He had his MSc in Physics and bagged two gold medals from the Utkal University in 1973, one for having topped the list of meritorious candidates and the other for having broken all the previous records. He had added degrees like CAIIB, MBA and Dlit in Post Doctoral Education at the Wharton’s Aresty Business School, Philadelphia. A leviathan among the academicians, a rare administrator, an apostle of oriental ethos and an exponent of the occidental values, a noted management guru at national and international levels, Dr Kailash Chandra Mishra is one of the best brains of our times that the country has produced. Currently engaged in setting up of a spiritually illuminated but a modern Sri Sri University in Odisha, he has lent a Midas touch of gold to the visions of Sri Sri Ravishankar by transforming the savant’s dreams into a reality as its Vice-Chancellor.
He is a member of lal Bahadur Shastri National Memorial Trust Chaired by the Prime Minister. He is the Director (Technical) of Doha Bank Assurance Company, Qatar; strategic advisor to Marsh; collaborative consultant of Mercer for RBI Reserve Management best practices. He was a former Director of lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management and National Insurance Academy preceded by senior incumbencies in ASCI, SPJIMR, World Bank and Bank of India. As a member of the Narasimham Committee for insurance sector reforms, he actively assisted Narasimham as the Chairman of Finance Area at ASCI.
He had also held positions like Advisory Committee Member of IRDA, SEBI Market Development Committee, EPFO for Pension Reforms, RBI for developing benchmark for Foreign Exchange Reserve Management, Ministry of labour for Construction workers, Ministry of Health for RCH Insurance Issues and World Bank for Agricultural and Disaster Risk Management in South Asia, Audit Committee Chairman, Independent Director and Risk Management Committee member of UTI-AMC, Ombudsperson of UTI, Director of UTI Venture Capital ltd., Special invitee equivalent of Board Member of Comptroller and Auditor General as finance sector expert.
Awards and accolades were strewn on his path of progress like roses. He was the recipient of the best citizen of India award from International Biographers’ Association; student speaker of 2005 at the Columbia University and Best Finance Service Skill Developer of the UK and India by UKIERI as Director, National Insurance Academy. He has authored 17 management books, published over 180 papers; is a regular financial columnist in national and international financial dailies and has successfully guided 16 PhD scholars in Management in various universities. His name will go down in the academic history of India as a trendsetter, as a precursor of avant-garde educational changes by infusing new techniques, experimentations, and new vibes in the otherwise moribund educational system of our nation to-day. In an interview to The Pioneer, Dr Mishra spoke to Sugyan Choudhury from his simple but aesthetically unadorned house at Baramunda, Bhubaneswar.
Dr Mishra, could you please tell us how this university came into being under your leadershipIJ
While I was going strong in Delhi, I received a telephone call from Sri Sri Ravishankarji. He asked me, “Can you build up a university of a different genre in your own StateIJ”. Pat came the reply from my side, “I will consider it, sir.” Then he said, “If you feel OK, you come to Bangalore for a discussion.” I went there and Sri Sri Ravishankarji gave out his mind to me and also his vision of the university. I realised that to set up a traditional university in a spiritual ethos in Odisha is a herculean task. As I was deeply engrossed in a great work, I delayed it by six months. Then, a strange thing happened. The Odisha Government, despite helping the university, issued a show-cause notice that why they were going ahead with the programme without necessary approval and adequate infrastructure. Thereafter, I received an SOS to come immediately and to start up the programmes with all necessary clearances. By the time I reached here, already two years had elapsed. Then, I was under pressure from the Government to build up necessary infrastructure within seventy days, failing which the permission would be annulled. I took it as a mission and completed the job by building up ashram like structures at least to begin with one programme. Within this record time, I made available 25,000-ft area of constructed building since I knew that the task before me was Himalayan. The university had to be built in the model of Nalanda and Takhasila with the wisdom of the West and the ethos of the East. I had to operate within this broad mandate. New courses like Management of ancient heritage and temples, Yoga, Naturopathy, Odishi dance and culture, Fine Arts and to create disciplines in nontraditional systems like Osteopathy, Cranio sacral therapy, etc., and again to have modern courses like science, management, architecture, good governance and the like. The mission was to create people who will raise the moral values and the conscience of the nation rather than be the jobseekers only. The greed of the world is destroying the world and not the atom bombs and the hydrogen bombs. Hence, the mission of this varsity was to uplift the moral standards of its students. After completion of the constructed area, I invited the high power committee, which had initially objected to the structure but later on became extra cooperative. Then, I had to open five courses like Management, Fine Arts, Architecture and the like as it was mandatory for obtaining the necessary UGC approval if only five programmes are implemented at a time. I had to obtain clearance from 14 committees before we could start the university in its full swing.
In 2011 when I joined, I took up a programme like Vidya in which I enrolled street urchins, history-sheeters, orphans and gave them in vocational trainings and after their completion they were all placed in l&T Company. Since then, this Vidya course is going on and thousands of students from Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand are getting the benefits. Our course in entrepreneurship is to generate new entrepreneurs. later, Prime Minister Modiji in 2014 endorsed such a programme as startup India and standup India. We have also started courses in agree business, fine arts and culture which are attracting students so much so that the students are joining in full measure and that gladdens us all. You will be happy to know that I have assembled international looking faculties inviting them from Delhi, Australia and from Harvard. A new course on master of good governance has been introduced. I have collected data from the Harvard School of Governance, Kennedy School of Governance, from Manchester and something from Africa and this is a wonderful course with innovations that will create good citizens in the world.
Our students are adopting villages for electrification, economic upliftment, for social development under rural development programme. Besides, we have programmes like art of living, upanayan, satsang, sadhana, shanty which a student partakes for an integrated development in his life. We not only provide innovative courses but provide our students innovative life styles. In this way, our university aims at holistic development of our student’s life by developing their physical, mental, vital, aesthetic and spiritual life.
How is your university different from othersIJ
Our university is intense in infusing students with the best of the East and with the best of the West. Shri Acharya Shankar had also categorised that education must go on the line of prameya and pramath,i i.e,. to determine the needs of the society and to provide such people to the society to validate their education. Today, our varsities are first producing personnel and then trying to find out if these human resources could be employed. We are moving along the line of ours ancient wisdom and as per the needs of our society today.
What’s your message to academicians to improve the quality of higher educationIJ
I can borrow an idea from Tagore and say a candle cannot light another candle unless it burns itself. Similarly, teachers cannot ignite the students’ minds unless they themselves are students. They must know they are the facilitators, not the tutors. They must know that sometimes students can excel them in certain areas. Hence, it is the time for infusing their minds with new ideas, knowledge and wisdom. All sorts of nepotism in universities should end and students be allowed greater participation. The way the honoris causas are distributed reveals that nepotism is being carried out in broad daylight and that should be protested.