The Odisha Industrial Association (OIA) has suggested measures to revive the Odisha State Financial Corporation (OSFC) stating that the corporation has played an important role in redrawing the State’s industrial map.
In an open letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, OIA president Abani Kanungo has said the OSFC should emerge as a single window to provide finance at a competitive rate, issue licences and permissions within a stipulated time and offer services effectively so as to boost the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
The letter, among other things, has suggested upgrading the skills of the existing employees in the OSFC and, at the same time, roping in the best brains in the field to make the corporation a vibrating facilitator in giving a major boost to industries.
Kanungo has called for a massive expansion of the OSFC’s activities by taking the use of information technology (IT) in a big way. Created about 60 years ago under the Financial Corporation Act, the OSFC during this period has genuinely worked for promotion of small industries and small businesses. “The industrial map of the State would not have been as it is now without the contributions of the OSFC,” Kanungo has said, adding that the OSFC has played a key role in creating first-generation entrepreneurs.
During its existence, the OSFC has financed over 28,000 ventures in the State by extending financial assistance of `1,308 crore and creating employment opportunities to around two lakh people. “Now it is high time the OSFC focussed on helping the MSMEs in the State,” Kanungo has stressed in his letter.