Make in Odisha Conclave 2018: The juggernaut of opportunities

The state of Odisha recently concluded its second edition of Make in Odisha Conclave, a global investors’ meet which was held over a period of five days starting from 11 to 15 November 2018. The biennial event’s first edition was held in 2016. The theme of the conclave, 'I am Odisha', showcased achievements and success of the state to global entrepreneurs.

The event was inaugurated by Chief Minister of Odisha Naveen Patnaik at Mahanandi Hall, Janata Maidan in Bhubaneshawar on 11 October 2018. Japan was the partner country for the conclave. In order to tap business opportunities with Japan the state government has identified 600 acre of land on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar where Japanese companies can set up their business operations.

Prior to kicking off the conclave, the state government had organised road shows in New Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata and Hyderabad. Similar shows were also held at foreign locations in China, Japan, Italy, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Germany.

The event noted total investment intents to the tune of Rs 4,19,574 crore across 15 sectors, which is twice as much as the first edition of the conclave. In addition, it will create 5,91,000  fresh jobs. A total of 183 investment proposals were endorsed on the occasion.

In all, 37 proposals were inked in fertiliser, chemicals and petrochemicals segment with an investment intent of Rs 1.35 lakh crore. Primary investors included Haldia Petrochemicals that committed to an investment of Rs 70,000 crore, while the Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) plans to invest over Rs 10,000 crore.

Apart from this, there were six proposals for investment in industrial parks worth Rs 8,432 crore, and 12 investment proposals in the logistics sector totalling Rs 18,000 crore. In the five-day conclave, total investments received in the IT sector were worth Rs 3918.95 crore from six companies.

The first day of the investment summit was kicked off with a slew of investment commitments worth Rs 1,38,000 crore. Tata Steel announced its plan to invest Rs 25,000 crore to undertake steel expansion at its Kalinga Nagar steel plant. The capacity will be augmented from three million tpa to eight million tpa for which an inaugural ceremony was performed on 11 November 2018.

Jindal Steel and Power pledged to make an investment of around Rs 45,000 crore to Rs 1,00,000 crore which will offer earning opportunities  to nearly 50,000-1,00,000 people. The company will augment the capacity of steel plant from six million tonne to 20 million tonne by 2030. It intends to set up a very large greenfield steel plant which will be the country’s most modern plant till date.

The Aditya Birla Group envisages to invest over USD 140 billion for the next two years which will be directed towards its existing projects in the state. The company has firmed up plans to create 25,000 jobs through ancillarisation. The inaugural ceremony of the textile unit was performed during the conclave at Mancheswar near Bhubaneswar.

The Group has also inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the state government for developing the airstrip near Dhamra at an estimated cost of Rs five billion. The proposed project will span over 500 acre and will be operational in 18 months.

Vedanta which has already infused Rs 500 billion in the state on alumina, aluminium and power entities has planned an investment outlay of Rs 150 billion in the next three years for expansion, mostly in alumina refining. The company aims to augment its alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in phases from an annual capacity of one million tonne to six million tonne.

Phase-I of the alumina refinery will see capacity expansion up to four million tonne. The company also intends to take up the Vedanta University project which has been facing hurdles since land acquisition.

Reliance Industries has already invested Rs 6,000 crore, mostly in creating the Jio (telecom) network and has pledged to invest an additional Rs 3,000 crore across its businesses in the state.

The Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has agreed to invest Rs 410 billion towards expansion of capacity at its integrated Rourkela unit from four million tpa to 10 million tpa in the next two years. The company has already invested Rs 140 billion to ramp up the capacity from two million tonne to 4.5 million tonne.

ITC and Britannia also pledged Rs 5.5 billion and Rs 600 million respectively for scaling up their units in the state over the next three to five years.

The Dalmia Bharat Group intends to augment its cement units to an annual capacity of 2.5 million tonne at Rajgangpur and Kapilash near Cuttack at an investment of Rs 25 billion.

Odisha’s health sector received investment commitments worth Rs 2,750 crore which will be rolled out in the next two-three years. The  health department also received investment intents of Rs 1,300 crore for affordable healthcare projects at 25 locations under public-private partnership mode.

In the wake of the success of the Odisha Conclave 2018, an announcement was made for the next edition which will be held between 30 November 2020 and 4 December 2020.

As per the 72nd Projex Investment Survey of Projects Today, the state remianed the most beneficiary state for fresh investment. Odisha topped the fresh projex table by cornering around 12 percent of the total fresh projex announced in Q2/FY19. The state attracted a total of 186 projects with the investment to the tune of Rs 35,861 crore.

As of 30 September 2018 there were 3,816 projects entailing a total projex investment of Rs 9,04,621.82 crore on the investment board of Odisha. Of the total, 414 projects entailing an investment of Rs 2,47,861 crore were under various stages of execution.