Anand Kumar is one of the finest mathematicians in the country. He shot into prominence with Super-30, a prestigious Indian educational program started in Patna as a part of ‘Ramanujan School of Mathematics.’ It was founded by the mathematician Anand Kumar himself in the year 2002.
The program’s objective to select 30 aspirants each passing year from economically backward sections of the society and trains them for the JEE, which is an entrance exam for the Indian Institute of Information Technology. Students those who can’t afford IIT coaching received free study materials and also accommodation for a year completely free of cost.
Anand Kumar’s Mother, identified as Jayanti Devi came forward to provide food for the students while Anand and other teachers tutored them. During the 1st year of the coaching, 18 out of 30 students successfully cracked IIT under the astute teaching traits of Anand Kumar. His name slowly started to spread all across the country.
In the following year, the application numbers went skyrocketing owing to the popularity of the program. So, a written examination was organised in a bid to select 30 students. In the year 2004, 22 out of 30 students qualified for IIT-JEE enhancing the popularity of the program which drew more attention to obtain even more applications.
In the 2005 batch, 26 out of 30 students cleared the entrance exam while 28 achieved the IIT dream in 2006. Then IIT changed the examination pattern. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar congratulated the students with a crunchy cash prize of Rupees 50,000 each. The next year, 28 more students achieved the IIT dream and finally in 2008, for the first time, all of the Super 30 created history by clearing the IIT JEE, achieving 100% success rate.
The former aspirants who used to get training from Anand Kumar also joined as teachers for the Super 30 program and in the year 2009, all the 30 students again managed to make the cut in IIT JEE. In 2017, all the aspirants again cleared the IIT-JEE Advanced 2017. In the following year, 26 students of ‘Super 30’ touched the pinnacle of success in IIT-JEE Advanced 2018.
Anand Kumar’s success story reached out to all snippets of India. Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan who was inspired by the real-life story of Anand Kumar decided to do a first-ever Biopic ‘Super-30’ and the trailer has been released.
Hrithik Roshan lived up to the expectations in impressing the audience as he plays the character of a mathematician in ‘Super 30’.
Unexpected Twist:
A new story cropped up regarding Anand Kumar and that he has been accused of fraud by his students, which took the whole nation by a shock. According to the students, only 3 students made it to the IIT, when Anand Kumar himself recently claimed that 26 out of 30 students achieved the IIT dream. This news definitely came as a traumatic twist to many.
According to the reports specified in the leading daily, students also claim that the mentor Anand Kumar was also teaching for another institute called Ramanuj classes and he had suggested many students join it in place of Super 30. As per the reports, Anand Kumar has made staggering money close to Rs 1 crore from Ramanuj classes.
According to four IIT Students, Anand Kumar is a fraud. They claim that Kumar is misleading IIT-JEE aspirants, in what is deemed contrary to the spirit of human values.
On September 21, 2018, the Guwahati High Court issued a notice to Anand Kumar, the founder of the educational programme ‘Super 30’, to respond to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by the students. Senior advocate Ashok Saraf, appearing for the 4 students of IIT, submitted before the court that, “Because of the wrong projection given by Anand Kumar each year a large number of students from the Northeast and other parts of the country approach him with full faith and hope that Anand Kumar, who seems to be an IIT Baba, will help them in qualifying the IIT entrance exam.”
“But after reaching there, Anand Kumar makes the students take admission in his coaching institute, namely Ramanujam School of Mathematics, by charging Rs 33,000 per student in the name of teaching them,” Saraf said.
Amit Goyal, advocate-on-record for the petitioners, said it is mentioned in the PIL that “Most of the time, Anand Kumar travels to different places in the country and outside India. He does not devote sufficient time to the IIT aspirants who took admission in Ramanujam School of Mathematics”.
“Upon inquiry by the four IIT-G students it was revealed that after 2008, Anand Kumar is not running any so-called ‘Super 30’ classes. Whenever IIT entrance exam results are announced, Kumar appears before the media with some students of the Ramanujam School of Mathematics and other students claiming that they are Super 30 students and have qualified in the IIT entrance exam,” Goyal said.
“Wrong information has been uploaded by Wikipedia on its website in an unedited version and the same is also published by a national newspaper and it is easily available on social media,” Goyal said.
According to the petition, this year too, Anand Kumar has claimed that 26 out of 30 students from his ‘Super 30’ group have cleared the IIT entrance exam. “But till now, he has not disclosed the names of the 26 students who had qualified for the IIT entrance,” he said.