Indian Ambassador-designate to Zimbabwe visits ICRISAT

Mr Masakui interacts with ICRISAT scientists. Photo: T Venugopal Reddy, ICRISAT

Mr R Masakui, Director, External Publicity & Public Diplomacy, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India visited ICRISAT-India on 15 April. Mr Masakui is India’s Ambassador-designate to Zimbabwe and will assume office in Zimbabwe during mid-May. Besides visiting various ICRISAT facilities, Mr Masakui spent some time at ICRISAT’s Agribusiness and Innovation Platform (AIP), where he was appraised of the AIP initiative on setting up a food testing laboratory in Zimbabwe with the support of the Indian Government. Mr Masakui was briefed about the various activities at ICRISAT, particularly in Zimbabwe, during his meeting with Dr Peter Carberry, Deputy Director General-Research; Dr Kiran K Sharma, Director-Platform for Translational Research & Chief Executive Officer-Agribusiness and Innovation Platform; Dr Anthony Whitbread, Research Program Director-Innovation Systems for the Drylands and Dr Rajeev K Varshney, Research Program Director-Genetic Gains and Director, Centre of Excellence in Genomics. The meeting concluded with a conference call with Dr David Bergvinson, Director General, ICRISAT. Mr Masakui assured that he would work closely with ICRISAT in Zimbabwe through the Government of India.