The Utkala Deepika was the first Odia printed newspaper.

[1] The weekly paper was started on 4 August 1866 (1866-08-04) by Gourishankar Ray and Babu Bichitrananda Das.

Therefore, 4 August is celebrated as Odia Journalism Day.

[2] This weekly was instrumental in campaigning of bringing all Odia speaking tracts under a single province in India to develop the Odia language.

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