 He was born in Handattu, Udupi Taluk, Udupi District, Karnataka, and raised in Rourkela, Orissa, India.After completing his basic schooling in Orissa in Ispat English Medium School, he went to IIT Kharagpur for his undergraduate studies in energy engineering and graduated in 1990.He then went to the U.S. to do his master's degree and later PhD in energy engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.