Vision of Purvodaya: the re-emergence of the East

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A large number of infrastructure projects will come up under the "Purvodaya Programme" for accelerating the socio-economic development of East India, namely Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Bengal and NE states. 

Eastern Indian states which are rich in resources such as coal, iron ore and bauxite, will become an Integrated Steel Hub where most of India's future steel capacity will be located. "Underdeveloped districts of West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, North Andhra, Jharkhand and Odisha will be taken forward for the steel sector". Steel minister says that, out of future steel capacity of 300 million tonnes (up from 140 mt in 2019), 200 mt will be located in these 5 eastern states. Greenfield plants and expansion of brownfield sites, close to demand centres will be chosen for setting up steel clusters.

At the Purvodaya conference (11th Jan 2020), SAIL states that its scheme will offer local MSMEs (in steel based clusters) incentives like special pricing, favourable credit terms, technical know-how and ready availability of inputs.

Integrated Steel Hub: $70 billion of fresh investments in steel clusters & logistics

Coal India states it will expand its output from 607 mt to 900 mt by 2024.

Aluminium firms (eg NALCO plans, see below) are expanding capacities of Al smelter plants and alumina refineries, mining operations, power plants incl solar PV and specialist aluminium plants mainly in Odisha.

✔️ South Block Bauxite mine at Panchpatmali, Odisha: 3.1 mt a year, Rs 600cr

▬ Alumina refinery expansion (2.3 to 3.3 mt) at Damajodi for Rs 5,5000cr

▬ Smelter plant expansion (0.46 to 1.0 mt) at Angul for Rs 9,000cr

▬ Smelter plant greenfield (0.6 mt) Kamakshya Nagar, Odisha for Rs 10,000 crores

🔛 Coal mining blocks at Utkal for Rs 530cr

✔️ 18MW steam-cum co-generation power plant

▬ 2 x 660MW thermal power plant, Odisha for Rs 6,000cr

✔️ 200MW wind plants, Raj, Maha, AP for Rs 1,350cr

▬ 120MW wind and 30MW solar plants, Odisha
🔛 Alloy wire rod plant Rs 130cr
🔛 Aluminium park for ancillary industries Rs 100cr

As part of the $20 billion development of Paradip and Dhamra ports, work is being done in areas like refinery, petrochemical, LNG terminal, a multi-modal logistics park and port expansion.

TATA's upcoming deep-water port at Subarnarekha will handle cargo of TATA's Jamshedpur steel plant & other steel business from West Bengal and Jharkhand hinterlands. As a result, the Paradip Port Trust (a key Major port on the East coast) is diversifying beyond coal & iron ore towards container traffic. It will cater to demands arising out of rapid industrialisation in Odisha and other states in the port’s hinterland. The very high draft of Paradip Port allows large-sized LPG carriers to berth, and where Indian Oil is building a new 0.6 MMTPA LPG terminal to add to its existing refineries, LPG terminal, gas storage and underground pipelines. Dhamra Port, a subsidiary of Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) is in the second phase of expansion where it is scaling up cargo handling capacity from mere 25 to 100 MMTPA. The thrust is also on containers and liquid cargo.

Rs 11,000 crore projects were announced by Indian Oil and Paradip port in Feb 2019. Paradip port plans to enhance or mechanise bulk cargo handling (eg adding closed conveyor system). It is opening new berths for JSW steel (coal) and even TATA (for Odisha & hinterlands). Indian Oil is setting up downstream petrochemical manufacturing for its modern 15 MMTPA refineries at Paradip Port. It is building a Polypropylene plant (Rs 3,150cr) and other similar projects that follow, to reduce imports and support downstream industries like Injection Moulding Products, BOPP Film, TQPP Film, Raffia, Fibre & Filament and Thermoforming. Indian Oil is building a 357-KTA Monoethylene Glycol plant (Rs 5,654cr) that contributes to making polyester fibre, bottle & film grade chips, solvents, coolant, textiles, packaging, PET film, sheet and moulded containers for food packaging. The project is seen as a key driver for the growing textiles industry in the region and will cater to the rising demand for polyester fibre. "With a textiles park proposed at Bhadrak, there will be a huge opportunity for supplying raw material to downstream textile units". Link for more.

The 1,212-km petroleum-product Paradip-Hyderabad pipeline (PHPL) was started in Dec 2018 and is expected to be completed in Aug 2020. The 4.5 mt capacity per annum pipeline will supply petrol, HS diesel, aviation fuel & kerosene, and connect Indian Oil's Paradip refineries with depots & consumption centres in Odisha, Andhra and Telangana.

Gas pipelines covering entire East India are being constructed. The 2,655 km Jagdishpur-Haldia & Bokaro-Dhamra Natural Gas Pipeline (JHBDPL) project (‘PM Urja Ganga’ project) is proceeding at full speed. 721 km Barauni-Guwahati Pipeline (BGPL) will soon connect NE region (Guwahati) with the national gas grid. The 1,650 km Indradhanush North-East Gas Grid has recently been approved by Union cabinet. It will connect Guwahati in Assam to all major cities in the NE region. The pipelines will enable the supply of piped cooking gas to households and CNG to automobiles, besides fuel to industry. For this, there is ongoing synchronised development of city gas distribution in Varanasi, Patna, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Kolkata as well as the revival of three fertilizer units along the pipeline route. 

In the period since 2014, Govt has almost completed the task of providing all-India, comprehensive coverage of basic amenities like toilets, housing, rural roads, LPG connections and electricity connections to every home. Govt, public and private sectors have contributed to banking, telecom, digital services and Fintech revolutions, where people of modest incomes can have access to high-quality services. 

Telecom sector has seen delays, yet half the Gram Panchayats (~132,600 out of 250,000) link are now connected to the National optical fibre network, many more mobile towers have come up in Naxal-affected areas and a programme for universal coverage by rural cellular towers and Wi-Fi is underway. Up to Jan 2020, 1.5 lakh post offices were linked to India Post Payments Bank, meaning 17 crore PO accounts were given easy facilities for savings, money transfer and insurance services. 

Central & state govts are using DBT (or direct benefits transfer by bank payments to beneficiaries) for most schemes. They have also digitalised govt services and public interactions (eg for registering births, etc; application to schemes, etc; support & information to farmers, etc). Digital access for govt services, digital payments, e-service, etc are now available at each Gram Panchayat via Common Service Centres and increasingly through Railway stations.

Universal coverage for broadband, piped drinking water, door-to-door waste collection and safe disposal, and piped gas is expected to happen by 2024. Electric charging points in major cities and highways will come up in this period. CNG auto-filling centres are also being heavily promoted.

Clean rivers, river-front developments, river waterways, wastewater recycling & stringent controls on industrial water pollution will become national missions for all regions. BSVI fuel and vehicle emission norms will apply from April 2020, whilst air pollution control devices on thermal power stations (& other measures) will be implemented in full well before 2024.

Whilst govt is committed to providing free hospital care to the poorest 40% (within generous limits), it has started to build 150,000 publically-funded health and wellness centres across all districts. Aspirational districts (ie the most deprived areas) are being prioritised, not only for setting up health & wellness centres but also for upgrades to district hospitals and new tertiary health infrastructure. Very low cost, good quality medicines are now sold in large numbers of govt-sponsored shops. More stores are opening and most likely, one store will come up in each health centre and hospital.

Govt has increased the number of Navodaya Vidyalaya (Residential Schools) for talented rural children and Ekalavya Model Residential Schools to serve tribal areas. There has been a massive surge in the setting up of high-quality, higher educational institutes such as IITs, NITs, IIMs, IIITs, AIIMs, Science & specialist technical institutes, Central universities, medical & nursing colleges, teacher training colleges, etc. Importantly, more of these establishments are coming up in underserved states, districts and areas.
"By the pace at which educational institutions are being planned and built, it is clear that India is moving towards becoming a hub of higher education. Higher education is being decentralised to tier-II and tier-III cities and corrects long-standing regional disparities within the system". Following institutes have been either established or made operational, in 5 years to May 2019: Link
2 Central universities
7 Indian Institutes of Technologies (IIT)
7 Indian Institute of Management (IIM)
2 Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER)
14 Indian Institute of Information Technologies (IIIT)
1 National Institute of Technology (NIT)
14 All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)
4 National Institute of Design (NID)
103 Kendriya Vidyalayas
62 Navodaya Vidyalayas 

https://www.thetruepicture.org/education-reform-pm-modi/

In 2018, skills minister said his govt had set up 2,578 ITls with seat-capacity of 6.181akh in 13 of these eastern states. 900 training centres spread across the regions are offering short skills courses under PM Kaushal Vikas Yojana. 154 PM Kaushal Kendras were established to serve as multi·skill centres of excellence, with linkages to employment. Also created were 6 National Skill Training Institutes for driving trainers' programmes, the Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship for inspiring self-employment and a Skill-cum-Common Facility Centre in Cuttack to upskill and support local fIligree artisans and to provide training in this world·renowned art form.