Bhubaneswar, Jan 25 (PTI) Noting that artificial intelligence (AI) gives an opportunity to set new benchmarks in governance and public service delivery, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi said Odisha must
follow a model where the state does not merely adopt technology, but becomes a harbinger of it.
Majhi made the statement at a meeting with a private AI firm on Saturday regarding the state's efforts to build a secure, inclusive, and sovereign artificial intelligence ecosystem.
According to a statement issued by the CMO, the discussions focused on establishing artificial intelligence as a long-term public capability, with emphasis on sovereign infrastructure, population-scale applications across key sectors, and durable institutional capacity within the state.
Apart from Majhi, the meeting was attended by Minister for Electronics and IT Mukesh Mahaling, Chief Secretary Anu Garg and senior government officials.
During the discussions, the Odisha government outlined its approach to developing shared, sovereign AI infrastructure, including secure compute and state-governed data platforms, to ensure that public data, AI models, and intelligence systems remain within Odisha's trust boundary.
The shared infrastructure is envisioned as a common resource for departments, enabling scale, security, and long-term sustainability while avoiding fragmented investments.
The government also emphasised the deployment of population-scale, voice-enabled AI applications across sectors such as education, agriculture, healthcare, e-governance, and public safety. These systems are intended to strengthen last-mile delivery of government schemes by enabling citizens to access information on entitlements, benefits, and grievance redressal through simple conversational interfaces.
To enable timely implementation, both sides discussed a parallel one-year execution framework, under which departments would prepare datasets, identify priority use cases, and develop applications alongside the commissioning of core AI infrastructure, ensuring that services are rollout-ready without delay, the statement said.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) is likely to be signed at the upcoming Black Swan Summit in Bhubaneswar on February 5-6. PTI AAM ACD
