Smart Odisha Roundtable was an in-depth, intellectual dialogue amongst national and international experts, practitioners, stakeholders on Governance and Development in Odisha organized by FIDR, the mission of Smart Odisha is to forge and operate an independent, non-profit think tank dedicated to strategic thinking and action on the transformation of Odisha to a developed economy. The Roundtable was held on 20th May, 2015 at Hotel Trident in Bhubaneswar.

The day started at 5p.m with registration, post which the opening session commenced. The key speakers of the evening were:

1. Sri Prem Das Rai, Member of Parliament, Sikkim

2. Sri R.N Das, IAS, Advisor, State Planning Board, Odisha

3. Sri Upendra Nath Behera, IAS, Development Commissioner, Odisha

4. Fr Paul Fernandes S.J, Founder and First Vice Chancellor, Xavier University

5. Dr Sambit Patra, Dalit champion & Founder Swaraj

6. Dinesh Chand, Swaniti Initiative

On behalf of Smart Odisha Mr. Siddhartha Behera welcomed the guests to the Round table which is an innovative initiative in Odisha and aims to partner with institutions (state, national and global) and the governments with the objective to conduct high-quality, independent research and, based on the research, to provide innovative, practical policy recommendations. These recommendations in conjunction with the public, private and peoples’ endeavors are intended to culminate in a Smart Odisha, in the true sense. He explained that the platform is also an opportunity to create an inclusive collective which is aimed at all round development of Odisha.

Charudatta Panigrahi: Unfolding Smart Odisha

Mr. Charudutta Panigrahi, Founder FIDR, explained that Smart Odisha is based on a few tenets and one of them is the importance of data analysis and data-centric policy initiatives. This is because Odisha is fast emerging as one of the important states of India. Odisha is on the growth path which needs to be sustainable and replicable, and irreversible. And there needs to be guiding collective or an Inclusive think tank taking care of the diversity, plurality of governance in Odisha.