Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government today held a high-level strategic meeting with the leadership of Sarvam, an Indian artificial intelligence company, as part of the state’s ongoing efforts to build a secure, inclusive, and sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem aligned with Vision 2036 and Vision 2047.

The discussions focused on establishing artificial intelligence as a long-term public capability, with emphasis on sovereign infrastructure, population-scale applications across key sectors, and durable institutional capacity within the state.

The meeting was attended by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, Electronics & IT Minister Mukesh Mahaling, Chief Secretary Anu Garg, and senior officials of the state government as well as Sarvam.

Govt plans sovereign AI infra

During the discussions, the state government outlined its approach to developing shared, sovereign AI infrastructure, including secure compute and state-governed data platforms, to ensure that public data, AI models, and intelligence systems remain within Odisha’s trust boundary. The shared infrastructure is envisioned as a common resource for departments, enabling scale, security, and long-term sustainability while avoiding fragmented investments.

The government also emphasised the deployment of population-scale, voice-enabled AI applications across sectors such as education, agriculture, healthcare, e-governance, and public safety. These systems are intended to strengthen last-mile delivery of government schemes by enabling citizens—particularly in rural, tribal, and low-literacy contexts—to access information on entitlements, benefits, and grievance redressal through simple conversational interfaces.

To enable timely implementation, both sides discussed a parallel one-year execution framework, under which departments would prepare datasets, identify priority use cases, and develop applications alongside the commissioning of core AI infrastructure, ensuring that services are rollout-ready without delay.

The discussions also underscored the need to build durable institutional capacity, including training of government officials, support for applied research, and development of local technical talent, to ensure AI systems can be governed, sustained, and evolved by the state over the long term.

Govt likely to ink MoU with private player

The state also indicated that it is planning to formalise the partnership through the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) during the Black Swan Summit scheduled to be held on February 5 and 6.

Sarvam is an Indian artificial intelligence company focused on building foundational AI models and systems for public-sector and large-scale governance use cases, with particular emphasis on speech, language, and population-scale deployments suited to Indian contexts. Its work positions it as a potential indigenous partner aligned with Odisha’s objectives of building sovereign AI capabilities.

“Odisha must follow a model where we do not merely adopt technology, but become a harbinger of technology for others to follow. Artificial intelligence gives us an opportunity to set new benchmarks in governance and public service delivery,” said the Chief Minister.

The Minister for Electronics & IT reiterated the importance of AI in high-impact domains such as agriculture and healthcare, noting that population-scale deployment in these sectors can deliver tangible improvements in livelihoods and well-being, while also reducing the burden on frontline workers.

“It is high time that Odisha emerges as a leader in technology, especially in artificial intelligence, through the true democratisation of AI—ensuring its benefits reach citizens across sectors and geographies,” said the Chief Secretary.