Purbodaya: Unfolding mega opportunities in textiles & plastics downstream sectors in Odisha

This thought paper aims to highlight the emerging investment opportunities in eastern India, particularly in Odisha, for textiles and plastic processing industries in the context of an evolving market landscape.

Globally, the petrochemical downstream industry has grown modestly, driven by consumption across emerging economies in Asia and Africa. India on the other hand, registered a robust growth for downstream petrochemicals such as polyester and plastics owing to large domestic demand, as well as growth in exports. Strengthening of supply side factors such as availability of feedstock locally, has also tilted the market in favor of domestic producers. The government’s thrust on key end use sectors like infrastructure, food and agriculture etc. will further support this growth going forward.

Eastern region in India, today, has lower per capita polymer consumption compared to the national average and is therefore likely to see an accelerated demand growth. It has the dual advantage of being close to the regional demand pockets of West Bengal and Eastern Uttar Pradesh, as well as potential to export to neighboring countries such as Bangladesh and Myanmar. Raw material availability in East will also strengthen with new petrochemical capacities coming on-stream from Paradeep refinery very shortly.

Odisha has the unique advantage of having convenient access to port, availability of skilled manpower and proximity to both, raw material sources as well as demand clusters. From an incentive and regulatory support standpoint, Odisha, amongst the eastern states, has a host of schemes and initiatives under the industrial policy, and has seen considerable investments over the last few years. Government has envisaged a cluster based approach to tap into this opportunity and initiatives to set up a world scale textile and plastics park in Odisha are well underway.

Textile and plastics downstream industry in India can adopt an integrated approach to tap into this opportunity and benefit immensely in the long run. Learnings from successful global industrial clusters indicate that a collaborative ecosystem fostering entrepreneurship, a supportive regulatory framework, focus on skill development and robust infrastructure are crucial for such clusters to leverage on collective strengths and compete in the global marketplace.