The question here is how the department
is going to respond to the call of our honorable President APJ Abdul Kalam to
make India a developed country of the world by 2020 A.D. The elevation of the
standards of teaching and research in Indian Universities to the standards of
teaching and research in the universities of the developed countries does seem
difficult task to accomplish. The first reason is that all the universities in
the world are universal to start with i.e. there are already provisions of exchange
of faculty members and students. In the universities the courses are designed
keeping the international level in mind. The second reason is that India has a
strong intellectual tradition. Its scholars are second to none in the world. The
third reason is the development of fast means of communications which have made
different countries of the world as global village. Now coming to the chemistry
department, it has a strong base of teaching and research, its most of the faculty
members have worked in the universities of the developed countries and thus are
aware of the developments which are taking place in the area of chemical education
and research. The scarcity of resources can not hamper the growth because the
department has done well under limited resources available in the past.
Our first priority is to improve the quality of the undergraduate and post graduate
students in chemistry in order to achieve this, the department has planned to
upgrade its teaching laboratories. Department of Science and Technology, Govt.
Of India, New Delhi in its FIST Programme has allocated Rs. 5.0 lack for the upgradation
of the teaching laboratories. The department has planned to improve the general
facilities available for practical works in all teaching laboratories. The UGC,
New Delhi in its 10th plan grant to the D.D.U. Gorakhpur University has allocated
Rs. 8.0 lack for equipments to chemistry department which will help the department
in procuring equipments for teaching.
The department has got Rs. 5.0 lac
from DST in its FIST programme and Rs. 2.0 lac from UGC in its 10th plan grant
to the university for upgradation of the departmental library. Since periodicals
are expensive and it is possible to continue their subscription, the grant received
will be utilized for procuring standard international text books, reference books
and series devoted to different specialized research topics which are investigated
in the department.
Regarding research, the department has completed the
third phase of DRS programme of UGC and has applied for the upgradation to DSA
under the UGC SAP programme. The presentation of the DRS progress report before
the UGC review committee has already been done and is hoped that the department
will get good level of funding for chemical research in the department. The department
has planned to upgrade the research so that the department could get the status
of Centre for Advanced studies in chemistry by UGC.
The department has
made significant contribution in the area of non- equilibrium thermodynamics equilibrium
thermodynamics, solid state reactions, studies on rocked fuels, oscillatory chemical
reactions and fractal growth organometallic, chemistry coordination chemistry,
heterocyclic chemistry, natural products, photoelectric chemistry solar energy
conversions, membrane science and weak molecular interactions. Research work in
all the above areas are going to flourish in coming 15 years and will be at par
with research work being pursued in the laboratories of developed countries. The
base for these researches are already present, only the upgradation is needed
in these areas.
The new research areas which have been initiated are: structural
and functional studies on enzymes, stereoselective synthesis, supra molecular
chemistry, theoretical chemistry, science of materials particularly nano particles
and conductions polymers. These research areas are expected to grow in coming
15 years and the department is expected to contribute extensively in these areas.
It will be the great responsibility of the future leaders as well as faculty members
of the department to continue the pace of developments by leaps and bounds to
realize the Vision-2020.
