The Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) University at Bhubaneswar, which is regarded as the world's largest anthropological laboratory, has been awarded the privilege to host the XIXth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (ICAES) 2023.

India, represented by the KISS, won the bid against Croatia by a huge margin to host the next edition of this prestigious ICAES in 2023 in collaboration with the Utkal and Sambalpur Universities.

More than 10,000 delegates from over 150 countries are expected to participate in the World Congress, which is held every five years in different parts of the world. ICAES is the largest gathering of academicians and researchers in the fields of Anthropology and Ethnology in the world. It is also the oldest meet of the scholars engaged in the scientific study of humankind. India will be hosting this prestigious meet after a long gap of 45 years.

The KISS, the first-ever tribal university of the world, won the highly-competitive bidding process after a lot of efforts, constant follow-up, communication, presentation, defending and going through a rigorous procedure of voting. The KISS had applied earlier in 2014 but lost the bid to Brazil then. This time, during the congress held in Brazil from July 16 to 20, 2018, the final bidding was held between KISS and Croatia. KISS from India got 2,084 votes while Croatia managed to get only 89 votes.

Utkal University Vice-Chancellor Prof Soumendra Mohan Patnaik, Prof Deepak Behera and a KISS team presented before the General Assembly the plan to host this mega event at the KISS. The Sambalpur and Utkal Universities and the Indian Anthropological Association, Delhi are the partners of the proposed event.

KIIT and KISS founder Dr Achyuta Samanta thanked Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and the State Government for their support.

KISS to host World Congress of Anthropology