The recently concluded Make in Odisha conclave 2018, set up as a premier platform for investors to try and look to tap into the State’s massive potentials for a vibrant economy, can finally be declared a success: After a good round of deliberative participation on part of both the State government and investors, investment worth a whopping 4.19 lakh crores have been promised for the State.
The conclave follows the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s vision for a financially strong Odisha, which mostly has been rather a blip on the national radar till now. Projects spanning across fifteen sectors have been roped in, which will also infuse an approximate of six lakh jobs into the play. This was the second edition of the Make in Odisha investor meet, with the first being held back in 2016. In all, 5074 industry leaders visited the State to explore its potentials and a total of around thirty-one thousand delegates had attended the meet which was organised from the eleventh of November to the fifteenth of November this year.
While Kumar Mangalam Birla praised the State’s good governance as a cause for the tremendous growth the State is witnessing in recent years, Mukesh Ambani recounted how his father and late Shri Biju Patnaik shared a deep connection. Ambani harped on Odisha’s 8% growth rate, outrunning the national growth rates and also highlighted the fact that per-capita data consumption rates for Odisha was some of the highest in the country. Tata group’s Chairman Chandrasekharan pointed out the nearly century long association with the State, and proposed a 25,000 crore expansion for the Kalinganagar Steel Plant- taking the Tata group’s total investment in the State to well over a lakh crore.
The success of the conclave clears any doubts over the State’s bright investment landscape and the next edition of the conclave has already been decided between 30th November to 4th December, 2020. These investments promised will help take the Odisha economy ahead by leaps and bounds and give it the much needed impetus it requires: the question remains, can it exploit the advantage now?