Bhubaneswar, June 27: Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) has entered the list of top 500 NGOs in the world.

KISS has been placed among the 10 best NGOs of India in the prestigious ranking of world NGOs published annually by NGO Advisor, a Geneva-based independent media organisation chaired by Jean-Christophe Nothias, former editor of The Global Journal. Currently in its fourth edition, NGO Advisor is the only organisation publishing such a ranking.

The ranking is determined after evaluating tens of thousands of NGOs in every country on a set of stringent criteria. KISS was selected out of thousands of NGOs for its outstanding impact, innovation and governance. NGO Advisor, which uses public data for transparency, scores organisations based on their performance in 165 criteria. These relate to the three pillars of interest - impact, innovation and governance.

KISS, founded by Achyuta Samanta in 1993, is acclaimed all over the world as a successful model of tribal empowerment through education.

At present, 25,000 poorest of the poor children are pursuing their education here from kindergarten to postgraduation, making it the largest free residential tribal institute in the world. In 2015, it was granted special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, the highest recognition to any NGO by the United Nations.

Samanta said the rank would help gain better visibility of the institute on a global platform and ultimately further benefit its beneficiaries - the underprivileged children.