Currently serving as the President of the Indian Science Congress Association, Dr. Samanta is the founder of two self financing universities - KIIT and its sister concern, KISS. Dr. Samanta is an educationist and social worker providing free of cost education to over 27,000 tribal students.  He has brought educational transformation to the indigenous hinterlands of the country.

Prof. Yunus, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (2006) for founding the Grameen Bank (1983), is a Bangladeshi  SDG advocate, social entrepreneur, banker, economist, and civil society leader who pioneered the concepts of microcredit and microfinance.