Manas Bihari Verma

Verma was born to Yashoda Devi and Anand Kishore Lal Das on 29 July 1943 in the Bour village of Ghanshyampur block, situated in Darbhanga district, Bihar. He has three brothers and four sisters. He is related to Braj Kishore Verma Manipadam, a celebrated Maithili literary writer.[3][1]

He completed his schooling from Jawahar High School in Madhepur. Later, he studied in National Institute of Technology, Patna and Calcutta University.[1][4]

He worked as a scientist at the Defence Research Development Organization (DRDO) in the aeronautical stream for 35 years. He worked in various aeronautical departments established in Bangalore, New Delhi, and Koraput. Later, he was made responsible for the design of the Tejas aircraft mechanical system. He was part of the design team of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) in the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA). He led the team responsible for the full-scale engineering development of the Tejas aircraft.[5] He was given the ‘Scientist of the Year’ award by former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and ‘Technology Leadership Award’ by former PM Manmohan Singh respectively.[1] He retired from the ADA in 2005 as the Director of the Aeronautical Development Agency.

In 2018, the Government of India conferred the Padma Sri award to him for his exemplary contributions in the field of aeronautical engineering.[6] Stating his surprise on receiving the award, Manas Bihari Verma said:

“I do not even have the slightest impression that this year I am being given this honour. This honour has been received from team work and for this I am grateful to my colleagues.”

After the retirement, he returned to his native village of Bour and has been involved in imparting science and computer knowledge to Dalit children in the areas of Supaul, Madhubani, and Darbhanga, through the Viksit Bharat Foundation started by Verma. A team of science and computer instructors visit schools to demonstrate scientific experiments and impart computer learning. The teaching is done through the 'Lab in Box' (LIB) programme supported by the IBM.[3][5]