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The World Bank has approved a USD 250 million projects in India for a long-term dam safety program

 The World Bank has approved a USD 250 million projects in India for a long-term dam safety program and improving the safety and performance of existing dams across various states of India. The Second Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP-2) agreement was inked on between the World Bank, the Government of India, the Central Water Commission, and government representatives from 10 participating states. The project will be implemented at the national level through the Central Water Commission (CWC).

At the state level, approximately 120 dams will be undertaken across the states of Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Odisha, Rajasthan, and Tamil Nadu. Other states or agencies may be added to the project during project implementation.

Other important measures that DRIP-2 will support include flood forecasting systems and integrated reservoir operations that will contribute to building climate resilience; the preparation and implementation of Emergency Action Plans to enable vulnerable downstream communities to prepare for and enhance resilience against the possible negative impacts and risks of climate change; and the piloting of supplemental revenue generation schemes such as floating solar panels.

Note:

  • World Bank Headquarters: Washington, D.C., United States.
  • World Bank Formation: July 1944.
  • World Bank President: David Malpass.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) to Install Nearly 200 Agro-Automatic Weather Stations for Farmers' Benefit


 The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has undertaken installation of Agro-Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) at 200 places to provide exact weather forecasts to people, especially farmers, the Parliament was informed on Tuesday.

The 200 Agro-AWS installations were done at District Agromet Units (DAMUs) located in the Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) network, to augment block-level Agromet Advisory Services (AAS) under the Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa (GKMS) scheme, Union Minister of State Science & Technology and Earth Sciences Dr Jitendra Singh told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

Weather-based operational AAS viz GKMS scheme, rendered by the IMD jointly with the ICAR and State Agricultural Universities, is a step towards weather-based crop and livestock management strategies and operations for the benefit of the farming community in the country, he said.

Under the scheme, medium-range weather forecast at district and block level is generated and based on the forecast, agromet advisories are prepared and communicated by the Agromet Field Units (AMFUs) co-located with state Agricultural Universities, and DAMUs at KVKs to the farmers every Tuesday and Friday.

These Agromet Advisories help farmers to make decisions on day-to-day agricultural operations, which can further optimise the application of input resources at the farm level during deficient rainfall situations and extreme weather events to reduce monetary loss and maximise crop yield.

The IMD also monitors rainfall situations and weather aberrations and issues alerts and warnings to the farmers from time to time under the GKMS scheme. SMS-based alerts and warnings for extreme weather events, along with suitable remedial measures, are issued to take timely operations by the farmers. Such alerts and warnings are also shared with state Agriculture Departments for the effective management of calamities.

Agromet Advisories are communicated to the farmers through multi-channel dissemination systems like print and electronic media, Doordarshan, radio, internet etc. including SMS using mobile phones through Kisan Portal launched by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare and also through private companies under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model.

At present, 43.37 million farmers in the country receive the Agromet Advisories through SMS directly. KVKs of the ICAR has also given links to the respective district-level advisory in their web portal, the Minister said.

Mobile App 'Meghdoot' has also been launched by the Ministry of Earth Sciences to help the farmers to get the weather information including alerts and related Agromet Advisories specific to their districts, he added

Free Online Training Programme - "NUTRISMART FISH to Boost the Nutritional Security of the Rural Women" Conducted by MANAGE, Hyderabad

 NUTRISMART FISH to Boost the Nutritional Security of the Rural Women 

Date: 10/08/2021 to 12/08/2021

Venue: Online(No Fee), ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore, Kolkata, West Bengal

Objectives :

  • To orient the target group about “NutriSmart” fish species and induct the participants about the potential of fish as a nutrient rich food item to meet the ‘Hidden Hunger"

Content: 

  • An introduction to the activities of ICAR-CIFRI; Assessment of nutritional needs of Rural people with special emphasis on women; Importance of nutritional intervention during prenatal and postnatal stage(1000 days) to improve Childhood development; Common nutrient deficiency disorders in women and preventive measure using plant, animal and fish products; Fish as health food; Orientation on ‘Nutria-smart’ fish species; SIF to boost nutritional security –CIFRI’s experience; ‘Nutrifish’ –a potential avenue for livelihood security; “Nutrifish” to address ‘Hidden hunger’; Nutritional requirement-based value addition on fish and fishery products;Cost effective nutrition sensitive innovations to address nutritional security; Innovations in agricultural extension and MANAGE initiatives

Methodology:

1. Course will be offered through online live sessions and the link will be sent to the participants e-mail 2. Selection of candidates: The participants will be selected as per the eligibility defined for the programme 

3. Last Date for Applying online: 6th August, 2021, 5:30 pm

 4. Online examination: An online examination will be conducted on 8th August, 2021, 4:00-4:30 pm in which the participants has to respond 25 multiple choice questions through Google forms. 

5. Issuing of certificate A digital certificate will be issued to the participants after fulfilling following criteria * Full time attendance * Minimum 40% score in online exam

 6. Program Feedback: The participants have to rate each session as a feedback which will be incorporated through online mode

To whom:

Faculty/students of Fishery Universities, Scholars, Students and SMS (Fishery Science), ICAR Institutes, Fishery Colleges, SAUs, KVKs and State Fishery Officers are eligible to apply

Click the link to apply : https://www.manage.gov.in/trgModule/emailRegn.asp?tpno=ELF&tpyear=FDFE


New Scheme "Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Produce Organizations (FPOs)" launched by GOI

The Government of India has launched a new Central Sector Scheme called the “Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Produce Organizations (FPOs)”.

  • The scheme has been launched with a clear strategy and committed resources in order to form and promote 10,000 new FPOs across India.
  • For the making of FPOs, Rs 6865 crore have been allocated

The scheme launched for:

  • The scheme has been launched because, the agriculture sector plays a crucial role in economic development and Nation building. The country is also be at the forefront in the development of agriculture across the world.
  • Further, India wants to double its agricultural export by 2022.
  • But, more than 86% of farmers in India are small and marginal. They need the facilities of improved technology, better input, credit, and more markets in order to incentivize them. It would help them to produce better quality commodity.
  • Thus, if these small, marginal and landless farmers are aggregated into FPOs, it would help them to enhance the economic strength & market linkages of farmers. This in turn will help in enhancing their income

About FPOs Scheme:

  • This is a Central Sector Scheme which receives funding from Government of India.
  • FPOs will be developed in produce clusters.
  • In the FPOs, agricultural and horticultural produces will be grown and cultivated to leverage the economies of scale.
  • It will also improve the market access for members.
  • Further, “One District One Product” cluster will be created to promote specialization.
  • Under this scheme, the formation & Promotion of FPOs will be done with the help of Implementing Agencies (IAs).

Implementing Agencies (IAs)
  1. Small Farmers Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC),
  2. National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD),
  3. National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC),
  4. North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation Limited (NERAMAC),
  5. Small Farmers Agri-Business Consortium Haryana (SFACH),
  6. National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED),
  7. Watershed Development Department (WDD)- Karnataka
  8. Tamil Nadu-Small Farmers Agri-Business Consortium (TN-SFAC) and
  9. Foundation for Development of Rural Value Chains (FDRVC)- Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD).

These IAs will engage the Cluster Based Business Organizations (CBBOs) to aggregate, registered and provide the handholding support to each FPOs. The support will be provided for a period of 5 years.

Ministry of State said the "Centre has not implemented any farm loan waiver scheme since 'Agriculture Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme (ADWDRS), 2008 "

 The government on Monday said there is no proposal under consideration to waive loans of farmers, including Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe farmers. In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad said the Centre has not implemented any farm loan waiver scheme since 'Agriculture Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme (ADWDRS), 2008'.

"There is no proposal under consideration of the Government of India to waive off the loans of farmers including Schedule ..

Karad also listed major initiatives taken by the government and the Reserve Bank of India to reduce the debt burden of farmers and for welfare of the people engaged in agriculture, including those belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

He cited schemes like interest subvention for short-term crop loans of up to Rs 3 lakh, RBI's decision to raise the limit for collateral-free agriculture loan from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.6 lakh, and direct income support of Rs 6,000 per year to farmers under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi.

Agricultural ministry said Indian government aims to create a national database of farmers

 Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Friday (30.07.2021) said the government aims to create a national database of farmers and is also in the process of bringing out a data policy for the farm sector. In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Tomar said, "The government aims to create a federated National Farmers Database and the digitised land records will be used as data attributes for creating this database. To bring dynamism to the farmer's database, the linkage with digital land record management system is essential."


As of now, he said, the federated farmers' database is being built by taking the publicly available data as existing in the Department of Agriculture and in various data silos in government and linking them with the digitised land records.


"This Department...in consultation with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is in the process of bringing out a data policy for the agriculture sector," Tomar said.

The database is envisaged to facilitate online single sign on facilities for universal access and usher in personalised services to farmers such as direct benefit transfer, soil and plant health advisories, weather advisories, irrigation facilities, and seamless credit and insurance facilities.

It will also provide information pertaining to seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, nearby logistic facilities, market access information and peer to peer lending of farm equipment, among others.

"The aim is to increase farmers' income by leveraging the available data and developing solutions based on the data so that the input costs are reduced, ease of farming is ensured, quality is improved and farmers get better price for their farm produce," Tomar said.

The Unified Farmers Service Interface/Agristack will have a data exchange which would bring in all data related to agriculture sector in a federated platform with the federated farmers database as its core.

In order to create UFSI/Agristack, the department is in the process of finalising 'India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture (IDEA)' which will lay down a framework for the digital agriculture sector in the country.

"A Task Force has been constituted and in furtherance, a concept paper on IDEA has already been floated for comments from the general public not only through department's website but also through emails especially to subject matter specialists, agro-industry, farmers, Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs)," Tomar said.

The IDEA would help in laying down the architecture for the Agristack in the country and that would serve as a foundation to build innovative agri-focused solutions leveraging emerging technologies, the minister added.

Mobile App Platform for Farm Machinery Solution- FARMS Mobile App By Government of India

This Multi-language Mobile App platform 'FARMS- Farm Machinery Solutions' will facilitate local farmers and citizens of the different States across the country with the Custom hiring services of Farm Machinery Banks, Custom Hiring Centers (CHC) and Hi-tech Hubs established under the various Schemes of DAC&FW, MoA&FW without any computer support system. 
  • This app will help the individual farmers, willing to provide their agricultural machinery & equipments on rental basis to increase their farm income beside making the optimum utilization of the available Agricultural machineries available in CHCs/FMBs/Hi-tech Machinery Hubs. 
  • This app will provide a platform for sell and purchase of old agriculture machinery to farmers also.



Registration: 
1) Who can register on this App? 
  • Both CHC Owners (Farmers, Societies and Entrepreneurs) and CHC Users/Farmers can register. For Govt. CHC the state/ district officer may be registered through state nodal officer on FM DBT portal (agrimachinery.nic.in) 
2) Is an OTP required? 
  • Yes. A six digit OTP received on your mobile number provided at the time of registration is required. If OTP is not received, user can select the option to resend it. Also, ensure that network connection is available in your area. Please note that, the OTP received on mobile will not be auto filled as per Google Play Store policy. The user has to fill it manually. 
3) If your District/Sub-District/Village does not appear in dropdown list? 
  • Kindly contact your concerned State/District/Block level nodal officer. State/District/Block level nodal officer will send the District wise Sub-Districts, Village details list in an excel sheet on email id: support-agrimech@gov.in 

OR
The App can be downloaded from Google play store by searching “FARMS” or “FARMS Farm Machinery Solutions” 

PM Formalisation of Micro food processing Enterprises Scheme (PM FME Scheme) for providing financial, technical and business support for upgradation of existing micro food processing enterprises.

Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), in partnership with the States, has launched an all India centrally sponsored "PM Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Scheme (PM FME Scheme)" for providing Financial, technical and business support for upgradation of existing micro food processing enterprises. 

The objectives of the scheme are : 

(i) Support for capital investment for upgradation and formalization with registration for GST, FSSAI hygiene standards and Udyog Aadhar;

 (ii) Capacity building through skill training, imparting technical knowledge on food safety, standards & hygiene and quality improvement; 

(iii) Hand holding support for preparation of DPR, availing bank loan and upgradation;

(iv) Support to Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), Self Help Groups (SHGs), producers cooperatives for capital investment, common infrastructure and support branding and marketing. 


One District One Product 

The Scheme adopts One District One Product (ODOP) approach to reap the benefit of scale in terms of procurement of inputs, availing common services and marketing of products. 
ODOP for the scheme will provide the framework for value chain development and alignment of support infrastructure. There may be more than one cluster of ODOP product in one district. There may be cluster of ODOP product consisting of more than one adjacent district in a State.
The scheme would also support strengthening of backward and forward linkages, provision of common facilities, incubation centres, training, R&D, marketing & branding, provision of which would primarily be for ODOP products.

Upgradation of Individual Micro Food Processing 

  • Units Individual micro food processing units desirous of upgradation of their unit can avail credit-linked capital subsidy @35% of the eligible project cost with a maximum ceiling of Rs.10 lakh per unit. The beneciar y contribution should be minimum 10% and the balance should be loan from a Bank.

  • Support to FPOs / SHGs / Cooperatives The scheme would provide support t o F P O s/ S H G s/ P r o d u c e r Cooperatives for capital investment along the entire value chain with credit linked grant @ 35%. Seed Capital to SHG Seed capital @ Rs. 40,000/- per SHG member would be provided to those engaged in food processing for working capital and purchase of small tools. Seed capital as grant would be provided to the SHG federation which, in turn, would be extended to members as loan through the SHGs.
  • Common Infrastructure Credit linked grant @35% would be provided to FPOs, SHGs, cooperatives, State owned agencies and private entrepreneurs for development of common infrastructure including common processing facility, lab, warehouse, cold storage, packaging and incubation center
Branding and Marketing Support:
  •  Marketing and branding support would be provided at State or regional level to FPOs/ SHGs/ Cooperatives or an SPV of micro food processing enterprises under the scheme following the ODOP approach for developing common packaging & branding with provision for quality control, standardization and adhering to food safety parameters for consumer retail sale. These organisations would be supported based on DPR prepared by them and recommended by the State Nodal Agency. 
  • Support for branding and marketing would be limited to 50% of the total expenditure. Procedure for applying Existing food processing units desirous of seeking assistance could apply online on FME portal. The Resource Persons (RPs) engaged for eld level support would provide handholding support for preparation of DPR, availing bank loan, obtaining necessary registration and licences including food standards of FSSAI, Udyog Aadhar and GST.
  •  Applications for support for FPOs / SHGs / cooperatives, common infrastructure and marketing & branding could be submitted to the State Nodal Agency (SNA) along with a DPR. The SNA would appraise the project and recommend it for bank loan. Grant by the Government would be deposited in the account of beneciary in the lending bank. If after a period of three years from the disbursement of last tranche of the loan, the beneciary account is still standard and the Unit is operational, this amount would be adjusted in the bank account of beneficiary. 
Upgradation of Processing Units 

Individual Category: Individual micro food processing units would be extended credit-linked capital subsidy @35% of the eligible project cost for expansion/ technology upgradation with a maximum ceiling of Rs.10 lakh per unit. The beneficiary contribution should be minimum 10% and the balance should be loan from a Bank.

 Eligibility criteria:

 (i) Individual / Partnership Firm with ownership right of the enterprise; 
(ii) Existing micro food processing units in the survey or verified by the Resource Person; 
(iii) The applicant should be above 18 years of age and should possess at least VIII standard pass educational qualification;
 (iv) Only one person from one family is eligible for obtaining financial assistance. The “family” for this purpose would include self, spouse and children.

Group Category: 

The Scheme would provide support in clusters to groups such as FPOs/ SHGs/ producer cooperatives along their entire value chain. SHGs / FPOs / Producer Cooperatives would be provided the following support:- 
   (i) Grant @35% with credit linkage for capital investment with maximum limit as prescribed; 
  (ii) Training support;
  (iii) Support for marketing and branding for products under ODOP for developing common brand.

Eligibility Criteria: 
(i) It should be engaged in processing of ODOP produce for at least three years; 
(ii) In case of FPOs / cooperatives, they should have minimum turnover of Rs.1 crore and the cost of the project proposed should not be larger than the present turnover; 
(iii) The SHG / cooperative / FPO should have sufficient internal resources to meet 10% of the project cost and margin money for working capital.
 

Completed Application forms can be submitted either directly to the State Nodal Agencies or through the District Nodal contacts mentioned below

List of State Nodal Points for Application Submission
List of District Nodal Points for Application Submission

 Application Procedure

The State Nodal Agencies will now be accepting applications for Cooperatives, FPOs, SHGs and Common Infrastructure under the PMFME Scheme in physical form. Following documents need to be submitted by the beneficiaries and would be recommended by the State Nodal Authorities to MOFPI for availing credit-linked subsidy.


  1. Signed Hard Copy of the Completed Application Form (pdf).
  2. Soft copy of the Completed Application Form (Excel).
  3. Supporting Documents for application.
  4. Detailed Project Report in PDF or word format.

For further information check official website https://mofpi.nic.in/pmfme/index.html

Admission for B.Tech.(Food Tech.) -2021 at Indian Institute for Food Processing Technology ( IIFPT ), Thanjavur

Admission for B.Tech.(Food Tech.) at IIFPT is based on All India Rank in JEE (Main) through JoSAA 2021

Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology (IIFPT) is a renowned premier Institution in education and research in the field of food processing, functioning under the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), Government of India. The institute has its origin way back in 1967, as an R&D laboratory in the Modern Rice Mill complex of Thanjavur Co-operative Marketing Federation (TCMF) at Tiruvarur. During 2017, the institute rechristened as Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology (IIFPT). 

Academic Programmes 

Undergraduate Programme 

B.Tech. (Food Technology) – 4 years (8 semesters) 

Postgraduate Programmes 

M.Tech. (Food Technology) in Food Process Engineering – 2 years (4 semesters) 

M.Tech. (Food Technology) in Food Process Technology – 2 years (4 semesters) 

M.Tech. (Food Technology) in Food Safety & Quality Assurance – 2 years (4 semesters) 

Doctoral Programmes 

Ph.D. (Food Technology) in Food Process Engineering – 3 years (6 semesters) 

Ph.D. (Food Technology) in Food Process Technology – 3 years (6 semesters)

Facilities at IIFPT

  • FSSAI Referral & NABL Accredited Laboratory
  • Computational Modeling and Nanoscale processing Unit
  • Centre of Excellence in Non-Thermal Processing
  • Centre for Excellence in Grain Sciences
  • Food Processing Business Incubation Centre
  • State of the art AICTE approved Teaching & Research Labs
  • Placement in Food industries

Departments at IIFPT
  •  Food Engineering
  •  Food Packaging & System Development 
  •  Food Product Development 
  •  Food Safety & Quality Testing
  •  Food Biotechnology
  •  Primary Processing, Storage & Handling
  •  Computational Modeling & Nanoscale Processing Unit 
  •  Technology Dissemination
  •  Incubation Centre 
  •  Workshop & Fabrication Unit
  •  Academics & Human Resource Development 
  •  Centre for Excellence in Grain Science
  •  Industry Academia Cell
  •  Centre of Excellence in Non-Thermal Processing
  •  Computer Centre 
  •  Planning & Monitoring Cell 
  •  Administrative Office
  •  Supporting Unit

B.Tech. (Food Technology)

Eligibility:

  •  Only those candidates who have appeared in JEE (Main)-2021 (Paper-1) will be eligible for getting admission at IIFPT. 
Admission 

  •  The admission is carryout in the Joint Seat Allocation Authority 2021(JoSAA2021) through on line portal based on the JEE(Mains). 

Total No. of Seats: 90

For further details check official website http://www.iifpt.edu.in/ug.php

M.Tech & Ph.D admission details click here



Study M.Tech & Ph.D (Food Technology)-2021 at Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology, Thanjavur.




Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology ( IIFPT )is a renowned premier Institution in education and research in the field of food processing, functioning under the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), Government of India. The institute has its origin way back in 1967, as an R&D laboratory in the Modern Rice Mill complex of Thanjavur Co-operative Marketing Federation (TCMF) at Tiruvarur. During 2017, the institute rechristened as Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology (IIFPT).

Admission opening for Postgraduate Programmes - 2021 
  • M.Tech. (Food Technology) in Food Process Engineering – 2 years (4 semesters) 
  • M.Tech. (Food Technology) in Food Process Technology – 2 years (4 semesters) 
  • M.Tech. (Food Technology) in Food Safety & Quality Assurance – 2 years (4 semesters) 
  • Ph.D. (Food Technology) in Food Process Engineering – 3 years (6 semesters) 
  • Ph.D. (Food Technology) in Food Process Technology – 3 years (6 semesters)
M.Tech Programme:

Eligibility:
  • Candidate should have passed a 4 years B.E. / B.Tech. degree in any of the following discipline like Food Technology / Food Process Engineering / Agricultural Engineering / Agricultural and Food Engineering / Food Technology and Management / Food Processing and Preservation Technology / Dairy Technology/ Food Science and Technology / Food Process Technology /Post Harvest Technology / Fisheries Engineering.
  • A candidate who has undergone course credit system with a minimum OGPA of 3.00 out of 4.00 or 7.00 out of 10 or 70% aggregate alone is eligible to apply. However for SC/ST candidates a pass in the qualifying degree is sufficient. 
Selection Criteria:  
  • Selection is purely based on merit basis only. 
  • Ranking will be done based on undergraduate marks (30% weightage) and IIFPT Entrance Examination-2021 (70% weightage). 
  •  IIFPT Entrance Examination-2021 will be conducted at IIFPT Thanjavur main campus or through online. 
  • Reservation policy based on government norms.
Ph.D Programme:
Eligibility: 
  • Should have passed a 4 years bachelors degree and a 2 years M.E. / M.Tech degree in any of the following discipline like Food Technology / Food Process Engineering / Agricultural and Food Engineering / Food Technology and Management / Food Processing and Preservation Technology / Food Science and Technology / Food Process Technology / Post Harvest Technology / Agricultural Process Engineering / Food Safety and Quality Assurance / Processing and Food Engineering. 
  • A candidate who has undergone course credit system with a minimum OGPA of 3.00 out of 4.00 or 7.00 out of 10 or 70% aggregate alone is eligible to apply. However for SC/ST candidates a pass in the qualifying degree is sufficient. 
Selection Criteria:  
  • Selection is purely based on merit basis only. 
  • Ranking will be done based on undergraduate & postgraduate marks and IIFPT Entrance Examination-2021 followed by Personal interview 
  • IIFPT Entrance Examination-2021 and Personal interview will be conducted at IIFPT Thanjavur main campus or through online. Reservation policy based on government norms.
General instructions for online Application for M.Tech. and Ph.D. 

1.A candidate shall apply for any subjects in Master /Doctoral programs based on the eligibility criteria. Separate fee is to be remitted for each subject. 

2. All applicants should apply by ONLINE ONLY (www.iifpt.edu.in) till 12.00 midnight on or before 20.8.2021 for Masters and Ph.D. programs. 

3. The application fee should be paid online by e-Payment in the link (in official website) for all degree programmes.

M.Tech & Ph.D Programmes IIFPT Entrance Exam Syllabus 

Registration and submission of online application: http://iifpt.edu.in/olapp/forms/adm/Adm2021.php