Dr. Simson Soren
The goat is one of the earliest domesticated animals in livestock farming. It is a multifunctional animal, providing meat, milk and wool and it gains much importance among the landless, small and marginal farmers in our country due to its higher prolificacy and short generation interval. Goat rearing is a great economic support to a large section of the population in rural areas and it is because of this that the goat is known as a ‘Poor Man’s Cow’. The very important characteristics of goats is their efficient survival abilities in adverse harsh environments and in poor quality land where very few crops can be grown, they can efficiently survive with poor quality available shrubs and trees. In many parts of our country, the goat has a religious and ritualistic importance and also in ceremonial feastings and for the payment of social dues.

Rajiv Roy
The recently held International Conference ‘India’s North Eastern States and Eastern Neighbors: Engaging for Connectivity, Culture and Prosperity by An Intelligent Third Space’ organized by Divya Jeevan Foundation, Asian Confluence and Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), Union Ministry of External Affairs at Shillong last December has some vital points to ponder upon even as it was argued that the notion of the north east region of India being a neglected region is nothing more than a myth.
Ambassador Ranjit Gupta, ICWA who participated in the conference emphasized on seven important steps that civil society institutions could and should initiate.

Dr Kiran Thakur
Economic importance of any organism refers to the advantages and disadvantages of that organism to nature, the humans and the environment. Bacteria are unicellular and ultra-microscopic organisms, yet they play an important role in nature. They are of tremendous importance to man. They play an important role in agriculture, dairy and medicine and are the basis of many industries. Some are beneficial to man directly or indirectly, others are very harmful as they cause various plant and animal diseases. Bacteria are considered as our friends and foes due to their beneficial and harmful activities. The versatility of microbial biosynthesis is enormous. The most industrially important primary metabolites are the amino acids, nucleotides, vitamins, solvents, and organic acids. Microbially produced secondary metabolites are extremely important to our health and nutrition. Other important pharmaceutical products produced by microorganisms are hypocholesterolemic agents, enzyme inhibitors, immune suppressants and antitumor compounds, some having markets of over 1 billion dollars per year. Agriculturally important secondary metabolites include coccidiostats, animal growth promotants, antihelmintics and biopesticides. The modern biotechnology industry has made a major impact in the business world, biopharmaceuticals (recombinant protein drugs, vaccines and monoclonal antibodies) having a market of 15 billion dollars. Recombinant DNA technology has also produced a revolution in agriculture and has markedly increased markets for microbial enzymes.

Dr. Simsom Soren
Food security is a great challenge globally. As the population increases the demand of food also increases. Day by day the cultivation land and grazing field decreases due to urbanization or industrialization. One of the greatest challenges is to fulfil the demand of the population. Different techniques are employed to grow vegetable for human food as well as nutritious grasses for livestock by Hydroponics technique (is a subset of hydroculture and is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions, in water, without soil) with very limited areas. To fulfil the demand of food, the livestock sector plays a major role and its improvement and development is very necessary through scientific as well as tradition methods. To increase the egg production many scientific techniques are already in full flash, with very limited space thousand of layer bird can be kept. Slaughter techniques and food preservation for long duration also employed through scientific methodology. The traditional methods of animal husbandry and food preservation are also important.