Union minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions and prime minister`s office (PMO), V. Narayanasamy ; union minister for state for communications and information technology, Sachin Pilot; secretary , department of administrative reforms and public grievances, R C Mishra and Odisha chief secretary, B K Patnaik were the other guest of honour at the event

Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister said that his government had recognised the importance of the information technology sector and had adopted a pro-active policy in promoting investment in the IT sector for economic development.

He highlighted that India has a potential in terms of talent and expertise to develop ICT enabled solutions. Patnaik added that India has already demonstrated the use of information and communication technology in many  areas and  e-governance is going to be a major game changer. He said, “It is important for governments both at the centre and the states to think of  effective and people friendly e-governance strategies for providing  solutions to governance problems.”

“The government of Odisha has developed a number of successful e-governance initiatives like, e-registration, e-commercial tax,  e-treasury,   e-grievance redressal, electronic management of CM’s relief fund, e-admission,  e-district, e-municipality and many more successful e-governance initiatives”, Patnaik said while addressing a huge gathering of e-governance stakeholders at the KIIT convention centre.

Odisha chief minister also released the theme song of national e-governance plan, “Haath pakad lo saath chaloo”. The song has been written by noted lyricist Gulzar and composed by Ustad Iqbal Ali Khan.

Odisha chief minister also facilitated, the best village level entrepreneur operating common service centres (CSCs) from each state.  

The conference has been jointly organised by the department of administrative reforms and public grievances and department of IT, government of India with the department of IT, Odisha government.