With a lot of initiatives from the side of central government and state governments, startups seem to have a lucky year in 2016.  The Odisha government is putting efforts with the aim of developing the startup culture in the state. Its aim is to make the state one of the top three investment destinations in India, and hence providing the best support from the side of the government. Odisha’s Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced a ten year ‘Industrial Development Policy- 2025’ at ‘Make in India’ week.  The government has identified the advantage of the state over mineral resources, and the potential the state has to become a manufacturing hub in the coming years. The new startup policy is a long term vision planning to raise investments of 2.25 lakh crore in the coming decade. This will create a large working force of ten lakhs in the state.

The new policies aim at increasing the number of companies and investors by providing the most suitable atmosphere for that. The government has promised to provide all support and backup to the entrepreneurs who want to set up their own independent companies. This will increase the ease of doing business in the state and will encourage more entrepreneurs to start off their business ventures. It presents a paradigm shift with government acting as an enabler to aid industrial growth. It aims at sustainable manufacturing and employment generation. Odisha witnessed a robust economic growth of over 8% last year and expects to grow at 12% by 2020. The government’s efforts to expand the industrial base and promote value addition are triggering economic growth”, said Patnaik.

The new policies and initiatives

The state is going to make a lot of effort on building the infrastructure appropriate for a startup ecosystem. It is planning to build an infrastructure that is of worth 100 crore rupees. To build infrastructure on such a large scale, the state will take up the help of private sectors who have years of experience and expertise in the field. New tech parks and industrial townships will be built as part of the new policy, that it will attract the entrepreneurs. The plot for such an initiative is already been finalized and it extends up to one lakh acres.

The state government has announced various e-governance initiatives that will regulate and monitor the implementation of the startup policies. These e-governance websites will try to check on the corruption and other malpractices as there will be less face-to-face contact with the bureaucrats. The e-governance aims to increase transparency, by publishing all the information on the websites. There will be an online inspection platform, and the e-biz platforms will help industries to reach for approval, and payment related matters.

The government is planning to come up with more policies with time to make sure the implementation of Startup Township goes well. The state will focus on identifying the industries with the best scope, and help in the investments and funding.