As Odisha prepares to host the inaugural Black Swan Summit India 2026 in Bhubaneswar, the state is positioning itself at the forefront of India’s evolving discourse on artificial intelligence, digital finance and future-ready employment.
Graced by the President of India, Droupadi Murmu, and organised under the leadership of Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, the Summit underscores the state’s intent to move decisively from policy articulation to large-scale execution in AI, FinTech and InsurTech.
Central to this effort is Vishal Kumar Dev, Additional Chief Secretary, Electronics & Information Technology Department, Government of Odisha, who has played a key role in driving the state’s digital governance reforms, anchoring the BharatNetra initiative, and expanding Odisha’s global engagement in financial technology.
In this conversation with Anoop Verma, he outlines the strategic significance of the Black Swan Summit India 2026, explains what operationalising AI means from a state government perspective, and reflects on how Odisha is aligning technology, skills and investment to build durable economic capacity for the decades ahead.
Edited excerpts:
As Odisha prepares to host the Black Swan Summit India 2026 under the leadership of Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, what strategic importance does the state attach to this summit in the broader national conversation on AI and FinTech?
When I first came to Odisha in 1997, the state was not at the centre of the national imagination. In 1999 we were hit by the super cyclone, our finances were stressed, and we were borrowing just to service old loans. Treasury overdrafts were the norm, salaries were delayed by months, and our debt–GSDP ratio was about 54 per cent.
Cut to today. Our debt–GSDP ratio is around 13.5 per cent, significantly below the FRBM threshold of 25 per cent. For the last two decades, we have kept the fiscal deficit under 3 per cent. We began the current year with a revenue surplus of over ₹31,000 crore, and our capex–GSDP ratio is about 6.6 per cent, one of the highest in the country. That fiscal strength has gone into social and physical infrastructure. Institutional deliveries stand at around 94 per cent, poverty and infant mortality have seen some of the steepest reductions in India, and on NITI Aayog’s Fiscal Health Index we rank number one with a substantial lead over the next state.
Black Swan Summit India 2026 sits squarely on top of this long-term story. We are not hosting it as an event manager; we are positioning Odisha as an execution hub for India’s AI and FinTech journey. The Summit is designed to connect frontier technologies with skilling, jobs and real-world implementation under our BharatNetra initiative. It signals that India’s digital future will not be built only from Delhi or Bengaluru; it will also be built through state platforms that have credible governance, fiscal resilience and the capacity to deliver at scale.
The Summit is being graced by the President of India, Droupadi Murmu. How does her presence shape the institutional and policy significance of this platform, particularly for state-led digital governance initiatives?
The presence of the Hon’ble President confers constitutional gravitas. It tells the country and the world that what is happening in Bhubaneswar is not a one-off showcase, but part of a serious, state-led contribution to Viksit Bharat 2047.
Over the last one-and-a-half years, the Prime Minister has visited Odisha multiple times and has repeatedly described the state as the gateway to the development of the East. His participation in our investors’ summit last year and now the President’s presence at Black Swan Summit together underline a clear message: Odisha is expected to be a key execution arm of India’s growth story.
For us, her presence helps move the Summit from “conference” to “institutional convening”. It reinforces alignment between national missions and state priorities, and it strengthens the credibility of our digital governance agenda—whether it is going paperless through OSWAS, deepening financial inclusion, or building a globally connected FinTech and InsurTech ecosystem.
Much of India’s AI discourse today is driven at the national level. From a state government perspective, what does “operationalising AI” actually mean in practical terms?
Operationalising AI, in our view, means three things. First, moving from pilots to production systems. Every state today can show you a handful of pilots. We are saying: identify clear use cases, ensure data readiness, define procurement pathways, and appoint accountable ownership inside departments. That is why we have designated AI Champions in each department who anchor use-cases and implementation.
Second, building AI-enabled workflows in public service delivery where outcomes are measurable—time saved, errors reduced, targeting improved, leakages plugged. Our OSWAS platform (Odisha Secretariat Workflow Automation System), which we began as an advanced eOffice in 2008, is a good example of how we treat digital governance as core infrastructure. Today, around 50,000 users across nearly 5,000 offices work on OSWAS. More than 40 lakh files and over 3 crore documents have moved through it. We are now entering its third phase with the goal of becoming fully paperless by March 2027, including seamless access over the internet so that officers can clear files anywhere, anytime.
Third, putting governance guardrails in place before we scale—privacy, security, model oversight, audit trails and grievance redressal. AI cannot be something we improvise our way through. It has to sit on top of clear rules and strong institutions.
Which sectors in Odisha—such as agriculture, healthcare, education, or governance—are best positioned for early AI deployment, and what preparatory work is the state already undertaking?
We see four early-mover sectors, plus a horizontal priority.
The first is governance and service delivery. Because the systems are state-run, the opportunity to rewire workflows is enormous. We are working on AI-enabled decision support and file processing so that citizens experience faster, more predictable services. The upcoming “Suśāsan Sahayak” chatbot for government employees is a good example—it will be able to answer questions on rules such as the Odisha General Financial Rules, procurement norms and procedures, helping officers take decisions faster and with greater confidence.
The second is healthcare, especially in areas like triaging, telemedicine and supply-chain optimisation for drugs and diagnostics in remote districts.
The third is agriculture and disaster management, where Odisha has a long track record—from building India’s first State Disaster Management Authority after the super cyclone, to continuously improving our early warning and evacuation capabilities. AI can enhance yield forecasts, risk mapping, and climate resilience.
The fourth is education—using adaptive learning tools and analytics to improve learning outcomes, especially for students in rural and tribal regions. Across all of this, a horizontal focus is improving productivity within government. If we can make the state apparatus significantly more efficient, every rupee spent on social sectors goes further.
Responsible and ethical AI is emerging as a global concern. As Odisha builds AI capabilities, what guiding principles will shape how these technologies are adopted in public systems?
We are guided by three core principles.
First, public interest comes first. AI must improve access, equity and service quality. If a deployment only automates a process without making it more inclusive or more citizen-centric, we are not interested.
Second, trust by design. Privacy protection, cybersecurity, transparency and auditability have to be baked into deployments, not added as an afterthought. Citizens must be able to understand when and how AI is being used, and we must retain the capacity to audit decisions.
Third, human accountability. AI is there to support decisions, not to replace responsibility. A citizen must always know who is accountable—an officer, a department, a grievance mechanism—not just an algorithm. We are very clear that in public systems, the human in the loop is non-negotiable.
The Summit places a strong emphasis on FinTech and InsurTech. How does Odisha view the role of state governments in enabling innovation while ensuring financial stability and consumer protection?
FinTech and InsurTech touch every citizen—from UPI transactions at a village kirana to pension products and micro-insurance. That universality raises the stakes.
The state’s first role is to create predictable rules and fast coordination for innovators: clarity on data governance, compliance expectations and how they engage with regulators and state departments. Uncertainty is the enemy of innovation.
The second role is to encourage innovation that strengthens resilience and inclusion—credit to micro-enterprises, access for women’s self-help groups, secure pensions for the unorganised sector—while maintaining strong consumer safeguards and dispute-resolution pathways.
The third role is to build the talent and institutional infrastructure that make responsible scale possible. Platforms like BharatNetra and the Integrated Global Financial Technology Capability Hub are designed precisely to connect innovators with regulators, financial institutions and standards bodies, so that scaling up happens in a way that is safe, auditable and aligned to larger economic goals.
One of the core themes of the Black Swan Summit is AI’s impact on jobs and skills. How is Odisha thinking about reskilling and upskilling its workforce for an AI- and FinTech-driven economy?
We treat skills as infrastructure.
Nearly 69 per cent of Odisha’s population is of working age. That demographic dividend can either become a strength or a source of frustration; the difference is skills and opportunity. We realised this early when we set up the Odisha Skill Development Authority and the World Skill Centre and brought in leaders like Shri Subroto Bagchi to chair the effort. We coined the phrase “Skilled in Odisha, Skilled for the World,” and today more than eight lakh young people trained under our programmes are working across India and abroad.
Under BharatNetra, we are now building sector-specific, job-linked skills in areas like risk management, compliance, cybersecurity, analytics and digital operations—the backbone of regulated digital finance. The Certificate in FinTech & InsurTech that we run with the Asian Institute of Digital Finance at the National University of Singapore and the Global Finance & Technology Network is a flagship example. It is a five-month hybrid programme: online learning, in-person instruction in Bhubaneswar and an eight-week industry-led capstone project.
The first cohort started in September 2025 with 385 participants; 195 have completed the programme and will graduate on 4 February. Industry partners are already interviewing them, and we are holding a job fair alongside the Summit. Top performers will get global exposure—under the MUFG Young Innovators initiative, seven students will travel to Japan this month, and others will represent India at the Singapore FinTech Festival later this year. This is what we mean by anchoring skilling to real demand and global pathways, not standalone certificates.
You mentioned BharatNetra and the Integrated Global Financial Technology Capability Hub. Could you explain this framework and how it ties together the Summit, skills, innovation and global capability centres?
BharatNetra is our integrated framework for turning digital growth into jobs, innovation and inclusion. It emerged from an MoU we signed during the historic visit of the President of Singapore, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, to Odisha in January 2025. It reflects a shared belief that trusted digital systems can be a powerful enabler of collaboration, investment and inclusive growth.
We execute BharatNetra through four interlinked pillars.
Global Learning is about skills—programmes like the FinTech & InsurTech certificate that aim to train 7,000 students over five years and align them with the needs of global financial and technology institutions.
Global Mindshare is where Black Swan Summit India sits. By hosting a high-level global forum on technology, finance, jobs and inclusion, Odisha puts itself on the policy and investment map and signals seriousness about long-term engagement.
Global Innovation is about creating a Centre of Excellence and a strong startup ecosystem in FinTech and InsurTech, supported by our IT Policy 2025 and the upcoming FinTech Policy. Our incubators are already attracting entrepreneurs from Odisha and from other states.
Global Capability is the fourth pillar. We have earmarked land, planned modern infrastructure and notified the GCC Promotion Policy 2025 to attract Global Capability Centres in advanced digital finance. The idea is simple: policy becomes skills; skills become jobs; innovation becomes enterprises; and global capital becomes durable local impact.
The Summit brings together more than 1,700 participants from 24 countries, with close to 100 speakers from 11 countries. What message does Odisha wish to send to the global investment and technology community regarding its AI and FinTech ecosystem?
Our message is threefold.
First, Odisha offers policy and fiscal credibility. We are ranked number one on NITI Aayog’s Fiscal Health Index. We run a revenue surplus budget with high capital outlay and disciplined deficits. That means when we commit to infrastructure, incentives or partnerships, we have the financial capacity to back it.
Second, we offer a strong platform for scale: a large working-age population, surplus power, expanding logistics and port capacity, and a regulatory environment that values stability and partnership. We are a major producer of steel, aluminium and minerals, and we are now adding a strong digital layer on top of that industrial base.
Third, we are globally connected. Through the Global Finance & Technology Network, BharatNetra and the Integrated Global Financial Technology Capability Hub, we can reduce friction for partnership, market entry and cross-border collaboration. For global firms, the proposition is clear: you can hire talent, build and test digital financial solutions here for India and the wider Asia–Pacific, and plug into a supportive policy and institutional ecosystem.
What concrete outcomes and announcements can we expect from Black Swan Summit India 2026? What would you consider meaningful success by 5–6 February?
We are very clear that success will be measured by outcomes, not optics.
At the Summit, the Government of Odisha, in partnership with GFTN, will witness three sets of MoUs. The first is a set of corporate partnerships where firms commit to internships, apprenticeships, capstone projects, startup mentorship and solution pilots with our state agencies. The confirmed partners include Advanze Tech, Annapurna Tech Universe, ESTPL, ProgCap, Propelld, ShovelTech Solutions, Spice Money, Surfin, Symbo Insurtech, Universal Pensions and Vayana—a mix of Odisha-based firms, Indian scale-ups and globally connected FinTech and InsurTech players.
What is unique is that all corporate MoUs are identical in structure and commitment, whether the partner is local, national or global. That creates a level playing field and a collective execution engine instead of isolated deals.
The second set of MoUs focuses on women’s entrepreneurship enablement, particularly for our very large network of women’s self-help groups—about 75 lakh women organised into 7.5 lakh SHGs. For example, our discussion with Ant International is focused on enabling e-commerce for SHG products into Asian and other markets.
The third is an MoU between Startup Policy Forum India and GFTN, which builds a structured bridge between Indian startups and global markets. It gives our startups access to international mentors, forums and investors, while giving GFTN a curated pipeline of high-potential Indian ventures.
If, by the end of 6 February, we have a clear pipeline of projects, a cohort of students and startups linked to real opportunities, and an institutional mechanism—BharatNetra and I-GFTCH—that everyone recognises as the engine that will run after the Summit, we would consider that meaningful success.
How do you see this Summit contributing to a deeper, more execution-oriented dialogue between policymakers, regulators, technologists and investors?
Across India and globally, we often see parallel conversations. Policymakers talk about inclusion, regulators talk about risk, technologists talk about possibility, and investors talk about returns. The challenge is to bring these strands together around specific, implementable outcomes.
Black Swan Summit India is designed to do exactly that. Through main-stage dialogues, expert roundtables, startup studios, investor hours, job fairs and curated networking, we are creating a trusted setting where the question is not “What is theoretically possible?” but “How do we scale safely and inclusively?”
Odisha is willing to act as a testbed for scalable models—whether in AI-enabled governance, digital finance for self-help groups, or job-linked skilling for regulated financial services. If something works here in a robust, auditable way, it can travel to other states and inform national frameworks. That is how a state can add real value to the national AI and FinTech conversation.
How does all of this—the Summit, BharatNetra, your AI policy—fit into Odisha Vision 2036 and 2047?
Odisha Vision 2036 and 2047 is our people-first blueprint for the state’s transformation during India’s Amrit Kaal. It was not drafted in a closed room. More than 3.2 lakh citizens from every district and from the global Odia diaspora contributed—farmers, workers, students, entrepreneurs, women leaders, industry, experts, community elders.
The message that came through is very clear: people want durable institutions, credible governance and genuine opportunity, not short-term symbolism. We have set ourselves the goal of becoming a $500 billion economy by 2036, when Odisha completes 100 years as a state, and a $1.5 trillion economy by 2047.
Black Swan Summit India 2026, BharatNetra, our AI policy, our FinTech and IT policies—they are all instruments to achieve that vision. Odisha is not preparing to merely participate in the global digital economy; we intend to help shape it, as a frontline contributor to Viksit Bharat, built on inclusive governance, youth-led innovation and future-ready digital infrastructure.
