With the launching of Open Government Data Portal (https://odisha.data.gov.in), Odisha became the fifth State in the Country to open its data for free access and use by all stakeholders in machine readable format. On 17th October 2017, Chief Secretary, Shri Aditya Prasad Padhi inaugurated the portal in the presence of Shri Ashok K. Meena, IAS, Commissioner-cum-Secretary, IT, Shri Rudra Narayan Palai, ITS, Spl. Secretary, Electronics & IT, Government of Odisha, Smt. Nandita Chaudhri, DDG, NIC New Delhi and Smt. Alka Mishra, Sr. Technical Director & Head, OGD team, NIC New Delhi. Smt. Nandita Chaudhari, while delivering the welcome address on the occasion lauded the impressive steps taken by Government of Odisha and offered whole-hearted support of NIC in taking this initiative forward. Smt. Alka Mishra, spoke on open government data and its benefits to stakeholders where State Government is committed to provide conducive environment for the growth of MSME entrepreneurs. Shri Ashok K. Meena told that government departments generate a lot of data during their functioning and implementation of various developmental schemes. These data are very much useful for governance, learning and awareness. Chief Secretary, Shri Aditya Prasad Padhi, IAS said that data is the most valuable resource for the present generation like oil in the 1970s. Artificial intelligence, machine learning and digital learning are emerging as effective methods for the present and the future. Press meet was organized to address the Open data Initiative. The inaugural session was followed by a day-long workshop on open government data, which was attended by Secretaries, Chief Data Officers & Data Contributors drawn from all departments. During the second half of the workshop, Shri Shubhadip Biswas, Sr. Analyst, OGD team, demonstrated the work flow of the software. He imparted detailed training to data contributors on how to create catalogues, datasets and publish them. Shri R.N.Palai, Special Secretary, Electronics and IT delivered vote of thanks. Smt. Alka Mishra, Sr. TD and Shri D.P. Misra, TD, NIC OGD team, New Delhi provided necessary guidance for the workshop and launch of portal. NIC Odisha OGD team including Shri Tapan Prakash Ray, Sr TD, Shri Nihar Ranjan Biswal, TD, Shri Malay Pattanayak, TD, Dr. Ashis Kumar Mahapatra, TD headed by Dr. A.K. Hota, Sr. TD coordinated the workshop. Shri P.K. Pramanik, DDG & SIO Odisha guided the team from time to time.