Manikandan has pursued all his post-school degrees at Loyola College, Chennai. Currently, he is doing his Ph.D. in the same college and had submitted his thesis. He is known as a professional social worker who is working in the field of mental health since April 2009 and in the year 2016 he also added a CSR profile in his career. He is currently taking care of the CSR activities of Vikatan Group of Companies which is known for its famous Tamil weeklies Ananda Vikatan and Junior Vikatan.Apart from this, he serves as a Subject Expert in the Board of Studies at SDNB Vaishnav college for women since 2014Manikandan has also served as an Expert member in the community advisory board of the National Institute of research in tuberculosis, ICMR, Chennai since 2011.Right from 2009, he has guided more than 100 students nationally and internationally as field work supervisor.