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Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

“Zensar has communicated that it is keen to start construction work on its development centre soon. The Orissa Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco) has already given its in-principle approval to allot three acres of land to the software firm in the Infocity region of the city”, a top IT official told Business Standard.

Zensar Technologies plans to invest Rs 30-40 crore on its proposed software development centre. Initially, the centre would be run by a pool of 1,500 professionals but Zensar plans to make its Bhubaneswar centre the second biggest in the country after Pune where its centre is spread over 10 acres.

… Zensar has more than 4,000 employees in India and abroad. The company is rated among the top 25 software firms of the country by National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom).

Meanwhile, other major IT investors have also renewed their commitment on their proposed projects in the city.

MindTree expects to kick off construction work on its Rs 200-crore development centre in the city by June this year. … its centre which would come up over 30 acres of land.

…  MindTree would initially recruit about 1,000 software professionals and eventually ramp up its headcount to 6000. Its development centre in Bhubaneswar will focus on R&D, consultancy and software development.

ICICI Bank, which had sought an extension of two years for its Rs 600-crore eastern regional hub, has been asked by the state IT department to start construction work by April.

ICICI bank’s eastern regional hub would have a built-up area of 1.5 million sq ft and it will have a pool of 15,000 employees in the long-run. The project is to be developed in phases over a period of six to seven years. Similarly, Genpact, which had announced a Global Delivery Centre in the city, has submitted a fresh building plan to the Bhubanewar Development Authority (BDA).

Genpact’s centre in the city will have a total built-up area of 7 lakh sq ft. Initially, Genpact would hire 500 people for running its operations and eventually, the headcount will be scaled up to 3,000.

Following is from http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=59137.

The Ministry of Environment & Forests have identified 38 sites on a nation-wide basis as appropriate for planting of mangroves and their conservation and management. Of these, seven sites are in Orissa, They are Bhitarkanika, Mahanadi, Subernarekha, Devi-Kadua, Dhamra, Chilka and Mangrove Genetic Resources Centre (Kalibhanj-Dia). Proposals were received from State Forest Department, Govt. of Orissa for three sites viz. Bhitarkanika, Mahanadi and Devi-Kadua for which the Ministry sanctioned a sum of Rs. 123.29 lakhs.Rs. 83.406 lakhs has already been released during the current financial year.

Following is an excerpt from a Business Standard report.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) plans to privatise 15 out of 40 non-operational airports across the country on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis to make them function again.

“Out of 40 non-operational airports, 15 have the potential to operate and we have planned to give the airports to private developers to operate it for a concession period,” said a top AAI official, who did not wish to be identified.

The airports to be given to private companies are in Rajasthan, Orissa, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and north-eastern states. ..

As per the AAI page at http://www.aai.aero/allAirports/nonop_airports.jsp the non-operational AAI airport in Odisha is in Jharsuguda. This is the good news for Odisha. The slightly bad news is that the Chakulia airport in Jharkhand is probably also in that list. It is 67 kms from both Jamshedpur and Kharagpur and about 80 kms from Baripada. If that takes off the proposed airport in Rasgovindpur (in Mayurbhanj) will not happen soon. But overall from the tri-state perspective Chakulia is a better location.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Hindu.

Indocopters, a Vectra Group company and distributor of Eurocopter in India, is planning to invest close to Rs. 150 crore in expanding its three maintenance, repair and overhaul centres located in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.

The company will set up another MRO centre at Bhubaneswar in Orissa during the second half of the current year …

The above headlines is partly an excerpt from a Telegraph report. Following are excerpts from an Economic Times report by Nageswar Patnaik.

Orissa is currently implementing project proposals worth of Rs.3,06,575 crore, about 32.6% of total investment proposals received by the state government, which is higher compared to other states, according to the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

Releasing a Paper titled ASSOCHAM Strategy : “Creating and Sustaining Growth Momentum in Orissa” here on Wednesday at a press conference here by Assocham President, Swati Piramal and Secretary General, D S Rawat, however, said at the end of September 2009, the state had 486 live investment projects worth Rs 9.4 lakh crore.

“This is 27% higher than the live investment reported as on September 2008”, Dr Piramal said adding that the respective shares of electricity, manufacturing, mining and services sector in total live investment are respectively 42.8%, 34.7, 56.6% and 6.3%.

… Explaining the reason for the state having more than 65% of investment proposals at announcement stages, the Paper clarifies that lower implementation rate of projects, of late, has become a phenomenon across states in India. “ …

According to the Paper, more than 10% of total investments

announced by both government and private sectors in India as on March 2009 have gone into Orissa. The state has attracted Rs 9,28,834 crore out of a total of Rs 88,71,867 crore announced in India. The state’s share was mere 0.87% in the total investment undertaken by different government sources. “In contrast, the share of Orissa was 13.29% in total investment made by the private sector in India. All most all of the investment that Orissa has seen has come from the private sector while government sources accounted for insignificant amount (Rs 500 crores out of Rs 9.28 lakh crores)”, it adds. .

The Assocham has emphasized on the need for infrastructure development in the state for faster pace of economic growth. “Good infrastructure facilities would not only reduce the transaction costs of the established economic agents but also make the State an attractive destination for new investments. The critical elements of infrastructure development in India are leveraging public resources to access a large pool of private resources and providing an environment that help take advantage of liberalized policies”, the Paper argues.

I have not been able to locate the report from the ASSOCHAM site. If anyone finds it please leave an URL in the comment. Besides the positive news in the above paragraphs, one issue to note is that Odisha is only getting 0.87% of the government investments. I wonder what the number would be if it is narrowed to central government investment. My guess is that the number would be similar. Odisha must make efforts to get its fair share with respect to central government investment, and not just in mining and metal sector. In that regard in http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/archives/3298 we listed the central PSUs in Odisha and India.

Business Standard focuses on a different aspect in the ASSOCHAM report. Following is an excerpt from the Business standard report.

Citing lack of new age industries in Orissa, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) today called upon the Orissa government to focus on the development of IT, real estate and service sectors.

It also laid emphasis on the development of human resources to bridge the skill gap and improve the employability of manpower in the state.

it strongly pitched for the development of infrastructure, focus on sunrise industries like pharmaceuticals, small and medium industries, adequate importance on climate change and global warming, removal of regional inequalities particularly in KBK districts and connecting the ports with the industrial corridors. Similarly, promotion of employment through cluster development, setting up of ancillary industries, linking industries to supply chain and creation of opportunities for self-employment need to be given priority. …

ASSOCHAM has suggested that the land acquisition need to be left to the buyers and sellers of land and the role of the state should be that of a facilitator only. The project proponents have a role to rehabilitate all those families being uprooted for a project.

On Orissa specific initiative, Rawat said, an Orissa Desk has been set up in Delhi to focus on the human resources development and the development of food processing industries. Berhampur University has been roped in as the partner for the purpose.

The desk is working on the growth of agriculture and food processing industries in the state and drafting Orissa Vision-2020 to provide a road map for the development of the state. An investment seminar called “Orissa Calling Investment”, is proposed to be held in Delhi in October this year to promote investment in the state, he pointed out.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Financial Express.

… Reddy, while talking to media persons on eve of inauguration of the Apollo Hospital, Bhubaneswar, said on Thursday the group is proposing to set up a nursing college in Orissa. “ If the state government would provide the required land in Bhubaneswar, we would start the nursing college and a medical college at a later stage."

Dr. Pankaj S Mankad, chief executive officer, Appolo Hospitals, Bhubaneswar, said the nursing college would be started with an intake capacity of 50.

… Apollo Group, which now runs 48 hospitals across seven countries, has 15 colleges of nursing and hospital management.

The group has set up its 49th hospital at Bhubaneswar over an area of 7.5 acre with an investment of Rs 150 crore. It is planning to invest another Rs 150 crore to expand the facilities in Apollo Hospital, Bhubaneswar.

“ With over 50 specialities and super-specialities, Apollo Hosptials, Bhubaneswar offers comprehensive solutions across the healthcare spectrum,” said Anumpam Das, chief operating officer(COO).

As per the recent PIB release there are 4 public sector companies in Odisha. Following is an excerpt from that PIB.

As per the registered offices, as on 31.3.2009, there were 4 Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) functioning in the state of Orissa. The financial performance of theseCPSEs for the year 2008-09 is given below;

 (Rs. in crore)

SI. NO.                  Name of CPSEs                            Net Profit/(-)Loss

1.                           Mahanandi Coalfields Ltd.                     1718.03

2.                           National Aluminium Company Ltd.          1272.27

3.                           Orissa Drugs & Chemicals Ltd.              (-) 0.61

4.                           Utkal Ashok Hotel Corporation Ltd.        (-) 1.39

The Government has been taking steps, for the upgradation and modernization ofCPSEs on a case to case basis. The Government has constituted the Board for Reconstruction of Pubic Sector Enterprises (BRPSE) to advise the Government on the proposals submitted by the concerned administrative Ministries / Departments for strengthening, Modernization, revival and restructuring of CPSEs.

I am not sure why SAIL Rourkela, NTPC etc. are not the above list. My guess is perhaps because their head quarters are not in Odisha. It is important to have the HQs in Odisha as big decisions are often made in the HQs. It has helped with respect to MCL announcing to establish a medical college in Talcher. (I wonder how the progress is.) On the other hand it has not helped much with respect to NALCO. They only give peanuts to Odisha.

In any case we wondered how does Odisha compare to other states in terms of hosting public sector units. Upon investigation we came across the following list at http://goidirectory.nic.in/psucentral.htm. (A bigger list is at  http://www.amritt.com/India-Public-Sector-Companies.html.)

Following is from its page http://book.goindigo.in/skylights/cgi-bin/skylights.cgi.

From my personal experience Indigo is the best airlines in India.