Sanjeev, as he is known to acquaintance, took his early education from Vidya Mandir at Aligarh. In the same town, he joined HB Inter College for his secondary education. He was at Aligarh Muslim University till 1984 when he passed out MSc (Geology) with a University medal.
Mr Varshney purused his initial career in research. He worked on diagentic aspects of siliciclastsics, mainly sandstone and other associated Siwalik sediments. He is particularly interested in carboate formation in fluvial system. For his research work at Delhi University, he was awarded MPhil (Geology) in 1987. Prior to that, he passed UGC conducted test for Junior Research Fellowship. He was also awarded DN Wadia Fellowship by Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology. Mr Varshney is Life Fellow to the Geological Society of India and Royal Nepal Geological Society. He is also a member of the International Association of Sedimentologists.
He started his career as Lecturer of Geology at Kurukshetra University. Thereafter he joined Ministry of Science & Technology where he worked in different capacities as Senior Scientific Officer - II (1990-1995); Senior Scientific Officer-I (1996-1999); Principal Scientific Officer / Scientist D (2000-2002) and Scientist E / Director (Jan 2003 - Dec 2006), Scientist F / Director 1st Jan 2007- 17th April 2008. He has commenced to work as Counsellor (S&T) with the Embassy of India in Moscow since 21st April 2008.
He is married to Vaishali and has three children, Bhoomika (b. 1993); Neeharika (b.2001) and Siddhartha (b. 2003)