Mr. Charles Reynolds Nodder, popularly known as C.R. Nodder was the first Director of ICAR-NINFET (Erstwhile Technological Research Laboratory under Indian Central Jute Committee) who joined on January 03, 1939 and was the pioneer for building up the Institute from its infancy. He was born in 1894 at Fulham, London.  Mr. Nodder was the Hon. Sectional Secretary of Botanical Section of Faraday Society (1930-1932) and Vice President of Botanical Section of Faraday Society (1933-1935). He passed away in 1987 in England.

Mr. Nodder brought his great experience, especially that of similar work on flax, and initiated research on jute fibre technology. He served the institute as Director from 1939 to 1949. His research interests were mostly on process engineering aspects of flax and jute fibre like

·      Some structural characters of the flax fibre

·      The behabiour of the bast fibres under the influence of caustic alkalies

·      The relation between the physical fibre characters and spinning quality

·      Prospects of chemical retting of jute and jute waste utilization

·      Assessment of spinning quality

Dr. Pulin Behari Sarkar who was born on March 1, 1906 served the institute as Director from1950 to 1967. Before the Directorship of the Institute, he was Professor of Chemistry at B.N. College, Patna (1931-1932) and Professor of Chemistry at Vidyasagar College, Calcutta (1936-1939). His researches on the "Chemistry of Jute Lignin" fetched for him the D.Sc. degree in 1936. He brought his great experience of analytical chemistry and amalgamated with jute and other natural fibres. His research expertise digs to a depth of unexplored fibre chemistry. Some of his significant research contributions are:

·      Suitability of jute fibre as a source of cellulose

·      Linseed fibre as a substitute for jute

·      Nature and structure of the cellulose and hemicellulose of jute and allied fibres.

·      Effect of acetyl groups on the strength of jute fibre

·      Bleaching of jute with chlorite

·      Pulping of jute sticks for board and cheap grade paper

·      Wollenised jute as a wool substitute.

·      Rayon-Grade pulp from jute stick.

He breathed his last on March 23,1983.

Dr. S.B. Bandopadhyay served the institute as director from 1968 to 1975. He was elected a fellow of the Textile Institute, Manchester based on his original contribution towards textile science. He dedicated his life towards the utility-oriented research on jute. His pioneering works covers:

·         Jute fibre and yarn qualities in relation to processing

·         Formulation of new quality-wise jute grading scheme which accepted as an Indian Standard in place of traditional area wise grading

·         Designing jute fibre testing instruments that recommended by FAO for other countries and adopted by most jute mills and jute development centres in India

·         Processing of oil-water treated jute and various aspect of fibre and yarn structures

Dr. Bandopadhyay retired from Directorship in 1975 and thereafter worked as Emeritus Scientist of ICAR. He was honoured with the prestigious Service Medal of the Textile Institute in 1987 for his outstanding contribution in jute research.

Dr. A. C. Chakravarty joined the institute as Director in 1975 and served for 9 years (1975-1983). As a student of pure physics, he had specialized training in Fibre Physics under Prof. JWS Hearle at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, UK. He has made significant contribution of fundamental importance towards the study of mechanical properties and fine structures of jute and allied fibres and the blends of jute with synthetic fibres. Some of his significant research contributions are:

·         Physical (crystallinity, moisture absorption, swelling, rupture, bulk density, crimp, wollenisation, transvers compression, fine structures etc) and Tensile properties of jute and allied fibres

·         Identification of textile fibres through X-ray diagrams.

·         Lustre of jute fibre: a method of measurement

·         A photoelectric meter to measure brightness

·         Factors affecting axial migration of fibre in jute yarn

·         Processing polypropylene staple fibre and use of polyethylene monofilament in spinning core yarn of jute.

Dr. Chakravarty retired from Directorship in 1983 after 32 years of distinguished service to the cause of jute and allied fibre research.

Dr. S N Pandey was appointed as Director of ICAR-NINFET (erstwhile NIRJAFT) in October, 1985 and served for 10 years upto 1995 as Director. Initially he joined ICAR-CIRCOT (erstwhile CTRL) as officiating Jr. Research officer on December 17, 1959. The grade was upgraded on June 21, 1962. He obtained the SSO post on June 28, 1969 in the place of Dr. Betrabet, and was promoted as Chemist on August 4, 1975, S-2 in October 1, 1975, and S-3 on July 1, 1980. Dr. Pandey worked at CTRL as a senior scientific officer before taking over the director's posts at NIRJAFT and CRIJAF. He became the Director of CIRCOT on February 23, 1995.

Dr. Pandey is a well-known professional in the field of cellulose chemistry, textile chemistry and fat and oil chemistry. He has authored many books, and guided M. Sc. and Ph. D. students. He is the recipient of many prestigious awards. After retiring on August 1,1995, he became the chairperson of the Indian Fibre Society (IFS). His significant contribution covers:

·         Chemical processing of jute by foam application technique

·         Synthesis of cyanoethyl cellulose from jute

·         Various aspect of bleaching, dyeing and resin finishing of jute and allied fibres

·         Jute fibre photo-stability

·         Derivative infrared spectroscopy of different fibres

He breathed his last on July 4, 2019.

Dr. B.C. Mitra was director of ICAR-NINFET from the period 5.12.95 to 30.04.99.  Under his leadership, the institute has been declared as centre of excellence of ICAR and the earlier JTRL name has been changed to NIRJAFT. All the earlier departments and sections of the organization were reconstituted into four major divisions which are still continuing and Transfer of technology division was newly created under his guidance. Moderate portions of the land of the institute were recovered by intervention of secretary, in his time period as director. Under his leadership and guidance, news bulletin of the institute was initiated and major technologies like degumming of ramie fibre, jute stick based particle board have been transferred to the entrepreneur and jute industries respectively. In addition, one sales counter was also started on jute diversified products. Some new projects like jute composites (NATP project), jute geotextile for erosion control is also initiated in his time and sanctioned by ICAR. As of outer exposure, one joint technological conference with IJIRA, CRIJAFT and IJT and one international seminar was also successfully conducted under his leadership. As director of the organization, He was also actively involved in the following work

·         Field trial of jute geo-textile for river bank erosion control

·         Water seepage control at sandy soil for growth of plants at CIAE, A&N islands

·         Several jute based composite products and jute-ramie fabrics have been developed

Dr. S.K. Bhattacharyya was born on 1^st March 1947. He obtained his B.Sc. with Hons. In Chemistry in 1964, M.Sc. in Bio-Chemistry in 1966 and Ph.D. in Microbial Bio-Chemistry in 1971 all from Calcutta University.

He joined in ICAR in February 1969 as a Senior Research Assistant in erstwhile Jute Technical Research Laboratories, Calcutta. He was subsequently promoted to Scientist, S-1 in 1976, Scientist, S-3 in 1979 and Scientist, S-4 in the year 1985 and worked in the same institute. He was working as Head of the Microbiology Division, Chemistry & Microbiology Division and then Head of Quality Evaluation and Improvement Division. In absence of the regular Director, he worked as Acting Director of the institute on many occasions. Since November, 2001 he has been working as Director of the institute.

The major areas of professional interest are Microbial and Bio-chemical methods of quality improvement of jute & allied fibres and bio-technological process to make diversified products from jute & allied fibrs and their wastes.

His major professional achievements are development of microbial method for improvement of the quality of jute for which he was awarded by NRDC and WIPO (a constituent of UNO). He opened up/ instrumental in opening up new research areas in jute & allied fibres like creation and maintenance of culture bank, degumming of ramie, bio-pulping of jute stick, studies on comparative durability of vegetable fibres, use of bio-fertilizer in jute cultivation, bio-softening, bio-bleaching and incorporation of microbial technique in processing of jute in jute mills, introduction of jute in apparel sector, development of jute geo-textiles, dry retting of jute and so on.

He has got about 100 publications to his credit national and international. He is closely associated with academic institutions and has been honoured as a reviewer of research projects. He has initiated an attempt to popularize Hindi language among the scientists and in the pursuit organized Hindi Seminars at the institute. He is going to hold one National Level Seminar in Hindi shortly with the belief that we can only achieve a total uplift of society if the scientific knowledge and achievement is disseminated throughout the country in Hindi.

His present activities are planning, coordination, implementation and monitoring of programmes on jute technology and promoting jute in diversified areas for decentralized sector, large scale industries. He has got a thorough linkage with national and international organizations on jute and allied fibres, public-private partnership, commercialization, answering to parliament question and working as the overall supervisor of all projects including adhoc projects. He was associated with International Jute Organization, Dhaka, Bangladesh representing as a Scientist from the country.

Dr. Krishna Kishore Satapathy, an ARS scientist, completed B. Tech and M. Tech. degree in Agricultural Engg. from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in 1975 and 1977 respectively. He did his Ph.D. also from the same Institute in the field of Land and Water Management Engg. in 1995.

Dr. K.K. Satapathy joined ICAR service in the year 1977 at CTRI, Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh. He headed the Agricultural Engg. Division of ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Barapani (Shillong) during 1990-2009 and has 34 years of Research experience in the field of Hill slope hydrology/watershed management as well as lift irrigation and water management in the North Eastern Hills Region. He has coordinated the multidisciplinary research project of ICAR on ‘Alternative Farming System to replace shifting cultivation in North Eastern Region’. He was also coordinator of Agro-meteorological advisory services in North Eastern Region under DST since its inception. He has contributed 112 research papers in International and National journals of repute and edited six books. He has successfully completed several research projects sponsored by Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India, as well as NATP/NAIP of ICAR. A number of research/ technical bulletins/ monographs are also due to his credit.

He was awarded the prestigious Vasant Rao Naik award for research application in dry land agriculture and ISAE Commendation medal in 2005 and 2001 respectively. He has also been selected as ISAE fellow during 2004-05, the fellow of Soil Conservation Society of India in 2010 and the fellow of Institution of Engineers in 2013.

He retired as Director of National Institute of Natural Fiber Engineering and Technology, Kolkata on 31^st March 2013.He is the founder president of the Indian Natural Fibre Society. He has been awarded IASWC Lifetime Achievement award for his contribution in soil and water conservation research for the year 2016.

In recognition to his valuable contribution in the field of Agricultural Engineering, The Institution of Engineers (India) awarded him ‘Eminent Engineering Personality in 2019.

Dr. Debsis Nag was Director of ICAR-NINFET from the period 2013 to June 2016.He was Consortium Principal Investigator (CPI) of Zonal Technology Management-Business Planning and Development Unit under National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) sponsored by World Bank and In-charge, Institute Technology Management Unit (ITMU) during 2009-2012. During his tenure as CPI, ZTM-BPD Unit was built. He also has built Pilot Plant for hand- made paper from jute waste and Jute stick particle board, BPD Incubation Centre, Training Centre for Entrepreneurship Development, Jute product Display-cum-Sale outlet, Training Hostel and created many other facilities. In addition, he successfully incubated a number of technologies for the budding entrepreneurs. He has contributed actively as a member of the following respectable societies

·         State Level Advisory Board of MSME in West Bengal

·         Task Force of Food and Agriculture Sub-committee under Confederation of Indian Industry, East Zone

·         Research Advisory Committee, ICAR-CIRCOT, Mumbai and in both RAC and QRT of ICAR-CRIJAF, Barrack pore, West Bengal in 2017-19.

·         Chairman, Agriculture Engineering Division, West Bengal State Centre,

Faculty Council Member of College of Agriculture Engineering and Technology, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Nadia, West Bengal.