India – Japan Webinar on“Marine Plastic Prevention
and Management”- Tuesday, February 16, 2021 {1330 – 1745 hrs (JST) / 1000 -1415 (IST)}- Medium: English- Platform: Webex
Attendees Link: https://niot1.webex.com/niot1/onstage/g.php?MTID=e032831e3d4c53f56e9a8ab4bbe013719
Event number:
184 160 5641
Event password:
MpP2k21- Organized by: Embassy of India, Tokyo in association with Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), GoI; and Ministry of
Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), GoJ

Cities around the world are dealing with serious waste problems due toincreasing population and changing lifestyles. Plastic pollution in themarine and coastal environment is a challenging and threatens ecosystems
as well as affecting public health around the globe.
According to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), themarine plastic debris is one of the main emerging issues affecting theenvironment. Several efforts are being made at the international andnational levels to address marine pollution. Among them are the 1972
Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping Wastes andOther Matter, the 1996 Protocol to the London Convention, and the 1978
Protocol to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution
from Ships. The risks posed by microplastics has been acknowledged in the
Leaders’ Declaration at the 2015 G7 summit in Bavaria, Germany. Also, at
its annual meeting in June 2019, the G20 group of the world’s largest
established and emerging economies launched its “Implementation
Framework for Actions on Marine Plastic Litter”. The framework outlines
voluntary actions by countries towards reducing plastic waste generation,
improving waste management and cleaning up litter that has alreadycontaminated the ocean.

Understanding that the problem of marine plastic pollution is crossboundary and cross-cutting, and it requires systemic solutions covering
policy, technology, management, financing, knowledge and research,awareness raising and behaviour change. A webinar on a collaborativemodel is being organized to connect various stakeholders to determine theknowledge perspectives concerning the current issues, future research anddevelopment, needs, and priorities for building networks, and further
collaboration.
Both countries will make effective use of this event to strengthen theirbilateral relations. The webinar will have two sessions- inaugural andpresentation. In the presentation session four speakers each from Japan andIndia will be presenting their research findings for 12 minutes each which
will be followed by a discussion to explore possibilities of collaboration
Between groups in Japan and India. The webinar will also haveparticipation from scientists, researchers, policy makers, students andindustry partners from both India and Japan who will take part in thediscussion after the presentations.

Program – Inaugural
JST

IST

Topic

Speaker

13:30 – 13:32
13:32 – 13:39
13:39 – 13:46

10:00 – 10:02
10:02 – 10:09
10:09 – 10:16

13:46 – 13:53

10:16 – 10:23

Opening Remarks

Mr. Totani Gen, Director for Deep Sea–Earth Scientific Research Ocean and Earth
Division, Research and Development Bureau, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports,
Science and Technology (MEXT), GOJ.

13:53 – 14:00

10:23 – 10:30

Special Remarks

Dr. Kaname Ikeda, Ex-Ambassador & President, Remote Sensing Technology Center ofJapan (RESTEC)

14:00 – 14:07

10:30 – 10:37

Special Remarks

Mr. Naresh Pal Gangwar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate
Change (MoEFCC), GoI

14:07 – 14:17
14:17 – 14:24

10:37 – 10:47
10:47 – 10:54

Keynote Address
Initiatives at SPFOPRI

14:24 – 14:31
14:31 – 14:38

10:54 – 11:01
11:01 – 11:08

Initiatives at Kozikhode City
Initiatives at JAMSTEC

14:38 – 14:45

11:08 – 11:15

Initiatives at JICA

14:45 – 14:50

11:15 – 11:20

Initiatives at MoES andinternational cooperation

Dr. Usha Dixit, Counsellor (S&T), Embassy of India, Tokyo, GoI
Introduction
Welcome & Opening Remarks H.E. Mr. Sanjay Kumar Verma, Ambassador of India to Japan, GoI
Mr. Ono Hiroshi, Director General of the Global Environment Bureau, Ministry ofOpening Remarks
Environment, GoJ (MoEJ)

Dr. M. Rajeevan, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MOES), GoI
Prof. Atsushi Sunami, President, The Sasakawa Peace Foundation and Ocean Policy
Research Institute
Dr. Beena Philip, Mayor, Kozikhode City, Kerala
Dr. Hide Sakaguchi, Executive Director, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science andTechnology (JAMSTEC)
Mr. Miura Sho, Deputy Director, Environmental Management Team 2, Global
Environment Department, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
Dr. M.P. Wakdikar, Scientist ‘G’, Ministry of Earth Sciences, GoIProgram – Presentations & Discussions: (Moderated by Dr. Remi Chandran, Senior Expert, RESTEC, Japan)
JST

IST

Topic

Speaker

14:50 – 15:02

11:20 – 11:32

Automatic detection of beached marine litter inimages using AI techniques

Dr. Mitsukou Hidaka, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology(JAMSTEC), Tokyo

15:02 – 15:14

11:32 – 11:44

Assessment of Marine Litter and microplastic
pollution along the Indian coasts - Necessity ofMarine Litter Policy

Dr. M.V. Ramana Murthy, Director, National Centre for Coastal Research(NCCR), Chennai

15:14 – 15:26

11:44 – 11:56

Remote sensing and Geo-spatial information for
Monitoring Plastics

Dr. Mukaida Akira, Remote Sensing Technology Center of Japan (RESTEC),
Tokyo

15:26 – 15:38

11:56 – 12:08

Assessment of Marine Litter and microplastic
pollution along the Indian coasts - Necessity ofMarine Litter Policy

Dr. Pravakar Mishra, Scientist F, National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR),
Chennai

15:38 – 15:50

12:08 – 12:20

Understanding the global distribution of marine
plastics

Dr. Sanae Chiba, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology(JAMSTEC), Tokyo

15:50 – 16:02

12:20 – 12:32

Plastics and microplastics in Ocean: An emerging
pollutants to emerging threat to ecosystem

Dr. Mahua Saha, Senior scientist, Chemical Oceanography Division (COD),
National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa

16:02 – 16:14

12:32 – 12:44

Comprehensive solution to prevent marine plastic Dr. Minoru FUJII, Head of Eco-society Innovation Section, Center for Social
waste and climate change
and Environmental Systems Research, National Institute for Environmental
Studies (NIES), Tokyo

16:14 – 16:26

12:44 – 12:56

Assessment of Marine Plastics in the Northern
Indian Ocean

Dr. R. Venketesan, Scientist G, National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT),
Chennai

16:26 – 16:38

12:56 – 13:08

Marine biodegradable materials to substitute forconventional plastics

Dr. Noriyuki Isobe, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology(JAMSTEC), Tokyo

16:38 – 16:50

13:08 – 13:20

Microplastic pollution in Arctic Fjord: Study on the Prof. E V Ramasamy, Professor, School of Environmental Sciences,sediment and water samples of Kongfjorden, Ny- Dean, Faculty of Environmental and Atmospheric Science, Mahatma Gandhi
Alesund
University, Kottayam, Kerala

16:50 – 17:02

13:20 – 13:32

Impact of plastics on marine environment from
Gujarat coast, India and their decontamination or
Chemical Recycling

Dr. Sumit B. Kamble, Scientist, Central Salt and Marine Chemicals ResearchInstitute (CSMCRI), Bhavnagar, Gujarat, India

Program – Presentations & Discussions
JST

IST

Topic

Speaker

17:02 – 17:32

13:32 – 14:02

Q&A Session / Discussion

17:32 – 17:37

14:02 – 14:07

Way Forward & Closing Remarks

Comdr. P.K. Srivastava, Scientist F, Ministry of Earth Sciences, GoI

17:37 – 17:42

14:07 – 14:12

Way Forward & Closing Remarks

Dr. Remi Chandran, Senior Expert, Remote Sensing Technology Center of Japan (RESTEC),
Japan

17:42 – 17:45

14:12 – 14:15

Vote of Thanks

Dr. Usha Dixit, Counsellor (S&T), Embassy of India, Tokyo, GoI

Speaker(s)Dr. Kaname Ikeda
Ex-Ambassador & President,
Remote Sensing Technology
Center of Japan (RESTEC)

Mr. TATANI Gen

H.E. Mr. Sanjay Kumar Verma
Ambassador of India to Japan
Graduated from Patna University and thenpursued a Post-Graduate degree in Physics at
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi. He
is an officer of the 1988 batch of Indian
Foreign Service (IFS). He was stationed at theConsulate General of India, Hong Kong andat the Embassy of India in China, Vietnam
and Turkey, before serving as the Consul
General of India in Milan, Italy. Ambassador
Verma was also the Indian Ambassador to
the Republic of Sudan. Following his tenure
in Sudan, Ambassador Verma served as Joint
Secretary (Global Estate Management) in
MEA, New Delhi. Prior to his arrival in Japanas the Ambassador of India, Amb. Verma
was posted in MEA, New Delhi as Additional
Secretary (Administration) and was also incharge of the Cyber Diplomacy Division.

Mr. Hiroshi ONO
Director General, Global Environment Bureau,
Ministry of the Environment, Government ofJapan

Mr. Hiroshi ONO is currently servingasDirector
General,GlobalEnvironment Bureau, Ministry of theEnvironment (MOE), Japan. He hascompleted his graduation from the
Graduate School of Engineering, theUniversity of Tokyo. Previous tocurrent position he has also served
as Director, Policy Planning Division,
Waste Management and Recycling
Department,
Environmental
Transport Policy Division, Office ofEnvironmental Impact Assessment
Review at MOE and served as Board
Member at Toyama Prefecture.

Director, Deep Sea-Earth Scientific
Research, Ocean and Earth Division,
Research and Development Bureau,
Ministry of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science and Technology(MEXT),Director,
Japan
Deep Sea-Earth Scientific Research,

Mr. TOTANI Gen

Director, Deep Sea-Earth Scientific Research,

Dr Neena Raina, Ph.D, is
Ocean
andAdvisor,
Earth Division, Research andworking
as SeniorDevelopment
Maternal,
Newborn,Bureau,Child Ministry of Education,
and Adolescent
Health at
Culture, Sports,
Science and Technology
WHO, Regional Office for(MEXT),Japan
South-East Asia. She has
worked in WHO as CoMr.
Gen
isMr. Totani
TotaniGenthroughis presently
presently serving
serving as
as Director,
Director,ordinator,
HealthScientific
Deep
Sea-Earth
Scientific Research,
Research, Ocean
Ocean
theDeep
Life Sea-EarthCourse andand Earth
Regional
Advisor,DivisionChild and of Ministry of Education,
Culture,Sports,Science
Culture, HealthSports, andScience andand Technology
Technology
Adolescent(MEXT), Japandevelopment.
Sheandhasas a member of Group ofExperts
oninCapacity
been
working
WHO for Development at UNESCO
Oceanographic
Intergovernmental
Oceanographic
theIntergovernmental
past 22 years. As a
Commission.
He
Commission.
He hashasdone his
his graduation
graduation fromfrompublichealth expert,
she done(Agriculture
and Technology)
hasTokyoworkedNo-Ko
in the areasof
University, Japanand has served as JICA
reproductive,
maternal,
AdvisorAdvisor onon
Forestand Climate
Climate Change,
Change,newborn,child Forest
and andNationalhealth,
Directorate
adolescenthealthy of Forest, Ministry of LandandEnvironment,
and violence
Environment,
Mozambique. In
In hishis
ageing,against Mozambique.
previous
assignments
previous
assignments hehe hashas also
also worked
worked with
with
women
and immunisations
Forestry and Fisheries
forMinistry
the past of
40 Agriculture,
years. She
Foreign Affairs, Japan andhas(MAFF),Ministry
published about of200
Ministry
and
Ministry ofof Agriculture
Agriculture
and Cooperatives,
Cooperatives,
articles/chaptersin
Thailand.
Thailand.
journals/books.

Dr. Kaname Ikeda
Ex-Ambassador & President, Remote Sensing
Technology Center of Japan (RESTEC)
Having graduated from Tokyo University, joined
the Science and Technology Agency in 1968 andserved there as Director-General for Nuclear
Safety from 1996 to 1998, Director-General for
R&D from 1998 to 2000 and Deputy Minister for
Science and Technology from 2000 to 2001. In
2001, joined the NASDA (now JAXA) as an
Executive-Director till 2003, and served as
Ambassador of Japan to Croatia from 2003 to
2006. Then became Director-General for ITERInternational project in November 2005 andestablished the ITER Organization under ITER
Treaty among EU, Japan, Russia, United States fo
America, China, Korea and India and brought theconstruction of ITER in full-swing by Summer in2010. Having resigned from the ITER, in April
2011 joined the RESTEC of Japan and became
President in June 2012.

Speaker(s)Mr. Naresh Pal Gangwar

Dr. M. Nair RajeevanProf. Atsushi Sunami

Dr. Beena Philip

Joint Secretary, Ministry of Environment,
Forest and Climate Change, Government of
India

Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences(MoES), Government of India

President, The Sasakawa Peace Foundation
and Ocean Policy Research Institute, Japan

Mayor, Kozikhode City, Kerala, India

Presently, Mr. Naresh Pal Gangwar(IAS 1994-Batch of Rajasthan cadre) is
Joint Secretary in Ministry ofEnvironment, Forest and Climate
Change (MoEF&CC). Prior to this hehas served as Principal Secretary –Industries, Micro, Small and Medium
Enterprises (MSMEs), Investment &NRIs, BIP and Delhi Mumbai Industry
Corridor. He had also held the chargeof Officer on Special Duty (OSD),
Bhiwadi Integrated Development
Authority.

Presently Dr. M. Nair Rajeevan is Secretaryin Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), GoI
and
has served as Senior Scientific
Assistant, IR Astronomy Group at Tata
Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR),
Mumbai during December 1983-August
1985. During September 1985-June 2008 he
was positioned as Meteorologist/Directorof the National Climate Centre at
Meteorological Department, Pune. From
July 2008-January 2012 he served as Senior
Scientist, Scientist-F at Natioal AtmosphericResearch Laboratory, Department of Space,
Tirupati.
Further,heservedas
Scientist-G/Adviser at Ministry of Earth
Sciences, Government of India fromFebruary 2012-March 2015.

Prof. Atsushi Sunami is the President of The
Sasakawa Peace Foundation, as well as the
President of the Ocean Policy Research Instituteof The Sasakawa Peace Foundation. He is also
Director of the SciREX center and Executive
Advisor to the President at the National
Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) andGuest Professor at the Research Organization for
Nano & Life Innovation at Waseda University. He
is currently serving as a member of the Basic
Policy Group under the Committee on National
Space Policy in the Cabinet Office, also as Chairof the Space Utilization Promotion Round-table
under the Minister for Space Policy in the
Cabinet Office. In addition, he is a member of
the Innovation Strategy for Security and Safety
at the Cabinet Office and on the Advisory Boardfor the Promotion of Science and Technology
Diplomacy in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Japan. He holds a BSFS from Georgetown
University and an MIA and PhD in Political
Science from Columbia University.

Dr. Beena Philip is the Mayor of Kozhikode
Municipal Corporation, elected to office inDecember 2020 and is only the 4th woman tobe the Mayor in Kozhikode city. Previously, Dr.
Beena Philip was the Principal at the
Nadakkavu Government Girls Vocational
Higher Secondary School which currently
holds the second rank among government
schools in India for all-round excellence in the
country.
Under her leadership, shetransformed the school to world standards in
2013.
Dr. Beena Philip was also engaged with Oxford
University Press and the State Council of
Educational Research and Training (SCERT) –serving as a resource person for developing
educational materials for Kerala State. She
holds a PhD in Education with her thesis
exploring on ‘Learner Autonomy andConstructivism’.

Speaker(s)Dr. Hide Sakaguchi
Executive Director, Japan Agency for
Marine-Earth Science and Technology(JAMSTEC)Dr Hide Sakaguchi commenced his appointment as
Executive Director of JAMSTEC in April 2018. He
joined JAMSTEC in 2003 and his roles included Group
Leader and Program Director of the Institute for
Research on Earth Evolution (IFREE), Director of the
Department of Mathematical Science and Advanced
Technology (MAT), and Assistant Executive Director.
Prior to joining JAMSTEC, he served as Research
Associate at Kobe University, Senior Research
Scientist at the Division of Exploration and Mining of
the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research
Organisation (CSIRO) of Australia, and Adjunct
Professor at the Earthquake Research Institute of the
University of Tokyo.
Dr Sakaguchi is specialised in Computer Science,
Geoscience, and Engineering. He received a PhD fromthe Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University
in 1995.

Mr. Miura Sho

Dr. M.P. Wakdikar

Dr. Usha Dixit

Deputy Director, Environmental
Management Team 2, Global
Envirobment Department, Japan
International Cooperation Agency(JICA)

Scientist ‘G’, Ministry of Earth Sciences(MoES), Government of India

Counsellor (Science &Technology), Embassyof India, Tokyo, Government of India

Dr. Milind Wakdikar has completed his
Bachelors, Masters and Doctorate
degrees from Indian Institute ofTechnology, Bombay. He has worked in
Department of Ocean Development,
now redesignated as Ministry of Earth
Sciences, for more than 27 years and iscurrently heading the programme on
oceans including the new initiative on
Deep Ocean Mission in the Ministry. He
has been regularly participating in themeetings of States Parties on Law of the
Sea in the United Nations from India for
more than 17 years. He is also a Memberof Legal and Technical Commission ofInternational Seabed Authority.

Dr. Dixit is presently deputed at Embassy of India, Tokyo,
Japan, as Counsellor, Science & Technology. She has been
associated with Department of Science & Technology(DST),Government of India, for the last 16 years and was
involved in project financing/policy planning andmanagement of innovative S&T projects especially for
women, elderly, young students and young scientists suchas-"Societal based Women Fellowships programme", "Young
Scientist programme", "Technology Interventions for Elderly
and disabled-TIDE",etc. Dr. Dixit has also been engaged inco-ordination and management of the programmes on
Technology Incubation, Innovation and Entrepreneurshipdevelopment. She is a Doctorate in Biotechnology fromCentral Food Technology Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysore,
India. She has also worked as Postdoctoral Fellow at Tokyo
Institute of Technology, Japan and as CSIR- Research
Associate at ITRC, Lucknow, India. Dr. Dixit has 29
publications in reputed national/international scientificjournals as well as chapters in Books and Three Patents
during her research career. Dr. Dixit is also an active Memberof Editorial Board & Reviewer of select Scientific Journals aswell as Member of Evaluation/Screening Committees.

Sho Miura is a Deputy Director at theJapan International Cooperation Agency(JICA). He works with governments andvarious international organizations tomakesolutions
for
waste
and
environmental issues. He has over 15
years of experience in government
working as an officer of the Ministry of
the Environment and the Ministry ofForeign Affairs of Japan. He served as a
Second Secretary/Environmental Attachéat the Embassy of Japan in India andBhutan, and successfully established theJapan's Blue Sky Initiatives Project in India
to help control the air quality of Delhi.

Speaker(s)Comdr. P.K. Srivastava
Scientist F, Ministry of Earth Sciences(MoES), Government of India
Presently, CDR Prashant Kumar Srivastava is servingas Project Director for the Ocean Sciences andResources division of the Ministry of Earth Sciences(MoES), New Delhi. He is an ex-naval officer who
has more than two decades of maritime experience,
An International Hydrographic Organization (IHO)
qualified Cat ‘A’ hydrographer and physicaloceanographer who has vast experience in the fieldof bathymetric surveying. He has held important staff
and training appointments in the Navy which include
amongst others, Command of Naval research vessels
and Chief Instructor at National Institute ofHydrography, Goa. He had been deputed to Mauritius
by Government of India to singlehandedly set up the‘hydrographic survey unit’ for the Ministry of Land
Estates of the Government of Mauritius. He has also
been a member of the Indian Summer Expedition to
Antarctica and awarded the “Chief of the Naval
Staff” commendation for successfully surveying theAntarctic waters. He has also served as theHydrographic Chief of the Inland Waterways
Authority of India (IWAI), Ministry of Shipping forthe project on “River Information Systems (RIS)”on
National Waterways (NW- 1) being the first of its
kind in the South Asian region.

Presenter(s)Dr. Remi Chandran
Senior Expert, Remote Sensing Technology
Center of Japan (RESTEC), Japan
Dr. Remi Chandran is a Senior Expert at the Remote Sensing
Technology Center of Japan (RESTEC) and works oninternational relations and project coordination on issues
related to Global Environmental Governance and Global
Earth Observation. His area of expertise is on public policy
and environmental governance and, more specifically on
how expert-networks comprised of scientific and nonscientific experts can bridge science and policy. His practicaland significant contribution has been on developing
information technology and policy tools to facilitate anevidence-based policy making process; including thedevelopment of the Wildlife Enforcement Monitoring
System (WEMS) - an initiative he established while at UN
University in Tokyo in 2005. WEMS is currently
implemented by Lusaka Agreement Task Force (LATF) in
Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Congo. Dr Remi Chandran has
more than 20 years of experience, working with
Governments and United Nations organizations and has
managed several national and international developmental
projects. He is also a recipient of UNU-IAS fellowship (20122013), Erasmus Mundus Scholarship (2010-2013) and The
Irish Government (ICOS) fellowship (1995-97). His work on
WEMS initiative has been quoted by several media
including Reuters, Kyodo news and Japan Times. Dr
Chandran completed his PhD at University of Twente in
Netherlands and MSc at University College Dublin, Ireland.

Dr. Mitsuko Hidaka

Research Assistant, Research Institute for
Value-Added Information Generation (VaiG),
JapanDr.
Agencyfor Wakdikar
Marine-Earth Science and
M.P.
Technology(JAMSTEC),
Japan
Scientist ‘G’, Ministryof Earth Sciences(MoES), Government of India

Dr. Mitsuko Hidaka is a marine

biologist. She received her Ph.D.
degree from Kitasato University in2019 in the field of Fisheries
Science, specializing in Deep sea
gelatinous zooplankton ecology.
Now she is involved in several
different projects at JAMSTEC that
apply machine learning (especiallydeep learning) approaches, forinstance,
super-resolutionformarine litter detection and superresolution for bathymetric maps,
etc.

Dr. M.V. Ramana Murthy

Director, National Centre for Coastal Research(NCCR), Chennai

Dr. Usha Dixit

Dr. M.V. Ramana Murthy, Scientist G & Director,
Counsellor(Science &Technology), Embassy
NCCR, Specialized in Offshore and CoastalofIndia,
Tokyo, Government of India
Hydrodynamics, Wave Structure Interaction,

Hydrodynamics, Wave Structure Interaction,
Modelling of (Coastal Processes, Tsunami, Storm
Dr. Dixit
is presentlyt Embassy
Surge,
Urbandeputed
Flooding),
Portof India,
and Tokyo,
HarbourJapan, as Counsellor, Science & Technology. She has been
Structures and Marine Spatial Planning. Also looks
associated with Department of Science & Technology
after the programmes
Island(DST),Governmentof India, for of
theOceanlast 16Structures/years and was
Desalination,
Coastal and planning
Environmental
involved
in project andfinancing/policy
andEngineeringat National
Instituteof Oceanmanagementof innovative
S&T projects
especiallyforTechnology.
Workedin andVishakapatnam
Portsuch
Trust
women,
elderly, young
students
young scientistsas-"Societal
based Women"Young inand Engineers
IndiaFellowships
Ltd (EIL)programme",
in various position
Scientist
programme","Technology
Interventions
for Elderly
Planning,
Designand Executionof developmental
and disabled-TIDE",etc.
Dr. Dixit
has alsoofbeen
in inprojects. Later joined
Ministry
Earthengaged
Sciencesco-ordination and management of the programmes on
1999 as, Scientist-D at ICMAM-PD, served NCCR
Technology Incubation, Innovation and Entrepreneurshipand NIOT
positionsand became Scientist
development.
Sheinisvariousa Doctorate
in Biotechnology
fromin 2013.
Central-GFood
Technology Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysore,
India. She has also worked as Postdoctoral Fellow at Tokyo
His ofQualification
include(Civil),M.TechInstitute
Technology, Japanand B.E
as CSIRResearch
Associateat ITRC,CEPT,
Lucknow,
India. Dr.M.Tech
Dixit has
29
(Planning),
Ahmadabad,in Oceanpublications
in reputed
scientificEngineering,
IITM,national/international
Chennai and Ph.D,
Oceanjournals as well as chapters in Books and Three Patents
Engineering, IITM, Chennai.
during her research career. Dr. Dixit is also an active Memberof Editorial Board & Reviewer of select Scientific Journals aswell as Member of Evaluation/Screening Committees.

Presenter(s)Dr. Mukaida Akira

Dr. Pravakar Mishra

Remote Sensing Technology Center of Japan(RESTEC), Tokyo

Scientist F, National Centre for Coastal
Research (NCCR), Chennai

Dr. Mukaida Akira have worked for research andanalysis field till Jun. 2012. Until then have been
involved for various JAXA (NASDA) EO
satellite missions. In the most of the mission
involved for sensors calibration and validationand development of data application.

Currently, working as a scientist- F, leading the "Prediction ofcoastal water quality" and "Marine Litter and micro plastic in
the Marine environment" programs at National Centre for
Coastal Research (NCCR) of Ministry of Earth Science (MoES),
Chennai. He is a trained physical oceanographer, did his PhD
in Marine Science from Berhampur University, Odisha in
1993, Doctorate in Agriculture (Aquatic Bioscience) in 2001
and Post-doc from 2001-2004 at Ocean Research Institute(ORI), The University of Tokyo, Japan. He joined the National
Center for Coastal Research (formerly known as ICMAM-PD),
MoES in 2004, and since then, associated with some of theresearch programs of the Ministry such as Shoreline
Management Plan, Mapping and Modelling of Tsunami, Sea
water quality monitoring and Prediction of pollutants, andMarine litters & Micro plastics. He has published about 60
research papers/ articles/ book chapters related to coastal
process, sedimentation, hazards, pollution and marine Litterand microplastic related issues. He has participated in a
number of scientific cruises in the Pacific Ocean, China Sea
and Bay of Bengal. During last two years, he has participatedin the Expert committee meeting on Marine Litter andMicroplastics of the United Nations Environment Agency(UNEP) at Nairobi, and Geneva for and Protection of Arctic

Also involved with Japan-Thailand space agency
cooperation project on agriculture, flood andcoastal erosion in 2011. In the project, special
emergency observation for Thai flood by
airborne SAR has been carried out.
Position changed for Application and Service
dpt. in Jun. 2012. Have been worked formarketing of solution business using EO satellite
application.

Marine Environment (PAME) meeting at Oslo, Norway.

Dr. Sanae Chiba
Group Leader, Marine Plastics Research Group,
Research Institute for Global Change (RIGC),
Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science andTechnology (JAMSTEC), Japan
Dr. Sanae has studied biology of marine mammals
and plankton through her academic career. Aftercompleting her Ph.D. on plankton ecology in the
Antarctic Sea at Tokyo University of Fisheries, she
worked at Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Scienceand Technology (JAMSTEC), where her research
theme has been marine ecosystem response to climatechange. She has studied mechanisms of interannual
to decadal ecosystem changes in regional to basin
scales using historically collected plankton data set,such as the Odate Collection. In 2009, she started
taking part in the North Pacific Continuous Plankton
Recorder (CPR) Survey, which has been operated by
Sir Alister Hardy Foundation of Ocean Science(SAHFOS) since the early 2000s. She was on
secondment
at
UNEP-World
Conservation
Monitoring Centre in the UK to learn marine sciencepolicy interface for 2016-2019. Back in JAMSTEC,
she is currently leading the newly launched Marine
Plastics Research Group with a keen interest in
citizen science in the global ocean observation
system.

Dr. Mahua Saha
Senior Scientist, Chemical Oceanography
Division, National Institute of
Oceanography (NIO) Goa

Dr. Mahua Saha is presently a
Senior Scientist at CSIR-National
Institute of Oceanography (NIO),
Goa. She has done her Master of
Science in Marine Science from
University of Calcutta, Kolkata andher Ph.D in Environmental Science
as wellas her post doctorate from
Tokyo University of Agriculture andTechnology (TUAT), Tokyo,Japan.
She is a peer reviewer fro several
journals and has published 30 no.sof research publications.

Presenter(s)Dr. Minoru FUJIIHead of Eco-society Innovation
Section, Center for Social andEnvironmental Systems Research,
National Institute for Environmental
Studies (NIES), Tokyo

He got a Doctor of Engineeringfrom Department of Chemical
SystemEngineering,
The
University of Tokyo in 2001.
Currently, he is the head of Ecosociety Innovation Section at
National
InstituteforEnvironmental Studies (NIES). He
also serves as a Visiting Professorof Nagoya University and a
Visiting
ProfessorofThe
University of Tokyo. He studies anintegrated waste management
system,circulareconomyincluding plastics and a decarbonized society.

Dr. R. Venketesan
Scientist G, National Institute of Ocean
Technology (NIOT), Chennai
Dr Venkatesan has 37 years of work experiencein NIOT. He served in Colombo, Sri Lanka, as a
Regional Coordinator under the United Nations
Environment Programme on deputation from2008 to 2010. He teaches ocean policy and ocean
observation tools in IITs. He was a Fulbright
Scholar and served as a national consultant formarine litter and regional consultant for themarine oil Pollution. He has established ocean
observing systems in Indian waters including fortsunami early warning and state-of-the-art 24x7
manned real time data reception facility forcoastal natural disaster. He has published 135
papers, filed 6 patents and technology transfer of
products to Industry support to students andsocietal programme on cage culture. He has been
elected/nominated to high level positions incommittees of World Meteorological Organisation
at Geneva and UNESCO-Intergovernmental
Oceanographic Commission, Paris and other
International groups/bodies. He is part of team
to develop global Integrated Marine Debris
Observation System programme under the
GOOS of UNESCO- IOC and has developed Bestpractice on survey of marine plastics in open
ocean. Currently he is executing a project onmarine plastics survey by MoES-NCCR.

Mr. Noriyuki Isobe

Prof. E V Ramasamy

Researcher, Research Institute forMarine Resources Utilization, Japan
Agency for Marine-Earth Scienceand Technology (JAMSTEC), Japan

Professor, School of Environmental
Sciences, Dean, Faculty ofEnvironmental and Atmospheric
Science, Mahatma Gandhi
University, Kottayam, Kerala

Dr. Noriyuki Isobe is currently a
researcher at JAMSTEC. He completed
his Ph.D. in 2014, master in 2011, andbachelor in 2009 at the University ofTokyo, Japan. He spent 1 year during
Ph.D. and 2 and 9 months as postdoctoral
researcher at Centre de recherches sur les
macromolécules végétales (Cermav,
CNRS) and Laboratoire Rhéologie etProcédés (Université Grenoble Alpes) inFrance. He started his career as a
postdoctoral fellow at JAMSTEC in 2017
and started working as a researcher in
2020.
His research interest lies in the area ofpolysaccharides,
especially
physicochemical characterization ofcellulose and chitin, and development ofnovel materials based on them.

Dr E.V. Ramasamy is currently serving as
Professor at School of Environmental
Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University,
Kottayam, Kerala , India. He is also
servingas
DeanofFacultyofEnvironmental
andAtmospheric
Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University. In
his 30 years of professional career, he
has guided 13 PhD scholars, 30 MPhil
scholars and 120 research publications
including two books to his credit.He
works on Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)
management , wastewater treatmentusing Anaerobic techniques and on
water pollution by heavy metals andmicroplastics. His team also work on thecontaminants of Vembanad lake – one of
the three Ramsar sites in Kerala, India.
He has also participated in Indian Arctic
Expedition (Summer batch 2019) andIndian Scientific Expedition to Southern
Ocean (Antarctic Coast) ISESO 2020 for
research on Microplastics. He is also
servingasmemberofseveralcommittees of Government of Kerala.

Dr. Sumit B. Kamble
Scientist, Central Salt andMarine Chemicals ResearchInstitute (CSMCRI),
Bhavnagar, Gujarat, India

Dr. Sumit B. Kamble
presently is a scientist at
CSIR-CSMCRI, Bhavnagar.
His research career involves
working in areasofchemicals recycling of theplastics,developmentoffunctional materials, etc. He
obtained his Ph.D insynthetic chemistry from
CSIR-National
ChemicalLaboratory,Pune
andworked as DSK and
National
Postdoctoral
Fellow (DST-SERB) during
2016-2019. He has 11 no.sof research publications in
reputed Journals.