Odisha Technology Ecosystem
Odisha has a technology sector most people outside the state have never heard of. The question is not whether it exists, it does, but whether the conditions are in place to retain the talent it produces, rather than exporting it to cities that will build with it instead.
Founder, Majhi Group & Majhi OS
When I first described building a technology delivery center in Kalahandi to prospective clients, the most common response was polite confusion. Not about Kalahandi specifically, about Odisha at all. The state does not register in the mental map most people carry of where India's technology capacity lives.
This is an information problem, not a reality problem. Odisha has had a functioning technology sector since 1991. The more useful description is that what it has is an IT services ecosystem, large, real, and employment-generating, rather than a product technology ecosystem. Those are different things, and the distance between them is the most important question for where the state's technology story goes next.
What was built
Bhubaneswar's formal entry into the technology sector happened in 1991, when the Software Technology Parks of India established a node there. This was early, earlier than many cities that now carry more prominent technology reputations. The STPI designation brought tax benefits, export infrastructure, and an official framework that enabled technology companies to establish export-oriented operations.
Infocity, the dedicated IT park, was developed in the 2000s to provide purpose-built space for technology companies. It attracted mid-size IT services operations and created a visible concentration of technology employment in the city. Wipro, Infosys, TCS, Zensar, and several other IT services companies have established presences in Bhubaneswar, collectively employing a significant number of people in technology roles.
The talent pipeline feeding this services sector is large. KIIT University alone produces more than 30,000 graduates annually across its programs, with engineering and technology constituting a substantial proportion. NIT Rourkela, IIT Bhubaneswar, IIIT Bhubaneswar, and numerous other institutions add to the annual technical graduate output.
What the services sector created
Twenty-five years of IT services presence in Bhubaneswar has created a number of things that matter for the technology ecosystem's future.
It created a culture of technology employment, families where parents work in IT companies and whose children grow up with technology as a normal career path. This normalisation matters for ecosystem development.
It created a pool of experienced technology professionals, people with 10–20 years of industry experience who understand software development, project management, quality processes, and client management. These people are potential founders, early employees, and mentors for the product startup ecosystem that is beginning to emerge.
It created infrastructure, co-working spaces, accelerators, networking events, and professional associations, that serves both the services sector and is now being adapted for the startup ecosystem.
What it did not create is the experience of building and scaling technology products. IT services companies deliver capabilities for clients' products. They don't develop the market insight, product intuition, and risk tolerance that come from owning a product, watching it fail, learning, iterating, and eventually finding product-market fit. The product mindset is different from the services mindset, and Odisha's technology sector has been almost entirely in services mode.
The product technology emergence
This is beginning to change. A small number of product-oriented technology companies have emerged from Odisha in the last several years. Some are founded by people who worked in IT services for years, developed a specific domain expertise, and decided to build a product around it. Others are started by younger founders who have been influenced by the national and global startup narrative and are attempting to build from Bhubaneswar.
The quality of the technical founding teams coming out of IIT Bhubaneswar and NIT Rourkela is genuine. The challenge is not technical capability, it is the combination of market insight, product discipline, access to capital, and the willingness to tolerate the uncertainty of building something that might not work. These are things that ecosystems develop over time, as more people attempt it, more people fail and learn, and successful exits create the next generation of experienced angel investors and mentors.
The specific opportunity in AI
Odisha's technology ecosystem has a distinctive opportunity in AI that is worth naming separately. The combination of a large technical graduate supply, a cost structure well below Bengaluru and Hyderabad, and a government actively seeking to establish the state as a technology destination creates conditions for AI services and AI-enabled product development that could differentiate Odisha's technology positioning.
The question is whether the state can attract or develop the AI-literate senior talent necessary to build this layer, the people who understand not just how to use AI tools but how to build AI-powered products and services. This is a global talent competition, and Odisha is not yet in the consideration set for many of the most capable AI professionals.
What needs to happen
The transition from services hub to product ecosystem requires several things that don't happen automatically. Risk capital needs to become more accessible to Odisha-based founders. Experienced founders from outside the state need to be attracted to build here or to mentor here. The anchor companies that establish Odisha as a product technology destination, the ones whose success makes subsequent fundraising and talent recruitment easier, need to emerge and be visible.
None of this is guaranteed. Several Indian states have tried to build technology ecosystems that never achieved escape velocity. The difference between those that succeeded and those that didn't was largely a combination of talent quality, capital access, and a few early visible wins that changed the narrative.
Odisha has the talent quality. The capital access is developing. The early visible wins are what the ecosystem is still waiting for.
I am aware, as someone building here, that being in the waiting-for-a-win stage is uncomfortable. It is also the stage that immediately precedes compounding, if the conditions are real, which I believe they are. The people who build here now are not making a mistake. They are making a bet that has a reasonably clear thesis and a timing uncertainty. That is a bet I have made myself.
The people who build here now are not making a mistake. They are making a bet that has a reasonably clear thesis and a timing uncertainty. That is a bet I have made myself.
Manas Majhi built his first technology delivery center in Odisha. He writes about building from places that are underestimated.
See also: Odisha AI Ecosystem: Where It Stands and Where It's Going, Bhubaneswar: Can It Become an AI City?, Odisha Startups: Who Is Building Here
Sources
NASSCOM: India's Tech Ecosystem: State of the Industry 2024
McKinsey Global Institute: India's Turning Point: An Economic Agenda for the Decade
LinkedIn Talent Solutions: India Talent Insights: Engineering and Technical Roles
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Odisha's technology sector actually consist of and how did it develop?
IT services at significant scale, built over thirty years starting from STPI Bhubaneswar's establishment in 1991, earlier than many cities that now carry more prominent technology reputations. The STPI designation brought tax benefits and export infrastructure that enabled companies to set up export-oriented operations. Infocity, built in the 2000s, provided purpose-built space for technology companies and attracted mid-size IT services firms. Wipro, Infosys, TCS, and Zensar established presences collectively employing a significant number of people. The talent pipeline is large: KIIT alone produces 30,000+ graduates annually, with NIT Rourkela, IIT Bhubaneswar, and IIIT Bhubaneswar adding further volume. What this created is a mature IT services sector. What it did not create is product technology experience, the market insight, product intuition, and risk tolerance that come from owning a product and learning from its failure.
What is the key distinction between Odisha's current IT services ecosystem and what a product technology ecosystem requires?
IT services companies deliver capabilities for clients' products. They don't develop the experience of building and scaling technology products of their own. The services mindset, delivering to specification, managing client expectations, optimising for process efficiency, is different from the product mindset: identifying market needs, building something that might not work, iterating from failure, finding product-market fit. This difference matters because the founders, angel investors, and mentors that make a startup ecosystem self-reinforcing come primarily from product company experience, not services delivery. Twenty-five years of IT services in Bhubaneswar created an experienced technical workforce, a culture of technology employment, and infrastructure that can support startup work, but almost no one who has built a product, watched it fail, learned, and built again. That population is what the ecosystem is still waiting to generate.
What would make the transition from services hub to product ecosystem actually happen in Odisha?
Several things don't happen automatically. Risk capital needs to be more accessible to Odisha-based founders: the gap between the technical talent quality and the capital available to fund it is significant. Experienced product founders from outside the state need to be attracted to build here or mentor here. And the anchor companies, the ones whose visible success changes the narrative for subsequent fundraising and talent recruitment, need to emerge. The AI opportunity is the most specific current opening: Odisha's large technical graduate supply, below-Bengaluru cost structure, and government intent to establish a technology position create conditions for AI services and AI-enabled products that could differentiate the state's positioning. The question is whether senior AI-literate talent can be attracted or developed locally, people who know how to build AI-powered products, not just use AI tools.
Did this land? Push back? Add something I missed?
Reply to Manas →Continue Reading
Related writing
OdishaOdisha AI Ecosystem, Where It Stands and Where It's Going
Odisha is not yet in the conversation about India's AI ecosystem. It should be. The inputs are strong, technical talent, cost structure, government intent, institutional density. What's missing is capital, senior AI talent, and a visible first win.
OdishaOdisha Startups, Who Is Building Here
Odisha's startup ecosystem is early-stage, and comparing it to Bangalore misses the point. What's worth watching is not whether it catches up to established hubs, it's whether it develops the founding conditions that produce companies the major hubs wouldn't produce.
OdishaBhubaneswar: Can It Become an AI City?
Bhubaneswar has the talent pipeline, the cost structure, and the infrastructure foundation. The question is whether it can generate the ecosystem gravity that converts those inputs into an AI city.