waste paper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The Tripura Biotechnology Council is working to develop Barabhaiya Orchard in Bagmara as a Plant Bank Orchard, with 1,500 students visiting the site this year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 An MoU has been signed to establish the Institute for Bioresources and Sustainable Development at the TFDPC office building in Agartala. This institute will focus on scientific research on medicinal plants and herbal medicine production. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The government is also planning to set up 5 to 10 Bio-Villages in every block of the state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 A Pollution Control Desk will be established in the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), with funding requests sent to the Central Government, State Government, and the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minister emphasized that Tripura is ahead of many states in pollution control measures. \u201cAll GIS mapping for urban development is being carried out by the Science, Technology, and Environment Department,\u201d<\/strong> he noted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The press conference was also attended by Dr. K. Shashi Kumar, Secretary of the Science, Technology, and Environment Department, and Anjan Sengupta, Joint Director of the Biotechnology Department.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Agartala, March 20, 2025: The Tripura Biotechnology Department has been selected for the prestigious SKOCH Award 2025 at the national level for its College Biotech Club Project. The award will be presented on March 29 at the Habitat Centre, New Delhi. This was announced today by Science, Technology, and Environment Minister Animesh Debbarma at a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":9943,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[1562,63,1776],"ppma_author":[1174],"class_list":{"0":"post-9944","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tripura","8":"tag-minister-animesh-debbarma","9":"tag-tripura","10":"tag-wins-skoch-award-2025"},"authors":[{"term_id":1174,"user_id":33,"is_guest":0,"slug":"kamaljamatia","display_name":"kamal jamatia","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/564a074770eb17d36f3af441d462b8a2a809599748f74220740b1d3b52879fcf?s=96&d=https%3A%2F%2Faguli.in%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F07%2FPHOTO-2023-09-14-08-30-32-3.jpg&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9944"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9945,"href":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9944\/revisions\/9945"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9944"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aguli.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=9944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}