Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture & Technology (GBPUA&T, Pantnagar University or simply "Pantnagar") is the first agricultural university of India. It was inaugurated by Jawaharlal Nehru on 17 November 1960 as the Uttar Pradesh Agricultural University (UPAU). Later the name was changed to Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology in 1972 in memory of the great freedom fighter Govind Ballabh Pant. The University was declared as the best among all the other State Universities in India, in 1997. The University lies in the campus-town of Pantnagar in the district of Udham Singh Nagar in the state of Uttarakhand. The university is regarded as the harbinger of Green Revolution in India. The first Education Commission of India (1949) headed by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan recommended setting up rural universities in India on American land-grant model. Uttar Pradesh (UP), under chief-ministership of Govind Ballabh Pant, took the first step and in 1954 invited an Indo- American team headed by Dr K R Damle, the Vice-President of ICAR, to consider an area around Tarai State farm in Nainital district as a possible site for a rural university.