Odisha unveils new industrial policy

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday unveiled the Industrial Policy Resolution (IPR)-2015 to attract investment to the state.

"The policy provides greater thrust on garnering investments in the emerging sectors such as electronics, manufacturing, food processing, textiles and downstream industries in steel and aluminium to generate sustainable employment opportunities for the youth of the state," Patnaik said after launching the IPR here.

A mobile application 'Invest Odisha' and a dedicated portal on investment promotion was also launched.

Besides, a memorandum of understanding was inked among Singapore National University, Odisha government and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to make ease of doing business in Odisha.

He said the policy lays the road map to realise the vision of the state government to enhance the share of manufacturing to 15 percent of the state's GDP by attracting new investments to the tune of Rs.1.73 lakh crore and provide direct employment to at least three lakh people.

"Provision of appropriate industrial infrastructure is imperative to promote and sustain investments in the manufacturing sector. Consequently, the policy provides for an initial corpus of Rs.1,000 crore to provide external infrastructure namely power, water, access roads to the industrial clusters," said Patnaik.

He also said the government is making concerted efforts to attract anchor investments in priority sectors that will be extended additional incentives.