The Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik today urged the Centre to establish a National Institute of Design (NID) at Bhubaneswar in Orissa.
Patnaik met the Union commerce & industry minister Anand Sharma in New Delhi today and discussed various issues pertaining to the development of clusters and handicrafts of Orissa.
Patnaik pointed out that Bhubaneswar will be the right place for setting up such institutes and also offered to provide necessary infrastructure including land for the NID.
He said, the new national design policy of the Government of India envisages to set-up four new NIDs in the pattern of the institute in Ahmedabad during the 11th Five Year Plan. So Bhubaneswar may be considered for the purpose.
He emphasised that an NID focusing on handlooms and handicrafts could be ideally located in the state which could serve the tribal regions of Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhatishgarh and the entire eastern region. The Union minister is reported to have agreed to the proposal.
Patnaik requested the minister to include Orissa in the E-biz program along with the five states already identified. Sharma has assured to include Orissa in the E-biz program in the coming year which will facilitate industrial promotion and project monitoring. Further, to give impetus to exports of handicraft items from Orissa, the chief minister requested Sharma to approve the proposal for organizing International Trade Fair for Orissa Handicrafts. This annual fair can be organized for three consecutive three years at a cost of Rs 3.30 crore under Market Access Initiative (MAI) of the department of commerce.