Advisors Team

Dr. Pranjib K. Chakrabarty

Dr. Pranjib K. Chakrabarty is a member of ASRB & also served ICAR in various capacities. He was the Asst Director General -Plant Protection & Biosafety at ICAR. Dr Chakrabarty did pioneering research on molecular basis of plant-pathogen interaction and signal transduction of disease resistance for five years at University of Florida, Gainesville and University of Missouri-Columbia in Columbia, USA. He is also an adjunct faculty of the University of Florida, USA. His Key Research Achievements included a patent on ready-to-use PCR detection kit for detection of Xanthomonas malvacearum. He has developed 6 gene constructs for cotton transformation. He is recipient of a number of academic and professional awards and Fellowships, and Fellow of a number of prestigious Professional Societies. He was President of Indian Society of Mycology and Plant Pathology for two years and is currently the President of the prestigious Indian Phytopathological Society, New Delhi. He published 73 gene sequences in GenBank

Prof. Arjula Ramachandra Reddy

Prof. Arjula Ramachandra Reddy is a distinguished scientist, academic administrator, and an Institution builder. He presently serves as the chairman of ATC Biotechnologies. He is the founder Vice- Chancellor of Yogi Vemana University. He has also served as the Co- Chairman, GEAC (Genetic Engineering Approval Committee) and also the Chairman, “BT Brinjal Expert Committee”. He had worked at several world class institutions, like the Johns Hopkins University, USA, Purdue University, USA and the Max Planck Institute, Germany. He had established strong international Research Collaborations under major grants from Dept of Biotechnology, Govt. of India. He had successfully led and guided national and International projects in the area of Crop Biotechnology, Agriculture and biology. Dr A R Reddy comes with a lot of Administrative experience with different departments with the Government of India. He is a visiting professor with a lot of International education Institutions as teaching is what he loves the most. He has been conferred with may Honors, Awards and Distinctions

Ram Kaundinya

Ram Kaundinya is an expert in the field of management especially in the business of agriculture. He has a total corporate experience of about 36 years at very senior positions. He is an author, strategic management consultant, teacher and a policy analyst in India.

Mr Kaundinya is a graduate in Agricultural Sciences from the Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University & MBA IIM, Ahmedabad

Mr Kaundinya is highly respected and is a doyen in the agri inputs industry, having worked in the past as Managing Director of Advanta Ltd, Emergent Genetics India, Cyanamid Agro, and in Hoechst India as a senior leader.

He developed major area of expertise in Mergers and Acquisitions and expertise in cross cultural amalgamation of organizations and people.

He was the Chairman of the Crop Life India, Director of the Association of Seed Industry (ASI), the Chairman of the Agriculture Group of the Agricultural Group of the biotech industry association - ABLE. Served as a member of the MS Swaminathan Task Force that developed the biotechnology policy for Indian agriculture.

He has a wide experience in the area of policy advocacy for agricultural input industry and worked closely with the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India. Writes regularly in the print media about various agricultural matters of national importance with particular reference to the policy interventions.

Mr Kaundinya consults for companies and VC/PE funds operating in the field of agriculture. He is also an angel investor in startups.

He is on the boards of Axis Finance, Vasudhaika Software Solutions and NICR.

He is now the Director General of Federation of Seed Industry of India (FSII).

He co-founded ThinkAg, a platform to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in food and agri sectors.

Dr. Praveen Rao Velchala

Dr. Praveen Rao Velchala is the First Vice Chancellor of Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, since April, 2016 and is currently serving a second term. He is regarded as a prominent contributor to micro-irrigation scenario in India by conceiving, formulating and implementing the world’s largest micro irrigation project covering over 1.0 million ha under Agri-horticultural crops in the Southern States of Telangana & Andhra Pradesh. A strong believer in digital technology outreach to end users, his work in agro knowledge management contributed to developing digital knowledge material on 142 drip irrigated agri-horticultural crops that helped in creating new capabilities, decision criteria for diffusion and adoption, and enhanced stakeholder value. A dedicated academician, he has to his credit over 164 research papers in peer reviewed national & international Journals. Mentoring budding agronomists is a favorite past time and he stands as an inspiration to many of his students who worked for their masters and doctoral programs. His professional commitment has won him several accolades including7th MS Swamianthan Award of the RICAREA (2020), Leader with strategic vision bestowed by Agribusiness summit and Agri Awards 2019, Best Vice Chancellor 2018 by AIASA and IAUA, He is an active member of several international professional bodies viz., ASA, SSSA, CSSA, ASABE, ISHS etc and several technical and policy making think tanks related to agriculture and rural development in ICAR and Telangana State. Several Educational, Research and Extension reforms and Inter-institutional collaborations initiated by Dr. Rao as VC enabled the PJTSAU achieve top Rank in 2018 among SAUs in India within a short span of 4-years.

Dr. Nutan Kaushik

Dr. Nutan Kaushik has professional experience of over 25 years in R&D & teaching in the field of biotechnology, plant protection, natural products, analytical chemistry, and agriculture policy. Dr Kaushik is involved in project development and management, laboratory management, supervision and teaching of post graduate, Ph. D. students and researchers, training of other researchers, publication and grant writing. She has leveraged skills in analysing collected information comparing several types of research data and engaging in safe research activities; specializes in agro industrial research, having worked on development of biopesticides and on methods for monitoring environmental pollution.

Prof. Dr. Appa Rao Podile

Professor Appa Rao Podile has over 30 years of teaching and research experience. As a Senior Professor, Professor Podile works in the area of molecular plant microbe interactions in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Hyderabad. Professor Podile teaches microbiology, molecular plant pathology and microbial technology to Masters’ students.

Professor Podile is an elected Fellow of all major science academies of the country including Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi, National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad, Association of Microbiologists of India, New Delhi, the Andhra Pradesh Academy of Sciences and founding Fellow of Telangana Academy of Sciences, Hyderabad. Professor Podile served as President of Association of Microbiologists of India.

He has received many awards including J.C. Bose Fellowship from DST, Tata Innovation Fellowship from DBT, K.C. Mehta Memorial Award in Crop Protection, Rangaswami Award in Agricultural Microbiology, Outstanding Young Scientist Award. Professor Podile received Fulbright Fellowship to participate in Academic Leadership Seminar.

Prof. Podile has chaired/co-chaired important national level task force committees, program advisory committees, search committees etc. Besides being a member of the research advisory councils of scientific institutes of ICAR and DST he is also on the board of Governors of IIM, Trichy and AIUCAA, Pune. He is also the Chairman of Southern Regional Centre of AICTE.

Currently, his lab is supported through a SERB grant and J.C. Bose Fellowship from DST. He has published about 100 papers in peer-reviewed high impact journals with over 3900 citations with an H-index of 35.

Prof. M. S. Reddy

Dr.M S Reddy is a Professor in the Department of Entomology & Plant Pathology, Auburn University, a Ph. D. in Integrated Pest Management and PGPR from the Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University He has worked as a Scientist, Senior Scientist and R & D Global Manager for several industries such as ExxonMobil (Esso – Imperial Oil), Agrium, Cominco fertilizers, Allelix Inc. etc. in Canada for over 15 years

Dr MS Reddys‘ Research efforts have been recognized widely and he has been invited to several countries around the globe for presentations and research collaborations. Since 1987, he has sucessfully organizing International PGPR Workshops in countries like Canada Switzerland, Australia, Japan, Argentina India,The Netherlands, USA,Colombia, Belgium etc. In 2009, established a non-profit Asian PGPR Society of Sustainable Agriculture with likely-minded group of scientific friends and registered the society in India and later in USA.

He has Received many prestigious awards from USA, Canada, Saudi Arabia, China, South Korea, India etc. He is a Successful Businessperson, Investor & Entrepreneur. Consultant for several national and international educational, industrial, governemntal and non-govermental funding agencies.

Sreenivasa Rao, Mahendrakar

Formerly he was the Principal Scientist and Head of Entomology & Nematology Division, ICAR – IIHR, Bangalore.He has done a lot of research in Bio-pesticides, Plant Growth Promoters, Nematology, Entomology, Plant Pathology, Bio-technology, and has granted 7 international patents and one National patent.

He is the recipient of many awards and honours like DST – FICCI - IC 2 Institute of Texas University - Lockheed Martin Innovative Program Award and awards form and IARI, New Delhi for the significant research on bio-pesticides for sustainable agriculture.

He was a member of Task Force Committees of Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Department of Science and Technology (DST), SIBRI, New Delhi and FAO consultant for promoting the use of bio-pesticides in organic farming in Karnataka.

Dr. P. Chandra Shekara

Dr. P. Chandra Shekara has over 30 years of experience and expertise in the areas Agricultural Extension Management, Agri-Entrepreneurship Development, Agricultural Marketing Management and Public-Private- Partnership. He has previously served as the Director General, CCS National Institute of Agricultural Marketing, Jaipur.

He has previously served as Director of MANAGE Hyderabad. He is also the Founder Director of Centre for Agri-Entrepreneurship Development (CAD), Programme Director of Feed The Future India Triangular Training (FTFITT):

He has been conferred with many awards “Young Scientist Award-2007”, “Magnum National Honour Award-2011” “Special Appreciation Award” by Indian Society of Extension Education, Dr D.K. Mishra Memorial Award-2015 for contribution in Agricultural Extension by Indian Society of Extension Education, “Award of Excellence” organized by International Society of Extension Education (INSEE), Dewang Mehtha Education Leadership Award- 2019, Life Time Achievement Award-2019 from SRDA in Agricultural Extension, and also NITTE-Karnataka Bank Limited “Life Time Achievement Award-2019” for driving Agri-entrepreneurship Movement in India.

Rajashekar Reddy Seelam

Rajashekar Reddy Seelam is the founder and Managing Director of Sresta Natural Bioproducts Pvt Ltd, the leader in Organic food business in India.

Working closely with farmers, he saw first-hand the havoc chemicals wreaked on soil, food chain. This seeded the idea of creating a business which is based on sustainability of livelihoods, lifestyles and environment. Thus Sresta was born in 2004. Sresta currently does contract farming with 45000 farmers on 225000 acres across 15 states in India. Sresta produces and markets over 200 organic food products under the “24 Mantra” Brand in India, Europe, North America, Middle East, and Near East & Far East.

Seelam is the founder Chairman of Association of Indian Organic Industry (AIOI), was a Board Member of International Competence Centre for Organic Agriculture, Member of various Industry Association & Government Committees.

Dr. T. Janakiram

Dr. Tolety Janakiram is the Vice-Chancellor, Dr YSR Horticultural University, Andhra Pradesh.

He was at Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Bangalore, Head, Division of Floriculture and Landscaping at IARI, New Delhi.

He was conferred with awards including PNASF Gold medal Award, 2008, HSI Gold Medal 2009, ISOH Lotus Puraskar, 2010, Dr. B. H. Jain Award for excellence, 2013, Distinguished Scientist Award 2012 Hi-Tech Horticultural Society, Best Scientist award 2013 by Young Farmer Association, Punjab and Life Time Achievement award- 2014 by Hi-Tech Horticultural Society.

He is HIS Fellow, ISVR Fellow, ISOH Fellow, Member of Academic Council of the SKLTSHU University, Academic Council of the PJTSAU, Board Member of UHS Bagalkot, Karnataka, Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the PPV & FRA, Member of Plant Asian Productivity council APO, Tokyo, General Secretary of Society for Promotion of Horticulture, Bangalore.

He has outstandingly contributed to horticulture research and development in his career spanning 31 years with his distinguished academic record. He has an impressive record of 260 publications that include research papers, technical bulletins, books, book chapters etc.