NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Achyuta Samanta, is a Lok Sabha MP from Kandhamal, and Founder of The Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), and Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) in Bhubaneswar, capital of India’s eastern state of Odisha has a mission to eradicate poverty, illiteracy, and early girl marriages through education. Providing free education and accommodation to nearly 60,000 indigenous children from 62 tribal groups, KISS residential school was designated first exclusive tribal school and “Deemed to be University” by the Ministry of Human Resources Development of India’s Government.

Committed to elevating India’s overlooked, poverty-stricken indigenous population, reversing illiterate girls’ lives destined for child marriages, KISS maintains a 60% female student ratio. Its mission expands to over 1,500 street children in its New Delhi campus, as well as 10,000 students in 20 satellite sites across Odisha, and in Nepal, Cambodia and Bangladesh.

Since August 2017, KISS has been designated as the First University in the World exclusively for the tribal populations and provides U.G, P.G, M.Phil and Ph.D Programs. Furthermore, KISS takes education and learning to new heights focusing on teaching and research in unique and emerging areas of studies including: Tribal Culture, Philosophy and Eco-spiritualism, Tribal Heritage and Indology, Comparative Tribal Linguistics and Literature, Indigenous Knowledge, Science and Technology, Comparative Studies and Tribal Sciences, Tribal Resource Management, Tribal Legal Studies and Tribal Rights, not being pursued by any other Institution in the world.