Orissa gets more investment than State, says report

MUMBAI, March 9: Orissa has taken a lead over Maharashtra in industrial investments, if the reports of the Centre for Monitoring Indian Econ...

MUMBAI, March 9: Orissa has taken a lead over Maharashtra in industrial investments, if the reports of the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) and the Department of Industries, Government of India, are to be believed. The CMIE report shows that Maharashtra lags behind Orissa in industrial investments, while the department of industries states that Gujarat occupies the top position.

Orissa has attracted an investment of Rs 1,29,662 crore in 125 projects, while Maharashtra is expecting investment of Rs 1,26,840 crore in 512 projects, according to CMIE. The major investment in Orissa is in the mining sector (Rs 13,766 crore), followed by manufacturing (Rs 62,249 crore), chemical (Rs 20,986 crore), basic metals (Rs 39,110 crore).

The corresponding investment in Maharashtra is Rs 35,479 crore (manufacturing sector), Rs 10,973 crore (chemicals), Rs 9,875 (basic metals) and Rs 2,819 crore (mining). In sectors like food and beverages, textiles, non-metallic products, transport and machinery, theinvestment in Orissa is negligible compared to Maharashtra. Against Rs 13,390 crore in these sectors in Maharashtra, the investment in Orissa was Rs 894 crore.

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Till July 1996, the investment in Maharashtra and Orissa was almost similar (Rs 1,05,609 crore), however from October 1996, Orissa began surging ahead and in January 1998, the investment stood at Rs 1,29,662 crore against Rs 1,26,840 crore in Maharashtra.

According to a report of the department of industries, the industrial investment in Maharashtra stood at Rs 1,21,117 crore at the end of January 1998 against Rs 1,38,994 crore in neighbouring Gujarat. However, in terms of number of projects, Maharashtra with 6,465 proposals tops list followed by Gujarat (5,398 units). Maharashtra has received 978 proposals (Rs 17862 crore) and Gujarat has received 289 proposals (Rs 6059.32 crore) in foreign direct investments.

Thus the total investment in Maharashtra stood at Rs 1,38,979 crore, while in Gujarat, it is Rs 1,45,053 crore. According to this report,Orissa ranks seventh with a total investment of Rs 21,009 crore in 280 projects.

According to a State industries department official, many units in chemical sector chose Gujarat owing to stringent conditions in Maharashtra. “We adhere to the norms prescribed by the Maharashtra PCB in letter and spirit, while the situation in Gujarat was different,” the official said.

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When asked to comment on the CMIE report, he said that it was based on the number of Industrial Entrepreneurs Memorandum (IEM). “It is common experience that the number of IEM are always varying as the proposals are just on paper. IEM does not mean that the proposed investment will come to the State positively,” the official added.