CII’s Food and Agriculture Centre of Excellence (FACE) is charged with the mission to improve competitiveness of India’s agriculture and food processing sector, by catalyzing innovation, building capacity, enhancing productivity, and establishing supply chain linkages across the agriculture and food value chain, ensuring food security and inclusive growth.

Over the last 10 years FACE has worked closely with farmers, private sector, developmental institutions, and the Government towards building efficiencies across the supply chain, right from the farm gate to the end consumer. With a team of 30 domain experts FACE has established itself as a credible knowledge resource in the agriculture and food domain.

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CII’s Food and Agriculture Centre of Excellence (FACE) is charged with the mission to improve the competitiveness of India’s agriculture and food processing sector, by catalyzing innovation, building capacity, enhancing productivity, and establishing supply chain linkages across the agriculture and food value chain, ensuring food security and inclusive growth.

Over the last 10 years, FACE has worked closely with farmers, the private sector, developmental institutions, and the Government towards building efficiencies across the supply chain, right from the farm gate to the end consumer. With a team of 30 domain experts FACE has established itself as a credible knowledge resource in the agriculture and food domain.

FACE actively contributes to the ongoing policy dialogue related to agriculture and food- security concerns with a robust footprint of evidence-based policy research across Center and state government. The research portfolio is further strengthened by consultancy projects around program evaluation, impact studies as well as commodity-specific value chain assessments for the government as well as the private sector.

Through its integrated approach of action-oriented programs and capacity-building initiatives, while leveraging technology and innovation, the center addresses the issues from the farm gate to the consumer end. FACE has developed a robust portfolio of capacity building, training, and consultancy initiatives that includes training under Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), post-harvest as well as the food safety and quality domain. Given the pool of trained assessors, FACE is impaneled as a training partner under the Food Safety Training and Certification (FOSTAC) program of FSSAI.

FACE is also actively engaged in promoting healthier sustainable diets to ensure food and nutrition security through a multi-sectoral approach and is working towards creating an innovative ecosystem by generating healthier food choices for all segments of the population.

Catalyzing investment across the Agri and food value chain is another focus area under FACE. The segments being prioritized include Agri infrastructure, food processing, dairy, and fisheries where FACE is looking at ‘enhancing the ease of doing business’; convergence with government schemes, PPP to develop agribusiness models that are scalable and replicable across geographies as well as facilitating international funding.

Towards expanding and diversifying its services portfolio as well as disseminating best practices FACE over the past 3 years has launched a host of Resource centers. These cover diverse segments such as Farmer Producer Organizations, Agri Start-ups, Cold chain & logistics, Nutraceuticals and Health Supplements, Food safety, and food security amongst others.

FACE has been working closely with Ministries and Government agencies viz Ministry of Agriculture, NITI Aayog, National Centre for Cold Chain Management (NCCD), Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), GS1 India, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM).

Further FACE has forged several partnerships with International organizations viz GIZ, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), The International Spirits & Wines Association of India (ISWAI) and the international Alliance of Dietary/ Food Supplement Associations (IADSA).

FACE is also working in close cooperation with other Centres of Excellence in CII to establish partnerships with similar organizations/institutions globally for maximum effectiveness.

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Vision

Position FACE as the premier institution in Food and Agriculture across the Country

Leading institution/ partner in contributing to the agenda of increasing farmer incomes

Resource Centre for Farmer Producer Organizations

Leading institution in driving reduction in post-harvest losses in the agriculture value chain

Premier incubation eco system for Advanced/ Next Gen Agriculture technologies

Leading resource Centre for driving food safety and nutrition in the food processing sector

Lead partner of the Food Safety Authority in developing standards and capacity building

Lead partner of the Food Safety Authority in developing standards and capacity building

Objectives

CII-FACE works closely with farmers, companies, developmental institutions, and the government with the following objectives:

Improving on and off-farm productivity

through the introduction and dissemination of global best practices and technological innovation.

Improving global competitiveness of India’s agriculture

by investing in capacity building initiatives and skill development for supply chain participants across the value chain.

Strengthening linkages across the agriculture and food value chain

with an objective of reducing spoilage, increasing value addition and enhancing farmer incomes.

People @FACE

Jane Karkada
Executive Director
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)
  • Food and Agriculture ,Policy and Programs
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Executive Director
Jane Karkada is presently heading the CII’s Food and Agriculture Centre of Excellence. She joined the Confederation of Indian Industry in the year 2014 and has led CII’s work on key developmental initiatives in the Western Region. The Western Region of CII comprises of four states viz. Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Goa.

A trained MBA professional from NMIMS, Mumbai, Ms Jane has close to 15 years of work experience in the media industry, prior to joining CII.
Roli Pande
Director
roli.pande@cii.in
  • Agriculture
  • Agtechnology
  • Farmer Producer Organizations
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Director
Roli Pande is an MBA-Agri Business Management from MANAGE, Hyderabad and a graduate in Agriculture from GB Pant University of Agriculture & Technology. She has been with CII since the last 10+ years working in the agriculture domain.

Roli’s role involves evidence-based policy advocacy with Government at both the center and state level. She is also deeply involved in the research portfolio and has contributed to agri specific research reports at FACE. She is also handling the CII Farmer Producer Company program deployment.
Pragya Nehru
Director
pragya.parashar@cii.in
  • Agri supply chain
  • Post Harvest Logistics
  • Cold chain management
  • Value addition and processing
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Director
Pragya Nehru with an advanced degree in Food Processing and Management with over eight years' experience in evidence-based calls for policy change and advisory across the Agri value supply chain. Joined in 2012, she leads the post-harvest vertical under FACE. Her work includes Enabling evidence-based calls for change in public policy and private investment for Food Processing and Cold Chain, research & report creation, policy development & advocacy, advisory & training, project management and event management in the domain of post-harvest logistics and cold chain.

She has undertaken professional training on Cold Chain Management systems from Cemfroid (Paris) and has exposure of both international and domestic cold chain infrastructure systems.
Manish Whorra
Director
manish.whorra@cii.in
  • Investment Facilitation
  • Food Processing
  • Dairy, Poultry & Fisheries
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Director
Manish Whorra is a Post Graduate, who studied Business Management, prior to completing a MS in Consultancy Management from the Birla Institute of Technology & Sciences (BITS), Pilani. He is a Professional member of Consultancy Development Centre (CDC) and the All India Management Association (AIMA), New Delhi

He has been with CII since the last more than 23 years, engaged in various initiatives and programmes for the SMEs, within India and abroad. At FACE, currently he is engaged in policy advocacy with Government at both center and state level as well as coordinating the secretariat for the CII National Food Processing committee and the CII National Committee on Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairy and driving key investment facilitation and market access initiatives
Neha Aggarwal
Director
neha.aggarwal@cii.in
  • Food regulations
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Director
Neha Aggarwal had done her Master’s in Information Technology from Manipal University and graduated in commerce stream from Delhi University. She has been with CII since the last 17 years and working in different streams and majorly in Food Regulation domain.

Handling Food Regulatory aspects, as part of her work at FACE involves evidence-based policy advocacy with Government at both the center and state level. She closely works with FSSAI, BIS & Legal Metrology on Food related Regulations/ Standards domestically and internationally.
Indrani Ghose
Strategic Advisor
indrani.ghose@cii.in
  • Food Safety, Quality 
  •  Clusters
  • National Resource Person FSSAI 
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Strategic Advisor
Dr Indrani Ghose, Strategic Advisor, Food Safety and Quality of CII's Food and Agriculture Centre of Excellence, is a National Level Resource Person for Food Safety and Standards Authority of India's (FSSAI)'s Food Safety Training and Certification Program (FoSTaC) in the Manufacturing, Catering and Bakery sectors.

One of her key focus areas is the design, development and continual improvement of the unique CII Food Safety Maturity Model and institutionalized CII Award Program for Food Safety in the Indian Industry since 2010. Indrani has also facilitated successful introduction of the Cluster Approach in Indian Food Processing units for implementing HACCP and global standards of Food Safety Management Systems using TQM tools and techniques. She works extensively on establishing Global and National collaborative networks for promoting best practices , developing and deploying new Services and promoting Capacity building and Science behind Food Safety and Quality across the country in both the organized and informal sector.
A V Rajamany
Deputy Director
a.v.rajamany@cii.in
  • Allied sector – Dairy, Fisheries, Poultry & Meat
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Deputy Director
Rajamany holds a diploma in computer applications and a graduate in Maths. She has been with CII for the last 25 years.

At FACE, she is handling the Agri Allied sectors covering Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying. Her core work involves engagement with various stakeholders viz. national and state-level government, farmers, agri & food industry leaders, technology and service providers, financiers, and various multilateral agencies to work to towards boosting the growth of Agri Allied sectors.

She has also extensive experience in working with the International Department of CII focused on enhancement of bilateral relations between India and ASEAN, Asia Pacific countries and in expanding business opportunities for Industry through a range of specialized networking events and global linkages.
Atreyee Talapatra
Head – Special Projects
Atreyee.talapatra@tmaindia.in
  • Tractor and Mechanization Association
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Head – Special Projects
Atreyee Talapatra is the Secretary for the Tractor and Mechanization Association. She steers the association towards creating conducive policy platforms that aims to transform the Indian Farm Mechanization industry into a self – reliant agricultural economy.

Atreyee has been with CII for more than a decade handling very large initiatives like Make in India, Regulatory and Corporate Governance and the Services sector. She has engaged extensively with several Central Ministries, State Governments, Foreign and Indian Missions.
Ruchika Bhatia
Manager
ruchika.bhatia@cii.in
  • Food and Agriculture
  • Management , Administration 
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Manager
Ruchika has been working with CII for the past 10+ years. At CII FACE she is responsible for administration, managing department’s finances and assisting the Executive Director, FACE.
Rashmi Saini
Senior Associate
rashmi.saini@cii.in
  •  Farmer Producer Organizations 
  • Cold Chain
Senior Associate
Divya R
Executive Officer
divya.ravichandran@tmaindia.in
  • Tractors Mechanisation Association
Executive Officer
Sumeet Kumar Singh
Consultant
sumeet.singh@cii.in
  • Post – Harvest Management
Consultant
Anju Bist
Deputy Director
anju.bist@cii.in
  • Food Safety & Quality
  • Business Development
Deputy Director
Sam Thomas John
Counsellor
sam.john@cii.in
  • Food Safety & Quality
Counsellor
Tarun Kumar Gupta
Manager
tarun.gupta@cii.in
  • Food Safety & Quality
Manager
Abhijit Ganguly
Counsellor
Abhijit.ganguly@cii.in
  • Food Safety and Quality
  • Microbiology
Counsellor
Pawan Kumar Pareek
Counsellor
Pawan.pareek@cii.in
  • Food Safety & Quality
  • Antimicrobial R & D (Herbal and small molecules)
  • Health Supplements and Nutraceuticals
Counsellor
Suvansha Nigam
Associate Counsellor
suvansha.nigam@cii.in
  • Food Regulations
Associate Counsellor
Dr Abhijit Kumar Jha
Senior Program Manager
abhijit.kumar@cii.in
  • One Health
  • Program Management
  • Veterinary & Animal Husbandry
Senior Program Manager
Amit Kumar Tripathy
Program Officer
amit.tripathy@cii.in
  • One Health 
  • Veterinary 
  • Statistical Modelling
Program Officer

About CII

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) works to create and sustain an environment conducive to the development of India, partnering with Industry, Government, and civil society, through advisory and consultative processes.

CII is a non-government, not-for-profit, industry-led, and industry-managed organization, with over 9000 members from the private as well as public sectors, including SMEs and MNCs, and an indirect membership of over 300,000 enterprises from 294 national and regional sectoral industry bodies.

For more than 125 years, CII has been engaged in shaping India’s development journey and works proactively on transforming Indian Industry’s engagement in national development. CII charts change by working closely with Government on policy issues, interfacing with thought leaders, and enhancing efficiency, competitiveness, and business opportunities for industry through a range of specialized services and strategic global linkages. It also provides a platform for consensus-building and networking on key issues.

Extending its agenda beyond business, CII assists the industry to identify and execute corporate citizenship programs. Partnerships with civil society organizations carry forward corporate initiatives for integrated and inclusive development across perse domains including affirmative action, livelihoods, persity management, skill development, empowerment of women, and sustainable development, to name a few.

As India marches towards its 75th year of Independence in 2022, CII, with the Theme for 2021-22 as Building India for a New World: Competitiveness, Growth, Sustainability, Technology, rededicates itself to meeting the aspirations of citizens for a morally, economically and technologically advanced country in partnership with the Government, Industry and all stakeholders.

With 62 offices, including 10 Centres of Excellence, in India, and 8 overseas offices in Australia, Egypt, Germany, Indonesia, Singapore, UAE, UK, and the USA, as well as institutional partnerships with 394 counterpart organizations in 133 countries, CII serves as a reference point for Indian industry and the international business community.

Confederation of Indian Industry
The Mantosh Sondhi Centre
23, Institutional Area, Lodi Road, New Delhi – 110 003 (India)
T: 91 11 45771000 / 24629994-7
E: info@cii.in • W: www.cii.in

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