A meeting to kick start the month long series of events in Odisha to celebrate India’s G20 Presidency was organised on Saturday at Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (SOA) coinciding with ‘Utkal Divas’.

The programs have been designed to make ‘Jan Bhagidari’ a strong element of India’s G20 Presidency ahead of the third Education Working Group meeting to be held in Bhubaneswar from April 27 to 29 to be attended by delegates from G20 countries.

SOA is one of the ten Anchor Institutions chosen in Odisha to organize the events in the state’s 30 districts by holding ‘Jan Bhagidari’ events including quiz contests, essay competitions, debate competitions, seminars and webinars, sports activities, Mock G20, swachhata campaign, food festivals and Yuva Samvad program. Students from schools, ITIs, Polytechnics, colleges, including engineering colleges, and beneficiaries from Jan Shikshan Sansthan would be participating in these events.

SOA has been assigned to organize the programs in the districts of Balangir, Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj.

Addressing the gathering, SOA Vice-Chancellor Prof. Pradipta Kumar Nanda expressed happiness over the organization of the events while assuring the university’s support to the activities.

He also greeted all faculty members, staff and students of the university on the occasion of ‘Utkal Divas’ (Odisha Day) expressing the hope that SOA would carve a niche for itself nationally as an institution known for quality academics and innovative research.

“The university’s uniqueness should be explored and promoted while thrust needs to be given on inter-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary research,” Prof. Nanda, who took over as Vice-Chancellor of SOA yesterday, said.

Prof. Jyoti Ranjan Das, Dean (Students’ Welfare), outlined the ‘Jan Bhagidari’ programs while Prof. Santosh Kumar Rout, Additional Dean of the Institute of Agricultural Sciences, SOA’s faculty of agricultural sciences, proposed the vote of thanks.