G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, also known as Pantnagar University, is the first agricultural university of India. It was inaugurated by Jawahar Lal Nehru on 17 November 1960 as the "Uttar Pradesh Agricultural University" (UPAU). Later the name was changed to "Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology" in 1972 in memory of the first Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, statesman and Bharat Ratna recipient Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant. The University lies in the campus-town of Pantnagar in Kichha Tehseel and in the district of Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarakhand. The university is regarded as the harbinger of Green Revolution in India.
History
Pre-establishment groundwork (1949–1959) The first Education Commission of India (1949) headed by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan recommended setting up rural universities in India on American land-grant model. Uttar Pradesh (UP), under chief-ministership of Govind Ballabh Pant, took the first step and in 1954 invited an Indo- American team headed by Dr. K. R. Damle, the Vice-President of ICAR, to consider an area around Tarai State farm in erstwhile Nainital district as a possible site for a rural university. This area was actually a dense forest near Himalayan foothills and the government was using this area to rehabilitate Hindu, Sikh and other migrants from West Pakistan, in the aftermath of the partition of 1947.
Encouraged by favourable view of the Damle team, two senior government officials- H S Sandhu and A N Jha visited United States to look for collaborations with US Universities. In consultation with University of Illinois dean Dr H W Hannah, the government of state of Uttar Pradesh presented a proposal to the Government of India in 1956 for establishing a Land-grant style university. Thereafter, a contract between the Government of India, the Technical Cooperation Mission and few US land grant universities, was signed to promote agricultural education in India. The US universities included the University of Tennessee, the Ohio State University, the Kansas State University, the University of Illinois, the Pennsylvania State University and the University of Missouri. The task of mentoring the proposed university in UP was assigned to the University of Illinois which signed a contract in 1959.
Initial years and development (1960–1972)
The University was dedicated to the Nation by the first Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru, on 17 November 1960. In the early Days, Illinois faculty served the university in designing its education system and putting in place an effective research and extension system. Six to eight Illinois faculty used to stay in Pantnagar at a time serving between 2 and 4-year terms for a period of 12 years. Dr. William Thompson, a team member on site at Pantnagar, shared that it was unusual for the project to start a university in a place with nothing
All buildings and facilities had to be constructed in the jungle there. In 1965, drastic upheaval of the university board of directors, which was spurred by lack of state government support for the institution, caused removal of the entire administrative and governance team of the university. D P Singh was named vice chancellor of the university with complete control over its affairs until a new board of directors was chosen. Under Singh's leadership, many necessary upgrades took place, and the university flourished. The University of Illinois left Pantnagar in 1972, when president Richard Nixon ordered Americans out of the near east.
The UP Act XI-V of 1958– the founding legislative act was later amended under UP Universities Re-enactment and Amendment Act 1972 and the University was rechristened as Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology keeping in view the contributions of Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant. Pantnagar is a symbol of successful partnership between India and the United States. US greatly influenced the development of the university through its funding of several university programs. Many of the university's research activities were funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Indo-U.S. Technical Cooperation Programme, and the United States Agency for International Development (program Public Law 480). The establishment of this university brought about a revolution in agricultural education, research and extension. It paved the way for setting up of 41 other state agricultural universities in the country.