Letters: Too bullish

Mahesh Vyas (“India’s new steel frame takes shape, January 25) has always been a bull, and his latest piece is no exception. In the last few months, he says, India has got proposals to set up steel plants that add up to around two-thirds of India’s current capacity. It doesn’t matter what number of proposals India gets, what matters is the number of proposals that India executes and, more important, over what period of time.

In the case of Orissa, one of the largest beneficiaries of these proposals, the track record has been quite miserable. Plants like LN Mittal’s and Posco’s have been hanging for several years now and it is only a matter of time before they too walk out of the state. As compared to over Rs 600,000 crore of investment proposals, the state has got investments of only Rs 20,000 crore or so each year (“More to Orissa than Posco”, January 23). This may be a good track record, as the Biju Janata Dal MP has said, in comparison to Orissa’s past, but what matters is how it compares to other states. And how it compares to what Orissa has not been able to monetise.

 

Ajay Singh, Noida

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