GDC Kishtwar organises Guest lecture on “Career Opportunities in Plant Sciences”

KISHTWAR, May 04: Department of Botany, Government Degree College Kishtwar, in collaboration with the College’s Career Counseling and Guidance Cell today organised a Guest lecture on “Career Opportunities in Plant Sciences”.

The Guest Speaker on the occasion was Prof. Namrata Sharma (Professor and former Head of the Department of Botany, University Of Jammu).

The session began with the welcome address by the College Principal Dr. Jyoti Parihar.   Faisal Mushtaq, H.O.D. The Botany Department introduced the guest speaker to the audience, mostly students of semester 2nd, 4th and 6th.

 Prof. Namrata Sharma, in her lecture, discussed various opportunities and avenues in plant sciences from Academics, Bureaucracy to Entrepreneurship.

She also highlighted the areas in which botanical knowledge can play an important role in addition to vibrant self employment opportunities. Various cases including examples of successful entrepreneurs were given who after applying simple botanical knowledge got huge success in raising their net worth and becoming a source of inspiration for millions.

The speaker also focused on the need that besides modern biotechnological approaches, even the conventional breeding experiments can also play an important role in increasing our food basket and as we have already witnessed it during the period of green revolution. She gave the example of Kissabel Apple which has been developed as a result of a cross between a crab apple and a traditional eating apple; it is described to be sweeter than a Granny Smith but shares a similar level of acidity.

Prof. Namrata Sharma highlighted about various exams such as ACF, JKAS, UPSC, IFS, ARS, Higher Education and Scientist etc. in which plants science can play an important role and shared the details of number of students from Botany Department who are now sitting on various prestigious positions in both public and private sector.

A Question answer session was also held at the end where students asked various questions regarding plant sciences, its scope, utility and significance in the current scenario.

More than 100 students attended the session. The meeting ended with vote of thanks by worthy Principal, GDC Kishtwar.