Prof. Dr. Indra Mani joined as a Vice-Chancellor at Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Parbhani on dated 25th July, 2022. Prof. Dr. Indra Mani has worked as Joint Director Research at prestigious Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi. Prof. Dr. Indra Mani, with more than 29 years of service has extensively worked in the area of machinery development for agro-residue management, dryland agriculture, vegetable mechanization, small farm mechanization, and equipment for enhancing fertilizer use efficiency. The technologies developed and upscaled by him have reached to more than 18 states of country and have created a great socio-economic impact by making agriculture a profitable venture through production in dry land areas, enhanced fertilizer use efficiency, biomass management, production of quality compost and mechanization of small farms. He has guided 20 Ph.D. and 12 M.Tech. students. He has published more than 140 research papers and other publications in peer reviewed national and international journals.

He has established Design Innovation Centre in collaboration with IIT for developing innovative solutions for Indian farmers. He has been actively involved in formulation of mechanization strategy for various regions of the country. He has been coordinator of IARI’s NEH, TSP and MGMG programme for improving the livelihood of farmers in north eastern hill region and tribal areas along with areas in states of UP, Haryana and Delhi. Under his guidance as a Nodal Officer of programme “Mera Gaon Mera Gaurav”, 121 teams involving about 600 scientists of ICAR-IARI and ICAR-IASRI was working for farmers livelihood improvement of about 400 adopted villages.

Prof. Dr.Indra Mani has been instrumental in development of agricultural drone policy of India by serving as convener of the committee for developing standard guidelines for the use of drones in agriculture and now Chairman of the committee to explore the possibilities and requirements of drone technology for Soil Nutrients application and drafting of crop wise SoP Guidelines. He has been actively involved in mentoring of Incubatees and Start-ups related farm technology under RKVY-RAFTAAR (MoA & FW, GoI) and ZTM & BPD (ICAR-IARI) and ARISE programme of ICAR-IARI. He has been actively involved in TIFAN (Technology Innovation Forum for Agril. Nurturing) - a platform to solve real mechanization challenges.

Prof. Dr. Indra Mani has been bestowed a number of awards like

Dr Indra Mani has a very wide international exposure and has been visiting faculty to different centres / institutes in different countries in South East Asia, North America, Africa, Japan and Europe. He has made remarkable contribution in developing Industry -Institution – Farmers - Innovators linkage.