Anil Kumar Pradhan, an artificial insemination technician recently won the National Gopal Ratna Award for his contribution towards the country’s artificial insemination programme, and raising the income of farmers and cattle breeders.

Hit by the rise of online book selling, a bookseller in Odisha turned into a farmer and started cultivating aromatic plants. His startup, Utkal Aromatics, has an annual turnover of Rs 15 lakh.

Weaving palm leaves together to make decoration pieces, and weaving traditional headgears with siali leaves are the ancient crafts of the Bhumij tribe. A Balasore-based charitable trust is working with villagers to keep the craft alive.

A high yielding variety of Kufri potatoes has been introduced in Koraput in Odisha where over 7,000 farmers are reaping profits. These ‘rain’ variety potatoes are sown in July during peak rains and harvested in October.

A research project in Odisha is working on the possibility of promoting wild yams commercially. These tubers grow in abundance in the state’s tribal areas and are high in nutrition.

Kishore Kumar Jena, from a village in Odisha, started off as a volleyball player, but stands tall today as he wins the silver at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, and qualifies for the Paris Olympics next year.

ओडिशा के पुरी में सहायक नर्स और मिडवाइफ (एएनएम) मंजुलता ने डॉक्टर या नर्स के न होने पर भी 105 महिलाओं के सुरक्षित प्रसव में मदद की है। उन्हें इस जून में राष्ट्रीय फ्लोरेंस नाइटिंगेल पुरस्कार 2023 से सम्मानित किया गया।

Between August 2022 and May 2023, Manjulata Maharana, an Auxiliary Nurse and Midwife (ANM), successfully assisted 105 women in Puri district give birth safely, in the absence of a doctor or a nurse. She received the National Florence Nightingale Award 2023 this June.

Biswanath Tudu’s work has helped promote the Ol Chiki script of the Santali language. In 2010 when Biswanath Tudu got the Akademi Award, there were less than 100 Ol Chiki litterateurs in Odisha who read and wrote this unique script, but now their number has increased to over 300.

Women from the Kondh tribal community in Kandhamal, Odisha have been trained to make laddus from the mahua flowers that has enhanced their livelihood. The state government plans to introduce these nutritious laddus in anganwadis and tribal residential schools.