Seshadri's research efforts in the group are focused on the theme of developing structure – composition – property relations in functional inorganic materials. His contributions include the development of solvothermal routes for a variety of inorganic nanomaterials, understanding the role that lone pairs of non-bonding electrons play in inducing polar and ferroic (including multiferroic) behavior, understanding the effects of structural topology in frustrating phase transitions in polar compounds, developing template-free routes to porous and composite inorganic materials, developing new multifunctional magnets, understanding frustrated magnetism, and revealing the importance of oxide-stabilized noble metal ions in oxidation catalysis, with the concurrent development of model compounds thereof. His recent contributions include a better understanding of phosphors for solid-state white lighting, robust thermoelectrics. New initiatives for his group are in the areas of battery and photovoltaic materials and magnetocalorics.