The general body meeting of Tea Improvement Consortium held at the Department of Tea Husbandry and Technology, Assam Agricultural University (AAU) in Jorhat recently selected its new office bearers and discussed various programmes to be taken up in the next two years including a national award in the name of renowned tea scientist Late Dina Nath Baruah.
The Consortium plans to update its website, and to organise a brainstorming discussion on tea- related research matters sometimes during the first part of 2019. BG Unni, Director Research, Assam Downtown University, and president of the newly formed executive, said that they were also planning to open a fixed deposit in favour of Tea Improvement Consortium at Indian Bank, Jorhat.
The meeting which was chaired by BG Unni discussed holding the 5th Dr DN Baruah Memorial Lecture. The Consortium proposed to approach the family members of Baruah for financial support which will be used for the memorial lecture and also to institute a national award in his name
The senior scientists and officials from Tea Research Association, Tocklai and AAU who attended the meeting expressed their views and suggestions for the betterment of the Tea Improvement Consortium. Unni in his welcome address talked about the background of Tea Improvement Consortium formation and its contribution for the establishment of infrastructural facilities at Tea Research Association (TRA) and AAU through various projects funded by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India.
He also urged the participants of the meeting to initiate more research-related activities under Tea Improvement Consortium. BK Barthakur in his remarks mentioned about the initial struggle years of Tea Improvement Consortium and other activities organised by the Consortium in the last couple of years.
The new executive committee of the Consortium was also constituted with PK Bezboruah, Chairman, Tea Board of India, as Patron of Tea Improvement Consortium and several other prominent people were made members of the committee. The tenure of the new committee will be for two years – from 2018 to 2020.