Biotechnology

The Department of Biotechnology started as a “Centre for Biotechnology” in 1997 at Visva-Bharati. From 2004, the Department of Biotechnology, GoI, supported the two-year Biotechnology M.Sc. program of the Centre. Under this sponsorship, the Centre received substantial financial support for instrument purchases, practical classes, project/thesis works, book purchases, student scholarships, etc. Students from all over India have been admitted to this course through the combined entrance examination of Biotechnology conducted by JNU from the 2004-05 academic year. The Centre was converted to a Department in 2010. In 2012, the department received DST-FIST (Phase I) support for five years for infrastructural augmentation. The department has a total of thirteen sanctioned faculty positions. It has two theory class rooms out of which one is fitted with an overhead projector, one Practical class room, one instrument room, an office room, and six research laboratories. To help run the Department, the university has also appointed five non-teaching staff, of whom three are on a contract basis. The present student strength sanctioned by the DBT (GoI) is 20, with the existing reservation policy of the Government. The Department is growing steadily, with every faculty having multiple projects from external funding agencies and a good number of research scholars working and publishing papers in refereed journals with good impact factors, both nationally and internationally. Many of the pass-out students are currently engaged in research and teaching in academia and industry.