KIIT & KISS to Host 39th World Congress of Poets

Bhubaneswar, December 24, 2018: The 39^th World Congress of Poets (WCP) will be held at KIIT & Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), Bhubaneswar in October 2019, informed Prof. Achyuta Samanta, President of the 39^th WCP & Founder, KIIT & KISS in the presence of Mr. Jacob Isaac, Executive Board Member of World Congress of Poets &, World Academy of Arts and Culture (WAAC), USA; Dr. R. K. Das and Dr. B. N. Nanda, Sr. Advisors, KIIT & KISS at a press meet in New Delhi on December 20, 2018.

WAAC and KIIT & KISS will jointly organize the next WCP which is expected to be attended by more than 500 poets from 100 countries. Besides that, 2000 writers and poets from India and another 2000 from Odisha are expected to join. On the request of KIIT & KISS, the decision to organize this prestigious event at KIIT and KISS was taken by Executive Board Members of WAAC, President of WAAC, Dr. Maurus Young, Sr. Vice President, Prof. Ernesto Kahan and General Secretary Dr. Maria Eugenia Soberanis during the 38th WCP hosted in Suiyang County of China’s Guizhou Province.

The World Academy of Arts and Culture (WAAC), a UNESCO-affiliated body, auspices the World Congress of Poets (WCP). WAAC was founded in 1969. Its Golden Jubilee will be celebrated along with the 39^thWCP in 2019. Though WAAC is a 50-year old institution, it has so far conducted 38 WCPs. For the 3^rd time, World Congress of Poets is going to be held in India. In a preliminary meeting, it was tentatively decided to hold the forthcoming World Congress of Poets from October 2 – 6, 2019. The inaugural ceremony will be held on October 2, 2019, coinciding with the 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. It has been planned to hold a session on tourism poetry at Konark and a session on spiritual poetry in Puri to promote tourism and culture of Odisha, in particular, and of India, in general.     

Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) Deemed to be University and Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) Deemed to be University are two prominent academic institutes in India. The former is exclusively for the professional education having more than 30,000 students from across India and 50 countries. Despite being a very young university, it has secured an impressive position of 1001+ in the global university ranking of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2019.

On the other hand, KISS is the human face of KIIT. It is a home for 50,000 tribal students - 27,500 existing students, 12,500 well-placed alumni and more than 10,000 students in its various satellite centers. The institute provides quality education from Kindergarten to Post-Graduation in a fully-free, fully-residential setting. It has the distinction of being the only university exclusively for tribal students in India and the entire world.  

Because of huge infrastructure and other facilities in KIIT & KISS, it has been organizing hundreds of very prominent national and international seminars, workshops and conferences since last 10 year. KIIT has hosted prestigious national and international meets like 99^th Indian Science Congress in 2012 with 20000 academicians from across India and abroad. It was a fabulous meet organized flawlessly by KIIT. Similarly, KISS has organized Commonwealth Big Lunch in 2018 where High Commissioners from 50 Commonwealth countries had lunch with 27000 tribal students of KISS at one time and at one place.

Briefing media, Prof. Samanta said, “It is a matter of pride that KIIT & KISS will be hosting the 39^th World Congress of Poets in India from October 2, 2019 coinciding with the 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. There will be a good academic exchange as poets & writers from across the globe will come together. So it will definitely give a very good boost to poets & writers in our state Odisha and India also. Odisha state government will cooperate to make the World Congress of Poets a grand success. We also seek support from Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India, he informed.

As WCP is being organized on the occasion of 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and Golden Jubilee WAAC, it has been decided to name the award on Mahatma Gandhi, besides other D.Litt. awards. On the occasion, Mr. Jacob briefed about the history of the World Congress of Poets and Mr. Nanda put light on the organization of this prestigious meet in India. Mr. R. K. Das proposed the vote of thanks.