Investment in ICAR Leadership in Agricultural Higher Education– would finance the carrying out of institutional reforms within ICAR in order to enhance ICAR’s effectiveness in coordinating, guiding and managing agricultural higher education and its interactions with AUs and key stakeholders nationwide through interventions that increase the quality and relevance of agricultural higher education. As ICAR is responsible for national coordination and quality assurance of agricultural higher education, the component would leverage ICAR’s comparative advantage in assessing systemic challenges across the ICAR-AU System and incubating solutions..
The component would finance goods, training, consultant services and non-consulting services and incremental operating costs and would include:
- assessing options in the administration and award of ICAR’s technical and financial assistance to AUs;
- structuring dialogue with State governments to catalyze their participation in raising the quality and relevance of agricultural higher education;
- providing assistance to participating AUs for the development of IDPs, CAASTs and Innovation Plans;
- establishing partnerships with globally recognized agricultural higher education institutions;
- developing digital information systems for agricultural data collection, analysis and dissemination;
- improving curricula review processes and methods to consolidate and disseminate global best-practices in agricultural education;
- improving the all-India entrance examination in agriculture, including an on-line national examination system;
- adopting next-generation management systems covering information, procurement, contract and financial management areas;
- coordinating an External Advisory Panel of renowned agricultural education experts;
- assisting agricultural universities to strengthen their linkages with industry;
- promoting the establishment of centers for career development at agricultural universities.