Bhubaneswar, Feb. 26: Two seemingly unrelated sectors - textile and information technology - have immense potential to put the state in the growth trajectory, feel experts who took part in an interactive session called Exploring New Opportunities in Odisha here today.
The session was held as part of Infocom: Advantage Odisha, 2016 leadership conference held in association with The Telegraph .
"Odisha is known for its mines and mineral resources that have attracted a number of business houses to set up their units here. However, several growth opportunities have remained unexplored in the state," said Sanjiv Chopra, principal secretary of the department of industries.
At the recently-concluded Make In India week in Mumbai, the state bagged investment proposals worth Rs 70,959 crore. Investments took place especially in sectors such as minerals, food processing, electronics, textiles and renewable energy. In the minerals sector alone, the state attracted investments worth around Rs 30,000 crore.
"The state government is shifting focus from minerals to other industries such as textiles, electronics and renewable energy. In future, the state will generate enough opportunities in these sectors. The state has adequate water resources and also a long coast line that can be used for creating opportunities," said Chopra.
Sanjay Kumar Singh, chief executive of Odisha Computer Application Centre (OCAC), stressed on the need to attract new firms, especially in the fields of electronics and information technology.
"The most important requirement for attracting reputed companies from within the country and abroad is the availability of land resources. Another aspect is availability of a skilled workforce. We have enough land and we also produce more than one lakh technical professionals every year. We need to make best use of these advantages," said Singh.
Singh also spoke about growing opportunities in textiles and apparels sector. "The state government will shortly set up a textile park at Bhadrak. We need more such parks across the state. The state has a vibrant textiles industry, which only needs to be promoted further and weavers need to be trained," he said.
Arijit Bhattacharyya, founder and chief executive of Virtualinfocom, urged the youth to come up with out-of-the-box ideas to explore new opportunities. He said that the youth of the state should focus on growth opportunities in video games and animation sectors.
"One does not need high academic qualifications to become a games developer or an animator. Many youths of the state are interested in these sectors. Only zeal and passion are what they need," said Bhattacharyya, adding that animators were among the highest paid professionals in the country. Bhattacharyya also proposed to develop an animated character of Lord Jagannath.
Manpreet Singh of Persistent Systems and Kalyan Kar of Inthink Knowledge Ventures, who also took part in the deliberations, underscored the importance of the upcoming smart city enterprise. They emphasised on the need to develop smart infrastructure in Bhubaneswar as part of the smart city project.
