The Hindu Business Line : On the growth chart

Looking from all angles, it now appears that Orissa has finally started moving forward to shed the "most backward state" tag by achieving development in almost all sectors.

Mr Naveen Patnaik

Orissa started moving in the path of progress since June 2005. Several IT companies opened their shops in Bhubaneswar and many started buying latest cars and sleek gadgets.

Paradip Port, National Aluminium Company and other industries were busy with their expansion plans. The excitement that Orissa had taken to the development expressway began when the State Government signed a memorandum of understanding with the Korean steel giant, POSCO.

Mr Chosung Sik, former Vice-President of POSCO, and Mr Bhaskar Chatterjee, Principal Secretary of Steel and Mines, after signing the MoU in June 2005. (File photo).- Ashoke Chakrabarty

The much-publicised MoU was signed on June 22, 2005, and it was the biggest-ever foreign direct investment in India. There has been no stopping the hype over Orissa's industrialisation since then.

Team Orissa

Scores of MoUs have been signed in the meantime. Many more agreements, including the L&T-Dubal and Reliance Energy Ltd are in the offing. The State Government has also formed the Team Orissa, an administrative mechanism to facilitate investments in various sectors.

The Chief Minister, Mr Naveen Patnaik, his colleagues in the Cabinet and top bureaucrats have been working hard to make things happen and feature Orissa prominently on the country's development map. The Biju Janata Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition Government has formed a new industrial policy to facilitate industrial growth in different sectors.

While emphasising on setting up of new mineral-based industries, power plants and alumina refineries, the new policy also underlines the need for establishment of downstream and ancillary industries, and agro-based units in interior regions.

The State Government has also formulated a Resettlement Policy to take care of the people who were facing displacement by new industries. The policy has been termed progressive in many ways.

Water policy

A new Water Policy has also been prepared. The document underlines the need for according priority to drinking water and irrigation over use of water by industries. It emphasises that the companies setting up new industries, prepare proper water management plans before embarking on construction.

As setting up of some of the proposed mega industries were getting delayed due to people's demand for better compensation packages and opposition to displacement, the Government has recently taken a decision to encourage the private companies to get involved in the land acquisition process.

Taking the help from the World Bank, British Government's Department for International Development and Asian Development Bank, the State Government is also making sincere attempt to strengthen infrastructure for industrial growth, rural development and improvement of irrigation potential. In order to protect the forests and to manage them well, the State Government has also decided to avail a big loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.

PPP Mode

In order to provide the necessary infrastructural support to the upcoming industries, the State has taken up public-private-partnership approach. Several ports are also being established to cater to the requirement of industries.

Apart from the mineral-based industries such as steel plants, alumina refineries, thermal power projects and cement plants, Orissa has also started attracting big players in the IT and BPO sectors. While companies such as Infosys and Satyam are already running their operations in the State, Wipro, MindTree, Genpact, TCS and many other companies have started the process to start their units in Bhubaneswar and nearby areas.

The State is expecting to cross Rs 1,000-crore margin in IT exports by 2008. Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Orissa has started the process for creating facilities and dedicated complexes to house IT companies and BPO firms.

Focus on tourism

The hotel industry has also started growing fast in the recent years. Many hotel developers, including the Best Western International have started the process of setting up hotels at different locations. The State is now giving emphasis to development of tourism infrastructure. Eco-tourism is also being given due importance to attract tourists and nature lovers. State departments are organising a series of tourism and cultural fairs through out the year to attract both domestic and foreign tourists.

Meanwhile, scores of engineering and management institutes have started drawing students from outside States. The State has virtually started growing as an educational hub in the eastern region.

Even flight connectivity to Bhubaneswar is improving, as private airlines are already operating flights between Bhubaneswar and other cities on a daily basis. More new flights are also in the pipeline.

Rural areas

As nearly 85 per cent of the State's population lives in rural areas depending on agriculture and allied activities, per capita availability of land is going down considerably due to increase in population, the State government has started taking measures to increase irrigation cover in all the 314 blocks.

As paddy production constitutes about 95 per cent of the total foodgrain production, the State Government has taken up a series of initiatives to encourage cultivation of cotton, oil palm plantation, soya cultivation and other crops. In order to prevent distress sale of cotton, the Government has decided to revive the Orissa Cotton Growers' Co-operative Federation (Cotfed) and initiate measures to solve problems facing the cotton growers.

A number of MoUs have been signed with different private companies for development of oil palm sector in different districts. The State Government has also signed a MoU with the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation for establishing market linkages for several agricultural produce grown in the State. The MoU provides that NAFED will escalate its commercial activities in the State for procurement of groundnut, maize, onion, sunflower, sesame and non-Basmati aromatic varieties of rice.

The organisation will also take up contract farming for production of oilseeds such as groundnut, maize and other cereals, pulses, vegetables and spices. A series to other programmes are also being implemented to make quality seeds available to the farmers and help them go in for crop diversification.

Rural development has also become a focus area for the Government in the recent months. Although a number of Central Government funded welfare schemes were being implemented, the Naveen Patnaik Government has recently launched the Biju KBK Yojana to supplement the Revised Long Term Action Plan for the eight districts coming under the backward Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput region. For the remaining districts, the State has launched the Gopabandhu Gramin Yojana and different projects are being implemented under the scheme. In order to supply electricity to the hamlets and small villagers that were not covered under the Rajiv Gandhi Gram Vidyutikaran Yojana, the State Government has launched the Biju Gram Jyoti Yojana.

Revenue surplus

Necessary budgetary allocation has been made for the three new schemes in the 2007-08 Budget proposals. The State has also taken up many reform measures to correct the fiscal problems. These include expenditure rationalisation measures, revenue step-up measures, improvement in delivery system and proper utilisation of resources. While the revenue deficit of the State was Rs 2,574.19 crore in 1999-2000, this had been reduced to Rs 522.30 crore in 2004-05. The State had a revenue surplus for the first time in 2005-06, after a long gap of 22 years. The surplus has been estimated at Rs 1,045.76 crore in 2007-08. Looking from all angles, it now appears that Orissa has finally started moving forward to shed the "most backward state" tag by achieving development in almost all sectors.

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