In a room full of investors, consultants, financial experts and foreign diplomats at the iconic Sushma Swaraj Bhawan in New Delhi, Yogi Adityanath announced Global Investment Summit 2023 in Uttar Pradesh at even on 22nd Nov 2022.
One of the leading star campaigners in the Gujarat and Himachal elections, Yogi, flew directly from Gujarat to be at the curtain raiser of the Global Investment Summit, 2023, in Uttar Pradesh. UPYOGI, as PM Modi fondly calls him, appealed to the voters of Gujarat to vote for his party till late evening the other day. The next morning, he appealed to investors to invest in UP to enable it to become a 1 trillion economy.
Yogi Adityanath explained to the prospective investors how today’s UP has come out of the lawless, sluggish and inefficient image it had before 2017. Yogi said that in 2022, we are talking about a different UP, a transformed UP, and an investment-friendly UP. Roads, Airports and Trains connect today’s UP UP. UP has become home to about 38% of India’s expressways.
PM Modi has commended that under Yogi Adityanath, Uttar Pradesh has become an expressway Pradesh. UP is India’s only state with five international and seven functioning local airports. UP has become one of the most accessible states to do business, with its ease of doing ranking jumping to 2nd from a dismal 12 before 2017.
UP has reduced more than 3500 compliances needed earlier. More than 355 services from 29 UP government departments are available from a single window today. For Yogi, the 240 million-strong population of Uttar Pradesh is a strong workforce and an excellent market for global investors. Along with the 200 million population of the neighbouring states, UP can be an ideal hub for setting up more industries.
Yogi’s team has laid out a clear list of sectors where UP attracts investment – IT/ITES, Data Center, ESDM, Defense and Aerospace, Electric Vehicle, Warehousing and Logistics, Tourism, Textile, and MSME. Updated sector-specific policies and incentives back to all the sectors for the investors.
Yogi and his team have made sector-specific and country-specific teams of Ministers, Officers and representatives from the industry bodies, who will tour across India and the globe from now till the Investment summit in February 2023 to conduct road shows to explain the new UP and its investor-friendly incentives and invite them for the discussion.
The last six years have been transforming for UP. Yogi has changed the ‘UP Waala Bhaiya’ jibe to a badge of honour. In my last meeting with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, I asked him what would be his main focus in his second term. His reply sums up today’s aspirational Uttar Pradesh. He said in his first term, his government performed better than the previous three chief ministers on law and order, infrastructure, service delivery and in growing UP’s economy. In his second term, he will work better than in his previous term. And his actions are testimony to his statement in the first six months of his second term.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath spoke about the 1 trillion economies for UP during the 2022 elections. Just after BJP’s massive victory in 2022, even before taking an oath of office, his government floated the ‘Request for Proposal’ (RFP) for engaging a leading consulting organization to help the state of UP for their target of 1 trillion economies. And within three months contract was awarded to one of the top 4 global consulting companies.
UP has waited enough to realize its true potential, and under Yogi, UP seems to be living its aspirations. In my conversations with him, I notice him frequently using terms like dashboard, data, benchmark, geo-tagging, comparison, deadline, and monitoring. His energy is no less than a start-up CEO.
Yogi’s saffron attire was glowing at the curtain raiser event in New Delhi among the crowd of suited corporate experts and diplomats. At the event, the influential investment pitch for UP was made through a film, which introduced UP as a land blessed with Rama and Krishna. Today this land is fortunate to get the leadership of two Karm-Yogis, PM Modi and CM Yogi, the land which has transformed itself exceptionally in the last 5.5 years to become new India’s growth engine.
Shantanu Gupta, Author of ‘The Monk Who Transformed Uttar Pradesh’
