Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) Deemed to be University

Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, commonly known as KISS University, is a higher education institution in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. It was established in 1993 as a residential school and officially became a university level institution in 2017 under the University Grants Commission.

Founded by Achyuta Samanta, the institution was created with a social mission focused on providing free education, accommodation and support to students from tribal and indigenous communities. 

The university is based on a city campus in Bhubaneswar and is connected to the wider KIIT Group of Institutions. It offers bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programmes across arts, science and commerce, with a strong focus on tribal and indigenous studies.

Academic areas include tribal culture, philosophy, heritage, linguistics, literature, legal studies, indigenous knowledge systems, resource management and comparative studies. Postgraduate and research programmes are organised through specialist departments covering subjects such as tribal culture and eco spiritualism, tribal heritage and indology, comparative tribal linguistics and literature, tribal rights and legal studies, indigenous knowledge science and technology, and tribal resource management.