Bhartruhari Mahtab, an astute politician, is the leader of the Biju Janata Dal Parliamentary Party in Lok Sabha. The 61-year-old politician was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1998 from Cuttack parliamentary constituency, and got re-elected to the Lok Sabha in 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014 from the same constituency. Mr Mahtab is recipient of the Sansad Ratna Award 2017 and 2018 for being an outstanding parliamentarian.

A veteran of Odisha politics, Panchanan Kanungo was the Finance Minister of Odisha. A leading farmer and trade union leader, Mr Kanungo has fought many battles for the interest of farmers and labour force. He was the president of the Utkal University Students Union and organised several youth and student organisations. He was imprisoned one year and 6 months under MISA during Emergency and in number of political cases.

Archita Sahu, the No. 1 Odia actress and model, is known for her career as an actor in various Ollywood movies. She plays the leading female role in several hit Odia movies like Babu I Love You, Mu Eka Tumara, Chocolate and Akashe Ki Ranga Lagila. Besides movies, she has recently achieved great success as a model. She was the 1st runners up in Pond's Femina Miss India Kolkata in 2013 and won Lakme Absolute Femina Miss Eyeconic Eyes. She also won Miss Talented and Miss Stylish Hair titles in the finale. Before entering into acting, she was a classical dancer. Sahu is a trained Odissi dancer who started learning Odissi dance when she was six years old. She has completed Visharad in Odissi from Akhil Bharat Mahavidyalaya.

An actor and playback singer, Babushaan Mohanty is primarily known for his work in Odia cinema. He made his acting and singing debut in 'Romeo – The Lover Boy'. The only son of popular Odia star Uttam Mohanty and actress Aparajita Mohanty, his real name is Tanmay Mohanty and nickname is Babu. He took Babushaan as his stage name. In 2017 with his release 'Sister Sridevi' he achieved the super stardom. He lost 25kg of his weight for that movie. After this movie he became a superstar of Ollywood industry, giving back to back hits on the screen.

Sukirti Patnaik is the Founder and Managing Director of Indulge, a chain of Beauty and Wellness brand based in Odisha. She is an Electronic Engineer and an IT professional who started her career with Infosys. Sukirti pioneered the professional beauty and wellness industry in Odisha through Indulge. Her goal is to transform the industry and change the lives of the people associated with Indulge. The company is built on strong ethics and values systems which has made Indulge, one of the respected beauty brands in the country. In the next 3 years, she plans to open 100+ salon, create 100+ women entrepreneurs and generate 1000s of new jobs.

Ananya Sritam Nanda, known as Ananya Nanda, is a playback singer from Bhubaneswar who is the winner of the Indian Idol Junior (Season 2). Ananya considers her elder sister Amrita Pritam Nanda, as her inspiration. Ananya has been training in singing under Hindustani exponents Guru Pandit Dr. Chitta Ranjan Pani and Guru Nilamani Ojha. She started her study from DAV public school and now is studying at KIIT International School, Bhubaneswar.

Aruna Mohanty is an erudite Odissi dancer, choreographer and guru with over five decades of experience as Odissi dancer. A Masters in Social Sciences from London, Ms Mohanty balanced her career in UNICEF and dance for two decades before opting to make dance as her profession. She was awarded Padma Shri in 2017. She is currently the Secretary of the Odisha Dance Academy. She choreographed works include 'Srushti O Pralay' depicting the super cyclone that hit Odisha in 1999. She has used her art to examine contemporary and social issues. Besides, she has been a visiting scholar at several universities in the United States of America, such as the University of California, University of South Carolina and Cornell University.

Ms. Jagi Mangat Panda is a Co-Founder of Ortel Communications Ltd. and has been its Managing Director since December 1, 1999. Ms. Panda has more than 15 years of experience in the media and broadcasting industry. Ms Panda achieved a milestone when she was appointed chairperson for the eastern region of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) last year becoming the first woman for the job. For two decades, Panda has built from scratch a broadband and broadcasting company that today is an undisputed leader in the Odisha TV space. Ortel has also ventured into neighbouring Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. She has been awarded and recognized as the Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum in 2008.

Prof Mukti Mishra is the Founder of Centurion University of Technology and Management – the first multi-sector & multi-campus State Private University. Opting out of a successful corporate career in Fortune 500 companies, today Prof Mishra devotes himself to building institutions in some of the most challenging rural and urban geographies of India. He pioneered an approach to higher education that overhauled the existing static higher education sector of India. This model, conceptualized back in 2007, has become a national and international reference point today.

A Post Graduate from Delhi School of Economics, Jugal Kishore Mohapatra joined Odisha Cadre of lAS in 1979. Later, he also obtained Masters Degree in Economics from Boston University, USA. Mr Mohapatra has all round experience in Government of India and Government of Odisha. He served as Secretary in the Department of Fertilisers and Rural Development in Government of India. He was Secretary to Odisha Chief Minister, Principal Secretary Finance and Chief Secretary in the Government of Odisha.

Born to a poor family in Puri, the land of Lord Jagannath, Sudarsan Pattnaik's childhood dream was beyond reach in the shape of education, but destiny had reserved something for him by the serene sea under the soft sunshine striving to leave imprints on the sand of time. He has represented India in many international sand sculpture championships and festivals and made India proud. Gold medals in Russia, People’s Choice prize in Bulgaria and Danish grand prizes are to name a few. He has bagged many national awards. He has set a Guinness World record for creating World’s tallest sand castle. He was honoured with Padma Shri in 2014.

Aparajita Sarangi is a former IAS officer and has recently joined the Bharatiya Janata Party under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Known to be an outstanding bureaucrat, Ms Sarangi was the Commissioner of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation and has immense contribution to make Bhubaneswar the No. 1 smart city. The former bureaucrat says she took voluntary retirement from IAS job and joined BJP as politics will help her serve the people on a "very large scale".

For kids of rickshaw pullers, daily wage earners and municipal drain workers in the millennium city of Cuttack, life would have probably ended in gutters had Devarapalli Prakash Rao not been around. The 60-year-old tea seller who is awarded Padma Shri this year, has been guardian angel to over 70 slum children for last 18 years helping them get educated. Mr Rao, who runs his shop in Buxi Bazar area of Cuttack has been spending more than 50 per cent of his daily income on the education and food of the slum children.

The 67-year-old Koshali poet from western Odisha was awarded Padma Shri in 2016. Clad in a dhoti, the barfeet Nag was almost turned away by the security guard of a Delhi hotel in April 2016 when he went to receive Padma Shri. Though poverty denied him formal education, Haladhar Nag, the son of a labourer couple wrote his first poem Dhodo Bargachha (The old banyan tree) in Koshali language, describing how a banyan tree near the village entry-point, that everyone took for granted, had seen generations of life in 1990. Mr Nag has written 20 books on nature, contemporary issues like farmer suicides, pre-eminence of cricket over other sports as well as the slow degeneration of our society. At least three scholars in Bargarh and Mayurbhanj districts are doing their PhDs on his works, while Sambalpur University has proposed to make his collected works a part of its syllabus.

Ramesh Mahapatra is one among the successful industrialists of the state. He is the Chairman of Magnum Polymers, Magnum Fibres, Magnum Estates, Magnum Sea Foods and Magnum Telesoft, a group with turnover of around Rs 500 crore. Mr Mahapatra has vast experience in entrepreneurship in various sectors. Apart from being the President of the Utkal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the apex chamber in the state, he also holds high positions in many leading industrial bodies and organisations that promote start-ups. He has been awarded as an outstanding entrepreneur by both the Government of India and Odisha government on different occasions.

After completing MBA (International Business) from Pune, Mr Sawin started his career as a management trainee in JNPT, Mumbai. He then moved to Dubai and Kazakhstan to explore further opportunity in the Oil & Gas Industry sector. He left the job in 2005 and founded the Caspian Energy Corporation in Almaty, Kazakhstan and expanded his business empire to India, Central Asia/Russia, USA & UAE to emerge as one of the successful entrepreneurs from Odisha today. His inspiration has been his uncle late Mr, Satrughan Swain.