Born on 23rd August 1972 at Tirunelveli, Tamilnadu, Educated at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, B.Sc. (Agriculture), 1994; G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Utarakhand, M.Sc. (Agri), 1996; Central University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, Ph.D., 2006

Director, ICAR- Indian Institute Rice Research (ICAR-IIRR), Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, Telangana.

Scientist, Crop Improvement section, ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research (ICAR-IIRR), Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, Telangana, 1998; Scientist (Sr. Scale), Crop Improvement section, ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research (ICAR-IIRR), Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, Telangana, 2004, Senior Scientist, Crop Improvement section, ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research (ICAR-IIRR), Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, Telangana, 2014

Awards/Honours: Post Doctoral studies at Iowa State University and Cornell University, USA; Visited IRRI, Philippines; CAAS, Beijing, China, University of California, Davis, USA and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA; Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Rice Research; Crop Improvement; Lal Bahadur Shastri Outstanding Young Scientist Award of ICAR; Hari Om Ashram Trust Award of ICAR; DBT Product and Process Development and Commercialization Award; CSIR Award for Innovation in Rural Development; P N Behl Award for Excellence in Crop Sciences of ICAR-IARI; IUSSTF Fellowship, USAID-ABSPII Fellowship; Alexander Von Humboldt Travel Grant.

Fellow : ISGPB Fellow 2017, Indian Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding; New Delhi;

Research Areas: Rice improvement, biotic & abiotic stress, MARS & MABB