Dr. Ramesh Mittal is the director at CCS National Institute of Agriculture Marketing. He has worked for almost thirty years at the national & international levels in various organizations. He joined NIAM as Deputy Director in 2005 with a Job Profile of Research, Consultancy, Educational and Training and he was also associated with many projects i.e. with USAID, USDA, Michigan State University, Word Bank, ADB, Multi-State Agricultural Competitiveness Project, etc. As per invitation, he has also presented a country paper on Supply Chain Management in Thailand, Competitive Supply Chain Management in Vietnam, Brand Management of Agricultural produce through GI in Tokyo, Japan and also visited the University of California, USA to understand the USAID-SAMS Project. Recently he has been invited as an expert/resource person to address Value Marketing in South Korea, Seoul. His area of specialization is Marketing, HR, Finance, Entrepreneurship and Strategic Management and Agricultural Marketing. He has also written more than a hundred research papers/articles and write-ups in various newspapers and Journals. He has contributed to five research projects and organized more than two hundred training programmes. He has contributed as an author of four books namely International Marketing (Three Editions), Consumer Behaviour, Service Marketing, E.tailing and Retailing. He was also the founder and editor of the Journal of Entrepreneurship. He has more than six live T.V. talk shows on various subjects on Door Darshan and other channels.

CCS National Institute of Agriculture Marketing

You have held key positions at education institutes throughout your professional career. What are the key factors that keep you connected with the education sector and the contributing activities?

Education is such an area where you can connect with various types of personalities to learn more. After grasping enough knowledge, you can guide and counsel students. It’s refreshing when you talk to people about their education sector. Education is not only for the job or employment, it’s for empowerment, knowledge and literacy. When you work with students or various types of stakeholders, you can interact and share experiences. 

Being the Director of CCS NIAM, what is your philosophy of leadership? How would you describe your leadership style?

I have completed 18 years in Miami, U.S. and when I joined CC NIAm, I went through with the activities of CC NIAM and this is the one sector where education is missing. We need to focus and put some more force into introducing the sector in a big way and that’s why you know we have introduced a postgraduate diploma in agribusiness management which is full pleasure independent course in the name of the National Institute of Agriculture marketing and this program is totally focuses on agriculture marketing. CC NIAM is not only working at the national level it is working at the international level also and this institute is known as the center for excellence in Southeast Asia and it was initiated as per the recommendation of FAO which is a food and agriculture organization.

What is the mission and vision of CC NIAM?

Working with the education sector as mentioned was recommended by FPO and it is centered on excellence in Southeast Asia. Our mandate is basic research, training, education, consultancy and policy advocacy. We have added that as startup and incubation activities in the institute. Our institute is growing in agriculture education. It is a remarkable achievement that has been taken by the CC NIAM. It has come across the country with more than 500 startups working. We are ranking at the top as we are aware of the information and disseminative systems our clients need. 

We are helping the agriculture marketing boards with capacity-building programs. We are conducting more than 300 training programs in a year. We are doing research which is needful research from the state governments as well as the central governments. Currently, we are working on a consultancy project that is catering to Odisha's APMC Market Gap analysis to strengthen markets. Such kinds of consultancy projects are also going on and our two-year program is a flagship program where CC NIAM students are writing something new for their achievement source.

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What are the insights of CCS NIAM and its top priority over the next 3 years?

We are the most digital technology business management. We have more than a thousand alumni and they have reached a very reputed position in their respective careers. Some of them are working as a President, Vice Presidents, Directors, Deputy directors, General managers and Chief General Managers across the country. We have catered to almost all the sectors like financial institutions banks and input companies like pesticides, fertilizers, horticulture, agriculture, e-commerce company & major consulting groups. 

It’s a proud moment for us to share that this year we have achieved one more new Mark. Our student got placed in the international placement which is one lakh US dollars. If you convert it to an Indian rupee that is somewhere approximately 80 lakh annually. 

How would you guide your students to survive in such a competitive scenario?

Competition is everywhere and it is growing day by day. India is a developing nation and it is going to be a developed nation soon. Competition will be very stiff in the upcoming days. We are mentoring and counseling our students for that purpose by giving them training and exposure to knowledge and skills. We have international faculties at par with amps and ions IITs and NIT. We are encouraging case studies and providing knowledge of international languages like French and German so that our students can travel across the globe without facing any language barrier. 

Any suggestions you would like to give to the current youth and the aspiring students?

The agriculture sector has lot of potential to provide the private sector jobs. So, I am requesting youth to look over government jobs. Students can opt and choose a good start-up idea at our institute. We are mentoring our students at IIT Kharagpur. We have one more center in Bihar. We are providing up to five lakh rupees for the idea stage and up to 25 lakh rupees for the prototype and series stages. 

These are ample opportunities I believe our youth has ample opportunity in our country to join any educational like Neon or they can opt for this agreed partnership to understand the entrepreneurship in agriculture sector by doing some startup or by introducing startup or even they can attend training programs which are sponsored by us for the capacity building. We believe this ecosystem is providing our youth with ample opportunity to go further in their studies. We believe they have very good future and bright future if they choose CC NIAM.