[3] Venkataraman was born on 1 February 1930 to Lokanayaki and G. R. Sitaraman, a freedom fighter, at a small hamlet in Tirunelveli district by name, Tenkasi, in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
[citation needed] His early education was at the local village school after which he did his intermediate (higher secondary) from St. Xavier's College, Palayamkottai.
At Alagappa Chettiar College, Karaikudi, where he joined for his graduate studies, he had the opportunity to learn under S. Doraisamy, an algologist and a protégé of M. O. P. Iyengar, a renowned phycologist.
Supported by a grant from the Department of Biotechnology, he also established a national facility for the collection and distribution of Blue-green algae (BGA) cultures.
[4] The project, which had state and central participation, is reported to have been successful in the dissemination knowledge on BGA bio-fertilizers among Indian farming community.
[4] He was the Editor of the INSA scientific publications from 1983 to 1986 and a member of the sectional committee and the council of the Indian National Science Academy.
[2] He was associated with the International Rice Research Institute as a member of its Policy Advisory Committee on Microbiological Nitrogen Fixation and was a director of the Indo-US Science and Technology Collaborative Programme in Agriculture.