The first ever 'UP Investors' Summit' began with a bang as captains of Indian industry announced to invest to the tune of over Rs 1 lakh crores in the state in the next three to five years. They made the announcements in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani announced to invest Rs 35,000 crores, followed by Kumar Mangalam Birla of the Aditya Biral group of Rs 25,000 crores and Rs 20,000 crore by Gautam Adani of Adani group.
Industry leaders also committed to generate more jobs and take the state's growth rate to a record high. The industrialists detailed about the previous investments in the state and their future plans.
Mukesh Ambani was first to address the Summit by appreciating Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath that he had never seen such a beautifully decked up state capital on the occasion of the Summit.
"India can never rise to its full potential without development of UP. The state can rise by embracing Digital India mission of the Prime Minister,’’ said Ambani.
``I am happy to inform that JIO is the largest investor in UP and I promise an investment of around Rs 35,000 crores in the next three years in which Rs 20,000 crores have already been made by creating 40,000 jobs. Jio is serving 2 crore customers in the state. Reliance will also make investments in the state in polyester fibre and petroleum sector," he said.
Mukesh Ambani also announced that all UP villages would be connected with Jio optical fibre network by December, 2018 and Jio will assist the state government to link administration in lucknow to the remotest village in the state. "Besides, one lakh people will be linked with livelihood opportunity and a new campus would commence at a state-level university," he said.
"JIO will invest another Rs10,000 crore in the state over three years. The Reliance has made Jio phone virtually free and over 2 crore JIO phones will be made available in the state over the next two months. The company will create one lakh direct and indirect jobs over next three years in UP," Ambani said.
He reiterated Reliance Foundation's commitment to Ganga cleaning project `Namami Ganga’.
``The Reliance Foundation will contribute for the success of the mission and will do whatever job assigned to it by the government,’’ said Ambani.
Adani group chairman Gautam Adani said that India’s growth story was not possible without the development of UP.
"Adani group will build warehousing facility by constructing green silos of 6 lakh MT capacity and world-class food and agriculture complex. The group will also set up multi-model logistic park and for renewable energy , 1000 mw solar plant and 500 mw solar parks along with 1000 MW of solar transmission lines. In the next five years, the group will invest around Rs 20,000 crores in UP,’’ said Adani.
Kumar Manglam Birla of Aditya Birla group said that UP has two key features that would drive investments in the state. "Firstly, investor-friendly government in the state and large pool of human resource. We will be investing Rs 25,000 crores in all our major businesses over the next five years though we are the biggest investors in UP since 1950," he said adding that they would go for expansion of Ultra Tech cement unit.
Mahindra and Mahindra group chairman Anand Mahindra said that his lucknow visit was like homecoming as his mother was born in a family of modest background in Allahabad and was educated in lucknow and later taught History at IT College.
Mahindra said that 'DIAl-100' run by his company has achieved good response and was serving the people of the state in a big way. “UP should not be compared with other states but with countries as it was so large and had vast untapped potential for development," he said.
``I came here with a blessing from my mother and assured an electric vehicle manufacturing unit in the state," he announced with several other projects in Varanasi and other places.
Chairman of Tata Sons, N Chandrashekran in his address said that the company has consolidated its presence in UP across sectors.
" Tata Motors is present in a big way while TCS has a very strong presence in UP. The lucknow TCS unit would be expanded and it would not be shifted. The TCS will also set up a new campus in UP for 30, 000 people capacity and also an IT campus in Varanasi,’’ promised Chandrashekharan.
Subhas Chandra of Zee Media said that MoUs worth Rs 18,700 crores have been signed with UP government.
The Summit was also addressed by President CII and Executive Vice-president of Apollo Hospitals Ms Sobhana Kamineni and President FICCI and Chairman of Edelweiss Group, Rashesh Shah.