By Rudra Narayan Sahoo, Mumbai: Global social innovator Dr Achyuta Samanta, founder of Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) Bhubaneswar, taught the global investors the art of building social enterprises at the 12th Annual Global Investor Conference organised by Motilal Oswal Financial Services. Dr Samant addressed the financial and investment gurus on the first day of the conference as an inaugural speaker on 29 August 2016.
“I was perhaps the odd man out in the gathering of India’s top businessmen and the world’s leading investors. Yet, all of them were there because of education,” Dr. Samanta said. Highlighting the worsening state of public schools in India, he said that a quarter of schools do not have access to drinking water and half of them do not have functioning toilets. Government schools lack even minimum infrastructure such as no teachers and lack of basic hygiene facilities.
Innovator Dr Achyuta Samanta highlighted the story of KISS – a social revolution for sustainable development. Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) based in Bhubaneswar is the largest residential institute for the tribals in the world, providing accommodation, food, health care, education from Kindergarten to Post Graduation, vocational training and all other basic amenities of life absolutely free with a job after completion of education. KISS is a part of Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) University.
KISS provides shelter to nearly 25,000 tribal students with free education, food, and all other basic amenities. Dr Samant’s speech on KISS story got wide appreciation from the market experts and got standing ovation from the global investors.
During the three day conference (29 August to 31 August 2016) organised by Mumbai based Motilal Oswal Financial Services, nearly 700 investors including 200 foreign delegates attended the conference. He opined that large part of the solution lies in the power of knowledge and education. Death of children due to malnutrition is a harsh reality in India’s villages, he added.
