Odisha Yuva Ratna Award–2026: A symbol of youth talent, leadership, and social responsibility; 42 young achievers honoured
Bhubaneswar(By Abhishek Mohanty): In a bid to recognise youth power, creativity, and social contribution, the Bright Odisha Foundation organised the first-ever “Odisha Yuva Ratna Award–2026.”
On this occasion, the Minister for Law and Excise, Prithviraj Harichandan, attended as the Chief Guest and spoke about the crucial role of young talent in the development of the state.
Distinguished guests at the event included Minister Rabi Narayan Naik, Minister Suryabanshi Suraj, MLA Babu Singh, former MLA Priyadarshi Mishra, BJP leader Jagannath Pradhan, and Chairman of Kalyan Foundation Soumitra Lenka.
During the award ceremony, 42 young achievers from diverse fields such as media, sports, culture, health, social service, business, and technology were honoured.
From the media sector, awards were presented to Tanaya Pattnaik (Editor, Sambad & Kanak News), Manas Ranjan Das (Associate Editor, News18 Odia), and RJ Neil (Senior Radio Jockey, Red FM).
From the podcast and creative sector, Banasmita Pati was honoured, while Debashish Samantaray received recognition in the literary field.
From the sports sector, Olympic gold medallist and Padma Shri awardee Pramod Bhagat, former Ranji cricketer Jitu Satapathy, and Sunil Pradhan, Treasurer of the Paralympic Association of India, were also honoured.
In the fields of cinema and theatre, Sheetal Patra, Bibhudatta Dixit, Tribhuban Panda, Subhashish Sharma, theatre director Nalini Nihar Nayak, and emerging actress Priyanka Sahu received awards.
From the music sector, playback singer Antara Chakraborty and opera superstar Piyush Tripathy were felicitated.
From the health and social service sector, the awardees included Dr. Jyoti Ranjan Nayak, Dr. Sandeep Das, Dr. Sanjay Mishra, Rashmi Ranjan Pradhan, Narottam Das, Biswa Ranjan Sahu, Debashish Nayak, Partha Sarathi Mahakul, Radhamohan Mahapatra, Deepak Kumar Mohanty, Narasingha Singh, Punyasloka Mahanti, and Nakul Subuddhi.
Similarly, from the fields of business, fintech, cybersecurity, and entrepreneurship, Anurag Sahu, Rohit Shrivastava, Ramanjeet Mahanti, Saroj Kumar Nayak, Ganesh Prasad Biswal, Nirupama Biswal, Aditya Prasad Das, Abhishek Mitra, Ashish Kumar Mishra, Pushpalika Kar, Rakesh Pattnaik, Deepak Kumar Nath, Mohammad Alim (Director, Metro Group), D. Niranjan Reddy, and social worker Yajnashish Mahapatra were also honoured.
The organisers expressed hope that the “Odisha Yuva Ratna Award–2026” would become a major source of inspiration for the youth of Odisha, symbolising young talent, leadership, and social responsibility.
This sentiment was shared by Sanjay Kumar Mahakud, Founder of Bright Foundation; Advisors Rojalin Pattnaik, Sanjay Nayak (Tutu), and Sujit Raut; Santosh Pradhan, Chairman of Odisha Yuva Ratna Award; and Founder of Odisha Yuva Mahotsav, among others.
