At present working as a Senior Director in CCS National Institute of Agricultural Marketing (A Govt. of India organization under the Ministry of Agriculture) also worked as a Chief Project Leader/Faculty Entrepreneurship Development Cell, Department of Management Studies, Malaviya National Institute of Technology (Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India), Jaipur. Worked in USA on H1-B VISA as a Marketing Manager and also visited Mexico, Canada, Caribbean Island, France, Holland, UK, Germany, Thailand, Japan, Spain, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong etc.

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He is the Knowledge Partner for Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare for RKVY Project to develop Agri start-ups and holds the position of Chief Mentor for IIT Kharagpur, West Bengal, National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, Odisha, Bihar Agriculture University, Bhagalpur, Bihar, and Jobner Agriculture University (SKANU), Rajasthan, Jaipur.

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He has been actively researching, teaching, and consulting in Agricultural Marketing & Agri-Business Management Assignments from different stakeholders including World Bank, Asian Development Bank (Consultancy), Govt. of India, Govt. of Rajasthan etc. Published more than 200 research papers on diff subjects and presented many research papers in workshops, seminars, conferences at national and international level etc. Organised more than 1000 training programmes (short term & Long term) in India and abroad i.e., Induction Training Programme, MDPs, Training for Trainers (TOT), Awareness Programmes, and Capacity Building Programmes etc.

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He has been the keynote speaker at various notable institutions including the World Trade Centre, CII Apple Conclave, International Conference on Marketing Reforms, International Conference on Marketing reforms and International Marketing conference.

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He has been Editor of various prestigious magazines including Journal of Entrepreneurship and authored 4 books viz Book on International Marketing, Book on E. tailing & Retailing, Book on Services Marketing, and Book on Consumer Behaviour.

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Founding advisor for budding Social and Tech entrepreneurs on scale-up, incubators, accelerators, and VC's in value investing. A novice Farmer, practicing and learning sustainable farming.

Over two decades of experience in funding, investing, incubating, and starting small industry. He is among the first to raise venture capital funds for the Indian IT industry back in 1992, as part of Creditcapital Venture Fund (India) Ltd. (CVF) in Delhi & Bangalore. 

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Previously, Formerly, visiting Professor, IIMA - VC and Private Equity courses. IIM Indore – Entrepreneurship. A regular contributor to industry magazines like Dataquest, a leading computer fortnightly from CyberMedia Ltd. and Business Line, a business newspaper from the house of The Hindu. Conducted various seminars on Venture Capital for banks, financial institutions and in Business Schools/Universities. Retired as Vice President of Polaris Software Lab handling M&A's, divestitures, incubations as well as internal process monitoring for 6 years.

He was a part of start-up VC Fund, the Sterling Technology & Venture Corporation (STVC) and incubated a technology company, as CEO, a Joint Venture of Polaris and the TeNet Group of IIT Madras. 

Retired as the Chief General Manager of National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development (NABARD) after 37 years of development banking service having been with the Reserve Bank of India and Canara Bank also. Currently, he holds the position of Adjunct Professor for School of Agribusiness Management, MIT World Peace University, Pune and as Visiting Professor at College of Post Graduate Studies Shillong with the Central Agricultural University North East, besides being an Adviser to Aditya Birla Group as well as Dr Reddys Foundation and other NGOs.

 

Mr Ashok has considerable exposure in NABARD to collective farming models beginning with the Farmers Club Scheme form 1985 onwards to the introduction of the Farmer Producer Organisations model from its inception from the late 1990s. Lucknow. He has been associated with sustainable development programmes for rural communities and has associated himself with several corporates in choosing appropriate development programs for implementing agribusiness projects using CSR funds and in helping choose to implement partners like NGOs in the project area for supporting FPOs. Mr Ashok has had exposure of rural finance and agribusiness sector in several countries including Thailand, Kenya, China, Germany USA, Finland and England.

He is mentor, and adviser to several for-profit and non-profit start-ups. He is passionate about the adoption of technology by the masses facilitating a more equitable and sustainable world. He is a networking industry expert and has held various leadership roles in technology and management at Cisco Systems. He is currently a founder & trustee at Gramonnati - an early-stage non-profit developing rural communities through entrepreneurship.

 

He is a member of the advisory board for Intelehealth - an international non-profit developing technology for improving healthcare access in rural areas. He is currently an adviser to start-ups Astrome, OpenNets, and Teslon based in Bangalore.