India's Biggest Food & Agri Investment Summit on Oct 16: Updated agenda & speakers' list

The 4th edition of VCCircle Agri & Food Summit 2012, which will be held Oct 16 at Le Meridien, New Delhi, will showcase an esteemed gathering of CEOs top sectoral companies and honchos of emerging agri & food firms companies in addition to top ecosystem participants, including government representatives, bankers and investors.

Agriculture has been key growth driver of the Indian economy driving robust demand for a host of other sectors. Some of the highly attractive segments seeing growth are supply chain infrastructure, warehousing, logistics, seeds, packaged foods, dairy products and food processing.

This power-packed full-day summit explores the factors and triggers that will create the best agri & food businesses of future.

Here is a preview of the updated agenda:

9:20am - 930am Introductory note

9:30am - 10:00am Keynote Address: The Evolving Food & Agriculture Sector In India - Where Are We Headed?

10:00am - 11:15am Panel: Developing & Raising Capital For A Sustainable Indian Food & Agriculture Sector Which are the burning issues faced by India food & agri sector? How can we bring a transformation in agriculture & allied sectors in India? What are the various alternatives for funding food & agri business today? What are the various debt products agri promoters can utilise today? How is the investment climate in the sector today? How to tackle the diversified and demanding issues in food sector such as food safety, cold storage capability & infrastructure, lack of research & food security? How to tap in the potential of the unorganised players in the Indian food & agri market?

Gopal Srinivasan - Chairman & MD, TVS Capital (Moderator) Sanjay Sancheti - Country Manager, Olam Agro India Ltd Abinash Verma - CEO, Indian Sugar Exim Corporation Nagarajan Sivaramakrishnan - MD, Mother Dairy Girish Nadkarni - Partner, IDFC Alternatives Ajay Gupta - Head, SME & Agri, ICICI Bank Ltd., ICICI Bank Ltd.

11:15am - 11:30am Tea & networking break

11:30am - 12:30pm Redhot Sector I : Agri Logistics & warehousing How to tackle the storage deficit of agri-warehousing in India? How will demand in agri-warehousing be driven by increased agricultural output? What are the measures that need to be taken to improve ailing India's supply chain management? Can public private partnership model be effective in the current scenario? How high leasing costs are forcing companies to outsource warehousing activities? How to overcome the shortage of cold storage facilities?

Sanjeev Mantri - Head, Rural & Inclusive Banking, ICICI Bank Ltd. Aditya Bafna - ED, Shree Shubham Logistics Amith Agarwal - ED, Star Agri Warehousing & Collateral Management Ltd Sandeep Sabharwal - CEO, Sohan Lal Commodity Management Pvt. Ltd Gaurav Sekhri - MD, Tinna Viterra Pvt. Ltd. Pranav Jhawar - Executive Director, JICS Logistics Ltd

12:30pm - 1:45pm Lunch & networking

12:45pm - 1:45pm VCCircle Lounge An initiative from VCCircle where companies and investors can meet and network in a structured manner in a separate enclosure. Companies can make their elevator pitch to a group of select investors, while investors can sell their funds to India's fastest growing enterprises.

1:45pm - 2:45pm Redhot Sector II: Seeds & Fertilisers How big is the market for hybrid seeds in India? What are the challenges in developing, producing and marketing hybrid seeds in India? How can we bring about innovation in the seeds & fertilisers market? Does India have adequate seeds processing facilities and what opportunities does it throw to the agro companies? What are the investment opportunities in agrochemicals space? Are fertiliser manufacturing companies looking for acquisitions?

Sanjeev Asthana - Founder & Managing Partner, I-Farms Venture Advisors (Moderator) Rajesh Aggarwal - MD, Insecticides India Ltd Ankur Aggarwal - MD, Crystal Crop Protection Pvt. Ltd S.K. Roongta - CMD, National Seeds Corporation

2:45pm - 3:15pm Presentation: Enhancing Food Safety and Certification in India K Vijayaraghavan - Regional Coordinator, Cornell University

3:15pm - 3:30pm Tea & networking

3:30pm - 4:30pm Redhot Sector III: Packaged Foods and Dairy Products Which are the emerging categories in Indian packaged food industry? Is ready-to-eat food segment gaining traction in India? How health & wellness segment is seeing a growth of over 50 per cent y-o-y? How does the road ahead lie for the sector? What is the scope of value added products like desserts, puddings, custards, stirred yoghurt and sherbats? What can drive margins in the years to come? How to improve production, processing and marketing infrastructure?

Deepak Shahdadpuri - MD, Beacon India Private Equity (Moderator) GS Bhalla - Founder & CEO, Cocoberry Vinod Chaturvedi - Founder & MD, Usher Agro Ltd. Akshay Bector - MD, Mrs Bector's Food Specialties Ltd. Aditya Bagri - Director, Bagrrys India Ltd.

4:30pm - 5:30pm VCCircle Special panel: Recognising The Innovators & New Wonders In Indian Food & Agri Sector VCCircle will help hitherto unrecognised successful entrepreneurs in Indian agri and food space in sharing their entrepreneurial journey in this session. The session will aim to provide a platform for the new heros & innovators in this space for sharing their valuable opinions in bring about a revolution in Indian agri & food sector

Sonal Shah - Director, SMC Capitals Ltd. (Moderator) Ashish Mantri - MD, Abhay Cotex Pvt. Ltd Kunal Agarwal- Co-founder & Director, Brattle Foods Pvt. Ltd. Jatin Singh – Founder and CEO, Skymet Akshay Chaturvedi - Zonal Head, North - SME and Corporate Agri Business Arvind Jhamb - CEO - Overseas Agriculture Projects, Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd.

5:30pm - 5:40pm Concluding Remarks

5:40pm Onwards VCCircle Unwind A zone for informal networking and establishing contacts with entrepreneurs and investors over cocktails.

Write to us at register@vccircle.com or call Sandeep at 0120-4171111 for more details. Click here to register online