KISS and KIIT University founder Dr Achyuta Samanta would get the prestigious Gusi Peace Prize for the year 2014.
His name figured in the list of 15 laureates selected for the prize, announced recently by the authorities of the Gusi Peace Prize International, the Philippines-based awarding body. Dr Samanta has been selected for the award for his efforts and achievements in “poverty alleviation through education and humanitarianism”, said the announcement. The award ceremony, to be telecast live in more than 46 countries, would be held in Manila on November 26, 2014.
Samanta is the third Indian and first person from Odisha to receive this award since inception of the prize, acclaimed as ‘Asia’s Nobel Peace Prize’.
Other 14 who would receive the award are from Austria, China, Congo, Germany, Bangladesh, Iran, Italy, Japan, lithuania, Nepal, France, Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia. The major recipients of the award included former US President and Nobel laureate Jimmy Carter, President of Moldova Nikole Timofti, Prof Yoshinori Asakawa of Japan and Prof Gerhard Brigmann of Germany. The Gusi Peace Prize envisions itself to the approximate honour and respect accorded to the Nobel Peace Prize and the Pulitzer Prize.