Malay Mishra*, November 6, 2016 : Two divergent reports in the local edition of the Express on the same day (Oct 21) set me thinking. One was the much touted ‘Made in Odisha’ conclave (Nov 30-Dec 02) for which the Chief Minister made an air dash to Delhi to ‘woo envoys’ as the report headlined.

The other, on a completely contradictory note, was the report of BJP activists of the district unit of Sambalpur having gheraoed the Collectorate and pasted a memorandum addressed to the Governor.

The memorandum was a scathing indictment of the State’s non-performance in several areas; industry, agriculture, employment, besides sundry subjects like neglect of the health care sector for which Odisha had caught the nation’s attention (and of the international media, as well), and now for having taken the Health Minister’s scalp, the only Ministerial resignation in the fourth term of the CM, for the unfortunate and irresponsible fire tragedy in one of the capital’s prominent hospitals.

Both reports, if read together, are likely to present a confusing picture of the state and would not make sense to any discerning observer, let alone foreign industrialists who would troop into the State with their money bags!

What’s ailing Odisha? How is it that a state rich in mineral resources (one of the richest in the country) has been perpetually likened to a basket case and today finds itself as the poorest state of India, hardly ever figuring in the national development indicators. All that, despite relative progress achieved over the last decade or so under the current CM’s beat, at one time placing the state in the range of mid-level developed states. I recollect a young Parliamentarian of the state reeling out statistics to prove how good Odisha was performing on the economic front some 5 years ago at an annual meeting of the Odisha Society of Americas in Seattle, USA, where both of us were sharing the dais. Alas, those figures have gone out of the window!

What exactly has gone wrong, and more importantly what exactly needs to be done to fix the malaise? The ‘Made in Odisha’ conclave seems attractive but sadly shows how seriously behind the state has fallen even in holding such shows. Not to speak of progressive states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh, even relatively backward states like Rajasthan, Chhatisgarh and Uttarakhand seem to have gone ahead in holding such investment meets for global investors. In fact this could have been the impetus for the current government in planning the conclave. But what was this great haste about? No conclave could ever be successful with two months’ lead time.

And mind you, envoys are not going to invest, their entrepreneurs are, if at all! In my three years at the helm of the Diaspora Division in the Ministry of Overseas Affairs Ministry (MOIA), organizing three consecutive Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) events, I never saw Odisha participate in the state sessions where states book space much in advance with their CMs participating year after year (the present PM and the erstwhile CM of Gujarat was a prominent example), not even at the Ministerial level.

This happened sometime later when the state woke up to the fact that it was lagging seriously behind in wooing NRIs, though not many of them were Odias. But then it is not necessary that only Odias will invest in the state, not Gujaratis, Punjabis, Tamils or Telugus. If the conditions are appropriate, any state resident could come to Odisha. That’s precisely the reason why the NRO Cell formed some time back in the Odisha Niwas under the beat of the Chief Resident Commissioner of the state is languishing for lack of attention, and has called into question the lack of competence or commitment of the people concerned.

Just going through a bland presentation spewing out statistics which have no relevance to ground reality at an event held under the auspices of the Ministry of External Affairs (with which MOIA has merged today) is perfunctory, to say the least. It remains to be seen whether thorough preparation has gone into preparing the agenda of the Delhi event, whether some identifiable projects and entities have been discussed and whether these are being followed up actively in the run up to the conclave, more importantly, setting up the state for foreign investments.

Making a case for investment before foreign envoys is serious business. Countries have started to sit up and take note of India, that being the fastest growing economy in the world today. Events like these should go towards reinforcing that image, not deterring from it. People in charge of such promotional events should be better advised to visit progressive states like Gujarat or Tamil Nadu to see how investment has generated development and how people have been an excellent conductor of such developmental schemes.

Those who wield power in the current dispensation in Odisha, political leaders and bureaucrats alike, would scarce believe how terribly disconnected administration has become from the masses to whom they are supposed to render public services in a time bound delivery process, not selling cheap rice or feeding meals to BPL groups at throw away prices, though half of the meals are cornered by non-targeted groups.

In a recent interaction with a group of mid-career administrators assembled for a 2-day workshop at the state-run administrative academy, I perceptively felt how lost they were, even in grasping the concepts of good governance, best management practices and timely delivery, let alone implement them. Thus the Sambalpur memorandum, despite being an Opposition bulletin, in speaking about indiscipline, corruption, faulty policy and lackadaisical attitude, all of which have led to high unemployment and frustration among the youths, is not seriously off the mark. Why, for example, can the issues highlighted in the memorandum not be put to debate in the public domain and media? Why can’t the government itself rebut the allegations point by point in a democratic manner in public forums and civil society discourses?

That, as I have come to understand by now, will never happen. It is not that the state is bereft of ideas, it is only that those ideas are hardly of consequence to the people who matter. As a senior administrator remarked to me, the human resource assets of the state, those retired from various premier services, could be leveraged to form an advisory body with which the top political leadership could interact periodically to draw upon their ideas and possibly implement them. Great idea, deep frozen!

Now that efforts are made to project Odisha as a foreign investment destination out of many such destinations this country has to offer in keeping with the ‘Make in India’ spirit, these have to be carefully thought out with a good deal of debate and discussion taking into account some prominent intellectuals of the state who sincerely wish to see their state developed. A serious evaluation should then be made of the visible assets of the state which make Odisha stand out apart from the rest and which will make foreign investors stream in to the state. Areas like crafts, tourism, SMEs, cash cropping, horticulture, food processing, infrastructure, ICT, healthcare and education come readily to mind.

It would also be good to profile important cities as part of the presentations, those which have potential of their own in diverse ways, putting them at par with nationally well know urban centres, at least giving them a face otherwise lost in the national calculus. Having identified such areas and centres, the task would be to develop concrete projects, implementable in a time-bound manner. That is just half the task. The most important would be to hand-hold potential investors from the beginning, viz. their arrival in the state to the time of their investing and beyond, following up at every stage. Then only will high-tech solutions like e-biz platform, GIS based land information system and GO-i PLUS have meaning and validation. Just having a 3-D model of the no 1 smart city of the country embellishing the airport will not do.

It ought to be remembered that one failed project or one frustrated investor will deter ten others. One does not have to look far. The South Korean steel giant is one vivid example. The state should avoid committing such costly mistakes again, for the benefit of hosting a conclave and ensuring ‘investors’ delight’. Thus, for example, the central agencies giving approvals for state projects have to be taken on board, so also the people likely to be directly impacted with losing their land to such projects, for fear of creating political maelstroms. For, instead of a delight, the whole exercise could soon turn out to be a nightmare. Besides, of course, the connectivity and infrastructure gaps in the state have to properly bridged, even before it is presented to potential foreign investors.

I only wish the conclave results in outcomes, positive and implementable. And with an assured follow up by the state government. This will bring back much deserved prosperity to the state, which the citizens could justly be proud of.

• (The writer is a retired Ambassador. He can be accessed on malay.mishra55@gmail.com)