The above headlines is partly an excerpt from a Telegraph report. Following are excerpts from an Economic Times report by Nageswar Patnaik.

Orissa is currently implementing project proposals worth of Rs.3,06,575 crore, about 32.6% of total investment proposals received by the state government, which is higher compared to other states, according to the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

Releasing a Paper titled ASSOCHAM Strategy : “Creating and Sustaining Growth Momentum in Orissa” here on Wednesday at a press conference here by Assocham President, Swati Piramal and Secretary General, D S Rawat, however, said at the end of September 2009, the state had 486 live investment projects worth Rs 9.4 lakh crore.

“This is 27% higher than the live investment reported as on September 2008”, Dr Piramal said adding that the respective shares of electricity, manufacturing, mining and services sector in total live investment are respectively 42.8%, 34.7, 56.6% and 6.3%.

… Explaining the reason for the state having more than 65% of investment proposals at announcement stages, the Paper clarifies that lower implementation rate of projects, of late, has become a phenomenon across states in India. “ …

According to the Paper, more than 10% of total investments

announced by both government and private sectors in India as on March 2009 have gone into Orissa. The state has attracted Rs 9,28,834 crore out of a total of Rs 88,71,867 crore announced in India. The state’s share was mere 0.87% in the total investment undertaken by different government sources. “In contrast, the share of Orissa was 13.29% in total investment made by the private sector in India. All most all of the investment that Orissa has seen has come from the private sector while government sources accounted for insignificant amount (Rs 500 crores out of Rs 9.28 lakh crores)”, it adds. .

The Assocham has emphasized on the need for infrastructure development in the state for faster pace of economic growth. “Good infrastructure facilities would not only reduce the transaction costs of the established economic agents but also make the State an attractive destination for new investments. The critical elements of infrastructure development in India are leveraging public resources to access a large pool of private resources and providing an environment that help take advantage of liberalized policies”, the Paper argues.

I have not been able to locate the report from the ASSOCHAM site. If anyone finds it please leave an URL in the comment. Besides the positive news in the above paragraphs, one issue to note is that Odisha is only getting 0.87% of the government investments. I wonder what the number would be if it is narrowed to central government investment. My guess is that the number would be similar. Odisha must make efforts to get its fair share with respect to central government investment, and not just in mining and metal sector. In that regard in http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/archives/3298 we listed the central PSUs in Odisha and India.

Business Standard focuses on a different aspect in the ASSOCHAM report. Following is an excerpt from the Business standard report.

Citing lack of new age industries in Orissa, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) today called upon the Orissa government to focus on the development of IT, real estate and service sectors.

It also laid emphasis on the development of human resources to bridge the skill gap and improve the employability of manpower in the state.

it strongly pitched for the development of infrastructure, focus on sunrise industries like pharmaceuticals, small and medium industries, adequate importance on climate change and global warming, removal of regional inequalities particularly in KBK districts and connecting the ports with the industrial corridors. Similarly, promotion of employment through cluster development, setting up of ancillary industries, linking industries to supply chain and creation of opportunities for self-employment need to be given priority. …

ASSOCHAM has suggested that the land acquisition need to be left to the buyers and sellers of land and the role of the state should be that of a facilitator only. The project proponents have a role to rehabilitate all those families being uprooted for a project.

On Orissa specific initiative, Rawat said, an Orissa Desk has been set up in Delhi to focus on the human resources development and the development of food processing industries. Berhampur University has been roped in as the partner for the purpose.

The desk is working on the growth of agriculture and food processing industries in the state and drafting Orissa Vision-2020 to provide a road map for the development of the state. An investment seminar called “Orissa Calling Investment”, is proposed to be held in Delhi in October this year to promote investment in the state, he pointed out.

Many of them raised various Railways related issue. MPs Bhakta Das and Sanjay Bhoi raised the issue about a medical college and a national university in Bhawanipatna. Following are news items from Dharitri and Samaja on this.

Following is an op-ed piece from Samaja on the Railways issue.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

the BJD has decided to bring four resolutions against the Centre. “We will move resolution against the Centre for neglecting the cause of Odisha in the field of railway, for not increasing mine royalty in a regular manner and not giving its due share to the State, Centre’s negligence in providing help to the State to face the Maoist menace and Government’s failure to provide flood assistance to the State,” Mohanty added.

I agree with the above.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to inaugurate the second unit of state-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) in Tiruchirapalli by the end of this month, a top company official said here today.

"The Rs 750 crore plant is ready and we are waiting for dates from the Prime Minister’s Office to confirm his visit to Tiruchirapalli to inaugurate the plant," BHEL Tiruchirapalli complex Executive Director V Ananthakrishnan told reporters here.     

"Already we are recruiting 1,000 candidates per year and this year too we will recruit another 1000," he said, adding they would continue to recruit candidates at the same pace over the next three years.      

Orissa should make efforts to have similar non-metal processing and non-thermal power related public sector units in Orissa.

Update: The media coverage of the insult and its reaction is being archived at http://upainsults.orissalinks.com/.

When Manmohan Singh became the PM of India in 2004 one of the first things his government did was shift an announced for National Institute of Sciences (NIS) in Bhubaneswar to Kolkata and when Orissa MPs discussed with him about Orissa’ development he is reported to have replied "Money does not grow in trees." It took Orissa-wide demonstrations and a supreme court case for Dr. Singh to make amends and declare the establishment of a National Institute of Science Education and Research in Bhubaneswar. In 2004 he humiliated Orissa by not having a single minister from Orissa. Eventually he added a minister of state from Orissa. Somewhat similar to the NIS case, Dr. Singh’s HRD minister of state had mentioned in a speech in Patna that there will be an IIT in Orissa, but subsequently Orissa was not in the list. Again, after a lot of protests and demonstrations in Orissa, the PM  included Orissa as one of the locations of a new IIT.

Fast forward to 2009 and now Congress gets 6 Lok Sabha MPs from Orissa, 4 more than what it had in 2004. Among the 6 MPs is an ex-chief minister and a tribal (Hemanada Biswal)  who beat the national vice president of BJP in winning his seat, an ex-cabinet minister of parliamentary affairs and tourism, (Srikant Jena), an ex-minister of state of Railways (Bhakta Das), an ex state minister (Amarnath Pradhan), and two young MPs (one of them a tribal).

It is the PM’s prerogative to chose his team and there is no requirement that there has to be ministers from each state. After all these ministers are supposed to be ministers of all of India and it should not matter  where they come from or what their caste is; all that should matter is that they are qualified and they have the PM’s confidence. So objectively one shouldn’t have a problem that he has chosen only one minister of state from Orissa and chosen 3 cabinet ministers and one minister of state from Karnataka, where it got 6 MPs, the same number as Orissa. But the insult to Orissa comes from his demotion to the minister he chose from Orissa. He has picked as a minister of state, not even with independent charge,  Mr. Srikant Jena, who was earlier a cabinet minister  of India and had Parliamentary affairs and tourism as part of his portfolio. If Dr. Singh did not have confidence in Mr. Jena he need not have picked him. But what is he trying to convey by picking him and giving him a demoted position other than showing his and his party’s continued dislike and insulting attitude towards Orissa.

Dr. Singh: You have won the mandate and I guess like your earlier insult to Orissa when you were reported to have said "Money does not grow in trees", you can do whatever you like. But India is watching and they can see how you continue to insult a state and its people. People of Orissa, including those who recently voted for Congress, are fast losing faith on you and are dreading the next five years, where your ministers will take their booties to their home state.

This is not suppose to happen; your ministers are supposed to look after the whole country and not their own state; but based on the past 5 years, where your ministers have focused less on India as a whole and more on their own states, India’s poorer states, with little representation in your ministry are going to get poorer. For introspection, you may look at your past Railway minister’s boasting about what he did for his home state and compare it with states like Orissa from where it got the most revenue, and what you and your past HRD minister have done for higher education and science and technology for your respective home states.

As per Orissa, it seems like humiliating Orissa is your favorite sport or perhaps your lucky charm, as you seem to be again starting your innings with that.

Reaction from other quarters: 

• http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Naveen-ups-the-ante-over-states-share-in-PM-team/articleshow/4590533.cms.
• http://orissadiary.com/CurrentNews.asp?id=12813.
• http://www.orissadiary.com/ShowOriyaColumn.asp?id=12812.
• http://www.breakingnewsonline.net/2009/05/congress-humiliates-orissa-as-srikant.html.
• http://www.indopia.in/India-usa-uk-news/latest-news/584891/National/1/20/1.
• http://www.tathya.in/2009/story.asp?sno=2972.
• Congress humiliates Orissa again: Expressbuzz.com.
• http://www.indianexpress.com/news/MoS-for-just-Jena-an-insult–says-Orissa-Cong/467123.
• http://dailypioneer.com/179369/Why-Cong-injustice-to-Orissa-continues.html.
• http://dailypioneer.com/179368/UPA-has-neglected-Orissa-again-Naveen.html.
• http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/orissa-neglected-in-upa-ministry-naveen/359452/.
• http://www.orissadiary.com/Shownews.asp?id=12815.
• Orissa peeved: Telegraph.

From Samaja:

From Dharitri:

Following is an excerpt from the article at http://bihartimes.com/Newsbihar/2009/Feb/Newsbihar16Feb7.html.

Sometimes it is quite difficult to understand why leaders from Bihar are so squeamish about helping their home state when leaders from other states are so brazen in doing this.  Defense Minister A K Antony has gone about making the defense PSUs set up their facility in Kerala.  Even non politicos like Dr Madhvan Nair have selected Kerala to set up "Indian Institute of Space Technology" at Thiruvananathpuram while being fully aware that Bihar does not have any ISRO center worth mentioning. I hardly find anyone questioning why the benefit of all the Farm Loan Waiver Schemes have been cornered by so called developed states like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu. Moreover, I’m yet to see any one questioning as to how  Mr T R Balu has focused just on developing roads and sea ports in his home state of Tamilnadu only. As per his own claim, he has brought investment of over Rs. 50,000 crores ( Rs 33,000 crores in road sector and balance in ports) to Tamilnadu. Similarly, Mr Velu has lobbied hard to get Rs 7000 crore worth railway project approved for TN. Politicians from Andhra Pradesh were being indignant at their state being ignored. One must add up the fund Andhra Pradesh has cornered over last 10 years.
 
If the central government had not formulated the policies and its programs the way it has been doing till now, all these so called developed states would have been underdeveloped.  The states which have been the worst sufferers have been actually the states like Orissa, Jharkhand, MP and Chhatishgarh. If any state has any right to be indignant at all, it is only these states.

…

Bihar certainly deserves a better treatment now before it is too late for Indian Union to manage inequities between various states. Till date Bihar has been marginalized in setting up institutions and assets of national importance, putting it at huge economic disadvantage. As recently as last month, even in the case of ‘Institute of Translation Research’, Bihar’s case was ignored to favour Andhra Pradesh. How long the fellow countryman and the policy makers think that people of Bihar should meekly accept this discrimination. Central policy makers are so blatant that they have not even bothered to release a reconstruction and rehabilitation package for flood ravaged region of Kosi, as they did in case of other national calamities like Gujarat Earthquake and  Tamil Nadu Tsunami. It is hard to comprehend why different yardsticks are being followed for citizens of the same country. Most paradoxical thing has been that the central policy makers are focusing on developing regions which has been traditionally inimical to people coming from other parts of country and ignoring the ones which have been receptive all along.
 
Anyway, talking about the railway, Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav has only partially fulfilled the wishes of the people of state in this Interim Budget. He has made more noise and delivered less in this budget than his earlier budgets even while conceding that it was only an Interim Budget. I would have expected him to take up some railway lines for which surveys were announced in his previous budgets. Also, he has announced survey of Mono Rail for Patna last year with much fanfare but there is no confirmation whether the same is going to happen any soon now. After returning from Japan he forgot his old promise of Mono Rail and ended up on a new promise of Bullet Train which is even less likely to happen soon.  Of particular interest for state would have been announcement pertaining to a Rail Bridge between Chapra and Arrah over the Ganges River and perhaps two more at Bakhtiyarpur and Sahibganj over this mighty river. He could have also ventured to provide fast track connectivity for Kosi Region to the state capital by linking up Saharsa, Kusheshwarsthan, Samastipur and Hajipur using a rail Bridge on Kosi at Kusheswarsthan.
 
Though the minister has done a commendable job for Bihar over the last five years, yet he is leaving a lot of things incomplete.