He is known for his pioneering work of applying random sampling methods in agricultural statistics and in biometry, in the 1940s.
His other major contributions included applying statistical techniques to the study of human nutrition.
[1] One of his ideas, the Sukhatme–Margen hypothesis, suggested that at low calorie intake levels, stored energy in the body is used with greater metabolic efficiency and that the metabolic efficiency decreases as the intake increases above the homeostatic range.
[2] Sukhatme was born in a Deshastha Brahmin family on 27 July 1911 in village Budh, district Satara in the state of Maharashtra in India.
This ushered in what may appropriately be termed as Sukhatme era in the development of agricultural statistics in India[citation needed].