Prof. (Dr.) ManojranjanNayak

A visionary teacher, Prof. (Dr.) Manojranjan Nayak is the Founder President of Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan, a Deemed to be University, which has emerged as one of the top-ranked universities of the country.

Hailing from a remote village in coastal Odisha, Prof. (Dr.) Nayak did his B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from the Regional Engineering College (presently NIT), Rourkela and M.Tech in Computer Science from IIT, Kharagpur. A brilliant and passionate teacher, he worked as a faculty in the College of Engineering and Technology under Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar for a few years. But his dream was to set up an institution of excellence to impart quality professional education to students of Odisha.

Prof. (Dr.) Nayak, who did his doctorate from the OUAT, soon quit his job to chase his dream by establishing Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (SOA) in 1995.

The Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER) was launched by SOA in 1996. It had a modest beginning but has since grown to be one of the best engineering colleges in the east.

Prof. (Dr.) Nayak subsequently set up several other institutions imparting education in management, hospitality and tourism management, nursing, pharmaceutical sciences, dental sciences and medical sciences. It was on July 17, 2007 that the University Grants Commission (UGC) conferred on SOA the status of a Deemed to be University under section 3 of the UGC Act.

Three more institutions imparting education in legal studies, agricultural sciences and veterinary sciences and animal husbandry have come up under SOA since then.

Ranked 15th in the country by NIRF in 2025, the university was re-accredited with A++ by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) in 2022.

Prof. (Dr.) Nayak also runs a media house which publishes The Prameya, the largest circulated vernacular daily in the state, and runs News7, an Odia television news channel.