Personnel

Joined the Institute in 1989, his research area includes clonal selection, grafting, development of biclonal seed stocks, mechanization of cultivation practices, pruning and harvesting techniques and weed control. He has established a field tea germplasm and also a DUS test centre for tea at UPASI Tea Experimental Farm in Valparai. He has also established a germplasm site for different fruit crops to evaluate their suitability as inter crops in tea. Currently he is involved in developing a Package of Agronomic Practices on a Japanese model to suit Mechanization in south Indian Tea Plantation & Tea Genome Sequencing. He is also involved in a DBT funded research programme to develop tea clones resistant to major pest like Tea mosquito bug as well as drought tolerant tea clones. He is a recognized guide for the M Phil and Ph.D., programmes in the field of Plant Genetics by Bharathiar University, Coimbatore. He has published more than 200 research papers in peer reviewed journals.

Joined UPASI in the year 2000, Mr. Rajan Sanjith is a post graduate in Rural Economics, holding a M.Phil in Economics from Gandhigram Rural University.
He is presently the Secretary General of UPASI and also the Secretary of the UPASI Tea Research Foundation and UPASI Centenary Foundation. He is the Editor of the prestigious in-house magazine of UPASI, “The Planters’ Chronicle” and the Director of the UPASI Commodities Exchange Limited (UCEL).
He served the additional charge of the Director of Agriculture Skill Council of India (ASCI). He was a member of the Working Group (WG) on Plantation Economy constituted by the Kerala Planning Board for formulation plan for the XIV Five Year Plan (2022-27) during when he was also the Chairman of the Drafting Committee and was instrumental in bringing out the WG Report on Plantation Sector. He is an Executive Committee member of the All-India Organisation of Employers (AIOE).
His area of research interest includes Trade in Primary Commodities and Plantation Sector. He has research papers and publications on agricultural trade and plantation sectors to his credit.

Joined in the institute in 1987 in an ICAR project on the “bio-ecology of flush worm”. Later he worked in various Regional Centres and retired from the Regional Centre, Vandiperiyar as Sr.Advisory Officer in 2015. Currently he is working as Consulting Advisory Officer in the Regional Centre, Koppa.

Joined the institute during 1988 as Technical Assistant and he also served as a Advisory Officer in the Regional Centre, Meppadi, Wayanad. He had served ten years as Assistant Advisory Officer in the Regional Centre, Gudalur before he was promoted and transferred to Meppadi. He is currently working as Advisory Officer at Regional Centre, Gudalur.

Joined in UPASI TRF during 1988 and served as Chemist till 2011. Presently he is working as advisory officer, UPASI, Regional Centre Meppadi. He was involved in both research and analytical work. He was well versed in NABL accreditation programme of the chemical lab and standardized the procedures of BIS methods for quantification of agro chemicals. His area of interest is conducting experiment to evaluate various agricultural products, and to evaluate the productivity in tea besides its suitability for their application / adaptation.

Advisory Officer at Regional Centre, Coonoor since April 2020. After the Post-graduation in Chemistry, he started his career as a Production supervisor (Plant Incharge) in Ellak Chem Industries Pvt Ltd, Dharmapuri. After he served as an officer Production in Chemplast Sanmar Ltd, Mettur. Then he moved to Carboline India Pvt Ltd, Chennai as executive quality control. Finally, he joined as an Assistant Advisory officer at UPASI TRF, Regional centre, Coonoor in March 2011. He has completed his Ph.D. at UPASI Tea Research Institute in 2020 in Tea brew quality. He has held the Technical manager responsible for NABL till March 2020. He published more than 10 articles in reputed peer-reviewed international journals. At present, he is focusing on analytical and advisory services, Field and Factory trials related to nutritional and quality development at the regional centre, Coonoor and he is holding the responsibility of Quality Manager for NABL since April 2020.

Completed his Master Degree in Botany specialization in Microbiology at the American College, Madurai. He has joined the service to UPASI Tea Research Foundation as Assistant Advisory Officer in Regional Centre, Munnar during the year 2007 and he is in Advisory Officer of UPASI Regional Centre, High Range from 2015. He has conducted different types of field experiments and evaluated number of agro products. He is specialised in tea planting and tracing out contour lining for replanting and replacement planting. He has the special skills in imparting practical and in-house training on various aspects of cultural operations on tea to the field Executives, staff and workers.

Joined UPASI on 25 June 2012 as Asst. Advisory Officer. He has completed his Master in Organic Chemistry from Kerala University. Before joining UPASI, he worked as senior research fellow in various research institute viz Central Coir Research Institute and Indian Cardamom Research Institute. He served as an analyst in the NABL accredited laboratory Regional Centre Vandiperiyar. Currently he is focusing on Analytical and Advisory Services.

Entomologist and Head in the Division of Entomology. He has completed his doctoral degree from M.G. University Kottayam. Besides, he worked at St. Xavier’s College, Aluva, in the DST-sponsored Major Project and Rice Research Station Moncompu, Alleppey on Rice Pests under All India Coordinated Project on Rice Improvement Program (AICRIP) by ICAR. His area of research includes crop protection, insect behaviour, taxonomy, and systematics, etc. He has more than 10 years of research experience in the field of entomology and has published several articles in national and international peer-reviewed journals. After joining UPASI TRF, he has completed one NTRF-funded project (Development, characterisation, and evaluation of microbial agents and their novel bioactive metabolites for the management of pests and disease in tea). Currently he is handling one private funded project (Evaluation of biological formulations against major pests of tea) and two NTRF-funded projects, namely “AI Based Imaging Solution for Detection of Pest Attack in Tea Leaves Using Aerial Imaging” and “Unravelling the pesticide resistance mechanisms of tea mosquito bug through integration of genomics and metabolomics approaches.”

Joined as a Chemist in Chemistry Division since August 2020. After the Post-graduation in Chemistry, he started his career as a Soil and Sugar Chemist (Asst. Manager) in R&D Centre of E.I.D Parry India Ltd. (Sugar Factory), Karur for more than three years and relieved on 2013 for his doctoral programme.He has completed his Doctoral dissertation in Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai on February 2019 in the area of nanomaterials and their applications. Before entering the UPASI TRF, he worked as a National Post-Doctoral Fellow (under the scheme of DST-SERB, New Delhi) in Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune. He published more than 12 number of articles in a reputed pre-reviewed international journal. Currently, he is focusing the field trials in organic/conventional tea gardens with soil amendments and foliar nutrients for thesustainable tea cultivations. He is also covering the research works which are related to the nano-fertilizers and their impacts in tea fields.

Tea Technologist and Head in Tea Technology Division at Regional Centre, Coonoor since May 2021. He joined the institute in 2007 as a Senior Research Fellow (2007 – 2012) and worked as Assistant Chemist (2012 -2020) and Chemist (2020- 2021) in soil chemistry division. He got his doctoral degree in the topic of “Studies on humic acid and its influence on tea” in the year 2016. He has been working with various departments like plant and soil chemistry department (2012-2018), pesticide residue department (2018-2020) and presently he is focusing his research on tea quality and manufacturing aspects. He has more than 14 years of experience in both research and analytical works and published more than 10 publications. His analytical experience involves analysis of soil and plant nutrients, agrochemicals, pesticide residues, heavy metals, tea quality and tea FSSAI parameters. Besides, he has been designated as a ‘Technical Manager’ to implement standards of ISO 17025: 2017 in our NABL accredited laboratory of Regional Centre, Coonoor.

Pesticide Residue Chemist& Head in Pesticide Residue Division since August 2020. He did his Doctoral dissertation (under the scheme of Chinese government Full scholarship (2010-2015) in Peking University, Beijing, Chinain the area of nanomaterials for biomedical applications. Further, he worked as a Post-Doctoral Fellow for the period of two years (under the scheme of Shanghai government funding (2018-2020), China) in ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China. He published 2 articles in a reputed pre-reviewed international journal. Currently, he is focusing his research on the pesticide residues and heavy metals challenging the quality of domestic and exported teas of south India to maintain the standards of EU, Codex, Japan, EPA and FSSAI. He is also conducting residue studies on new pesticide molecules for registration purpose in tea as per the norms given by Central Insecticide Board of India (CIB) and Tea Board of India.

Joined the UPASI-TRF, TRI in 2010 and appointed as the Plant Pathologist of the division since Sep 2015. Currently handling three NTRF funded projects namely the effect of black tea against Breast Cancer, Biodegradation of agrochemicals and Microbial metabolites against tea diseases. He was honoured with the “Best Scientist Award” in the area of Plant Pathology and Microbiology by Nature Science Foundation. He served about ten years in UPASI TRF-TRI, in the field in tea disease and nutrient management (IDM & INM), new molecule evaluations and demonstration of beneficial microbes in the tea ecosystem. He is guiding three Ph.D. students under Bharathiar University.

Joined TRF as a Biotechnologist and Head of the Division of Plant Physiology and Biotechnology in May 2024. Prior to this, he held the position of Cell and Molecular Biology (Head) Research Scientist in BioMe Live Analytical R&D Centre, Karaikudi, India, for over two years. He has successfully completed his doctoral dissertation at the School of Biotechnology, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai. He has published a number of articles in reputable, pre-reviewed international journals. His current research focus is on field trials of plant growth regulators in tea gardens for sustainable tea cultivation. Additionally, he is engaged in research that pertains to the targeted nature of transcriptomics, which enables the identification of novel transcriptional networks in complex systems and their impacts in tea fields.