Working towards ushering in balanced socio-economic growth of Odisha that hinges sustainable development with strong fundamentals of industrial growth, right harnessing of natural resources & actualisation of sustainable employment potential.

Shri Naveen Patnaik
Chief Minister, Orissa

Odisha has emerged as a major destination for industrial & knowledge sector. The Govt. has announced a new industrial policy, which focuses on providing institutional infrastructure & need based fiscal incentives to consolidate & reinforce the industrialization process in the state. The thrust of the Govt. is on environmentaly suitable industrialisation, which generates maximum employment opportunity & augments state revenue.

Odisha has become a favoured destination for investments in select sectors like Mines, Minerals, Power, and Ports etc. Taking advantage of this breakthrough, we need to broad base the process by achieving diversification and regional spread. The aim of any industrialization process is to ensure, that it contributes to the state’s economy while addressing simultaneously issues of poverty and unemployment. The shift of people from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy is inevitable and also is a sign of progressive change.

We have to communicate this message to the people and elicit their active support and co-operation to enable industrialization at internationally benchmarked standard.

As we do this, we need to keep in mind that the pain of those having to make direct sacrifice by loss of land and other assets that support their livelihood is assuaged in a comprehensive & compassionate manner. Therefore, resettlement and rehabilitation issues will need our first attention.

Alongside, if we are to become global players, industries have to adopt ‘state of the art’ technologies including cleaner production technology and achieve cost effectiveness, quality consistency and timely delivery. The State must acquire a brand value for core concerns, as this alone will sustain its continued growth in the long run. A lot has been done over the last few years which has brought us to a stage where we can dream of a higher growth trajectory.

We all need to work as active members of “Team Odisha” and work together hard and also intelligently. We need to keep our minds open to new ideas and knowledge. More importantly, we need to walk the talk if others are to take us seriously. We have to prepare all our colleagues in our organization to be adequate in all ways in meeting the new challenges. Let us benefit from sharing one another’s views and suggestions and let us all together take things forward.