Dr. Nitish Ranjan Prakash

Details of Employment:

Education:

Current Area of Research:

• Collection, maintenance and evaluation of salt and submergence tolerant rice germplasm of coastal India.
• Development of rice varieties suited for coastal ecologies through classical as well as molecular breeding approaches
• Understanding genetics of seedling and reproductive stage salinity tolerance, anaerobic germination, lodging tolerance, low arsenic uptake and submergence tolerance in rice using genome-wide association studies, Meta-QTL analysis and biparental QTL mapping.

Research Projects:

Ongoing (In-house): 1

• Development of rice genotypes with tolerance to coastal salinity. (NRMACSSRISIL202101201033) – Principal Investigator (2021-2024)

Ongoing (Externally Funded): 2

• Morphological and molecular characterization of salt tolerant coastal rice landraces. (DST-SERB) – Principal Investigator (2022-2024)
• Securing the Asian mega-deltas from sea-level rise, flooding, salinization and water insecurity (CGIAR-Funded) – Co-Principal Investigator (2022-2025)

Completed (In-house): 1

• Exploring production potential of Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) under saline Agro-ecosystems of India. (NRMACSSRISlL202002401015) – Co-Principal Investigator (2020-2023)

Particulars of prizes/medals/scholarships in academic field

• P. Rangasamy Gold Medal in the year 2014 for Highest marks in ‘Plant Breeding subjects’ in B.Sc.(Agriculture) by AC & RI, TNAU, Madurai
• “Bihar Gaurav Samman” by Dept. of Education, Govt. of Bihar in 2014 for securing 3^rd rank in ICAR-JRF (Plant sciences).
• “Cumbum M. S. Roja Begum Award” for becoming Best B.Sc.(Agri.) student of Madurai Campus in the year 2015 by TNAU, Coimbatore
• Received ICAR-JRF, ICAR-IARI Merit Fellowship, CSIR-JRF, CSIR-SRF during academic life from UG to Ph.D.

Training Attended: (9) –Five Recent

• Training Programme on “Enhancing Pedagogical Competencies for Agricultural Education” being organized by NAAS, New Delhi from 25 – 30 September, 2023.
• Training Programme on Multivariate Data Analysis (On-line Mode) from 20-27 March, 2023 by ICAR-National Academy of Agricultural Research Management, Hyderabad
• Twenty one days CAFT Training (Centre for Advanced Faculty Training) on “Advances in statistical techniques for efficient agricultural experimentation” from 04.01.2023 to 24.01.2023 by ICAR-IASRI, New Delhi
• Online Training programme entitled “Prediction of Non-Coding RNA” during 16^th to 18^th February, 2022 at ICAR-Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, Library Avenue, Pusa, New Delhi.
• Online Training entitled “SNP Mining, GWAS and Genomic Selection” during 16^th to 21^st December, 2021 at ICAR-Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, Library Avenue, PUSA, New Delhi.

Professional recognition:

List of publications

Research paper (12): Best five

• Prakash, N.R., Zunjare, R., Muthusamy, V., Chand, G., Kamboj, M.C., Bhat, J.S. and Hossain, F. (2019). Genetic analysis of prolificacy in ‘Sikkim Primitive’ – a prolific maize (Zea mays) landrace of North-Eastern Himalaya. Plant Breeding, 138, 781–789. (NAAS-7.25)
• Prakash, N.R., Chhabra, R., Zunjare, R., Muthusamy, V., Hossain, F. (2020). Molecular characterization of teosinte branched1 gene governing branching architecture in cultivated maize and wild relatives. 3Biotech,10, 77. (NAAS-7.79)
• Anilkumar, C., Sah, R.P., Muhammed Azharudheen, T.P., Behera, S., Singh, N., Prakash, N. R., Sunitha, N.C., Devanna, B.N., Marndi, B.C., Patra, B.C., & Nair, S.K. (2022). Understanding complex genetic architecture of rice grain weight through QTL-meta analysis and candidate gene identification. Scientific Reports, 12(1), 1-13. [NAAS Rating – 10.996]
• Talukder, Z.A., Muthusamy, V., Chhabra, R., Bhatt, V., Reddappa, S.B., Mishra, S.J., Prakash, N.R., Kasana, R., Chauhan, H.S., Mehta, B.K., Guleria, S.K., Zunjare, R.U. & Hossain, F. (2022). Enrichment of amylopectin in sub-tropically adapted maize hybrids through genomics-assisted introgression of waxy1 gene encoding granule-bound starch synthase (GBSS). Journal of Cereal Science, 105, 103443. [NAAS Rating – 10.075]
• Prakash, N.R., Lokeshkumar, B.M., Rathor, S., Warraich, A.S., Yadav, S., Vinaykumar, N.M., Dushynthkumar, B.M., Krishnamurthy, S.L. & Sharma, P.C. (2022) Meta‐analysis and validation of genomic loci governing seedling and reproductive stage salinity tolerance in rice. Physiologia Plantarum, 174(1), e13629. [NAAS rating – 12.4]

Review Paper (7): Best two

• Jayaswal, D., Priyadarshini, P., Tilgam, J., Choudhury, S., Yadav, V.K., Noonjingarakuzhi, S.N.,, Kumar, D., Prakash, N.R. & Kumar, K. (2022). Achievements of agricultural biotechnology: An initiative to double the farmer’s income through cutting edge technology. Indian Journal of Biochemistry and Biophysics (IJBB), 59(8), 793-799. [NAAS Rating – 7.92]
• Kumar, P., Choudhary, M., Halder, T., Prakash, N.R., Singh, V., Vineeth, T.V., Sheoran, S., Longmei, N., Rakshit, S. & Siddique, K.H.M. (2022). Salinity stress tolerance and omics approaches: Revisiting the progress and achievements in major cereal crops. Heredity, 128(6), 497-518. [NAAS Rating – 9.832]

Book published: 1

Number of Popular Article published: 11

Number of conference/symposia attended: 13