[2] Pal was born in Mukandpur, the youngest child of Dr Rala Ram and Inder Devi.

[3] He then worked as a rice research officer in Burma in 1932 and then moved to Pusa in Bihar as a second economic botanist.

He became the first director-general of the newly reorganized Indian Council for Agricultural Research in 1965 and worked there until his retirement in 1972.

Pal worked on rust resistance in wheat and helped release several varieties.

A rose garden from the library at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute is named in his honour.