1. ICAR invites all Indian NARIs and universities to join CIARD 

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has formally invited all ICAR Institutes and all Universities to join the “Coherence in Information for Agricultural Research for Development” (CIARD) initiative (http://www.ciard.net) and register their services in the CIARD RING (http://ring.ciard.net). 

This decision follows a specific recommendation formulated in a meeting on “Information and Communication Technology” held at ICAR in November 2010 under the Chairmanship of Dr. S. Ayyappan, Secretary of the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) and DG of ICAR. The recommendation stated that “All ICAR institutes and SAUs should be linked to CIARD”. 

This is a big step forward in making the CIARD agenda officially endorsed at the national level. 

2. Chinese versions of the CIARD and CIARD RING websites coming soon

GFAR is pleased to announce that the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) is becoming actively involved in the CIARD initiative. Beside agreeing on hosting the upcoming CIARD Workshop at CAAS in June 2011 (more on this to come in the next issues of our e-news), the Academy has provided the full Chinese translations of the CIARD and CIARD RING websites, which will be on line soon. 

The Chinese versions of the CIARD and RING websites will have a crucial role in advocacy for coherence in information management in China and in encouraging Chinese Institutions to register their services in the RING.