Abinash Verma is the Director General of Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), an apex body of private and public sectors sugar mills in India, which looks after sugar industry interests.

Mr Verma undertook post graduate studies in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. A bureaucrat with the Indian Government from 1989 to 2010, he was deeply involved in sugarcane, sugar and ethanol policy making for five years before joining ISMA.

Mr Verma is the alternate Chief Executive of the Indian Sugar Exim Corporation, an organization jointly sponsored by ISMA and the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd. which is also responsible for import and export of sugar to and from the country.

Mr. Aditya Bafna is a management graduate with over 9 years of experience in the field of Commodities business. Belonging to the promoter family, he is involved in day-to-day business activities of SSLL. He also serves as a director on the board of NABARD Consultancy Services (NABCONS), a wholly owned subsidiary of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). 

Aditya joined Bagrry's in 2011 and currently leads the Marketing & Strategy function for the organisation. Previously, he has been a part of the international organisation AIESEC, where he led the corporate team in Delhi and has also worked with Goldman Sachs in the UK. Now, he also looks into Corporate Finance and New Business Development for the Bagrry's Group. Aditya is a Statistics Graduate from Hindu College, Delhi University and received a MSc. in Management from the London School of Economics (LSE), where he graduated with Distinction.

Amith Agarwal is the whole-time Executive Director - and one of the founder members of StarAgri. An entrepreneur with the right blend of managerial and business acumen, Amith plays a key role in realizing StarAgri’s vision of integrated development of India’s rural ecosystem.

He is responsible for managing corporate tie-ups, legal and financial matters and business development activities at StarAgri. Under his stewardship, StarAgri has evolved into a market-leading brand, building trusted long-term partnerships and creating value amongst various stakeholders. He drives the human resource and leadership development responsibility in the company with a key focus on building a professional organization.

He is a sought after management professional in the areas of warehouse receipt and collateral finance and is known for creating unique channel partnerships in the rural finance business. He has established numerous successful relationships with leading financial institutions for their rural lending and financing business. Known for his flair and drive in driving relationships and deploying innovative ideas, he is driving the creation of a global mindset within the company. His dual experience of dealing with rural India and corporates alike is helping in bridging the information divide and modernizing the rural sector.

Amith has attended an Advanced Management Development Program (MDP) at Harvard Business School and holds an MBA from Mumbai University. An innovative thinker and visionary, Amith’s views are often published in leading Indian and international magazines.

A Hard Core Leader with 30 years of experience in the Government as a part of Civil Services, in Public Sector Undertakings and Private Sector.  Responsible for providing strategic leadership and management direction to support the functioning of the organization. Have had wide experience covering General Administration, Project Planning and Implementation, Disaster Management, HR Management, Petroleum and Food Grain Sectors, Vigilance, Intelligence, Investigations, Multi-model Logistics, Banking etc. while working in the Government.  

Tenure in the Private Sector has encompassed Creation of Agri Business Hubs, setting up of largest Cool Chain for fruits and vegetables in India right from the conceptual planning to the operationalization, covering the whole gamut of activities like mapping of the operational areas, man-power development, market studies, development of R & D protocols, SOPs, Planning & Construction of physical infrastructure.

Another key highlight has been the establishment of a Commercial Farming Project in Ethiopia from ground ‘Zero’. The Project involves production of field crops for the first time in a new area, and their value-addition through processing.

 Deepak I. Shahdadpuri is the Founder and Managing Director of DSG Consumer Partner and Beacon India Private Equity Fund. Deepak has over 15 years of private equity and venture capital experience and is an active angel investor focusing on consumer businesses with a strong emphasis on food and beverage value chain. Before this, Deepak held senior roles at Gem India, Reuters VC, Bain & Company and Ernst & Young. Deepak is on the board of Baker's Circle, Impresario, Eazy Diner, Exito Gourmet, India Lends, Indostar Capital, Indian Home Gourmet, Mswipe, Saffronart, Saraf Foods, Sula Wines and Veeba Food. Deepak’s investment experience also includes RBL Bank, OYO Rooms, Cleartrip, Redmart, F&B Asia and Furtado’s School of Music.

Deepak serves on the board of Magic Bus, a non-profit organization helping develop underprivileged children through sports, and on the advisory board of Dawn Capital, a UK focused Venture Capital Fund. He has an MBA (Distinction) from INSEAD where he graduated on the Dean’s list, a LLB (Hons) from King's College London and a FCA from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales.

@dishahdadpuri

GV started his career with his family promoted Tinna Group of companies in 1993.

GV is 39 years old and promoter of M/s Tinna Group. In 2009, GV was instrumental in formation of the joint venture with M/s Viterra Inc., of Canada in 2009. Viterra is one of the largest Agri businesses in the World.  Prior to this venture, GV was actively involved in the groups trading business dealing in procurement of various dry bulk commodities like Rice, Wheat, SBM and sugar.

In 1998, GV played a key role in identifying ADM as a partner and actively participated in formation and promotion of the joint venture with M/s Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). Until 2009, he oversaw running of all business verticals, including cargo handling operations, oil seed processing, branding and marketing of edible oils and marketing of  oil ingredients for the joint venture.  

Since 2009, GV is heading Tinna Viterra operations in India as its Managing Director. Based in Delhi, he works closely with Viterra in building Viterra's business in India.

GV is served as a trustee of Visakhapatman Port Trust Board during 2002-2010 and headed various council's in The Solvent Extractors Association. GV is also a member of the Delhi chapter of Young President's Organization.

Girish Nadkarni - Girish Nadkarni has over twenty two years of experience across private equity, M&A, managing large companies, corporate finance, treasury and risk management, business strategy and setting up of businesses.

Mr. Nadkarni primarily focuses on originating and evaluating investment opportunities, over-seeing the portfolio and creating exit opportunities. He has strong consumer, agri-business, rural infrastructure and telecom sector expertise. He has led investments in Parag Milk Foods, Staragri Warehousing and Collateral Management and NCDEX. He also actively manages investments in Green Infra and DARCL.

Prior to joining IDFC Alternatives, he worked for Rallis India Limited (a Tata Group Agri company). Previous to this, he was with Tata Chemicals and played a key role in the acquisitions of General Chemicals, USA and controlling stake in Rallis (2007-09). He has played key role in more than a dozen M&A and buyout transactions such as VSNL, Hughes Telecom, Escotel Mobile, Nagarjuna Oil and divestments such as Idea, Tata Honeywell, Tata Telecom (Avaya) and Information Tech Park.

Gopal is the Founder Chairman & MD of TVS Capital Funds Limited, with the vision of supporting and nurturing India’s mid-cap businesses into world-class companies. It manages assets of over Rs 1,100 Cr, and which makes it amongst the largest domestically raised funds in India. He has been a strong advocate of participation of domestic capital pools in private equity and venture capital funds, and actively supports initiatives for that cause as a Vice Chairman of IVCA (Indian Private Equity & Venture Capital Association).

Gopal was the Chairman of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) National Committee for Private Equity & Venture Capital for the fiscal year 2010-2011. He is also the Director in TVS & Sons Ltd, the holding company, and a member of the Board of several Group Companies.An entrepreneur at heart, Gopal is also actively involved in the promotion of entrepreneurship as an angel investor. He is a founding member of The Chennai Angels, and is closely associated TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) where he provides guidance to the budding entrepreneurs on incubating businesses. Gopal earned a B.Com from Loyola College, Chennai and an MBA from University of Michigan, US.

@GopalSri

A born entrepreneur, upon graduation from Delhi University, Mr. Bhalla opted to forego studies at a business school and set up his own business venture in 1994—a corporate gifting company. He has always been a pioneer in every business he has started. In 2000 he started one of India’s first KPO company focusing on the healthcare vertical for the US, which has now grown to over a 1000 employees globally.

In 2007 he completed the “Owners Management Program” and “Launching New Ventures” management programs from Harvard Business School. When he thought of entering into the fast growing food-and-beverage industry, he thought of introducing something for the young, health conscious urban Indians and create a brand that is not only associated with health and wellness, but is also a socially and environmentally responsible brand.

Keeping the extreme hot weather in mind, he thought of this cold treat as a viable business option that offered guilt-free indulgence and launched Cocoberry, India’s first frozen yogurt chain. The first store was opened at the posh South Delhi locality of Defense Colony in 2009. There also were a lot of innovations and transformations along the way. Today with its outlets across the NCR, Mumbai, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Pune, Ahmedabad & Goa, Cocoberry is a national brand in less than a span of 2 years with over 30 outlets. Cocoberry will also be opening in international markets very soon.

Cocoberry has received several awards and recognitions in the two short years since it started including “ Top 100 Brands That Rocked India in 2010”(4P magazine), “Top 100 Retailers 2011”(Retailer magazine), “ Most Innovative Concept”(HT City), “ Best Frozen Dessert” (HT City), “Top Rated Frozen Yogurt” (Burrp) to name just a handful.

Mr. Bhalla has also received a number of awards and recognitions such as “Top Young Turk 2010” by CNBC India and has been profiled and featured numerous times in print and TV such as “CNBC”, “India Today”, “WSJ Mint”, “Outlook Business”, “Economic Times”, “Zee Business”, “ Inc.”, “ET Now” and many more.

Mr Gumber has been involved with agri / food sector for the last eight years, which includes planning and strategy, setting up the projects, packaging of goods, distribution and marketing. The focus has been to set up chain and to brand and market the products in India and in overseas markets. Besides doing this I have successfully explored the funding options such as bank loans and equity capital for the company, I have done work on the company’s investor and press relations, and made investor presentations in India and abroad.

Presently working also on the board with 3 other food and non food companies, rendering advise on financial, sales and marketing and HR matters.

Prior to the above, worked in financial sector for over 20 years, including 10 years with UTI group. Also worked in Project finance, Portfolio management, Investment banking and Capital markets.

Possess MBA (Finance) degree. B.Sc (hons.) and LL.B from Delhi University, CAIIB, AIA from Chartered Institute of Bankers,(UK) and PG Diploma in Corp. Laws. Besides qualification, attended seminars, conferences, training courses. Also participated in discussions on various management topics in India and abroad. Lectured as guest in management schools.

Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Skymet Weather Services Pvt. Ltd. (erstwhile Skymet), pioneers in private sector initiative in weather forecasting and information services in India.

The company had modest beginnings in 2003 as providers of weather information and infographics to television and print media. Today, the company has ushered in weather solutions for sectors as varied as energy (distribution and renewable), shipping, agriculture (advisories and remote sensing based crop yield, acreage and health estimation), and risk (agriculture and energy) in India following its humble beginnings serving the media industry.

Skymet envisions accurate weather forecasts available to the common man, empower the Indian farmer to plan farm activities weather wise and support Indian industry to take informed risks in the short and long term wherever weather affects it.

Skymet has started an India centric weather website www.indianweatherforecast.comavailable in English, Hindi and Marathi. Plans of launching it in many more Indian languages as well as going global are on anvil.

Jatin is an alumnus of Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi, where his commentary on the political situation in Southeast Asia were published and widely acclaimed, and has a Master’s Degree in International Relations and International Communication from Boston University. He has worked with Associated Press, Aajtak and Headlines Today as a producer.

K. Vijayaraghavan (Vijay), is the founder and currently Chairman of Sathguru Management Consultants. He founded the firm in 1985 to integrate proficiencies in technology and management to help create and nurture innovative enterprises by adopting next generation technologies for product and services development and providing strategic ideas in reaching markets and delivery systems for diverse segments. His services to the hospitality sector provided several global players with the opportunity to establish their footprint in emerging regions such as India, China, Thailand and others — key emerging regions for the hospitality sector. His engagement with global leaders relates to identifying intellectual assets generated by the hospitality sector and protecting, licensing and managing intellectual assets including brand affiliation management. He takes special interest in exploring the potential of applying technological innovations in agriculture and food sector to support innovations in F&B services, food service industry and food safety management. His engagement with life science researchers has led him to advise food safety regulators in several countries. He has advised hospitality leaders and provided strategic input to countries to promote food safety management, a key driver for sustaining the travel and tourism sector. For over 25 years, he has advised several national governments of both advanced and emerging economies to shape their country strategy for hospitality sector development and international tourism. 

Kaushik Guha Thakurta is a Director in Resurgent India, a boutique investment bank and capital adviser. Mr. Thakurta has over 12 years of experience in Investment Banking, Private Equity and Business  Consulting and has worked with leading Indian and International companies in areas of Mergers & Acquisitions, growth strategies, international expansions, Demergers and Recapitalization.  Prior to Resurgent he worked with Francisco Partners, a global Private Equity fund headquartered in San Francisco where he led 2 key investments and an IPO of one its investee companies. Before that he worked with firms such as Mckinsey & Co, AT Kearney, KPMG and the erstwhile Arthur Andersen in their India and global offices.

Mr. Thakurta is a rank-holder Chartered Accountant and an MBA from XLRI Jamshedpur

Pranav Jhawar young and dynamic businessman, he did his Graduation in Industrial Engineering and Business Management from United States of America. In Last 8 years, as a director of the group in the areas of Warehousing of commodities & Logistic, Agricultural Equipment Manufacturing and Automotive Engineering Industry by his knowledge and ability he made the group technically more advanced. During initial years of his business journey under guidance of his Grandfather Late Shri Jai Narayan Jhawar and Father Shri Anil Jhawar he has given new heights to the business. In 2009, Mr. Jhawar corporatizes the whole business and given a dynamic look.

Mr. Jhawar is Executive Director in M/s JICS Logistic Limited a leading warehousing and logistics solution provider in India with a capacity of 3.5 Lac MT of warehousing capacity equipped with owned Laboratories and professional staff. In 2011 by inviting an institutional investor (ILFS) to the group Mr. Jhawar has set a mark in the warehousing industry for all the solutions under the single umbrella. Now under guidance of Mr. Jhawar, JICS become a Brand in the industry and now coming with a owned capacity of 4.5 Lac MT capacity on PAN India Level.

Mr. Jhawar is also director in M/s Indra Marshal Power Private Limited a leading and 45 year old company in sector of Agricultural Engineering in Indore, Indra Marshal is a all India level Brand with dealer network of 350 dealers and PAN India presence. Now under directions of Mr.Jhawar Indra Marshal is entering into sector of manufacturing of Power Generating Sets, Power Tillers, Rotary Tillers and Lightweight Commercial Vehicles.

Rajesh Aggarwal, Managing Director., Insecticides India Ltd, is a commerce graduate. He possesses a Diploma in Marketing. In 1993 he joined his family's business as Marketing Incharge. Combining this work experience with utilizing state-of-the-art technologies, he took the additional responsibility of production and allied fields.

Sanjay Sacheti is the Country Head since the year 2003 for Olam's Indian business which comprises of supply chain management of various agri commodities like Cashew, Coffee, Cotton, Rice, Sugar etc. He has been with Olam since the year 2000, and has experience of around 22 years in the areas of Finance, Commercial and agri commodity management.

He is a Chartered Accountant and a Company Secretary, and has prior experience of working with corporates like Hindustan Unilever, AgroTech Foods and the Tata Group.

Mr. Sandeep, an MBA from Delhi is a managing partner with Sohan Lal since 1996 and has played a key role in shaping the affairs of the company.

His knowledge about commodities is widely recognised. He was a member of the executive committee on Warehouse Development and Regulation Act (WDRA). He is also member of the FICCI committee which was appointed by Government of India to study the United States of America’s warehousing model.  

Sandeep has been conferred with Certification on US Warehouse Receipt System from the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture and the Texas a & M University

His views on agricultural commodities are frequently referred to in The Economic Times, CNBC Awaz, Business Standard and other leading news channels.

Sanjeev Asthana is a recognized leader in Food & Agribusiness with over 25 years of experience in India & Internationally. He is the Founder and Managing Partner of I-Farm Venture Advisors(Investment and Consulting), Chairman Agriculture Skill Council of India (ASCI) and Chairman National Skills Foundation of India (NSFI). He Serves on the Board of Directors ‘NCDEX Spot Exchange Ltd’. Sanjeev serves on National Committees of FICCI, CII, PHDCCI and ASSOCHAM the National Chambers of Commerce in the Agriculture & Food Processing.

Sanjeev was formerly the President & Chief Executive of Reliance Retail, Director on Board of Cargill India, Commodity Trading(Asia Pacific) - Cargill Singapore, Country Head - ITC Global Holdings for Indonesia and Romania. Sanjeev has led investment upwards of US$ 500 Million and managed large scale Businesses in Asia Pacific, Europe and India.

His international affiliations are with International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) UK, Hivos Knowledge Programme, Netherlands, Enterprise Solution to Poverty (ESP) New York, USIndia Business Council (USIBC), Water Forum, Columbia University, USA .

He has served on the Committees of Planning Commission, NDC, Ministry of Panchayati Raj. The most recent one was as Chairman - Task Force of Planning Commission on Physical Markets for Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-17).

He has made presentations at G-20 Consultation at Istanbul, Harvard University US, European Paraliament (Brussels), London Business School and leading International conferences in Montreal,
Vienna, Houston, Melbourne, Tokyo, Beijing, Singapore, Manila, Bandung etc and across India on a wide variety of topics such as Food Security, Agriculture Supply Chains, Nutrition, International Trade, PPP Models, Demand dynamics of emerging economies, Retail etc.

Sanjeev Mantri is Sr General Manager, with ICICI Bank Ltd., the largest private bank in India and a leader in SME banking services. Sanjeev drives SME & Agri Corporate lending portfolio across the country, in addition to SME Private Equity and M& A advisory services for the Bank. Under his leadership, SME & Agri business of the bank has shown significant growth.

He joined ICICI Bank Ltd in 2003 to take charge of the Corporate Linked SME lending portfolio and has been responsible for introducing various innovative products to service the needs of this segment.

Prior to joining ICICI he has spent over 7 years with BNP Paribas, Mumbai handling diverse responsibilities in Corporate Banking space.

Sanjeev is a qualified Chartered Accountant and Cost Accountant. Often quoted in the Indian media, he is a regular speaker in many national and international forums for SME Banking.

Sonal heads M&A and Private Equity Advisory at SMC Group. She has experience of over 20 years across M&A, corporate advisory and strategic consulting. She has advised leading Indian and international companies across areas including M&A, Joint Ventures, Equity/Debt Fund raising and Growth strategy. She has also advised Government of India- Ministry of Food Processing and Ministry of Agriculture and several State Governments on agri/food strategy and its implementation. She has been an active member of Industry Panels for the consumer, food, agribusiness and financial services sectors, for leading Indian Industry Associations. Sonal holds a PGDM from IIM Kolkata and a Bachelor's Degree in Economics (Honours) from Hindu College,  University of Delhi.

Shri S.K.Roongta is an MBA (Marketing) from Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pillani.  He has got rich experience of having worked both in private sector as well as public sector companies during the last 38 years. Before joining National Seeds Corporation (NSC) as its Chairman cum Managing Director on Ist April, 2009, he had worked with two other PSUs viz.

NationalTextile Corporation and Cotton Corporation of India for about 33 years. During his tenure, the turnover of NSC has more than doubled during the last three years.  Under his stewardship,  NSC was elevated from Schedule ‘C’ to Schedule ‘B’ and awarded the Mini Ratna Category-I status by the Department of Public Enterprises and Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India during the year 2010-11.

NSC was also given SCOPE Award for Excellence and Outstanding contribution to the Public Sector Management-Institutional-III for the year 2009-10 by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India on 31.01.2012. Shri Roongta is also on the Board of Directors of seven State Seed Corporations.

A commerce graduate and a fellow member of Institute of C.A. (FCA), having more than 25 years post qualification experience in various fields. Finance, project management and Business administration. Mr. Chaturvedi was also awarded doctorate degree by governor of Uttar Pradesh, his H.E. Shri B.L. Joshi for his thesis titled as “Rationale & Prospect for second green revolution”.

A recognized Agri leader known for crafting the requisite strategic vision to achieve business goals, offers a unique blend of successful deliverer of growth, innovative financial and marketing skills.

As a director Mr. Vinod Kumar Chaturvedi has built a responsive organization that consistently delivers results by aligning business goals, improvement in the quality, standardization and performance. With a reputation for judicious use of resources, Mr. Chaturvedi’ work has been commendable in agriculture sector.