Noted social entrepreneur and founder of the KISS and KIIT University Dr Achyuta Samanta received the prestigious Gusi Peace Prize International for 2014 in Manila on Wednesday.
Samanta is the only Indian among 15 laureates to receive the award, conferred by the Philippines-based Gusi Peace Prize International, this year. Samanta is the third Indian and first from Odisha to be conferred with the award, which is considered as Asia’s Nobel Peace Prize.
The award recognises Dr Samanta’s outstanding contribution in the field of education and for his humanitarian efforts to uplift socially and economically marginalized children through education. He has been relentlessly working for the uplift of poorest of the poor indigenous community in the State for the last two and a half decades.
KISS has received worldwide recognition as an effective model of empowerment of indigenous people through education and his model is now being replicated in many States in the country as well as abroad. Dr Samanta said that the KISS plans to educate 2 lakh underprivileged indigenous children within next 10 years.