Professor Singh's research falls in the area of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, more specifically, asymmetric synthesis. He has been recognized with several awards and honors such as Swarnajayanti Fellowship (1998), Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (2004) and Padma Shri (2014), among others. In addition, he has been elected as a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (FNA), Indian Academy of Sciences (FASc), National Academy of Sciences (FNASc), and The World Academy of Sciences (FTWAS).

Professor Singh has made significant contributions in the management of higher educational institutes and higher education policy for the government. As a Founding Director of IISER Bhopal for more than 10 years (2008-2018), he set up the whole campus from scratch. He has served as the Mentor Director of IISER Berhampur, Director of SPA Bhopal (additional charge) and the Chairman of BoG, NITTTR Bhopal. He also held the additional charge of Directorship of MANIT Bhopal. In 2020, he was awarded a TWAS-CASAREP award for building scientific institutions.