Bhubaneswar: A State Level Tech-Bootcamp on Information Security and Risk Management gathered around 100 officials from the Odisha government and NIC Odisha State Centre at the Odisha NIC in Bhubaneswar. The intensive event focused on equipping government personnel with the knowledge required to navigate an increasingly complex digital landscape and safeguard vital public data against evolving threats.
Addressing the audience during the inaugural session, Dr. Banshidhar Majhi, Vice Chancellor of C. V. Raman Global University, stressed the critical need to identify, evaluate, and mitigate security risks. Adding a strategic defense perspective, Air Commodore Niranjan Kumar Parhi (Retd.), former ADG of the Defence Cyber Agency, delivered the keynote address detailing how artificial intelligence serves both offensive and defensive roles in modern cybersecurity while outlining the key opportunities and challenges lies ahead.
Dr. Ashok Kumar Hota, Deputy Director General and State Informatics Officer at NIC Odisha, welcomed the gathering and outlined the primary goals of the initiative, expressing confidence that the event would deepen security awareness across state departments. Marking the occasion, dignitaries officially launched a new Cyber Security Awareness brochure and released the September 2026 edition of Odisha NIC’s monthly newsletter, The Ascender.
Coordinated by Smt. Shiwani Korah, Senior Director of IT and Head of the Training Division, the bootcamp offered five technical sessions. Senior Scientists Jayant Kumar Mishra, Niladri Bihari Mohanty, and Rahul Kumar Sinha led interactive discussions providing practical defenses against contemporary cyber risks, covering topics such as the Cyber Defence Toolkit, the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, and mobile device security.