Subhechcha Ganguly 
During the third iteration of the premier investor event, Make in Odisha Conclave 2022, JSW Steel Chairman Sajjan Jindal made a subtly critical remark about the Odisha government. Sajjan made a comment about the land acquisition procedure carried out in the State to promote the establishment of enterprises during his speech at the conclave.
“Mr. Hemant Sharma talked about planting 30 acres in 30 days and 50 acres in 50 days in his wonderful presentation. However, as I was about to say, this does not imply that 3,000 acres would require 3,000 days. Therefore, that is not necessary,” said the chairman of JSW Steel.
A discussion has been triggered by Sajjan’s statement made in front of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and a group of important industrialists in the nation. It’s unclear whether Sajjan merely voiced scepticism or whether he was dissatisfied with the State government’s apparent failure to acquire land. Notably, JSW is building a 13.2 mt massive steel mill in Jagatsinghpur district on the contentious POSCO site. Speculations about whether land acquisition has become a challenge for the project, similar to POSCO, or whether the State government has failed to supply land by the deadline were stoked by Sajjan’s remark.At the current Make In Odisha Conclave, industrialists have also questioned the lack of industrial infrastructure in the State in addition to land acquisition.
“Any steel mill means movement of three to four times the materials you are producing,” the MD of Tata Steel remarked. In order to stay up with the rate of the current steel investments, it follows that the rail, port, and road infrastructure all need to be updated significantly more than they now are. Despite the evident dissatisfaction of industrialists, the Odisha government has received investment proposals at this year’s investor summit valued Rs 10.5 lakh crore.The State government got investment offers totaling Rs 6 lakh crore in the last two conclaves. However, the government has only collected investments of Rs. 5674.56 crore so far.
Only 16 of the 286 recommendations have been put into action in the State thus far. As a result, business organisations and professionals voiced worries about the conclave’s potential to benefit the State.The State Industries Department needs to make adequate preparations in addition to correctly managing each company, each group, and each industry, according to financial expert Rajib Sahu.The Make In Odisha Conclave featured a number of elaborate presentations, according to UCCI President Brahmananda Mishra. At the conclave, numerous investors committed to making investments. The issue, though, is figuring out how to put the suggestions into practise.
