Bhubaneswar to become IT hub

Bhubaneswar to become IT hub

An information technology investment region (ITIR) is going to be established in Bhubaneswar. The proposed ITIR region in Bhubaneswar will be developed on an area of 40 square kilometers for which around 10000 acres of land is required. According to the sources, the ITIR region will come up between Bhubaneswar and Khurda at a cost of Rs 17,883 crore. The cabinet memorandum for the same is being made and it will get the approval of the cabinet soon.

The ITIR region of Bhubaneswar will create as many as 2,30,000 jobs in the state while it can accommodate a population of 5,40,000. Around three fourth of the project will be made in public private partnership (PPP) mode. Sources say that the in-principle approval has already been given by the centre. At a time when foreign direct investments (FDI) are gaining pace, the ITIR region will definitely attract a huge amount of investment to the state. The ITIR project is expected to include an airport, a global IT training centre and a science city among other things.

The Infocity II project that is already in progress, is also going to be a part of the information technology investment region of Bhubaneswar. Infocity II is being developed over 600 acres of land. According to the sources, the ITIR project will be completed in two phases. While 20 percent of the project is planned to be completed in the first phase, the second phase will have majority of work which includes 80 percent of the project. The next big thing about the project is land acquisition. As per the ITIR project plan, arounf 40 percent od the land will be allotted to the information technology (IT), IT enabled services (ITES) and electronics and hardware manufacturing units. The other 60 percent of the approved land will have development and research centers. Institutes of national and international importance will also be allotted land in this region. Some schools, hospitals and shopping malls are also planned to be constructed here.

Similar kind of ITIR projects are also approved in other states like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. 

Skywalks to be set up in Twin City by Government of Odisha

With the increasing vehicular traffic in the Twin City (Bhubaneswar and Cuttack); the pedestrians are facing a lot of problems in crossing the roads in the congested areas. Many accidents are also happening in the busy areas due to the road crossing. So for the convenience of the pedestrians Government of Odisha decided to build Skywalks on the busy areas of the city. The first Skywalk is going to be set up in Jaydev Vihar. The whole idea of building Skywalks in the Twin City came from from the Mumbai Skywalks.

The main purpose of the Skywalk is efficiently moving the pedestrians from the busy congested areas to other locations. The Skywalk will be connected to the Bus Stations, Taxi Stands and shopping malls through a dedicated walkway. Where the Foot Over-Bridges (FOB) are only meant for crossing the roads while a Skywalk will extend a little bit and to more than one direction.

The state housing and urban development (H&UD) department is looking for an executing agency for the Skywalks project. The project cost of the Skywalk which is to be build in Jaydev Vihar is around 10 Crore. The Whole investment will be done by JNNURM funds for the development of the infrastructure of the city. A similar Skywalk is also to be set up near Link Road in Cuttack. In the second phase, we have planned to construct skywalks at Kalpana Square and Raj Mahal Square in Bhubaneswar, H&UD special secretary S K Ratho said.

The Whole Foot Over-Bridges (FOB) project is now replaced by the Skywalks even if the Foundation stone of the Foot Over-Bridges (FOB) at Javdev Vihar han been laid on 31 August 2013. The government is now planning to construct the Skywalks on every Foot Over-Bridges (FOB) site.

As the Skywalks will not only help the pedestrians to cross the road but also lead them to different locations, this will be best the common people. Most of the Urban Planners welcomed the skywalk concept, but they had a doubt whether it can serve the purpose at Jaydev Vihar.

Skywalks are suppose to be present near Metro Stations likewise in Mumbai, so some people feel that the skywalks needs to be set up at Master Canteen and Kalpana Square. The demand of the people is that the projects should be completed as soon as possible not like the Foot Over-Bridges (FOB) which was announced in 2011 but the construction is yet to start.  

Odia Director’s film selected for International Film Festival

Odia Director’s film selected for International Film Festival

Odia Director Sabyasachi Mohapatra’s feature film ‘SALA BUDHA’ has been selected for International film festival of India’s Indian panorama section. the list of the feature films to be showed in the IFFI-2013 has been announced recently in which 26 films have been shortlisted. The jury that was chosen for the selection of feature films was headed by noted film maker and editor B. Lenin. The jury comprised of nine members and it took 21 days to finalise the list in which ‘SALA BUDHA’ finds a place. Paan Singh Tomar is also shortlisted as direct entry to the festival. It had won Best Feature Film award in the 60^th National Film Awards. Six Malayalam, five Bengali 3 Marathi, 2 English and one film each from Konkani, Kannada, Kosali and Tamil have been selected in the featured film category. A number of movies have also been selected in the non-feature film category.

The 44^th IFFI-2013 is going to be held in Goa from November 20 to November 30, 2013. ‘SALA BUDHA’ is a movie made in Kosali language. It focuses on the rural area. It is an attempt to show the plight of aged people in the western part of Odisha (in the villages) in the form of a movie. ‘SALA BUDHA’ is the daptation of the novel of Kapil Prasad Mohapatra, father of the director Sabyasachi Mohapatra. This movie is made in black and white and the director says that he has enough reasons for doing so. This, being a periodical movie, a black and white adaptation can give it the required justice. The Oscar award winning movie, The Artist, was also made in black and white and that is the inspiration for the director of ‘SALA BUDHA’. The last film to be selected for IFFI was ‘Swayamsidha’ which was directed by Sudhanshu Sahu.

The movie ‘SALA BUDHA’is produced by Susanta Mohapatra. While the dialogues are written by Atala Bihari Panda, Prakash Mohapatra has contributed as the cinematographer. The cast of the movie includes Ghasiram Mishra, Gadadhar Barik, Prithwiraj, Atala Bihari Panda, Netranand, Purushottam Mishra and Ratan Meher. 

Odisha Among Top States in MSME Job Creation

When we talk about job opportunities in the MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) sector, Odisha has fared well in creating job opportunities in that sector. According to the Union ministry of MSME's annual report for 2012-13 Odisha has been ranked among the 10 leading states in country in terms of employment generated by the MSME sector.

The number of employed people in the MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) reached to 3.32 million and 0.173 million are employed in the registered sector. About 3.15 million people engaged in the unregistered sector.

The other leading states in terms of employment in MSMEs are Uttar Pradesh (9.23 million employees), West Bengal (8.578 million ), Tamil Nadu (8.09 million), Andhra Pradesh (7.069 million), Maharashtra (7.04 million), Kerala (4.96 million), Gujarat (4.77 million), Karnataka (4.672 million) and Madhya Pradesh (3.36 million).However, the state did not feature among the top 10 leading states in terms of number of enterprises.

The total number of MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) units in Odisha is about 1.57 million out of which 1.53 units are registered and the rest being the unregistered sector.

It may be noted that enterprises registered with district industries centres in the states/ Union territories, Khadi and Village industries commission (KVIC)/ Khadi and Village Industries Board, Coir Board (as on March 31, 2007) and factories under the coverage of Section 2m (i) and 2m (ii) of the Factories Act 1948 used for Annual Survey of Industry having investment in plant and machinery up to Rs 10 crore were considered to belong to the registered sector.

The top states in terms of number of MSME enterprises are Uttar Pradesh (4.403 million units), West Bengal (3.664 million), Tamil Nadu (3.313 million), Maharashtra (3.063 million), Andhra Pradesh (2.596 million), Kerala (2.2 million), Gujarat (2.178 million), Karnataka (2.02 million), Madhya Pradesh (1.933 million) and Rajasthan (1.66 million).

Similarly, the enterprises engaged in the activities of manufacturing or in providing/rendering of services, not registered permanently or not filed entrepreneurs memorandum (EM) with state directorates of industries/district industries centers on or before March 31,2007 are classified as unregistered enterprises.

The state government is taking keen interest to enter into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC) to facilitate credit linkage for MSMEs (micro, small & medium enterprises) in the state.There are 26 DICs and five RICs in the state.