Dr. S.K. Dash (Sita Kantha Dash) is a globally recognized scientist, visionary, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is a founder of the probiotics industry worldwide and has made it his life’s mission to research and promote the benefits of probiotics. Dr. Dash established UAS Laboratories, a developer and marketer of innovative probiotic products. Since the company’s founding in 1979, it has become known as a world’s top probiotics company. Dr. Dash has been instrumental in growing the probiotics industry from a $10 million-a-year to a $45 billion-a-year industry, and the field continues to grow at a rapid pace.

Dr. Dash received a Ph.D. in nutrition and biochemistry from South Dakota State University (USA) in 1973. Dr. Dash subsequently furthered his education by earning a Doctor of Science in probiotic research from Utkal University in India.
Prior to establishing UAS Laboratories in 1979, he worked as the director of the Food and Drug for the state of South Dakota.

Over the years, Dr. Dash has utilized his knowledge and experience to author several publications. He wrote “The Consumer’s Guide to Probiotics” and “Health Benefits of Probiotics,” and co-wrote “User’s Guide to Probiotics” and “The Garden Within.” Dr. Dash has also penned more than 40 research articles. Dr. Dash has shared his expertise in adjunct professorship positions at both Minnesota State University and South Dakota State University. He recently established the Dr. S. K. Dash Probiotic & Prebiotic Innovation Center for Excellence and Endowed Professorship at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar (India) and South Dakota State University (USA).

An active philanthropist, Dr. Dash has also been integral in the establishment of several universities, hospitals, schools and orphanages for the needy around the world. He served as a director of Kalinga Hospital in Bhubaneswar, India, director of the Hospital Corporation of Odisha, president of the Odisha Society of Americas, and Chairman of the Kalinga HCO Foundation. Other positions that Dr. Dash has held include director of the International Probiotics Association, Chairman of the Hindu Society of Minnesota, director of the India Association of Minnesota, and founder and chairman of the Dr. Dash Foundation (USA). He is the founder of the SKBET center in IIT Bhubaneswar. He is actively participating to promote the Jagannath culture across the globe. He inspires to work innovatively for the mankind and is a role model and hero for millions of youths across the
globe.

Dr. Dash has received numerous national and international awards for his accomplishments in the fields of probiotics, science, technology, and philanthropy, including being recognized as Distinguished Man of the Year. Other honors include, but are not limited to the Lifetime Achievement Award from the State of Minnesota (USA) in 2018, distinguished Odiya award from the President of India in 2017, the Distinguished Alumni Award from South Dakota State University in 2014, and the 2010 Probiotic Award from Frost & Sullivan, India Association of Minnesota (USA) Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009, Odisha Society of the Americas in 2000 and the Outstanding Man of the Year by the Hindu Society of Minnesota in 1998.

Dr. S.Ramaratnam is the Vice Chancellor Designate of Jagadguru Kripalu University (JKU), Odisha. He has more than 50 years of experience in the field of academics and has worked as Director and Principal of various Colleges and Institutions. Prior to joining Jagadguru Kripalu University he was the Vice Chancellor for Sri Sri University. He was also a visiting Professor to Oxford University and the University of Mauritius.
 
Dr. Ramaratnam is a Ph.D. in Sanskrit and a D.Litt. His yearning for knowledge led him to earn an M.A. in Philosophy and Psychology, M.B.A. and M.Phil. in Management. His versatility can be gauged from the fact that he also has degrees in Mathematics, Education, and Indian Music. He is proficient in eight Indian and foreign languages and has diplomas in German, French, Telegu, Kannada and linguistics. He also holds diplomas in accountancy and taxation, personnel management and computer programming.
 
He is a prolific writer and has authored many books. Some of his popular books are, Sanskrit for Beginners, Raghuvamsa of Kalidasa, Prahasana in Sanskrit Literature, Laghu Bharatam, The Grhyasutras-a socio religious cultural study, Kalasala Pathamala, Research Methodology in Sanskrit, The Vithi and the Vithyangas, The Bodhayana Grhyasutra – a study, Hinduism, A handbook of Sanskrit quotations and Fundamentals of Management Principles in Sanskrit Literature.
 
Dr. Ramaratnam has presided over national and international conferences in several countries and has hundreds of publications to his name. He is also a scriptwriter, lyricist, conductor of quiz programmes, actor, director and dialogue writer for various plays that have been telecast on All India Radio and Indian television.
 
He has received various awards and has been conferred titles of Bharata Kala Nipuna, Sahitya Vallabha, Samskrta Ratna and Kala Sastra Paarangata. He has also been a keen sportsman, winning more than fifty prizes in Cricket, Table Tennis, Badminton, Carrom, Chess, etc.

Dr. Ajit Kumar Tripathy is a retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 1973 batch. He was the Chief Secretary of Odisha from 2006-2009. He has also served as the State Election Commissioner, State Development Commissioner, Additional Chief Secretary and revenue board member for the Govt. of Odisha.

Dr. Tripathy was a bright student and stood fourth in the state board matriculation exam in 1964. Thereafter, he completed his graduation, post-graduation, and Ph.D. in Political Science from Utkal University, Bhubaneswar. He worked as a Lecturer for some time and as a provisional officer in State Bank of India before joining the Administrative Service.

Along with his exemplary service in the field of administration, Dr. Tripathy has been equally active in the field of Historical Research and Literature. He has done extensive research on the birthplace of Gautam Buddha and has concluded that Buddha was born in Kapileswara, a village in Bhubaneswar in Odisha and not in Kapilavastu, Nepal. He has written several books, some among them are Chuti, Parajita Kalidasha, Akuhaa Itihaas, Gotie Nadi Duiti Dhaaraa, Satya o Ardhasatya, Sakala Nischaya Asiba and Shrimad Bhagavad Gita Bani in Odiya. In English, he has authored Goutam Buddha & Kalinga, Birth Place of Jayadeva, and Meghaduta of Kalidas in poetic form. Dr. Tripathy has also translated several books into Hindi, Odiya and English. 

Swami Mukundananda is a world-renowned authority on Yoga, Spirituality and Mind Management Techniques. He is a senior disciple of Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj and a unique sanyasi (in the renounced order of life), who has a distinguished technical and management education from IIT Delhi and IIM Calcutta.

He is the founder of a unique Yogic System called JKYog, also known as Yoga for the Body, Mind and Soul. Swamiji is a captivating speaker whose discourses are attended by thousands of people in India and abroad. His lectures are very popular on the social media as well.

He is frequently invited to speak at various premier institutes of the world such as MIT, Yale, Stanford, Kellogg, Princeton, etc, and Fortune 500 companies such as Google, Oracle, Intel, Yahoo, American Airlines, etc.

Swamiji has written several books on various subjects including Yoga, Art of Mind Management, Healthy Diet, and The Bhagavad Gita, which are extremely popular as they are easy to understand. Swamiji is very approachable and his pleasing personality has won the love and respect of hundreds of thousands of followers across continents.

Mr. Harish Rangacharya is a serial entrepreneur who has taken Entrepreneurship as a profession immediately after passing out with a top rank from IIT, Madras.  He is the founder director of Cadsys (India) Limited an Engineering company that is listed in NSE. Under his leadership the company has seen remarkable growth year after year and has consistently gone up the value chain through innovative approaches and number of strategic acquisitions. Over the last 31 years he has promoted 6 other companies that have operations in India, Middle East, Australia and North America. He has been the lead architect in building the software products of these companies some of which include Concord ProTM , ProWorksTM, DataWorks. 

He is recipient of “Entrepreneur of the year” award in 2004 which is instituted by Entrepreneurship Development Institute, Government of India, recognizing and appreciating his exceptional entrepreneurial capabilities. He is also in receipt of number of other awards including Best IT company from Hyderabad Software Exporters Association, Best SME award from Dun and Bradstreet, Best Indian IT company award from National Productivity Council etc. He is the member of Board of Governors of TREC-STEP one of the India’s leading Incubation Centers set up by Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.

Mr. Harish has a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering and Master of Technology in Civil Engineering from IIT, Chennai.

Shri Madhusudan Mishra is an ingenious retired IAS officer of the 2005 batch. He was Additional secretary to Govt of Home Department (2019 – 2020). He has also served as Collector and DM Nayagarh (2013 – 2014), Collector and DM Boudh (2014 – 2018) and Collector & DM Sonepur (2018 – 2019). He has completed his graduation from Utkal University, Post Graduation from Delhi University and MPhil from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Initially, he joined as a lecturer, then in state civil service and ultimately in Indian Administrative Services.

During 33 years of service, he has served in many different roles and capacities including Private Secretary to Government Chief Whip in the Odisha Legislative Assembly (2000-2004), Under Secretary Science & Technology Department, Government of Odisha (2004-2008), Private Secretary to Honourable Speaker of the Odisha Legislative Assembly (2009-2012), and Director of Rehabilitation & Resettlement, Department of Water Resources, Government of Odisha (2013-2014).

Mr Mishra is passionate about growing and improving education in India, empowering women, social upliftment of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), and the Panchayatraj. He believes in working from the grassroot level to bring about successful, scalable, and sustainable change in society. With this philosophy as the foundation of his thought process, he has consistently been awarded by the Odisha Government for his various initiatives to improve the livelihoods of the villages and districts he served.

In the field of Administration, he has contributed extra ordinary service with utmost perfection for better delivery of public service. As an Addl Secy of Home Department he was the pioneer in processing of online application for delivery of fire safety certificate. He has also conducted simultaneous general elections 2014 in Nayagarh district as Collector & DM although this district was affected by left wing extremist activities. For this, he had received letter of appreciation from the then incumbent Chief Electoral Officer, Odisha.

During his tenure as Collector and DM Sonepur and Boudh the Railway infrastructure project, construction of District Headquarter Hospital and MCH were his major contributions. These districts also received Kaya Kalpa award from the State Government for outstanding work in health sector. The model created by him for payment of old age pension was highly appreciated by the state government. These districts were also awarded by the state government in the field of breaking the tradition of child marriage and providing the best facilities to PwDS. A lot of commendable works were also done in the field of health, education, communication, agriculture, irrigation, public distribution system, poverty eradication, employment opportunity, skill development, rural and urban housing, land to the homeless people, SBM, citizen centric administration and implementation of 5Ts and online application of almost all public services and delivery of service at the doorstep.  In 2017 – 18, due to his sincere efforts, Boudh district was selected for National award for MGNREGS and it was conferred at New Delhi by the Honourable Central Minister.

Last but not the least, in Sonepur District, the simultaneous general election 2019 was also conducted peacefully during his tenure. Besides, this district was awarded at the state level for student saving scheme and for considerable reduction of malaria in the district. At present, Shri Mishra is also continuing as honorary guest faculty and resource person in Gopabandhu Academy of Administration, Madhusudan Institute of Accounts and Finance, Revenue Officers’ Training Institute and Secretariat Training Institute, Bhubaneswar to impart training to the newly recruited officers.

Dr. Satyavrat Shastri is a world-renowned personality in the field of education and Sanskrit with more than 40 years of teaching experience. He was the Vice-Chancellor of Shri Jagannath Sanskrit University, Puri, Odisha, Head - Department of Sanskrit and Dean - Faculty of Arts for the University of Delhi.

He was the visiting professor to many universities in India and abroad. Dr. Shastri has chaired numerous national and international conferences and has delivered several lectures across the globe.

He has received thirty-eight national and international awards, prominent among them are the Bharatiya Jnanpith Award, Padma Shri, Sahitya Academy Award, President of India Certificate of Honour, the Shiromani Sanskrit Sahityakar Award from the Govt. of Punjab and the Visista Samskrita Sahitya Puraskar from the Uttar Pradesh Sanskrit Academy.

Dr. Shastri is an acclaimed writer. He has authored three Mahakavyas of about a thousand stanzas each in Sanskrit, three Khandakavyas, one Prabandhakavyas and one Patrakavya. Among his works in critical writing the most notable is, "The Ramayana - A Linguistic Study." He has also written over a hundred research articles. 

Shri Shiv Kumar Sharma is an Educationalist and a Social Entrepreneur. He has over 30 years of experience working with top MNCs in India in the field of Telecom Networks, Information Technology and Management.

He is presently working with the Govt. of India and with various leading Universities and Institutions on skill development projects for youth, enhancing employability, nurturing entrepreneurship and woman empowerment through vocational education and training.
 
Shri Shiv Kumar is an M.Sc. (Maths), Bachelor in Electronics and Telecommunication (AMIETE), M. Tech. (Computer Science) - ALCCS, IETE, Delhi. He has also completed Advanced Diploma in Management from AIMA and IGNOU and One Year Executive Programme in Strategic Management, IIM Calcutta.
 
Shri Shiv Kumar is frequently invited as Guest Faculty by various Universities and Institutions such as Amity University, Aegis School of Telecom Management, Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute of Management and Research, Advanced Level Telecom Training Centre (ALTTC), Ghaziabad, etc. He has published several papers in international and national journals on various topics.

Shri Ramprasad Nanda is a leading industrialist of Odisha. He is a serial entrepreneur with more than three decades of experience in launching businesses and successfully running them.
 
He has a diverse educational background with degrees in Commerce, Law, and Management. Shri Ramprasad is a permanent member of Odisha Small Scale Industries Association, Cost Committee, Cuttack and Bhubaneshwar Management Association, and a member of Utkal Chamber of Commerce.

Along with his successful business ventures, Shri Ramprasad is a keen sportsman, having played Cricket and Badminton at the University level. He is also an active social worker, serving the poor and the underprivileged of Odisha for the past several years.