Anand Kumar and (top) James Cameron

Patna, Nov. 21: He scripted success for economically weak students. Now, he will rub shoulders with screenwriters like James Cameron and Matt Groening.

Anand Kumar, the founder of Super 30, will address the international Information and Knowledge (INK) conference this December at Lavasa in Maharashtra. He will be one of the 30 odd speakers to share his experiences at the conference, assisted by non-profit organisation Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED).

Kumar will share the podium with not only Cameron and Groening but also with spiritual guru Deepak Chopra.

One of the organisers told The Telegraph: “Anand is a winner. He did not give up despite not being able to go to Cambridge University because of financial constraints. Instead, he became a ray of hope for many talented students from poorer sections of society. He has helped bring about social change.”

Kumar started Super 30, a coaching centre, in 2003 to train students from economically not-so-sound background to crack the gruelling Indian Institute of Technology entrance exams. The centre has a phenomenal success rate with 200 of its students cracking the IIT entrance over the years.

Kumar appeared humble when he heard of the news. He said: “It is a matter of pride for me — a teacher — being invited to speak in front of such great personalities.”

Cameron is an Oscar-winning director who has films like Titanic, Aliens, Terminator and the recent Avatar to his credit.

Groening is the screenwriter for Simpsons that has been voted the Best Show of the 20th Century by Time Magazine.

Chopra is a best-selling author of a number of spiritual books and was the guru of Michael Jackson. He also regularly mentors corporate bosses and political leaders through his Soul of Leadership workshops.

But Kumar is an equally bright star — Discover Channel, NHK Japan and Al Jazeera have made documentaries on him.

TED is a non-profit organisation devoted to ideas worth spreading. It started in 1984 as a conference, bringing together people from three worlds — technology, entertainment and design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences — the TED conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs (USA) each spring, and the TED Global conference in Oxford, UK each summer— TED includes the award-winning TED Talks video site.

The INK Conference intends to take forward the conversation started at TED-India 2009, for the first time in Asia. Its co-host Lakshmi Pratury, herself a TEDster since 1994, was instrumental in bringing TED to India. Looking at its phenomenal success (1000 people from 46 countries) across India, Lakshmi decided to continue that conversation and is now hosting the INK conference.

TED is providing the strategic support to the INK conference and will upload some the INK talks on TED.com.

An INK functionary said: “At INK we provide the right environment to develop an interdisciplinary approach to life. She said the INK conference would be a celebration of ideas, which aims to fuel innovation and foster knowledge by bringing together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers from a range of disciplines.

Kumar said: “I am proud to represent my state. I grew up and studied here and opened my institute here. It’s a moment of great pride and greater humility.”