LUCKNOW:The challenge for Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has just begun. Top business magnates have pledged the state over Rs 88,000 crore in investments at the Uttar Pradesh Investors’ Summit and over 1,000 MoUs worth Rs 4.28 lakh crore have been signed. But it is for Yogi to ensure that all the tall promises are translated into reality.
By pledging to monitor the processing of MoUs personally, Yogi appears to have taken the right step given the investment history of the state where it hasn’t been unusual for as much as 90 per cent of the proposals to go up in smoke. He had assured business honchos that he would not let the proposals get caught in red tape.
Apart from the Ambanis, Adanis, Mahindras, Birlas and Tatas—who pledged thousands of crores of rupees in Uttar Pradesh by—the Centre has gifted the state a defence industrial corridor and several railway projects. This is a sign of confidence in the initiatives of Yogi, who has drawn up nine new policies and effected structural and procedural changes to end red tape.
To ensure a single-window digital clearance for proposals, the Nivesh Mitra portal was launched at the summit to ensure transparency and to seal the process in a time-bound manner.The state government’s aggressive cracking down on criminals, despite criticism, also evoked a positive response at the summit. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh acknowledged that the Yogi government had tried to create a pro-investment climate by ensuring better law and order. Industrialists echoed the view.