Kanungo was born on 6 June 1912 in a Karan family at village Mallipur (Kishannagar) in Cuttack district of Bihar and Orissa Province, British India.

However, in 1930, when he was in Class-X, Mahatma Gandhi's call inspired him to leave his studies and join the Indian Freedom Movement.

Kanungo was appointed by the daily newspaper The Samaja to cover Mahatama Gandhi's Harijan Padayatra from Puri to Bhadrak in 1934.

He single-handedly built the reference centre, which was visited and extolled by a great many dignitaries during his time, including Pranab Mukherjee, who later became President of India.

After his death, the Foundation has created and published different kinds of multi-volume encyclopedias both for young and adult readers by editorial efforts of Deepak Kanungo.

This new set consists of thousands of topics in popular Odia comprising all branches of human knowledge and is profusely illustrated.

He set up the Jnanmandal Foundation for the propagation of encyclopedic knowledge among common people at affordable cost.