LAUSANNE, Switzerland, June 18, 2026.- The FIVB welcomed representatives of India’s Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) and Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) – their Founder Dr. Achyuta Samanta and Director Dr Varun Suthra, to Volleyball House last week. The meeting was the latest step in a partnership that continues to drive the growth of volleyball in India.
It has been a fast-moving few years. What started as a shared belief in the sport’s power to develop young people has grown into a hugely successful development partnership, reaching from grassroots courts to elite pathways and lifting both the profile and the standard of volleyball across India.
One of the clearest signs of that progress is the FIVB/KIIT and KISS Centre of Excellence, formalised at the end of 2025 – and in Lausanne both sides agreed to take it a step further, with the centre set to evolve into a permanent development hub serving athletes far beyond India’s borders. Built with athletes at its heart, it gives players across the region access to top-class facilities and specialised coaching, opening a clear route for Indian talent to travel from their first touches of the ball all the way to the international stage. In a country with a vast and growing pool of young players, that pathway is key.
“We agreed that this Centre of Excellence will serve as a development centre not only for beach volleyball athletes in India, but equally for athletes from all around the world,” said FIVB President Fabio Azevedo. “I am very grateful – thank you so much, Dr Samanta, for your initiative, and I am quite sure that volleyball will be even bigger and even better in India. We are being very ambitious. We want volleyball and beach volleyball athletes in India representing the country everywhere in the world, playing in big international events and who knows, maybe the World Championships and the Olympic Games.”
That ambition is backed by a track record of success and growth. The partners reflected on a successfully staged Beach Pro Tour event and confirmed plans to host another next year, while also setting their sights on a large-scale mass participation festival to bring even more people to the sport.
This builds on a huge volleyball fanbase in the country. In October 2024, the KISS Volleyball Foundation Festival in Bhubaneswar drew more than 40,000 people and set a Guinness World Record for the most players in a volleyball exhibition match – 430 players on a single court, in a single game.
That same spirit runs through the Art of Giving, the global kindness initiative founded by KIIT and KISS founder Professor Achyuta Samanta. This year, under the theme Share to Shine, the movement distributed 22000 volleyballs and 8000 nets across 7000 places across India, giving young people in towns and villages an opportunity and reason to play. Those who received the equipment will now be encouraged by KIIT and KISS to take part in World Volleyball Day, sharing content that shows the sport coming to life in their own communities.
Every great volleyball story starts with a first touch of the ball. The partnership between the FIVB, KIIT and KISS is making sure that, in India, far more of those first touches lead somewhere – the very heart of the FIVB Strategic Vision 2032, and its mission to carry the Global Volleyball Movement forward.
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