A chartered accountant for whom provision of high-quality K-12 education was his life’s mission, Dr. Bijaya Kumar Sahoo is widely credited for placing the educationally underserved eastern state of Odisha (pop.46 million) on the education map of India. In 2008, he forsook a successful accountancy practice to follow his dream of establishing an internationally benchmarked K-12 school in Bhubaneswar, the admin capital of Odisha. Since then, the CBSE-affiliated SAI International School (SIS) has established and consolidated its position as Odisha’s #1 day-cum-boarding school and has been ranked India #1 in the category of day-cum-boarding schools for the past three years including 2022-23, in the EducationWorld India School Rankings.

SIS’ rapid rise in public esteem encouraged Dr. Sahoo to promote SAI Angan (estb.2015), billed as India’s largest preschool, the undergrad SAI International College of Commerce, Bhubaneswar (2015) and the CBSE-affiliated SAI International Residential School, Cuttack (2018).

Currently, the SAI International Group’s four institutions have an aggregate 7,000 students mentored by 434 teachers on their muster rolls. For his outstanding service to education, in July 2019, Dr. Sahoo was appointed Advisor of the Odisha Adarsha Vidyalaya Sangathan with the rank of minister of state to establish CBSE English-medium government schools in all 314 administrative blocks of Odisha state.

A topper throughout school life, Sahoo graduated in 1982 from Utkal University and pressed on to qualify as a chartered accountant certified by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), in 1985. This professional education was topped with a law degree from University Law College, Bhubaneswar. A firm votary of continuous education, Dr. Sahoo also qualified as a works accountant certified by the Institute of Cost & Works Accountants of India (ICWAI) and was awarded an MBA in finance by the All India Management Association while practising as a chartered accountant. In 2011, he was awarded a Ph D in commerce by The Open International University, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Most recently in 2021, he was awarded the prestigious honorary degree of Doctor of Literature (honoris causa) by Utkal University from the Vice President of India.

Unfortunately, in June 2021, Dr. Sahoo was struck down by the Covid-19 virus and despite being airlifted to Hyderabad’s premier KIMS Hospital, passed away in the prime of his eventful life — a great tragedy for Indian education. Since Dr. Sahoo’s untimely demise, the mantle of leadership of the SAI Group has devolved upon the capable shoulders of Dr. Silpi Sahoo, his companion of more than 35 years and co-founder of SAI Group of Institutions. Awarded a doctorate in women studies by Utkal University, Dr. Silpi has continued to build on the strong foundation constructed by her late husband.

In public acknowledgement of the inestimable contribution that the late Dr. Bijaya Sahoo made to the growth, development and contemporisation of India’s — and especially Odisha’s — education system, it is the sad but necessary duty of the Editors and Board of Advisors of EducationWorld to posthumously confer our EW Lifetime Achievement in Education Leadership Award upon the late Dr. Bijaya Sahoo (1963-2021).