It’s an enviable journey of a village lad who one day struggled to meet his educational expenses. Defying all oddities, he went on to become a world-famous hair transplant surgeon. He now wants to give something back to society.

And to facilitate his mission, a group of India’s top business houses, academics, sports, medicine and arts has come together to build a world-class school in Odisha to provide free education to underprivileged students.

The residential Utkal Gaurav International School (UGIS) has come at Berunapadi, the native village of 43-year-old Dr Pradeep Sethi, the hair transplant surgeon whose clientele involves India’s who’s who.

The initiative is being supported by individuals like Punit Goenka of Zee Entertainment Enterprises, Rajiv Bajaj of Bajaj Auto, Dr Ranjan Pai of Manipal Education and Medical Group alongside Adar Poonawalla of  Serum Institute of India, Sandeep Raheja of K Raheja Realty, Member of Parliament Dr Anil Jain, Rishi Kajaria of Kajaria Tiles, Md Azharuddin and Akshay Raheja of Exide Batteries. Besides these industrialists, Deepak Jain of Lumax Industries, Dr Ramakant Panda of Asian Heart Institute and senior management of Eugenix Hair Sciences.

Dr Sethi has a very humble family background. Since he was a very talented student, he received scholarships and financial support from a local charitable organisation that helped him chase his dream to be something in life. In the 1980s, he got into Navodaya Vidyalaya and then studied medical science at the All India Medical Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.

“I had begun my journey from this remote village decades ago. Now, I want to give something back to my area. Hence, I thought of opening a school for the underprivileged students of this region.  This school will offer free education from LKG to 12,” said Dr Sethi.

 “I am very happy and emotional to see Dr Pradeep Sethi’s dream of opening a school in his remote village coming true and its extremely heartening to see Chief minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurating the school and hundreds of dignitaries from different spheres across the globe to bless the school based on Western efficiency and Eastern spiritual values,” said Dr Arika Bansal, a trustee of Utkal Gaurav Foundation. Bollywood singers Anuradha Paudwal, Jubin Nautiyal, Sonu Nigam, Anup Jalota, Kavita Paudwal; former cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin; actors Gurmeet Chaudhary, Saurabh Pandey, and Asha Negi and singers Sonu Nigam, Anup Jalota, Kavita Paudwal and Jubin Nautiyal have extended their support to the school. Former cricket Ravi Shastri and many other celebrities who are associated with the school are scheduled to visit the school soon.

According to Dr Sethi, Eastern spiritual values alongside Western efficiency, is the main motto of the school, based upon the ideals of Jagadguru Paramahansa Yogananda.

The school offers programmes including agricultural, industrial, commercial and academic subjects.