Odisha Attracting Huge Investments Despite COVID-19 Crisis, Says Study By MSME EPC

Bhubaneshwar: Despite COVID-19 which triggered a global economic crisis, Odisha attracted record new investment proposals of more than Rs 4,54,175 crore in four years, according to a new study.

The investment proposals received in four financial years from 2018-19 to 2021-22, generated over one lakh job opportunities, said the study on “investment, growth & development in Odisha – a land of opportunities”.

The study jointly conducted by the MSME Export Promotion Council and Confederation of Organic Food Producers & Marketing Agencies was released in Bhubaneswar by MSME EPC chairman Dr D S Rawat.

During this period, Rs1,26,529.53 crore investment projects were completed and many of the projects were in advance states of completion, Rawat said.

He said the state has witnessed rapid transformation in the past decade in terms of industrialisation and become ‘preferred destination for investors’ is successfully attracting the highest investment for the last few years resulting big boost to the all round growth.

The study analysed the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy’s (CMIE) data related to new investment proposals, projects completed and revived and outstanding as well as under implementation projects.

During the pandemic period of 2020-21 which severely affected the entire world, the state attracted new investment proposals of Rs.112188.46 crore, completed the projects worth Rs.26268.42 crore, and revived the projects of Rs.3344.10 crore.

It was noted that the total outstanding investment projects were Rs 1643994.45 crore and under implementation of Rs.884090.55 crore.

In 2021-22, the new investment projects announced were of Rs 112329.04 crore, completed projects were of Rs.21031.10 crore, the total outstanding projects were of Rs 1765831.77 crore and under implementation of Rs 927630.87 crore.

Export of all commodities, including petroleum & crude and non-petroleum products such as agriculture & allied, minerals, manufactured goods and other commodities has been significantly increasing.

Rawat said, the study found that the state has been at the forefront of the adoption of IT and experimenting with emerging technologies to drive and transform governance in the state to positively impact the lives of the citizens.

Due to the effective execution of the policy initiatives, the state has increasingly become the destination for modern technology companies in the eastern part of India. All the major IT companies have a long presence in the state and, of late, international organizations are also moving in the state.

Odisha offers huge potential to the food processing and organic farming sectors. While the food processing sector has been significantly contributing to reduce the post-harvest losses and promoting horticulture and agri-based factories, the organic farming has helped farmers to enhance their income for sustainable livelihood.

The study says new farmers are becoming organic farmers and now the total area under certification process both cultivated and wild harvest in 2020-21 in Odisha has been 96306.88 ha., the cultivated farm area during 2020-21, 92694.81 ha., the organic area under wild collection during the same period 3612.07 ha. The farm production in 2020-21 has been 131852.02 ha., organic production from wild area 242.00 MT.