Yogi Adityanath has started his second term at the office with an Arjuna-like focus on the US one trillion dollars economy target for Uttar Pradesh. Just after the 2022 Assembly elections victory, even before taking the oath of office, his team floated the RFP to engage a consultant for the US 1 trillion dollars economy mission. Having seen and participated in the country’s budgetary process for 19 years in the Parliament, Yogi Adityanath well understands that to make Uttar Pradesh prosperous again, he and his team have to make it lucrative for investors to invest in doing business in his State. To achieve the same, Yogi Adityanath sent teams to 21 cities in 16 countries across the globe in the first half of December, 2022 to conduct investment road shows.
High-level teams of four to six members with a Cabinet Minister, senior IAS officers and consultants from Ernst and Young, CII and FICCI visited to the USA, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Australia, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and UAE. These teams did over 250 high-level G2G and G2B meetings and signed 149 MOUs. After the initial verification of these MoUs, the Invest UP team has claimed that they got investment proposals worth Rs. 7 lakh crore from these 16-country road shows.
In the interregnum of the road shows, the team from Uttar Pradesh met business leaders, Indian foreign diplomats, heads of businesses, community leaders of the Indian diaspora, NRI associations, heads of trade facilitation bodies and visited industries and research facilities. In every engagement, Uttar Pradesh (UP) teams presented the new UP with robust law and order, 24X7 electricity, new airports, new expressways, and UP’s drastically improved track record in ease of doing business in the last 5+ years. The team from UP also presented close to two dozen thematic areas where they are looking for investment and created special sectorial policies and incentives to attract investment. Yogi Adityanath recorded a specialised country-wise message for each country which was displayed in the road shows.
Various projects were deliberated with the assurance of complete support from the Government. Interactions with local NRI groups were also held. Big investments in renewable energy, urban development, agro-tech, and food processing were discussed in the multiple B2G meetings held in Sydney
During G2G and B2G meetings abroad, along with Noida, Greater Noida etc., many investors have expressed eagerness to invest in cities like Gorakhpur, Kashi, Prayagraj, Aligarh, Lucknow and Kanpur. Yogi directed his team that non-Noida investments should also get equal priority and that every resource should be made available according to the needs of the investors. Investers have evinced interest in hospitality, food processing, drugs & pharma, medical devices, chemical, tourism, logistics-warehousing, green hydrogen, EV battery manufacturing, MSME, Dairy, Education, Defence & Aerospace, Semiconductor, Drone Manufacturing, Agriculture.
Once the teams from these 16 countries returned to Lucknow, Yogi Adityanath did a marathon five hour’s follow-up of each roadshow. Teams presented decks in a corporate fashion and different MoUs and country-wise engagements were discussed.
Respect For CM’s Vision
On behalf of the group which visited on the Canada-USA tour, Cabinet Minister Dharampal Singh informed that Uttar Pradesh is getting the biggest benefit because of the personality and alacrity of the present Chief Minister. People abroad have great reverence for the working style and vision of the Chief Minister. Investors are impressed with the security and investment-friendly environment prevailing in the State.
Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, who has returned from the Netherlands and France tour, said that investors in both countries have great faith in India, and their priority in India is increasingly shifting towards Uttar Pradesh. The Netherlands has a large population of migrants from eastern UP and Bihar. These people arrived in Suriname a decade and a half ago as indentured labourers and are today settled in the Netherlands. In the ensuing February 2023, 150 years of their migration will be completed. These people have a deep affection for their motherland and are eager to be instrumental in the development of Uttar Pradesh. He said that the perfumes of France were famous worldwide. There is a big market for the perfumes of Kannauj there, and the team had very effective and genuine meetings to that effect.
Minister Swatantra Dev Singh, on behalf of the group, post his tour of Australia and Singapore said that all the investors were impressed by the scenario of New India’s new Uttar Pradesh. Various projects were deliberated with the assurance of complete support from the Government. Interactions with local NRI groups were also held. Big investments in renewable energy, urban development, agro-tech, and food processing were discussed in the multiple B2G meetings held in Sydney. He said that we would also benefit from the recently signed free trade agreement between India and Australia. Singapore is a partner country in GIS, and many Singaporean companies are interested in foraying into the data centre sector in Uttar Pradesh.
Investment by Big Players
Minister Suresh Khanna, who had a successful tour to three cities of the USA and the UK, said that the improving business conditions in Uttar Pradesh has created buzz among investors. He updated the team that discussions had been held with Hinduja Group and Rolls Royce for wholesome investments. Hiranandani Group in London shared its good experience of working in Uttar Pradesh. In addition, Saloni Heart Foundation from San Francisco has decided to give a CSR grant of Rs 415 crore to SGPGI Lucknow. Similarly, an MoU has been signed with Jio Thermal Power Technology for an investment of Rs 41,000 crore. Sify International will invest Rs 8,300 crores. Again, several big players in sectors like renewable energy, hotel/hospitality, skill development, logistics, and IT/ITES have proposed investments, including Rs 1,000 crore in health, ATM manufacturing. The Minister also detailed out the visit to a research facility at Stanford University and fruitful meetings with Bay Area Council business leaders.
On behalf of the group which returned from the tour of South Korea and Japan, Minister Jaiveer Singh and Minister Ashish Patel said many of the companies from these countries had traditionally been investing in Southern India. “Meeting with the very focused Uttar Pradesh team was their first experience, and now we are on their preferred list of states to invest”, he added.
On behalf of the group of ministers who returned from Germany, Belgium and Sweden, Nand Gopal Gupta ‘Nandi’ informed the Uttar Pradesh team that this was the first time that any team from UP had undertaken such a global tour. He encouraged that teams from UP should make such visits at regular intervals so as to seek focused investment in the State.
Deputy Chief Ministers Brajesh Pathak and Sanjay Nishad, who returned from Mexico, Brazil and Argentina tours, updated the rest of the group that there was an encouraging atmosphere in all three countries regarding UP. Zebu Embryo Company has expressed keenness in working closely with the Agricultural University in Mathura. On the other hand, encouraging talks were held with several defence sector companies in Brazil.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath thanked and congratulated each of his team members for their historic and successful investment roadshows that the State of Uttar Pradesh had ever undertaken in its history. He also asked the team to buckle up for the upcoming roadshows in multiple cities of India, World Economic Forum (WEF), Davos in January, 2023 and the forthcoming Global Investment Summit at Lucknow in February, 2023. Yogi also directed his team to follow up on each investment intent and MoU. He asked the team to go all out of their way to facilitate entrepreneurs to establish their ventures in Uttar Pradesh. Yogi’s team has planned to set up a country-wise desk and assign a nodal officer to each country for targeted follow-ups.
Uttar Pradesh, known for its inefficiency, corruption, lawlessness, and lack of roads & electricity erstwhile, is catapulted yet again to a new economic orbit with these roadshows across 16 countries. Prime Minister Modi has assigned the States the ‘Triple T’ mantra to speed up the development pace. Triple T stands for ‘Trade, Technology and Tourism’. Yogi’s Uttar Pradesh is continuously moving forward by imbibing these mantras.
