Dr Ritu Mittal Gupta, Principal Scientist and Unit Coordinator, All India Coordinated Research Project-Women In Agriculture, has joined as Head, Department of Extension Education and Communication Management (EECM) at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU). With over 20 years of experience, Dr Gupta has made notable contributions in teaching, research and extension.
Throughout her career, Dr Ritu has guided 12 M.Sc/Ph.D students and taught 127 UG/PG courses. She has published more than 162 scientific and extension works including 66 research papers in national and international journals, 11 book chapters, 28 extension publications and several manuals. She has also presented 42 research papers in various national/international conferences/seminars and delivered nine radio/TV talks during this period. Additionally, she has organized 88 trainings and 50 camps/campaigns for the rural community, besides conducting 32 workshops/conferences for faculty and students.
Dr Ritu has successfully handled seven externally funded research projects including four as Principal Investigator. She along with her AICRP-WIA team has successfully established five Customer Hiring Centres for capacity building of rural women and signed five MOAs besides establishing more than 500 kitchen gardens in various adopted villages. She has also served on coveted positions such as Nodal officer to Dean, PGS; Convener, Prize distribution during various events in PAU; Convener, College reports during all these years, in addition to organizing Orientation-cum-Induction training programme for the new recruits in PAU since 2013. To her credit, she has conducted first empirical test to Test Information Manipulation Theory in India and has recently applied for Copy Right for her work on “Documentation of Successful Agrientrepreneurs in Punjab.” She has been awarded “Academic Excellence Award” by the Institute of Scholars, MSME, reflecting her significant contributions to her field.