BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Ms. Shivani Sinha
Director
Shivani has completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Textile Designing in 1998 and a Graduate Degree in Arts in 1996.
She has been working on women and children’s issues since 1999. She initially worked as Vice Principal of a reputed educational institution between 1999 and 2006. After a brief stint of two years abroad she joined an NGO to work on women and children health and livelihoods improvement.
Shivani co-founded SAI-Sustainable Agro in 2013, and since then has been working with tribal community, looking after health, education and livelihoods aspects. She manages her time between field office at Koraput and head-quarter at Navi Mumbai
Mr. Jitendra Sinha
Chief Executive Officer
Mr Jitendra Sinha is a triple Masters in Agricultural Economics; Development Planning; and Rural Development from India and Europe. He has worked for more than 25 years before taking charge of the CEO of SAI. The key positions earlier held by him are:
- International Chief Technical Advisor to UNDP/GEF and Government of Iran
- International Team Leader-Evaluation to EU Programs in Bangladesh & China
- South-South Cooperation Specialist to UNDP and Govt of Lao PDR & Bangladesh
- Team Leader – Monitoring & Evaluation to World Bank-funded project on Horticulture Development in India
- Advisor to WBG/IFC Farm Forestry Program in India
He has also published 14 books on development issues.
Ms. Namrata Sharma
Member
Namrata completed her post graduate diploma in Business Management from University of Mumbai. She has led small businesses in India and United states. One of them have been in giving small artisans from Delhi a global marketplace like USA with ethnic wear and handmade semi-precious jewellery. Namrata is a professional artist and the learning of specific art forms like Tanjore, Rajasthani etc. which has been through learning from professionals and self-learning as well. Her continued passion for art has led her to launch an art business in USA as well as teach to students from K-12.
She likes to work with kids and has not only taught art but also leadership. She has led the Girl Scouts of America locally as a troop leader and empowered girls in their leadership journey by helping them learn real life skills and execute community projects as part of their journey. She has now launched a media company to facilitate global marketplace for smaller artisans lacking access to markets and help them in achieving a better life.
Mr. Sunil Khanna
Member
Mr. Sunil Khanna is a renowned electrical engineer. He was the President and Managing Director of Vertiv India (formerly Emerson Network Power India Ltd.) and now has been appointed as Non-Executive Chairman. He was the Managing Director of Emerson Process Management India Ltd. Prior to joining Emerson, Mr. Khanna spent 22 years in various countries and rose to the position of Vice President- Automation Technology.
Mr. Khanna is a founding member of Automation Industry Association (AIA) and was
its President from 2008 to 2011.
- Key member of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
- Chairman of CII Maharashtra and Chairman of Skill Development Taskforce for CII Western Region. He is still in various task force of CII Maharashtra including Policy Advocacy, Skill development, Education.
- Involved in academia-industry interface initiatives.
Mr. Khanna holds an M. Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur (1978), and B. Tech in Electronics Engineering from IIT BHU(1976).He championed rural, social and agricultural development in India. Under CSR initiative, he has taken up “Restoration of Assi River” at Varanasi which was completed in March 2019 and conferred with Distinguished Alumnus Award by IITBHU in 2017 and Centenary Award in Feb 2019.
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Dr. Shyam N. Nigam
Agricultural Scientist
Dr Shyam N. Nigam is a renowned groundnut scientist with the distinction of having released more than 125 groundnut cultivars jointly with National Agricultural Research System (NARS) in 35 countries in Asia and Africa. He worked with International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in different positions during 1974-2012 in Asia and Africa. He retired from active service in June 2012. Currently, he freelances as ‘Expert – Agriculture for Development’ and serves on various committees of State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in India and University of Georgia, USA. In addition to crop improvement, he specializes in seed systems and farmer participatory research and development.
Dr Nigam is honoured with several international awards, notables among them are Medal for Agriculture and Rural Development from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Government of Vietnam; Distinguished Carrier Achievements Recognition by the Peanut Genome Consortium International Peanut Genome Initiative, USA; Doreen Mashler Award – 2009 by ICRISAT; Distinguished Scientific Achievement for long-standing partnership by Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC), Bangladesh; Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC), Nepal; Department of Agriculture, Sri Lanka; and Cagayan Valley Integrated Agricultural Research Centre (DA-CVIARC), the Philippines.
Mr. Mahesh Ramachandran
Social Entrepreneur
Mr. Ramachandran is a successful Serial and Social Entrepreneur. He brings with him several decades of rich & varied experience in the field of Entrepreneurship, FinTech, Leadership, Digital Marketing, Mentoring & Governance.
Mr. Ramachandran acts as a non-executive director on the boards of several multi-national companies and innovative start-ups. He
- Chairs the TiE FinTech Special Interest Group on FinTech.
- Co-founder & CEO of Commonwealth Inclusive Growth Services Ltd
- Director (International Business) of Commonwealth Investment Corporation and Partner Pontaq, a UK India Innovation Fund.
- Founder Member, Indian Professionals Forum, a UK based think tank.
- Visiting Faculty of Indian School of Business and Bennett University
Mr. Ramachandran holds an MBA from the University of Westminster, Sloan Masters in Leadership & Strategy (Distinguished Sloan Fellow of London Business School) from University of London.
Mr. Sanjay Upadhyay
Advocate, Supreme Court of India
Mr Upadhyay is the founder and managing partner of India’s first environmental law firm, Enviro Legal Defence Firm. Sanjay has been practising environment and development law since 1993. An India Visiting Fellow at the Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley (Fall 1996) and a legal intern to the Earth Justice Legal Defense Fund, San Francisco, a Global Fellow in Marine Policy at the Duke University, North Carolina, he started his professional career at the World Wide Fund for Nature– India at the Centre for Environmental Law.
Sanjay has served as an environmental and development law expert to most well-known International, Multilateral, national and state institutions including the World Bank, ADB, IUCN, DFID, AFD, FAO, UNDP, IIED, ODI to name a few. He has been in the Drafting Committees of several laws in India and abroad including Wildlife Act, Forest Rights Act, Nagaland Biodiversity Rules, Land Acquisition law of Afghanistan, Forest Sector Policy of Himachal Pradesh, Medicinal Plant Policies of Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand among others. Sanjay practices in the Supreme Court of India and particularly at the National Green Tribunal. He is also the Vice President of the National Green Tribunal Bar Association.
Mr. V.S Gurumani
Independent Consultant
Mr Gurumani was until 2013 Country Director, India with Project Concern International. Thereafter, he helped set up a pioneering NGO dedicated to primary health care. He has over four decades of experience in industry, consulting and social development. In addition to social development, he has worked in banking, manufacturing, consumer products, hotels and oil exploration and refining, holding increasing responsibilities. He has acquired Masters Qualifications in Management Science, Commerce and Systems Management.
An award-winning manager and a Rotary International Fellow, Mr Gurumani’s work includes both line and staff management. Passionate about helping people, systems and organizations perform better; Mr Gurumani is also an internationally certified Workshop Leader in the celebrated Heal Your Life process of Louise Hay.
Team Associates
Ms. Damini Thaledi
Associate Value Chain
Damini Thaledi holds a Master’s degree in Horticulture (M.Sc.). She has also been a part of Uttarakhand Decentralized Watershed Development Project (UDWDP) Phase-II (Gramya) as a field investigator in 2021.
Ms. Shivangi Pandey
Associate Agroforestry
Shivangi Pandey holds a Master’s degree in Horticulture (M.Sc.). She has served as an associate consultant at Sutra consulting under Himachal Pradesh Horticulture Development project for one year. She has also been a part of Uttarakhand Decentralized Watershed Development Project (UDWDP) Phase-II (Gramya) as a field investigator in 2021.
TECHNICAL TEAM
Dr. Shyam N. Nigam
Agricultural Scientist
Dr Shyam N. Nigam is a renowned groundnut scientist with the distinction of having released more than 125 groundnut cultivars jointly with National Agricultural Research System (NARS) in 35 countries in Asia and Africa. He worked with International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in different positions during 1974-2012 in Asia and Africa. He retired from active service in June 2012. Currently, he freelances as ‘Expert – Agriculture for Development’ and serves on various committees of State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in India and University of Georgia, USA. In addition to crop improvement, he specializes in seed systems and farmer participatory research and development.
Dr Nigam is honoured with several international awards, notables among them are Medal for Agriculture and Rural Development from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Government of Vietnam; Distinguished Carrier Achievements Recognition by the Peanut Genome Consortium International Peanut Genome Initiative, USA; Doreen Mashler Award – 2009 by ICRISAT; Distinguished Scientific Achievement for long-standing partnership by Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC), Bangladesh; Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC), Nepal; Department of Agriculture, Sri Lanka; and Cagayan Valley Integrated Agricultural Research Centre (DA-CVIARC), the Philippines.
Mr. Sunil Khanna
Member
Mr. Sunil Khanna is a renowned electrical engineer. He was the President and Managing Director of Vertiv India (formerly Emerson Network Power India Ltd.) and now has been appointed as Non-Executive Chairman. He was the Managing Director of Emerson Process Management India Ltd. Prior to joining Emerson, Mr. Khanna spent 22 years in various countries and rose to the position of Vice President- Automation Technology.
Mr. Khanna is a founding member of Automation Industry Association (AIA) and was
its President from 2008 to 2011.
- Key member of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
- Chairman of CII Maharashtra and Chairman of Skill Development Taskforce for CII Western Region. He is still in various task force of CII Maharashtra including Policy Advocacy, Skill development, Education.
- Involved in academia-industry interface initiatives.
Mr. Khanna holds an M. Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur (1978), and B. Tech in Electronics Engineering from IIT BHU(1976).He championed rural, social and agricultural development in India. Under CSR initiative, he has taken up “Restoration of Assi River” at Varanasi which was completed in March 2019 and conferred with Distinguished Alumnus Award by IITBHU in 2017 and Centenary Award in Feb 2019.
Ms. Prathiba Devadas
Project Cycle Management
Ms. Prathiba Devadas is a renowned Biotech Engineer with a Master’s Degree in Sustainable Resource Management, from Munich, Germany. She has an area of expertise in Biotech, Biochemistry, Mathematics and IT skills.
She has served as Project Leader and Country Representative, Rwanda at TU eMpower Africa e. V in Munich, Germany & Kigali, Rwanda; and as Financial Lead for SRM Talks at Technical University of Munich. Before moving to Germany, Ms. Pratibha was Project Manager at Ajay Vision Edu Pvt Ltd in New Delhi, India, and Chief Editor of Sustainable Times Magazine.
Mr. Vaibhav Sharma
FinTech
Mr. Vaibhav is highly experienced executive in Banking and Fintech. He is a social entrepreneur, and co-founder of SAI SPC, a social purpose corporation and a technical team member (FinTech). He is President of the n Board for CivicStory, a non-profit organization publishing sustainable practices in the community. Based out of New Jersey, working on initiative to develop and distribute millet and millet-based food products in US and other markets.
Dr. Damodara Sreedhar
Clonal Propagation Technology, Pulpwood
Dr. Sreedhar is an experienced Botanist (Plant Tissue culture) and has knowledge of Macro propagation, Tree Improvement, Silviculture, Large scale plantation development & operations, Rural Development, Clean Development Mechanism, Environmentally Sustainable Solutions, Mushroom culture and product development, Extension etc.
He is a Director (Technical), at Phytica Biotech Pvt. Ltd., Hyderabad and was Head, Research and Development at Birla Lao Pulp and Plantations Co. Ltd., Savannakhet, Lao PDR (Aditya Birla Group Company). He also served as Technical Expert (Clonal Propagation and Tissue Culture) with Department of Forests at Chhattisgarh Government. Dr. Sreedhar also served as General Manager (Plantation) for JK Paper Ltd at Rayagada; General Manager (Agribiotechnology) at EPC Industry, Nashik and as Vice President for HOLAgro, Satara.
He has his graduation in CBZ from Andhra University followed by MSc in Botany and PhD in Botany (Plant Tissue Culture) from The M.S. University, Baroda
Mr. Ravi Kiran Mallik
Rural Development Finance
Mr. Vaibhav is highly experienced executive in Banking and Fintech. He is a social entrepreneur, and co-founder of SAI SPC, a social purpose corporation and a technical team member (FinTech). He is President of the n Board for CivicStory, a non-profit organization publishing sustainable practices in the community. Based out of New Jersey, working on initiative to develop and distribute millet and millet-based food products in US and other markets.
Dr. Arun Kumar Johri
Horticulturist
Dr. Johri is a renowned nursery development expert in horticulture, medicinal plants and vegetables. . He has served as Senior Group Leader at Dabur Research
Foundation, and Head of Research and Development at Field Fresh Food Pvt. Ltd. He was also Senior Manager at Ruchi Soya project in Latin America. He recently served as Team Leader and International Horticulture Development Expert for ADB-Himachal Government and was instrumental in developing Horticulture Development Policy for the Himachal Pradesh.
Dr. Johri has successfully published 13 papers in National and International Journal & 100 Package of Practices He was awarded for contribution and commitment to the furtherance of Horticulture in year 2022.
Dr. Johri has completed his Ph.D. in 1988, and M.Sc. (Agriculture) in 1982.
Mr. Gajendra Singh Yadav
Water Resource Development
Mr. G.S. Yadav holds a degree in Agricultural Engineering with specialization in Soil and Water Conservation Engineering from IIT Kharagpur. . He has handled the subject areas of Watershed, Soil water conservation, Agriculture, Horticulture, Irrigation, Socio-economic, Forestry and Environment – planning, training, monitoring and impact assessment with over 32 years’ experience.
He has worked as team coordinator/leader/member in more than 125 projects, including bilateral assignments. He was AGM at Agricultural Finance Corporation Limited (AFC Ltd.), and Director – projects at NH Consulting Pvt Ltd. His other assignments includes
- Consultant at Nippon Koei India Pvt. Limited (Soil and Water Conservation Expert in PMC for Project on Community-based Forest Management and Livelihoods Improvement in Meghalaya – A JICA aided project) in Meghalaya.
- Irrigation Expert at Sutra Consulting Pvt. Ltd. (Irrigation Expert in Monitoring and Evaluation Team of Himachal Pradesh Horticulture Development Project – A World Bank aided Project) in Himachal Pradesh.
Ms. Damini Thaledi
Associate Value Chain
Damini Thaledi holds a Master’s degree in Horticulture (M.Sc.). She has also been a part of Uttarakhand Decentralized Watershed Development Project (UDWDP) Phase-II (Gramya) as a field investigator in 2021.
Ms. Shivangi Pandey
Associate Agroforestry
Shivangi Pandey holds a Master’s degree in Horticulture (M.Sc.). She has served as an associate consultant at Sutra consulting under Himachal Pradesh Horticulture Development project for one year. She has also been a part of Uttarakhand Decentralized Watershed Development Project (UDWDP) Phase-II (Gramya) as a field investigator in 2021.
FIELD TEAM
Mr Tankadhar Sahu
Assistant Field & Harvesting Coordinator
Tankadhar (Bapi) worked at Utkal Alumina as local supervisor earlier. He joined SAI as a Community Resource Person in 2015. Based on his performance he has been promoted as in charge-Training & Procurement from 2018. He is a local youth, stays
Mr Raju Mallik
Coordinator - Supply Chain Management
Raju Mallik joined SAI as Supply Chain Coordinator in November 2021. Earlier he worked for Sical Logistics as Executive-Logistics and Supply Chain for 5 years. He is supervising harvesting and millet value chain. He works with the Cluster coordinator and Community Resource Persons (CRPs) to ensure smooth functioning of Plantation Harvesting and Millet Operations. He is from Angul and has been relocated to SAI office in Dasmantpur, Odisha.
Ms Batseba Bagh
Coordinator – Women Empowerment
Batseba worked as Teacher in Laxmipur School and subsequently at a local NGO on women development. She is a Local youth and a Graduate. She joined Sai in December 2022. She has a good hand in community mobilization and deals with the women’s groups for procurement and processing of millet. She has received training in Agriculture and organic farming.
Mr Raj Kumar Khosla
Coordinator - Value Chain Development
Raj Kumar previously worked with Utkal Alumina as Fitter and subsequently as NGO facilitator. He is a local youth, who stays in one of SAI’s intervention villages. He joined SAI in September 2022. He is looking after the field operations related to millet operation. He has received training on Agriculture, Horticulture & Nutrition by the Odisha government.
Mr Bibhuti Miniyaka
Community Resource Person
Bibhuti is a tribal farmer from Roopkona Panchayat in Kashipur block who earlier collaborated with SAI in 2021 to promote agroforestry on his barren land. He has studied up to 10th standard. He joined SAI as CRP in 2022. Bibhuti is looking after Roopkona cluster by mobilizing and training farmers, assisting them in preparing the field, completing crop cultivation and plantation activities, and providing them regular technical support.
Mr. Dekhina Majhi
Cluster Coordinator – Rayagada
Dekhina is a small farmer from Dongasil Panchayat in Kashipur block who joined SAI as CRP in 2017. He has studied up to 10th standard. Dekhina is looking after Dongasil cluster in Rayagada district by mobilizing and training farmers, assisting them in preparing the field, completing crop cultivation and plantation activities and providing them regular technical support. He is also in charge of managing the Renga area and monitors the CRP’s work in these two areas.
Mr. Giridhar Naik
Community Resource Person
Giridhar is a farmer from Koraput district who earlier collaborated and joined SAI as CRP in 2021 to promote agroforestry on barren land. He has studied up to 10th standard. He Giridhar is looking after the plantation and harvesting operations in Koraput. He provides training to farmers, assisting them in preparing the field, completing crop cultivation and plantation activities, and providing them regular technical support.