interview2019 
Source: Google
Manoranjan Puthal, Managing Director of Odisha Knowledge Corporation Ltd (OKCL)
With the mandate to transform the face of skilling Odisha for a trillion-dollar economy by tapping a mix of conventional and new skills, Odisha Knowledge Corporation Ltd (OKCL) is on the rampage. Led by the dynamic and result oriented Manoranjan Puthal in the capacity of Managing Director, OKCL is en route to 21st-century workplace readiness and digital skills for business & entrepreneurship.
OKCL is promoted by the Department of Higher Education, Government of Odisha, and Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited (MKCL), to create a new paradigm in education and development through universalization and integration of Information Technology in teaching, learning and educational management processes in particular and socio-economic transformative processes in general.
The corporation has trained and assessed more than 85000 youth with its flagship IT Literacy Course Odisha State Certificate in Information Technology (OS-CIT).
A complete Digital Literacy course, with world-class content, OS-CIT has been able to establish a network of more than 500 computer institutes.
Invoking Mahatma Gandhi’s concept of ‘Nai Talim’ or new skills, Puthal(Skilling Odisha for a trillion-dollar economy) believes this is a new form of education and one of Bapu’s last gifts to the world.
With the underpinnings of practical skills, the concept emphasizes the production of Socially Useful Productive Work (SUPW) in which applied skills in work derive new knowledge which in turn produces more profound work.
The synthesis of Nai Talim and Satyagraha can help build a new principle of workforce creation, he feels.
“A workforce which is ready to take on the challenges of the 21 st century and 21 st century workplaces. The narrative is to build such workplaces who are ready for self-learning, self-space learning and self-path learning only by doing Socially Useful and Productive Work (SUPW)”, Puthal(Skilling Odisha for a trillion-dollar economy) says.
Odisha boasts of a total workforce of 175.41 lakh which is 41.8 percent of the total population.
This betters the national average of 38.4 percent. The proportion of male and female workers comes to 67.9 percent and 32.1 percent respectively.
OKCL is tasked with the onerous responsibility of skilling youths and preparing them for tomorrow.
OKCL also offers a range of vocational courses in eLearning mode to enable seamless learning and skilling of the youth.
It also offers a Mastering Track which helps in preparation for various competitive examinations with the help of online evaluation & analysis tools.
In addition, OKCL has implemented the e-Vidyalaya project under ICT@Schools scheme, which provides easy access to technology designed to help students in 4000 Government and Government aided high schools to learn beyond regular classroom studies.
Over a period of six years, OKCL has been able to reach more than 1 lakh people with its mission of Mass IT-literacy, imparting world-class quality learning and skilling.
The unique business model of operating and managing a network of more than 500 learning centers and more than 46000 states of the art computer network has helped OKCL to achieve such numbers.
“It’s a young Odisha in its young days. The majority of the workforce is in their early life and around 50 percent of the inhabitants are ready to take up new challenges. They can only dream of a trillion-dollar economy and also, only they can build a trillion-dollar economy. They need appropriate skills as per the demand of the job market”, Puthal says.
