Why was Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik apparently forced to an action mode post the SUM Hospital fire mishapIJ A most plausible answer is the inferno took place at a time when the CM is working hard, even by making trips to Delhi, to organise a ‘Make in Odisha Conclave’ in the State capital next month.
And, significantly, the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) in its 2015 Business Risk Survey rated fire as number 9 in the top-ten risk factors for business and investment.
Odisha, which is already saddled with ‘natural hazards’ risk, ranked number 12 in the report in this regard, coupled with the Maoist insurgency risk ranking number 1 in the report, could lose out when the SUM fire caught national imagination like wildfire, especially the national capital, when the CM was knocking at the doors of foreign embassies.
An interesting fact is almost all neighbouring States like West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and, now, Madhya Pradesh are organising such events since quiet a long time to lure investments. With Odisha slipping brick-by-brick in the investments list every year, the CM seemingly pressed the panic button to refurbish the Brand Odisha image.
However, the FICCI 2015 Business Survey Report has a warning bell for the CM when it highlighted corruption, bribery and corporate fraud as the second topmost risk for business and investment in eastern India that includes Odisha. And, above all, the FICCI report rated crime as the number 3 risk factor in eastern India.
Significantly, the ground scenario in Odisha resonate the findings of the survey. When the homegrown chit fund scam shows the lax financial monitoring system in Odisha as well as poor corporate ethics, the sudden rise in bank robberies in 2016 sends the wrong message to the investor community about the prevailing law and order scenario in the State.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Odisha figured as the number 3 State in the country that recorded most dacoity cases in 2015. All neighbouring States, except Bihar, has a better statistics to show. Moreover, when in bank robbery cases Odisha was among the top-5 vulnerable States.
To top it all, the NCRB data show that when Odisha records a whopping property stolen worth Rs 11,144 lakh, the State police could recover less than one-third (31%) of the stolen property. Significantly, when Odisha is making a hard attempt to bring investments in the infrastructure sector, the bad news for the State Government is FICCI Risk Report-2015 rated crime as the number
one risk factor for infrastructure industries.
The bottom-line: Time for the State Government to mitigate the emerging prominent risk factors for business and investment, if it wishes to see success of the ‘Make in Odisha, in November.