Two-day National Seminar on Rural Economy by USTM & NABARD

 A two-day national seminar on “Sustainable Agri

Business Opportunities & Management Practices towards Developing the Rural Economy” has began

from today at the NKC Auditorium of the University of Science and Technology Meghalaya (USTM).

The seminar has been organized by the Department of Business Administration, USTM in

collaboration with NABARD.

The inaugural session of the seminar was addressed by Prof. R. M. Pant, Vice Chancellor, Assam

University as guest of honor and key-note speaker, Prof. G. D. Sharma, Vice Chancellor, USTM,

Prof. Rinalini Pathak Kakoty, Head of the Department of Business Administration, Gauhati

University, Prof. Amit Kumar Singh, Department of Rural Management, Babasaheb Bhimrao

Ambedkar University, Lucknow and Ms N Guite, General Manager, NABARD, Shillong. The

inaugural session ended with vote of thanks delivered by Dr Rashmi Baruah, Head, Department of

Business Administration, USTM.

Addressing the inaugural session, Prof RM Pant said, “Almost 65.07 per cent people of India are

living in villages. But sustaining the development of the rural sector has been a big challenge. Farmers

have been marginalized. However development of rural India is a priority of the government of

India.”

Ms N Guite, General Manager, NABARD, Shillong expressed that NABARD is privileged to be a

part of the seminar. “We have organic produces in the North East, but not have the volume and

market links. There are lots of missing links. Research should be on a strong extension mechanism

from land to lab, a hand holding approach”, she added.

Prof Rinalini Pathak said that in the agriculture sector now the main thrust should be on the food

processing industry and the emphasis should be on value addition. She said that it is important to

integrate rural management programs with corporate management.

There are five sessions in the seminar which will be chaired by Prof. Amit Kumar Singh from

Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Dr. Tridib R Sarma from Tezpur University, Prof.

Phanindra Goyari, School of Economics, University of Hyderabad, Subhas Bhattacharjee, Head-NE

Region, Oil Palm and Prof. P. Paramashivaiah, Dept. of Studies & Research in Commerce, Tumkur

University.

The participants in the seminar include: Academicians, Research Scholar, Industry Practitioners and

students. More than 200 participants have registered for the seminar. The sub-themes of the seminar

are: Agri-business and food processing innovative, Marketing, Finance, Human Resource

Management, Supply Chain Management, Science and Technology in Business and Agriculture,

Micro Enterprise, Sustainable Agro Business Practices, etc. Selected papers will be considered for

publication in reputed International and National Journals and Book Chapters with ISBN.