BHUBANESWAR: The State Government on Saturday announced to set up 11 new industrial estates in 10 districts for development of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) and down stream industries.
Announcing this in the Assembly, Industries Minister Debi Prasad Mishra said the State-run Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) has taken the initiative to
establish industrial estates in Angul, Balasore, Bhadrak, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur, Jharsuguda, Khurda and Sundargarh.
Stating that the industry sector contributed about 25.16 per cent of the gross state domestic products (GSDP) in real terms as per the estimates of 2012-13, the Minister said the share of this sector is expected to rise to 25.4 per cent as per the advance estimates for 2013-14.
Claiming that the State has been able to attract investments of about `8,00,000 crore for 238 projects till March 2014, the Minister in his reply to the discussion on the demand for grants of Industries Department said projects worth over `2.15 lakh crore have already been grounded in steel, power, aluminium, cement sectors.
The industry sector has generated direct employment of more than one lakh, he said.
As per the September 2013 report of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Odisha has emerged as the hottest investment destination and the State has managed to get 27 per cent share of the total investment of the country.
The Minister said the Government has taken a series of measures to boost the confidence of investors. A new industrial policy resolution (IPR-2014), corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy and special economic zone (SEZ) policy for the State will be ready by the end of this year.
He further announced that a road map for industrial growth of the State will be prepared.
The Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Odisha Limited (IPICOL) is in the process of selecting a professional agency to prepare the road map (2015-22) by the end of this fiscal.
While a mechanism in line with CCI-PMG (Cabinet committee on infrastructure project monitoring group) framework of Cabinet Secretariat has been put in place in the State to monitor investments of over ` 100 crore, efforts are on to create a database on GIS platform of the industries in the manufacturing sector, he said.
Initiating the discussion on the budget demands of Industries and Steel and Mines departments, Naba Kishore Das (Cong) said the State Government has not taken any visible action against the mines owners who were raising minerals, in violation of all statutory rules and regulations. He demanded a CBI probe into the mining scam as recommended by the Justice MB Shah Commission.
The demand for grants of the two department were passed through voice votes while demands of 22 other department were guillotined.