By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, June 18, 2018: The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) is now the official partner for all investment-related promotional activities in and outside the State besides the second edition of largest industry carnival Make-in-Odisha.

Incidentally, FICCI has replaced Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) as industry partner of Odisha Government following after the CII’s decision to pull out from the Make in Odisha Conclave- 2018 to be held here in November 11-15.

CII – the official partner of State Government since 2015 had organised several roadshows and investors’ meets in and outside the country.

However, the replacement of CII with FICCI seems to have political fallout with the CII reportedly backed out from the upcoming Make-in-Odisha 2018 citing its participation in other international events. The decision followed just a month after Jagi Mangat Panda, wife of four-time MP Baijayant Panda, who recently quit the ruling Biju Janata Dal, joining as chairperson of CII’s eastern zone.

Chairman of CII (State Council) Arun Misra and Vice-Chairman Subrat Tripathy had also resigned from their posts in protest against its decision to back out from being the partner in the Conclave.

Meanwhile, the state government had signed with FICCI in this regards. An official notification on disengagement of CII also has been issued.

The state government also has formed four committees for successful organisation of Make-in-Odisha 2018. While the chairman of FICCI has been made a member of the oversight committee among others including chief secretary, development commissioner, police chief, additional chief secretaries and secretaries of various departments, representatives of the apex industry association have been made members in other three committees.

As many as 27 events including business leadership summits, academic meets, TED talks, CSR conference, hackathon, golf tournament, heritage walk and marathon have been planned during the five-day mega carnival.

Odisha Government in collaboration with Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Government of India is organising the conclave that had attracted investment intents worth around Rs 3.64 lakh crore during its first edition in 2016. More than 50 per cent of the investment intents received during the first conclave are at various stages of approval and implementation, officials claimed.