Cuttack in Odia, is the former capital and the second largest city in the Indian state of Odisha. It is the headquarters of the Cuttack district. The name of the city is an anglicised form of the Odia and Sanskrit name Kataka which literally means The Fort, a reference to the ancient Barabati Fort around which the city initially developed. Cuttack is known as the Millennium City as well as the Silver City due to its history of 1000 years and famous silver filigree works. The Orissa High Court is located there. It is the commercial capital of Odisha which hosts many trading and business houses in and around the city. Cuttack is famous for its Durga Puja which is one of the most important festivals of Odisha. Cuttack is also the birthplace of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. The city is categorised as a Tier-II city as per the ranking system used by Government of India.
Gopal Ballav Pattanaik is an Indian lawyer and later a jurist who served over a period of 19 years in the bench of the Odisha High Court as a permanent judge, as chief justice of the Patna High Court, Judge of the Supreme Court of India and as the 32nd Chief Justice of India.
The Odisha High Court is the High Court for the Indian state of Odisha.
Jayanta Mahapatra is an Indian English poet. He is the first Indian poet to win a Sahitya Akademi award for English poetry. He is the author of poems such as "Indian Summer" and "Hunger", which are regarded as classics in modern Indian English literature. He was awarded a Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian honour in India in 2009. He returned the award in 2015 to protest against rising intolerance in India.
The Odia (ଓଡ଼ିଆ), formerly spelled Oriya, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group native to the Indian state of Odisha who speak the Odia language. They constitute a majority in the eastern coastal state, with significant minority populations existing in the neighboring states of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
Manoj Das was an Indian author who wrote in Odia and English. In 2000, Manoj Das was awarded the Saraswati Samman. He was awarded Padma Shri in 2001, the fourth-highest Civilian Award in India, and Padma Bhusan in 2020, the third-highest Civilian Award in India for his contribution to the field of Literature & Education.
Previously a neglected aspect of the Indian Central government, Education in Odisha is witnessing a rapid transformation. Its capital city, Bhubaneswar, is emerging as a knowledge hub in India with several new public and private universities, including the establishment of an Indian Institute of Technology after five decades of demand.
Ravenshaw University, formerly known as Ravenshaw College, is a co-educational state university situated in Cuttack, Odisha on the eastern coast of India. Founded as Ravenshaw College in 1868, the institution became a university in 2006. The university has nine schools, thirty three academic departments and a student enrolment of nearly 8,000. It is one of the oldest educational institutes in the country and its history is synonymous with the history of modern Odisha.
Rabi Ray was an Indian socialist politician, a Gandhian, a speaker of the Lok Sabha and a former Union minister. He hailed from Odisha. He joined the Socialist Party in 1948, and later became member of the Samyukta Socialist Party, the Janata Party and the Janata Dal.
Gopabandhu Das (1877–1928), popularly known as Utkalamani Gopabandhu Das, was a social worker, reformer, political activist, journalist, poet and essayist.
Prashanta Nanda is an Indian director, actor and politician from the state of Odisha. He is currently a Member of Parliament at Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament, for Odisha. He has worked in the Odia, Bengali and Hindi film industry extensively. He was also a former minister in Odisha state.
Ranganath Mishra was the 21st Chief Justice of India, serving from 25 September 1990 to 24 November 1991. He was also the first chairman of the National Human Rights Commission of India. He also served as Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha from the Congress Party between 1998 and 2004. He is the second Supreme court judge to become a Rajya Sabha member after Baharul Islam who was also elected as Indian National Congress member.
Madhusudan Das was an Indian lawyer and social reformer, who founded Utkal Sammilani in 1903 to campaign for the unification of Odisha along with its social and industrial development. He was one of the prominent figure, helping in the creation of Orissa Province, which was established on 1 April 1936. He was also the first graduate and advocate of Orissa. He is also known as Kulabruddha, Madhu Babu, and Utkal Gouraba. In Odisha, his birthday is celebrated as the Lawyers' Day on 28 April.
Ravenshaw Collegiate School is the oldest High School of Odisha which was established in 1851 by Thomas Edward Ravenshaw in the District of Cuttack in Odisha, India. It was one of three institutions founded by Ravenshaw, the other two being the Ravenshaw Girls' School and the Ravenshaw College, the latter now having become Ravenshaw University.
Pandit Nilakantha Das (1884-1967) was one of the most illustrious sons of Odisha, who appeared both in its political and literary arena at the most crucial period of its history, when Odisha had no political identity in the map of India, and Odia as a language was about to be extinct. He worked relentlessly for Odisha's recognition both politically and linguistically, and helped bring to fruition the dreams of Utkala Gaurab Madhusudan Das, Utkalamani Gopabandhu Das and all other Odia loving people.
Prabhat Nalini Das was an Indian public intellectual, academic and university president. She served as a professor of English and head of the English Department at Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University; Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur; Utkal University and Ranchi University. She was the first Director/Dean of the Humanities Division at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur; Founder-Professor and Head of the Department of English at Utkal University for almost 19 years, and Chairman of Utkal University's Post Graduate Council; and the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of North Eastern Hill University, a Central University established by an act of the Parliament of India, with independent charge of its Kohima, Nagaland campus.
Kanhu Charan Mohanty was an Indian Odia language novelist who wrote fifty-six novels in a career spanning over six decades from 1930 to 1985. He is considered "one of the most popular and celebrated novelists of Odisa". Mohanty was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1958 for his novel, Kaa, published in 1956, and was one of the fellows of the Sahitya Akademi. Mohanty died on 6 April 1994 at the age of 87.
Pradip Kumar Mohanty is an Indian attorney and Jurist currently serving as a Judicial Member of Lokpal Committee since 23 March 2019. He will retire from the post till 70 years of age. He is former Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court.
Sayeed Mohammed was an Indian Odia educationist, freedom fighter and philanthropist. In 1913, he founded the Moslem Seminary at Cuttack, which is regarded as the second nationalist school of Odisha. Sayeed is known for his activism against the British in the early 1900s. He was one of the prominent members of the Utkal Sammilani. In 1922, Sayeed along with Ekram Rasul co-founded the All Odisha Khilafat Committee, in the wake of the Non cooperation movement in India.
