Report on One Day Orientation Workshop for UBA PI Coordinators
A One Day Orientation Workshop for UBA PI Coordinators was organized on 28th September 2024 by Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology under the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan. In this workshop, around 80 participants from 60 higher educational institutes from six different districts of East Vidarbha region participated.
Objectives of the Orientation Workshop:
The objective of this workshop was to provide a common platform to the Participating Institute Coordinators to learn about the objectives of UBA, identify the problems of the villages adopted by them and draft effective project proposals with the help of the expert speakers.
Inaugural Ceremony
The inauguration was held in the Senate Hall at 10:30 am. The Program was inaugurated at the hands of Hon’ble Registrar & Prof. of Computer Science Engineering, VNIT, Dr. S.R.Sathe, Special Guest, Ms. Prerna Sagar, NCI Representative, Project Staff, IIT, Delhi and eminent Speaker Dr. Shridhar Kumbhar, Assistant Professor, NICMAR, Pune. Dr. Bhooshan Rajpathak, RCI Coordinator, VNIT gave the introductory remarks and briefed the PI Coordinators about the objectives of the workshop. Addressing the participants, Dr. S.R.Sathe emphasized the role of HEIs in rural development through technology transfer. Sir also shared with the participants the contribution of VNITians in application of science and technology for societal development. Dr Maithili Paikane conducted the proceedings of the inaugural function.
Online Session by Dr. P.K.Singh, Project Director, UBA, NCI, IITD
In his online presentation Dr. P K Singh briefed the PI Coordinators about Unnat Bharat Abhiyan which has a pan-India network of Higher Education Institutions and villages. He also explained the organizational structure of UBA and Rural immersion process. He stressed the importance of carrying our research in village to identify the challenges and issues faced by the rural people and offer technological solutions to the problems. Dr P K Singh shared the PIs work plan and stressed on the importance of Participatory and collaborative approach in gram Sabha, convergence activities and also emphasized on taking the guidance from RCIs.
PIs should establish a proper communication with RCI and also carry out activities assigned to them from time to time. A record of the same can be maintained in ERP by the PIs. In his presentation he shared the various activities conducted by UBA in collaboration with CSIR, Lord Mark’s collaboration, MOUs with Lord’s Mark Ltd & the Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer and WHEELS Global Foundation. Select stories of change and Technological interventions implemented by IIT Delhi students under Unnat Bharat Abhiyan were also shared with the PI Coordinators to get an insight in to the desired outcomes.
Session by Dr. Shridhar Kumbhar, Assistant Professor, NICMAR, Pune
Dr Shridhar Kumbhar guided the PI Coordinators on how to write the project proposals and gave an insight into forming the core team and interacting with various stakeholders like institutes, faculty, students and village stakeholders to get the expected outcome. He told the PIs to do Problem identification by undertaking site visits, PRA survey and interaction with Govt. Officials and common people. Four layers of the projects with respect to student involvement were discussed in brief. He also discussed about the two project proposals and the seed money allotted to it by UBA. The first being Technology Development Committee under which seed amount of 1 Lakh is being granted and the second Technology Customization for which 50 thousand seed money is sanctioned.
Post Lunch Interactive Session:
An interactive session of PIs with NGOs working in the rural development was conducted in parallel session.
PIs from Nagpur district were briefed about the activities undertaken by the NGOs in Senate Hall whereas those from other 5 districts were briefed in the Board room.
Dr. Landge, UBA Coordinator from Maharashtra Animal and Fisheries Sciences University, Nagpur shared the activities conducted in the villages and also extended guidance and cooperation to all the PIs for collaborating with them for village level animal husbandry activities.
Mr. Aneja who has formed a Women Commando team under UBA briefed the PIs about the importance of women empowerment in villages.
Mr. Utkarsh talked about the activities carried out in the 24 villages under their NGO and also expressed his desire to collaborate with the PIs.
Concluding Session:
In the concluding session Ms Prerna Sagar noted down the issues faced by the PIs and assured them of offering solutions after discussion with the NCI. Dr Shridhar Kumbhar assessed and evaluated the project proposals and gave valuable recommendations.
Dr. Bhooshan Rajpathak proposed a formal vote of thanks.
Workshop Outcomes:
- PIs came to know about the objectives of UBA and how to design a work plan.
- PIs that had recently joined UBA got an action plan from Dr P.K Singh. 3. PIs benefitted by the session on How to write project proposals by getting hands on training by Dr. Shridhar Kumbhar.
- Our role as RCI was appreciated and now it is well established.
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