Anand Kumar

Anand Kumar (born 1 January 1973) is an Indian Mathematics educator, best known for his Super 30 programme, which he started in Patna, Bihar in 2002, known for coaching underprivileged students for JEE- Main & JEE-Advanced, the entrance examination for the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

In 1992, Kumar began teaching Mathematics.

He rented a classroom for Rs.

300 per month, and began his own institute, the Ramanujan School of Mathematics (RSM).

Within the span of year, his class grew from two students to thirty-six, and after three years almost 500 students had enrolled.

Then in early 2000, when a poor student came to him seeking coaching for IIT-JEE, who could not afford the annual admission fee due to poverty, Kumar was motivated to start the Super 30 programme in 2002, for which he is now well-known.

Since 2002, every May, the Ramanujan School of Mathematics holds a competitive test to select 30 students for the Super 30 program.

Many students appear at the test, and eventually, he takes thirty intelligent students from economically backward sections, tutors them, and provides study materials and lodging for a year.

He prepares them for the Joint Entrance Examination for the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT).

His mother, Jayanti Devi, cooks for the students, and his brother Pranav Kumar takes care of the management.

During 2003 to 2017, 391 students out of 450 passed the IITs.

From 2006 to 2010, 30 out of 30 students cleared the IIT-JEE.

In March 2009, Discovery Channel broadcast a one-hour-long programme on Super 30, and half a page was devoted to Kumar in The New York Times.

Actress and former Miss Japan Norika Fujiwara visited Patna to make a documentary on Kumar's initiatives.

Kumar has been featured in programmes by the BBC.

He has spoken about his experiences at various global-level institutes including Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, a number of IITs, University of British Columbia, Tokyo University and Stanford University.

He was also inducted in the Limca Book of Records (2009) for his contribution in helping poor students pass the IIT-JEE by providing them free coaching.

Kumar was named in Time magazine's list of Best of Asia 2010.

In 2023, he was awarded the Padma Shri, country's fourth highest civilian award by the Government of India for his contributions in the field of literature and education.

In 2010, all the students of Super 30 cleared IIT JEE entrance making it a three in a row for the institution.

Kumar has no financial support for Super 30 from any government as well as private agencies, and manages on the tuition fee he earns from the Ramanujan Institute.

After the success of Super 30 and its growing popularity, he received offers from the private sector – both national and international companies – as well as the government for financial help, but he has refused it; Kumar wanted to sustain Super 30 through his own efforts.

Time magazine included Super 30 in the list of Best of Asia 2010.

Kumar was awarded the S. Ramanujan Award for 2010 by the Institute for Research and Documentation in Social Sciences (IRDS) in July 2010.

Super 30 received praise from United States President Barack Obama's special envoy, Rashad Hussain, who termed it the "best" institute in the country.

Newsweek Magazine has taken note of the initiative of mathematician Anand Kumar's Super 30 and included his school in the list of four most innovative schools in the world.

Kumar was given the top award of Bihar government, "Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad Shiksha Puraskar", in November 2010.

In subsequent years, the pass rates for the 30 students at the IIT-JEE examinations were: 2011 – 24, 2012–27, 2013–28, 2014–27, 2015–25, 2016–28, 2017–30, and 2018–26.

By 2018, 422 out of 510 students had made it to the IITs and Discovery Channel showcased his work in a documentary.

Kumar has spoken at MIT and Harvard about his programs for students from the underprivileged sections of Indian society.

Kumar and his school have been the subject of several smear campaigns, some of which have been carried in Indian media sources.

His life and work had been portrayed in the 2019 film, Super 30, where Anand Kumar is played by Hrithik Roshan.

Anand Kumar was born in Bihar, India.

His father was a clerk in the postal department of India.

His father could not afford private schooling for his children, and Anand attended a Hindi medium government school, where he developed his deep interest in Mathematics.

In his childhood, he studied at Patna High School, in Patna, Bihar.

During his graduation, Kumar submitted papers on number theory, which were published in the Mathematical Spectrum.

Kumar secured admission to the University of Cambridge, but could not attend because of his father's death and his financial condition.

In 2019, Kumar revealed that he has been suffering from Acoustic neuroma, a rare kind of brain tumor, and lost 80-90% hearing ability of his right ear due to it.

He is under treatment of renowned neurosurgeon B. K. Misra at the Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai.