Its parent company POSCO signed a memorandum of understanding in June 2005 with the state government of Odisha to construct a $12 billion steel plant.

POSCO signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in June 2005, to incorporate an Indian subsidiary and build a steel plant in Odisha.

This memorandum envisions a 6 MMT per year steel plant based on Posco's high efficiency, low environment impact FINEX technology.

In May 2011, under mandated stock exchange disclosurer rules, Posco confirmed the memorandum of understanding for the steel works in the state of Karnataka; with a cautionary note that POSCO has not made any decisive plans to implement the Project due to the fact that the Government of Karnataka has yet to confirm certain investment plans for the Project.

In July 2011, the state of Karnataka announced that it is currently working on land acquisition for Posco-India project in the following districts: Gadag, Bagalkot, Bijapur, Raichur and Yadgir.

[11] In their ruling, the Supreme Court justices wrote, "the State of Odisha [is] to be associated with Special Purpose Vehicle in order to ensure implementation of proper schemes for the development of the tribal area and in our Order it has not been suggested for incorporation of the Special Purpose Vehicle to take over the mines which have been leased out by State of Odisha to the lessee.

We cannot change leases/MoUs/joint venture agreements signed between the parties at earlier point of time which have been approved by the Ministry of Mines, Government of India, and other Authorities.

The review process included a committee that visited Odisha many times, including the Posco-India's planned site, the villages, the Forests covering the proposed plant site and iron ore mining area, environmentalists, ecologists, social activists, farmers, and families that may be affected by the proposed Posco-India initiative.

In August 2010, the Ministry of Environment and Forests of the Government of India, in response to the claims of NC Saxena committee, issued a stop work order.

The Meena Gupta committee report claimed political controversy is part of the scene: the Communist Party of India (CPI) strongly opposes the project, the Communist Party of India – Marxist (CPM) is not opposed to the project if it is shifted a little and if Paradeep port is used instead of a separate captive port.

Both of these parties along regional office of Ministry of Environment – Government of India cooperated and delivered a copy of comprehensive environmental impact analysis for steel plant, captive port and related infrastructure, to the Meena Gupta committee, as completed by July 2007.

Three committee members claim that clearances granted in past should have been limited to the scope of the initial environment impact analysis of 2005 for 4 million tonne plant.

In October 2010, Posco India issued a press release in response to media coverage of Meena Gupta Committee report.

[13] The company categorically stated that it never violated any law or procedure for obtaining any governmental clearance whatsoever required for the project.

The company claimed that since the time of signing of the memorandum of understanding in 2005, it has set and followed high standards of environment protection and corporate governance, while involving all stakeholders.

On 14 June 2011 Odisha government paused land acquisition at the proposed steel plant of Posco in Dhinkia gram panchayat (village).

On 25 November 2011 Abhay Sahu, the leader of the anti-Posco movement in Odisha, was arrested over his alleged involvement in several criminal cases.