2ND NATIONAL CEO CONCLAVE 2026
“Inspiring the nation” • Viksit Odisha 2030
Bhubaneswar, August 2 — Swosti Premium in Jaydev Vihar will turn into the epicentre of Odisha’s growth conversation this evening, as the 2nd National CEO Conclave 2026 opens its doors from 3 PM onwards. Under the banner “inspiring the nation,” the conclave brings together an extraordinary cross-section of business leaders, startup founders, bureaucrats, diplomats and academicians, all converging on a single, urgent question: how does Odisha build itself into a truly developed, future-ready state by 2030?
The conclave is being presided over by Odisha’s Hon’ble Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, whose presence lends the gathering the weight of state endorsement. Around him will assemble a guest list that reads like a cross-section of India’s public and corporate life — members of Parliament, a foreign envoy, a consul general, industry chairmen and Odisha’s own startup ecosystem leadership, all lending their voice to a single unifying mission: Viksit Odisha 2030.
Dignitaries Gracing the Occasion
Adding a distinctly national and international flavor to the proceedings are two guests who have travelled from well beyond Odisha’s borders — Alok Soklal, High Commissioner of South Africa to India, and Madan Mohan Sethi, Consul General of India to New Zealand (Auckland), whose presence signals the conclave’s ambitions of positioning Odisha on a genuinely global stage.
They will be joined by Dr. Rabindra Narayan Behera, Member of Parliament from Jajpur, and Sujeet Kumar, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, bringing the legislative perspective to the day’s deliberations. From the world of industry and enterprise come Srinibash Sahoo, Chairman of The Interview Times; P.L. Harnandh, Chairman, PPA; Manish P. Kiri, Chairman, Kiri Industries Ltd.; Smruti Ranjan Pradhan, CEO of Start-up Odisha; Gajanan S. Kale, CEO of TPCODL; and Prashant Panda, a well-known chartered accountant — together representing the breadth of sectors the conclave seeks to touch, from manufacturing and energy to entrepreneurship and finance.
Five Conversations, One Vision
Structured across five thematic sessions, the conclave is designed less as a ceremonial event and more as a working dialogue — each panel bringing together practitioners who deal with a specific piece of Odisha’s development puzzle, from classrooms to boardrooms, from hospital wards to highways.
SESSION 1 | EDUCATION & SKILL DEVELOPMENT
Beyond Degree: Is India’s Education System Building the Workforce the World Actually Needs?
The day opens with a searching look at India’s education system, moderated by Dr. Pritam Pal, Director of RCM College, in a session powered by RCM. On the panel are Prof. Chandi Prasad Nanda, Vice Chancellor of Utkal University; Prof. (Dr.) K.G. Suresh, Director of the Indian Habitat Centre; Prof. Karanam Umamaheswar Rao, Director of NIT; Dr. Santosh Tripathy, Vice Chancellor of FM University; and Dr. Jagannath Pattnaik, Vice Chancellor of ICFAI University. Together, they represent the leadership of some of Odisha’s and India’s most influential academic institutions, gathering to interrogate whether degrees alone are preparing young Indians for the workforce the world now demands.
SESSION 2 | START-UPS, MSME & ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Building the Future: Why the MSME & Startup Movement Matters Now
The second session, powered by Aquapulse and moderated by Charan Singh, Director of The Interview Times, turns the spotlight on Odisha’s entrepreneurial engine room. Panelists include Sandeep Dhir, CEO of TATA Steel Technical Services; Chinmay Tripathy, CEO of Ecometrix; Poonam Mohapatra, Managing Director of Organelle Farms; Samidha Mahapatra, Co-Vice Chairperson of Magnum Group; and Abhishek Dwibedi, CEO of Aquapulse. Their conversation is expected to address why MSMEs and startups — often the quiet backbone of state economies — deserve a far bigger seat at the policy table.
SESSION 3 | AI & IT
Democratizing AI: Building an Inclusive and Future-Ready Tech Ecosystem in Odisha
Perhaps the most closely watched session of the day, given its resonance with the conclave’s overarching theme, is moderated by Mohar Manohar Mishra, CTO & Founder of Inovaare Corporation, in a session powered by Inovaare. The panel brings together Manas Panda, Director of STPI; Priyadarshi Nanu Pany, Founder & CEO of CSM Tech.; Sujit Routray, Co-founder & CEO of Nyukta.AI; Deepak Kumar Nath, MD & CEO of Threatsys Technologies Pvt. Ltd.; and Uday Bhanu Das, Founder & CEO of Krystellar Aerospace. Their charge is to unpack what it would actually take to build an AI ecosystem in Odisha that is inclusive rather than exclusive — one that reaches beyond metro-city tech hubs and into the state’s smaller towns and institutions.
SESSION 4 | HEALTHCARE & WELLNESS
Future of Healthcare of Our Country — AI, Innovation, Infrastructure & Inclusive Wellness
Healthcare takes centre stage in the fourth session, moderated by Dr. Smita Padhi, COO of HCG Panda Cancer Hospital, in a session powered by HCG Hospitals. The panel features Deepti Sai Prasad, CEO & MD of Ozone Hospital; Dr. Pratichi Mishra, CEO & MD of BPM Medical Services; CA Bidhu Bhusan Nayak, Director of Sparsh Group of Hospital; and Dr. Shakti Prasad Sahoo, Surgeon at Shakti Hospital. The discussion is set to range across AI-driven diagnostics, healthcare infrastructure gaps, and what “inclusive wellness” should mean for a state still building out its rural health network.
SESSION 5 | INFRASTRUCTURE, LOGISTICS, AND EMPLOYMENT
Building Future-Ready India: Bridging the Gap Between Skills, Employability and Infrastructure for Sustainable Economic Growth
The conclave closes with its most wide-ranging session, moderated by Dr. Dibyajit Sahu, Founder & CEO of The Interview Times, and powered by AcreRise. The panel comprises Dr. Ramanuj Narayan, Director of CSIR-IMMT; Pradeep Kumar Lal, Regional Officer (Odisha), NHAI; Rashmi Ranjan Mohapatra, CEO of WSC; Sashikant Barik, Co-founder of Acre Rise; Dhiraj Kochar, Chairman, MD & CEO of Vdeal System Ltd.; and Sandeep Pattnaik, Director (HR) of OHPC Ltd. Their brief is to connect the dots between physical infrastructure, employability, and the kind of sustainable economic growth Odisha will need to sustain over the next decade.
A Conclave with an Agenda
What distinguishes this year’s conclave is not just the scale of names it has assembled, but the coherence of its purpose. Every session, every panelist, every moderator has been positioned to speak to one overarching ambition — a Viksit Odisha by 2030 — built not on slogans but on education reform, entrepreneurial support, technological inclusion, healthcare access, and infrastructure that actually reaches the people who need it.
As the evening unfolds at Swosti Premium, the presence of a Chief Minister, two Members of Parliament, a High Commissioner, a Consul General, and dozens of CEOs and founders under one roof makes one thing clear: Odisha’s business and policy establishment is done talking about ambition in the abstract. The 2nd National CEO Conclave 2026 is where that ambition is being given a working plan.