Ashwini Chhatre serves as faculty at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. He has an undergraduate degree in Economics from the University of Delhi and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Duke University. Prior to his Ph.D. he spent 11 years working with local communities and social movements on democratic governance of natural resources in India. He was the Giorgio Ruffolo Post-doctoral Fellow in Sustainability Science at Harvard University during 2006-07, and served as faculty in the Department of Geography, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 2007 to 2015. His research broadly deals with the intersections of democracy with environment and development, with focus on rural livelihood dynamics in rainfed systems across different agro-ecological and socio-political contexts. He has co-authored a book and published articles in SciencePNAS, Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Conservation Biology, Journal of Peasant Studies, World Development, and other journals.

Some of his recent research interests are– Analyzing the impact of MNREGA investments on cropping patterns, economic activity, and environment; Promotion of cultivation and consumption of nutri-cereals in scheduled areas of Maharashtra; Understanding sensitivity of grain yields to historical climate variability in India etc. Apart from research, he is also leading several grants at ISB. One such prestigious project, India Data Portal, a BMGF grant, aims to serve as a one stop open-access data repository portal for public data and visualizations on agriculture, rural development and financial inclusion, to help journalists write and develop comprehensive, fact-based stories.

Dr P. Chandra Shekara is the Director General of NIPHM - National Institute of Plant Health Management and MANAGE - National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management.

Outstanding professional in Agriculture with over 30 years of experience in Agricultural Extension Management, Agri-Entrepreneurship Development, Agricultural Marketing Management and Public-Private-Partnership.

Earlier Dr Chandra Shekara was Director General of yet another prestigious institute – NIAM - CCS National Institute of Agricultural Marketing, Jaipur. Under his guidance and leadership institute is mandated to carry out Training, Research, Consultancy, Policy Advocacy, International Programmes and Education in Agricultural Marketing in India and South East Asian Countries and PDBM programme.

He also served in various capacities as Director (Agricultural Extension), Centre for Agricultural Extension Policy, Public Private Partnership and International Centre for Excellence in Agricultural Extension Management, Program Management Unit (PMU), Feed The Future India Triangular Training (FTF ITT), Program Management Unit (PMU), Feed The Future India Triangular Training (FTF ITT), at MANAGE, Hyderabad

He organized more than 610 national and international training programs and over 15 projects on Agricultural Extension Management, published 87 Technical papers including 24 books, made 9 films.

Dr Chandra is bestowed with many awards including LifeTime Achievement Award-2019 from SRDA in Agricultural Extension.

He is the Vice President of International Society of Extension Education (INSEE)

Ram Kaundinya is an expert in the field of business of agriculture. He is an author, strategic management consultant, teacher and a policy analyst in India. A graduate in Agricultural Sciences and MBA from IIM, Ahmedabad.

He worked for 22 years in agrochemical industry in Hoechst, Cyanamid Agro and for 13 years in the seed industry at Emergent Genetics as the Global CEO of Advanta Seeds of UPL Group.

Kaundinya’s mergers and acquisitions was a major area of expertise having led his companies in multiple transactions across the world.

Ram served as the Chairman of the Crop Life India, Chairman of ABLE AG and is currently is the Director General of Federation of Seed Industry of India (FSII).

He served as an independent director on the boards of Axis Bank. He is on the boards of Axis Finance, Syngenta India, CapAleph Advisors, Bruhat Energy Solutions & Technologies, AgriRain Industries and Vasudhaika Software Solutions.

Served as a member of the MS Swaminathan Task Force on biotechnology policy for Indian agriculture and as a member of a committee set up by the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Prime Minister of India.

Ram consults companies and VC/PE funds in areas of strategic planning and M&A, serves on the Expert Review Committee of Access to Seeds Foundation, The Netherlands, MAIZE Independent Steering Committee of the CGIAR Institution CYMMIT.

He co-founded ThinkAg.

S Sivakumar is the Group Head of Agri and IT Businesses of ITC Limited. He is the Chairman of Technico Agri Sciences Limited, and Vice Chairman of ITC Infotech India Limited and its subsidiaries in the UK and USA.

ITC’s trailblazing e-Choupal initiative was developed and executed under Sivakumar's
leadership of the Agri Business Division.

Topper of the Class of 1983 from the Institute of Rural Management Anand, (IRMA), Sivakumar worked with a farmers' cooperative for six years before joining ITC in 1989.

Sivakumar is a member on the Advisory Council to the Ministry of Rural Development of Government of India on the National Rural Livelihoods Mission, the Commodity Derivatives Advisory Committee of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the Board of Governors of Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA).

Among other organisations, Sivakumar has served on the Boards of India's National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), and Indo US Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture, the Private Sector Committee of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), and World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council
on Social Innovation.