After a slew of industrialists, including Mukesh Ambani, Kumara Mangalam Birla and Gautam Adani, announced their intention of  investing crores in Uttar Pradesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi followed suit with a big ticket announcement from the central government side.

Addressing the UP Investors Summit 2018 in Lucknow, he announced the creation of a defence industrial corridor in Bundelkhand aligned with the promise made by the UP Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath, to develop an expressway to the region.

Reminding the gathering about the Union Budget announcement of two defence industrial corridors, he said, “One of the two defence industrial corridors mentioned in the Budget will be in the Bundelkhand region of the State.”

He said it would generate an investment of Rs 20,000 crore and create employment for 2.5 lakh people. He said the corridor would link Agra, Aligarh, Jhansi and Chitrakoot belts opening up development in the State.

International airports

The Prime Minister also mentioned the civil aviation projects planned in the State and said that two international airports will come up in Jewar and Kushinagar.

The two-day investor summit with the tagline of 'Powering New India' opened in the state capital on Wednesday drawing in a flock of industrialists and foreign investors. It is the first such summit organised during Yogi Adityanath’s rule and much is riding on it to pull in investments to the State.

Magnetic Maharashtra

However, the State will face strong competition from Maharashtra which held its own investor meet – Magnetic Maharashtra – just a few days ago.

The Prime Minister in fact referred to his visit to the Maharashtra summit saying the western Indian state had already set a goal of becoming a trillion dollar economy soon.

He challenged Uttar Pradesh to race with Maharashtra and beat them to it. For the record, in terms of economy currently UP is India’s second largest state with a gross state domestic product of $230 billion, while Maharashtra is over $400 billion.

4 Ps

The Prime Minister, however, felt that Uttar Pradesh had immense potential.  He talked about the 4 Ps that would create a new Uttar Pradesh – “It requires policy, planning and performance to harness the potential and bring progress,” he said, adding that both CM Yogi Adityanath and the people of the State were ready to give a “super hit” performance.

The PM also talked about the potential of tourism in the State, especially the Kumbh mela. He urged the State to ensure that visitors from every single country in the world visit the Kumbh mela in 2019.

No more red tape in Uttar Pradesh, only red carpet, said the PM who also during the event activated a digital clearances platform for the state. Henceforth, all clearances in UP will be done online.

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