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New Delhi: Dibyajyoti Parida, an IAS officer of the Odisha cadre who currently serves as the District Magistrate of Puri, has come to limelight in recent years for starting a landmark scheme in Odisha's Ganjam district when he was posted there. The scheme provide free ultrasound services to pregnant women. On the occasion of India's 77th Republic Day, Republic TV caught an exclusive interview over video call with the star officer who has brought national attention for starting off this unique initiative to make quality healthcare affordable to all.

While speaking about the initiative on Republic TV's "Proud To Be Indian" segment, Parida said, “The idea behind the Nirikhyana scheme was to provide free ultrasound services to pregnant women. Today many areas are there where ultrasound services are not easily available. Even if they are available there are structural inefficiencies and the out-of-pocket expenditure is very high. In order to solve this issue we tried to come up with an IT solution where we seamlessly integrated the service providers, the patients, and also the government.” 

The District Magistrate shared that as a result of this initiative high-risk pregnancies could be detected early and it helped to provide proper pre-delivery care to mothers.

"As a result, the pregnant women who were there, they could get better services through public-private participation. We also included many ultrasound units, ultrasound diagnostic centers, because of which detection of high-risk pregnancies went up and because of that we could give very good care to our pregnant mothers, and because of that we could drastically improve the situation,” Parida said.

What Is the Nirikhyana Initiative

Dibyajyoti Parida's ‘Nirikhyana’ initiative provides free ultrasounds at 42 clinics via a mobile app for real-time pregnancy tracking in Ganjam. The program provides free ultrasound scans to all pregnant women in the district, significantly improving maternal and neonatal healthcare. 

Under his leadership in Ganjam, neonatal deaths reportedly reduced by 50% in just two years, and the detection of high-risk pregnancies increased from 4% to 25%.

Who is Dibyajyoti Parida

Dibyajyoti Parida assumed the charge of the Collector and District Magistrate in Puri in July 2025. His role includes managing the administrative and development affairs of the district, which is a major religious and cultural hub. 

Before his current assignment in Puri, he served as the Collector of Ganjam (July 2022 – July 2025) and Sambalpur. He also held the position of Commissioner of the Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC). Parida is widely recognized as a dynamic officer focused on using technology such as dedicated mobile apps to streamline government services and reduce corruption in healthcare delivery.