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Agrotech, Finance

Dr Harsh Kumar Bhanwala, former chairman of NABARD, will mentor Omnivore’s portfolio companies and will advise on new investments 

 

 

Omnivore, India’s leading agritech venture capital firm, is delighted to announce that Dr Harsh Kumar Bhanwala will become a Senior Advisor effective 1st June 2021.  As a Senior Advisor, Dr Bhanwala will mentor Omnivore’s portfolio companies, advise on new investments, and help develop the fund’s rural fintech investment strategy.  

From 2013 to 2020, Dr. Bhanwala was Chairman of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), the Government of India’s apex development bank, which oversees all aspects of agricultural credit as well as the supervision of regional rural banks and cooperative banks. Prior to leading NABARD, he was the Chairman & Managing Director of the India Infrastructure Finance Company (IIFCL), Senior Vice President at IL&FS Water, and the Managing Director of the Delhi State Cooperative Bank. Dr. Bhanwala began his career at NABARD and worked there for almost three decades. 

Since leaving NABARD, Dr. Bhanwala is serving as the Executive Chairman of Capital India Finance Limited, an NBFC. He is on the Board of Governors of IIM Rohtak and serves as an Independent Director on the board of Bayer Crop Science India.  He is also an Independent Director on the board of MFIN (Microfinance Institutions Network). Dr. Bhanwala earned a B.Sc. in Dairy Technology from the National Dairy Research Institute – Karnal, an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, and a PhD in Management from Maharshi Dayanand University.

Omnivore funds entrepreneurs building the future of agriculture and food systems, and has backed over 25 agritech start-ups since 2011. Every day, Omnivore portfolio companies drive agricultural prosperity and transform food systems across India, making farming more profitable, resilient, and sustainable.

Jinesh Shah, Managing Partner at Omnivore said, “We are thrilled to have Dr. Bhanwala on board with us. Our team and portfolio will benefit immensely from his deep expertise in the agriculture and financial sectors.  We look forward to a long and fruitful partnership.”

Dr. Bhanwala likewise noted, “I am delighted to be with Omnivore. It is a wonderful opportunity to work with an incredible pool of talent. With my decades of experience in the financial sector, I am confident that I can add value by being an advisor and helping Omnivore achieve new milestones.”

Dr Harsh Kumar Bhanwala, former chairman of

AgroPolicy

The programme will be implemented in 12 clusters covering 11 States/UTs

Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar virtually launched the Horticulture Cluster Development Programme (CDP). In a pilot phase, the programme will be implemented in 12 horticulture clusters out of the total 53 clusters selected for the programme. A central sector programme implemented by the National Horticulture Board (NHB) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, CDP aims at growing and developing identified horticulture clusters to make them globally competitive.

Tomar, in his speech, highlighted that the programme will address all major issues related to the Indian horticulture sector including pre-production, production, post-harvest management, logistics, marketing and branding. The programme is designed to leverage geographical specialisation and promote integrated and market-led development of horticulture clusters. Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (MoA&FW) has identified 53 horticulture clusters, of which 12 have been selected for the pilot launch of the programme. Based on the learnings from the pilot project, the programme will be scaled up to cover all the identified clusters.

Talking about the reach and impact of the programme, Tomar said, ’Doubling farmers’ income is one of the biggest priorities of our government. CDP will benefit about 10 lakh farmers and related stakeholders of the value chain. With this programme, we aim to improve exports of the targeted crops by approx. 20 per cent and create cluster-specific brands to enhance the competitiveness of cluster crops.” CDP is expected to attract an estimated investment of Rs 10,000 crore when implemented in all the 53 clusters.

The clusters of the pilot phase include Shopian (J&K) and Kinnaur (HP) for Apple, Lucknow (UP), Kutch (Gujarat) and Mahbubnagar (Telangana) for Mango, Anantpur (AP) and Theni (TN) for Banana, Nasik (Maharashtra) for Grapes, Siphahijala (Tripura) for Pineapple, Solapur (Maharashtra) and Chitradurga (Karnataka) for Pomegranate and West Jaintia Hills (Meghalaya) for turmeric. These clusters will be implemented through Cluster Development Agencies (CDAs) which are appointed on the recommendations of the respective state/UT government.

The programme is expected to converge with other initiatives of the government such as the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund which is a medium – long term financing facility for investment in projects for post-harvest management infrastructure and community farming assets and will leverage the central sector scheme of the Ministry for Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmers Producer Organisations (FPOs).

The CDP has a huge potential to transform the entire horticulture ecosystem improving its global competitiveness by building last-mile connectivity with the use of multimodal transport for the efficient and timely evacuation and transport of horticulture produce.

In his address, Minister of State for the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Parshottam Rupala stated, “There is need to develop such clusters throughout the country which will help the farmers with the small size of holdings through the formation of FPOs.”

The Secretary, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare Sanjay Agarwal announced the appointment of Cluster Development Agencies (CDAs)in the selected clusters. He further stated, “The programme framework will ensure an astute engagement of state governments through CDAs, and institutionalisation of learnings for future replication and scaling up of the programme in other clusters. The CDP will not only help in achieving economies of scale but also create cluster-specific brands to entrench them into national and global value chains bringing higher remuneration to the farmers.”

The event was also attended by Dr Abhilaksh Likhi, Additional Secretary, MoA&FW, other senior officers of the Ministry, Rajbir Singh, Managing Director, NHB and officials of APEDA. The senior officers of the Cluster States/UTs and officers from the State Horticulture Missions also joined the virtual launch of the ceremony.

The programme will be implemented in 12

Agrotech, Environment

The award is conferred to those who strive to protect our environment by adopting or innovating measures that helps create a sustainable environment for us as well as our future generations 

 Envirocare Green Awards is an initiative by Envirocare Labs started in 2018 with a vision to motivate and empower professionals & organisations in the field of environment. The award is conferred to those who strive to protect our environment by adopting or innovating measures that helps create a sustainable environment for us as well as our future generations. The objective is to inspire stakeholders to think green & contribute towards a world that is not only progressive but also responsible towards its provider. The application for this award is online and is open for all across the globe. These awards are announced in the month of June every year to commemorate the World Environment Day celebrated on 5th June. 

The applicants for these awards are evaluated by an independent Jury – renowned & respected in their professional fields. We would request your kind support by being the independent Jury member and help evaluate the applicants for this prestigious award. The award ceremony is preceded by keynote speaker sessions.

The keynote speakers for this year’s event are:

Ms Karin Heinze, Specialist Journalist in Organic Sector, Germany. Topic: Organic a way for Ecosystem Restoration

Prof Sarit Kumar Das, IIT Roorkee, Topic: Innovations in Sustainability

The application for this award is online and is open for all across the globe. The short-listed applicants will be required to make online presentation for Jury evaluation. The data submitted would be confidential and used only for the purpose of EGA. Estimated time for completion of the application will be 30 mins.  

Timelines:

1. Call for applications 1st June to 15th June 2021. 

2. Initial scrutiny of applications in terms of complete documentation 16th to 22nd June 2021.

3. Applications review by the jury between 23rd June to 30th June (weightage 100 Points)

4. Shortlisted Applicants to present their initiative / work online (PowerPoint 4-5 crisp slides / Video 2-3 mins) 

    to the Jury between 5th July to 10th July (weightage 100 Points)

5. Final event EGA 2021 (online) 16th July 2021 (IST 1400 Hrs to 1800 Hrs)

Interested candidates can conatct on  events.envirocare@gmail.com and also can apply by clicking on the link below:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1_EJ2lpk3kmLq2KXmfZMKu-W61MzHkelKIMlyplpy9_A/edit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The award is conferred to those who