Anand Kumar was born in Patna, Bihar. His father was a post office clerk in Bihar. His father could not afford private schooling for his children, and Anand attended a Hindi medium government school, where he developed his deep interest in Mathematics. During graduation, Kumar submitted papers on Number Theory, which were published in Mathematical Spectrum and The Mathematical Gazette
Anand secured admission to Cambridge University, but could not attend because of his father’s death and his financial condition, even after looking for sponsor in 1994-1995, both in Patna and Delhi.
Kumar would work on Mathematics during day time and would sell papads in evenings with his mother, who had started a small business from home, to support her family. He also tutored students in maths to earn extra money.Since Patna University library did not have foreign journals, for his own study, he would travel every weekend on a six-hour train journey to Varanasi, where his younger brother, learning violin under N. Rajam, had a hostel room. Thus he would spend Saturday and Sunday at the Central Library, BHU and return to Patna on Monday morning
In 1992, Kumar began teaching Mathematics. He rented a classroom for Rs 500 a month, and began his own institute, the Ramanujan School of Mathematics (RSM). Within the space of year, his class grew from two students to thirty-six, and after three years there were almost 500 students enrolled.Then in early 2000, when a poor student came to him seeking coaching for IIT-JEE, who couldn’t afford the annual admission fee due to poverty, Kumar was motivated to start the Super 30 programme in 2002, for which he is now well-known.
Every year in May, since 2002, the Ramanujan School of Mathematics holds a competitive test to select 30 students for the ‘Super 30’ scheme. Many students appear at the test, and eventually he takes thirty intelligent students from economically backward sections, tutors them, and provides study materials and lodging for a year.He prepares them for the Joint Entrance Examination for the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT). His mother, Jayanti Devi, cooks for the students,and his brother Pranav Kumar takes care of the management.
Anand Kumar has no financial support for Super 30 from any government as well as private agencies, and manages on the tuition fee he earns from the Ramanujam Institute. After the success of Super 30 and its growing popularity, he got many offers from the private – both national and international companies – as well as the government for financial help, but he always refused it. He wanted to sustain Super 30 through his own efforts.
A day before yesterday Super 30 founder Anand Kumar had released the list of all 30 students with roll number in which 28 had cleared the JEE advanced. In a bid to silence critics, Anand Kumar had released the list of all 30 students.Last year, 27 of the 30 students were selected for IITs and Super-30 has contributed over 260 students to the premier engineering institute of the country so far. In 2003, 18 of the 30 students came out with flying colours while the number of successful candidates went up to 22 the next year. In the list of the 30 students the number of general category students is 12 while OBC students is 17 and only one SC students.