Odisha’s KISS becomes first tribal university in India and World

On the auspicious occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi, Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) has been granted the University status by the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

KISS claimed it has become the first tribal university in India and in the entire world. Though Indira Gandhi National Tribal University has been established before, it enrolls students of all categories. On the other hand, KISS University is exclusively for tribal students.

KISS has been declared a Deemed University under De-Novo category. The University will introduce seven new innovative departments in the first phase to provide impetus to research on tribal studies and help KISS achieve a place of prominence in the tribal education and research in world. Deemed University status has been granted with this hope. As before, students of KISS University will get residential education absolutely free of cost.

KISS University founder Dr. Achyuta Samanta, expressed his heartfelt gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar, Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram, Petroleum and Natural gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and University Grants Commission for their help and good wishes.

Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) was founded by Prof. Achyuta Samanta in 1992-93 in a rented building in Bhubaneswar with only 125 poor tribal students. It underwent massive growth with gradual increase in the student strength. At present, student strength of KISS has touched 37,000 (27,000 existing students and 10,000 graduated). Sixty percent (60%) of them are girl students.

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