Vinod Kumar Bansal or VK Bansal (26 October 1949 – 3 May 2021) was an Indian educationist and the founder of Bansal Classes in Kota,

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern s ...

. He made Kota famous throughout India for

IIT-JEE The Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) is an engineering entrance assessment conducted for admission to various engineering colleges in India. It is constituted by two different examinations: the JEE-Main and the JEE-Advanced. The Joint Seat ...

entrance exam preparation. He was also known as the " Bhishma Pitamah" of the India's Entrance Examination Coaching industry.

Biography

Bansal was born on 26 October 1949, in the

Jhansi district Jhansi district is one of the districts of Uttar Pradesh state in northern India. The city of Jhansi is the district headquarters. The district is bordered on the north by Jalaun District, to the east by Hamirpur and Mahoba districts, to th ...

of the state of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

. His father was a government employee and his mother was a homemaker. He went to the Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University. After completing his education, he worked in a chemical company, J. K. Synthetics, in Kota. In 1974, Vinod Kumar Bansal was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, which left him with complete paralysis and physical impairment, which was predicted to shorten his lifespan. In 1983, J. K. Synthetics closed down. The same year, he met G. D. Agrawal of

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

, who suggested he start coaching students for the

, i.e., the undergraduate entrance test for the Indian Institutes of Technology. Hence, he started coaching for the

, starting with 8 students at his dining table. As few of his students managed to clear the JEE in 1991, he founde
Bansal Classes

Pioneer of Entrance Examination Coaching in India

Kota has since emerged as the principal coaching center in India, with nearly 150,000 students from across India enrolling in the 40 coaching institutes in Kota. In 2017, 39,000 of these students cleared the

Joint Entrance Examination (Main) The Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) is an engineering entrance assessment conducted for admission to various engineering colleges in India. It is constituted by two different examinations: the JEE-Main and the JEE-Advanced. The Joint Seat ...

and at least 48 of them were in the top 100.

Death

Bansal died on 3 May 2021, from a heart attack. He also tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

during the

COVID-19 pandemic in India The COVID-19 pandemic in India is a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). As of , according to Indian government figures, India has the second-highest n ...

which worsened his pre-existing conditions.Pioneer of Kota coaching industry V K Bansal dies
/ref> According to his son Sameer Bansal, Managing Director of Bansal Classes, VK Bansal was the architect of the coaching industry in Kota. On the demise of VK Bansal, Naveen Maheshwari, Director of Allen Institute stated, "It was his fresh vision that made a subject like

Maths Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

interesting. Lakhs of students will remember his contribution."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bansal, Vinod Kumar 1949 births 2021 deaths People from Jhansi Businesspeople from Uttar Pradesh Kota district Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in India