Bhubaneswar, July 18: Quality education, healthcare and focused research being its maxim, the
Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Deemed to be University (SOA) here has completed 18 years of its existence
while aiming to be counted as one of the country’s top notch institutions of excellence in future.
Ranked 14 th in the country among institutions of higher education in India by the National
Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in 2024, SOA is a Category I university governed by the
University Grants Commission (UGC), its Vice-Chancellor Prof. Pradipta Kumar Nanda said while
addressing the Foundation Day program on Friday.
SOA had come into existence on July 17, 2007 when the Education Ministry had conferred on it
the status of a Deemed to be University under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956.
From a humble beginning, SOA had traversed a long distance with focus on research as 115 of its
projects were being funded by the government, Prof. Nanda said adding it had set up 18 inter-
disciplinary research centres and 60 laboratories to facilitate the work.
Dr. Debasis Dash, Director of the Institute of Life Sciences, Bhubaneswar, who graced the
occasion as the chief guest, said after 18 years of existence it was time for SOA to introspect as to what
it should be known for.
SOA should think of a project in which researchers from health sciences, engineers and life
scientists should collaborate to create a data base for which inter-disciplinary collaboration was
required, Dr. Dash said.
“You have to do it on an international level and the entire country will look at SOA for this,” he
said.
Dr. Dash said that researchers should take up projects which were more relevant to the society
requiring integration between disciplines.
Prof. Nanda said SOA’s aim was to attain excellence in whatever it did while contributing to the
society.
“Researchers at SOA had developed simple economical and innovative pharmaceutical
formulations to treat different chronic medical conditions for which the Deemed to be University had
signed technology licensing agreement with the National Research Development Corporation of the
Ministry of Science and Technology,” he said adding two of the products had been commercialized.
Research publications, which numbered around 300 a few years ago had risen to 15,800 at
present, Prof. Nanda said while stating that 300 Ph.D researchers were getting enrolled every year.
Already a name to reckon with in the healthcare sector, SOA had come forward to battle the
Covid-19 pandemic and help the state government run five stand alone Covid hospitals in Odisha
deploying its own doctors, nurses and paramedics to treat patients.
The university had been appointing adjunct professors drawn from top notch universities of the
country in different subjects, the Vice-Chancellor said adding “we take the resolve to grow and aim to
be among the top ten universities of the country.”
The program, conducted by Prof. Jyoti Ranjan Das, Dean (Students’ Welfare), was also addressed
by Prof. (Dr.) Ashok Kumar Mahapatra, eminent neuro surgeon and Principal Advisor (Health Sciences)
of SOA, Prof. Anup Kumar Samantaray and Prof. Prasanta Kumar Patra, both Pro-Vice Chancellors and
Prof. Manjula Das, Controller of Examination. Prof. Debajyoti Das, Dean, SOA’s School of
Pharmaceutical Sciences, proposed the vote of thanks.
SOA TURNS 19, AIMS TO CONTRIBUTE MORE TO THE SOCIETY: VC
