A team of 18 Indian Administrative Service (IAS) probationers, along with two Joint Directors Tejveer Singh and Jaspreet Talwar of Lal Bahadur Sashtri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie, visited Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) on February 2, 2016.

KISS was recently included as the only NGO in Odisha in the list of places in the winter study tour-cum-Bharat Darshan of LBSNAA’s annual training programme for IAS probationers. It is an important component of the phase-1 training programme for IAS probationers. KISS has been included from the current year.

Hence, IAS probationers will come on a visit to KISS every year to get firsthand knowledge about various activities of KISS from the current year. During the three-day KISS visit as a part of their Bharat Darshan, the IAS probationers will involve themselves in various organizations and establishments of central as well as state government and rural civil society organizations (NGO).

They will get a chance to receive firsthand knowledge about how KISS, the largest free residential institute for the tribal students in the world, is taking care of more than 25,000 tribal children in one campus in a systematic manner. They will also get a chance to visit rural areas to receive a systematic exposure to the work being done by the civil society organizations.

In 2014, Dr. Achyuta Samanta, Founder, KIIT & KISS was invited by LBSNAA to deliver lecture to IAS probationers on poverty eradication, rural development and UN’s Millennium Development Goals. The authority of Academy, inspired by Dr. Samanta’s lecture, decided to include KISS in its annual training programme for IAS probationers.