IMFA founder & industrialist Bansidhar Panda passes away at the age of 87

Dr Bansidhar Panda, the doyen of Odisha industries and father of MP Baijayant Panda, passed away at his residence in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday. He was 87.

Panda, Founder & Chairman Emeritus of IMFA Group, was left his lucrative career in metallurgical research abroad in the 1960s to be an entrepreneur, responding to the call of the then chief minister Biju Patnaik.

Panda had founded IMFA (Indian Metals and Ferro Alloys) in 1961 and set up his first plant at Therubali, a backward region in undivided Koraput district. IMFA since has grown to be a leading forro alloys manufacturer in the country with multi-location facilities.

After passing out from Benaras Hindu University, Panda had left for the US in the fifties for higher studies at Michigan Technological University and Harvard University. Imbibed with the idea of transforming the lives of people and nation through application of science and technology during his stint in the US, he had set out on a mission to replicate the same in Odisha on his return.