Bhubaneswar: The city will be the venue for the the XIXth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (ICAES) 2023.

India, represented by KISS, won the bid against Croatia by a huge margin to host the next edition of this world congress of anthropology at the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) in 2023 in collaboration with Utkal University and Sambalpur University.

KISS had also applied in 2014 to host the event, but had lost the bid to Brazil at that time.

This time, during the congress held in Brazil from July 16 to 20, the final bidding was held between KISS and an institute in Croatia. KISS from India got 2,084 votes, while Croatia managed to get only 89 votes.

More than 10,000 delegates from more than 150 countries are expected to take part in the world congress, which is held every five years in various 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.

"We won the competitive bidding process after a lot of efforts, constant follow-up, communication, presentation, defending and going through a rigorous procedure of voting," said Achyuta Samanta, founder of KISS.

Vice-chancellor of Utkal University Soumendra Mohan Patnaik and KISS team presented before the general assembly the plan to host the mega event.