BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government on Friday entered into a partnership with the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) for optimising governance structures to successfully deliver welfare measures and increase policy intervention as part of its ongoing transformational initiatives.
Headquartered in London, TBI is helmed by the former prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair. It will provide advisory support to the state government to enable it to successfully deliver on its overall economic agenda. Even as Odisha has made rapid strides in several sectors, including agriculture, health, education, industry, technology and economy, the state still lacks momentum due to the absence of an overall policy framework and comprehensive economic strategy.
The partnership with TBI will help the state engage with the private sector, attract strategy and potential investors, analyse investments to design effective incentives, set up delivery units by replicating global best practices and tech solutions besides developing communication plans to gain stakeholder trust and create enhanced feedback loops.
Minister for E&IT Tusharkanti Behera said, “The initiatives of the state government coupled with TBI’s expertise in leveraging insights from various public and private stakeholders are expected to further catalyze Odisha’s ongoing transformation.”
As per the agreement, TBI will undertake a range of activities such as current-state analysis, external benchmarking, roadmap design, capacity development and effective communication of core reforms to enhance adoption in the next two years.
TBI has a network in more than 45 countries. It has been helping governments by advising on strategy, policy, delivery and unlocking the power of technology. Its domains of specialisation include governance, foreign policy, investments, infrastructure and cities, climate and energy and human capital.
Special secretary of the E&IT department Manas Panda and TBI country director Vivek Agarwal signed the agreement. Chief Secretary PK Jena, development commissioner Anu Garg, principal secretaries Vishal Dev and Manoj Mishra were present.