The B.Sc. - Botany honours programme is designed to equip students with essential knowledge and technical skills to study plants in a holistic manner. Students would be trained in all areas of plant biology using a unique combination of core and elective papers with significant interdisciplinary components. Students would be exposed to cutting-edge technologies that are currently used in the study of plant life forms, their evolution and interactions with other organisms within the ecosystem. Students would also become aware of the social and environmental significance of plants and their relevance to the national economy.

a) Discipline Specific Core (DSC): Discipline Specific Core is a course of study, which should be pursued by a student as a mandatory requirement of his/her programme of study. DSCs shall be the core credit courses of that particular discipline which will be appropriately graded and arranged across the semesters of study, being undertaken by the student, with multiple exit options as per NEP 2020. The DSCs specified in the framework would be identified by the concerned Department as core courses to be taught in a Programme.

b) Discipline Specific Elective (DSE): The Discipline Specific Electives (DSEs) shall be a pool of credit courses of that particular discipline (single discipline programme of study) or those disciplines (multidisciplinary programme of study), as the case may be, which a student chooses to study from his/her particular discipline(s). There shall be a pool of DSEs from which a student may choose a course of study. The DSEs specified in the framework would be identified by the concerned Department as elective courses to be taught in a Programme. For example, to pursue B.Sc. (Honours) Physics, DSEs chosen should be from a pool of DSEs of Physics. Similarly, to pursue B.Sc. (Honours) Life Sciences programme, the DSEs chosen should be a pool of courses of DSEs of Botany, Zoology and Chemistry, the core subjects for this programme of study.

B.Sc. Programme in Life Sciences is designed to afford a skeletal structure within which the programme can be developed to suit the need of the hour, in keeping with the emergence of new areas of life sciences through interdisciplinary approach. The B.Sc. Programme in Life Sciences programme covers a wide range of basic and applied aspects of botany, zoology and chemistry courses as well as courses of interdisciplinary nature. The core courses that are a part of the programme are designed to build knowledge base in the student, and furthermore, acquaints the students with the applied aspects of this fascinating discipline as well. The student is thus equipped to pursue higher studies, and to apply the skills learnt in the programme to solving practical societal problems. The programme offers a wide range of elective courses of botany, zoology and chemistry. These include skill enhancement courses that prepare the student for an eventual job in academia or industry.

These three courses shall be a pool of courses offered by all the Departments in groups of odd and even semesters from which students can choose.

(i). AEC courses are the courses based upon the content that leads to knowledge enhancement through various areas of study. They are Language and Literature and Environmental Science and Sustainable Development which will be mandatory for all disciplines.

(ii). SEC are skill-based courses in all disciplines and are aimed at providing hands-ontraining, competencies, proficiency and skills to students. SEC courses may be chosen from a pool of courses designed to provide skill-based instruction. Every discipline may provide skill based courses, some of which may be offered to students of its discipline while the rest can be open to students of all other 1 disciplines .

(iii). VAC courses are common pool of courses offered by different disciplines and aimed towards personality building; embedding ethical, cultural and constitutional values; promote critical thinking, Indian Knowledge Systems, scientific temperament, communication skills, creative writing, presentation skills, sports & physical education and team work which will help in all round development of students.