Anand Kumar at his residence in Patna on Tuesday. Picture by Sanjeev Kumar Verma

Patna, Nov. 9: Noted mathematician Anand Kumar has been selected for the prestigious “Maulana Abul Kalam Shiksha Purashkar” of Bihar government for the year 2010.

This is the highest award in the education sector given by the state government. Recipients are given a citation paper and Rs 2 lakh as award money.

Founder of “Super 30”, the nationally acclaimed coaching institute which tutors children of underprivileged sections for the IIT-JEE, Anand would be given the award on “Siksha Diwas” function to be held here on Wednesday.

The award was instituted by the state government in 2008 and Rukmini Banerji of Pratham, an NGO working in the field of education, was the first recipient of this award.

She was selected for the honour for her exceptional work to popularise education among children from underprivileged families and encouraging them to join schools.

Having been associated with Pratham since 1996, Rukmini has been in the core team of Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), which is being published since 2005. She has been responsible for Pratham’s programme activities in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Northeast.

In 2009, the award was given to Prema Sah, a social worker, who did commendable job in spreading literacy among the rural children. Sah worked for promoting education among children of Tharu tribe of Bihar.

The selection of persons for this prestigious award is done by a committee of three persons headed by the principal secretary of human resource development department.

Project director of Bihar education project and secretary of art and culture department are the two ex-officio members of this committee.

“The committee members zeroed in on the name of Anand Kumar unanimously,” human resource development principal secretary Anjani Kumar Singh told The Telegraph today.

Reacting to his selection for the award, Anand said: “Though I have won many awards in past too, this one is very special to me as for the first time I would be getting any award instituted by the government.

Anand has been a recipient of a number of awards, including the “Real Hero Award” by Dhirubhai Ambani Foundation. Reliance Industry head Mukesh Ambani himself conferred the award to Anand Kumar for his “Super 30” initiative.

Awards apart, Anand has been honoured both at national and international levels. In March 2009, Discovery Channel broadcast a one- hour-long programme on “Super 30.”

The New York Times came up with a half-page article on Kumar. Actress and ex-Miss Japan Norika Fujiwara visited Patna to make a documentary on Anand’s initiatives.

Kumar has been featured in programmes produced by BBC.

The mathematician also featured in the Limca Book of Records (2009) for his contribution in helping the poor students crack IIT-JEE.

A leading magazine has included “Super 30” in the list of four most innovative schools in the world.