Odisha focuses on industry sector for faster growth
Once an agriculture-based economy, Odisha is now banking on industry sector for developmental changes in the state.
This sector constitutes nearly 40 per cent of the state’s Gross Value Added (GVA).
The state government believes that as the industry sector has strong and inseparable linkages with services like transportation, storage, trade and tourism, it has the capacity to pass on the growth impetus to the entire economy, truly acting as the growth driver.
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik has announced that the state government would provide more attention to the industry sector during the 2020-21 fiscal to address issues like unemployment and migration of labour force to other states.
The chief minister, during his reply to a debate in the ongoing Budget Session of the Odisha Legislative Assembly, claimed that the state has emerged as the “most favoured” investment destination attracting a record 18 per cent of the total investment in the country as per the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) data 2019.
Reaffirming his faith on the sector as the key driver
of economy, Mr Patnaik said his government has doubled the allocation for the department in 2020-21 to `575 crore in 2020-21 from `237 crore in 2019-20 fiscal. This, the CM said, would consolidate the state’s leading position in transformative industrialisation.
“Of the total budgetary allocation, nearly `284 crore will be spent for creation of world-class industrial infrastructure, in addition to utilisation of surplus resources of Industrial Infrastructure Corporation of Odisha (IDCO) for this purpose,” he declared.
In fact, the government of Odisha has been taking numerous measures to harness the state’s potential in manufacturing in order to boost the economy.
“The state aspires to be the industrial gateway for eastern region of India. The biennial investors’ meet – ‘Make in Odisha Conclave’ — and reformers under ‘Ease of Doing Business’ are some of the
examples through which the state endeavours to attract private investment and boost industry sector’s growth,” said Odisha finance miniter Niranjan Pujari.
The Make in Odisha Conclave 2018 had received an investment intent of `4,19,574 crore across 15 sectors. The chief minister had then claimed that the investment commitments would create up to 5,91,000 additional jobs. The 2018 conclave had seen a participation of more than 5,000 industry captains.
In 2020-21 Odisha Budget, the state government has provided an amount of `70 crore to Industrial Promotion Investment Corporation of Odisha Limited (IPICOL) for successful organisation of the third edition of the Make in Odisha Conclave for 2020. Sources said the government was expecting investment commitments of over `7 lakh crore with creation of eight lakh job opportunities in the state.