He did not inherit any paternal property, for his father was only a small time worker in a steel plant. The only thing his father left for him was a Himalayan responsibility to look after the siblings he left behind. Without any property or regular income but seven mouths to be fed along with a widowed mother, life was not easy for the young boy who in the midst of abject poverty was trying hard to conquer hunger without any reflection of it on the face. Poverty was written everywhere on the walls. Neither had he had a decent pair of dress not his mother had a spare saree to dress up for any social event. All that the family had was the money the company gave them at the sudden demise of his father working in the company. The money just vanished with the marriage of the eldest daughter of the family, then there was a big vacuum for each one of the family.    

children in the houses of their relatives despite being half paid and half fed. From here young Samanta learned the art of living by work. The fasting he is now undertaking twice a week even today perhaps his ode to his bygone days.

Adversities sometimes make people strong enough to combat difficulties. Acute poverty did not allow Samanta’s mother to burn kerosene for his study lessons. In absence of kerosene, there was no study at night. It was difficult to keep pace with the lessons hence before the examination; Samanta had to stay in the Headmaster’s house for some days to make up the lost grounds. The result used to be a high percentage of marks because determination to win over adversities made Samanta to forge ahead.

The four year toddler grew up to face the world outside. It was very courageous for him to go all by himself to get enrolled in the school. Without proper dress or the school fees to pay, he impressed his teacher by his intelligence and interest to study to get an exemption from paying the fees. Slowly but steadily Samanta was inching towards his goal of being educated first. His determination was on his side and his strong will to succeed fetched him the merit scholarship to study further. From the village school to a high school sixteen kms. away was not easy to commute everyday.

All that he had in 1992 from his savings was a paltry sum of US $100. With the help of some like minded friends and guidance of an elderly person, he ventured out to walk the path, angels feared to tread. The tremendous will-power, the self-confidence and the unquestionable integrity for a cause made him to give up the teaching job in the college and to work for the society. The commitments he made to himself and the will to stand as a solid rock beside the needy forced him to forego his personal comfort that might have come from his teaching job. He was a Madan Mohan Malaviya in the making to give Odisha – the poorest state of the union, the first ever state of the art university, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) in the private sector. He literally had to beg like a fakir for setting up an institution of repute. He was even hailed as Madan Mohan Malaviya who created Benaras Hindu University without a penny in his pocket, of Odisha by the Union Minister of Human Resource Development, Government of India. His success in establishing KIIT with a meager capital of US $100 belied the notion that world class institution can only be created by opulence. What was just a beginning way back in 1992 has now grown substantially to be one of the finest universities of the country to be ranked 16th nationally.

The transformation of one roomed ITI with 12 students to a world class university with more than 16,500 students in 15 fully convergent campuses spreading over 350 acres of prime land speaks for itself. With the membership of Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU), University Mobility of Asia Pacific (UMAP), International Association of University (IAU), Association of Indian Universities (AIU), International Institute of Education (IIE) and MoUs signed with more than 50 universities across the world, KIIT has proved itself as a class of its own offering courses in Engineering, Management, Bio-Technology, Law, Medical Science and many more innovative curriculums to suit to the growing demands of competitive world. Anybody would have reaped the fabulous revenue from the university but Samanta is a man who always has a predilection for doing something better for the people and the society at large even at the cost of his own comfort. This is perhaps one side of Samanta’s persona which can be bracketed under the caption ‘Social Entrepreneur par Excellence’, a fact already been acknowledged by Social Edge, an offshoot of the Skull foundation which placed himamongst chosen social entrepreneurs of the world. Samanta’s ability to make a turn around of the economy surrounding KIIT and providing direct and indirect employment to thousands of people has surprised even the most dynamic economists.The greatest achievement and the most satisfying of all is definitely Samanta’s effort in creating a level playing field for the most neglected, underprivileged tribals living outside the ‘civilized’ world waiting for untimely death either coming to them through deprivation of the minimum food or by denial of basic necessities by the unscrupulous money lenders and marginalization because of their ignorance.

The sufferings caused by the abject poverty reminded Samanta, his days of hardship when his mother had to take up odd jobs to make both the ends meet for her seven children. Samanta has the most unique quality of turning his sufferings into advantages. His heart was bleeding for the poor and the uncared for. He strongly believed that hunger, malnutrition, ignorance of resource utilization and exploitation can be successfully dealt with empowerment through education and provision for sustainability. His conviction that ‘illiteracy causes poverty and literacy drives it away’ made him to establish ‘Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS). The small school with just 125 tribal children in 1993 has now grown into the largest free residential institution for the tribal children of Asia.The small school started with just 125 tribal children in 1993 has now grown into the largest institution of Asia for Sixteen Thousand Five Hundred tribal children culled from the poorest of the poor tribal families living in small hamlets inside the jungles away from the ‘civilized’ world. It might occur to someone as to why did Samanta chose to work for the tribals. The reply lies in understanding what really the term ‘tribe’ means in Indian context. These indigenous people constituting 8.2% of the country’s population and nearly 25% of Odisha’s population living in one-third of the inhabitable area of the state continue to live in abject poverty because of geographical isolation and backwardness both in social and economic fronts. Apart from illiteracy, they are victims of health hazards, physical and mental exploitation. Even after sixty five years of independence, they still are deprived of basic facilities and privileges accorded to others in the country despite Constitutional guarantee and safeguard.

It was not an easy task to lure the children to the school because the tribals always believed that an extra pair of hands means some extra income. Continuous persuasion and motivation yielded the desired result and the tribal parents still skeptical about the outcome and motives of Samanta, reluctantly sent their children to KISS, to find their children being provided with food, accommodation, healthcare and education from Kindergarten to Post Graduation (KG to PG) absolutely free. These children of nature slowly but steadily got transformed to become the assets of the society instead of liabilities as they were thought to be. Education and training to earn while still learning instilled confidence in them to become useful citizens of the country. Ultras no longer could tempt those taking advantages of their poverty and hunger. KISS successfully put a halt to the menace of tribal children joining the disruptive forces. More and more children are now turning to education, for they have understood how important is education to drive their sufferings away. As a result of this realization, the perennial problem of ‘drop out’ has come down to zero. How prophetic was Samanta’s conviction can be judged from the increasing number of students applying to study in KISS. In order to deal with the ever increasing number of children coming to KISS, Samanta has decided to open up branches of KISS in almost 30 districts of the state and in some other places outside the state. This pragmatic approach had far reaching effects which found expression in KISS. The children in KISS belong to sixty- two tribes including thirteen Primitive ones speaking as many dialects and following as many customs and traditions. By staying together, the children get used to appreciate each other’s cultural traits, thus giving impetus to national integration. Besides, KISS fulfills some very important segments of Vision 2020 which explicitly states of a ‘Nation where education is not denied to any meritorious candidate because of societal or economic discrimination’. KISS has been doing exactly this besides trying to alleviate poverty and doing away with illiteracy and crime against women. Among other things, KISS has been successful in putting a halt on the age old practice of child marriage prevalent in tribal society. Since most of the children in their teens have shown interest in education, they refrain from getting married thus making their society free from this social evil. Similarly successfully trying to alleviate poverty in a sizable section of population, Samanta through his efforts has made every planners to think with awe.

Government of India. His concern for underprivileged and his efforts for a disease free world made him an Executive Member of Indian Red Cross Society, Odisha chapter. Neither the Humanitarian Award by Gandhi Remembrance Organization in South Africa nor the WISE award selection by Qatar Foundation nor even the conferment of Doctorate Degree by Cambodia National University could change Samanta, who despite all his charisma continues to live in a rented house like a fakir. His simple living, down to earth personality speaks about his character.

Still a bachelor, Achyuta Samanta is definitely unknown to the script writers and the Forbes reporters despite being fabulously rich yet without a bank account in his name. How could a man in his early forties become so rich and yet so poor is still an enigma to most. It looks almost impossible for a man born poor in a non-descript village of Odisha – the poorest state in India to climb the ladder to reach the pinnacle of glory without any financial or influential Godfather to back him. Establishment of KIIT to finance KISS as its Corporate Social Sector Responsibility is incredible indeed by any standard.

It is amazing that while the world sets for the Millennium Development Goal and each country works to come nearer to it, Samanta in his own humble way is working relentlessly to achieve it. Eradication of poverty and hunger tops the agenda of MDG and Samanta has been trying to do that with success. In the direction of achieving Universal Primary Education, Samanta is forging ahead through KISS. Similarly through KISS, some degree of environmental sustainability and improvement in material wealth had been achieved for the tribals.  

We need intellectuals and transformative activists who can articulate and precipitate a social movement. The cascading crisis that the society and the world is experiencing only underlines more emphatically the need to find new ways of redefining ourselves and understanding our problems, before we can begin to respond to the situation. Samanta is definitely the most befitting and charismatic activist, the world is in need of. World needs people like him who could bear the burden of a staggering loan of 3 billion Rupees not for his comfort but for transforming the world. He still lives in two pairs of trousers, couple of cotton shirts and in a rented house with a bag ready to be on move for getting something extra for his cause. Samanta reminds everyone what Gandhiji did for the country. The half clad fakir changed the course of history. He could be the ruler but he preferred to be remaining poor but by that he could create a place for himself in the hearts of the millions of people around the world. Samanta could have led the life of luxury but he preferred to stay poor but at the same time become rich enough in getting the self-satisfaction and blessings of millions of people around.

Samanta’s life despite being an open book still appears to be enigmatic. At one point of time when his loan burden was unbearable, he even thought of attempting suicide but he could manage to hang around only through his strong will-power and determination. He is perhaps the embodiment of a successful and a versatile man who never ever did let others to know the pain he had to bear in bringing cheers to the millions suffering from poverty, hunger and ignorance. The journey he started at four is still not half way, he believes even after four decades. Today when looking hindsight, one could know how calculative he was even during his penury. He had the strong yearning to serve the poorest of the poor but he did see no future in begging to achieve his goal. Samanta had rich relatives but nobody ever gave him anything free. He had to do al the menial jobs for them to get only a part of what he deserved. This hard fact made him to be strong. He knew he had to arrange money to give a concrete shape to his ideas. He founded KIIT but he did not enjoy the opulence rather he used the money to keep KISS going and going the way, he once envisaged.  With age in his side Samanta, now in his forties has vowed to work for another few decades or at least till he is physically fit for the tribals and the down trodden in the society. His life from penury to opulence for others makes him an inimitable human being. He has many more plans up to his sleeves, which he would translate before ‘he sleeps’, for he has ‘miles to go’