Dr. S. Pazhanivelan is an agronomist specializing in remote sensing applications for agricultural applications, including crop monitoring, soil and land resource inventory, land degradation, agricultural disaster management, monitoring water resources and agricultural emissions, and drone applications for precision agriculture. He has contributed to many innovative technologies through research projects in collaboration with IRRI, ICRISAT, ICAR, NRSC, SAC and GOI on crop management technologies, salt-affected soils, saline water management and geospatial outputs supporting the TN state government and the government of India. TNAU RIICE technology for crop insurance was developed by the scientist through a multi-national public–private partnership project, resulting in a quick payout of INR 3085 as compensation from insurance companies to 753,000 farmers. Remote-sensing-based crop insurance was made an operational service for the first time in India as a measure of disaster risk reduction. As head of the department of Remote Sensing and GIS at TNAU, Dr. Pazhanivelan is responsible for establishing crop and disaster management, soil and water resources, the drone lab, and catering to the research needs of the PG program in Geoinformatics. As an expert committee member of DST NRDMS, he is responsible for developing networks among scientists in the field of GIS for agriculture and contributes to developing geospatial policy and projects at the national level.