CM inaugurates Advantage Odisha 2015 Conference

INFOCOM – The Telegraph: Advantage Odisha 2015; the first ever Business-Technology-Leadership Conference in the State of Odisha kick-started today with the grand inauguration by the esteemed Chief Guest – Hon’ble Chief Minister of Odisha, Shri Naveen Patnaik along with the revered presence of Mr. K. K. Mahapatra, Organizing Secretary and Associate Vice President – INFOCOM, ABP Pvt Ltd. The Inaugural Ceremony also saw the august presence of senior officials from the Government as esteemed Guests of Honour – Mr. Ashok Chandra Panda, Hon’ble Minister of State (Independent charge), Department of Tourism and Culture, Government of Odisha; Mr. Gokul Chandra Pati, IAS, Chief Secretary and Chief Development Commissioner, Department of General Administration, Government of Odisha and Dr. Omkar Rai, Director General, Software Technology Parks of India.

Key Industry stalwarts joined the Inaugural Ceremony expressing their unstinted support and enthusiasm in promoting the industrial growth for the development of the State of Odisha. Leaders like Mr. Vineet Nayyar, Executive Vice Chairman, Tech Mahindra; Mr. Naveen Jindal, Chairman, Jindal Steel & Power Ltd.; Dr. R S Sangapure, Executive Director, Punjab National Bank and Dr. Achyuta Samanta, Founder of Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) and Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) graced the Inaugural Ceremony as the esteemed Guests of Honour. The Inaugural Ceremony was followed by Special Keynote Addresses by Mr. Naveen Jindal, Chairman, Jindal Steel & Power Ltd and Dr. Achyuta Samanta, Founder of Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) and Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS).

INFOCOM – The Telegraph: Advantage Odisha 2015 comprising a day-long conference held at The Crown Hotel in Bhubaneswar is an initiative to showcase the potential of the State of Odisha to the national investor community in a befitting manner and to help attract a surge of investments in the State through a common platform that promotes the convergence of Business, Technology and Leadership elements. The Conference comprised of panel discussions, spotlight sessions, keynote addresses and motivational deliberations.

Focusing on the core competencies along with the developmental potential of the state of Odisha; to create a collaborative and networking platform; the theme for INFOCOM – The Telegraph: Advantage Odisha 2015 is “Driving Inclusive Growth”. The objective of the conference is to bring together the Government, Industry, ICT fraternity, Institutes, Investors and other stakeholders to help create an ecosystem which will foster a culture of Inclusion, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Odisha for enabling industrial development and making inclusive and equitable growth a reality across all sectors of the State.

The entire event revolves around highlighting the strong economy, mineral based industries, strong growth in SSI/MSME units in the state of Odisha, growth of the IT sector in the State and providing a platform for networking with leaders, policy makers and industry stalwarts. The conference also focuses on building brands, interaction among users, providers and complimentary minds while reaching out to the relevant audience.

The event brings together over 300 delegates, 25 thought leaders and speakers from across the corporate India, global ICT domain, academia, services, government etc.  The thrust areas of the conference are promoting entrepreneurship through inclusive growth, enabling business value through emerging technologies, exploring the business friendly ecosystem in the state of Odisha, e-governance and visions for building the next generation Odisha.

The STPI Export Awards for 2013-14 was organized by STPI at the Advantage Odisha platform. It is an endeavour to recognize the efforts of enterprises who have achieved many milestones and contributed immensely to Odisha’s IT/ITES export and growth. The Award ceremony is attended by key investors and SME/MSME Heads from across the State of Odisha

The inaugural session of the conference “Promoting Entrepreneurship for Inclusive Growth” witnessed the viewpoints of industry stalwarts such as Mr. Ashwani Kumar, Executive Vice President and Head – Group Executive Chairman’s office, Larsen & Toubro; Mr. R K Das, Chief Executive Officer, National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Ltd.; Mr. K M Trivedi, Chief General Manager, State Bank of India, Bhubaneswar, Mr. S Ramakrishnan, General Manager and Head Eastern Region, SIDBI and Mr. Ajay Thakur, Head, BSE SME. The session proceedings were chaired by Dr. R S Sangapure, Executive Director, Punjab National Bank.

The session “Enabling Business Value through Emerging Technologies” with speakers like  Ms. Preeti Rao, Country Lead – Segment Marketing, Dell India; Mr. Sougata Mitra, Sales Director – ICT Solutions, Government, Sify Technologies; Mr. Kishalay Bhattacharyya, National Business Head – Govt./PSU/BFSI Verticals and Head of Alliance Management, Ricoh India and Mr. Himanshu Chawla, Director – SMB, Microsoft India discussed the latest trends in Technology which can be implemented in organizations to enhance business value. The session proceedings were chaired by Mr. Pranab Prakash Das, Minister of State (Independent charge), Department of IT, Government of Odisha.

“Doing Business in Odisha – Visions for 2020” witnessed speakers such as Mr. Vishal Kumar Dev, Chairman and Managing Director, IDCO; Mr. Gautam Sharma, Managing Director, Indo Nissin Food;              Mr. P C Panigrahi, Director – Personnel, Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd and Mr, Ananth Chandramouli, AVP and Head, Client Services – Energy & Utilities, Manufacturing and Infrastructure sectors, India Business, Infosys. The session explored the abundance of resources that Odisha has been blessed with and how businesses can be taken to the next level of exponential growth for achieving the visions for a ‘Progressive Odisha’. The session was introduced by Mr. Dhirendra Khandelwal, Managing Director, E Square System & Technologies.

The Spotlight Session on “Leading the Change” with Mr. Vineet Nayyar, Executive Vice Chairman, Tech Mahindra was an interactive one hosted by Mr. Hindol Sengupta, Editor-at-Large, Fortune India which featured the leadership skills required in bringing about drastic changes in organizations.

INFOCOM – The Telegraph Advantage Odisha 2015 was supported by IPICOL and Team Odisha.                  The Principal Associate for the event was Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd. The Silver Sponsor was Punjab National Bank; Co-Host was STPI; Official Banker – State Bank of India; Technology Partner – Ricoh India; SME Partner – SIDBI; Skill Development Partner – National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company (NCGTC); Exchange Partner – BSE SME and the Associate Sponsors for the event were, Sify Technologies, Printlink, Esquare System & Technologies (A Microsoft Partner), Jindal Steel & Power and Accel Frontline.