The opening day of UP Global Investors Summit on Friday saw several tycoons of India Inc coming up with big investment plans for the state. Calling Uttar Pradesh the “centre of hope for all of India, like India had become hope for the entire world”, Reliance Industries chairperson Mukesh Ambani announced an investment of Rs 75,000 crore in the state over the next five years.
“UP’s ‘swarnim yug’ (golden era), has begun,” he said.
The investment, in largely Reliance Retail and renewable energy, will generate over one lakh jobs, Ambani said, adding that Reliance Retail will revolutionise thousands of small stores and kiranas, enabling them to earn and grow more. It will also increase its sourcing of a wide range of agriculture and non-agro products. Reliance will be setting up 10 gigawatts of renewable capacity, the largest in UP, along with a new bioenergy business.
Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla announced an investment of Rs 25,000 crore. “It is heartening for me as an investor to see UP undergo a metamorphosis in the past few years under the leadership of chief minister Yogi Adityanath under the guidance of PM Narendra Modi. This reminds me of one of the PM’s speeches which went quite viral later… UP plus Yogi … bahut hain ab Upyogi,” he said, extending support to the state government.
Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran said that Air India had an elaborate plan to connect every part of UP with the rest of India and important global cities. “Air India also has a detailed plan to connect every part of UP with the rest of India and potentially to the important destinations of the world. We are already having huge investments in Noida, through TCS, and we are going to build an integrated multi-modal air cargo at the new Jewar airport,” he said, sharing the long history of the company’s presence in UP and their expansion plans.
“From our steel to automotive business, 18 companies of the group are deeply present in UP with a workforce of 50,000 people. And we are on a huge expansion mode across all our businesses in the state, especially in the hotel sector because of the tourism opportunity here,” Chandrasekaran said, adding that UP was well placed to capitalize on the elements of the transitioning world economy.
