Hooplas apart, Odisha trails at 8th in industrial investments in 2018-19

Bhubaneswar: The State had organised two mega investment summits billed as Make in Odisha between 2016 and 2018, where industrial czars and who's who of India Inc had graced the State's premium business show.

The big jolt is now, the State neither figures in the top-5 preferred industrial investment destinations nor could even carve one per cent share of the total  jobs projected from such investments made in 2018-19. The noteworthy fact here is Odisha was at the helm in national industrial investment pyramid till the year 2013. 

In 2018-19 industrial investment chart, Odisha was slotted at a distant 8th in the private industrial investment intentions made nationally. The State slipped to 10th slot in the indicator of projected jobs from the private investment commitments made last fiscal.

When with proposed investments worth Rs 16,338 crore, Odisha could corner 4 per cent of total private investments made in the country in the last fiscal, the State could only take a miniscule share of 0.78 per cent of total projected jobs from such proposed investments.

As per an Union Industry Ministry report, with a proposed investment of Rs 4.001 lakh crore in 2018-19, the country would see over 24.4 lakh new jobs from the investment commitments. While UP accounts 72 per cent of the new projected jobs, the share of Odisha is below 1 per cent.

Sample the contrast. When Odisha saw Rs 16,638 crore industrial investment intentions, UP received Rs 26,404 crore. But in the number of jobs these investments promise makes an interesting tale.

While UP could see creation of a massive 19.39 lakh jobs, a measly 19,139  new jobs will come Odisha's way.

An analysis shows that while with per thousand crore of investment, when Odisha could see mere 1,161 jobs; Uttar Pradesh saw generation of a huge 73,436 jobs.

Similarly, neighbouring Andhra Pradesh saw creation of around 2,338 new jobs with per thousand crore investment. AP had received 21, 129 crore investment commitments in 2018-19, which would generate a high of 49,400 jobs.

Why jobs slumped in Odisha? It has been observed that UP saw investments in an array of sectors - Food, processed foods, dairy, textiles, garments, auto, tyres & tubes, electronics like TV, electrical, telecom & mobiles, paper, fertilisers, warehousing, cement and metalurgical.

The investment basket of Andhra Pradesh is also quite diverse - from auto to plastic, pharma, textiles and solar photovoltaic cells.

In contrast, the investment basket of Odisha looks very small. The State received investments in a handful of sectors like food processing, coir, chemicals, readymade garments and electric vehicles, besides metallurgical. Odisha had also seen investment intentions in renewable energy sector. Aditya Birla Group and Indian Metal & Ferro Alloys (IMFA) have proposed investments in renewable energy sector (solar power).

The fewer job proportion vis-a-vis investment in Odisha has been attributed to nil investment commitments in labour intensive sectors like Auto, textiles, electrical and electronics sectors.

The State has not received any investment in growing sectors like automotive, agriculture, medicine, infrastructure and electronics. The significance is these sectors have high job potential in comparison to metallurgical and petrochemical,  even with a third of investment commitments of the metallurgical sector.