E&IT and Wadhwani Foundation organise Workshop on AI Champions for Digital Transformation

Bhubaneswar : The Electronics and Information Technology (E&IT) Department in collaboration with Wadhwani Foundation, commenced a four day-long workshop on “AI Champions for Digital Transformation” for government officials at Odisha State Convention Centre here today.

The workshop was attended by Principal Secretary E&IT Department, Shri Vishal Kumar Dev, Executive Director, Centre for Modernizing Government Initiative (CMGI), General Administration and Public Grievance Department, Shri Vineet Bhardwaj, Special Secretary of E&IT Department, Shri Manas Ranjan Panda, senior officials from various departments, representatives from the Wadhwani Foundation, and other key stakeholders from Odisha’s digital governance ecosystem.

This initiative is part of the Government of Odisha’s ongoing efforts to build institutional readiness and capacity, enabling government departments to adopt Artificial Intelligence (AI) for enhancing public service delivery and governance outcomes.

Inaugurating the workshop, Principal Secretary E&IT Department Shri Dev, said, “This is a critical programme under the broader roadmap of the Odisha AI Mission. It is designed to empower government officials to take a leadership role in advancing the Mission, not only within your respective departments, but also in contributing to the state’s vision of becoming a front-runner in AI.”

The workshop is designed to equip government officers with the knowledge and tools required to conceptualize and implement scalable AI solutions within their respective Departments. Sessions covered key concepts in AI, and Machine Learning, including Generative AI tools and their applications in complex data analysis and content generation, as well as various implementation models.

Participants explored real-world use cases such as an AI tool for pest control management, a vision-based application to improve road traffic monitoring, and a system to assess nutritional levels in mid-day meals, among others.

The workshop also included discussions on how government officials can identify and define departmental problem statements and explore AI-based solutions using structured approaches such as the DMAIC and SMART frameworks.

In addition, sessions focused on the distinction between digitalisation and digital transformation and introduced structured methodologies to transition from ideas to Proofs of Concept (PoCs), pilot implementations, and eventually, scalable solutions. As a next step, participants will consolidate their learnings by identifying relevant governance challenges and continue to collaborate with the Wadhwani Foundation for technical evaluation and refinement.

The Government of Odisha recently notified the Odisha AI Policy 2025 and is actively advancing its key focus areas, ranging from compute infrastructure, skilling and capacity building, innovation, application development, and dataset curation. The state is actively working with institutions such as IIT Bhubaneswar, BHASHINI, and NASSCOM to implement key AI initiatives.

Through this workshop, the Government seeks to build awareness and capacity within departments, launch AI pilot projects, and lay the groundwork for institutionalizing AI-led governance across sectors. These efforts are aligned with Odisha’s vision to emerge as a national leader in AI innovation and ensure the responsible adoption of emerging technologies.

Saurav Pradhan
PRO, E&IT Dept