Category: Odisha

Odisha is the favorite destination for investors: Industry Minister

Bhubaneswar: Calling Odisha as a favorite destination for investors, Industries Minister Shri Pratap Keshari Deb urged young minds of the state to take entrepreneurship seriously. Attending Startup Odisha’s ‘Fundstack 2.0’ as a chief guest, which is a startup-investor connect program where 20 startups selected through a rigorous process from shortlisted 100 startups have got the opportunity to impress investors by presenting their innovative ideas to 20 investors. This two days program held in Bhubaneswar and Puri.

Speaking on the occasion the Minister emphasized on institutionalizing the culture of entrepreneurship in young minds and plug gaps in the ecosystem. Fundstack will create a platform that builds an engaging relationship between startup & investor. He also solicited suggestions from the invited panel of investors which shall help Startup Odisha to further develop the ecosystem of the State.

Executive Chairman Dr. Omkar Rai said that Fundstack is not just a platform that facilitates investment for startups but also a forum for capacity building and investment readiness which enables the participating startups to raise funds from private investors who in turn lead the startups on the trajectory of growth and scaling businesses.

Principal Secretary of MSME Smt Ranjana Chopra talked about the progressive & investor friendly Startup Ecosystem in Odisha and remarked that through Fundstack 2.0 the state shall gear up the Startup Community to be ready for the Make in Odisha Conclave which plans to bring investors across the globe into Odisha.

The first edition of Fundstack was held virtually in 2021 over 200 startups gained business insights from over 20 eminent Angel Investors. The second edition was announced this year by Chief Minister of Odisha, Shri Naveen Patnaik on 26^th August 2022. This year it was a 2 day pitching & networking event to attract investments for startups. This program planned as a precursor to the upcoming Make In Odisha 2022 which to be held from 30^th Nov -4^th Dec.

CEO of Startup Odisha, Md. Sadique Alam has delivered welcome address and program was followed by an interactive session between Investors & Senior Government. During this session the Odisha Startup Growth Fund (Funds of Funds) was presented by Dr Sanjukta Badhai, Evangelist, Startup Odisha.

On the second day, the investors joined on a round table meet at the Mayfair Heritage Resort, Puri, where they emphasized on private equity investment to fuel the growth in startup sector. This grand engaging event of two days concluded with one on one meeting between the selected startups and the investors.

Odisha targets at least 33% women led Startups

-Presently, target over achieved as 40% Start-ups formed by women

Bhubaneswar: To bring women entrepreneurs into the spotlight, the Odisha government have set an ambitious target of at least 33% of start-ups that should be formed by women as founder or co-founder. Presently this target is over achieved as 40% start-ups registered is led by women entrepreneurs. Startup Odisha Evangelist Sanjukta Badhei has said that State government wants to continue this momentum in long run. Odisha has more than 1300 startups and out of which nearly 500 is run by women, she added.

Elaborating on various initiatives taken under Startup Odisha for women, she said that, “Special funding and capacity building programmes in place to help women entrepreneurs to nurture their ideas. We have a monthly allowance grant of Rs 22,000 for promoting women entrepreneurship. Up to Rs 16 lakhs of product development and marketing support grant is also available to help in the process of building the product and taking that to market. We are also providing travel assistance to start-ups to take part in various programmes organised nationally and internationally. They also have been given opportunities to showcase their products and services to a wider audience on larger platforms.”

She also talks about Startup Odisha Yatra 2.0 unveiled yesterday by Odisha CM which will cover more than 100 educational institutions in the state and reach out to 10,000 students within 60 days. A special Van was also flagged off to create awareness about this initiative.

To provide large scale investment to disserving start-ups, Odisha government has set up Rs 100 crores worth of Fund of Funds. We are inviting alternative investment funds and semi registered investors to invest in Odisha based start-ups. To provide robust ecosystem, O-Hub-a special facility for start-ups also set up at Bhubaneswar, she said.

On this occasion, ORMAS CEO Poonam Tapas Guha talks about various possibilities available in different parts of the state for women entrepreneurs and various kinds of handholding support by the government for them. She urges entrepreneurs to visit peer Producer Groups to learn new techniques and to exchange tools and ideas. As Odisha house 62 tribal groups, we have many opportunities lie in their specific products like Harida, Bahada, broom, etc. Women can set enterprises collectively to sale these products to larger audience. In agriculture products also there is lot of scopes to market them.

She also urged every women entrepreneur to take steps to avail benefits of various government schemes announced for them and also request them to participate in Pallishree Mela of ORMAS which is organised annually on a large scale basis.

She delivers this address at a seminar on the theme of ‘Growth of women entrepreneurs and their contribution to Odisha’s socio-economic scenario’ as part of the Propack Odisha 2022 and MSME Odisha 2022 organised at Janata Maidan, Bhubaneswar to celebrate the 36th foundation day of Odisha Association of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (OASME).

Other dignitaries present at the event were Nitisha Mann, Deputy Director, MSME-DFO, Manasi Mandhata, Jt. Secy, MSME dept-Odisha, Aboli Sunil Naravane, Collector, Subarnapur, Jyotirmayee Mohanty, Chairwoman, OASME Women Wing, Sweta Pani, Secretary, OASME Women Wing, Pratishruti Jena, Amrita Sabat, Chandana Das, Sanjukta Panda, BijayaLaxmi Pradhan and Benorita Dash of OASME women Wing.

CPSUs asked to organise PLAC meeting regularly with MSMEs

Bhubaneswar: To make procurement process simpler for local enterprises, Central Public Sector Undertaking (PSUs) are asked to conduct Plant Level Advisory Committee (PLAC) Meeting regularly for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises of the state. MSME DFO P K Gupta urged CPSUs to organise these meeting which enable small and medium enterprises to understand specific requirement of big industrial houses.

Addressing a seminar on ‘Public procurement policy for MSMEs and role of CPSEs’ he said that, “Chairman and CEOs of a CPSU heads PLAC meeting and local entrepreneurs are also members of it. If meeting held on regular interval entrepreneurs would get chance to interact with decision makers and can understand specific requirement of the organisation. Then they can prepare products which are suitable to them and chance for getting orders will increase.”

Mr. Gupta urged all CPSUs to organise PLAC meeting as earliest as possible. He also tells them to set up display centre like Nalco did, because many times small entrepreneurs do not feel comfortable to visit big plant or office. But in a display centre they can interact openly with officials easily.

He said that plan is also there to make necessary changes in Samadhan portal to make it better. We also communicated to MSME Ministry about various issues faced by entrepreneurs so that in the policy amendment process these input can be taken into consideration. We have ST/SC hubs to support ST/SC entrepreneurs and we need women hubs. In samadhan portal Rs 40,000 crore orders have been executed by PSUs and Central ministries till date. Contribution of MSME to it is 39% which is much higher than mandated 25% procurement target. But in case of ST/SC and Women entrepreneurs the contribution level is less than one percent which is far low than the mandated target of 4% and 3% respectively for these two categories. There is scope for improvement on which CPSUs can think seriously. He added.

On this occasion, Director (Commercial) of Nalco Mr. Sadashiv Samantray talks about the contribution of MSME sector to the economy in terms of employment and export. He urged small and medium enterprises of the state to raise their issues with help of Sambandh and Samadhan portal to get time bound solutions. Government is very serious about payment delay to MSMEs. CPSUs cannot import anything less than Rs 200 crore which is a big thrust for local entrepreneurs. Every organisation bound to float domestic tenders for small procurement. He added that, government allowed local industries to have technology tie up with foreign players and can make products inside India. They can sell these products to CPSUs. So, here there is huge scope for local enterprises to enhance their business further with foreign collaboration. He said.

This seminar is a part of the Propack Odisha 2022 and MSME Odisha Meet 2022 organised by Odisha Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (OASME) to celebrates its 36^th foundation day here in Janata Maidan, Bhubaneswar which will run up to 2022 August 28. Other dignitaries present at the seminar were Somanath Tripathy, ED, RSP, Rourkela, Mihir Chandra, GM (MM), MCL, Pramod Kumar, ED, HAL, Gauri Sankar Dash, Chairman, OASME and Satwik Swain, Secy General, OASME.

Papers also presented by representatives of different organisations. On the second half of the day another seminar on subject ‘Opportunities of innovative technology transfer and commercialisation to MSMEs held where Sanjiv Mallick has given welcome address and Sabyasachi Maji introductory address. Other dignitaries are also present there.