Prof. Paritosh K. Banik,
Director General
Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University
Born in 1953, he had his early education in Assam and obtained 1st class B.Sc.Hons (Physics) in 1972. Thereafter, he went to Moscow (Russia) on a Govt. of India scholarship to study Mining Engineering. He obtained integrated Masters’ degree in Mining Engineering from Patrice Lumumba Peoples’ Friendship University, Moscow in 1980 and Ph.D. in Engineering from Moscow Mining Institute in 1984. He had been to Nottingham University and Heriot-Watt University, UK for training in Mine Planning in 1991.
He started his professional career in 1984 as a Faculty Member at Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad (ISM), a premier institute in Mining, Petroleum and Geo-sciences in India. He worked in the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT-Kh) in 1994 as Associate Professor. He then returned back to ISM in 1994 as Professor of Continuing Education & Head, Executive Development Centre and served the Institute till 2005. The Govt. of India appointed him as the Director of the National Institute of Technology, Silchar (NIT-Silchar) in 2005, where he served the Institute for 3 years as Director of the Institute. He served School of Petroleum Technology, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum Technology as Director during 2009-2010.
He has successfully guided several Ph.D. and M.Tech scholars and published more than 30 research papers in National and International journals and proceedings. He has carried out more than 25 R & D and Consultancy projects. As a team work, he has contributed in developing Training Modules and Training Materials for Coal India Ltd. and Tata Group of Collieries. He has also carried out several World Bank Projects for Coal India Ltd. He was the leader for implementation of Technical Education Quality Improvement Program (TEQIP) at NIT-Silchar under a World Bank project of MHRD, Govt. of India.
He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers (India), Member of Indian Society for Training & Development, Indian Society for Technical Education and The Mining, Geological & Metallurgical Institution of India. He is the 1st Mining Engineer to receive ‘CAREER AWARD’ from University Grants Commission, New Delhi.
He has experience of working in Siberian coal mines. He was also a coal mining consultant in Tajikistan. Professor Banik has traveled widely including USA, UK, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Sweden and other countries.
His current areas of interest are CBM, Underground Coal Gasification, Project Planning & Development.