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Area : 1,55,707 sq km
Population : 36,804,660
Capital : Bhubaneswar
Principal Languages : Oriya
Orissa, the land of Oriyas,
was known as Kalinga in ancient days. In the
third century BC (261 BC), Ashoka the Mauryan
emperor sent a powerful force to conquer
Kalinga, which offered stubborn resistance.
Kalinga was subdued but the carnage, which
followed, struck Ashoka with remorse. After the
death of Ashoka, Kalinga regained its
independence. In the second century BC, it
became a powerful country under Kharavela. With
the death of Kharavela, Orissa passed into
obscurity. In the fourth century AD,
Samudragupta invaded Orissa, which lay astride
his path and overcame resistance offered by five
of its kings. In 610 AD, Orissa came under the
sway of King Sasanka. After Sasanka’s death,
Harsha conquered Orissa.
Orissa had its own rulers (Ganga dynasty) in
the seventh century AD. In 795 AD, Mahasivagupta
Yajati II came to the throne and with him began
the most brilliant epoch in the history of
Orissa. He united Kalinga, Kangoda, Utkal and
Koshala in the imperial tradition of Kharavela.
Under the kings of Ganga dynasty, Orissa
continued to flourish. Narasingha Dev of this
dynasty is reputed to have built the unique Sun
Temple of Konark. From Mid-16th Century, Orissa
was ruled successively by five Muslim kings till
1592, when Akbar annexed it into the Mughal
Empire. With the decline of the Mughal Empire,
the Marathas occupied Orissa. They continued to
hold it till the British took over in 1803.
Orissa was made into a separate province on 1
April, 1936. After Independence, princely states
in and around Orissa surrendered their
sovereignty to the Government of India. By the
States Merger (Governor’s provinces) Order 1949,
the princely states of Orissa were completely
merged with the state of Orissa in January 1949.
Although the state of Orissa had many ancient
names like Kalinga, Utkal and Udra, it is widely
known as the land of Lord Jagannath. Lord
Jagannath is intimately connected with the
social, cultural and religious life of Orissa.
Jainism, Islam and Christianity have
considerable impact on the people of Orissa in
different periods.
Orissa is situated in the north-eastern part
of the Indian peninsula. It is bound by the Bay
of Bengal on the east, West Bengal on the
north-east, Jharkhand on the north, Chhattisgarh
on the west, and Andhra Pradesh on the south.
The state may be broadly divided into four
geographical regions-the northern plateau,
central river basin, eastern hills and coastal
plains.
Agriculture
occupies a vital place in the economy of the
state. It contributes 28 per cent of the net
domestic product of the state. 65 per cent of
the total work force directly or indirectly
engaged in agriculture. Rice is the principal
food grain and its production during 2004-05 was
65.37 lakh metric tonnes. Sugarcane cultivation
has been widely accepted by the farmers.
Priority has been accorded to Agriculture
extension through application of high-end Crop
Production Technologies, adoption of Integrated
Nutrient Management and Pest Management
practices. 12.5 lakh grafts of various fruits,
10 lakh grafts of cashew and 2.5 lakh vegetables
minikits supplied to farmers. To promote onion
crops in the state, 300 quintals of quality
onion seeds distributed to cover 7,500 acres of
land. Under National Horticulture Mission, 2525
demonstrations on rose, gladioli and marigold
held to encourage floriculture. A target of
60,000 demonstrations set for the next year. To
ensure minimum support price to farmers a target
of 20 lakh MTs of rice set to be procured
through Orissa State Civil Supplies Corporation
Ltd., PACs, MARKFED & NAFED and millers
under levy route. In developing micro watersheds
in drought prone areas, 2413 micro-watersheds
are being developed with a treatable area of 13
hectares.
Irrigation potential has been
created through major, medium, minor irrigation
and water harvesting project up to 2696.00
thousand hectares by the end of year 2004-05. To
drive more benefit and smooth management of
irrigtion potential Government has implemented
Pani Panchayata Yojana and Biju Krushak Bikash
Yojana.
During 2005-06, six irrigation projects were
identified for completion with a targeted
irrigation potential of 12685 hectares, of which
four projects were already completed. During
2005-06, Orissa Lift Irrigation Corporation
(OLIC) completed 500 new LI Points under Biju
Krushak Vikas Yojana and created an additional
irrigation potential of 10,000 hectares. About
13,397 Pani Panchayats formed in the State by
January 2006 covering an area of 10.40 lakh
hectares. Out of these, 11,583 Pani Panchayats
have taken over operation and maintenance of
irrigation system covering an area of 7.81 lakh
hectares.
The total installed capacity of power in
states sector during 2004-05 was 4,845.34 MW the
power available from all sources was 1,995.82
MW. Out of 46,989 inhabited villages in the
state 37,744 villages have been electrified till
the end of March 2005.
Under Minimum Need Programme (MNP), 4696
villages, hamlets and dalit bastis were
programmed to be electrified. Of this,
electrification of 2965 villages and hamlets
completed by December 2005. Being a surplus
state in electricity production, surplus power
to the tune of Rs. 420 crore was sold to Power
Trading Corporation and National Vidyut Vyapar
Nigam through GRIDCO by December 2006. 7
projects with estimated cost of Rs. 592 crore
approved by Govt. of India for implementation of
Accelerated Power
Development and Reforms
Programme (APDRP). Highly efficient Orissa Power
Generation Corporation (OPGC) paid a dividend of
Rs. 31.25 crore to the State Government during
2005-06 (Interim).
The
Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation
Limited, Industrial Development Corporation
Limited and Orissa State Electronics Development
Corporation are the three nodal agencies for
promotion of large and medium industries in the
State. A number of mega industrial projects in
sectors like steel, alumina/aluminia, oil
refining, fertilizers, etc. involving large
investment are in the pipeline. The state is
providing institutional and financial support
with various incentives and concessions for
promotion of small-scale village and cottage
industries. By the end of 2004-2005 about 83.075
small-scale industries were set up in the
State.
POSCO, a South Korean steel giant, entered
into a MoU with Government of Orissa to set up a
steel plant having a production capacity of 12
MTPA with an investment of about US $ 12
billion. The flagship Aditya Birla Group plans
to setup a 1 MTPA Alumina refinery with smelter.
Orissa Mining Corporation set itself a
prodcution target of 51.20 lakh tonnes of
minerals in 2005-06. This represents 33 per
cent increase over the previous year. Iron Ore
production slated to touch 43 lakh tonnes in
2005-06, representing an increase of 40 per cent
over the previous year.
To accelerate industrial development,
employment opportunties and economic growth a
single window clearance mechanism introdcued by
enacting Orissa Industries (facilitation) Act,
2004 ensuring time-bound clearance of investment
proposals and ratonalisation of inspections. In
order to support massive investments, top
priority was accorded to improvement in
infrastructural facilities. For creating quality
infrastructure development in IT sector, an
export promotion industrial park set up at
Bhubaneswar. In promoting small and medium
enterprises in the State, 2255 small industries
were set up during 2005-06 with an investment of
Rs. 123.23 crore providing employment to
approximately 10,308 persons.
Full medical care has been extended to the
industrtial labourers and their family members
through a network of ESI hospitals and
dispensaries. Rs. 1,02,66,000 approved for
payment for the year 2005-06 towards
reimbursement cost of treatment of ESI
beneficiaries from Revolving Corpus Fund. Child
labours employed in hazardous jobs were released
and admitted under National Child Labour Project
Scheme for being imparted formal education and
vocational training. 18 Child Labour Projects
are functioning in
18 districts of the State.
33,843 child labourers were admitted in speical
schools run by National Child Labour Projects
and 64,885 child labourers were mainstreamed to
formal schooling system. Minimum Wages Payable
to unskilled, semi-skilled, skilled and highly
skilled categories of workers increased. Under
the direct supervision of Chief Minister, State
Employment Mission in association with
Directorate of Technical Education and Training,
launched vocational training programmes for both
educated and semi-educated unemployed youth.
4225 candidates are being trained for skilling
and reskiling in various market-friendly
courses.
The State is making
significant strides in Information Technology
sector. MOUs signed with TCS and Wipro to set up
Development Centres at Infocity in Bhubaneswar.
Other companies like Hexaware Technologies &
Mind Free Consulting are keen to invest in the
state. All these companies are expected to
directly employ about 5000 software professonals
by 2007-08 besides creating substantial
indirect employment. An e-procurement system
initiated jointly by Government of Orissa,
National Institute of Smart Governance (NISG)
and National Informatics Centre (NIC) to bring
in a transparent and efficient system of
tendering and procurement. State Wide Area
Network (SWAN), a core e-Governance
infrastructure under implementation to connect
the State headquarters with all district
headquarters, Sub-Division headquarters, block
headquaretrs with a 2 mbps dedicated line. The
Oriya language pack under the programme
"Technology Development for Indian languages" to
enable Oriya Language computing completed.
Project e-sishu aiming at creating a database of
the 3 pillars of education, namely, children,
teachers and school was taken up by OPEPA and
jointly being executed with OCAC. This would
help achieving our goal of universalisation of
primary education and ensuring that no child of
the state is left out of school.
Acknowledging the
importance of tourism promotion in economic
growth of the State, Media Management Agencies
and event managers were identified to take up
publicity and promotion professionally. A new
logo has been adopted to re-position and rebrand
Orissa as a vibrant tourist destination. Various
strategic tourism projects such as Peace Park at
Dhauli, infrastructure development in Buddhist
circuit comprising Lalitgiri, Udayagiri,
Ratnagiri & Langudi and tourism development
of Pipili were taken up. For promotion and
marketing, a slew of tourism fairs and festivals
such as Sreekhetra Utsav at Puri, Ekamra Utsav
at Bhubaneswar, Konark Festival at Konark being
supported showcasing the tourism and cultural
potential of the State. Orissa Tourism
particiapted in travel-trade shows like Buddhist
festival at Bangkok, Leisure Moscow at Moscow,
WTM at London, PATA convention at Kuala Lumpur,
IATO at Kochi, TTF at Kolkata, Road show at
Raipur, etc. 373 guides were trained to promote
private sector participation in tourism
sector.
Following the objectives
set out in "State Agriculture Policy" and by
adopting new scientific technology, emphasis was
laid on milk, fish & meat production. Total
milk production per day touches 36 lakh litres,
up by 3 lakh litres. All 30 districts of the
state are covered by Orissa Milk Federation
(OMFED) to promote diary farming. OMFED
increased it's milk procurement substantially to
2.70 lakh litres per day. Under STEP programme,
OMFED is running 'Women Diary Projects' in 17
districts. 837 women diary cooperative societies
comprising 60,287 women were also formed in the
State.
Under RLTAP, Rs. 350 lakh was released in the
year 2005-06 for milk production and allied
activities in KBK districts. For scientific
pisciculture in reservoirs, a 'State Reservoir
Fishery Policy' was approved. Under RLTAP, 13
resevoirs having water spread area of 5709
hectares were taken up for pisciculture
development in KBK districts. During 2005-06,
101 reservoirs were taken up under pisciculture
through Fishermen Cooperative Societies and
Self-Help Groups.
During 2004-05 the total
road length in the state was 2,37,332 km.
comprising 3,595 km National Highway, 29 km
state express highway, 5,102 km state highway,
3,189 km of major district roads, 6,334 km of
other district roads, 27,882 km rural roads,
20,314 km panchayat samiti roads, 1,39,942 km
G.P. roads, 7,298 km forest roads, 17,282 km
urban roads, 6,277 km irrigation roads and 88 km
GRIDCO roads.
Railways : By the
end of 31 March 2004 the state has 2,287 km
railway route including 91 km of narrow
gauge.
Aviation :
The expansion and modernisation of Bhubaneswar
Airport is in progress. Direct link is available
from Bhubaneswar to places like Delhi, Kolkata,
Chennai, Nagpur, Mumbai and Hyderabad. There are
13 air strips and 16 helipads at different
places of the State.
Ports : Paradeep is the only major
port of the State. Gopalpur has been developed
as an all-weather port.
Bhubaneswar
is famous for the Lingaraj Temple, while Puri is
famous for the temple of Lord Jagannath and its
beautiful sea beach. Other places of tourist
interest in the State are Konark, Nandankanan,
Chilka Lake, Dhauli Buddhist temple,
Udaygiri-Khandagiri ancient caves, Ratnagiri,
Lalitgiri and Udaygiri Buddhist images and
caves, Saptasajya, Similipal National Park and
Tiger Project, Hirakund dam, Duduma Water Falls,
Ushakothi Wildlife Sanctuary, Gopalpur Sea
beach, Hari Shankar, Narusinghnath, Taratarini,
Taptapani, Bhitar Kanika, Bhimkunda, Kapilash,
etc.
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