Thirumalayaperumal Karunakaran (26 December 1946 – 12 March 2019) was an Indian engineer, academic, social organizer and reformer who worked on rural development problems in India and other countries.

He studied Mathematical System Theory from the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi where he obtained a PhD in 1975 under Prem Saran Satsangi.

Under his leadership, MGIRI launched solar-powered charkhas to increase the volume and quality of yarn that a farming household could produce.

Agrindus trained children, primarily of farmers who had committed suicide, to become entrepreneurs and bring industrial value-added activities to the farm.

[9][8] Karunaran's work at Agrindus built on Gandhian ideas of socio-economic development, including the work-based education principle[10] known as Nai Talim,[11] and Gandhi's vision of self-reliant village-centered economies.