Five eminent personalities from Odisha will 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. The event will be attended by Vice president Venkaiah Naidu.

The award will be given 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.

Dr. Bijaya Kumar Sahoo

A former chartered accountant, Dr. Bijaya Kumar Sahoo is promoter-chairman of the Bhubaneswar (Odisha)-based SAI International Group. The group comprises two schools including the SAI International School, Bhubaneswar — ranked Odisha’s #1 day-cum-boarding school in the EW India School Rankings 2019-20 — and a preschool and college with a total enrolment of 5,260 students and 756 teachers. Dr. Sahoo is also a special advisor with the ministerial rank of the Odisha Adarsha Vidyalaya Sangathan discharging the mission of promoting 314 CBSE English-medium government schools in every block of Odisha.

Justice Sanju Panda

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. She has 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).

Dr. Ajit Kumar Mohanty

Dr. Ajit Kumar Mohanty took over as the Director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in March 2019. A well-known nuclear physicist, he 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. Later, he then joined the Nuclear Physics Division of Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) and later on obtained a Ph.D. degree from Bombay University.

Shaktikanta Das

A retired IAS officer, Shaktikanta Das assumed charge as the 25th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India from December 2018. Earlier, he was also the acting Member of the 15th Finance Commission and G20 Sherpa of India. He 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). 

Girish Chandra Murmu

Girish Chandra Murmu is the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. He was the first Lieutenant-Governor of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. He is also the chairman of the United Nations Panel of External Auditors and was the Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir till August 2020.

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