Industrial growth and status of Orissa... .. .

Not only culturally rich, Orissa has abundant natural resources and a large coastline. It contains a fifth of India's coal, a quarter of its iron ore, a third of its bauxite reserves and most of the chromites also. Rourkela Steel Plant(RSP) was the first integrated steel plant in the Public Sector in India. It receives unprecedented investments in steel, aluminum, power, refineries and ports. India's top most IT consulting firms, including Satyam Computer Services,Tata Consultancy Services(TCS), Mind Tree Consulting, Hexaware Technologies, Price water house Coopers and Infosys have large branches in Orissa. POSco, JINDAL, are also entering in to the industrial development of Orissa.

Orissa is notable as one of the first Indian states to have tackled its structural problems during the post 1994 Indian economic reforms. Orissa was the first state in India to begin to privatize its electricity transmission and distribution businesses. Over the period between 1994 and 2000 Orissa's former state electricity board (SEB) was restructured to form Grid co. This corporation was then divided into Transco and a collection of distribution companies. Attempts were then made to sell the distribution companies to the private sector. The scale and importance of these reforms is notable and an important milestone in India's dramatic economic development.

Recently the number of companies who have signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) to set up steel plants in the state has gone up to 50, including Posco of South Korea which has agreed to construct a mammoth $12 billion steel plant near Paradip port. It would be the largest single investment in India's history. Arcelor-Mittal has also announced plans to invest in another mega steel project amounting to $10 billion. Russian major Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Company (MMK) plans to set up a 10 MT steel plant in Orissa too. The state is attracting an unprecedented amount of investment in aluminum, coal-based power plants, petrochemicals, and information technology as well.

In power generation sector also, Reliance Industries (Anil Ambani Group) is putting up the world's largest power plant with an investment of US $13 billion at Hirma in Jharsuguda district. Vedanta Resources’ 1.4 million tonne alumina project in Kalahandi district is the largest investment in aluminium. Vedanta has also announced a $ 3.2 billion dollar huge private University project on the lines of the Ivy League Universities, which is unprecedented in the history of education in India.

The Central Government has agreed to accord SEZ (Special Economic Zone) status to eight sites in Orissa among which are Infocity at Bhubaneswar and Paradip.

Scopes in Industrial field ...... .. .

The state of Orissa is commited to industrial development and stress is being laid on the exploitaion of of the rich agricultural , marine and mineral resources and also to tourism.There are already exists a substantial industraial base comprising of a number of large, medium and small scale industries in steel, aluminium, chrome, power, textile, handicraft and also other sectors.

Agriculture :
Orissa's main agricultural products are rice, pulse, oil seeds, vegatables, groundnut, cotton, jute, spices, coconut, potato, fruits etc. Sot here is a vast scope of agro based industries like rice millingm edible oil milling, cattle poultry .

Aluminium :
National Aluminium Company Limited(NALCO), the largest Aluminium producing plant in India was incorporated in 1981. This plant is located at Koraput district of Orissa. Its smelter and power plant is at Anugul, dhenknal districts. Alumina Refinery is at Damanjodi in Koraput district.

Forest based Industry :
As Orissa is enriched with vast forest resources , so there is a vast scope for the forest based industries like wooden furniture, seal seed oil, natural gums, biri making, agarbati stick making , palm rose oil making etc.

Minerals :
Orissa also have country's richest mineral resources. The mineral belt is spread over an area of more than 6000 sq. km. The chief mineral founds are Iron, Coal, Bauxite, Manganese, Nickel, Chromite, Lime stone , Dolomite, Graphite etc. So scope is right here to invest in this minerals field.

Infrastructure development... .. .

Although Paradip is Orissa's only large port, the coastal towns of Dhamra and Gopalpur are being developed into major ports as well. The government of India has selected the coastal region of Orissa, stretching from Paradip in the north to Gopalpur in the south to be developed as one of the five or six Special Economic Regions (SERs) of the country. The government of India and the state government of Orissa would work together to erect world class infrastructure in this region along the lines of the Rotterdam, Houston, and Pudong regions. This would stimulate further private investment in petrochemicals, steel, and manufacturing. A recent Morgan Stanley report forecasts that Orissa would be flooded with massive investments for manufacturing related activities in the same manner that Bangalore had attracted software investment in the 1990s. The scale of the investments in Orissa would, however be much higher. As of July 2006, the total planned investment in the state is a whopping $90 billion. This includes some investment in research, education, hospitals, roads, ports, airports, and hotels. There are many multi-state irrigation projects in development, including Godavari River Basin Irrigation Projects.