Bhubaneswar: Five eminent Odia personalities are going to be conferred with Honorary Doctrin of Literature (D.Litt.) Honoris Causa by the Utkal University on the occasion of its 50th Convocation on April 3.
D.Litt is to be awarded to Odisha Adarsha Vidyalaya Sangathan (OAVS) Adviser-cum-Working President Dr. Bijaya Kumar Sahoo, former Acting Chief Justice of Orissa High Court Justice Sanju Panda, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) Director Dr. Ajit Kumar Mohanty, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das and Comptroller and Auditor General of India Girish Chandra Murmu.
It is worthwhile to mention that Vice president Venkaiah Naidu is scheduled to attend the 50th Convocation of Utkal University.
Dr. Bijaya Kumar Sahoo
A Chartered Accountant-turned-edupreneur Dr. Bijaya Kumar Sahoo had been appointed Adviser to the Odisha Adarsha Vidyalaya Sangathan (OAVS) in 2019. The rank of OAVS Adviser is equivalent to that of a Minister of State.
Sahoo is the Chairman of SAI International School, which was started by him in 2008. He has regularly proved his mettle in the field of education.
In February 2020, he was felicitated with ‘ET Now Business Leader of the Year – Education Entrepreneur’ of the Year, presented by Economic Times in Mumbai. The coveted award was presented by the Spiritual Mentor, Gaur Gopal Das to Dr Sahoo based on his educational and entrepreneurial journey.
He also received the Times Business Award 2020 by Times of India in the same year in recognition to his relentless contribution towards the growth and development of Odisha’s education sector.
Dr Sahoo received the award from Minister of Home, Energy, Industries, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Dibya Shankar Mishra at a grand ceremony held at Bhubaneswar. He also received the Best Play School Award for SAI Angan from eminent Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor.
Justice Sanju Panda
Justice Panda is the first woman judge to be appointed as the Chief Justice of Orissa High Court. She was elevated to the post after Justice KS Jhaveri demitted the office of Chief Justice of the High Court on January 5, 2020.
Having years of experience in Service, Civil, Criminal, Company and Constitutional matter, Justice Panda had started practice in Orissa High Court under the guidance of her father Late Gourhari Panda (Retd. District Judge).
She has conducted cases on behalf of State as Additional Standing Counsel from 1994 to 1995, Standing Counsel for Vigilance (Special Court) in High Court from 1995 to 1996, Additional Standing Counsel for Commercial Tax from 2001 to 2003, Counsel for S.B.I., Utkal University and some of the Public Sector undertaking Corporations.
Justice Panda had been elevated as Judge of the Orissa High Court on March 1, 2007.
Dr. Ajit Kumar Mohanty
Odisha-born renowned scientist Dr. Ajit Kumar Mohanty took over as the Director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) on March 12, 2019.
Dr. Mohanty is a well-known nuclear physicist, who completed his Bachelor’s degree with Physics (Honours) in 1979 from MPC College, Baripada and Master’s degree in Physics in 1981 from Ravenshaw College, Cuttack.
After completion of the training in the 26th Batch of the BARC Training School in 1983, he then joined the Nuclear Physics Division of Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) and later on obtained his Ph.D degree from Bombay University.
Dr. Mohanty has worked in several areas of nuclear physics covering collision energy from sub-Coulomb barrier to relativistic regime. It includes experiment using Pelletron accelerator at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), PHENIX (Pioneering High Energy Nuclear Interaction eXperiment) and CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid Experiment) experiments at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), USA and CERN, Geneva respectively.
In addition to his research achievements, Dr. Mohanty has held several honorary positions which include Secretary and Member Secretary of BRNS Basic Science Committee, General Secretary and later on President of Indian Physics Association (IPA), India-CMS Spokes Person etc to name a few.
Dr. Mohanty has been recipient of numerous awards and recognitions during his illustrious career. He has been recipient of Young Physicist Award in 1988 by the Indian Physical Society, Young Scientist Award in 1991 by Indian Science National Academy and the Homi Bhabha Award for Science and Technology by Department of Atomic Energy Mumbai in 2001. He was also conferred the CERN Scientific Associate position from in 2002-2004 and thereafter again from 2010-2011.
Shaktikanta Das
Retired IAS Officer Shaktikanta Das assumed charge as the 25th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India effective December 12, 2018 after the resignation of Urjit Patel.
Odisha-born Das, was acting as Member, 15th Finance Commission and G20 Sherpa of India prior to his current assignment.
He has vast experience in various areas of governance and has held important positions in the Central and State Governments in the areas of Finance, Taxation, Industries, Infrastructure, etc.
During his long tenure in the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, he was directly associated with the preparation of as many as 8 Union Budgets. Das has also served as India’s Alternate Governor in the World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), New Development Bank (NDB) and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). He has represented India in international fora like the IMF, G20, BRICS, SAARC, etc.
Girish Chandra Murmu
Odisha-born Girish Chandra Murmu assumed office as the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on August 8, 2020.
Prior to this, Murmu was the first Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Before moving to Jammu and Kashmir, he served in various capacities in Government of India such as Secretary of the Department of Expenditure, Special and Additional Secretary in the Department of Financial Services and Department of Revenue, and Joint Secretary in the Department of Expenditure.
Before his tenure at the Centre, Murmu has served on important assignments in the State Government of Gujarat. He has wide experience in administrative, economic and infrastructure fields.
