Jatropha Updates 2014

TERI and Centre of Excellence for Jatropha, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, recently organized a symposium on "Jatropha Updates 2014" on October 13, 2014 at Magnolia Hall, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. The objective was to have an overview on the status of Jatropha research in different aspects of the Jatropha value chain from feedstock development to processing and utilization. Dr Penjit Srinophakun, the Directorof the Centre, delivered the welcome address.

The keynote address was given by Dr K Gurumurthi, Chairman, DBT Task Force on Bioenergy. He highlighted the challenges in increasing photosynthetic efficiency and oil conversion efficiency, which need to be tackled, in order to breed Jatropha for higher oil production. In total, 21 speakers made presentations on various aspects such as molecular genetics and breeding, functional genomics and bioinformatics and processing and production systems. A significant advancement in the area of genetic improvement of Jatropha through interspecific hybridization and development of advanced breeding lines was reported by TERI, Kasetsart University, JOil and SG Biofuels.

Eminent experts who spoke at the symposium included Dr DK Tuli, Executive Director & Coordinator, DBT- IOC Centre for Advanced Bioenergy Research, Faridabad, Dr Sangita Kasture, Principal Scientific Officer, Department of Biotechnology, Dr Hong Yan, Chief Scientific Officer, JOil (S) Pte Ltd, Singapore, Mr Jayadev Panda, Director (Plantations, India), SG Biofuels, San Diego, USA, and Dr Avinash K Agarwal, Professor, IIT, Kanpur. Dr Shashi B Tripathi delivered the vote of thanks.