Dr. Achyuta Samanta
Founder KISS & KIIT
website : www.achyutasamanta.com
KISS was established in 1992 – 93, with only 125 tribal children at a rented house in Bhubaneswar. Now, more than two and half decades later, it stands as a unique model of empowerment for tribal students. In fact, our students have consistently achieved accolades from India and abroad on numerous occasions. They have excelled in academics and co-curricular activities, reaping the benefits of holistic education offered at KISS.
KISS has been conferred with Special Consultative Status by UN-ECOSOC since 2015. The students of KISS have made up to IITs, NITs, IIMs and other organizations of repute. They have participated and won in Olympics,ASIAD, Commonwealth, South Asian Federation Games and many other prestigious sports events. It is in the list of top 500 NGOs of the world and top 10 in India. It has been certified with Platinum level Guide Star India Award for maintaining financial transparency. Moreover, in recognition of our efforts, KISS has been awarded a Leadership award by the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes. We were also named NGO of the year 2019 by CSR Summit and Awards 2019. I am both proud and humbled to see KISS continue to soar to such heights.
The higher education campus of KISS is now in its formative stage, with students achieving such remarkable results that KISS-DU was recognized as the ‘Best University in Odisha’ at the Odisha Education Awards 2019. Indeed, KISS is the world’s first and only university committed to providing quality higher education exclusively to students from tribal communities.
As an individual, I started life solely with the experience of severe poverty and hunger and strong passion to create a model to eradicate poverty and hunger through education two and a half decades ago. Today, this principle is the motto of global and national policymakers aiming to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. KISS is the best model to fulfil all the objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in true sense and spirit. I am always grateful to my stakeholders of KIIT for supporting the KISS dream financially. I express my thanks and gratitude to all well-wishers and contributors.
Founder,KISS
