Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik Nets Investment Commitment Of $13.5 Bn For Startups

In a recently held Odisha Investors’ Meet, a senior Government delegation led by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik met over 60 companies and received investment commitments of $13.5 Bn (INR 90490 Cr) for State investments.

The fund will focus on investment in sectors such as food processing, apparel, electronics manufacturing, gems & jewellery and renewable energy.

The meet was held at Bengaluru during August 25-26 and marked participation from industry stalwarts Kiran Mazumdar, Sajjan Jindal, Sachin Bansal along with more than 400 delegates representing various companies and the industry from Bengaluru.

The event marked the launch of The Odisha Startup Policy 2016, formed with a vision to create 1,000 startups by 2020. Under this policy, startups will be provided support, incentives, and assistance at all stages of growth including idea, commercialisation, and marketing. Also, a $3.73 Mn (INR 25 Cr) Startup Capital Infrastructure Fund will be created to support the development of startup ecosystem in the State.

Also, an advance version of Government of Odisha’s industrial portal for land use and services, GO iPLUS was launched during the meet. The platform intends to be a one-stop destination for all queries related to land bank available in the State for industrial use in the vicinity of preferred infrastructural utilities such as airports, port etc. All land parcels are also categorised as per environmental category. A user can also get information about all existing industries operating in a particular cluster.

Other initiatives announced at the event were the launch of the Masterplan for ‘Infovalley’ – an IT/ITes and ESDM investment region being developed by the State over 730 acres in the capital city, Bhubaneswar – ranked as the top city in India amongst 97 other cities in the Smart City challenge of Government of India. An Electronics Manufacturing Cluster (EMC) will be part of the Infovalley and will provide plug-and- play infrastructure and common infrastructure facilities for more than 100 units.

The strategic action plan for implementing ‘Vision 2025’ – a roadmap for industrial growth in the State – was also unveiled for the sectors such as agro and food processing, chemicals and petrochemicals, textiles and apparel, downstream and ancillary industries in metal sector, and Electronic System Design and Manufacturing and IT/ITeS.

The next Make in Odisha conclave will be organised in the first week of December at Bhubaneswar.