Bhubaneswar: The Black Swan Summit India 2026 kicked off today in Bhubaneswar, witnessing the participation of policymakers, industry leaders, technologists, and global investors to examine the impact of frontier technologies on India’s digital finance economy.
Co-organised by the state government and the Global Finance & Technology Network (GFTN) under the BharatNetra Initiative, the summit places Odisha at the centre of regulated digital finance and sustainable job creation in India.
At the beginning of the two-day summit, Vishal Kumar Dev, Additional Chief Secretary, Electronics & Information Technology Department, introduced Odisha as a state where history, resilience and forward ambition meet.
“Odisha has transformed into a model of governance reform, fiscal discipline, disaster resilience and inclusive growth. Bhubaneswar today is a leading smart city with strong digital public infrastructure, a growing IT and startup ecosystem, and rising global interest in fintech and technology,” he said.
Odisha is emerging as a hub for FinTech innovation
According to him, Odisha is emerging as a hub for global capability centres and fintech innovation. “For the fintech community, Odisha offers three key strengths: scale with inclusion, demonstrated by digital finance empowering women’s self-help groups; a strong talent pipeline of engineers and data professionals; and a governance culture rooted in trust and policy stability. With competitive costs, quality of life and stable policies, the state is emerging as a destination for global capability centres and fintech innovation,” Dev elaborated.
Chief Secretary Anu Garg said Odisha has emerged as a $112 billion economy with strong fundamentals with 69 per cent working-age population and the best fiscal health record in India with two decades of revenue surplus. Rich in minerals and rapidly diversifying beyond traditional industries into EVs, electronics and green energy, the state is focused on value-added manufacturing, infrastructure expansion and ease of doing business, she said.
State aims to create 10 million jobs by 2027
“Odisha aims to create 10 million jobs by 2027, scale to a $500 billion economy by 2036 and $1.5 trillion by 2047, while advancing urbanisation, disaster resilience, women’s participation and positioning itself as a global health and skills hub,” added the Chief Secretary.
A Global Leaders’ Dialogue on Technology, Jobs and Growth brought together Sanjiv Bajaj, Chairman and Managing Director, Bajaj Finserv; Douglas Feagin, President, Ant International; Ravi Menon, Chairman, Global Finance & Technology Network and former Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore; and Michael Schlein, President, Accion exploring how AI, digital finance and global capital flows are reshaping employment, productivity and inclusive growth.
The session on Building India’s Continuous Learning Infrastructure for an AI-Driven Economy featured Prof. Shreepad Karmalkar, Director, IIT Bhubaneswar; Aravind Agarwal, Higher Education Secretary, Government of Odisha; Dr. Amar Patnaik, Partner, A&N Legal Solutions; Debjani Ghosh, Distinguished Fellow, NITI Aayog; and Arvind Kumar, Director General, Software Technology Parks of India, with opening remarks by Tek Yew, Adjunct Professor, NUS-AIDF and Senior Advisor to BCG and the ASEAN Bankers Association focused on aligning skilling systems with the needs of an AI-driven economy.
A debate on Benchmarking Odisha’s Insurance Ecosystem examined the feasibility of the state becoming a testing ground for inclusive InsurTech innovation. Speakers included Kartik Poddar, Symbo Insurance; Harshad Bhojane, Shoveltech Solutions; Amol Gupta, Advanze; Vyasa Krishna Burgupalli, Reesecure; and Dr. Srinivasa Rao, Bajaj Finserv. The discussion was moderated by Arjun Vir Singh, Arthur D. Little, with context set by Tek Yew.
India to lead global conversations on AI-powered finance
The session on Assessing Odisha’s GCC Ecosystem explored whether technology-led or talent-led strategies will best future-proof global capability centres in an era of automation and AI. Moderated by James Boey, CEO (China, India, ASEAN, Europe & Central Asia) and Co-CEO, GFTN, the panel featured Makoto Shibata, FINOLAB; Kimihiro Sakaguchi, SMBC Global Services; Jinya Suzuki, MUFG Global Service; Yanan Wu, Surfin Meta Digital Technology; Karthikeyan, Invest India; and Manas Panda, STPI Bhubaneswar.
A session on Benchmarking India’s FinTech Trajectory examined whether emerging technologies such as AI, tokenisation and quantum computing could trigger disruptive shifts in financial services. Context was set by Takeshi Kito, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, with Dr. Andrzej Gwizdalski, Western Australia Web3, moderating. Speakers included Pratyush Prasanna, Flip.id; Debiprasad Sarangi, IserveU; Suvendu Pati, Reserve Bank of India; Saurav Mohanty, Nucleus Software; and Siddharth Shetty, Finternet Labs.
Together, the sessions underscored India’s and Odisha’s readiness to lead global conversations on AI-powered finance, workforce transformation, and resilient economic growth.