Chennai/Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday urged budding entrepreneurs to come up with technological solutions to address the challenges in delivering public service.
Launching the 36-hour Smart Odisha Hackathon here in the run-up to the Make in Odisha Conclave 2018, Patnaik called upon budding entrepreneurs and students to come up with innovative solutions to resolve the pressing challenges in public service delivery and also those concerning the industry and consumers.
Patnaik said the shortlisted ideas will be implemented as pilot projects and winners will be awarded attractive prizes.
The Make in Odisha Conclave 2018 will be held from November 11-15, at Bhubaneswar.
Patnaik said this will be the second edition of Odisha’s investors meet with the first one attracting investment proposals worth about Rs 2,00,000 crore.
He said about 65 per cent of the projects are in various stages of implementation.
Patnaik said Odisha is fast emerging as a manufacturing hub on the East Coast.
The state has received 400 investment proposals through its GoSwift portal within 10 months of launching it, he said.
According to Sanjeev Chopra, Principal Secretary, Industries Department, the state is the largest producer of metals in the country.
The plan is to have downstream units in the metals sector so that nearly 50 per cent of the raw metals are converted into value added products within the state by 2030 from the current level of 10 per cent, he said.
Chopra said the state government does not sign any Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with any investor and there are no targets for attracting investment proposals in the upcoming Make in Odisha investor conclave.
“We hope to exceed the last edition’s figure,” he added.
The focus sectors for Odisha include food processing and seafood, ancillary and downstream industries in metals sector, textiles, chemicals, electronic system design and manufacturing (ESDM), plastics and petrochemicals and tourism, he said.
Addressing the investors P.R. Venketrama Raja, Chairman, Ramco Group said the group will be setting up a new cement grinding unit in Odisha.
The founder of Shriram Group R. Thyagarajan said the group is looking at setting up a metallurgical unit in Odisha.
The investors’ meet here was organised in association with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
Patnaik met industrialists like M.M. Murugappan, Executive Chairman, Murugappa Group, Mallika Srinivasan, Chairman, TAFE, A.S. Ilanahai, Managing Director, Cetex Petrochemicals, among others.
The Odisha Chief Minister also met actor-turned-politician Kamal Hassan.
Later on, speaking to media persons, the MNM leader said “He (CM Naveen Patnaik) has been delivering good new schemes for people, some of which are pioneering ones at the all-India level. His disaster management has been very good. Since there is a lot to learn from him, I met him and lauded him as a fan and got some advice.”
(With agency inputs)
Prasanta Patnaik