Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Steel Dharmendra Pradhan participated in the workshop on "Enabling Procedures for Increase of Steel Usage for the Growth of Economy" in Bhubaneswar. The workshop is organised by Ministry of Steel in partnership with Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Government of Japan and Confederation of Indian Industries.
The minister said that with Japan as the partner country, he is looking forward to making Odisha, the nerve centre of Purvodaya in steel sector. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a clarion call for Mission Purvodaya, that is Eastern India driving the national growth and propelling India towards becoming a $5-trillion economy.
"We are organising series of workshops to deliberate on how to increase steel usage in India. We have rightly chosen Japan as our partner country who will guide us for making Indian steel ecosystem bigger both in qualitative and quantitative terms."
The society of eastern India is aspirational-- people are getting economically sound, their spending capacity is increasing. Eastern India will play a pivotal role in driving national economic growth and achieving PM Modi's vision of making India a $5 trillion economy, the minister said. With $5-billion infrastructure spending being done only in Odisha, we have achieved 100 percent electrification in Odisha, 8 crore new LPG connections have been given to the poorest of the poor. We have an ambitious plan to build next generation infra and boost economic growth," the minister added.
"Today Odisha is the highest steel producing state in the country. We are working to strengthen the steel ecosystem in Odisha."