OTV Foresight 2022: Let’s Speak About Businesses That Turned Pandemic Adversity Into Opportunity, Says Jagi Mangat Panda

The 12th edition of Odisha Television Limited’s annual convention, ‘Foresight 2022--Changing Times Changing Minds’ kicked off in Bhubaneswar today. 

Odisha Television Ltd. Managing Director (MD) & Co-founder, Jagi Mangat Panda started the proceedings with her keynote address and spoke at length about the businesses and start-ups that adapted to the Covid-19 pandemic situation and turned the adversity into an opportunity.

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Starting with a quote that resonated with the Covid era that the human civilization has been living for over two years now, Panda stated, “We don’t always “get over” or “move on” from our trauma. We are forced to make space for it. We carry it. We learn to live with it. And sometimes, we thrive in spite of it.”

“This is what defines the business outliers of the Covid era. The businesses that just did not survive the pandemic, but adapted to thrive during the pandemic. Businesses that turned adversity into their biggest opportunity,” she noted.

Informing that the focus of this year’s Foresight revolves around the topic--- Covid: Winners and the Disadvantaged in the New world order, she said, “It has been a while since we have had business leaders speak about business and trade at the forum. Standing here today, I feel now is the most opportune time to do so. If Foresight 2021 was a celebration of the undying human spirit, Foresight 2022 will honour human potential to grow.”

Panda further said, “In the last two years, the ever-growing list of emerging trends in digital and healthcare transformation, growth of online education, vaccine development, and so forth all point towards that one secret of success i.e. Adaptation and Innovation, which most businesses swear, but,  this especially holds true for start-ups as the culture of innovation is the very premise on which a start-up ecosystem is built,” she stressed.

“Until a couple of years ago, Unicorn was an elusive milestone for start-ups but in what can be termed as a blockbuster year, 2021 saw the creation of 42 Unicorns in India alone. India is now home to the third-highest number of Unicorns in the world after the US and China surpassing the UK and this is indeed a proud moment for India,” the OTV MD & Co-Founder said.

The world is unlikely to return to what it was in the pre-Covid era. As history has shown, choices made during crises can shape the world for decades to come. What will remain critical is the need for collective action to build economies that deliver inclusive economic growth, prosperity and safety for all," she emphasised.