PM Modi donned the mantle of a salesman to promote ‘Brand UP’
LUCKNOW : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday donned the mantle of a salesman to promote ‘Brand UP’ amid a galaxy of India Inc and marquee investors with rapt attention. With the Yogi Adityanath government eyeing Rs 5 trillion in investment commitments at the Summit, Modi, who inaugurated the mega event, hailed Uttar Pradesh’s development potential before the prospective investors.
He said the state was key to India’s development, adding “Yogi Sarkar” had ushered in a positive narrative about UP and laid the foundation for a prosperous state within a short span of time. Modi, in fact, exhorted UP and Maharashtra to compete with each other in becoming the first trillion dollar economy in India, while stressing upon the theme of cooperative and competitive federalism among the states for inclusive development.
The PM touched upon the aspects of natural resources of UP, district-specific traditional industries, tourism, high agricultural production, MSME bench strength etc to stress the largely untapped potential in the state. Modi also referred to the rich cultural, historic and heritage wealth of the state to dwell upon the tourism potential for a speedier socio-economic turnaround for over 200 million people.
He said UP had witnessed the highest growth in air traffic despite having only three operational airports at present. PM said the food processing sector should be leveraged for increasing farm incomes. Modi also waxed eloquent upon Adityanath for putting together the state’s first mega Investors Summit, saying the change in UP was now palpable, since all the top industrialists were in attendance and willing to partner the state.
During the Summit, the PM announced setting up of a defence manufacturing corridor in Bundelkhand for boosting the socioeconomic development in the impoverished region, known for large scale migration of youth in search of employment. He said the corridor would result in direct investment of almost Rs 200 billion and generate over 2,50,000 jobs.
Modi praised the ‘One District, One Product’ (ODOP) scheme of the Adityanath regime, which aims at promoting district specific industries for reviving local economy and generating employment.
The two-day mega Summit is hosting 5,000 national and international industrialists and investors, including Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Rashesh Shah, Subhash Chandra, Anand Mahindra, Naresh Trehan etc.
The Yogi Adityanath government has already signed 1,045 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) worth over Rs 4.28 trillion in different sectors, including agriculture, food processing, tourism, infrastructure, IT, dairy, MSME etc. In his address, the CM said UP Annual Budget 2018 was also to the tune of Rs 4.28 trillion and as much private investment commitment had already accrued.
Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani said UP’s development was imperative for India’s development even as he suggested the state to take the digital bus for faster socioeconomic growth and leveraging its demography. He announced Jio would invest Rs 100 billion in the next three years, while group companies would generate 40,000 new jobs for the youth.
Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani praised CM Adityanath for his style of leadership, governance, and administration with prime focus on improving law and order and ensuring compliance, which he observed was leading the state’s transformation.
Modi said he was sure the Yogi Adityanath government will ensure that all the memorandums of understanding (MoUs) involving an estimated investment of Rs 4.28 lakh crore signed ahead of the summit will be implemented soon.“The CM has promised to follow and monitor the implementation of the MoUs himself. More jobs will be created for the people now. 
I congratulate chief minister Yogi Adityanath, his team of ministers, the bureaucracy, the police and the people of the state on bringing about the change so early… The industry will now get a red carpet welcome, instead of facing red tape, in Uttar Pradesh,” the PM said.“I’ve said earlier too, progress comes through potential, policy, planning and performance and now Yogi ji’s government is ready to deliver super-hit performance,” he said.
The Prime Minister’s comment came as the chief minister spoke about his government’s initiatives to transform Uttar Pradesh from a ‘BIMARU’ state to a developed one and said that 1,045 MoUs were already signed ahead of the summit. The Prime Minister said the Adityanath government had pushed the state from negativity towards positivity and rekindled hope among the people.“A foundation has been laid to build a new Uttar Pradesh,” he said.
oooooModi also announced that out of the two defence industrial corridors proposed in the Union budget one will be set up in Uttar Pradesh, covering parts of the backward Bundelkhand region.“Keeping in view development (requirements) of the Bundelkhand region, the defence corridor will be extended to Agra, Aligarh, Lucknow, Kanpur, Jhansi and Chitrakoot,” Modi said after inaugurating the UP Investors’ Summit-2018 at the Indira Gandhi Pratishthan in Lucknow.“We expect an investment of Rs 20,000 crore in the defence corridor. This will create 2.5 lakh more jobs.” The PM launched Nivesh Mitra, an entrepreneur-friendly application to enhance ease of doing business in UP. The digital portal has salient features such as one payment gateway that will quicken digital clearances. Referring to the diversity of various regions of the state, Modi quoted a local saying: “Kos kos par badle paani aur chaar kos par vaani (Water changes every mile, and the dialect changes every four miles).” Lauding the ‘one district one product’ scheme, he said it could prove to be the game changer for the state. He named Lucknow’s chikan, Rampur’s knife, Bhadohi carpets, Banarsi sarees, brassware of Moradabad and glassware of Firozabad in this connection. Modi said the state held the top position in the production of food grain, wheat and potato etc. UP was in second place in terms of micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), he said.“There is a need for value addition to core strengths in the state. The Yogi government has been formulating policies to link industrial investment to job creation,” said Modi.
Chief minister Adityanath assured all help to the top industry representatives and said he will remove bottlenecks, if any, to expedite the process of setting up industrial units in the state.“I will personally monitor all MoUs (memorandums of understanding) to ensure their proper roll-out and to make sure that no industrialist faces any problem in setting up his unit,” the chief minister said.
