About Us

Ideas and their real time manifestation shape human destinies. Ideas propel both traditional and innovative efforts toward achieving greater good for humanity. Ideas are either an individual or a collective effort. Ideas emanate from deep knowledge on any particular field of activity. Knowledge institutions around the world consistently strive for ideas through accumulation of facts on issues that require policy intervention by entities and organizations from individual.

States that create, nurture and support such knowledge institutions are invariably more advanced than others. India as an aspiring global power must encourage individuals, communities, organizations and institutions to consistently strive for excellence in generating ideas. Such efforts will invariably lead India to be counted as a frontline Knowledge State.

Gonasika Research Foundation will engage in cutting-edge multidisciplinary research on ideas and issues, emanating both from natural and social sciences, affecting humanity at both micro and macro levels. Its primary focus will be on research induced ideas and their deeper examination. Through different publications in written and audio-visual mediums, it will disseminate these curated knowledge for wider benefits to human society. It will start with the target district of Kendujhar. It will then take up issues at the state level in Odisha. Furthermore, it will take up national issues that have either been pressing yet neglected or received inadequate attention. Finally, it will take up important global issues for deeper research and dissemination. In its institutional evolution, it will work on such issues simultaneously.

Gonasika Resrarch Foundation aspires to achieve the status of a globally recognised frontline knowledge centre in human affairs.

States are oftentimes and consistently confronted with challenges spanning from individual wellbeing to national security, growth and prosperity within defined states’ territorial boundaries. Enormity of such challenges can be gauged from the fact that they start from agriculture to atomic energy and beyond and myriad of challenges in between.

In our increasingly interconnected world, many national challenges—like diaspora, trade and migration—now cross borders, alongside global issues like security, tech exchange, space and maritime affairs.

New and unpredictable challenges—like non-state violence, climate change and disruptive tech—keep surfacing alongside ongoing ones. Their full impact is still unfolding. While nations and global bodies continue to tackle these issues, they keep expanding in scale and complexity. For a rising power like India, this means greater responsibility—both within and beyond borders. But if approached wisely, these challenges can become powerful opportunities for growth, nation-building and global impact. This is where thinkers and institutions step in. While states build knowledge hubs to tackle challenges, private efforts also play a key role. Whether public or private, their goal remains the same—generating ideas, shaping policies, raising awareness and guiding future scholars.

Gonasika Research Foundation, a non-profit think tank, addresses key local to global challenges through its core pillars:

• Ideation: Its all about ideas. As a start, the institution has taken up a set of key ideas that will shape its evolution as an ideating institution. One of these ideas is to examine and locate revolutionary Dharanidhara Nayak, a local tribal leader of Keonjhar in the history of freedom movement in India. Research findings on Dharanidhara could bring in new lights beyond what contemporary and revisionist historians have found thus far on tribal resistance against royalty and British rule in pre-Independent India. Many other ideas are placed at “Forthcoming Knowledge Initiatives”.
• Research: Ideation necessitates in-depth research for validation. One of the ideas that require deeper research is to examine evolution, spread and gradual demise of religious traditions like Buddhism and Jainism in Kendujhar. This study, which will culminate into a series of commentaries, occasional papers and a book, will employ descriptive research methods and rely on primary sources like archieval material. Many such ideas will come up as we evolve further.
• Dialogue: Research-led ideas would not achieve their objectives, if they are not debated and deliberated preferably in public forums. The institution will, on its selected areas of ideas and research, will continuously engage scholars and practitioners and engaged citizenry for validation of ideas. Dialogues would preferably be held not only in writing but also in different forums like workshops, seminars, conferences and related other mediums like audio-visual and digital products.
• Dissemination: All the above efforts will be finally disseminated for better understanding by not only scholars, practitioners and states but more importantly help public gain awareness on pressing issues that affect humanity. Mediums for such dissemination efforts would invariably include different publications, debates in colloquia and wider publicity through audio-visual media.

The name Gonasika owes its origin to a sacred place in the Gonasika rocks in Kendujhar district of Odisha, from where a river named Baitarani flows, crosses several districts and eventually merges into the Bay of Bengal. The exact point, from which the water starts flowing, resembles the nose of a cow, considered a pious animal. Water flows from two nostrils of the cow shaped structure, hence the name Gonasika (‘Go’ means cow and ‘Nasika’ means nose).

Gonasika symbolizes emergence of knowledge in the form of water. Water is essential for survival. So is knowledge for prosperity, peace and development. This flows and crosses into different places, that denotes evolving and enriching scholarships at different times and locations. This ultimately flows into the Bangop Sagar (Bay of Bengal), considered an important part of Hind Mahasagar (Indian Ocean), which connotes oceanic reservoir of knowledge. GRF aspires to commence and continue its perpetual quest for knowledge from Gonasika and eventually accumulate and disseminate knowledge on a range of subjects affecting humanity and planet at large.

GRF’s prime focus will be to address both knowledge enrichment and in the process, reduce knowledge gaps in human affairs. It believes that knowledge and scholarships are dynamic, hence subject to constant scrutiny and newer findings.