The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan, in 1989, for his contributions to agricultural science.
[4] Randhawa, born on 13 March 1927, secured his doctoral degree (PhD) from the University of California in 1964.
[5] Returning to India, he joined the All India Coordinated Project on Micronutrients in Soils and Plants of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research as a national coordinator in 1967 and served the project till 1977.
During this period, he also served Punjab Agricultural University as a professor at the Department of Soils and stayed at the university till 1979, holding positions such as that of a senior professor, head of the department, dean of the College of Agriculture, and the director of research.
He delivered several award orations including the inaugural Dr. S. P. Raychaudhuri Memorial Lecture of the Indian Society of Soil Science (1990)[9] and the Professor N.R.