Dr. Khosla is the Founder and Chairman of the Development Alternatives Group, a consortium of social enterprises based in India whose mission is to create technologies, businesses and markets for large scale generation of sustainable livelihoods.

During his career spanning over five decades, he has been a board member of many government, industry and NGO bodies in India, including the National Security Advisory Board, the Science Advisory Committee to the Cabinet and the National Environment Council. He was awarded the UNEP Science-Policy Lifetime Award 2016 for his services to the environment, in the betterment to the lives of others. He also received the Zayed International Prize for Scientific and Technological Achievement in Environment. Together with the Development Alternatives Group, he won the United Nations Sasakawa Environment Prize 2002.

Dr. Kumar is responsible for the innovation and development of technology systems required for large-scale creation of sustainable livelihoods.

During his 30 years with the Development Alternatives Group, he has been responsible for development and commercialisation of sustainable technology packages in the areas of low-cost construction, decentralised energy production, cleaner production technologies, biomass utilisation and paper recycling. Before this, Dr. Kumar spent 15 years in the corporate sector, and held high-level positions with the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Establishment, Harwell, UK and the Bhabha Atomic Energy Centre, Bombay. He has received several national and international awards, including the NDTV-Toyota Greenies Award from the President of India, and the Changing Markets Award from the German Federal Government.