Finance Committee

Mr. Vishvajit Sahay belongs to the 1990 batch of the Indian Defence Accounts Service. An alumnus of St. Stephen’s College Delhi, he has diverse experience of working in the Government of India, having earlier served as Joint Secretary in the Department of Heavy Industry and Director in the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. He has held additional charge of the posts of Chairman & Managing Director, Heavy Engineering Corporation Ranchi, a Schedule ‘A’ CPSE, CEO & Project Director of National Automotive Testing Research & Development Infrastructure Project (NATRIP) and Director in the Directorate of Film Festivals, Delhi.  Within the Defence Accounts Department, he has experience of working in the Acquisition Wing of the Ministry of Defence as Finance Manager (Land Systems), a cadre post in the MoD. He has also worked in several field and Headquarters Organizations of the Defence Accounts Department with experience of closely working with the MOD, Army and Ordnance Factories.

At present, Shri Sahay is working as Additional Secretary & Financial Adviser for the Department of Science & Technology, with the charge of the Department of Biotechnology and the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

Dr. G. Taru Sharma, Director of the National Institute of Animal Biotechnology (NIAB), Hyderabad, is 1990 batch recruited ARS scientist. She is from the first batch of doctorate from Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, did her post doctorate from LSU, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, US.Before joining NIAB she has served as a staff scientist at Bio-Med. Pvt. Ltd., worked at Centre of Biotechnology, NDDB, Mumbai and Director, Centre for Advanced Faculty Training in Veterinary Physiology, Professor &Head Division of Physiology and Climatology at IVRI, Izatnagar. Dr. Sharma has 34 years of research experience with the major research emphasis on assisted reproductive biotechnology and stem cellbiology.Her group has made novel and outstanding contributions in an area of buffalo reproduction, viz. developed an efficacious three-dimensional (3D) microenvironment model for extended in vitro culture of buffalo preantral follicles using gel synthetic surface matrix and gel droplet micro encapsulation, elucidated expression pattern profile for in-vitro produced and in-vivo derived buffalo embryos, generated an efficient technique for buffalo female germplasm (preantral, antral ovarian follicles, oocytes, embryos and stem cells).Her teamis now focused ingenerating organoids/3D stem cells/exosomes enriched scaffolds for regenerative therapiesfor livestock and pets.She is the coordinator of DBT-One health Consortium having 28 centres. Dr. Sharma is recipients of 32 awards while in service based on the outcome of research work of her group, some important ones are young scientists award and gold medal from ISC and SAPI, Prof. Nils Lagerlof Memorial Award for best research article, Prof. A. Roy honorary award, National Bioscience Award from Department of Biotechnology, highest research award of ICAR-Rafi Ahmed Kidwai, Bharat Ratna C. Subramanium best teacher award,Punjabrao Deshmukh Best Women Scientist award from ICAR, Vasvik award for an outstanding research work. She is an elected fellow of NAAS, NASI and NAMS, member inter Academia panel in WinS of (NASI, INSA andIASc).She has mentored/mentoring43M.V.Sc and Ph.D students, authored 21 books/book chapters, published 151 research articles, shared her work at various national and international platforms and is a founder president of Animal Physiologists Association.

Director
Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine (iBRIC-inStem), Bengaluru, India

Professor on Deputation
Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bengaluru.

Professor Maneesha Inamdar is a stem cell and developmental biologist conducting research at Bangalore, India. Her group uses human stem cells, gene editing and animal models to study cardiovascular and blood development, to understand congenital defects and devise regenerative strategies.

Dr. Inamdar pioneered human embryonic stem cell derivation and use in India, providing stem cells that represent the Indian genetic diversity, are eligible for use globally and have been distributed worldwide. Through her association with various international stem cell organizations and with the WHO Expert Committee, Prof. Inamdar has contributed to several guidance and policy documents on stem cells and gene editing. She heads or serves on several scientific review, funding and ethics committees. While furthering discovery and training, she is deeply involved in science outreach, education and public engagement. Her recent article in the journal Nature was highlighted for its call to bring equity and accessibility through global research standards.

Prof. Inamdar is Director of inStem (Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine) and Senior Professor at JNCASR (Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research), Bangalore. She is a fellow and Council member of both, the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy; and a J C Bose National Fellow, with several awards and honors.

Prof. Chandrabhas Narayana is the Director of Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Thiruvananthapuram. He is also full Professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore under the Department of Science and Technology. He has 26 years of experience in Research and Development in autonomous institutions of Government of India and guided several students for their Ph.D.  He has been several administrative capacities like Dean, Research and Development, Dean, Fellowship and Extension Programs, Chairman of Chemistry and Physics of Materials, Chairman of The School of Advanced Materials, etc. He is a highly accomplished Raman Spectroscopist. His work with Raman spectroscopy, along with x-ray synchrotron and molecular dynamic simulations, is truly interdisciplinary, spanning Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. In Biology his group has been contributing significantly to the synthesis of gold and silver nanomaterials and nanostructures in the area of Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) for applications in Biology. His group is pioneers in the use of Raman spectroscopy as an alternative technique to x-ray crystallography, along with MD simulations to probe the structure/function of proteins, drug-screening and drug design and development applications. The group also uses SERS for DNA/RNA detection, useful in diagnostics of disease, identifying SNPs, etc. The group also is using Raman spectroscopy to identify markers for early detection of diseases, in addition to using  Raman spectroscopy for tissue imaging.  Prof. Narayana is a Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences, Fellow of National Academy of Sciences, India, Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry, Fellow of Kerala Academy of Sciences.

Ashwani Pareek (born 27 September 1969 in Delhi and native of Sambhar Lake, Rajasthan, India) is Executive Director of NABI, a prominent plant biologist and educator noted chiefly for his contribution in the area of plant molecular biology and biotechnology. He is currently working as Professor at the School of Life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia. He is a recipient of several honours including the Visitors award for Technology Development from the President of India for developing Stress Tolerant Rice of the Next Generation (STRONG) that has the potential to enhance the income of rice farmers. He has interest in understanding the physiological and molecular adaptations in xero-halophytic plants and development of transgenic rice plants with enhanced tolerance towards multiple abiotic stresses. After receiving PhD degree, Pareek received the prestigious Post-Doctoral Fellowship by The Rockefeller Foundation, New York, BOYSCAST Fellowship to work at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, USA and INSA-Royal visiting scientist fellowship to work at University of Cambridge, U.K. He has been an elected Fellow of various Science Academies in India. With over 20 years of teaching experience, more than 200 publications and several international patents, he has been serving as Editor of reputed journals such as Plant Physiology and many others.