The competition between States to woo investors is heating up. After Advantage Assam and Magnetic Maharashtra, it’s now the turn of Uttar Pradesh to go all out to woo big businesses.

At the end of day one of the UP Investors Summit, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced that 1,045 MoUs worth ₹4.24- lakh crore had been inked. Just a couple of days ago, Magnetic Maharashtra closed with the announcement that 4,106 MoUs worth ₹12.1-lakh crore had been signed. Will UP be able to top that?

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Industries, set the ball rolling in Lucknow, promising to pump in ₹10,000 crore through telecom arm RJio over the next three years, though this is way lower than the ₹60,000 crore he has promised Maharashtra.

“When UP starts running, no power on earth can stop our country from becoming a global economic power,” Ambani declared.

Others committed more, at least on paper. Gautam Adani, founder of the Adani Group, promised to invest ₹35,000 crore across projects in solar energy, road/metro rail, warehousing and logistics and a multi disciplinary university.

Birla promises more

Kumaramangalam Birla, Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, said his group would invest ₹25,000 crore over the next five years. He said that the group was already one of the largest investors in UP, having put in ₹24,000 crore, primarily through Ultratech, Hindalco and Idea Cellular, and had 15 plants running in the State. “UP will continue to remain our group’s highest investment destination,” he declared.

Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekhan did not fling any figures about but said the group was keen to invest in IT and IT-enabled services in the State.

Though he didn’t commit as much money as some of the others, Anand Mahindra, Chairman of Mahindra Group, stole the hearts of the audience with an emotional speech. He talked about his Allahabad-born mother, who studied in Lucknow and went on to become a history teacher and said he grew up listening to stories of her UP days.

Mahindra said he was willing to set up an electric vehicle plant if the State’s policy was conducive. He said Club Mahindra had inked an MoU with the UP government for a ₹200-crore resort in Varanasi.

Prime Minister Modi, who spoke after all the industrialists, challenged UP to take on Maharashtra. “Can there be a competition between Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra to achieve the target of trillion-dollar economy, first” he asked.

Modi then added his two bits to the promises by announcing the creation of a defence industrial corridor in Bundelkhand. He said this would align with the promise made by UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath to develop an expressway to the region. The PM said the project would generate an investment of ₹20,000 crore and create employment for 2.5 lakh people.

Asked if the pledges would remain paper promises, the PM urged Adityanath to monitor the MoUs and see that they get off the ground.

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