Himalayan News Service

Ahmedabad, June 1:

Girja Sharan, a professor with the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), has won the Global Development Marketplace 2005 award for developing an ‘Arid Area Greenhouse’.

“DM-2005”, a global competition organised by the World Bank, attracted 2600 entries from 38 countries. The award includes a plaque and $150,000.

Sharan, an agricultural engineer, founded the Cummins-IIM-A Laboratory of Environmental Technologies for Arid Areas in Kothara, in Kutch, and the Long-term Program of Management of Technology in Arid Areas, at the IIM-A. The “Arid Area Greenhouse” (AAG) is a cultivation technology specially developed to suit the conditions in hot and extremely arid regions like the border district of Kutch where water is scarce, soils are salt-effected, ambient temperatures high, and rainfall low.