The Research forum was convened by Dr Sushil Kumar Middha, RC and Dr. Sharvana Kumar, Cocoordinator, IPR Cell. He extended a warm welcome to all of the guests, including Prof KBR Varma, Former IISc Scientist and Trust member, mLAC, Dr. Nagalaxmi BN, Principal, (Dr) Shramistha Dutta, VP, Dr. Annadanesh, AO, Ms Aruna, IQAC Coordinator and faculties of mLAC. Dr. Sushil Kumar Middha provided the zest of the research forum. In his welcome address, he stated the program is the brain child of Sri K Jairaj, Managing Trustee, mLAC. He also rendered the vision and mission of the “Research forum”. The success of the program hinges on maximizing the forum's utilization by all the faculties and it’s a voluntary exercise. Additionally, he clarified that our aim is not to impose or pressurize any faculty members; rather, we are focused on instilling a research culture among the teaching staff. Vision- To foster research culture in mLAC Mission- To become one amongst the top 100 colleges in INDIA via NIRF ranking. This forum is to nurture research ideas in mLAC and to understand their impact on society. The broad mission is also an attempt to get in NIRF ranking. Dr.BN Nagalakshmi, Principal addressed the gathering and discussed the prospect of salary increments for faculties with a PhD and those who publish in high-quality journals indexed in SCOPUS/WoS. In line with the managing trustee's vision, she accentuated the updated incentives of 15000/- for a publication indexed in SCOPUS and 20000/- for a publication in SCOPUS/SCI journals. Research coordinator introduced (Dr) Usha.T, Department of Biochemistry, highlighting her 43+ SCOPUS Publications, 2 UGC minor projects, 2 KSCST and 1 DBT project. He also mentioned about her becoming the youngest one to have 1000+ citations in mLAC (Dr) Usha T. conveyed that it was a great honor for her to present her research findings before the esteemed scientist KBR Varma and her mLAC colleagues. Her talk commenced with the distressing news of farmers' suicides reported in newspapers every year since 2009, which were attributed to losses incurred in pomegranate production due to bacterial blight disease. Additionally, she highlighted the ancient historical evidence of pomegranate's therapeutic properties and the staggering 1.2 tons of pomegranate agri-waste generated each year. These factors collectively acted as the catalyst for her decision to embark on research using a genomics approach to address the issue. Furthermore, she proudly mentioned her groundbreaking achievement as the she and her team is the first ones in the world to successfully decode the genome of the pomegranate variety "Bhagwa." She also mentioned Pomegranate being a high-value crop, until now, due to the lack of resistant pomegranate varieties against major pests and diseases, there has been a very high dependence on chemical pesticides for managing biotic stresses. However, now that we have managed to sequence the whole genome of this fruit, this will open up incredible avenues for vastly improving yield, growing much better and safer varieties for human nutritional needs, and all this at a much faster rate. Professor KBR Varma presided over the talk and expressed his appreciation, stating that it was an exceptionally impressive piece of scientific work addressing the current needs of the farmers. He also extended his congratulations to Usha for her outstanding presentation skills. He emphasized the collaborative involvement of various disciplines such as Physics, Computer Sciences, Biotechnology, Chemistry and others, to brainstorm together and tackle significant challenges collectively. He also conveyed his perspective on forming smaller groups to actively engage with today's research problems. Following Prof. KBR Varma's presiding, the Q and A session commenced and numerous faculty members also congratulated Usha for her excellent presentation. A total of 52 faculties from diverse departments attended the talk. They all expressed their appreciation for the research forum's concept, acknowledging that the discussed topics hold potential for multiple multidisciplinary approaches
Research Forum
26 July, 2023