Prof. Agnihotri has been a career bureaucrat and has served the Government of India and State Government of Odisha in several capacities. Under his initiative, the Government of Odisha had launched a campaign in November 1998 to eliminate severe malnutrition among children. Later he initiated the adoption of the positive deviance approach for tackling child malnutrition. His commitment lies in the area of rapid reduction of child malnutrition, advocacy based on evidence, promote cross-sector collaboration, Renewable Energy and Energy Policy, Gender, Rural development and technology scale-up, Use of Mapping Techniques in social Sector planning and Public Policy. His research on declining sex ratios in India has been approvingly cited by various scholars including Prof. Amartya Sen.