Odisha’s industrial sector, be it manufacturing or services, looks to be in deep red. Industries of all hues operating in the State have cumulatively earned a loss of whopping `3,340 crore in the financial year 2014-15 vis-a-vis a profit of `5,829crore in 2013-14.
It’s time to ponder over for the State Government as when it goes on overdrive to bring in capital investments via a saga of ‘Make in Odisha’ conclaves, the significant revelation is that capital investment by the operating industries saw a whopping decline of 58 per cent as the gross capital formation of the industries dipped to a mere `12,898 crore in 2014-15 from a high of `30,672 crore in 2013-14.
These slipups are not without any impact. The biggest fallout is discernible on industrial growth as Odisha has slipped to the 17th rank in 2014-15 from 12th in 2013-14 in terms of Net Value Added (NVA), which measures how much a State contributes to industrial growth of the country as a whole.
What looks worrying is Odisha now languishes at the bottom among all big States in 2014-15 compared to 2013-14. All its neighbouring States stayed ahead of it. Even, hilly States like Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh have recorded a far higher NVA by their industries than that of by Odisha. NVA of operating industries in Odisha has dipped to `16,685 crore from over `20,749 crore in 2013-14.
And the fallout is not only on industrial growth. The adverse impact of weak industrial performance on jobs creation was quite stark as the total persons engaged per factory in operation declined to around 94 in 2014-15 from around 109 in 2013-14. Even, total emoluments paid to employees by the industries in Odisha saw a sort of stagnancy as it showed only a 15-per cent rise. The result: Wages per worker hovers around `5,200 per month in 2014-15, the same as was in 2013-14.
Such glaring blips in the State’s industrial health have been brought to the fore by the recently-released Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) 2014-15 by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The ASI 2014-15 reveals much more as it shows how the NVA per factory in 2014-15 saw a steep dip to `595 lakh from a high of `797 lakh in 2013-14. However, the only heartening fact is the number of operating factories in Odisha has shown a rise by around 3 per cent in 2014-15.
Other vital facts to note are: Only 5.5 per cent of factories in Odisha employ 100 persons against around 11 per cent nationally. A whopping 55 per cent factory in the State employs less than 14 persons against the average of only 41 per cent factories nationally. This reveals how job creation in Odisha has been on a smaller scale in comparison to the national scenario.