I was struggling to get two square meal a day but now I am able to feed lakhs of people – Achyuta Samanta

ENARADA, Bangalore, September 8, 2013:

The veteran in the field of Education and Social Service, Dr. Achyutananda Samanta has disclosed his struggle in establishing KIIT & KISS.

In an interview with LokSabha TV , today, he said that though he was not born with silver spoon, he is able to feed lakhs of people (including children in different schools, staff and other underprivileged persons across India) due to divine arrangement.

Dr Achyutha Samantha – the harbinger of education revolution in Odisha

“Poverty creates illiteracy and literacy removes poverty” – this is the punch line used by Dr Achyutananda Samantha, an educationist and social service activist to bring about a revolution in the field of education in Odisha.   Having realized that education   can be the harbinger of social change by empowering individuals, Dr.A. Samanta  has singlehandedly shouldered the onerous responsibility of ushering in this revolution in education.

Dr Achyutha Samanta  is the founder of   Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT), a multi-disciplinary university having more than 25 professional courses established in 1993.  KIIT has student strength of over 21,000 from across the globe.  He is also the founder of Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) which has student strength of about 20,000 neglected and deprived tribal children making it the largest fully free residential tribal institute in the world.  This institute provides accommodation, food, healthcare, education to the tribal children from Kindergarten to Post Graduation, thus empowering them to face the outside world on completion of their education.

From a humble beginning in 1993 with only 125 students and Rs. 5000 in his pocket Dr Samanta laid the foundation for KIIT in a two-room rented house.  Today KIIT has emerged as a gigantic institution which has succeeded in attracting the attention of the world for its quality of education and for ushering in a new wave of revolution in the education field in Odissa.

It was through sheer dedication, devotion and determination  that Dr Achuyta was able to  give wings to his dreams of providing  inspiration and opportunity to   thousands of deprived students to empower themselves through education and help them come out of the shackles of poverty.  From its humble beginning KIIT has emerged as one of the largest educational conglomerates in Bhubaneshwar within a short span of two decades.

Coming from a humble background Dr Achytha Samanta knew what poverty and hunger was and wanted to give a reprieve from poverty to the tribal children of Odisha.  Having lost his father at a young age of four his widowed mother had to take care of seven siblings and there were days when he could not afford full meal even once in two days.  He went on to do his M.Sc (Chemistry) and Ph.d in social science from Utkal University in Bhubaneshwar.    A strong believer in destiny Dr Achyuta Samanta, who had spent his childhood in hunger and poverty, is today feeding lakhs of students at KISS and does not want poverty to be a hindrance to those aspiring to achieve greater heights.

The academic excellence of KIIT and through his untiring efforts to empower underprivileged tribal children of Odisha through KISS, Dr Achyuta had created ripples in Odisha in the field of education.  The institution’s achievements and excellence got wider recognition when Government of India granted it the full-fledged university status in 1994.  With this KIIT became one of the youngest universities in India thus etching its name in the Limca Book of World Records.  With that Dr Achyuta Samanta became the youngest Chancellor of the University at the age of 38.

KIIT University has been able to make its presence felt both on the national and international scene.  Today it has collaborations with more than 75 universities of the world, 30 universities among the top 500 universities and has made a mark in the global level in the field of education.  Today KIIT University ranks one among the top 15 Universities of India and 4th best among the self-financed universities in the country.    While KIIT is a self-financed university, KISS is run based on the goodwill earned through KIIT.  About 1200 students of KISS (5%) are educated free of cost because Dr Achyuta believes that “half education if more harmful than no education”.

KIIT does not focus only on academic excellence.   The university has a world class Rugby team which has brought laurels to the country by winning international tournaments.   It only demonstrates that given the right kind of training and atmosphere to blossom children can excel both in academics and sports.

Despite achieving name and fame Dr Achyuta still remains the simple and down-to-earth person that he is.  He is a bachelor who stays in a two-room rented house because he believes that he cannot afford personal possessions based on public money of KIIT University.   He says that he remained single because by doing so he is able to devote his full attention for the wellbeing of his twin babies KIIT and KISS.   Kiss has more than 20 branches in Odisha and recently it has opened one branch in Delhi also.  He has plans to expand KISS in a big way with the tangible idea of alleviating poverty.

Having experienced what poverty is all about   Dr Achyuta Samanta  says if at all there is rebirth he wants to be born with enough resources  in his next life so that he does not have  to struggle for money to run the institutions he has set up. As of now he says he spends more than 50% of his time in collecting funds for his institution.  If this need his met, he says he will be able to pay more attention to progress of the University.

Achyuta Samantha is truly a revolutionary, a visionary, an educationist and social service entrepreneur but with a difference.   He has made difference to the lives of hundreds and thousands of tribal students    through his institutions.  A visionary that he is, he leads a simple life and leads by example.  His rags to riches   success story from being a poverty-ridden child to the one who provides a platform for students to escape from poverty, is worthy of emulation.