by Aditya Dash
WHEN it comes to doing business in Odisha, much is often talked about rankings, scores, and reports. But what if we looked beyond the numbers and took a fresh, straightforward approach? After all, economic growth boils down to a few simple elements — and that’s where the true story begins.
To measure the ease of doing business in India, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) publishes a ranking system. This is the Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP) rankings. No, I am not going to bore you about their scoring mechanism. Nor will this be a cherry-picked report on which state preformed best at what section. I remember a few years ago some noise was made about India’s low rankings in ease of doing business in a World Bank Report.
While these rankings might be a good way to gauge the investor friendliness of a particular state or a country, I am inspired to use a first principles thinking approach. It is universally accepted that GDP growth is a good thing. So how to increase GDP? By increasing the 4 factors of production – land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship.
Take land for example, how do we increase land; it is the only thing that you can’t make anymore. In this case let’s reinterpret things a bit. Bhubaneswar has one of the most expensive housing markets as per a recent news report by Times of India. If tomorrow the government of Odisha would allow everyone who owns land in IDCO’s industrial estates in Bhubaneswar to construct and sell apartments. A lot of existing factory owners who might be in some other industries, let’s say like exporters of frozen shrimps and finding things difficult under the new Trump tariffs. Might decide to pursue their fortune in real estate and soon you will have a lot more apartments in Bhubaneswar and this additional supply should bring down prices substantially. Land is a major and critical area of the Indian economy which is still under the inspector license-raj. More on that in future columns.
Labour is not just about availability of manpower. We should focus on things like skilling and education, women participation in the workforce and how to increase. Recently, Odisha Government has authorized women to work night shifts in commercial establishments. While designing policies, we should keep this in mind.
As far as capital is concerned, it is extremely important. AI and Robotics will be categorized in this field, so policies need to be formulated that ensure that Odisha has easy access to the latest technology. Another priority should be the establishment of an International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at Bhubaneswar. All these are very important as my father often reminds me during our business discussions, money makes money.
The final part is entrepreneurship. A lot needs to be written about, and I will write in a future column. I would like to quote a prominent businessman here, “The government destroys more entrepreneurs rather than creating them, and even though most of the destruction happens unknowingly.”
Next time when you are at one of the CII / ICC / UCCI meets, please consider thinking along these lines.
In the end, the ease of doing business isn’t just about policies or rankings; it’s about creating an environment where land, labour, capital, and entrepreneurship can thrive without unnecessary roadblocks. If the government can remember that, Odisha may well become a shining example of what business-friendly means in India.
(The author is the CEO of Suryo Group of Companies, Bhubaneswar.)