The Yogi Adityanath government is set to pitch for the emerging defence manufacturing in the state during the two day Rs UP Investors Summit’ starting in lucknow from Wednesday.
The government plans to lay out the red carpet for global and India Inc for the Summit to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday.
The Chief Minister has already said that UP has potential to attract private investments of almost Rs one lakh crore in the sector, especially in the backdrop of Modi government aspiring for greater defence indigenisation under ‘Make in India’.
The importance that Yogi attaches to this new manufacturing segment is indicated in his scheduled presence at the session on ‘Defence and Aerospace: Investment Opportunities in Uttar Pradesh’ which would be chaired by Union Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman on the concluding day of the Summit on February 22.
The state government has also planned to develop a defence manufacturing hub in the arid region of Bundelkhand, which has an abundance of non-agricultural land.
The proposed 320 km long Bundelkhand Expressway connecting Jhansi and Kushinagar and intersecting 302 km long Agra-lucknow Expressway and the proposed 352 km long Purvanchal Expressway is projected to boost the prospects of defence manufacturing corridor through faster connectivity and better logistics.
As per estimates, India is projected to incur 250 billion US dollars on defence procurement over the next decade. Modi has willed India to shed the tag of the world’s largest arms importer by encouraging foreign firms to collaborate with Indian entities and manufacture defenceware in the country.
The Yogi government has prepared a defence manufacturing policy to offer a gamut of sops to companies setting up shop in the state and aiding UP in emerging as an ideal destination for defence manufacturing.
So far, over 5,000 delegates have registered for the Summit. Some partner countries at the Summit include Netherlands, Japan, Czech Republic, Finland, Slovakia and Mauritius.
Meanwhile, the state government claimed to have already signed over 900 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with companies in different sectors viz food and agro-processing, tourism, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), dairy, infrastructure etc. The total committed investment in these MoUs has been pegged at Rs 3 trillion, said sources.
On the inaugural day, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath would host a high profile dinner for about 200 dignitaries, including top industry bosses that include Reliance Industries limited (RIl) chairman Mukesh Ambani, Tata Group chairman N Chandrasekaran, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Gautam Adani, Subhash Chandra, Sudhir Mehta, Sanjiv Puri, Hemant Kanoria, Kulin lalbhai, G M Rao, Shiv Nadar, Subramanian Sarma etc.
President Ram Nath Kovind would be the chief guest at the concluding function of the high ticket event, which is touted as the biggest such event in the calendar of the ‘City of Nawabs’. The event is also projected to give a major thrust to the tourism sector.
In run-up to the Summit, the state government organised road shows at six metropolises including New Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kolkata and Ahmadabad. At Mumbai, Yogi interacted with industrialists, including Ratan Tata and Mukesh Ambani, bankers and investors. later, Birla and Shiv Nadar called on Yogi in lucknow to discuss investment opportunities.
As many as 16 Union ministers including Finance minister Arun Jaitely, Defence minister Nirmala Sitaraman, Home minister Rajnath Singh, Railway minister Piyush Goel, Commerce and Industry minister Suresh Prabhu and Surface Transport minister Nitin Gadkari will participate in the two-day event.