Anybody would shudder to think about a small boy without food for days together, think about the helplessness of his mother not being able to arrange some food for seven hungry siblings and think about a hapless situation in which his family was thrown to find its own way to survive. This nightmarish childhood of Achyuta Samanta due to the untimely tragic demise of his father when he was only four was perhaps the beginning of his struggle which seems to be continuing till date even after his forty-fifth birthday. The struggle, he started while walking up to the school thinking all the way for creating a better world sans poverty, hunger and ignorance has now been turned into his passion. This passion has remained instrumental in chasing a dream even with an empty stomach and no wonder Samanta despite being born poor in an obscure village in Odisha, one of the poorest states of India could become a catalyst.

The struggle that Samanta started is still on. He still continues to chase the dream. It was his dream, his passion and his obsession that created a world class university from almost nothing.

The paltry sum of just 100 US $, he saved from the tuition he gave while still pursuing his Masters in Chemistry and the salary he received being a Lecturer in a city college was all that he had in 1993. He literally had to beg to make the magnificent, state of the art multi-disciplinary world class KIIT University comparable to any national and international institute of repute. He was hailed for this by non other than the Minister HRD, Government of India as Madan Mohan Malaviya who set up Banaras Hindu University without a penny in his pocket. Establishment of KIIT to provide world class education at an affordable price was meticulously planned with equal mix of entrepreneurship and philanthropy.

The journey he started from his village Kalarabank reminded him of the dusty roads, un-hygienic living condition, and lack of basic amenities. Through his efforts he not only made the village but the whole Panchayat, a cluster of villages, a model one with all provisions of city including a residential High School, a 50 bedded hospital, blacktop roads, electricity and health insurance coverage for all the villagers besides a Post Office, Bank and Police Station. But the unique persona of Samanta is best illustrated in his relentless efforts for creating a level playing field for the most neglected, unprivileged tribals constituting 8% of country’s 1 billion population living outside the ‘civilized world’, waiting for untimely death either coming to them through deprivation or by denials of basic necessities and marginalization due to their ignorance. It is an accepted fact that tribals continue to suffer and even after sixty-five years of independence, despite Constitutional safeguards and the numerous welfare measures undertaken by the government. It is not that the planners lack in sincerity but what seems to be lacking is their experience of being poor.