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Born on November 15, 1936, Dr. K.L. Chadha obtained his Bachelors and Masters degree in Agriculture (Hort) from Punjab University, Chandigarh in 1955 and 1960 respectively. He specialized in viticulture during his doctoral studies at IARI, New Delhi (1960-63). He has been actively associated with teaching, research and development of grapes in his capacity as a Fruit Specialist of Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, as a Project Coordinator (Fruits including grapes) at national level, as Director, Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bangalore and as ICAR National Professor in Horticulture at IARI, New Delhi. His areas of specialization have been ampelography, training and pruning, nutritioiin and use of growth regulators in grape production. Dr. K.L. Chadha has been Secretary of the “Group on Vitiulture in the Tropics” Gold Medal from Andhra Pradesh Grape Growers’ Association (1994), a silver Plaque from the Maharashtra Research and Development Trust for his outstanding contributioins to grape research and development in the country. He is a Fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi (1992) and was awarded Doctorate of Science (Honoris causa) by Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture & Technology, Kanpur in 1995. Dr. Chadha has won several prestigiouis awards – Borlaugh Award (1984), Om Prakash Bhasin Award (1992), Dayavati Vira Medal (1993), Pisang Raja Award (1996), and Marigowda Memorial Award (1996). He has edited / written 21 books, 7 bulletins and published 146 research and 136 popular articles. Dr. Chadha is sthe Chief Editor of the series “Advances inHorticulture” published in 13 volumes covering 9,410 pages. He has been President of several Horticultural Socieites..

Born on June 15, 1947, Dr. S.d. Shikhamany graduated in 1968 from Andhra Pradesh Agaricultural University, Hyderabad (India). He specialized in viticulture at Masters and Doctoral levels. He has been involved in grape research for over 3 decades. His work has been related to cultural aspects for sustaining the productivity and quality of grapes, with major emphasis on quality for export of fresh grapes. He acquired advanced training in viticulture at the University of California, Davis, USA in 1985. He was also deputed to Russia (1998) and Brazil (1999) by the Department of Agricultural Research and Education, Govt. of India to study viticulture in these countries and identify areas for research collaboration. Dr. Shikhamany is a recipient of Gold Medal for General Merit in Ph.d. studies from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore (1984, Gold Medal from Andhra Pradesh Grape Growers’ Association (1992), a silver plaque from Maharashtra Grape Growers’ Association (1997) and Late Giridharilal Chadha Memorial Medal (1998) from Horticultural Society of India as a recognition of his meritorious contributions to grape research. He has published 48 research papers, 16 populer articles and four technical reports on grapes. He has also guided four M.Sc. students in their thesis research.