Panel discussion on improving dairy safety and quality frameworks
This live panel discussion brings together experts from IDA and Agilent to explore market trends, quality assessment, and challenges in dairy testing. Key topics include detecting contaminants, ensuring regulatory compliance, and maintaining product quality.
The panel will discuss advanced technologies for testing adulteration, pesticides, and heavy metals, and share tips on improving workflows and aligning with regulations. Attendees will also have the opportunity for live interaction with the panelists.
Presenter: Prof. (Dr) J. B. Prajapati (Chairman, Indian Dairy Association (West Zone))
Professor (Dr.) Jashbhai B. Prajapati is a veteran Dairy Professional with 45 years of experience in research, teaching and professional manpower development. He is a technology graduate from Anand and Ph.D from NDRI and retired as Dean of the Faculty of Dairy Science, AAU, Anand. He worked as the Chairman of Verghese Kurien Centre of Excellence at IRMA and now the Chairman of IDA (West Zone). He is Vice President of National Academy of Dairy Science (India) apart from being member in several professional bodies. He is associated with FSSAI, NADSI, NDDB, IDF, Gut microbiota Foundation, SASNET and many other organizations. His core area of research is probiotics and functional dairy foods and he is the first Indian scientist to have deposited and whole genome sequenced two Indian probiotic cultures at IMTech, Chandigarh as the Indian Patent deposits. He is a well-travelled scholar with more than 500 publications.
Presenter: Dr. Satish Kulkarni (Chairman, Indian Dairy Association (South Zone))
Dr. Satish Kulkarni earned both his Dairy Diploma and Doctoral degree in Dairy Technology from the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal/Bangalore. He conducted post-doctoral research in Germany for three years. As a scientist, he has guided numerous students at the master’s and doctoral levels.
Dr. Kulkarni has been honoured four times by the ICAR for team research and received the Best Teacher Award in 2008. He served as the Head of NDRI, Bangalore, from 2008 to 2015. Currently, he is a practicing advocate specializing in food law and works as a food regulatory consultant. He is the founder-partner of Dairy Skills & Food Quality Academy and Legalwrax Business Solutions, Bangalore. Dr. Kulkarni has also served as the President of AFSTI, Mysore, Vice President of IDA, New Delhi, and is currently the Chairman of IDA (South Zone).
Presenter: Dr. Rajesh Nair (Dy. Managing Director, NDDB - CALF Ltd.)
Dr. Rajesh Nair is currently working as Dy. Managing Director at NDDB CALF LTD, Anand, a wholly subsidiary National Dairy Development Board. He has professional experience spanning 30 years in the field of Testing & Inspection of Food & Agricultural products. He has held key leadership positions in several Government, Private and Multinational Companies. He has done his Bachelors, Masters, & Ph.D. in Chemistry.
He is a member of the Scientific Panel of Method of Sampling and Analysis of FSSAI, a member of a few technical committees of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), standing committee member of Analytical Methods on Additives and Contaminants of IDF. He is also working closely with NABL in different disciplines. He has several publications on Analytical methods and validations of food & Agricultural products and genetic materials in leading scientific journals.
Presenter: Mr. Vivek Dhyani (Country Application Solutions Manager, Agilent Technologies India Pvt. Ltd.)
Mr. Vivek Dhyani is the Application Head and COE Manager at Agilent India. He is responsible for complete demo and Application Engineers’ (AE) management, as well as key workflow development. Prior to this, he served as the Product Manager for GC/GCMS at Agilent India and as a Product Specialist at Agilent Singapore, where he was responsible for technical support for GCMS across Singapore, Indonesia, and South Asia. He has over 20 years of experience in the fields of mass spectrometry and chromatography. Before his current role, he worked at Agilent India as a Product Specialist and Application Engineer for GC/GCMS. Additionally, he was associated with PerkinElmer for more than five years as an Application Specialist for Chromatography and LIMS, providing support to India, neighbouring countries, and the Middle East. Vivek is regularly invited to deliver seminars and training sessions on chromatography by government institutions and private companies.
Presenter: Dr. Chandrasekar Kandaswamy (Business Manager, GC/MS, Agilent Technologies India Pvt. Ltd.)
Dr. Chandra completed his Ph.D. in Chemistry at NIT Trichy. With over 22 years of experience in analytical method development across the food safety, pharmaceutical, and fertilizer industries, he currently serves as a Product Manager for the GC and GCMS portfolio at Agilent. Chandra has extensive expertise in method development and validation. Before joining Agilent in 2009, he worked in various roles within the fertilizer, food, and pharmaceutical sectors. He is passionate about sharing his knowledge and has published six analytical findings in reputed journals. He enjoys engaging with the scientific community and has delivered numerous national and international oral and poster presentations. Outside of work, Chandra loves practicing yoga and spending time with his family.
The Ph.D. in chemistry from the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, is a dedication to education and research. Moreover, his active engagement with the scientific community through numerous national and international presentations, in both oral and poster formats towards commitment to sharing knowledge and fostering dialogue within the field with 10 different journal publications.
