After industry, focus now on knowledge hub: Naveen

After successfully managing to attract large industrial investments to the state, the Odisha government is now focused on positioning the state as a knowledge hub.

"Having achieved fair success in developing the industrial base in the state in the recent past, our focus is now to make Odisha a knowledge hub. The interest evinced by some of the leading national and international level knowledge based institutions in our state has definitely vindicated our hidden potential to emerge equally as the knowledge hub in our country and has certainly emboldened all of us in the government to work in this direction," said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik while inaugurating the 18th edition of Enterprise Odisha organised by the eastern region of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with the Odisha government.

The state is in the process of framing appropriate policies like the new ICT policy for creating the right institutional frameworks to incubate and nurture knowledge and innovation.

The chief minister sought the views and suggestions of the stakeholder for creating a knowledge base in the state.

"We are open to have an engagement framework with the stakeholders in order to institutionalise a process that would help us create a firm knowledge base which can then catalyse innovation in diverse fields," he added.

Patnaik said the state youth policy is another example of the state government's commitment to engage with an important segment of the society to encourage a habit of innovative thinking and solving the local problems effectively.

Stating that the industry engagement to imbue an innovation culture is essential, the chief minister sought the help of the industry to popularise a knowledge based economy.

"We do not want to be left behind and our people should not be denied of the benefits of growth through such innovation. The economic growth has no meaning if it does not improve the well-being of the people, especially those living below the poverty line. All our efforts are directed to achieving this overarching goal of increasing welfare and improving well-being of those sections of the society," Patnaik added.

Among others, Bhubaneswar MP, Prasanna Patsani, CII Odisha state council chairman, M K Gupta, CII eastern region chairman, Sudhir Deoras, and state industry secretary Parag Gupta were present on the occasion.