As Vice-Chancellor of Biju Patnaik University of Technology, he laid the foundation of a robust Technical University education system that is being emulated by others. Through introduction of a credit based flexible curricula with appropriate combination of soft and hard subjects, continuous evaluation, non-negotiable academic calendar, timely conduct of examinations and quick publication of result, BPUT earned a distinct place in the eyes of the students and the employers. 

         As Chairman of AICTE, he was responsible for getting provisional membership of Washington Accord for India and in mitigating the faculty shortage by raising their retirement age to 70. This initiative later led to increase in retirement age of faculty to 65 in Universities. Mandatory disclosure by the Institutes is his another initiative. During nearly two and half years of his tenure in AICTE, he could shift the focus of the Institutions from Physical Infrastructures to Human Capital. To help economically weaker, physically challenged and women students to have access to technical education, he introduced Voluntary tuition fee waiver up to 10% of the sanctioned strength of an institution. Recently, the same tuition fee waiver up to 5%  of the sanctioned strength for economically weaker students have been made compulsory. 

        As Director of IIT Kharagpur he is taking several path breaking initiatives both in academics and administrative front to propel his Institute to newer heights. Under his leadership, the Institute has brought remarkable changes in the academic front giving quantum fillip to number of research publications, number of PhDs, number of Patents and Sponsored research earnings. National and international laurels have been the natural outcome. Several new frontiers of education and research including infrastructure Design and Management, Water Resource Management, Engineering Entrepreneurship, Quality Engineering Design and Manufacturing and Bio-energy have been opened. To support industry specific research a Centre for Steel Technology and a Centre for Railway Research have been established with support from the Ministry of Steel and Ministry of Railways respectively. IIT Kharagpur is the first Institute to have Bioscience and Environmental Science as compulsory subjects for all. The Institute is now in the process of bringing two diverse disciplines of engineering and medicine together. This will create a new paradigm of medical education, research and healthcare delivery. Four Schools of Educations and research in such areas as Energy Science and Engineering, Bioscience, Environment Science and Engineering and Nanoscience and Engineering are being established.  The Infrastructure at the Institute is getting upgraded to accommodate nearly 12,000 students, 1200 faculty and 3000 supporting staff. Under his leadership, health insurance for all the students, faculty, employees including those who have retired, has been introduced in IIT Kharagpur.

       As an academician he has been conferred with Fellowship of both Indian National Academy of Engineering and The National Academy of Sciences. He is recipient of several honorary D Sc degrees from Universities in India .For his lifetime contribution to Industrial Engineering he has got prestigious Lillian Gilbreth Prize, Viswesharaya  Samman and Industrial Engineering and Operations Management Society, USA award. 

         He uniquely combines academics with the industry oriented research and development. He has developed and perfected large scale discrete event simulation models to capture the operation of an integrated steel plant. The same model has been used to identify the process bottleneck, to develop debottlenecking strategy and to improve output of Blast Furnace – Steel Melting Shop – Slab Casting Systems of Tata Steel. The model has also been used for Logistics Improvement and Technology Option Selection. 

        He has worked for several other World Class Companies including General Motors, HUL ,Tata Steel, Tata Chemicals, SAIL,NLC and CIL to name a few as consultant. Motivating people from Industry to do research and to pursue PhD is one of his fortes. He has motivated and guided a dozen out of thirty people from Industry to do their PhD from IIT Kharagpur. 

         Prof. Acharya leads a simple life. He provides professional support to many universities, institutions and organizations, His contribution to KVIC as an Expert Member is noteworthy. He was  nonofficial Directors in the Central Board of Reserve Bank of India and an Independent Director in Rastriya Chemicals and Fertilizers, Bombay.Currently he is an Independent Director in National Aluminum Company; Bhubaneswar He is in the Board of several Institutions and a member of Chhatisgarh State Planning Commission.  Establishing a few quality Institutions in the country is his goal.  He is also the Chairman Advisory Board, SOA University ,Bhubaneswar.