Odisha displaces Gujarat as India’s most attractive State for investment

Move over Gujarat, Odisha can rightfully lay claim to the title of India’s most attractive State for investment in 2013.

The State accounts for over one-fifth of project proposals across the country in the first 10 months of the year, which were cumulatively valued at Rs 4.7 lakh crore, according to Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) data.

The investment commitment of Rs 97,833 crore for Odisha came through just 36 projects. These include proposals for a ferro-alloy plant in Ganjam and a slab unit in Jajpur from Tata Steel, a steel plant at Kendrapara from Jindal Steel, a urea unit at Jagatsinghpur from Paradeep Phosphates, a phosphatic fertiliser unit at Jagatsinghpur from IFFCO, a steel fabrication plant at Sundargarh from L&T and power plants by JGreen Power, among others.

In contrast, Gujarat – which was India’s most attractive State for investment in 2012, garnering 22.2 per cent of all-India project proposals valued at Rs 5.7 lakh crore – only bagged 17.1 per cent of the projects for which entrepreneurs signed industrial investment memorandums (IEMs) with various State governments during January-October, 2013.

This was less than Madhya Pradesh, which secured 18.5 per cent of the project proposals. Nevertheless, Gujarat was still more attractive than Maharashtra, which garnered just 9.6 per cent of the funds committed for investment in industrial projects by domestic players during the period.

With projects worth Rs 22,142 crore (4.9 per cent of total investment commitment), Tamil Nadu came after Chhattisgarh (6.9 per cent) and Rajasthan (5.7 per cent) in the list of States that attracted the maximum investment in value terms.

Project count

In terms of the number of proposals, however, Maharashtra continues to top the list of attractive States, accounting for nearly one-fifth of total project proposals across the country in the first nine months of 2013.

Its closest rival, Gujarat, attracted just 14.7 per cent of the 1,906 project proposals for which domestic and foreign industrialists signed industrial entrepreneur memoranda (IEMs) with various State governments in January-September 2013, according to the latest Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) data.

Andhra Pradesh was third in the list, cornering 10.9 per cent of the proposals in volume terms, followed by Rajasthan (6.9 per cent) and Uttar Pradesh (6.7 per cent). Tamil Nadu was sixth in the list with 123 projects, accounting for 6.5 per cent of the total proposals across India in the first nine months of the current calendar year.

Odisha figured near the middle of the list of 35 States and Union Territories.

Improved implementation

Work commenced on more projects for which IEMs were signed during the first nine months of 2013 than in the corresponding period of 2012, an indicator that the economic sentiment has improved.

In January-September, 2013, 368 IEMs with a proposed investment of Rs 61,800 crore were under implementation. In the comparable period of 2012, just 388 IEMs worth Rs 25,767 crore were in the process of being implemented.

A total of 10,520 industrial entrepreneur memorandums worth a cumulative investment of Rs 4.7 lakh crore have been operationalised through the commencement of project work since the IEM Scheme was first rolled out in 1991.

>arvind.jayaram@thehindu.co.in

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