WEBINAR ON “IMPLEMENTATION OF PROTECTION OF PLANT VARIETIES AND FARMERS' RIGHTS ACT IN INDIA”

As agriculture is contributing major percentage in boosting up the country’s economy, it is very important to discuss and share the ideas, innovations and the rights of the farmers. Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights (PPVFR) is playing a major role as it is very important for Life Sciences, Botany Plant Biotechnology, Genetics and Plant Breeding faculty and scholars.
Amity University Haryana hosted a one-day Webinar on “Implementation of Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act in India” by the Scientist from PPVFR Authority, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoAFW) - GOI. The webinar was conducted by Amity Institute of Biotechnology and Amity Institute of Integrative Sciences and Health. The guest speaker was Dr Dipal Roy Choudhury, Joint Registrar, PPV&FRA, New Delhi.
Dr Dipal Roy elaborated about the PPVFR and principles of Distinct Uniform Stability (DUS) testing of cereal crops according to UPOV System. This Act is an important part of curriculum for faculty and students of Life sciences, Botany, Plant Biotechnology, Genetics and Plant Breeding towards its clear understanding and implementation of IP in agriculture sector growth and development in India.
Dr Choudhury deliberated on DUS testing procedures and Plant Breeders' rights in India as well as role of gene banks and field banks.  He shared the benefits of the Act to plant breeders, researchers and protecting the rights of farmers.
The objective of the webinar was to protect an effective system for protection of plant varieties, the rights of farmers and plant breeders, to encourage development of new varieties and to protect plant breeders’ rights to stimulate investment for R&D and develop new varieties in public and private sector. 
More than 80 participants from the northern India registered for the webinar online. The participants were scientists, faculty members, research scholars, B.Sc., M.Sc students from regional universities like CCS-HAU Hisar, MGS University Bikaner, Delhi University, AUH Gurugram, MDU Rohtak, Uttarakhand Govt PG College, SGRR University Dehradun, Doon University, SBS University Balawala, HIPR, Dehradun, AUR Jaipur and Modi University Sikar.
Besides this two-special invitee from Industry were Dr Dnyaneshwar Salgude, Shrinivasa Biocare, Nasik and Mr Sonul Bodhane of Floritech Organo Industries Nagpur attended the full session. 
Prof Rajendra Prasad, Dean Faculty of Science, Engineering & Technology, Amity University Haryana mentioned that Amity University is making the best utilization of time and online resources to share and disseminate the knowledge directly to students and researchers by webinar platform. He put vote of thanks to the speaker and PPVFR Authority, MoAFW – GOI for their support and cooperation in conduct of a successful online session. 
The coordinator and moderators for the webinar were Dr Machiavelli Singh, Associate Professor AIB and Dr Amit Kumar Pandey, Assistant Professor AIISH. Dr Anil Kumar, Dr Sarika Chaturvedi from AIB also supported the conduct of the webinar.