ITC, Britannia commit investment of Rs 600 crore in Odisha

“Both companies indicated that they would make this investment in the next three to five years,” said LN Gupta, additional chief secretary, Odisha government, speaking exclusively to CNBC-TV18. Gupta added, "Both companies are manufacturing bakery and ready-to-eat products in their Khorda plants.”

CNBC-TV18 has also learned that the government is in talks with Anmol Biscuits, lobbying for similar investments. “Some of our focus areas like edible and non-edible vegetable oils, fruit pulp and pulp-based juice have been moved to the 'positive' list for securing capital investment subsidies," said Gupta, "So, we have begun targeting all food majors, especially those who have already been able to realise potential in Odisha."

The Odisha government has announced that the total "investment intent" in the MSME department stands at Rs 1,177 crore. As a confidence-building measure towards netting more investments in the sector, Odisha has also fast-tracked clearances of several existing MSME projects.

Nearly 658 MSME projects with a cumulative investment of Rs 2,544 crore have been approved by the District Level Single Window Clearance Authority. The government said 80 of these projects have already gone into production.

"MSMEs have a major presence in the Indian economy, contributing to 37.54 percent of India's GDP, "said Prafulla Samal, minister of micro, small and medium enterprises, Odisha government, “Our government has prioritised development of MSMEs with a slew of such policy initiatives and incentives.”

The government followed up these announcements by releasing MSME multiple policy initiatives such as extension of capital investment subsidy to 33 percent of investments made in plant and machinery up to Rs 3 crore.

"These MSME policy amendments also allow for capital investment subsidy to be extended to differently abled persons and entrepreneurs who hold technical degrees or diplomas," said Gupta, "It also covers self-financed entrepreneurs as well, whereas earlier only those industries that used to be financed by banks, were covered."

The MSME sector in Odisha is one of the state's most prolific income-generators. Since 2014-15, nearly 2.25 lakh MSME units have gone into production, generating a total of 6.7 lakh jobs.

“Today, there are 469 MSME specialised bank branches, across major districts," said Gupta, “We are confident of adding up to 1.5 lakh jobs per year, in the MSME space."