As we all are aware that we are experiencing the great momentum of changing the world including orissa.It is good to being participate rather watching from outside.
Here is a nice nuggets from Schi SatapathySachi Satapathy
A must read from Orissa People......
A Paper from recently published Orissa Vision 2020 Edited by me.
sachi
Technological Excellence and Human Resources Development: Twin Mantra of Orissa's Development.
Digambara Patra *
Digambara Patra- Humboldt Research Fellow, Institute For Biological Information Processing-1, Forschungszentrum, Wolfshovener strasse 102, D-52428, Juelich, Germany
The role of modern technology and its development in the economic progress of a nation is getting increasingly recognized. Firms are becoming more and more competitive and efforts are being made globally to develop technology strengths. In the present global scenario the developing nations especially are showing remarkable rise in the pace of economic growth. It has been realized that there would likely be a shift in economic power towards the third world nations in the present century. To achieve the economic power house, technology and economy need to be considered in an integrated manner rather than as separate entities. Opening up of Indian economy to the global market has altered domestic and global market, to a great extent, for which Indian industry has become globally more competitive since last one decade. However, Orissa as a federal state of India has achieved a little in this global competition compared to other industrially advanced Indian states. Poverty, regular natural calamities and lack of infrastructure have been a general issue of concern for Orissa's backwardness in modern industrialization. In contradiction, Orissa has advantages of mineral rich reserves, large coastlines, great tourism potential, and low cost skilled and unskilled work force. Therefore a clear vision of, what can be achieved and how best to achieve it, is required for the state. On the other hand, to realize the dream of developed India by 2020 poverty stricken Orissa must develop. Otherwise the dream will never be fulfilled. Keeping this in mind industries in Orissa will have to support the nation in acquiring economic leadership and progress by 2020. The foundation of this leadership will depend, to a great extent, on the technological excellence of the firms in Orissa.
Orissa has a large shortage of highly qualified human resources. Orissa has done some- what well in humanities but particularly in engineering, science and medicine I assume Orissa is still one of the lower number of graduate producing state compared to other Indian industrialized states like Maharastra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. A modern approach for infrastructure development in basic science and technology is still required for the state. Foundation for a strong higher and technical education as well as research must be built inside the state, during next five years. Few more new universities, research centers and technical colleges should be established in the state. Importance should be given to the backward region for higher infrastructure development. Few universities and technical colleges in south-western Orissa are required keeping its present backwardness. Bhawanipatna, Balangir, Koraput, Keonjhargarh and Phulbani could be developed as centers of excellence in higher education and research oriented infrastructure development, which will not only boost the local economy when people from other parts of Orissa will come to this place for work but also encourage local residents to pursue higher education and research by creating a healthy atmosphere in this backward region. Some of the colleges in the state should be promoted to deem status and the position of the professor could be non-transferable in these deem colleges so that he/she can establish his/her own laboratory in long run to carry out good research work. Although more than 70 % of Orissa's population depends on agriculture, agriculture alone can not make the state prosper. Along with it we need to focus on industrialization and modern technology. As technology changes with time, it needs a strong investment in research and development. Orissa should target for outsourcing in global research and development centers in next 5 years. Orissa is one of the states where research and developmental progress is poor. Today India has few good international research laboratories like GE in Bangalore, mainly because of research done in National Chemical Laboratory, Pune and Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. In fact GE was planning to set up its Laboratory in Pune, but it could not do so due to some political problem. Orissa should improve domestic infrastructure by doing good research in universities, national laboratories, and major colleges present inside the state, so that global companies will feel confident to invest in R & D in Orissa. For achieving progress in R & D every independent university, research organization and college should submit a 15 years research plan, their goal, and how they can generate their own expenses through research and consultancy. Apart from fundamental research, research work should be also entertained in applied aspects of advanced sectors, food processing, chemical processing industries, civil aviation, food & agriculture, electric power, electronics & communications, engineering industries, health care, materials & processing, life sciences & biotechnology, road transportation, services, strategic industries, telecommunications, and waterways. Progress in technological and research excellence will encourage modern and knowledge based industries to invest in the state.
Of course, without primary education there can't be higher education. The present proposal to establish primary education in every village, higher secondary education in every panchayat, and bachelor degree education to every block is encouraging. The bachelor education in science should get preference over humanities. A bird's eye view of our present education systems indicates that most of the colleges present in rural and semi-urban regions have only arts (humanities) stream and very few have science stream. In general, developed countries have higher number of scientists and engineers than humanities. We should have more science than arts colleges to promote science as well as to compete with present global scenario. Number of input should be increased in science, technology and medicine and that of seats in humanities should be decreased. As English is very important for globalization, good education in English and Oriya languages along with special emphasis in spoken English should be given importance at the basic level.
Although Orissa started quite early in IT investment, due to lack of government and public awareness it could not make up to the national level in last 10 years. Even recently late starters like West Bengal and Kerala have performed better than Orissa in IT. This is the greatest failure of our government in last 10 years. Orissa should have a very aggressive plan and public leaders should personally meet industrialists for such growth. Personal relation between industrialists and politicians makes a greater deal in bringing IT companies home. For instance the recent success of West Bengal in IT can be attributed more to the personal relation developed by Mr. Budhadeb Bhattacharya with Mr. Premji. Orissa as such needs a dynamic leader for such activities. A friendly fast track single window system should be created for new investments in the state. Beside IT related industries, Orissa should also target on industries related to biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, herbal & aurvedic and nanotechnology , where other states of India still have to play major roles. Large forest resources and presence of traditional herbal trees in the state (for example rare herbal trees can be found in undivided Kalahandi, Balangir, Koraput and Phulbani districts) could bring more investment in herbal research and development. Bhubaneswar and Cuttack could be developed as a single metropolitan city and this city should be used as a gate way to invest in other regions of the state. Along with Bhubaneswar, Rourkela, Berhampur, and Sambalpur, other regional towns like Bhawanipatna, Balesore, Jeypore, Keojhargarh, Balangir, Baripada, Phulbani and Dhenkanal (considering the geographical need) could be encouraged for IT, biotechnology, nanotechnology and agro based parks development so that every corner of the state will be equally benefited and regular exchange of people from all parts of Orissa will generate a friendly and brotherly atmosphere reducing regional imbalance. Backward sections of the people should be highly encouraged for higher studies to avoid use of these people by anti-social elements. As suggested in a news website discussion, it would be nice to select one of the towns that is geographically center to whole backward south western Orissa districts (as suggested, Bhawanipatna could be potent center to whole south western Orissa districts), and give all modern infrastructure for industrialization along with a few regional administratative offices ( like Siligudi in West Bengal) keeping this region's inaccessible long distance and poor transportation facilities to state capital Bhubaneswar in mind.
Orissa's rich potential in steel, aluminium and mines should be properly and timely exploited for proper utilization of long coastlines. As proposed by the government, two special economic zones (SEZs) and small port development will benefit the state a lot. Particularly places where making steel, aluminium and mines based industries and ports are remote should be encouraged for other industries like IT, BT etc. Orissa has a great potential in agro & food processing, leather, jewelry, garments and textile based industries. Expertise in Kataka tarakashi work and available gem stones inside the state should be properly exploited for bringing jewelry industries. We have the advantage of cost, skillful workers and raw materials. Many Oriya people are working in textile, jewelry and other industries out side the state. These people will definitely prefer to come back to Orissa when proper infrastructure would be provided to them. An aggressive five year plan should be made to attract investment in these sectors. As recognized by the state government, tourism has one of the great potent of generating employment, but Orissa needs to do better publicity and provide better security and strengthen law and order situation. Particularly, security for foreign tourists should be given preference. More friendly behavior with tourist by the local people than the government will encourage more foreign tourists in the state. Citizen in the state should realize ( as in the case of Thailand or even in the case of Kerala) that friendly attitude to a tourist would encourage more tourists to visit the place lifting the local economy upwardly. Along with normal tourism, tourist in aurvedic and medical care should be facilitated in the state.
Orissa does have higher percentage of poor unskilled/semi-skilled people. Employment to these people could be a problem in high technology industries. For increasing their employment potential, small and medium enterprises could be established. Special vocational training with little basic education should be given to these people aged between 15 and 50 years to promote them from unskilled to semi-skilled labourers. Farmers should be encouraged for export oriented and quality farming. However, infrastructure is the greatest hurdle in Orissa and a strong investment in basic infrastructure can generate more employment for these people. Area wise Orissa is the fifth largest in the nation, but when one looks at the railway connections and air connectivity it is too poorly built. In such a case obviously road construction should get high importance in Orissa. As recognized by the state government all weather road links to every village and state high way road to every block should be made in the next 3 to 5 years. District head quarters should be linked with national high way. Road accidents are alarming in the state. To reduce accidents roads should be properly constructed and maintained. Similar to developed countries, a strict law should be brought to counter such bad practices. Of course, a good traffic control and bringing order to every street of a city and town will solve this problem to a larger extent. Construction of four lane highways is necessary for most of the busy roads in the state , for example: one along the coastlines, one in the western border line, and one in the heart line of Orissa. Simultaneously, government should give special attention to build new railway infrastructure in the state. West Bengal which is quite small as compared to Orissa in area has a very long railway net work. In my opinion, three new major railway links in the following route must be made in the state.
Malkangiri-Jeypore-Koraput-Nabrangpur-Ampani-Dharamgarh-Sinapali-Nuapada-Padampur-Bargarh-Jharsuguda-Deogarh-Keonjhargarh-Bhadrak,
Balangir-Boudh-Phulbani-Angul-Kenojhargarh-Baripada-Balesore, and
Dharamgarh-Lanjigarhroad-Phulbani-Nayagarh-Khurda-Puri-Paradip-Dhamara
In air connectivity, Bhubaneswar airport should be directly linked internationally and to all major Indian cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Chandigarh, Lukhnow etc. New domestic airports at Rourkela, Jharsuguda, Bhawanipatna, Jeypore, Berhampur, and Balesore should be encouraged keeping distance in mind. Cleanliness of the environment, recycling and proper disposal of waste products, good quality drinking water to every family, piped water supply to every village and towns, and self-sufficiency in energy are other social parameters to be taken care of. In short, irrigation facilities, food, employment, education, health and nutrition, improvements in quality of governance, domestic stability, population growth, transport, communication, energy self-sufficiency, water conservation, air quality, trade investment, peace, security, e-governance, rural development, poverty, fiscal deficit and loan burden should be properly addressed by Orissa government and its people. Orissa has generated a bad track record that many of the proposals on new project and investment in the state either do not pick up in right time. Corruption free aggressive governance is required to properly execute the projects at right time. After all, self-confidence and self-reliance citizens keeping Indianness and respect to human kind intact are required to make Orissa a peaceful and lovely state.
Suresh Behera
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