THE FIRST MEETING OF ICFRE

THE FIRST MEETING OF ICFRE-WOOD INDUSTRIES COMMITTEE OF INDIA (ICFRE-WINCOIN) HELD AT ICFRE-IWST, BENGALURU.

ICFRE- Wood Industries Committee of India (ICFRE-WINCOIN) is a unique committee constituted by Indian Council of Forest Research and Education (ICFRE), after the merger of erstwhile IPIRTI with ICFRE-IWST.

The committee comprises of all wood industries, associations of Wood industries along with officials & scientists of ICFRE to bring synergy in the field of wood science, tree improvement and other relevant fields to bring benefits to the wood industry, farmers and other stakeholders.

The chairman of the committee is Director General, ICFRE, the members of the committee includes all DDGs of ICFRE, all Directors of ICFRE institutes, Experts in the field of Wood science/tree improvement from each institute of ICFRE, Industrial members with Director, ICFRE-IWST as member secretary.

The first meeting of WINCOIN under the chairmanship of DG, ICFRE was held on 24/7/2023 at ICFRE-IWST on hybrid mode. Around 140 participants including industrial members, Representatives of wood industries associations, officers, scientists & scholars attended the meeting both online and offline. Dr.M.P.Singh, Director, ICFRE-IWST & member secretary of WINCOIN, gave an “Introduction to the structure and scope of WINCOIN” to all the participants. He gave a brief regarding the scope and benefits of WINCOIN to the industrial members and the requirement of joint platform for synergy in research, training leading to the technology transfer to meet the requirements of stakeholders.

The introduction session was followed by Inaugural address of Shri. A.S.Rawat, DG, ICFRE & chairman of WINCOIN. He stressed on the importance of regular interactions with industries and stakeholders to succeed in the research activities of the council and to transfer the technologies to the industries, farmers and other stake holders. He covered the aspects of Wood research, tree improvement undergoing at various institutes of ICFRE, various Agro-forestry models developed, improved clone varieties released, certification of Agriwood etc.

The Inaugural address was followed by a presentation on “Benefits to the members/Industries through ICFRE & its institutes” by Dr. Geeta Joshi, ADG (Media & Extension), ICFRE.

The presentation covered various technologies, patents, trainings, testing/consultancies, education, quality planting material available with ICFRE and their potential benefits to the wood industries and farmers.

The next session was on “Meeting human resource needs of industry through revised PGDC programme in wood & panel products technology” by Smt. Sujatha, Scientist-G/HoD (PPPT Division) of ICFRE-IWST.

She gave an introduction to the PGDC programme conducted by ICFRE-IWST, different modules involved in the course, revised curriculum including internship to industry, management module with IIFM,Bhopal etc and how the programme is catering to the manpower needs of the wood industry.