Board Members

Dr. Dipankar Saharia, Managing Director, OTBL

Dr. Dipankar Saharia heads TERI’s Administrative Services Division, TERI's Regional Centres and guides a few other Divisions. Dr. Dipankar Saharia has assumed charge as the Managing Director of ONGC TERI Biotech Limited (OTBL) with effect from 1st July, 2025.

Earlier he was heading TERI’s North-Eastern Regional Centre. He was with the Government of Assam as an officer of the Assam Civil Services. He held the positions of Assistant Commissioner and later Officer on Special Duty at the Personnel Department and Science & Technology Department, Government of Assam from 1997 to 2009 and was also on deputation to TERI. Dr Saharia also worked with TERI from 1995 to 1996 for the Tissue Culture Pilot Project (now MTP) before joining Assam Civil Service.

Dr. Saharia has a Masters in Science and Ph.D. from Gauhati University. His expertise lies in the areas of biotechnology, natural resource management and rural development where he has undertaken several projects and studies in the fields of watershed management, Micropropagation, Renewable Energy and biofuels. He has been the PI of several mission mode projects for the north-eastern region, including the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) Mission for Quality Planting Material Production and Utilization for the North East, DBT's Jatropha Micro Mission, DNA Club (DBT’s Natural Resource Awareness Programme Club) in Northeastern Region and Mini Mission I under Horticulture Mission, ICAR.

Sh. Sunil Kumar, Director, ONGC TERI Biotech Limited

On January 8th, 2025, Sh. Sunil Kumar assumed the esteemed position of Executive Director and Asset Manager of ONGC Mehsana Asset.

He was appointed as Nominee Director of ONGC, on the Board of Directors of ONGC TERI Biotech Limited with effect from 24th January, 2025.

A seasoned professional with a strong foundation in Petroleum Engineering from ISM Dhanbad, complemented by a Diploma in Computer Applications from CMC limited and a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management (Marketing & Finance) from MDI Gurugram under Super Unnati Prayas.

Sh. Kumar's distinguished career with ONGC commenced in 1991 as an Assistant Executive Engineer (Production) in Sivasagar/Nazira, where he honed his skills in Workover Operations. In his first tenure at Mumbai, he worked in Well Services Western Offshore handling well engineering and slick line operations at Mumbai High Offshore fields.

His subsequent journey has been marked by significant contributions across various domains. He demonstrated his leadership abilities as a member of the pilot project of Organizational Transformation Project (OTP) in Mumbai under which ONGC’s organization structure was transformed from Functional based system to Asset based Management system. Further, he also functioned as a Core Team Member of Project ICE.

Sh. Kumar was instrumental in planning and executing first deep water project i.e. Vasistha & S1 at East Coast. During his second tenure at Mumbai, he spearheaded the planning, coordination, and execution of India's largest shallow water subsea project, overseeing the drilling, completion and put-on production of 11 subsea wells. Most recently, in Kakinada, he successfully managed ONGC's prestigious and mega deepwater KG-DWN-98/2 Cluster II project as Project Manager monetizing the oil fields and achieving ~35,000 barrels oil per day and ~1.4 MMSCMD associated gas production from them.

With a distinguished career marked by numerous achievements and a wealth of experience, Mehsana Asset eagerly anticipates a new era of growth and achievement under the leadership of Sh. Sunil Kumar.

Dr. Banwari Lal, Director, OTBL

Dr. Banwari Lal currently holds the position of Senior Director and heads the Environmental and Industrial Biotechnology Division at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), located in New Delhi. Additionally, he serves as the Director at ONGC TERI Biotech Ltd (OTBL), a joint venture company between ONGC and TERI. He spearheaded OTBL as Managing Director till June 30, 2025. Dr. Banwari Lal obtained his PhD from the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur in 1987 and serves as an adjunct faculty member at TERI School of Advanced Studies. Under his supervision, fifteen students have successfully obtained their PhD degrees from TERI School of Advanced Studies.

Furthermore, in 2005, Dr. Banwari Lal served as a visiting professor at the Department of Microbiology, School of Medical Sciences, Stanford University, California, USA. His primary area of interest is Petroleum Biotechnology, and he has successfully developed three patented technologies: "Oilzapper" for bioremediation of oil spills, "Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery," and "Prevention of paraffin deposition in oil well tubing and flow lines."

Dr. Banwari Lal has 9 patents to his name and has published 107 research papers in peer-reviewed journals with high impact factors. He is also the author of 2 books and several book chapters. The citation count of his research papers stands at 9028, with an h-index of 40 and an i10-index of 175.

He has received numerous national and international awards for the development of technologies, including the Tata Innovation Fellowship Award in 2010 by DBT; the PetroFed Innovator of the Year Award in 2009 by MoPNG; Biotech Product & Development award in 2008 by Department of Biotechnology, Government of India; National Research Development Corporation Award in 2005 by DST; National Bioscience Award for Career Development in 2004 by DBT; Biotech Product & Process Development in 2002 by DBT and All India Biotech Association award in 2001 by All India Biotech Association.

Dr. Banwari Lal is a member of various scientific expert committees and has served on several advisory and expert committees for the Department of Biotechnology and the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. He is also a life member of AMI.