Involved with effective planning, execution, certification, and coordination of all TechDevelopment activities for Plasma Activated Water (PAW) for India operations. Liaise with field operations to ensure trials are implemented, maintained, assessed, and certified by appropriate bodies/influencers. Identifying and proposing appropriate market penetration. Maintain end-to-end product advancement process and keep records of the applications of the products, Protocols, Hypotheses, SOPs, and Outcomes. Budget monitoring of the PAW Product team. Support and help in identifying product gaps, suggest and lead product development activities to fill the gap. To communicate results and recommendations to internal stakeholders; external stakeholders Viz., Channel partners, Govt, Industry Influencers, Vendors, and growers at meetings, field trials, and field day events. Engage in technical aspects of a collaboration with third-party companies for the development of new applications/use cases and provide technical inputs to help steer new opportunities. Liaise with Govt and agricultural research bodies for various partnerships and ensure incorporation of Plasma technology in research programs. To develop and deliver technical information and training on Plasma technologies to internal (Sales, Technical Services) and external customers and key influencer bodies, ensuring integrity and product stewardship.

Spearheading the entire gamut of strategic planning and implementation process of the rice breeding plan of Row Crops Business Unit, thereby ensuring profitable growth for the business by leading a vibrant team of research professionals. Development of new marketable products in all segments as per the company’s product delivery charter and also introduced successful new products to national and international markets. Executed Breeding Excellence framework adhering to the company’s crop-specific breeding charter. Devising, evaluating, and implementing continuous process improvements of breeding projects based on post-commercialization payback, COGP, and Critical Resource use efficiency. Budget preparation and proper implementation. Played an integral role in transitioning work to in-house resources and reducing cost while maximizing quality and continuously achieving yearly targets as per the breeding charter. People development and Capability enhancement and Stakeholder engagement. Maintain full compliance with critical safety and quality standards (EHS). Member of the crop team in planning, coordinating, and also participating in various marketing research activities to identify customer preferences and attitudes and to enhance products and services. Associate member for implementing the Business Excellence drive. Played an integral role in identifying and formulating processes, in line with SIPOC, related to breeding function.

Planning and coordinating the breeding program for commercial hybrid development of rice across different segments. Engaging in the hybrid rice development project which included the production/ development of parental lines, development/evaluation of hybrids (multi-location, multi-season), and more. Focus on improving the parental lines for enhancing yield and developing resistance to specific traits. Steering efforts to improve the parental lines through conventional and MAS (Marker-Aided Selection) breeding. Steering efforts to develop parental lines and new hybrid combinations based on the predictions models made using genomic and phenotypic data. Identified the lines which are resistant, transferred to key parental lines, tested with developed hybrids under hotspots, checked the hybrid performance, and developed resistant hybrids. Formulating breeding strategies focusing on optimizing the existing lines and developing new lines with enhanced resistance towards pests/diseases in partnership with the R&D team. Strategize and identify, develop and implement new marketable projects facilitating the development of new hybrids. Identified a single variety present in coastal areas for several decades and developed a long-duration hybrid project; aimed at capturing markets with new and newer hybrids. Member of the crop team in planning, coordinating, and also participating in various marketing research activities to identify customer preferences and attitudes and to enhance products and services. The Coordinator for Rice Group for the implementation, and maintenance of the new statistical package adopted in the Company. To train the rice breeding staff on how to use the statistical software. The Associate member for the implementation of the Business Excellence drive. The member of the committee assigned to identify, develop and formulate all processes, in line with SIPOC, related to breeding function.

In charge of all development-related activities in India for field trials and applied genetics group. The development life cycle includes shipping of seeds, acquisition of regulatory approvals, growing & multiplication of seeds, hybrid production, field trials, data collection & collation, providing recommendations, and the start of the commercialization phase.Apart from developmental activities, I was involved in identifying potential business partners and sending leads on the same to the Global Team, developing field strategies, ensuring compliance with project milestones and business partner expectations, enhancing the quality of processes, streamlining processes, resource allocation and other operational activities related to people, finance, material/equipment, budgeting, planning of personnel needs and field operations.Another part of my portfolio is the implementation and maintenance of the Stewardship and Responsible Care (Safety) programs.

This was a hybrid rice development role that involved the production/development of parental lines, development/evaluation of hybrids (multi-location, multi-season), market segmentation for hybrids, testing, and commercial references. Improved the parental lines to enhance the yield and develop resistance to specific traits through conventional and MAS breeding, identified lines that are resistant, transferred to key parental lines, tested with developed hybrids under hotspots, checked the hybrid performance and developed resistant hybrids.Some of my key achievements here include the development of nearly 30 combinations of hybrids which were at various testing stages for commercialization, the development of hybrids that were BPH resistant as part of the project team; formulated the project framework, testing protocols, and more and development of in-house seed inventory management system and medium term storage facility.

The role in this company was managing the germplasm and breeding lines of core crops such as Paddy, Sorghum, Pearl Millet, and Sunflower and seed storage and inventory.Established the Seed Bank Cold Storage facility and developed a system for organizing the genetic resources, protocols, and SOPs, optimized inventory management and set up an efficient system for real-time and accurate reporting. Engaged in commercial hybrid testing activities, ensured optimal utilization of genetic resources available, and acted as Site Advisor for the Paddy GM breeding program.

Deputed Scientist in-charge of CVT (Coordinated Varietal Trials) and AICRP (All India Coordinated Research Projects) at the Cardamom Research Station with accountability of ensuring all trials are conducted on a timely basis, timely submission of documentation to AICRP. Other responsibilities included identifying, formulating and implementing new projects aimed at developing and improving cardamom varieties and managing a project on Cardamom Germplasm at the research station.Provided crop solution advisory to planters/farmers of Idukki district and to the estates of Harrison Malayalam Limited, Kerala as part of the core team.

The key profile was to conduct multiple studies and identify usable parental lines for developing three and two line rice hybrids. In this respect, Selected and advanced more than 1500 test rice hybrids based on marketable traits of which 2 to 3 rice hybrids were in the later stages of commercialization. Another very key achievement was increase in the seed producing ability of the female parent of the commercial rice hybrid by >50% using market assisted breeding (MAB).

Worked on the project - 'Participatory Plant Breeding for the Development of Rice Varieties Suited for Specific Agro-ecological Situations of Kerala’ at College of Horticulture, Kerala Agricultural University as a Research Fellow.Prior to this, as a Project Fellow, I was involved in the project - 'Documentation and Characterization of Palakkad matta rice as Geographical Indications' at College of Horticulture, Kerala Agricultural University.

Here, I was involved in germplasm evaluation and maintenance in vegetable crops, development of new hybrid and varieties based on market needs, project management for improving the parental lines and development of new genotypes.