India’s number one apparel export house Shahi Exports’ MD Harish Ahuja, who owns nearly 50 garment factories across India, recently addressed an event in Delhi, in the presence of Odisha’s Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and many other well-known industrialists of India. The confidence and appreciation about Odisha in Harish’s words were really impressive. “In 2014, Shahi Exports was invited to set up a unit in Odisha. Within a month of our first meeting, we were allotted land and in August 2015 we set up our unit. Encouraged by the facilitation support, we are expanding and have employed over 2300 people already,” said Harish.
Nearly 30,000 Odisha workers are working in Shahi factories in and around Bangalore and few other such apparel manufacturing hubs. As Shahi Exports is expanding in Odisha, same trained workers do want to settle in their own state and have the comfort of working in their same company and profile as well.
Not only Shahi exports and apparel manufacturing companies are making fresh investments in Odisha, many other industries are also geared up and investing there. The State Government is fully charged up to support the industry and apart from favourable policies, through continuous meeting and events, it is also motivating the industry to come to Odisha.
The second edition of the state’s flagship biennial global investors’ meet ‘Make in Odisha’ is scheduled for November 11 to 15 in Bhubaneswar and to make it successful and a grand event, the state organised investors’ meet in cities like Mumbai and New Delhi where state’s Chief Minister Patnaik himself met with the industrialists and invited them to start or to increase their operation in the state. The CM in Delhi launched the ‘Invest Odisha’ website (www.investodisha.gov.in) a user-friendly portal where investors can find information related to policy, cost-of-doing-business, and infrastructure-all at one place.
ASSOCHAM has ranked Odisha as the No. 1 state in terms of investment implementation rate and the state is consistently ranked amongst the top 3 states in terms of live manufacturing investments in India. The state’s port capacity has increased ten times to 190 million metric tonnes at present and power generation has increased more than three times, while road network has expanded by over 50 per cent.
Some of the interesting initiatives in textile and apparel industry in the state include Indian Oil Corporation’ upcoming textile park where a Rs 1,000 crore polyester staple fibre (PSF) unit will be set up. While the state seeks World Bank’s support in textiles, the Tirupur Exporters’ Association (TEA) also explores possibilities to set up garmenting units in the state and were positive about the state’ policies and support. The state is also working on establishing a Yarn Bank along with Apparel Incubation Centre at National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Bhubaneswar, among other steps.
“With Odisha government’s vision and guidance, the garment industry will be able to progress and reach great heights,” added Harish Ahuja.
Other stalwarts from various sectors like Naveen Jindal, Chairman, Jindal Steel and Power Limited; Ritesh Agarwal, Founder, OYO Rooms; Marc Hoffmann, MD & CEO, SMS Group India, who also addressed the investor meet in Delhi, echoed similar sentiments about the opportunities for their industries in Odisha.
