With the industrial scenario looking dull and fresh investments flow to the State having slowed down, the Odisha Government has decided to go in for an image makeover of the State.
Department of Industries Secretary Vishal Kumar Dev has written to the IPICOl CMD to rope in national level Advertising and public relations agencies for designing advertisements depicting the success stories on the State’s industrial and investment front. These advertisements would appear in the leading business publications like the Business India, Business Today and Business World regularly.
Dev has also asked the IPICOl CMD to prepare a district-wise comprehensive strategy for downstream and ancillary industries. As the State has not prepared such a strategy, major industries are taking the advantage of the situation and the much desired development on this front is not taking place, feel senior officials in the department.
The intended policy in this regard would cover districts and areas where large industries have already been established like Angul, Dhenkanal, Sundargarh, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Paradip, Kalinganagar, Rayagada and Kalahandi.
Most importantly, the State Government has finally decided to formulate a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy. Though the Union Government has formulated its CSR policy, many States like Odisha are yet to have their own.
In Odisha, the CSR issues are taken up by the Rehabilitation and Peripheral Development Advisory Committees (RPDAC) at the district level. Now, the State Government has decided to go in for a comprehensive CSR policy, which would help people at large in the industrial zones.
Dev has asked the IPICOl CMD to engage consultants and external agencies for preparing the framework for a draft policy.