G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, also known as Pantnagar University, is the first agricultural university established in Independent India. It was inaugurated by the first Prime Minister of India Jawahar Lal Nehru on 17 November 1960 as the Uttar Pradesh Agricultural University (UPAU) in Pantnagar. Later the name was changed to Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology in 1972 in memory of the first Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, statesman and Bharat Ratna recipient Govind Ballabh Pant. The university is located in the campus town of Pantnagar in Kichha Tehseel and in the district of Udham Singh Nagar near the famous town of Nainital in the State of Uttarakhand. The university is regarded as the harbinger of the Green Revolution in India.https://icar.gov.in/sites/default/files/2023-05/agri-rise-magazine-2023.pdf#page=77
India's agriculture industry is a global powerhouse today, employing around 60 percent of the nation's workforce and contributing to about 20 percent of its GDP. Related to agriculture, India's energy sector is a rapidly growing industry balancing hydrocarbon fuels like coal, oil, and gas with significant recent capacity additions in sustainable energy sources like solar, wind, hydro, and nuclear, making the country the world's third-largest electricity producer after China and the United States.
Pantnagar University is a prominent centre of excellence in technological innovation and agricultural research in Asia. The prestigious university has produced many successful alumni in diverse fields, particularly agriculture, engineering, technology, politics, and civil services. The alumni network of the university includes Members of the Parliament, Members of the Legislative Assemblies, Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, Chief Executive Officers of successful technology and business ventures, and Director Generals of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.
G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology has been consistently ranked 1 as the best state agricultural university amongst approximately 70 state agricultural universities of the country at the Foundation Day celebrations of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). The university is also ranked overall 3 including ICAR institutions and state agricultural universities in the country.
The university is notable for having the most number of instructional days per year amongst all universities in India, and also for having one of the best teacher-student ratios (1:6) amongst all premier educational institutions in the country. With a massive campus covering over 12,000 acres near the Himalayas, Pantnagar University is also the largest university in India by area and acreage.
History Pre-establishment groundwork (1949–1959) The first Education Commission of India (1949) headed by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan recommended setting up rural universities in India on American land-grant model. Uttar Pradesh (UP), under chief-ministership of Govind Ballabh Pant, took the first step and in 1954 invited an Indo- American team headed by K. R. Damle, the Vice-President of ICAR, to consider an area around Tarai State farm in erstwhile Nainital district as a possible site for a rural university.Rudra 1978:390 This area was actually a dense forest near Himalayan foothills and the government was using this area to rehabilitate Hindu, Sikh and other migrants from West Pakistan, in the aftermath of the partition of 1947.P. C. Tiwari and Bhagwati Joshi. Wildlife in the Himalayan foothills: conservation and management. Indus Publishing, 1997,
Encouraged by favourable view of the Damle team, two senior government officials- H S Sandhu and A N Jha visited United States to look for collaborations with US Universities. In consultation with University of Illinois dean Dr H W Hannah, the government of state of Uttar Pradesh presented a proposal to the Government of India in 1956 for establishing a Land-grant style university. Thereafter, a contract between the Government of India, the Technical Cooperation Mission and few US land grant universities, was signed to promote agricultural education in India.GOI Ministry of Finance, Department of Economic Affairs 1959 Report on the Indo-U.S. Technical Co-operation Programme. New Delhi: GOI, p.157 The US universities included the University of Tennessee, the Ohio State University, the Kansas State University, the University of Illinois, the Pennsylvania State University and the University of Missouri. The task of mentoring the proposed university in UP was assigned to the University of Illinois which signed a contract in 1959.
Initial years and development (1960–1972)
The university was dedicated to the nation by the first prime minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, on 17 November 1960. In the early days, Illinois faculty served the university in designing its education system and putting in place an effective research and extension system. Six to eight Illinois faculty used to stay in Pantnagar at a time serving between 2- and 4-year terms for a period of 12 years. William Thompson, a team member on site at Pantnagar, shared that it was unusual for the project to start a university in a place with nothing
All buildings and facilities had to be constructed in the jungle there. In 1965, drastic upheaval of the university board of directors, which was spurred by lack of state government support for the institution, caused removal of the entire administrative and governance team of the university. D P Singh was named vice chancellor of the university with complete control over its affairs until a new board of directors was chosen. Under Singh's leadership, many necessary upgrades took place, and the university flourished. The University of Illinois left Pantnagar in 1972, when president Richard Nixon ordered Americans out of the near east.
The UP Act XI-V of 1958– the founding legislative act was later amended under UP Universities Re-enactment and Amendment Act 1972 and the university was rechristened as Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology keeping in view the contributions of Govind Ballabh Pant. Pantnagar is a symbol of successful partnership between India and the United States. US greatly influenced the development of the university through its funding of several university programs. Many of the university's research activities were funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Indo-U.S. Technical Cooperation Programme, and the United States Agency for International Development (program Public Law 480). The establishment of this university brought about a revolution in agricultural education, research and extension. It paved the way for setting up of 41 other state agricultural universities in the country.
Role in ushering Green Revolution Pantnagar University soon became a significant force in the development and transfer of High Yielding Variety seeds and related technology.Uttar Pradesh Agricultural University 163:14–19 and Charanjit Ahuja "One University That Actually Works" Indian Express, 9 March 1994, p.3 The Mexican wheat varieties, developed by Norman Borlaug were tested in Pantnagar and locally adaptable selections, like Pantnagar Kalyan Sona and other improved varieties were released for farmers. The university utilised its of land to launch one of the largest seed production programs at that time, under the brand name Pantnagar Seeds, which became a household name in rural India. The contribution of the university was recognised by Norman Borlaug, who described Pantnagar as "Harbinger of Green Revolution".
Campus The university campus at Pantnagar is spread in an area of which makes it the second largest university in the world, in terms of contiguous area. Before 2002, the university owned , out of which was transferred to State Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand (SIDCUL) for developing an Integrated Industrial estate, thus leaving with the university. Remaining land was transferred to other industries, railways, airport etc.
The university campus is located at a distance of 250 km from Delhi in Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand. The nearby towns are Rudrapur (16 km), Haldwani (25 km), Kichha (13 km) and Nainital (65 km). Two National Highways- NH 87 and Bareilly- Nainital highway touch the campus. Pantnagar Airport, operated by Airports Authority of India is located in the campus, 2.5 km west of main administrative building. Two railway stations of North Eastern Railways- Pantnagar (IR Code PBW) and Haldi Road (IR Code HLDD) are located in the campus at a distance of 4 km (east) and 3 km (west) respectively from administrative building. University shuttle service, local rickshaws, auto-rickshaws and matador vans connect various parts of the campus. Pantnagar is a purely residential university and comprises an independent township in itself. . Population of Pantnagar, prior to establishment of Industrial estate was 35,820 (Census, 2001). Pantnagar is a part of Pantnagar- Kichha assembly constituency. The 'Concentric semicircles' or the 'rising sun' plan of the campus-centre was a brainchild of Department of Architecture of Illinois University.University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Architecture 1975 Campus Development Planning Study; G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology. Urbana: University of Illinois, p.4 and Uttar Pradesh Agricultural University 1963:27Campus Development Planning Study, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, India, by Midwest Universities Consortium for International Activities, Illinois University at Urbana-Champaign. Dept. of Architecture, H James Miller, Wisconsin University-Milwaukee and others. Published by Graduate Division, Dept. of Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1976
Administration and organization In the Indian higher education system, Pantnagar is classified as a State Agricultural University. The university is in the jurisdiction of the state government. The governor of the state is the ex-officio chancellor of the university and appoints a vice-chancellor, who functions as a full-time chief executive of the university. The vice-chancellor chairs a 13-member board of management, which is the highest executive body of the university and oversees primarily financial and administrative matters and also ratifies recommendations of other councils of the university. + Budget allocations for the university in Rs crores (figure in parentheses are actual expenditures) State ICAR Other sources Total 2005–2006 91.365 (84.570) 26.970 (22.735) 24.286 (24.653) 142.621 (131.958) 2006–2007 105.068 (94.016) 28.331 (29.502) 11.467 (13.833) 144.866 (137.351) 2007–2008 120.596 (115.990) 46.012 (47.302) 18.028 (11.166) 184.636 (174.458) 2008–2009 144.416 (138.925) 37.066 (36.274) 19.712 (15.458) 201.194 (190.657) 2009–2010 118.035 (133.310) 24.469 (25.988) 14.808 (13.231) 157.312 (172.319) 2010–2011 166.127 (168.726) 28.365 (25.617) 9.637 (8.998) 204.129 (203.341) 2011–2012 197.974 (185.581) 33.754 (28.198) 9.237 (6.406) 240.965 (220.185) The other councils are the Academic council, the Research council and the Extension education council. Governor of Uttarakhand Lieutenant general Gurmit Singh is the present Chancellor and Manmohan Singh Chauhan is VC of the university.
The university is financed primarily from grant-in-aid of the state government and through grants received from the central government through Indian Council of Agricultural Research, besides income from student tuition fees, sponsored research, university farm, etc. Total allocated budget for the university in the year 2011–2012 stood at Rs 240 crores (~ US$50 million), which puts Pantnagar among top five agricultural universities in terms of financial resources.