The Department of Biotechnology (DBT), under its ‘Star College’ Scheme, has launched a new programme for select states and union territories in the country, which aims to offer young scholars at undergraduate (UG) level an opportunity to excel in a career in life sciences and biotechnology.

Senior officials in the DBT said that the DBT's new initiative will provide support for improving knowledge and skills of teachers in basic life sciences and specialized techniques; access to specialized infrastructure to students; assurance of consumables, reagents and chemicals for students; substantial hands-on experience in designing and conducting practical biotechnologies and critical thinking; and access to knowledge banks with strong support of books and journals including e-journal facilities.

The DBT does not envisage initiating new UG courses in biotechnology under the programme, but improving practical training in existing life science courses like botany, zoology, chemistry, physics, microbiology, mathematics etc.

For the colleges to become eligible for this programme, the colleges should be among the top three life science undergraduate programmes in the city based on cut of percentage for admission to undergraduate courses in life sciences; result of undergraduate course – pass percentage, percentage of 1st division candidates; and number of faculty with PhD. However, private colleges cannot be part of the programme.

For the programme, the DBT has called for proposals from the UG colleges in select states and union territories of the country, which include Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Dadar & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu, Goa, Haryana, Jharkhand, Lakshadeep, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Pondicherry, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

The proposals should highlight new practicals to be introduced in existing courses by participating departments, student projects, visits by students and faculty improvement programmes.

The DBT launched the 'Star College Scheme' for improving critical thinking and 'hands on' experimental work in the cutting edge-technologies needed for modern biological studies at undergraduate (college) level in life sciences.

Major objectives of the scheme are to strengthen the academic and physical infrastructure for achieving excellence in teaching and training; to enhance the quality of the learning and teaching process to stimulate original thinking through ‘hands–on’ exposure to experimental work and participation in summer schools; to promote networking and strengthen ties with neighbouring institutions and other laboratories; to conduct specialized training programmes for faculty improvement for optimizing technical capabilities; to increase capabilities of core instrumentation resources by procuring new equipment and upgrading of existing facilities; to provide access and exposure to students to research laboratories and industries in the country; to help in devising standard curricula and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s)/kits for practicals; and to provide better library facility to students and teachers.

The colleges that successfully implement the strategy will be considered as life science 'Star Colleges'.