Odisha clears AI policy to bolster good governance; approves Rs 171 crore Joranda project
BHUBANESWAR: The state cabinet on Wednesday approved the Odisha Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy-2025 to improve governance, stimulate innovation, enhance data-driven decision-making and enable inclusive socioeconomic development.
The highlight of the policy approved at the cabinet meeting presided over by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi is creation of a dedicated AI Mission which will serve as the highest institutional mechanism to implement AI initiatives across departments, coordinate pilot projects and provide support to public agencies, startups and academic institutions.
The Mission will have a two-tier governance structure comprising a taskforce and a cell to drive cross-sectoral AI adoption and facilitate pilot projects, chief secretary Manoj Ahuja told mediapersons.
The chief secretary said the Mission will also identify high impact AI use cases across critical sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, education, climate change, disaster management and governance. The Mission has been mandated to work for AI-assisted disease prediction and screening, smart irrigation and crop diagnostics, multilingual AI tools for personalised education, predictive disaster response system and intelligent citizen engagement platforms.
The chief secretary said in line with global standards, the policy places emphasis on ethical and responsible deployment of AI. Besides, the policy proposes robust data governance frameworks and institutional mechanisms to prevent misuse, bias and harm. It also commits to align Odisha's AI development with national and international best practices, he said.
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