Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
by explaining how the 997 acres would be used and by spelling out the job and other bene-
fits that the factory would bring.
This was odd because the group had faced more community opposition in different parts
of India than many other companies. Tata Steel had learned the need for involvement at
the Kalinganagar project in Odisha where 12 tribal people had been killed in 2006. Till
then, Tata had left the Kalinganagar consultations with the state government, but it changed
tack and took over the job of resettlement, realizing it needed to build trust with the local
people. Hemant Nerurkar, a former managing director of Tata Steel, has said the company
learned the hard way the necessity of consultation and communication with local people
the Jaipur Literature Festival in January 2013, he said, 'We went and communicated, com-
municated and communicated with the people most of us don't understand the local feel-
ings.'
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Kalinganagar marked a turning point in attitudes over how to handle the transition of ag-
ricultural land for industry. National and regional politicians, along with companies, real-
ized that a more cooperative stance had to be adopted, and that fed into the debate on new
land legislation. Ratan Tata, however, did not apply that lesson at Singur and he underes-
timated the importance of harnessing local support - a few weeks after he had departed,
there were still big signs saying 'Welcome Mr Tata' along the highway and many smaller
posters on walls and telegraph poles calling for him to come back. The area had begun to
prosper with small new eateries and services such as taxi firms opening up. Life could have
been good, if only Ratan Tata and his people had been more involved in local affairs, and
Mamata Banerjee less so.
POSCO
POSCO is the latest of a string of multinational mining companies that have tried unsuc-
cessfully to start projects in the eastern coastal state of Odisha. Its plans involve what
would be India's biggest ever inward foreign direct investment. Manmohan Singh person-
ally gave his support, but the project was just too big, too foreign, and too high profile to
have had an easy start almost anywhere in India. In Odisha, where there is a history of
blighted projects, it had no chance. It is now many years behind schedule - thefirst four
million tonnes per annum phase was to have been commissioned in 2010 but continuing
protests and fear of riots makes it unclear when construction will begin.
The POSCO story is important because it shows how easy it is for a potentially large
contributor to India's economic growth to be stalled, even when it is a well-meaning com-
pany. POSCO cannot itself be blamed for the delays because, aside from any possible deal-
