Chief Guest

She is an IAS officer of 1995 batch, AGMUT cadre, presently serving as Joint Secretary Cattle & Dairy, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Government of India. My previous assignment was Commissioner, North Delhi Municipal Corporation. I have earlier been Secretary Power as well as Commissioner Transport, with the Government of NCT Delhi, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, Govt of India, and before that, Director with the Census of India. Infrastructure, Urban Planning, Gender Issues and Leveraging Data for Development are my major areas of experience and interest.

Shri Meenesh Shah is the Chairman of NDDB. He graduated with B.Sc. (Dairy Technology) from Sheth MC College of Dairy Science, Gujarat Agriculture University, Anand and a Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Management (PGDRM) from Institute of Rural Management, Anand.
Since September, 1985 he is serving the National Dairy Development Board, Anand in various capacities. He has multidimensional experience in the dairy sector for more than 35 years in areas such as Research & Development, Product & Process Development, Project Appraisal & Finance, Cooperative Services etc. He was also part of the overseas Joint Venture of NDDB-Kiriya Milk Industries of Lanka Ltd., Sri Lanka. Presently he is serving as Chairman of National Dairy Development Board Anand. He is also on the board of several institutions such as Indian Dairy Machinery Company Ltd (IDMC), NDDB Dairy Services (NDS), Vidya Dairy etc.

Mr. Pradeep Sureka is the Managing Director of Sureka Group, under whose leadership over the last 40 years, the group has not only grown and consolidated its position in Bengal, but also expanded its activities to Andhra Pradesh, Odisha & Sri Lanka.

As co-promoter of prestigious consortium endeavours such as South City, Urbana, Elita Garden Vista in Kolkata and Altair in Colombo, Mr. Sureka has not just raised the bar on customer expectations but has also played a pivotal role in conceptualization and implementation of world-class design and construction through his personal interactions with globally renowned architects and consultants. He has been instrumental in creating not only over 7000 luxury and affordable residental units but also a school of international standard, beside creating over a million sft of commercial IT space and the largest shopping mall in eastern India.

During his five years' tenure as President of CREDAI Bengal, Mr. Pradeep Sureka was instrumental in addressing many vital real estate issues. He has served on the Management Committees of Royal Calcutta Golf Club and The Saturday Club, and is also a Trustee of Kolkata Museum of Modern Art (KMOMA).

Outside of business and industry, Mr. Pradeep Sureka is deeply committed towards the betterment of society through his close association with organisations such as Udayan Care and EkTara, for the upliftment of destitute and underprivileged women and children, especially in the areas of education.

Presently, Mr. Pradeep Sureka is the Senior Vice President of Indian Chamber of Commerce and is also a keen golfer.

Dr. Rajeev Singh took over as Secretary General, Indian Chamber of
Commerce, Kolkata with effect from 1st September, 2006. The
designation was revised to Director General ICC afterwards.
Prior to his appointment as Secretary General, Dr. Singh was actively
involved with CII for more than 5 years as Regional Director, posted
in Chandigarh & Ahmedabad and subsequently in Kolkata. He has
done extensive work in the fields of Central & State Policy Advocacy,
Service Sector, Agro Business, Taxation and Bio-Technology.
Dr. Singh has also been involved with expansion of ICC activities in
various regions of India and also internationally. He was also
involved with opening of new ICC offices in New Delhi,
Bhubaneshwar and Patna.
Dr. Singh is an invitee member of various Government Committees
on Policy matters. He has also spearheaded different economic policy
reports, sectoral reports etc. He has travelled extensively to various
countries like China, Singapore, France, Spain, UK, Belgium,
Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Bangladesh etc.
In a period spanning over 23 years, Dr. Singh began his career with
Rajasthan Oil Federation as Deputy Manager. He was later associated
with corporate house like Arvind Mills Limited, etc.
Dr. Singh has done his PhD in Management and has also been
associated with academics as Professor in Management with
Specialization in Marketing.
Dr. Singh is a sports enthusiast and enjoys getting involved with
social developmental activities.

Mr. Kishore C. Supekar is presently working as Managing Director of National Cooperative Dairy Federation of India Limited (NCDFI), Anand, Gujarat. NCDFI is the Apex body of all dairy cooperatives in India. It works for strengthening the relationship between different stakeholders in the cooperative sector and promoting institutional marketing to central organizations like the Ministry of Defense and the Railways. He is also a member of the Board of Governors of the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA).

He is instrumental in leading NCDFI team in its new venture since 2015 i.e NCDFI eMarket. NCDFI eMarket is a software-based ePlatform for transparent transactions between seller and buyer on real-time basis. During the financial year 2020-21 NCDFI eMarket achieved turnover of INR 31.77 Billion while the total turnover of NCDFI was INR 46.61 Billion.
Mr. Supekar is a Post Graduate in Agronomy from Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Viswa Vidhyalay, Jabalpur with a Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Management from the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA). Presently, he is pursuing Ph.D. from Gokhale Institute of Politics & Economics, Pune.

He has been awarded four Gold Medals and was also selected for Junior Fellowship in the University during his Graduation (Bachelor of Science – Agriculture). Mr. Supekar launched his career in the Bank of India for a short span of two years after his Post Graduation. He was involved in the
implementation of the scheme of finance to weaker section of society through “20 Point Programme” of the Government of India and he has successfully handled the scheme of financing to Agriculture and Dairy Sector.

Mr. Supekar was Associated with National Dairy Development Board for 27 years and worked in the field of institutional development, Operation Flood project and commercial functions in Dhara/Motherdairy Fruits & Vegetables Pvt. Ltd. He has also acted as a board member of various dairy cooperative unions/Oil Unions. He joined NCDFI as Managing Director in 2009.

Dr. Rupinder Singh Sodhi, age 60 years, is Managing Director of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, Ltd., (AMUL), which is India’s largest Food Products organization. Amul Brand’s annual turnover is Rs.45,000 crores (US $ 6.5 billion) during 2018-19. Dr. Sodhi has 38 years of rich experience in leading & developing cooperative sector within Indian dairy industry, having served dairy farmers in several capacities. He has been responsible for creating the current structure of the AMUL, enabling the organization to maintain and enhance its leadership status within Indian dairy industry. Member unions of GCMMF are procuring 23 million liters of milk per day from more than 18,600 Village Dairy Co-operative societies.
For more than three decades, Dr. Sodhi has worked under direct guidance & mentorship of father of white revolution, Dr. Verghese Kurien and has ensured that values cherished by Dr. Kurien, such as integrity, dedication, courage, honesty, commitment to farmers and to consumers, remained deeply ingrained in the culture of AMUL.

Dr. Sodhi has obtained his Bachelor of Engineering (Agriculture) degree from CTAE, Udaipur, India and he is first-batch alumnus from IRMA, Anand, India. Recently, he has received Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris-Causa) from Anand Agriculture University.

Mr. Manish Bandlish has joined as the Managing Director of Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable Private Limited in the first week of March 2021. An Engineering Graduate from JamiaMilliaIslamia University and alumnus of IIM Lucknow, Mr. Bandlish has over 25 years of experience across multiple organizations. He has worked with organizations like Maruti, Marico, Subhiksha, Metro Cash & Carry and Umang Dairies across various geographies in India.

His experience spans from manufacturing industry to FMCG industry, where he spent 10 years in multi-geographies and more than 12 years in the Retail industry. He worked with German MNC Metro Cash & Carry where he was on the board. He worked as the Director Operations, he was responsible for all India operations of the all the stores and then as the Director for Expansion & Development which was a strategic role to define the expansion strategy for Metro India.

Prior to joining Mother Dairy as Managing Director, he worked with Umang Dairies in Delhi as CEO for 2 years.

Dr. Sudhindra Tatti has a B. Tech from IIT Kharagpur and Ph. D in Materials Science from University of Texas at Austin and over 25 years’ experience in the semiconductor industry in US and Asia - covering new products development, quality, commercialization of new technologies (particularly for rural applications). He is in charge of Innovation and facilitating collaboration with strategic partners.

He started his career at Motorola Semiconductor and has since worked in semiconductor foundries in Thailand and Singapore. He was also involved with Amberwave Systems, an MIT spin-off in Boston pioneering the commercialization of strained silicon technology.

His interests are in commercialization of new technologies for improving the lives of rural masses and in renewable energy. He is currently the CEO of Prompt Innovations.

As the CEO of Stellapps, Ranjith has spent the last 10 years,
innovating and deploying Internet of Things (IoT) solutions and
frameworks for digitizing the dairy industry across India and
providing technology & data-led premium market linkages to
small holder dairy farmers.
He is currently focused on scaling the organization and
streamlining the execution to keep pace with the increasing
market traction. His vision is to unlock unprecedented value
across the dairy supply chain via farm-to-fridge digitization of the
largest ‘crop’ on the planet. He believes that the modular farmto-
consumer smartMoo IoT platform can help unleash this value
for all the stakeholders in the dairy ecosystem – including
alternate credit scores and data-led insurance underwriting
mechanisms for small holder dairy farmers.
Ranjith has over 24 years of software industry experience and
was earlier the Global head of Wipro's Telecom Value Added
Services Practice. Having delivered solutions for global clientele
across USA & Europe such as Microsoft, AT&T, Nortel, Ericsson,
British Telecom etc.,
Ranjith did his Bachelors in Electronics and Communications
Engineering, and MS from Illinois Institute of Technology,
Chicago, in Telecom & Software Engineering.

Mr. P Sudhir Kumar is a B.E. Mechanical from VLB Institution Coimbatore and M Tech in Thermal Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (I.I.T. Delhi).

He is Director Marketing in FRICK INDIA LTD one of leading Equipment Manufacturing Company and Turnkey Solution Provider for all Industrial Refrigeration Applications in Dairies, Cold Storages, Fish, Meat ,Chicken Freezing Plant, Chilling plants, BOG and special application Projects.

He has an Experience of More than 30 years in the field of Industrial Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, worked in various capacity in the organization at Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai.

He is the past president and founder member of Association of Ammonia Refrigeration. He is a regular Presenter Energy Efficient of Refrigeration System.

Mr. Rajkumar Malik is the President, Sales and Marketing at IDMC Limited, a subsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board.
IDMC is a leading manufacturer and supplier of a complete range of equipment as well as offers turnkey solutions for the dairy, pharma, beverage & cattle-feed sectors and provides packaging film for the dairy industry.
Mr. Malik, a veteran in the dairy industry, is also a lifetime member of IDA. He served as member of the Export Inspection Authority and is now a member of the Executive Committee for the Gujarat chapter of IDA.
Mr. Malik is a Graduate in Dairy Technology from Anand Agricultural University and has done his Post-Graduation in Marketing & Sales Management from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.
With an illustrious career spanning over 31 years, he started his journey from Sugam Dairy Baroda, which was then managed by NDDB and known for the mechanized production of traditional dairy products.
He then worked with Lactose India Limited, where he was involved in setting up India's first Lactose manufacturing plant, an import substitute then.
Before joining IDMC in 1997, he was associated with Cepham Milk Specialities Limited, where along with setting up a fully automatic Casein and Lactose plant, he played a key role in creating a market of Lactose in the Pharma sector for the company.
At IDMC, he has achieved various milestones and has been instrumental in its growth.

Dr. Prakash Kalarickal, Vice President of Sexing Technologies USA, responsible for business development in Asia, Oceania, Middle East and Africa. Dr. Kalarickal has over 34 years of experience in various leadership, managerial and technical roles in different dairy related industries such as sexing technology, bovine genetics & reproduction, veterinary diagnostics, milking systems, dairy farm management and veterinary practice.

Graduated from College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences Kerala, Masters’ in Veterinary Public Health from Glasgow Veterinary School UK, MBA from Birmingham Business School UK and attended the Authentic Leadership Management Program at Harvard Business School, USA.

Mr.Naveenkant Bhatnagar is Vice President - Sales & Marketing at Everest Instruments Pvt. Ltd., Ahmedabad. He is responsible for the overall business development of the organization. Help and guide the entire team in achieving individual and organizational goals. Work as a mentor for all the regional/zonal sales heads. Lead the sales team from the front-end, guiding the management in strategic decision making.

He holds a degree in B.E. Electronics from Shivaji University and has more than 26 years of experience in the dairy automation industry. Mr. Bhatnagar has rich experience in understanding the rural dairy and agriculture industry. He has been instrumental in providing complete and appropriate solutions to the rural dairy industries in order to boost their top-line revenue growth, customer acquisition, and profitability. Mr. Bhatnagar has established, developed, and maintained healthy relationships with the rural dairy industry.

Sanyam Jain is working with Hindustan Thermostatics since 2014 since day 1 his vision was for the development of the company keeping in mind the hardships and exploitation of Indian milk producers so in his guidance and support whichever new technology is introduced by team HT it is highly affordable and does not give any burden to the milk producers of INDIA and it is suitable for all unorganised sector of the industry and his thought of making a Europian product smart with Indian technology it has given new heights to the company
His mission is to provide every milk producer and milk plant owner (बूंद-बूंद का हिसाब)

Mr. Henry Daniel Raj, who is based in Chennai, is the head of Hydranautics India's Process Separations Division. He oversees Specialty Membranes' sales and business growth in India. Dairy, Pharmaceuticals, Chlor Alkali, Sugar, Textiles, and PET Recycling are his major emphasis areas, as well as specialist applications including Caustic recovery and Condensate treatment in diverse industry segments.

He has a B.E. Mechanical Engineering degree from Madras University and 20 years of expertise in water, wastewater, and process water treatment.

Mr. Dave is an Electronics Engineer along with PGDBA Marketing from Symbiosis, Pune having vast experience in Dairy Electronics projects for around 14 years.