• भारत सरकार

    Government of India

  • कृषि एवं किसान कल्याण मंत्रालय

    Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare

कृषि वैज्ञानिक चयन मंडल

Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board

Department of Agricultural Research and Education
Latest News
Vacancy Notification Advt. No. 04/2024 for RMP & Non-RMP Position of ICAR  | 

The Board

Profile of Chairperson and Members of the ASRB

Dr. Sanjay Kumar

Chairperson
Date of Joining
31/07/2023 (AN)

Dr. Sanjay Kumar obtained Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar and Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, respectively. He received post-doctoral training at Texas Tech University (USA), Rothamsted Research (UK), and Kansas State University (USA). Joined CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (CSIR-IHBT), Palampur (HP) as Scientist in 1990 and superannuated as Director of the same institute in 2023; also, during this period, held additional charge as Director of CSIR-IGIB, CSIR-CSIO and Head of CSIR-HRDG. Currently, Chairman, Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board, New Delhi.

Research: Major contributions include i) discovery and transplantation of a novel carbon fixation pathway to minimize photorespiratory losses, leading to enhanced photosynthetic efficiency and yield (work lauded by international fraternity), ii) discovery, characterization, and modification of an autoclavable superoxide dismutase from a high-altitude plant, iii) deciphering plant adaption mechanism at high altitude, mechanisms of prickle formation in rose, winter dormancy and drought stress in tea, and understanding plant microbe interactions, to quote some. His contributions on genome and transcriptome sequencing of Himalayan plants and microbes to decipher adaptive mechanisms and secondary metabolites synthesis are valuable.

Guided 29 MSc/PhD students, holds international patents & more than 210 research/review articles, book chapters, edited book etc. Key contributions have percolated to book and major reviews as well.

Recognitions: Fellow of INSA, NASI, NAAS, Crop Improvement Society of India, CHAI-Honoured Fellow Award 2024, by the Confederation of Horticulture Associations of India. Bestowed with prestigious VASVIK Industrial Research Award; INSA Young Scientist Award; Certificate of Merit in CSIR Leadership Programme; Ultra International Team Award; Life Time Achievement Award by MOBILIZATION; R.D. Asana Endowment Lecture Award; Professor G.V. Joshi Memorial Lecture Award; Prof. Shri Ranjan Memorial Lecture Award; Dr. S.K. Talpatra Memorial Oration by DUVASU, Mathura; Dr. Subodh Kumar and Mamata Mukherjee Memorial Award by SFE; Outstanding Alumnus Award of CBSH by G.B.P.U.A.T, Pantnagar and IARI.

New initiatives: As Director of CSIR-IHBT, vitalised several initiatives for empowering society/farmers, which include successful procurement and introduction of asafoetida (Heeng), tulip production technology, monk fruit, and Russian varieties of sea buckthorn in the country; introduction of saffron, cinnamon, liquorice (Mulethi), in Himachal Pradesh; lilium in Ladakh and apple in North Eastern Region; technologies for waste management and vitamin D enriched Shiitake mushroom production, combating malnutrition, preserving traditional knowledge, and conserving biodiversity. Promoted aromatics in mountain farming system that positioned Himachal Pradesh as the top state in the country for producing essential oil of wild marigold. Coordinated multi-institutional projects of CSIR as Director of Agri, Nutri and Biotech Theme, as well as Nutraceuticals and Nutritionals Missions.

Entrepreneurship development: With a strong emphasis on bioeconomy, the number of technologies and products developed at CSIR-IHBT surged to 85 during the relatively short period of 2015-2023; several of these were commercialized to ensure their availability in the market; pioneered the establishment of a startup culture, resulting in the launch of 56 ventures in the institute. The rise of entrepreneurial activity significantly increased industry collaborations, as evidenced by the 8-fold increase in MoUs, agreements, and MTAs signed (from 110 during 1984-2014 to 995 during 2015-2023).

With relentless approach for quality science and technology development, led CSIR-IHBT to attain top position in the state and among the top 10 institutes of CSIR as per the SCImago rating.

Dr. Shiv Prasad Kimothi

Member (AS and FS)
Date of Joining
17/06/2022 (AN)

Dr Shiv Prasad Kimothi is working as the Member, Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board (ASRB), New Delhi since June, 2022. Dr. Kimothi possesses over 38 years of experience in research, teaching, extension and research management in Animal Sciences and holds Masters and Ph.D. degrees from National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal. He joined Agricultural Research Service in March, 1986. He has served in various capacities including Assistant Director General (Technical Coordination) in ICAR, Head, Livestock Production Management and Scientist In-charge, Livestock Research Centre at NDRI, Deemed University Karnal.

Working as the member, ASRB during the last more than 2 years, he contributed towards recruiting over 2000 positions of Scientists, subject matter specialists, Heads of Departments, Directors, Assistant Directors General and Deputy Directors General which helped to wipe out the backlog of vacancies. As ADG, he was the nodal officer of several flagship schemes of the Government at the Council level. Most notable among them are; Doubling Farmers’ Income initiative, Ease of Doing Business, Make in India and Swatch Bharat Mission. He also coordinated a wide range of activities including Centre-State Coordination through ICAR Regional Committee Meetings, Annual Conferences of ICAR-Director and Vice Chancellors, ICAR National Awards, Cabinet/ PMO related matters besides other important activities. Extramural Funding Scheme of the Council, implemented by him, helped in bridging many a critical research and technology gaps in the country.

Dr Kimothi was closely involved in the process of capacity building and incentivising the scientific & farming community through ICAR National Awards and providing funding support to professional scientific societies and academic bodies for organising national/ international seminars & publication of scientific journals to promote research and academic excellence. He worked as the member of the Governing Body of SAARC Agriculture Centre, Dhaka for about 6 years to promote research and academic cooperation and capacity building at regional level. SAARC Ph.D. programme was one of the major initiatives. He also contributing towards, Indo-ASEAN, Indo-New Zealand and Indo-Saudi collaborations. He visited a number of Universities and Institutions of Higher learning in Europe to facilitate technical collaboration.

At the Institute level, he contributed significantly in the research, education and extension fronts. As Scientist In-charge, Livestock Research Centre and Livestock Production Management Department, he developed elite herds of Sahiwal and Karanfries cows and Murrah buffaloes. He initiated and strengthened collaborative research programmes on the key areas of livestock management including developing “indigenous censor networks” to facilitate management decisions and “bioacoustics tools” for unique identification & detection of different physiological conditions of livestock. Technologies were also developed for micro-nutrients, immune modulator supplementation of dairy animals during vulnerable stages for better health and sustained productivity. He contributed to key multidisciplinary research initiatives in the frontier areas of research including buffalo cloning. NDRI, cloning research team was awarded ICAR Interdisciplinary Team Research Award in 2014.

He worked as research guide for 29 masters (14) and Ph.D. (15) scholars in the discipline of Livestock Production Management of which several were international scholars. Many of the students/research scholars guided by him are holding important positions in India and their respective countries abroad. He has published over 130 research papers in peer reviewed Journals, besides publishing 7 books, several technical bulletins, policy papers and popular articles.

Working as Core Team Member and leader animal science in the NATP funded, Institution Village Linkage Programme, of NDRI, Karnal for nearly 10 years provided him the opportunity to work closely with the farmers, understand the necessity for participatory problem-solving research besides providing feedback to the research system for further refining the technologies. The IVLP programme of NDRI Karnal, was adjudged the best among the 74 centres from all over the country. He was also closely involved with initiating research on native breeds of cows viz. Rathi, Tharparkar and Kankrej at Central Arid Zone Research Institute, during his initial service career, to enable conservation of these precious indigenous herds which are benefiting the farming community in the arid region.

Dr Major Singh

Member (PS)
Date of Joining
20/06/2022 (FN)

Dr Major Singh (DOB June 20, 1960 ) Service - 36 years in Agricultural research and Management (Scientist – 13 years, Sr Scientist – 8 years, Principal Scientist/Professor – 15 years) Administrative experience- (Director – 5.3 years, Project Coordinator - 1.5 years, Head of Division - 5 years) Awards and recognitions: Fellow – National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi, National awards – (1) ICAR Team Award for outstanding contributions in the field of vegetable breeding, 2005 (2) Rajeev Gandhi National Award from Ministry of Home Affairs 2010, Awards from academic societies - Dr. Harbhajan Singh Award for outstanding research 2003, 2004 and 2015; Certificate of merit by Seed Research 2005; CHAI Appreciation award 2021, Recognitions from academic bodies - Vice-president, Indian Society of Alliums, Pune; Secretary, APIV, Varanasi; Chief Editor, Vegetable Science and Journal of Alliums. Mobilization of external funding: Leader/Principle Investigator in 13 externally funded projects which have inter disciplinary, inter-institutional and even international participation. Publications: Published more than 200 research articles in various National and International Journals out of which 100 research articles are in high impact journals. Guided 5 M.Sc. and 13 Ph. D students. Authored three books “Heterosis in crop plants”, Legume vegetables” and Biotechnology in crop improvement: concepts and manual. Published more than 16 Research/extension bulletins, 26 book chapters and 50 popular articles. Scientific Accomplishments: Developed two hybrids ‘Kashi Sandesh’ and ‘Kashi Komal’, two varieties ‘Kashi Taru’ and ‘Kashi Prakash’ In brinjal; three hybrid ‘Kashi Surkh’, ‘Kashi sinduri’, ‘Kashi gaurav’ and one variety ‘Kashi Anmole’ in Chilli; two varieties ‘Kashi Shakti’ and ‘Kashi Mukti’ in pea; one hybrid ‘Kashi Abhiman’ and one variety ‘Kashi Aman’ in tomato; one variety ‘Kashi Param’ in french bean. These varieties and hybrids were popularized among the farmers field through demonstrations. Developed Bt brinjal and Bt tomato using Cry 1Ac gene construct for resistant to shoot and fruit borer. Coordinated biosafety evaluation of Bt brinjal lines in the country. Developed transgenic lines in tomato using AtDREB1A and BcZAT12 gene constructs for water-deficit and multiple abiotic stress tolerance. Started marker assisted breeding in tomato and pyramided of genes Ty1, Ty2 and Ty3 to develop durable resistant varieties against TyLCV. Started research on climate resilience and developed two tomato lines and two onion lines for high temperature tolerance. In onion two lines were identified for drought and excess water tolerance. Apart from scientific achievements, extension activities were also undertaken for the direct benefit of the farmers. Under the tribal support project, Nandurbar district of Maharashtra was taken up for technology transfer and promotion of onion cultivation. Due to continuous efforts of 5 years, the area under onion has increased 4 times in the district and farmers have benefited a lot by getting good price. Kharif onion, which is confined to Maharashtra and Karnataka, was extended to non-traditional regions such as eastern Uttar Pradesh and north eastern region of India. During the last three years, more than 400 farmers have started production of Kharif onions in Mirzapur, with the help of the state government, the production of Kharif onions is being increased to 2000 hectares.

Dr. B.S. Dwivedi

Member, ASRB (NRM Group)
Date of Joining
29/08/2022 (FN)

Dr. B. S. Dwivedi did his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry from CS Azad University of Agriculture & Technology, Kanpur. After joining Agricultural Research Service of the ICAR in 1986, he served at ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Shillong (now at Umiam), ICAR-Indian Institute of Farming Systems Research (erstwhile PSCSR), Modipuram, and ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi in different capacities including Head, Division of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, ICAR-IARIduring 2011-2020. In his professional career of over 36 years, Dr. Dwivedi made significant research contributions mainly in the areas of assessment, restoration and management of soil health under different agro-ecologies. His areas of interest are: site-specific nutrient management, soil resource characterization and land use planning, and conservation agriculture. He published over 150 research papers in reputed journals, besides a number of review papers, bulletins, books and book chapters, and popular articles. Also, he was Chief Editor, Journal of the Indian Society of Soil Science during 2013-2020.As Faculty of PG School, ICAR-IARI for the period 2004-2020, Dr. Dwivedi taught and guided several Ph.D. and M.Sc. students in the discipline of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry. He worked closely with Government Departments, fertilizer industry, ICAR institutions, AUs, and international institutions.

Dr. Dwivedi possesses an illustrious academic record, with several awards and recognitions for his outstanding contributions. Important of them are: Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award of ICAR, Hari Krishna Shastri Memorial Award of IARI, S.S. Ranade Lifetime Achievement Award, ISSS-Platinum Jubilee Commemoration Award, ISSS-Dr. J.S.P. Yadav Memorial Award, FAI-Golden Jubilee Award, IPNI-FAI Award, and TSI-FAI Award.

Dr. Dwivedi is Fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, National Academy of Biological Sciences, and Indian Society of Soil Science. .