"Great man are born to lead" and so the birth of Padmashree Dr. D. Y. Patil in an affluent agriculturist family of Kolhapur in Maharashtra, was the beginning of great things to come. Padmashree Dr. D. Y. Patil did not rest on his laurels as a social worker, but dreamt of contributing better values to society. Thus began a vision to endow the people with quality educational facilities in all fields. Padmashree Dr. D. Y. Patil attributes this to the blessing a saint of Maharashtra Shri. Gajanan Maharaj of Shegaon. His dreams have materialized under the umbrella of prestigious educational foundation called Dr. D. Y. Patil Pratishthan, which runs institutions in Kolhapur, Navi Mumbai and Pune.

Padmashree Dr. D. Y. Patil is pioneer in ushering an era of privatization of technical education in Maharashtra. He is a philanthropist, educationist and social worker and under his able guidance the Pratishthan has more than 75 academics institutions of international repute from kindergarten to post graduation in various disciplines.

For his contribution to the cause of education, the President of India honoured Dr. D. Y. Patil with the Padmashree in 1991. He was also awarded two Doctorates in Philosophy, the first by The World University Round Table (USA) in 1985 and later by Britain (UK) in 1996.