Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik virtually inaugurated the Balasore branch of the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), named the Emami-KISS Residential School, on June 13, Monday. The school is located in Remuna, a town in the Balasore district of Odisha, and is a collaboration of KISS and Emami. The facility is meant for students from financially weak backgrounds.

During the inauguration, the CM said that around 1,200 economically challenged students from Classes I to XII would be provided with free education under the CBSE curriculum in this school in the first phase. "KISS has taken initiative to open fully free residential schools for poor and underprivileged tribal children in 30 districts of Odisha. This would strengthen our initiative to give quality education to all children," he said, as reported by PTI.

He also appreciated the initiative taken by KISS to open such residential schools for the poor and underprivileged tribal children across 30 districts of Odisha. He also said that the state government was giving importance to education and was transforming the schools under the 5T initiative. He added that more than 4,000 state-run high schools have so far been transformed with modern facilities.

Odia Language, Literature and Culture Department Minister Ashwini Patra praised the initiative by KISS and Emami. Along with him, MP Pratap Sarangi, Remuna MLA Sudhanshu Parida, KIIT and KISS Founder Achyuta Samanta, representative of the Emami Group Susil Goenka and Balasore Collector K Sudarshan Chakravarthy were also present at the function, as per the PTI report.