In 1997, with mostly the initiative of Chitta Baral and Suchitra Patnaik, and support of Pramod Meher, a meeting of many IT professionals took place in Utkal University as a National Conference on Information Technology with L M Patnaik as the General Chair. The funds for this were collected/donated by Chitta Baral and Suchitra Patnaik in cash and kind. Support of many local institutions to host e.g. lunch etc was also available. During the Conference, many of the IT lovers of Orissa met in the evening of 22nd December, and decided that (i) a Society called Orissa Information Technology Society (OITS) be formed to continue IT related activities in Orissa, and, (ii) regular meetings for CITs every year may be held around 21st to 24th of December for the uplift of level of IT in Orissa. In that meeting, S P Misra was requested to be the President of OITS, and L M Patnaik was requested to be the General Chair for CIT98.

The above is the genesis of both OITS and the CITS. OITS was subsequently registered in June, 1998 as a Society, and the CITS have been functioning regularly under its auspices. As will be clear from later informations, these have been going from strength to strength with increasing visibility every year as a quality Conference, while serving the purpose of lifting the level of IT in Orissa.