Committed to connecting the world

Biographies

Sebastian Bosse FG-AI4A Co-Chair \| Head of Interactive & Cognitive Systems Group, Fraunhofer HHI Mr. Sebastian Bosse is head of the Interactive & Cognitive Systems group at Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI), Berlin, Germany. He studied electrical engineering and information technology at RWTH Aachen University, Germany, and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain. Sebastian received the Dr.-Ing. degree in computer science (with highest distinction) from the Technical University Berlin in 2018. During his studies, he was a visiting researcher at Siemens Corporate Research, Princeton, USA. In 2014, Sebastian was a guest scientist in the Stanford Vision and Neuro-Development Lab (SVNDL) at Stanford University, USA. After 10 years as a research engineer working in the Image & Video Compression group and later in the Machine Learning group, he founded the research group on Interactive & Cognitive Systems at Fraunhofer HHI in 2020 that he has headed since. Sebastian is a lecturer at the German University in Cairo. He is on the board of the Video Quality Expert Group (VQEG) and on the advisory board of the Interational AIQT Foundation. Sebastian is an affiliate member of VISTA, York University, Toronto, and serves as an associate editor for the IEEE Transactions on Image Processing. Since 2021 he has been appointed a chair for the ITU focus group on Artificial Intelligence for Agriculture. His current research interests include the modelling of perception and cognition, machine learning, computer vision, and human-machine interaction over a wide field of applications ranging from multimedia and augmented reality, through medicine to agriculture and industrial production.
Zhongxin Chen Senior IT Office, FAO Dr. Zhongxin Chen is a Senior IT Officer at Digital FAO and Agro-informatics Division at United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). Now he is leading Agro-informatics team and activities, the agricultural applications of cutting-edge information technologies including geospatial IT and artificial intelligence. He is Co-Chair of the Geo-AI Working Group of UN Open GIS since 2020. He is also vice-chair of FAO-ITU Joint Focus Group on "Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) for Digital Agriculture" (FG-AI4A). He has engaged in promoting agriculture benefit using data science, AI, geospatial IT including remote sensing and GIS since 1999. His main interests and achievements are in agricultural digitalization, agricultural geospatial information platform and infrastructure, IT applications development, agro-informatics, and digital public goods. He has been PI for more than 50 national, ministerial and international research and applications projects. He has published more than 200 papers, books, book chapters, and reports. He was honored ‘National Outstanding Agronomist’ by the Ministry of Agriculture of China in 2015. He has also been honored in three National Science and Technology Advance Awards from Chinese Government (2012, 2014 and 2016) and one Newton Prize from UK Government (2019).
Mihir Dakwala Business Unit Head, Amnex Technologies Mr. Mihir Dakwala is Business Unit Head at Amnex Infotechnologies. He leads the Agriculture Vertical with AI innovation and Spatial Analytics for Agriculture Technology. He is a quintessential in his strategic leadership role and under his leadership agriculture technology business has delivered and is delivering trailblazing solution to Indian Government by bagging myriad projects. Being a high-tech visionary, Mihir has steered Amnex to explore uncharted territories and gain a leading edge in the agri-tech market. Moreover, his tech savvy nature pushed him toward exploring Artificial Intelligence, IoT, Machine Learning and other technology trends. At Amnex, he encourages and imbibes a culture of continuously taking up challenges and innovating to keep up with the dynamically changing world. His expertise lies in identifying the building blocks of Amnex and making them a reality by leveraging AI to increase the value of existing products and drives an upper edge over all the competitors in the market. To accomplish this, he closely works with technology teams, sales team, and various team leads to deliver the best results. He has a sound understanding of customer pain points and finds suitable technology solutions with his agile aquatinted knowledge of Agri-tech advancements in world. He has also mastered the art of tapping market opportunities and expanding business verticals by ascertaining potential future ideas, conceptualizing, and brainstorming robust products and finding solutions for different industries. He started his career as a chemical engineer, and after his Master's in Industrial Pollution and Abatement, he contributed in couple of industries including ONGC, where his continuous learning ability and managing skills had made him an imperative prudent. Mihir is an online gaming enthusiast, cinephile and a cricket fan.
Basant K. Das Director, ICAR-CIFRI Dr. Basanta Kumar Das is working as Director at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (ICAR-CIFRI), Barrackpore, Kolkata 700120, India. Major Research Areas ars Aquaculture & Molecular Immunology, Fish Health Management, Precision fish farming. Dr Das was educated at Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, B.F.Sc., M.F.Sc., Ph.D., Post-Doc at FRS Marine Lab, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK, 2006-2007, and Post-Doc at Bourns College of Engineering, University of California, UCR, Riverside, USA, 2010. Dr Das is coveted with many national and international awards for his contribution to different aspects of precision aquaculture. He is fellow of many professional societies and academy. He has more than 410 international publications.
Ashwini Gajarushi Engineering Manager Technology Innovation Hub for IoT and IoE (TIH-IoT), IIT-Bombay Ashwini Gajarushi, is working as Engineering Manager at the Technology Innovation Hub for IoT and IoE (TIH-IoT), Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-Bombay) since Dec 2020. Her key expertise includes designing electronic systems for Internet of Things (IoT)-applications as per international safety standards for EMI-EMC compliance, ISO/IEC standards, translational research in digital agriculture and digital healthcare domains, CMOS fabrication processes for MEMS/ Micro-system-based nanoscale sensors. As a part of TIH job responsibility, she is mainly involved in the research, development of low-cost, compact, IEC-compliant IoT systems for agriculture applications, systematic research of agriculture IoT use-cases with various agriculture universities, designing of four-level IoT courses for escalating advanced knowledge of IoT to the aspirants.She has pursued Ph.D. (Electrical Engineering), at IIT-Bombay under the guidance of Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao and Prof. C. Subramaniam. Her PhD research was focused on an Interdisciplinary approach towards the realization of high-performance electronic devices and chemical, gas sensors based on two-dimensional graphene material. She has played key role in the organization of ten national level 'One Week Hands-on sessions for Micro/Nano sensor Fabrication', organized under 'INUP program', sponsored by MeitY, Government of India. She has also mentored more than eight research projects based on micro/nanofabrication registered under the INUP program.
Nachiket Kotwaliwale Director, ICAR-CIPHET Nachiket Kotwaliwale, is an agricultural engineering with degrees from JNKVV, Jabalpur, Rajasthan Agricultural University, Bikaner, (Campus: CTAE, Udaipur) and Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, USA. He joined Indian Council of Agricultural Research in 1993 as a scientist and subsequently became Head of Agro Produce Processing Division at ICAR-CIAE, Bhopal, and presently working as Director of ICAR-CIPHET, Ludhiana, India with additional charge of Director, ICAR-NRC Makhana, Darbhanga. His major areas of professional interest are design of agro processing machinery, computer aided design & design analysis, non-destructive quality evaluation of agro produce, sensor and machine vision applications in agriculture and instrumentation for quality and safety in agro processing. He has published about 12 books/ proceedings, around 100 publications including research papers and popular articles. He also has five software copyrights and one patent in his name. He has guided three masters' dissertations, and three doctoral students. He has conducted several training programmes in the area of Agro Processing, Image processing, Non-destructive quality evaluation, Food safety, Agro produce loss prevention and value addition, etc. For his professional contributions, he has been conferred with 'ISAE-Fellowship' and 'Eminent Agricultural Engineer Award' by the Institution of Engineers (India). He is Member of Board of Management of two state agricultural universities and one Institute of National Importance.
Sushil Kumar Additional Director General Telecom, NE LSA, DoT Mr. Sushil Kumar is an officer of 1987 batch of Indian Telecommunication services (ITS). He has done his graduation in Electronics and Communications Engineering in 1987 and Master in Computer Science & Technology in 1989 from University of Roorkee (presently known as Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee). With more than 30 years of experience in Telecom, IoT & ICT, he is presently working as Additional Director General Telecom for North East LSA at Shillong. Prior to this he worked in TEC as Deputy Director General in IoT division from 2013 to Oct 2023. In this role, he created framework for finalizing specifications in IoT domain, with industry collaboration and in sync with global SDOs. Through this, Twenty Technical Reports have been released in his leadership, covering various verticals, Communication technologies, EMF radiation from IoT devices and IoT Security. Important recommendations of these reports are the part of policy/standards. ITU recognized the six Technical Reports as an insightful technical resource & posted on its global resource portal in IoT sections (year 2023 - 2021) for the benefit of global community. He is holding several international positions such as Chairman of ITU-T SG-20 (IoT and Smart cities & communities) Regional Group for Asia Pacific, Vice Chair of ITU-T SG-20 WP-II, Vice Chair of ITU-T SG-20 Focus Group on AI and IoT for Digital Agriculture and Member of ISO-IEC-ITU Joint Smart City task force (JSCTF). He created National Working Group-20 in TEC in 2015 as a mirror committee of ITU-T SG-20 on IoT and SC&C and chaired NWG-20 from 2015 to OCT 2023. He is also the chairperson of BIS National committee LITD 27 on IoT and Digital Twin from 2020. He participated as head of Indian delegation in the meetings of ITUT SG-20 and ISO/ IEC JTC1 SC41. Several international standards are having significant input submitted by him, naming a few in which he worked as an editor also are ITU-T Y Suppl. 53 on IoT use cases, Y Suppl. 56 on Smart City use cases and Y.4218 on IoT and ICT requirements for deployment of smart services in Rural Communities. He delivered talk in around 200 conferences/ trainings on IoT, 5G, Digital Transformation, Smart cities etc., including ITU webinars, ETSI IoT/ Security week. He received Congratulatory emails from ITU for the remarkable success of the 1 st meeting of ITU-T SG-20 Regional Group for Asia Pacific organised in his chairmanship. He also received an appreciation from the Hon'ble Ministers, Government of India, for the excellent work done in the field of Standardisation by IoT and Digital Twin committee LITD 27 of BIS, chaired by him. Prior to this (1989 to 2011), he also served on various positions in the field units of BSNL/ DoT for around 23 years. He is having vast experience of planning, projects, O&M of fixed line, Cellular and Optical Fiber networks. He designed and provisioned the telecom networks for various projects related to e-Governance, National Knowledge Network and corporates; and also for Commonwealth Games (CWG) Cycling event held in Noida in 2010 and Formula One (F1) racing car event in Gr. Noida in 2011, while working in BSNL Noida.
Ajay Kumar Sahu Additional Secretary (T) & Member (Services), Department of Telecommunications (DoT) Shri Ajay Kumar Sahu, ITS of 1985 Batch, joined Indian Telecom Service in June 1987 and worked in different disciplines and telecom areas such as Switching Maintenance, Transmission Maintenance, Administration, Enterprise Business. He has worked in the States of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Meghalaya and Maharashtra. He has the experience of more than 35 years in telecom sector. He is presently working as Member (Services), Digital Communications Commission, Department of Telecom, Government of India.
Debasish Mahalik Scientist, Bureau of Indian Standards Sh. Debasish Mahalik,Scientist-B/Assistant Director at the Bureau of Indian Standards, Government of India, holds an MBA from IRMA and a B.Tech from the University of Agriculture Sciences. Since 2020, he has demonstrated commitment to the food and agriculture sector, transitioning from conformity assessment to standards formulation. In two years, Mahalik published 35 Indian Standards and drafted over 70, contributing significantly to sector progress. As the Member Secretary for key National technical committees, he spearheads the development of standards addressing SMART farming, urban farming, and sustainable agriculture practices within the Agricultural Systems and Management Sectional Committee, FAD 22. Mahalik's global impact is evident through his role in Indo-German expert exchanges, serving as a Document Monitor for ISO Strategic Advisory Group on Smart farming, and managing National Mirror Committees for various ISO committees in India. Passionate about responsible development, he undertook study tours to Israel in 2023 for insights into modern agricultural practices and participated in a special Indian delegation to CEN-CENELEC, ETSI, and AFNOR in 2022 to understand the EU system of standardization and conformity assessment.
Shyam Narayan Jha Dy Director General (Ag Eng.), ICAR Deputy Director General (Agricultural Engineering) of Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi has more than 35 years of research experience in area of Post-harvest, Food, Agricultural Engineering and Food quality evaluation and is presently leading research in Agricultural Engineering in the country. His major areas of professional interests are non-destructive methods of quality evaluation of food, development of new products/process and machinery and design and development of storage structures for fruits and vegetables and guiding/working on new ideas of future needs in Agriculture in General and Agricultural Engineering in Particular. He has published more than 295 publications with citation 5093 and H index 40 as of now. He has several national and international recognition and awards for his pioneer significant research work on non-destructive evaluation of food quality using sensors and other digital devices in India. He is a fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences and National Academy of Dairy Science India and life members of many professional societies.
Ruby Pathania Senior Program Officer, Wadhwani AI Ruby Pathania is an energetic and highly motivated Agri professional with hands-on expertise and more than a decade of experience in crop sustainability and digital inclusion. She has experience working with Civil Societies, brands, International development partners, donors, consultants and the centre and the state Government while promoting social & economic upliftment of farmers via technology dissemination and development programs. She Independently managed and led several projects in the Agriculture and allied sector. Steered the successful roll-out of critical projects across India and worked towards sustainable Agriculture goals. She played a pivotal role in the successful delivery of more than 10 Innovation projects throughout her career.
Rabi N. Sahoo Pr. Scientist & Program Leader, ICAR-NePPA, IARI, Delhi A Principal Scientist at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, holds over 23 years of expertise in Remote Sensing, focusing on hyperspectral applications for soil and crop monitoring. As a leader in national and international remote sensing programs, he co-led the NISA program, covering 37 institutes.Currently leading the ICAR-Network Program on Precision Agriculture (NePPA), Dr. Sahoo has published 250 works, including 140 research papers. Serving as an expert member on various Government of India committees, he played key roles in drone remote sensing, hyperspectral remote sensing, and science campaigns with ISRO-JPL-NASA.Dr. Sahoo's contributions extend to policy development in agriculture, drone applications, and participation in research advisory committees. His work on 'UAV Remote Sensing in Agriculture' has been showcased to top officials. He also served as a visiting faculty at the University of Nebraska and participated in international collaborations in the USA, UK, Japan, China, Luxembourg, Thailand, and Canada for advancements in Smart & Precision Farming technologies.
Sanat Sarangi Scientist, Digital Food Initiatives Group, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Dr. Sanat Sarangi is a scientist with the Digital Food Initiatives Group at Tata Consultancy Services where he leads research initiatives associated with application of IoT in agriculture. He has been with the group for 9+ years, and during this period his efforts have led to 35+ peer-reviewed research publications in top-tier international forums and 25+ unique filed patents. He has contributed towards development of services for enterprise customers, IoT-powered farms, and frugal solutions for the digital food ecosystem. Sanat holds a PhD from IIT Delhi and is a member of IEEE.
Tripti Saxena Senior Deputy Director General, TEC Ms. Tripti Saxena is an officer of 1987 Batch of Indian Telecommunication Services (ITS) and joined Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications, Government of India in 1989. She has done her bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Allahabad University. She has rich experience of around 35 years in telecommunication sector. She has worked under various capacities in Government of India including planning, execution and operation & maintenance of telecom networks etc. In her current role, she is working as Senior Deputy Director General (Sr. DDG) & Head of Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC), the technical wing of Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Government of India and also the National Standardization Body (NSB) for telecommunication sector in India.
Namita Singh Director, User Experience at Digital Green Namita Singh is an International Development sector professional and research scholar with over 17 years of experience in participatory technologies, social development and gender. She currently the Director of User Experience at Digital Green, and is working at the intersection of gender, climate and emerging technologies for farming communities. She has done her PhD in Participatory Technologies from the Open University, UK and has a Master of Arts in Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India. She is a published author with several peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and guides.
SK Chaudhari Deputy Director General (NRM), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Dr. S.K. Chaudhari is presently Deputy Director General (Natural Resource Management) working in NRM Division of ICAR. Before this, he has worked as Assistant Director General (Soil & Water Management) working in NRM Division of ICAR. He has worked as Head of Soil & Crop Management Division in Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal. He has worked in various capacities in IISS, Bhopal; NAARM, Hyderabad; CRIDA, Hyderabad; DWMR, Rahuri; ICAR-RCER, Patna; & IIWM, Bhubaneswar. Dr. Chaudhari graduated and post-graduated from JNKVV, Jabalpur and Doctorate from MPKV, Rahuri. He did post-doctoral fellowships in United States Soil Salinity Laboratory, River Side, California, USA and from Institute of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, University of Rostock, Germany. Dr. S.K. Chaudhari is a Fellow of International Centre of Theoretical Physics, Italy; National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi; Indian Academy of Sciences, Bengaluru, Maharashtra Academy of Sciences, Pune; and many professional societies. Dr. S.K. Chaudhari is a recipient of prestigious TWAS Medal of United Nations, Commendation medal of IAEA, ICAR Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award, ICAR Team Research Award, NAAS Recognition Award, Life Time Achievement Award of the Institute of Engineers, 12th International Congress Commemoration Award of Indian Society of Soil Science and many other Society Awards. Dr. S.K. Chaudhari is closely associated with many Global Programmes viz., Global Soil Partnership, Global Water Partnership, UNCCD, IPCC, ITPS etc.
Krishna Sirohi Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi Krishna Sirohi is Professor of Practice at Bharti School of Telecommunication of IIT Delhi and contributing towards setting up new dimension of Academia - Industry Collaboration for cutting edge Research Translation and the development of field-testable deep-tech solution aiming to meet emerging national needs. Prior joining to IIT Delhi (in Feb 2021), Krishna has long experience (33 Years) of Research & Development in the field of Telecommunication (wireline & wireless) & Defence communication products design. He has earlier contributed to major indigenous R&D projects of national importance.
Chayna Jana Scientist, ICAR-CIFRI, Kolkata Ms. Chayna Jana is working as Scientist at Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (ICAR-CIFRI), Barrackpore, Kolkata, India from 2018 and at ICAR-IISWC, Dehradun, India during 2010-2018. Her major research areas are Web application, DSS, Web-GIS, ICT, IoT, GIS, UAV applications in fishery management, Bigdata, Modelling, Statistics in Agriculture. She has done B.Sc. (Ag) at Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswa Vidyalaya (BCKVV), West Bengal, India; M.Sc. (Computer Application) at ICAR-IASRI, New Delhi, India.
T K Mohanty Pr. Scientist, ICAR-NDRI, Karnal, India Dr. Tushar K. Mohanty is Principal Scientist (Animal Reproduction, Gynaecology, and Obstetrics) at LPM Division ICAR-NDRI, Karnal, Haryana. He graduated from OUAT, Bhubaneshwar, Odisha, in 1988. he completed his M.VSc. and Ph.D. degrees in Veterinary Gynecology and Obstetrics in 1990 and 1997, respectively ICAR-IVRI. Bareilly, UP. Joined ICAR and started his career as a trainee scientist at ICAR-NAARM, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, and joined ICAR-NRC Yak as a scientist in 1994; in 2000, he moved to ICAR-NDRI, Karnal. He has worked as a member of different national and international delegations and expert committees of various government and semi-government organizations. He is a Member of BIS for Veterinary Hospital Planning & Surgical Instruments Sectional Committee, MHD13, by Bureau of Indian Standards, Govt. of India.