12 Jun 2018|Noida | F1 Seminar Hall
Amity University confers Honorary Professorship upon Dr. Purvi Mehta, BILL & MELINDA GATES Foundation
AmityUniversity confers Honorary Professorship upon Dr. Purvi Mehta, BILL & MELINDA GATES Foundation
Today,Amity University Uttar Pradesh conferred Honorary Professorship upon eminentAgriculture Bio-Technologist, Dr. Purvi Mehta, Senior Advisor and Head ofAgriculture for South Asia at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation during hervisit to Amity University, Sector 125 Noida.
Acceptingthe honor, Dr. Purvi Mehta expressed her gratitude and said, “I camehere today as a guest and going back as a family member of Amity.” She addedthat it is very intriguing about Amity for its thrust upon education and most importantly,its application, which was a missing factor in Indian education systemespecially in the domain of Science and Technology wherein the education wasprimarily theory oriented. She appreciated Amity for bringing a paradigm shiftin education and research by putting the application of science and technologyin forefront.
Apprisingabout Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Dr. Mehta said that the foundationis the largest investor in development, specifically in health and agriculturesector. She stressed that the founders of the foundation believes thatagriculture plays a catalytic and important role in addressing the povertyissues worldwide. “We have been investing in India since 2007 and the mainfocus always had been on Agriculture production.” She added. Deliberating uponthe agricultural problems in India, she pointed out that food production is nota problem but higher production of food hasn’t resolved the poverty issueamongst farmers. She remarked that agriculture sector is moving ahead in thecountry but not the necessarily farmers. Thereby, the foundation’ work focus onprofitability and not just production. In last 2 years, we have invested in 80agricultural projects worth billions of dollars. Dr. Mehta suggested that as aglobal institute, Amity should play cross regional role and extend its capacityand resources for development of other nations such as Bangladesh.
Dr.(Prof.) Balvinder Shukla, Vice Chancellor, Amity University Uttar Pradeshsaid that Amity has always emphasized on agricultural research and tensionrelated activities. She stressed that agriculture is the backbone of thenation and as a global education institution, it is our responsibility toaddress the problems of farmers and its reforms. She mentioned that the scientistsand researchers of Amity are constantly working towards finding solutions thatbenefits the farmers. Dr. Shukla opined that there is a need to bring synergyin research activities and expressed her hope in collaborating with Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation for development of farmers and nation, at large.
Speakingon the occasion, Dr. Nutan Kaushik, Director General, Food & AgricultureFoundation briefed about Amity Food and Agriculture Research and Extensionwork.
Duringthe visit, Dr. Purvi Mehta was taken for a round of campus including Agri-Voltaic Solar Farm, organic farm storage center and Cold Chain chamber whereinDr. Mehta was apprised about the various research and frugal innovations ofeminent scientists of Amity.