[6][7][8] Sivagnanam Pillai was appointed Minister of Development in 1923, replacing Kurma Venkata Reddy Naidu.

During his tenure as the Minister of Development, Sivagnanam Pillai participated in the 9th All-India Non-Brahmin Conference held at Madras on 19 December 1925.

[9] He was knighted in the 1926 New Year Honours list,[10] and formally invested with his knighthood by the Viceroy, Lord Irwin, on 18 February 1927 at Delhi.

[11] Former Governor General of India, Shri C Rajagopalachari while inaugurating a railway line in the then composite Tirunelveli District quipped: "This railway line is as straight as Sir T N Sivagnanam Pillai", which summarised his life as a Civil Servant and later as a Public Servant.

His wife, Mrs. Subbammal was a great sports enthusiast and was South India Table Tennis champion.

Bemused relatives had observed that young Ramalingam Pillai preferred a spot near the staircase where he used to pore over his books for hours together and dozed off on the floor with just a sheet beneath), B.A.

A self made man, a brilliant student - extremely intelligent and hardworking (on several occasions, while at school, due to power outage he is said to have studied under street lights) he was proficient in both Tamil (including the Saiva Siddhantha) and English Literature and has translated the Thirukural in English verse form (a labour of love for many years and type written by him on his personal typewriter), published in 1987 through the South Indian Saiva Siddhantha Kazhagam and the book release was made by Thiru V O C Subramanian (son of "Kappal Ottiya Thamizhan" Thiru V O Chidambaram Pillai and one tIndia's greatest freedom fighters, the function was attended by his dear and near ones.

Extremely unassuming, down to earth and guileless, he possessed limitless patience and tolerance and was never heard getting upset or complaining about anything or critical of anybody in life (despite suffering personal tragedies and innumerable privations throughout - he lost his sickly mother when he was very young and it seems the only time he saw his parents together was at his mother's death bed).

Darwin's "Adapt or..." was practised by him with right earnestness and like the "Boy on the ...deck" (Casabianca), he cherished the foremost value contained therein.