After obtaining bachelor's degree in civil engineering from BHU, Varanasi, India (Presently Institute of Technology, BHU), Dr. Bhatia completed Masters in Structural Dynamics with specialization in Earthquake Engineering from University of Roorkee (Presently Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee). In the initial years of his career, he started teaching structural dynamics to Engineering students. Later, as a UNESCO participant, he moved to the International Institute of Seismology & Earthquake Engineering (IISEE), Tokyo, Japan for Advanced Research in the field of Earthquake Engineering. The Research conducted at IISEE was extended further to obtain PhD degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

After a few years of teaching and research, he joined the industry in 1971. He served Engineers India Limited from 1971-1975, where he was involved in the design of Equipment foundation of variety of machines for Refineries & Petrochemical plants. His designs for selected machineries were vetted by leading consultants from UK and France. This was an important milestone for the company and thereafter all the machine foundation designs in EIL were done in-house only. Later he moved to BHEL to take-up more challenging assignments for Thermal and Nuclear Power Stations. The responsibility grew many folds staring from design of machine foundation, to all aspects related to Structural Dynamics Applications. It is at this company where Dr. Bhatia got exposure to all aspects of dynamics related to variety of machines starting with Rotor Dynamics, Tribology, Vibration, and Failure Investigations etc. At BHEL he spent almost 25 years of his career that has brought him to the forefront of Structural Dynamics. The rich experience of dealing with a broad spectrum of machinery for Thermal power plants, Nuclear & Hydro plants both from the point of view of design and failure investigation has given him an edge to have accumulated host of information and data base with regard to design and field performance of machinery. With the advent of commercial CAE, he had taken-up the initiative to instill CAE simulation in BHEL, and help the company leverage from its benefits. After retirement from BHEL in 1999, Dr Bhatia has been involved in writing book on machine foundation, interface with academia & providing industrial consultancy in this discipline of machine foundation and structural Dynamics.