BHUBANESWAR: A 35-member delegation of the Sri Lankan government and policymakers visited KIIT and KISS here on Tuesday as part of their tour to the country under an initiative of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). KIIT and KISS were the first institutions they visited.
The delegation comprising government officials, intellectuals and public relations officers from Sri Lanka toured different campuses of KIIT and interacted with the students of KISS.
They also learnt about the two institutions and lauded the efforts of KIIT and KISS founder Achyuta Samanta for bringing tribal students into the mainstream of the society through education at KISS.
Expressing his gratitude to the delegation and the MEA, Samanta highlighted the deepening educational and cultural ties between KIIT, KISS and Sri Lanka.
“We began our association with Sri Lanka in August 2019. In 2020, the first group of Sri Lankan students joined KIIT, and today more than 20 students from Sri Lanka are part of our university,” he said.
Samanta also recalled being conferred a fellowship from the prestigious Institute of Ceylon, which he termed a significant honour in his journey of fostering Indo-Lanka friendship. “India and Sri Lanka have shared ancient ties in many spheres. For centuries, the two nations have maintained strong cultural, social, commercial and diplomatic relations,” he said.