Salej Sood Editor

Dr. Anil Kumar is Director, Education, Rani Lakshmi Bai Central Agricultural University, Jhansi (UP). He has 35 years of research, teaching, and administrative experience in various capacities. Dr. Kumar has made outstanding research contributions in the area of Genomics for Crop Improvement especially in resolving the complexity of agriculturally important traits such as the Biotic stresses (Fungal Biology) and Mineral Nutrition. For the first time, he has identified several gene regulatory networks controlling important traits using multi-pronged OMICS approaches. He has played a pivotal role in identification of molecular markers for genetic diversity analysis and first-time dissecting QTLs for calcium and yield traits in finger millet through GBS analysis and also development of finger millet transcriptome database for defining grain calcium accumulation trait. The molecular insight developed for understanding the role of Dof TFs in regulation of NUE and accumulation of nutritionally rich seed storage proteins has enabled to identify genes encoding two seed storage proteins, namely FimA1 and FimP2, having 9% lysine and 16% methionine (Patents filed). Dr. Kumar has filed 11 patents (out of which 2 were granted) on synthesis of nano delivery vesicles for facilitation of uptake of fat-soluble vitamins, Nano-curcuminoids for better bioavailability and nano-iron pro-booster technology for agronomic bio-fortification. He has successfully developed the program on “Agriculture Biotechnology” to improve Brassica, Rice and Finger Millet and was able to obtain outstanding Programme Mode Support in Phase I & II from DBT, New Delhi. Dr Anil Kumar has made significant contributions in the establishment of a new building of Pantnagar Biotechnology Programme which is equipped with modern research and state of art facilities and several function-based laboratories. He has visited several countries and received excellent research exposure in international institutions. Dr Kumar has published more than 215 research papers both in national and internationally reputed peer reviewed journals, 15 books and manuals besides around 40 popular articles, book chapters, etc. The impact of Dr. Anil's work can be judged by >3800 citations with H-index 34 and i10 index 116. He has guided 49 students for their PhD, MSc and MVSc degree program in Molecular Biology & Biotechnology besides 28 students of B. Tech (Biotech) for their project research guidance. He has conferred with several He has been an outstanding teacher and researcher who is credited with many awards and recognitions from different organizations including ICAR, INSA and DBT. He got recognition in the University, State and at National level and conferred Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan University Best Teacher Award-2015, Uttarakhand Governor ‘s Award three times in the year 2015. 2016 and 2018 for Best Research Paper, Bharat Ratna Dr. C. Subramaniam Outstanding Teacher Award-2015 and INSA Teachers Award-2014.

Dr. Salej Sood has done exemplary work on genetic improvement of finger millet in India. He has worked on finger millet breeding, genomics, and nutritional quality for over 7 years and developed eight finger millet varieties and four genetic stocks. He worked as Principal Investigator of two institute projects and two externally funded projects on finger millet, developed new SSRs in finger millet, studied the cross-genera suitability of rice and maize SSRs in finger millet for assessment of genetic diversity in the core germplasm set, developed mapping populations for finger millet blast and calcium content, and reported minor QTLs for finger and neck blast in finger millet. He has published over 40 peer-reviewed quality research articles on small millets. He got prestigious Endeavor fellowship of Govt. of Australia in the year 2018, recipient of NAAS associateship 2019 and several research awards.

Dr. B. Kalyana Babu received ICAR’s two prestigious awards Jawaharlal Nehru Award for outstanding “Doctoral Thesis Research in Agricultural and Allied Sciences” and “Lal Bahadur Shastri Outstanding Young Scientist Award in Crop and Horticultural Sciences”. He is the first person to identify the molecular technology to differentiate the dura, pisifera, and tenera fruit forms in oil palm using SNP-based CAPS marker at the seedling stage. He designed and developed first web-based oil palm microsatellite database in the world. He also identified highly significant microsatellite SSR marker for less height increment in oil palm based on bulk segregant analysis and association mapping, which he has applied for patenting. His publications in oil palm, finger millet, and maize are mostly of first reports. He reported for the first time the QTLs in finger millet for blast resistance, yield traits, and quality parameters like lysine and tryptophan. He also involved in the development of quality protein maize inbred lines VQL3, VQL8, VQL12, VQL16, and VQL30 which has high amount of lysine and tryptophan content which are being used as parents for hybridization programs.

Dr. Sanjay Mohan Gupta did his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry in 2007 from University of Lucknow, Lucknow, and worked on genetic manipulation of banana fruit ripening. He has isolated and characterized ethylene regulated and ripening related 27 novel genes from banana pulp tissue by differential-display (DDRT-PCR) method. Presently, he is working as Scientist-E in DIBER, Haldwani, and involved in research project investigating the pharmacological activity of different leaf, seed extract, and seed oil of Camelina sativa and various rare high altitude medicinal Himalayan bio-resources against various pathogenic microorganisms. He has published more than 75 research papers in leading national and international journals (Google citation is ≥746 with h-index:14; i10 index: 27).  He has 65 accession numbers of various genes submitted to NCBI & EST database in his credit. He is Co-author of 03 books and 14 chapters in the field biotechnology. He has delivered various invited lectures/presentations in the national and international symposium/conferences. He has been awarded with “Laboratory Scientist of the Year -2010” by DRDO. He has also been awarded with “National Technology Day-2015” by DRDO.

Dr. B. Dayakar Rao is a Principal Scientist & CEO at Nutrihub, ICAR - Indian Institute of Millets Research, Hyderabad. He is the Principal Investigator for various externally funded projects such as NAIF-ABI, TBI, RKVY-RAFTAAR, APEDA, MoFPI, MoFPI-PMFME, etc.  He was appointed as member of the core committee of the Taskforce for Implementation of International Year of Millets. He is a pioneer in the value chain development of millets and a member of various state government millet missions. He is credited for setting up of infrastructure such as Centre of Excellence, Nutrihub, and 10 diverse food processing lines as startups facility in view of millets promotion. Through Nutrihub, he supported 200 plus startups of which 66 plus were provided grant in aid support of Rs 6.2 Crores. He is also credited with development of 70 plus value-added technologies and retrofitted 40 plus processing machinery. He was conferred multiple National awards such as Agri Business Summit & Agri Awards 2021 under the category “Leader with strategic vision for millet incubator”, Best Incubator in the Food Tech Sector Award under the Agri Food Empowering India Awards 2021, Outstanding Scientist National Award under SIRIDHANYA, 2018, by Govt of Karnataka, and Best Principal Scientist Award in Overall Performance Award by ICAR-IIMR. He has more than 200 publications to his credits. He also authored the “White Paper on Millets”, and “Position Paper on Millets”, two policy papers for mainstreaming millets in Nutritional Security of India, and has been highly appreciated and recognised nationally.