Twelve wide-ranging proposals — from free campus Wi-Fi to a ₹4,708.64 crore pumped-storage power plant — cleared the Odisha Cabinet in a single sitting on Monday, 9 November 2026, chaired by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, signalling a government determined to move on digital access, energy resilience, irrigation and administrative reform simultaneously.

Free Wi-Fi for 601 colleges and no cap on civil-services attempts

The headline welfare announcement is Odisha Shikshanet, a ₹393.62 crore scheme that will pipe free Wi-Fi and up to 1 GB of daily data to students across 601 government and aided colleges. For a state where many students commute from rural belts with poor connectivity, that daily gigabyte is more than a convenience — it is a leveller.

Equally consequential for a different constituency: the cabinet abolished the attempt ceiling for the Odisha Civil Services (OCS) Examination. Candidates who meet eligibility criteria can now sit the exam without restriction on the number of tries — a reform several other states have embraced and one that removes a punishing clock from aspirants who keep narrowly missing the cut.

₹4,708 crore Upper Indravati project anchors Odisha's energy storage push

The single largest outlay approved is the 600 MW Upper Indravati Pumped Storage Project at Ranibahal, Kalahandi, priced at ₹4,708.64 crore. Pumped-storage hydro works like a giant rechargeable battery: surplus grid power pushes water uphill; peak-demand periods release it back through turbines. As Odisha integrates more renewable capacity, grid-balancing infrastructure of this kind becomes structurally essential — not optional.

The project anchors a broader western-Odisha development push visible elsewhere in the same cabinet list: seven Mega Lift Irrigation Schemes in Nuapada worth ₹268.22 crore unlocking irrigation for 8,800 hectares across 59 villages, a ₹99.99 crore in-stream storage project near Patharla village, Balangir securing water for 12 villages, and the ₹81.36 crore Kursud In-stream Storage Project on the Indra river in Balangir district benefiting 17 drought-prone villages across Titilagarh and Bangomunda blocks.

Farmers, panchayats and judicial officers all get new frameworks

On agriculture, the cabinet set a paddy procurement target of 53 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of rice — equivalent to roughly 78 LMT of paddy — for Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2026–27, with farmers guaranteed ₹3,100 per quintal inclusive of MSP and input assistance. The deadline for replacing institutional dealers with private dealers under the Public Distribution System (PDS) was pushed to 30 September 2027, buying time for a smoother transition.

Grassroots administration gets a structural overhaul: the Panchayat Executive Officers cadre is being restructured to 3,294 posts with improved promotion pathways. The Odisha Bovine Breeding (Regulation) Bill, 2026 introduces a regulatory framework for scientific livestock breeding, quality assurance and service traceability — it must still pass the state assembly. For the judiciary, newly recruited Trainee Judicial Officers will now serve one year of institutional training followed by one year of structured Law Clerkship, sharpening courtroom readiness before they take the bench. 19 Assistant Town Planners will be directly recruited through the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) under revised age and educational criteria.

What comes next for Odisha's twelve-point cabinet sprint

Watch for two milestones in particular: the rollout timeline for Shikshanet — the connectivity infrastructure for 601 colleges does not materialise overnight — and the first construction update on the Upper Indravati project, which at this scale typically takes three-to-five years to commission. The Bovine Breeding Bill heads to the assembly floor, where its detailed provisions will face scrutiny. Each of these is a commitment that must now survive the gap between announcement and execution.

Twelve proposals, one meeting. The Majhi cabinet has drawn a wide map — the question now is the pace of the journey.