KISS founder to venture into NE

KOLKATA: After giving shape to the dreams of thousands of impoverished children in various corners of the country and abroad, Odisha entrepreneur Achyuta Samanta is looking to set up an institute for tribal children in Tripura, his first in the northeast.
"Northeast has a large number of tribals. Their children do not have any exposure to education, which leads to their exploitation.I want to change that. I have plans of opening a unit of KISS in Tripura to start with," Samanta, the founder of Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) and Kalinga Institute of Information Technology (KIIT), told TOI in Kolkata.
"Our immediate plan is to start our project in Bengal. Recently, I had a 40-minute meeting with Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, where we discussed the issue. However, there have not been any further discussions owing to the ongoing elections. But once everything is over, we will carry forward the talks."
"We want to start our project on the outskirts of Agartala within the next 18 months. I am certain that like everywhere else, our venture will be very successful there," he said, during the launch of the Art of Giving, a concept which involves people coming forward and joining hands to help underprivileged children build a future.
"We are spreading the concept of Art of Giving through Facebook, YouTube and other social networking sites. We have received an outstanding response so far," he said.
Samanta has opened KISS in New Delhi, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh. He has also gone international, having set up institutes in Kyrgyzstan, Cambodia, Bangladesh and Nepal.
There are about 20,000 children studying at KISS, Bhubaneswar, coming from the poorest of poor families.
"We provide education to these children from KG to PG. At our institute, the dropout rate is zero. I believe poverty can be eradicated through education and I will continue with my mission," Samanta added.