Intel to help Odisha pocket electronics investments

USA-based semiconductor chip maker Intel Corporation is keen to enter an alliance with the Odisha government to bring in investments to the state in the electronic system design and manufacturing (ESDM) sector.

“Intel, being a chip manufacturer, can hand hold the product manufacturers in using their technology and in selecting their preferred destinations to invest. There is a possibility that Intel can play a pivotal role in bringing investments in the electronics sector. In that case, Intel can play a persuasive role to bring in prospective investors to the state,” a government official said.

Debjani Ghosh, vice-president (sales & marketing) and managing director (South Asia), Intel Corporation had a meeting last Wednesday with state information technology (IT) minister Pranab Prakash Das and top state IT officials.

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“Short and productive visit to Bhubaneswar. Pleasure to meet minister IT Pranab Prakash Das. Great to see the energy and strong will to drive the change,” Ghosh tweeted.

Commenting on the meeting, Das said, “We had a fruitful dialogue with Intel on technology collaboration and hope for positive outcomes.”

The state government is pulling out all the stops to promote investments in the ESDM space. Also, with Bhubaneswar ranked as the number one smart city, Intel can offer its technical expertise.

“They (Intel) can involve themselves in the technological solutions of the smart city project. They want to give solutions for efficient technology management of the devices in the smart city project,” said an official.

Intel has also expressed its keenness to improve the efficiency of the servers and hardware clusters like state data centre.

“If invited, they have agreed to extend their technological support to improve the efficiency of the servers free of cost,” added the official.

The state has doled out many sops to lure investors in electronics manufacturing.

Investors with investment exceeding Rs 200 crore and offering employment potential of over 500 would be entitled to 25% investment subsidy on capital investment, subject to a ceiling of Rs 50 crore. Further, if their project is financed by public sector banks, the state government would offer an interest subvention of 5%, among others. The state IT department has also been renamed as the department of electronics and IT.

The state is now looking to pull more investors in the IT and electronics space. The proposed greenfield electronics manufacturing cluster planned on 203 acres of land, located in Khurda district, is expected to house over 100 electronics manufacturing units with an employment potential of 10,000-12,000. The employee pool would be a mix of skilled and semi-skilled personnel.

The state government has already submitted the detailed project report for final approval. A sum of Rs 95 crore has been sought from the Government of India and the total project cost is pegged at Rs 205 crore. Similarly, a mega hub for IT & electronics has been planned at Naraj near Cuttack on over 700 acres of land.