He was born on 6 June 1935 in the village of Anarpa in Kumaun, Uttarakhand, India.
Joshi's broad areas of interest are condensed matter and collision processes.
Joshi conducted studies on excitation and ionization processes in atoms, ions, and molecules.
Joshi supervised the Ph.D. theses of twenty scholars and has published more than 190 research papers.
In 1991, he was appointed the Director General of the Indian Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.