3rd Zonal Meeting on Administrative and Financial Matters Organised by ICAR-NAARM, Hyderabad

24 May 2026, Hyderabad

The 3rd Zonal Meeting on Administrative and Financial Matters was held today at ICAR–National Academy of Agricultural Research Management, Hyderabad, under the chairmanship of Dr M. L. Jat, Secretary, DARE & Director General, ICAR. The Directors, Heads of Administration and Heads of Finance of 10 ICAR Institutes from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana participated in the meeting.

During the deliberations, Dr M. L. Jat emphasized that working in the field of agriculture is a privilege, as the sector directly contributes to national development, food and nutritional security, and the welfare of farming communities. He emphasized that the present times call for a shift towards “business unusual”, wherein innovation should not remain confined to research alone, but should also be reflected in administration and finance. He urged the institutes to prioritize activities carefully, focus on efficiency and accountability, and adopt systems that support timely and outcome-oriented decision-making to achieve the target of Vikshit Bharat 2047. He also underlined the need to build an institutional culture based on ownership of words and actions, constructive criticism, openness to improvement and collective leadership.

Shri Gyanendra D. Tripathi, Addl. Secretary, DARE & Secretary, ICAR, Shri Sandeep Sarkar, Additional Secretary, DARE & Financial Advisor, ICAR and other key officials from ICAR HQ attended the meeting.

Shri Gyanendra D. Tripathi emphasized the full implementation of e-Office, strengthening of revenue generation, self-sufficiency, commercialization of technologies and exploration of new areas of agricultural research. He also highlighted the need for having clarity about latest rules and guidelines, that would help to resolve the issues at institutes’ level thus cutting the delay in decision making.

Shri Sandeep Sarkar stressed the importance of capacity utilization, transparency, integrity and vigilance in procurement and financial management. He emphasized risk identification, preparation of an Annual Procurement Plan, regular review of budget utilization, timely settlement of audit paras and preparedness for new systems such as TSA Hybrid and GeM 2.0.

Dr Gopal Lal, Director, ICAR-NAARM, thanked the dignitaries from ICAR Headquarters and the participants from ICAR Institutes. The meeting concluded on a positive note, reinforcing ICAR’s commitment to improved administrative efficiency, financial discipline and responsive institutional governance across its institutes as part of the national goal of Viksit Bharat 2047.

Zonal Meetings are being conducted as part of ICAR’s mechanism of Participative Management to strengthen the vision of ‘One Organization, One Prespective’. The meeting provided a platform for thematic area-wise discussion of administrative and financial issues, with an objective to help the Institutes in resolving the issues and obtain feedback for suitable policy inputs wherever gaps are identified. The deliberations are aimed at ensuring ‘Ease of doing Business’ at cutting edge level across ICAR Institutes. Issues like reducing the level of disposal, regular update of LIMBS, solarisation, energy saving, compliance with new labour code, creating ‘Community of pratice’ etc. were also discussed.

The interaction session provided an opportunity for the participating institutes to raise and deliberate upon various administrative and financial matters, including procedural issues, compliance requirements, financial management, procurement-related matters, establishment issues and other operational concerns faced by the institutes. Officers from ICAR Headquarters representing Establishment, Personnel, Integrated Finance Division, General Administration, Legal and Vigilance also presented their respective agendas and provided guidance and clarifications on the issues raised during the discussions.

The meeting was successfully coordinated by Shri Vivek Purwar, CAO(SG), ICAR-NAARM; Shri Vampad Sharma, Director (Admn.) and Shri Sandeep Dudi, US (Admn).

(Source: ICAR–National Academy of Agricultural Research Management, Hyderabad)