Kalinga Institute of Social Science to set up branches in 10 states

The institute's founder will be meeting J Jayalalithaa to discuss possibilities of setung up a branch in Tamil Nadu

Kalinga Institute of Social Science (KISS), Bhubaneswar, a fully-free, fully-residential tribal institute and a sister concern of Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) University, is looking at expanding its presence to at least 10 States, including in Tamil Nadu, in couple of years.

The founder of KIIT & KISS, Achyuta Samanta said that he will be meeting the State Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa to discuss possibilities of establishing a branch of KISS in the State.

"We will be meeting the Chief Minister and requesting her support to set up the institute in Tamil Nadu. The land has to come from the State government and the other investments will be from corporate houses," said Samanta, who added that the institute would request the government to provide land in the suburbs of Chennai, though it would accept any suitable land provided by the government in other locations. The institute would require around Rs 15-20 crore of initial investment and it will talk with various corporate houses for funding, he added.

The new institute will be known as KISS-Tamil Nadu and it will work for the upliftment of poor underprivileged tribal children of the state, said Samanta. At present, a branch of KISS is functioning in Delhi. The institute is looking at establishing one branch in each State and is in discussion with various States including Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Karnataka, Tripura and West Bengal. It is expecting to have branches in at least 10 States in a couple of years. Every branch will start with a capacity to accomodate around 1000 students and would expand depending on the requirement.

KISS is a sister concern of Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) University, which has become one of the most promising universities in eastern part of India since its establishment in 1997. It is home for 25,000 tribal children and has been accorded Special Consultative Status by the United Nations (UN). He claimed that it is world's largest fully-free-fully-residential tribal institute providing holistic education from KG to PG along with comprehensive vocational and life skills training to students belonging to the poorest of the poor indigenous communities from Odisha and the neighboring states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, etc.

KIIT University is a multi-disciplinary university having global visibility with 'A' Category status, granted by the Ministry of HRD, Govt. of India, Grade 'A' granted by NAAC, and 'Tier 1' Accreditation (Washington Accord), granted by NBA of AICTE. It offers a wide range of technical, professional and medical education with 2000-bedded super specialty hospital (attached to medical college). The KIIT campus spreads over an area of 25 sq. kms and comprises at present 12,000,000 sq. ft of total built-up area. The University has 22 contiguous lush green campuses. KIIT University has students' strength of 25,000 who come from India and abroad, including European countries and USA.