Ceiling already broken, lot of opportunities for women now: Litisha Mangat Panda

From software engineering to film-making and leading the digital wing of the Odisha Television Limited (OTV), Litisha Mangat Panda has come a long way and has carved a niche for herself in the media industry in Odisha.

Litisha, who is now heading OTV's Business Development, attended a special programme organised by the Birla Global University ahead of the International Women’s Day.

Terming media as the most challenging job today with a lot of opportunities for women than it was in the past, she said that it depends on individuals on how far they are committed.

“During Covid when the whole world was working from home, media was on the ground. We belong to the industry where we do not have the luxury to work from home. Unless one is dedicated and passionate, it gets tough, but there are a lot of opportunities,” said Litisha.

Speaking at the event, Litisha urged students to grab any opportunity that comes knocking at their doors. Sharing her insights, Litisha said, “I never said no to any opportunity that came my way. I don’t want to confine myself in a box and I want to do things that help me, my organisation and the people around me to grow. I love to face challenges.”

While speaking on the occasion, Litisha said that there should be equality in opportunity with neutrality in gender. "A lot of people say that we need more women in our teams, companies, schools but a lot of times we miss on the word equity. We should respect that already the glass ceiling has been broken by a lot of women in the past. Today, we are able to stand in front of everybody and move in society and hold key leadership positions due to the women in the past. If we are facing some challenges today, it implies that already women in the past have broken the ceiling and overcome greater challenges for us. Embracing equity is a very important theme for us to understand and Women’s Day doesn’t mean that women celebrate women, but men, women around the world celebrate women and especially equality in opportunity with neutrality in gender," she said.

According to Litisha, most people in leadership roles are by accidents. There are a lot of times when people tend to ignore certain small things but it happens when people take charge, take a stand and recognise their potential.

Urging students to focus on little things in life, Litisha said that one should always remain focused to move ahead. In multimedia, things were different in the past. But now things have changed and there is a lot of representation in multimedia.

Attributing her success to her mother, Litisha said that Jagi Mangat Panda (Managing Director of OTV) was one of the first women not only in Odisha but in India to be a leader in the media space. In 1997, there were not a lot of women in media; Jagi Mangat Panda has been a role model and an impactful person in the country who made many comfortable to enter the field, she said.

“It is almost 25 years that OTV is leading the media sector and we have been successful as we have not become complacent despite being the No.1 here. We always try to keep the energy going and we don’t think that we have arrived and we keep constantly developing. The pace we move at is much faster than our competitors and others in the industry,” said Litisha.