Bhubaneswar, July 17 (Reporterspen): The progress and landmark achievements made by the Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (SOA) Deemed to be University over two decades were recalled with a call to strive for greater success at its 20th Foundation Day here on Friday.
The special day was observed with a tinge of nostalgia four of the former Vice-Chancellors recounted their experiences while expressing satisfaction over the progress made so far.
Prof. (Dr.) Amit Banerjee, Chancellor of SOA, who presided over the program, urged the faculty members, researchers and students to make all efforts to ensure that the university figured among the most developed in another 20 years. “SOA should be counted among the best in the country keeping its tryst with the government’s target to achieve Vikshit Bharat status by 2047,” he said.
Besides Prof. (Dr.) Banerjee, who was the university’s previous Vice-Chancellor, the former VCs who addressed the program included Prof. Mahipal Jain, Prof. Rajendra Prasad Mohanty and Prof. (Dr.) Ashok Kumar Mahapatra. Prof. Pradipta Kumar Nanda, Vice-Chancellor of the university, also addressed the event.
Prof. Nanda, who had worked with most of the previous Vice-Chancellors, said they had steered the university successfully through several difficult situations. “SOA’s USP has been that it faces challenges and always comes out successful,” he said adding SOA had been commended by the University Grants Commission (UGC) as a good performing university. Qualitative research had been the focus of SOA as it had set up 18 state-of-the-art research centers and 60 labs to undertake varied research, the Vice-Chancellor said.
“The time has come for translational and collaborative research and SOA had so far been granted 107 patents of which three had been commercialized”, he said. Prof. Nanda also praised SOA’s Founder President Prof. (Dr.) Manojranjan Nayak for remaining unperturbed in difficult times and standing like a rock which had helped the university to figure among top institutions of higher learning in the country.
Former Vice-Chancellor Padma Shri Prof. (Dr.) Ashok Kumar Mahapatra said at the programme that the visionary approach adopted by SOA Founder President Prof. (Dr.) Manojranjan Nayak towards establishing and promoting technical education in Odisha has become clearly evident over the past 20 years.
He further said that the various medical colleges and hospitals established by SOA have not only strengthened medical education but have also made a significant contribution to the healthcare sector by providing quality medical services and improving access to healthcare.
Prof. (Dr.) Banerjee said the university, which was ranked 15th in the country by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in 2025, had set up the first veterinary hospital in the private sector in eastern India. Research papers and publications generated by SOA were extremely good, he said.
Prof. Mohanty described SOA as a socially inclusive university while underscoring the need to prepare a new vision document and new action plan as pedagogy and modalities of research were changing. He also praised the entrepreneurial spirit of SOA’s Founder President Prof. (Dr.) Nayak.
Prof. Jain underlined the need for developing holistic personality in the students. The program was also addressed by Prof. Bibhuti Bhushan Pradhan, Registrar and Pro-Vice Chancellor. Prof. (Dr.) Neeta Mohanty, Pro-Vice Chancellor, proposed the vote of thanks while the program was conducted by Prof. Jyoti Ranjan Das, Dean (Students’ Welfare).
From a modest beginning as an engineering institute in 1995 which is known as the Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER) today, SOA has grown into a huge university today with 13 different constituent institutions in ten disciplines. The UGC had bestowed on it the Deemed to be University status on July 17, 2007.
