Mumbai, 14 Feb– Odisha has bagged around Rs 40,000 crore of investments at the Government’s flagship Make in India event in Mumbai today.
The investments have come in from various Indian conglomerates along with half a billion investment from Israel in defence sector.
While L&T has plans to invest Rs 12,000 crore in Odisha to set up an integrated alumina plant in Rayagada district, ITC plans to set up a food processing plant at an investment of Rs 800 crore.
ITC is also developing a 10,000 hectares of agro forest that will provide livelihood opportunities for locals and also would help in generating raw material for its paper business. Meanwhile, aluminium major NALCO has also committed an investment of Rs 20,550 crore for expanding their plant at Damanjodi and setting up at aluminium park at Angul.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who was present at the event, said that the State has been on a fast growth track with 8 per cent annual growth in 2015.
“For one and a half decades, Odisha has shown remarkable growth, commitment to progress along with political stability. We are growing at 8% and are poised to grow at 12% by 2020,” Patnaik said adding that Bhubaneswar topping as the smart city has also attracted lot of investment opportunities in IT and startup sector.
The Government has envisaged a plan to attract investments worth Rs 2.25 lakh crore by 2020 that will also generate 10 lakh jobs by that time.
To achieve this growth, the state is expanding the industrial base and the government has started a new initiative called ‘New Odisha Industrial Development Plan 2020’ that has been unveiled today.
The company is also looking to boost the startup ecosystem in the State. For this, the government has tied up with TiE Silicon Valley, a US-based non-profit organisation encouraging entrepreneurship, and OYO Rooms to set up a startup hub at Bhubhaneshwar.
Patnaik said that it would spend about two per cent of the annual budget towards development of information technology in the state.
“The aim is to create Odisha as a one-stop destination for industries and I’m confident that the industry would support,” he added.
The Odisha investment pitch at the event witnessed all the industry stalwarts including Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman Aditya Birla Group, Y C Deveshwar, chairman, ITC Ltd, Shashi Ruia, chairman, Essar Group, G B S Raju, business chairman, GMR Group, T V Narendran, managing director, Tata Steel and Rajesh Adani, managing director, Adani Enterprises. This also validates the fact that Odisha has emerged as a top investment destination in the country.
Amitabh Kant, secretary, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Government of India, who gave a keynote address, said that Odisha, with enormous natural resources, is the most progressive State in the country. The State is the first to have set up an e-biz portal, a one stop destination for all regulatory clearances.
(Source- The Hindu Business line)
Prasanta Patnaik