Odisha , being a growing society, has been creating massive number of educated youths every year. There is need for growth of service and industrial sectors in Odisha to give employment to the educated youths. Odisha has begun intensive industrialisation process since 2004 and have signed many MoUs with various corporate agencies.
The Odisha Government says half of the MoUs have been materialised indicating sizeable drop-outs like Posco, Mittal and a few others. It was a matter of relief for the State Government, when the World Bank ranked Odisha as 7th State in ease of doing business, after Odisha indicated that it is implementing business reform. Now, Odisha is going ahead with investor meets inside India and abroad to procure investments. But the Opposition accuses the State Government of spreading euphoria without any concrete progress in business environment building.
During the Make-In- India Week from February 13 to 18 at Mumbai, the Odisha investors’ meet was organised for a day where the Odisha Chief Minister met industrialists .The Odisha Government claimed to have made a deal for Rs70,959 lakh crore investments in Odisha in mineral, energy and other sectors from companies like Nalco, Vedanta, l&T, Adani, lava, GMR etc. Rs30,000 crore was mineral sector investment promises. Critics are not sure of mineral sector investment as the sector is facing global slowdown. But in the meeting, the Odisha Government declared Odisha Industrial Vision 2025 document, expecting Rs2.5 lakh crore investment in 5 years with employment scope for 1 million youths and SDGP growing at 15 per cent per annum. Time will say how the vision will be met once the State Government declares strategy.
In the Second Investors’ Meet at Bangalore on August 26 last, the Odisha Government unveiled Odisha Start Up Policy 2016 with an aim to become one of top 3 start-up hubs of the country by 2020. The State Government said that it will target 1,000 start- ups in next five years. The State Government claimed that it has investment commitment to the tune of Rs90,490 crore from companies like Chhenai based PSU NlC (Rs25,000 crore) in thermal power, coal and solar power, BEl ltd (Rs2,000 crore) for solar power, JSW Rs50,000 crore and so on. The State Government claimed that 66 companies have discussed proposals in 13 sectors. The Opposition, however, criticised the outcome saying that JSW proposal is the only significant proposal which even could have discussed at Bhubaneswar and investors meet was a non-performer.
But Odisha has taken some steps to create a pro-industry climate. It has formulated a set of industrial policies comprising Industrial Policy 2015, ICT policy 2014, Tourism Policy 2013, MSME Policy 2009, Food Processing Policy 2013, SEZ Policy 2015, Fishery Policy 2015, Start up Policy 2016 and Industrialization Vision 2025 to provide a favorable policy environment. The State has identified six priority sectors such as biotechnology, agriculture and food processing, petrochemical, IT/ITES, ancillaries, textiles and seafood. The State woos the investors by stating in its website that it has set up one investment and manufacturing zone at Kalinganagar, one petroleum-chemical- petrochemical investment region at Paradip, one aluminum park at Angul, one ESDM (electronic and system design and manufacturing) park at Bhubaneswar, one plastic park at Paradip, one biotech park at Bhubaneswar, one seafood park at Daras and one apparel park at Bhadrak. The State claims that over 1,26,000 technical manpower is generated every year from773 tech institutions located in Odisha including a few national institutions like IIT,IIM, XIMB,NIT, IMMT,IIIT,AIMS and research institutions like CIFA,CIPET CRRI, NISER.
The State Government wants to show Odisha as an attractive destination to the investors.
Odisha needs to mitigate the issues of the past to attract the investors. One of the issues was land acquisition which the State Government says that it has solved through creation of land bank. The Government has shown in the website the amount of land available in each district for industrialisation. This is a commendable step. But the Government must ensure that the land is free from encroachments.
The other commendable steps are opening of single window system, investment facilitation cell, central inspection framework, e-biz portal, APAA( automated post allotment application) and Odisha industries facilitation rules 2015 etc. But it depends on how the systems are implemented. In the past, many companies faced legal problems because simple laws like holding a Gram Sabha, were not followed by bureaucrats. Instead of copying models of industrialisation from Center or some States, or raising false expectations on investments, the State Government should re-set its economic design of SGDP first and accordingly create industrial and business environment in needy districts and sectors with monitoring mechanism. laws should be strictly followed and Odisha minerals should be sustainably used even at the cost of zero investment as huge mineral loots take place causing huge loss to the State economy and resources.