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Without reading the caption, try to guess where this picturesque setting is? It is not in Koraput, Similipal or Satkosia!

It is in Deras, Chandaka.

Following is from a report in Telegraph.

Chennai-based Creative Port Development Private Limited today inked a concession agreement with the state government for sharing revenue from a Rs 2187 crore proposed deep-water, all-weather, mechanised port in Balasore.

The company, in December 2006, had signed an MoU with the government to develop the port on the Subernarekha river mouth at Kirtania in Balasore.

The first phase of the port with a handling capacity of 10MTPA has been planned to be commissioned by 2010 and ultimately its capacity would go up to 50MTPA by the 10th year.

As agreed, the company today signed the deal which enables the state to share revenue at the rate of five per cent from first to fifth year, eight per cent from sixth to 10th year, 10 per cent from 11th to 15th year and 12 per cent for the remaining 15 years.

CPDL would enjoy the concession for a period of 30 years, extendable by an additional period of 20 years.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Statesman on this.

Orissa Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) has signed an agreement with Hyderabad-based Ramky Enviro Engineers Limited here yesterday. IDCO MD Mr Vishal Dev and Ramky MD Mr. Ravi Kant signed the agreement in the presence of senior environment engineer of state pollution control board (SPCB) Dr DK Behera.

Seventy acre land in Jajpur district has already been allotted to the waste management company for setting up of the treatment, storage and disposal facility (TSDF). In the first phase, the project cost will be around Rs 33 crore, which is expected to be commissioned within six months. It would be a state-of-the-art facility complying with the provisions of hazardous waste (management and handling) Rules-1989 as amended, said Mr Dev and added that the facility shall comprise of engineering land fill, laboratory, waste handing transport and equipment, waste disposal facility, latched facility, waste storage facility.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard. (Thanks to Deba Nayak for the tip.)

MindTree Consulting is planning to set up a centre in Bhubaneswar, Orissa, that will house 5,000 staff, a senior company official told NewsWire18 today.

“We have already acquired the land for the Bhubaneswar centre and I expect it to be operational by the end of 2008,” he said.

He said the company will keep adding to its manpower at the rate it has been doing so far, provided there is no slowdown in the business.

Bangalore-based MindTree currently has a staff count of over 5,000, mostly at its Bangalore centre.

Update on March 25 2009: Pioneer reports:

The Sarovar Hotels and Resorts announced the signing of a hotel in the 4-5-star category at the Sarovar Premiere here. The hotel with 150 guest rooms and all modern services and facilities will be located at Nayapalli. Commenting on the signing, hotel’s managing director Anil Madhok said, “With the increase in the number of business and leisure travellers in the city, we are pleased to offer accommodation of international quality for them.” The hotel will have five star services, multiple dining options, extensive meeting and banquet areas as well as a health club and spa.

Following is an excerpt from a news report in dnaindia.com.

Gurgaon-based Vipul Infrastructure Group is set to board the hospitality train. The company’s hotels division, Vipul Hospitality, has signed a memorandum of understanding with leading operator Sarovar Hotels and Resorts to open five new hotels, to start with.

Vipul Hospitality will invest and own the hotels, while Sarovar will provide technical assistance right from inception to completion besides managing and marketing the hotel operations.

The overall investment in the initial five projects is estimated at over Rs 500 crore.

Ajay K Bakaya, executive director, Sarovar Hotels and Resorts told DNA Money that a number of these hotel projects will also have retailing component.

“Out of the five sites being identified jointly, at least four will be mall-o-tels. Going forward, we will be working together with the realty partners in identifying more locations. All the current and future projects will be operated and managed under Sarovar’s bouquet of brands,” said Bakaya.

The upcoming hotels in Amritsar, Bhubaneswar and Raipur will be branded under Sarovar Premiere, the Mohali property will be a Sarovar Portico and the one in Siliguri will be branded as Park Inn.

Each hotel will have a room inventory of 100-150 rooms in addition to food and beverage, banqueting and conferencing facilities.

One of the pioneers in the Indian mid-market hospitality segment, Sarovar Hotels has grown rapidly since its first hotel opened in 1994.

The hospitality company currently manages 35 hotels across the country under the brands Sarovar Premiere, Sarovar Portico and Hometel, besides Park Plaza and Park Inn, which are operated under master franchise pact with Carlson Hospitality for India.

Following is an excerpt from a report in New Indian Express.

The Ong dam project at Pujaripali in Padampur block of Bargarh district has received the much awaited environmental clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forest(MoEF).

… Initially estimated to cost Rs 305 crore, the project was sanctioned by the Central Water Commission in September 2000.

The revised cost of the project will be nearly Rs 500 crore and this has been posed before the World Bank for funding under the Orissa Water Resources Improvement Project, official sources said.

The Water Resources Department has proposed to construct a reservoir on river Ong, a tributary of Mahanadi and the project envisages to irrigate about 30,000 hectares drought-prone areas of Bargarh and Balangir districts.

The submergence at full reservoir level is 5,100 hectares out of which, 167 hectares of neighbouring Chhattisgarh will be affected.

While 32 villages will affected by the project, 10 will be fully submerged.

As inter-state issues are involved, a public hearing was conducted in Chhattisgarh on September 11 and the willingness of people for the project has been communicated to the Centre.

Update: Pioneer reports that ‘"The NHAI has agreed to provide funds immediately to take up the widening and strengthening the NH-215 from Panikoeli to Rajmunda. Rs 96 crore will be spent for this purpose. The tender process for the four laning would start soon."

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

First an IT park, followed by a bio-tech one and now Orissa is set for a bio-diesel space.

Chief secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy in the capital city today flagged of the park project, which would boast of a research laboratory, as well as a plantation area with jatropha, karanja and castor plants — all of which produce oil.

… the chief secretary added that the construction work has been given to the Majhighariani Institute of Technology and Science Group, which has already started jatropha curcas plantation on 50,000 hectare in 10 Orissa districts.

“The group, in association with the government and banks, would set up the park. A minimum 100 acre is required and we have identified the land near Deras agricultural farm on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar,” said Balkrishna Panda, the chairman of the group.

He added that 10-odd acre would be required for the plantation alone. Besides, the park will be used for research, publicity and training of farmers on bio-diesel. In addition to it, the park would have one-stop solutions for fertiliser, spice and tissue culture issues, besides units of bio-diesel production plants

“It will be on public-private partnership (PPP) mode and will provide employment to 10 million in the state directly or indirectly,” said Panda.

Several banks, including Andhra Bank, Bank of Baroda, UCO bank and the Orissa State Cooperative Bank, have shown interest in the project. Indian Oil has also agreed to a marketing tie-up.

Jatropa is not a new concept for Orissa farmers. It often is planted on boundaries to protect the crop from stray cattle. But, its plantation on commercial basis in unproductive land is a new one.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Economic Times.

The Orissa government has given administrative sanction for acquiring land at Patana tehsil in Kenojhar district for Arcelor-Mittal’s proposed 12 million tons per annum steel plant.

The company … has already deposited Rs 4.03 crore with the Industrial Development Corporation (IDCO) as processing fee for phase-I land acquisition.

The government has also appointed a nodal officer to oversee land acquisition process and other issues concerning the company’s greenfield project, said Steel and Mines Minister Padmanabha Behera.

Arcelor-Mittal is understood to have sought nearly 8,000 acres of land for the purpose and the state is believed to have agreed to the request.

The government has, however, cleared acquisition of only 1,224 acre of land spread over three villages like Angikala, Baradangua and Bhrungaraj under Patana tehsil in the first phase of land acquisition.

The 1,224 acres demarcated for the first phase acquisition comprised 431 acres of government land and 739 acres belonging to private owners.

While the government had fixed price per acre of state land at Rs two lakh, it was yet to decide cost of private land which would be fixed according to rehabilitation and resettlement policy.

This appears in various news media. Following are excerpts from a report in Kalinga Times.

… IBM India on Wednesday announced the launch of its SMB operations in Bhubaneswar .

This expansion will enable IBM to provide better support to SME clients in and around Bhubaneswar and help IBM’s customers leverage IT for business growth.

In addition, mid-market businesses will also benefit from the new IBM Express Advantage initiative that provides SMEs with a unified end-to-end approach to help them innovate and expand.

…Earlier this year, IBM had announced a plan to extend its presence to 14 cities outside of the key metros, and has successfully launched operations in Bhopal , Chandigarh , Coimbatore , Cochin , Goa, Jaipur, Jamshedpur , Lucknow , Nagpur , Nashik, Surat , and Vizag. It will look to expand into Ludhiana and Madurai as well.

… IBM’s SME offerings have already been accepted in various industries and organisations. Some existing customers in Bhubaneswar include, Government of Orissa IT Department – OCAC, Dept of Treasury Orissa, Paradeep Phosphates Ltd, Vedanta Alumina Ltd, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Biju Patnaik University of Technology, and Utkal University to name a few.

Following is an excerpt from a news item in odisha.in on this.

World Tourism Organisation (WTO), a United Nations body has expressed its interest to develop the coastline from Chandipur to Balaramgadi as a tourist resort of international standard.

Recently, a seven member expert team of WTO headed by James Craig Jessamine has visited the 3 km beach to examine its potential for growth and marketing.

Maintaining it as one of the world’s best tourist sites, the expert team has stressed on immediate steps to arrest coastal erosion, besides development of the beach site.

The WTO members included tourism infrastructure specialist Samuel E Sapuay, Thomas Fletcher, Richardian Batchelor, KVS Menon, Bez Beoura and BN Mishra also discussed the matter with government officers, NGOs and hoteliers after visiting the site.

"Considering Chandipur as base point for coastal development, the team put forth a plan to erect one tourist resort of international standard over 200 acres of land between the Panthaniwas and Balaramgadi," said ADM Sribatsa Jena, who accompanied the team.

… Of the 480-km coastline in Orissa, the golden beach of Chandipur in Balasore district has a unique characteristic of its own. …
It is the only beach where the seawater recedes more than five km everyday and return rhythmically after a regular interval – a phenomenon seldom found anywhere else. It’s like magic when one can see the sea literally vanishing before his own eyes and coming back as if playing hide and seek with the beholder.

"This uniqueness has attracted WTO to develop it as a tourist resort of world class," said Balasore Collector Alekh Chandra Padhiary.

The Collector said that with an assistance of Rs 2.06 crore from government of India the tourism department has started preliminary work for the development of Chandipur beach. …

The insert mentions that there are 10.2 lakh differently abled people in Orissa out of which 17,245 have been identified in Khurda district.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

The Orissa Renewable Energy Development Agency (OREDA) on Tuesday announced that it has planned to cultivate Jatropha over 2 million hectares of wasteland in the KBK region.

… Science and Technology Minister Sanjeeb Kumar Sahoo said the need of the time is to go for an alternative of fossil fuels. Therefore, the production of bio-fuel from non-edible vegetable oils, particularly Jatropha curcas, is a much talked-about subject in the world. Orissa is among the first five States in the country that have come forward for bio-fuel production. The objective of the plan is to get substitution of fossil fuels, generation of employment and utilisation of wastelands, he said.

Secretary, Science and Technology, NC Vasudevan, said the Indian Oil Corporation has agreed to take the responsibility of bio-fuel marketing through its already existing network in the country. Director, OREDA, Ajit Bharthuar, said the oilseeds would be produced by the farmers and OREDA would buy the seeds from them to support them.