Director of ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bangalore, India. Ph.D in Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry from IARI, New Delhi. More than 33 years of progressive experience in research on pesticide residue dissipation and phytochemical analysis in horticultural crops, soil, water and other commodities. Established the Food Safety Referral Laboratory, at ICAR-IIHR, Bangalore a state of art facility, accredited for testing of chemical and biological contaminants in food by NABL. The laboratory is one of the Referral laboratories of FSSAI and is also notified by APEDA.
Presently Centre in charge, All India Network Project on Pesticide Residues at ICAR-IIHR, Bangalore and the Project on “Monitoring of Pesticide Residues at National Level”. Successfully completed projects funded by ICAR, NMPB, RKVY, FSSAI as PI. Contributed to the fields of new residue analytical protocol development, studies on mobility of pesticides in soil, uptake of pesticides and PGRs in crops, suitability of pesticides for use in IPM/IDM programs, dissipation of pesticides under protected cultivation, studies on phytochemical estimation in pomegranate cultivars, enhancement of vitamin D content in mushrooms. Chairman, BIS Sectional Committee FAD 10, member, FAD 27, SFSI committee of FSSAI, EC member (NPOP) of APEDA, India. Published 59 research papers, 10 technical bulletins, many popular articles and guided several M.Sc. and Ph.D students.