During the years of World War 2 he was engaged in the development of optical and other instrumentation as the head of an instrumentation research group.

Nikon Instruments is a market leader in optical instrumentation and the only microscope company to manufacture its own glass.

The now-famous Michelson-Morley experiment also influenced the affirmation attempts of peer Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity and special relativity, using similar optical instrumentation.

Tropel became a world leader in customized precision optical instrumentation and is now a division of Corning, Inc.

Located in Dehradun, its primary function is research and development in the field of optical and electro-optical instrumentation.

Its optical instrumentation was developed by André Baranne from the Marseille Observatory.

Manian then founded various other companies Digital Optics Corporation, an optical instrumentation and systems development company, which developed the first three-color laser, film reader/writer system.

He authored or co-authored over 45 papers describing major developments in camera engineering, optical instrumentation and fabrication techniques.

The company became well known as a supplier of high-quality optical instrumentation for scientific laboratories.

Varian still markets a line of optical instrumentation under the Cary brand.