Plant starts operating in America, taking a chance... (7)

I believe the answer is:

opuntia

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'plant' is the definition.
The answer is an example.

'starts operating in america taking a chance' is the wordplay.
'starts' says to take the initial letters.
'taking' indicates putting letters inside.
'a chance' becomes 'punt' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
The first letters of 'operating in america' is 'oia'.
'oia' enclosing 'punt' is 'OPUNTIA'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for opuntia that I've seen before include "spiny plant" , "Cactus of the prickly pear genus" , "Eg, prickly pear" , "Genus of cacti" , "prickly plant" .)

I've seen this clue in The Hindu.

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