The year 2015 seems not to give a prosperous beginning for Odisha as it has slipped to fourth position in the industrial investments in the country in the year 2014, according to reports. Chhattisgarh with a whopping Rs1,62,584 crore has zoomed past to occupy the number one position in the country.
Odisha had to remain content with meagre Rs28,219 crore. This could be a shocker for the State as in the year 2013 it was at the helm with a whopping Rs98,723 crore. Not only this, the State received the highest industrial investments nationally during the 11th Five-Year Plan (2007-12).
According to the official data available with Industry Ministry, during the 11th Plan ended on March 31, 2012, Odisha topped the national chart with a whopping Rs11.86 lakh crore proposed investments. Gujarat and Maharashtra, however, lagged behind with only Rs6.5 lakh crore and Rs5.9 lakh crore investments.
And despite the highest investment in 2013, the latest data shows up that in the two years of the current 12th Plan period the State has slipped to 2nd slot in the country. But the fine print brings to fore a rude shocker for the Government as despite being at the helm on industrial investment chart for over half-a-decade, the State has seen only fewer job opportunities for its vast unemployed populace.
Though the State received the highest industrial investment till 2013 yet these investments churned out around two lakh jobs only. In contrast, Gujarat and Maharashtra with lesser amounts saw creation of over six lakh jobs each. The data suggests that when Gujarat and Maharashtra for every Rs1 lakh crore investment created an employment potential of around one lakh, Odisha could create a mere around 14,000 only. Even, Chhattisgarh had created over 27,000 jobs per Rs1 lakh-crore investment.
Metallurgical sector seems to have failed in the State as it is no big employment generator in the country. A comparative analysis brings to fore the divide. Food processing industry gives the maximum employment followed by engineering goods, electrical/electronic equipment and chemical/petrochemicals.
While metallurgical could see creation of around 66, 000 jobs per one lakh crore investment, food processing sector with an investment of mere Rs30,000 crore (one-third of the metallurgical) generates 85,000-90,000 jobs.
Engineering goods create roughly 50,000 opportunities and electrical/electronic sector around 40,000 with only one-third of the investment of that of metal sector. Petrochem too produces roughly 80,000 jobs and infra around 75,000 per one lakh crore investment.
Gujarat scores over Odisha with less investment because its investment intentions are highly diversified. Infra sector leads the investment chart followed by petrochemical and metallurgical. As Odisha is not conducive for petrochemical investment, it is futile to count. But the proposed infra investments in Gujarat have generated or will generate around 1.75 lakh jobs. It has also received substantial investments in engineering goods, food processing and electrical sectors.
On the contrary, Odisha saw around four-fifth of its investments in metal, power and related downstream sector only. Even the proposed investments remained on the paper only thanks to mining-gate, coal-gate and land acquisition imbroglio. Odisha could implement only around 10 per cent of the 662 investment intentions it received in the 11th plan (2007-12). The implementation has slipped further in the 12th Plan period (2012-14) thanks to economic slowdown.