Prof (DR) Mukti Mishra, is Co-founder and President of Centurion University of Technology and Management. This is the first multi-sector private state university through legislation of Odisha Legislative Assembly. And the first and only privately managed university in the tribal area of the state. The University has two engineering colleges, two management schools, several industrial training centers, two vocational training institutes, two entrepreneur development institutes, and three high schools.
Centurion University is characterized by: experience based learning; hands-on knowledge; and practice-oriented education. It has a stretch vision: To evolve into a full-scale Skills University by 2020. The challenge: Making 100,000 tribal youth employable and deployable by 2020. The challenge has greater significance because these youth pick up guns when they have no alternative means for employment.
Prof Mishra has had a brilliant track record both as student and teacher. He graduated from Utkal University with an MA in Applied Economics and Public Administration, where he topped his batch. Thereafter, he completed his MBA and PhD from Victoria University of Technology in Australia. After a brilliant career in the corporate sector with Fortune 500 companies, for 15 years, Prof Mishra gravitated to teaching. His teaching career was international. He taught at business schools across Africa, Australia, China, India, Malaysia, and Singapore.
The genius in Prof Mishra felt restricted with the boundaries of academic teaching. He had a larger dream. An original dream. Encouraged by a friend, and in collaboration with this friend, he plunged into edu-entrepreneurship in India’s most challenging geographies. His first step was to acquire an ailing engineering institute, the Jagannath Institute for Technology and Management, and thereafter to transform it into Centurion University of Technology and Management. Results speak eloquently.
Not content with creating a unique University, Prof Mishra created social entrepreneurial outreach entities under the banner Gram Tarang. These entities work directly with communities and link the underprivileged regions to the mainstream market. They support and extend the University’s vision, providing students exposure to a truly entrepreneurial and innovative ecosystem.
We congratulate Prof Mukti Mishra. Our Qimpro Gold Standard 2014 for Education.