UP Government’s Road Map for a $1-trillion Economy

Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, has completed over 100 days at the helm of the state government in his second term. But it has not been easy going for his government. With countries around the world battling economic uncertainty, policymakers in the state government are busy charting a way out of the quagmire and preparing a road map for the country’s most populous state to cross the milestone of having an economy worth $1 trillion by the end of 2027.

Currently, the state’s economy is pegged at $0.254 trillion with agriculture constituting 20-22 per cent share of the pie; industry at 18-20 per cent share; and the services sector cornering a 45-50 per cent share. Even in the backdrop of such uncertainties, the state government is confident of achieving its goals on the back of the reforms and policy initiatives introduced by the government in the first 100 days.

Arvind Kumar, Uttar Pradesh’s Additional Chief Secretary for Infrastructure and Industrial Development, who is tasked with the responsibility of attracting investment and industries into the state, tells Business Today, “In [the] last 100 days, a lot has been done to stride on the path of achieving the $1-trillion dream. A total of 1,406 projects worth `80,224 crore are in the pipeline, and that will be [a] massive investment for the state.”

Similarly, Alok Kumar, Secretary of the Planning, Programme Implementation & Science and Technology Department, has been entrusted with the responsibility of steering the state towards its $1-trillion economy target. Kumar tells BT that UP is revisiting all its old policies, and trying to focus on the state’s inherent strengths. “We are revisiting all the policies of the past, and are focussing on the inherent strengths of the state. For example, textile is one of the potential sectors and the state has inherent strength in it. So, we are coming up with a textile policy very soon.”

The state government, while enumerating the achievements of the state, says that a lot has been done on the infrastructure front. “We are going very big on infrastructure development. One example is the 296 km-long Bundelkhand Expressway, which connects Chitrakoot, Banda, Mahoba, Jalaun, and Auraiya, among other places. Work on the Ganga Expressway is also going on at a rapid pace,” a senior bureaucrat with the state government, who wished to remain anonymous, tells BT.

Similarly, the state is also taking many initiatives to attract investments, such as developing economic parks at breakneck speed. “An apparel park, a toy park, a medical devices park are [all] being built under the Yamuna Expressway Investment Development Authority,” says Kumar. He further adds, “Infrastructure work has sped up. The parks have started taking shape and as construction has commenced, very soon we will be able to allot land to investors.”

The state government has set out the path to its target. Now it has to implement it.

@RajatMishra9518