Dr. Kalpana Sastry is a distinguished Scientist from Agricultural Research Service of ICAR with nearly three decades of expertise in the areas of Agriculture Research, Technology Commercialization, Intellectual Property and Innovation Management, Entrepreneurship and Start-up ecosystem development in Agriculture. Her research areas include agricultural innovations, intellectual property management systems and policy issues in agricultural research and education management, Agri-entrepreneurship initiatives. She was the Joint Director of National Academy of Agricultural Research Management at ICAR. Currently she is Managing Director of AgHub Foundation, Centre for Innovation and Agri-entrepreneurship at PJTSAU, Hyderabad.

Dr. Sastry has been a recipient of several prestigious awards like Prof. M.G. Narasimham Award for best research paper oration; Indian Phytopathological Society Gold Medal; Smt. Chandaben Mohanbhai Patel Vasvik Award for Best Women Scientists at the national level; the ICAR-AHRD fellowship by FAO; Occasional Lecture Award (OLP) Award under Fulbright Scholar Program, and The Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship at the international level. She is also a PG Diploma holder in Patent Laws from National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR), India

Joanna Kane-Potaka is Assistant Director General (External Relations) at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) which has its global headquarters in Hyderabad. She is also Executive Director of the Smart Food initiative.

Joanna began her career as an agricultural economist with the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences and later moved into market research in the agribusiness area of the Queensland Department of Primary Industries. Since then she has worked in a wide variety of other marketing-related areas including strategic marketing, communications, fundraising, knowledge management, and uptake of scientific research.

She has worked for government, private industry (manufacturing and consulting) and with nonprofit organizations (including four CGIAR agricultural research centers). As part of this she has lived and worked in India, Sri Lanka, Italy, Malaysia, the Philippines and Australia and has 30 years professional experience.

Currently she also leads the global Smart Food movement which was selected in 2017 by USAID and the Australian government as one of the winning top 10 global food innovations. Smart Food is food defined as food that is Good for You, the Good for the Planet and Good for the Farmer. The movement targets diversifying staples across Asia and Africa to be able to have a major impact, and bring Smart Foods into mainstream.

She has a Bachelor of Economics, Graduate Diploma of Management, Professional Post Graduate Diploma of Marketing and a Master of Science (Global Marketing). She is a certified practicing marketer in Australia, an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Marketing in the UK and a fellow of the Australian Marketing Institute.

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.