Odisha Living Legend Award conferred on Prof Chitta Baral

Note: A well deserving person. He also played a motivated and crucial role in other initiatives such as Central University in KBK, railway development in backward region of Odisha, Vedanta University, etc. 

Indianeducationdiary, Nov 18, 2012

Report by Debadatta Dash, Bhubaneswar: OdishaDiary (Orissadiary.com) conferred Odisha Living Legend Award 2012 on Prof Chitta Baral. He received the award for his excellent work of policy advocacy as a member of the Odia Diaspora Community.  

 

Health Minister Dr. Damodar Rout, Revenue Minister Surjya Narayan Patro and Energy and IPR Minister Arun Sahoo presented the award to Prof Chitta Baral at a glittering function held at Jaydev Bhawan, Bhubaneswar on 10th November. On behalf of Prof.l Baral his parent received the award. Expressing his views on the occasion, he highly appreciated the effort of OdishaDiary for recognizing extraordinary talents across different fields of the state. 

A Professor at Arizona State University of the United States, Prof Baral is a well-known as a passionate advocate of strengthening education and health in Odisha. As a leading Non-Resident Odia, he has been a strong policy advocate on the issues of development, health, education and cultural heritage. Through his extensive research and advocacy he has been able to influence policy makers in Odisha and India. The National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) and IIT-Bhubaneswar were two such successful campaigns. Chitta's research on NISER and the general neglect of Odisha in higher education matters was presented in the Supreme Court of India and was debated in the Parliament of India. The movement was successful and the institute was established in Odisha. Chitta was also among the leaders in the movement to get an IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) for Odisha. This movement was also successful and Odisha now has an IIT. Few years back, the Odisha government appointed Chitta as a member of its Higher Education Task Force. He was the only member of this task force from outside India. 

Prof. Baral is an active member of the Odisha Society of the Americas and has organized various events and forums in its annual conventions.  Chitta has led a movement (through emails, blogs, phone calls and media campaign) to get attention to the neglected sectors of education and health in the state.  He has inspired many young Odias throughout the globe to take active interest in Odisha’s development. He has set a standard for many NROs to follow the path of policy advocacy.

This award is an acknowledgement of his decade long work as a public intellectual and policy advocate in the cause of Odisha’s development and global reputation.

 

It should be noted that OdishaDiary (www.orissadiary.com), the No-1 web-portal on Odisha is visited by more than fifty thousand visitors daily. OD is the first complete portal on the state of Odisha. OD is designed to reflect on the contributions and concerns of the Odiya people, their language, society, polity, education, health, economy, business and industry, tourism, public grievances, citizen services, inspiring success stories and anything and everything that affects them and has impacts on provincial and national public policy.

 

Through news, views, analyses and interactivity, OD provides readers a composite picture of Odisha. OD is a gate-way for anyone interested in the state of Odisha. More specifically it is useful to the policy makers, investors, researchers, media persons, students, politicians and the common men, the general public as a whole. Orissa Diary (OD) has fast entrenched itself in the lives of a young and dynamic readership on Odisha throughout the globe. Member of Parliament, Prasanna Patasani and MP Rabi Narayan Mohapatra, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of OdishaDiary Mr. Rashmi Ranjan Parida were also present on the occasion.