Cuttack: Success has come knocking on the doors of Srinivas Nandi, a student from Maniabandh in Cuttack district, who has now cracked IIT.
Coming from a modest background with his father being a weaver, Srinivas scored nearly 88 percent in the Plus II Science but pursuing higher education emerged as a major hurdle for him.
However, Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) provided wings to Srinivas to achieve his goals through its coaching programme for poor meritorious students called Super 30.
“Though I had dreams, I had no platform. OMC has helped a lot and now I will study Chemical Engineering in IIT Delhi after cracking the JEE Advanced,” said Srinivas.
Not only Srivivas, 75 other students from different parts of Odisha were provided with special JEE advanced coaching while 38 of them made it to IITs and NITs.
“Becoming an IITian is the dream of all engineering aspirants. But due to poor financial condition, I was unable to follow my dreams,” said Manas Pradhan of Sambalpur. But the coaching under OMC's CSR programme helped him.
Manas had secured 94 percent in Plus II Science and is now study Mining Machinery at IIT, Dhanbad
OMC had signed an MOU with the Centre for Social Responsibility and Leadership (CSRL), New Delhi in 2014 to train meritorious yet underprivileged students for free for cracking IIT entrance.
All the students of OMC Super 30 were recently felicitated by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
“OMC has set the right example for other state public sector undertakings (PSUs) to emulate. Let me make an announcement that other state PSUs will also impart similar coaching to 100 more students,” said Patnaik.