Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Saturday rolled out the Odisha chapter of the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP), a NITI Aayog-backed initiative aimed at promoting women-led entrepreneurship across the state.
Launching the platform during the ‘Udyami Odisha MSME Programme’ held on International MSME Day, Majhi emphasized that the initiative is designed to strengthen women’s economic leadership by offering seamless access to funding, mentorship, marketing networks, and skill development.
“This is a grand campaign of women’s economic leadership in the development journey of Odisha,” the chief minister said.
“Our goal is to create such an Odisha where women will not only seek jobs, but will also create jobs, will not only be consumers of various products, but will also create the products themselves, they will not only be partners in development, but will also take the lead in development,” he said.
Majhi also introduced the WEP’s one-year action plan and underscored the success of the state’s ‘Subhadra Yojana,’ noting that the scheme has empowered over one crore women on their path toward self-reliance.
According to a statement from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), survey data from IIM Sambalpur, SBI, and an AI Voice Bot revealed that the share of women-led enterprises in Odisha has surged from 25 percent to 53 percent, alongside an average increase of Rs 6,887 in beneficiaries’ bank deposits.
The CMO said the WEP would bring together Mission Shakti, the MSME department, Startup Odisha, banks and industrial institutions to provide women entrepreneurs with financial assistance, marketing support, mentorship and skill development.
Describing the MSME sector as the bedrock of Odisha’s economic progress, Majhi inaugurated a Rs 24.18-crore rice milling cluster in Balasore focused on rice bran oil manufacturing, and laid the foundation stone for a Rs 17.70-crore Rasogola Cluster at Pahal near Bhubaneswar to scale up production of the iconic local sweet.
Additionally, he opened two multi-product MSME parks at Barpally in Ganjam district and Kesinga in Kalahandi district, both developed at a cost of Rs 10 crore each.
The chief minister announced that clusters dedicated to engineering, printing and packaging, and cashew processing are slated for launch soon, adding that a multi-product MSME park is currently being established in every single district.
Over 4.32 lakh MSMEs in Odisha have thrived due to joint initiatives by the Central and state governments, he noted, adding that the sector will be pivotal in driving the state toward its target of becoming a USD 500-billion economy by 2036.
NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Ashok Kumar Lahiri, who attended the event, said Odisha had emerged as a “rising star” with a high growth rate and topped the NITI Aayog Fiscal Health Index 2026 due to investments in health and infrastructure.
Deputy Chief Minister Parvathi Parida said the launch of the WEP marked the beginning of a new chapter for women entrepreneurs in the state.
