Professor (Dr.) Jashbhai B. Prajapati is a Dairy Technology graduate from Gujarat Agricultural University and Ph.D. in Dairy Microbiology from National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, India. He retired as the Principal & Dean of the Faculty of Dairy Science at AAU, Anand in October 2020 with 40 years of experience in education and research. He is a renowned academician and scientists in the area of probiotics and fermented foods and has developed several fermented milk based functional products. He is Chairman of Indian Dairy Association, Gujarat State Chapter and Coordinator of SASNET-Fermented Foods. He handled number of research projects sponsored by ICAR, DBT, State Govt., EU, SIDA and has more than 500 publications, including two text books. He has guided 32 MTech and 9 PhD students. He was awarded Chancellors Gold medal for being the best student in the University in 1984 and has received 2 times GAAS Award, 6 times best paper awards. He had Fellowship awards from Erasmus Mundus (EU) as well as Indian National Science Academy. He is a Fellow of Indian Dairy Association as well as Fellow of National Academy of Dairy Science. He is a recipient of Hari Ohm Ashram Award 2015 from Indian Council of Agricultural Research for his outstanding research contribution in probiotics. He is Associate Editor of International Journal of Fermented Foods, International Journal of Probiotic and Prebiotics and reviewer for several reputed scientific journals. He is serving as an expert member for many other universities/ institutions and also evaluating start-up proposals from B-school. He is a reviewer for projects/proposals in the area of probiotics and functional foods from DBT, BIRAC-BIG, DST, ICAR, ICMR and several other organizations. At present his engagements are;

• Chairperson, Verghese Kurien Centre of Excellence, Institute of Rural Management, Anand
• Coordinator, Swedish South Asian Network on Fermented Foods
• Chairman, Indian Dairy Association (West Zone)
• Vice President, National Academy of Dairy Science (India)
• Member of Governing Council of Gut microbiota and probiotic science foundation India.
• Honorary Member, Board of Governors of the NDDB Foundation for Nutrition (NFN)
• Adjunct Professor at Bihar Animal Science University
• Expert for export inspection council of India.
• Member of scientific panel on milk and milk products of FSSAI
• Member, Academic Council of Kamdhenu University, Gandhinagar
• Member, Academic Council of Gujarat Biotechnology University
• Member, Research Advisory Committee, National Dairy Development Board, Anand
• Member, Management Committee of CALF Laboratory, NDDB, Anand
• Member, Management Committee of Quality Mark, NDDB, Anand
• Chairman, Institutional Ethics Committee, PS Medical College, Karamsad
• Member in Indian National Committee of International Dairy Federation (IDF) in 3 groups viz., Probiotics, Lactic acid bacteria & starters and Microbiological methods for analysis.

He has widely travelled in Europe and many other countries and has delivered lead talks/keynotes in many conferences including IFT, IDF, IPC, AOAC, ILSI etc and has organized several conferences and workshops for building the network on fermented foods. He is a Life member of several professional bodies like AFSTI, IDA, AMI, ISCA, GAAS, PAI, Biosensor Society of India, etc.

At present he is Chairperson of Dr Verghese Kurien Centre of Excellence at Institute of Rural Management, Anand. He is actively leading the programs and projects for the promotion of dairying and for the millions of milk producers of India based on the values of Dr Kurien. He has organized several workshops, training programs, seminars and webinars for the food and dairy professionals.

Role in IDA

Life member of IDA since 1988 and have participated in most of the Dairy Industry Conference since then. Involved in creation of IDA Gujarat State Chapter in January 1998 and since then involved in organizing various seminars, workshops, training program etc. for milk producers, students, dairy professional and so on. Worked as Vice Chairman for 2 terms and at present serving as Chairman of Gujarat Chapter. I am member of ZEC (WZ) since last 2 terms and has been involved in organization of 2 DICs in Mumbai and 1 in Goa. Committed to work for all the stakeholders of dairy and overall development of dairy sector.

Qualifications

Ph.D (Dairy Technology) from NDRI, Karnal, India, 1976. Post-Doctorate (Dairy and Food) from Dairy Research Laboratory CSIRO, Australia during 1977-80.

Publication & Seminars

Wrote a book on "Technology of Dairy Products" and contributed many scientific and technical articles in Indian and International technical journals, and also presented many technical papers in National and International Symposia. Life member of Indian Dairy Association & Association of Food Scientists and Technologists of India. Member of the Australian Institute of Food Science and Association, British Society of Rheology and many Indian Dairy and Food Journals. Travelled world wide for attending International Congress and Exhibitions in dairying and food processing.

Experience in Australia

Worked jointly with CSIRO Dairy Research Laboratory and Gilbert chandler Institute of Dairy Technology in association with Australian Dairy Industries such as Unigate Ltd., Peterville Ltd., Cadbury Ltd., on milk and milk products such as butter, butter oil, modification of milk fat, Ice cream, yogurt, flavoured milk, cheese, chocolate butter spread, butter powder, nutritional foods, beverages etc.

Experience in India

Worked in Amul Dairy, Anand, on processing of milk and milk products during 1971-72.

Since 1980, working as Technical Consultant for dairy and food industries. Provided technical and Turnkey consultancy to many companies in the field of dairy and food processing.

Our Turnkey consultancy services includes from concept to commissioning of the project such as feasibility studies, project report preparation, technology transfer and know how, equipment sourcing and selection of equipments from India and abroad, process development, quality control, ISO 9000 and HACCP, process design, building layout, machinery layout, training of manpower etc.

Dr. Parekh has taken-up a World Bank assignment in Kosovo in 2001 on aseptic processing of juice & milk.

Dr. Parekh was associated with Genesis Fintec Ltd, Kolkata as Dairy Expert for the Pre-Investment Feasibility Study of the North Eastern Region for NEDFI, Guwahati in the year 2002.

Dr. Parekh has also conducted Feasibility study for Tanga Fresh Lt, Tanga, Tanzania & The Royal Dairy Products Ltd, Dar-e-Salam, Tanzania in 2004 & 2005 respectively.

Recently Dr. Parekh has provided Turnkey Consultancy Services on dairy for FTK Foods Pvt. Ltd. (Akbarally Group) at Bhiwandi in Maharashtra, Top Lait Company in Mauritania and Integrated Dairy in Nigeria.

Dr.Parekh was also associated with NABARD (National Agriculture Bank for Rural Development) to study The Techno Financial Viability of Dynamix Dairy Industries Ltd, Baramati in the year 2003, Roadmap for Dairy Development of Jharkhand State in 2008 and Preparation of the project report for West Bengal Co-op. Milk Producers Federation Ltd. Kolkata in 2009.

Dr. Parekh has prepared detailed Project Report on Whey based products for Amul Dairy Anand in 2008.

Dr. Parekh was also associated with the Ferrero Trading LuxSA, Italy for couple of years during 2014-16 for souring of the good quality raw materials with focus on milk & milk products such as milk powder, WPC & other dairy ingredients.

Dr. Parekh was a member of Export Inspection Agency (Ministry of Commerce) for assessment of milk processing plants in Maharashtra for export of milk and milk products.

Dr. Parekh got Fellowship Award by Indian Dairy Association in February 2011 and another Fellowship Award by Dairy Technology Society of India on 16 th November, 2011.

Dr. Parekh was facilitated and honoured for the Yoeman services rendered to the Dairy industry in the country by the Indian Dairy Engineering Association (IDEA) in Tirupati on 24th September 2012.

Dr. Parekh was awarded Dr. J.R.Patel Memorial Award for Dairy Professional for his outstanding contribution to the development and growth of the Dairy Industry by Dr. J.R.Patel Memorial Charitable Trust, Sheth M.C College of Dairy Science, Anand, Gujarat on 2nd March 2013.

Dr. Parekh is a Vice Chairman of Indian Dairy Association, West Zone.He is Chef Editor of Dairy Times.

Qualification: Diploma in Fabrication Technology and Erection Engineering.

Director, Micron Industries Pvt. Ltd. - Working in the field of Dairy Engineering, specializing in the design and manufacture of:High Pressure Homogenisers, Cup Filling and Closing Machines for Liquid and semi viscous products, Ice cream Cup and Cone Filling Machines,Butter Cube forming and Wrapping Machines, Ice Cream Candy Machines etc.

• Life Member : Indian Dairy Association (West Zone)
• Secretary IDA (WZ) - 2010 -2013
• ZEC Member IDA (WZ) - 2007-2010
• Treasurer IDA (WZ), 2003-2007
• Secretary General 41st DIC, Mumbai 2013
• Secretary General 37th DIC, Goa, 2009
• Part of Organising Commitee 31st DIC, Mumbai 2002

Completed Indian Dairy Diploma (Dairy Technology) of ICAR New Delhi in1983. Graduate in Economics from Mumbai University in 1987.

Worked in Warana co-op for 6 years (1984 to 1990) as shift officer , technical officer and actively participated in Mumbai operations.

Joined Kolhapur milk union ltd. in 1990 and holding charge of Mumbai and handling Gokul brand operations since 1996 till today. Now working as AGM.

Diploma in Marketing from Crainfeild University UK in 2000 through world bank Scholarship.

• Life member of Indian Dairy Associations (WZ) since 1996 & presently on the Zonal Executive Committee as Treasurer.

National Dairy Development Board

Representing NDDB on the Boards and Management Committees of various Milk Cooperative Unions.

Coordinating and monitoring the implementation of various Central Government Schemes being implemented by NDDB.

Designing, developing, and implementing milk procurement plan for NGC Nanded and proposed Vidarbha-Marathwada New Generation Cooperatives project. Headed the procurement team in NGC Nanded project and achieved the target of 40000 Liters per day.

Played a major role in advocacy and lobbying and propagation of Producer Companies Legislation (Part IX-A of the Companies Act)

Carried out Advocacy and Lobbying for the Cooperative Initiative Panel which consisted of Dr. Mohan Dharia, Former Union Minister, Shri LC Jain, Renowned Economist and Dr. V. Kurien, Former Chairman, National Dairy Development Board for progressive laws governing cooperatives which resulted in enactment of liberal parallel Cooperative Laws in 11 states.

Member of ZEC (West Zone since ….)

Masters in Agriculture Extension from Collage of Agriculture, Nagpur under Dr. Punjabrao Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola, Maharashtra.

M. Tech. (Dairy & Food Engg.), IIT, Kharagpur, 1977.

Managing Director, dairyplant.com, Technical Consultancy firm Provide Turnkey Project Consultancy for establishing Milk Processing and packaging plants., Ice Cream, Cheese, Yoghurt and Traditional Milk Product plants, UHT Plants, Cattle feed plants, Refrigeration & cold stores, Fruits & vegetables processing, Post Harvest Treatment Centers, CA & MA Cold stores Fully Automatic Milk plants up to 1 million ltr. Capacity.

Developed India's First Mobile Grape - Pre-cooling Van in 1991; Developed the Ready to start Skid Mounted Dairy Plant - 1 to 50 kl/day capacity especially for exports; Widely travelled all over the world and attended many international conferences on Dairy, Food processing and Refrigeration. Worked in NDDB from 1977-1988.

• Life Member of Indian Dairy Association (IDA)
• Chairman, IDA (WZ), 2007-10, 2010 -2013, 2014-2017
• Organized 31st DIC, Mumbai 2002
  • 37th DIC, Goa, 2009
  • 41st DIC, Mumbai 2013
  • AFDC 17:4 - Pig Housing & Equipment sub- committee
  • 45th DIC Mumbai 2017
• Vice Chairman, IDA ( WZ ), 2003-2007
• Member CEC (2000-2013)
• Secretary IDA (WZ) 2001-2003
• Member (Nominee of Hon. Governor of Maharashtra), Executive Council, Maharashtra Animal & Fishery Sciences University ( MAFSU ), Nagpur
• Guest lecturer for M. Tech class - IIT Bombay

Ms. Agarwal is a Dairy Value Chain expert and a dedicated Development Professional.

She has two decades of rich experience in Consulting, Management & Marketing of Food Businesses among others.

With a Proven track record in Managing Business, Strategizing Growth plans, Richie consults organizations of all types (Private, Companies and cooperatives) to bring about growth and expansion of business either from inception or during the course of their journey. Making Dairy & Food Businesses Grow through Marketing and Distribution is her speciality.

Through RA Consulting, Richie coaches & mentors Client Teams and supports the execution of Marketing, Sales & Distribution and Business Plans through Agile, TQM and Hoshin Kanri methodologies.

She has founded - Asar Initiative, an organization that works with the underprivileged to empower women farmers, improve their life skills, enhance capacities of dairy farmers, ameliorate income and enable them to have better standards of living.

Being implementing partners to CSR Organizations, Richie brings about women empowerment and capacity building of Dairy Farmers for their income amelioration and cattle health enhancement programmes.

Partnering with organizations and analyzing critical business challenges, RA Consulting works with organizations to come out of challenges and grow themselves exponentially by supporting them in their Strategy, Implementation, Sales & Distribution setup, Contemporary Marketing Initiatives, Branding, Hiring and Training.

Richie loves doing community work. She is a dedicated Art of Living Volunteer and is a Yoga Enthusiast. Richie is a life member at Indian Dairy Association and aspires to benefit the community by bringing more engagement and ownership among the members.

Shri Rajkumar Malik graduated from SMC College of Dairy Science in the year 1990. He has done his Post-Graduation in Marketing & Sales Management from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

With an overall career spanning over 33 years, he started his journey in 1990, from Sugam Dairy, Vadodara, which was then managed by NDDB and known for mechanized production of traditional dairy products.

He worked with Lactose India Limited and Cepham Milk Specialities Limited, Chandigarh, where, along with successfully setting up and streamlining a fully automated Casein and Lactose manufacturing plant, he played a key role in creating & developing a market for Lactose in Pharma sector for the company.

Shri Malik joined IDMC Limited in the year 1997. He has been instrumental in establishing IDMC in dairy, beverage, breweries, industrial refrigeration, nuclear and pharma sectors.

He had also been instrumental in development of new products like continuous khoa making machine, UHT sterilizer with 30 minutes holding, the first in the World

At IDMC, having risen from the position of Senior Executive, through middle and senior management, he has been recently appointed as Executive Director from September 2022. Shri Malik is the lifetime member of IDMC and is also the member of Zonal Executive Committee, IDA (West Zone).

Shri Amit Vyas, an Engineering graduate from Pune, Specialized in Advanced Project Management from Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA). His career in Dairy Industry shaped up from Banas and Sumul Dairy, where he implemented some landmark technologies and processes. Enduring his exceptional journey of Amul Dairy from year 2012, he is leading Amul dairy since 2018 as Managing Director with passion and excellence imbibed from his experiences of working with dairy stalwarts like Dr. Verghese Kurien.

Major Milestones: He had seamlessly handled projects like fully automated Liquid Milk Processing Plant, Fully Automated Butter Plant, Spray Drying Plant, Boiler, Refrigeration, Cold Storages, Water Treatment of Cattle Feed Plant, and designing of fully automated dairy plants. From installing State of Art - cold storage with Automatic Storage & Retrieval System and Mobile Racking System, establishing automated Cattle Feed Plant and automated Chocolate Plant, Cheese expansion, Milk & Dairy plant expansion, efficiency improvement of Robotic Plant, to digitalizing entire cow to customer network are few of his extraordinary achievements highlighting his focus on cost saving, while increasing work efficiency through automation and digitalization.

Accolades: Under his leadership, AMUL achieved many outstanding milestones, like Vasundhara Award 2015, Golden Peacock Award for ecologically innovation and sustainable energy conservation in 2016 and Animal Health Leadership Awards 2022 - Best Company in Animal Feed Award. He is holding the preeminent post of Chairman IDA, West - Zone (Gujarat Chapter), and also in felicitated with IDA Fellowship award for his outstanding contribution in Dairy sector through various prestigious platforms like at IDA, IRMA, IDF, and many more. He is also nominated as Auditor by Ministry of Power, BEE, Government of India.

He instigated pioneering initiatives in areas of cost savings, energy conservation, automation & digitalization, new product development, animal health and breeding like first ever large-scale use of affordable yet effective Homeopathic medicine, breed improvement with Sexed Semen and Embryo Transfer, Employee skilling & many more. He also drove endeavour in organic fertilizers and organic farming.

Steering his team towards data-driven decision making for maximizing the benefits for Amul's dairy producers, his zeal and experience of about 30 years which lead the landmark growth of Amul dairy of more than 11 thousand Crores in year 2022-23. An energetic, dynamic, resilient, insightful and visionary leader, Shri Amit Vyas has carved the path of Amul being a customer centric and quality conscious cooperative, but also an organization bound to grow exponentially in coming years.

M Tech in Dairy and Food Engineering from I. I. T. Kharagpur 1983 batch. Joined MP State Cooperative Dairy Federation Bhopal in 1984. Worked as Chief Executive Officer at Indore, Bhopal and Ujjain Milk Unions of M P State Cooperative Dairy Federation. Joined as Managing Director Vadodara Cooperative Dairy Milk Union (member Union of GCMMF) from June 2016 till retirement in Aug 2018.

Dr. Alok Juneja, presently working as Vice President, Programmes &Livestock Development in BAIF Development Research Foundation.

He has an experience of 34 years in the field of Livestock development, working with state Animal Husbandry Department for 27 years in various capacities and 7 years with BAIF. He started his carrier at a remote village in Rajasthan as a veterinary officer and after working as Assistant Director, Deputy Director, Joint Director, Additional Director of various units of Animal Husbandry Department and Rajasthan Livestock Development Board, he took premature retirement and joined BAIF.

In BAIF he is responsible to monitor, evaluate &mentor programs on Livestock, Agriculture, Horticulture, NRM, Renewable energy, Health, Sanitation, Education, Water, Climate proofing projects in 14 operational States.

Other activities handled include communication with the State and GoI Ministries, national institutes, corporate sponsors, peer organizations &other stakeholders, identifying necessary measures and rolling them out through the state teams, tracking quality improvement against the defined standards, tracking state level Government policies and advise state teams and management, strategically developing new project ideas, new partners and programmes.

Dr. Prashant Gorakh Wasnik did his doctorate in Dairy Engineering from National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal. He served as Workshop Engineer in Indian council of Agricultural research for five years from 1992 to 1997. Then after, he joined the academic services of Dr. PDKV, Akola as Assistant Professor in senior scale. He became Associate Professor and Professor in subsequent years. He also served as Associate Dean, College of Dairy Technology, Udgir. Presently he is working as Associate Dean, College of Dairy Technology, Pusad and having the additional charge of Dean, Faculty of Dairy technology, Maharashtra Animal and Fishery Sciences University, Nagpur.

He is a member of Academic and Executive council of MAFSU, Nagpur. He is life member of various professional bodies such as Indian Dairy Association, Indian Dairy Engineers Association, Association of Food Scientists and Technologists (India).

He has standardized the manufacturing technology of santra burfi, and studied the textural and moisture migration properties of traditional Indian dairy products with the financial support of RGSTC. He has also developed the mathematical model for prediction of adulteration of cow ghee with vegetable fat by image analysis.

He has published 20 research papers in national and international journals,two books and five book chapters.

Shri Pravin Kumar Bhambi, Executive Director (Operations), Dudhsagar Dairy, Mehsana is a Dairy Technologist from Sheth MC College of Dairy Science (Anand Agricultural University), Anand (1986 batch) and also holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Management from Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA).

He has multidimensional experience in the dairy sector for about 37 years in Production, Process Development, Sales & Marketing, Project Management and Milk Procurement within District and outside Gujarat.

He has handled a state of the art green filed Dairy project of 10 LLPD milk processing & packing with 50,000 litres Ice-Cream manufacturing and 50 MT Dahi manufacturing plant worth 100 Crores at Manesar of Mehsana union independently. He has handled many other projects like 20 TPD SCM plant at Mehsana, 2.0 LLPD milk processing & packing facility at Kadi & Patan, 1000 TR Refrigeration plant at Dudhsagar Dairy, Mehsana. He was selected and attended the "Quality Management Program at Yokohama, Japan in the year 1998.

Presently handling operations of Dudhsagar Dairy, Mehsana; Dudhmansagar Dairy, Manesar; Dudhmotisagar Dairy, Dharuhera; and Milk procurement operations & leased plant operations of outside Gujarat of Mehsana District Co-operative Milk Producers' union Limited; Mehsana along with new upcoming projects for new 120 TPD powder plant and 3 LLPD UHT plant having project outlay about 400 Crores.