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How Yogi govt banked on ‘UP growth story’ pitch to woo diaspora — MoUs ‘worth Rs 55,015 cr’ likely

UP ministers & civil servants held meetings, roadshows in 21 cities across 16 countries to shore up pledges ahead of state's Global Investors' Summit 2023 which concluded Sunday.

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Lucknow: The Indian diaspora is likely to invest at least Rs 55,015 crore in Uttar Pradesh, according to Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) signed or “investment intent” submitted during the many roadshows and meetings organised by the state government in 21 cities across 16 countries.

The MoUs were part of efforts by the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government to secure investments from the diaspora ahead of the UP Global Investors’ Summit 2023 — projected as a “Mahakumbh” of investments — which concluded Sunday.

In total, the state signed 108 MoUs with foreign companies in the run-up to the summit, according to a statement issued last week.

Additional Chief Secretary (Infrastructure and Industrial Development) Arvind Kumar told ThePrint that the UP government expects to secure a total investment of Rs 33 lakh crore from the summit.

“In the roadshows we held, whether in India or abroad, we connected with NRIs specifically for the fact that they feel proud and happy when the UP growth story goes out. Indians abroad feel happy that it is growing in stature. UP was seen as a backward state earlier and if you belong to such a state, it gives them a sense of pride,” he said.

In its ambitious bid to make the state a “trillion-dollar economy“, the Yogi government has been reaching out to NRIs and selling them the “UP growth story”. It identified over 40 companies that emerged as the leading investors during the roadshows.

According to government data seen by ThePrint, at least 19 foreign companies fully/partially owned or run by Indian–origin individuals signed MoUs or expressed an intent to invest in UP during the roadshows. Of these, 15 companies are fully owned either by NRIs or Indian-origin foreign nationals, while four were founded by Indian-origin individuals or NRIs in partnership with foreigners.

Among the 15 companies are Infinite Computer Solutions which pledged an investment of Rs 1,000 crore, Sify International (Rs 8,300 crore), Saloni Heart Foundation (Rs 480 crore), Universal Success Pte Ltd (Rs 5,100 crore), and Golden State Capital Pte Ltd (Rs 8,260 crore).

Other investors include Gemini Corporation (Rs 200 crore), Mahler Fund (Rs 2,600 crore), Opulence Management Corp (Rs 500 crore), Mobility Infrastructure Corp (Rs 8,200 crore),  QSTC Inc (Rs 8,200 crore) My Health Centre (Rs 2,050 crore), Sobha Realty (Rs 100 crore) and Lulu group (Rs 3,300 crore)

The four companies co-founded or jointly held by Indian-origin individuals or NRIs in partnership with other entities are Acuva Technologies (Rs 100 crore), ZMQ Global (Rs 5 crore), Partex NV (Rs 100 crore), and Star Consortium (Rs 2,000 crore). 

Motherson (Rs 500 crore) and Sing Fuels and group via Mumbai-based Vida Tech (Rs 2,000 crore) — two other conglomerates owned by Indian-origin individuals with subsidiaries in India — signed an investment intent after meetings abroad with delegations led by ministers and senior civil servants of the UP government in the run-up to the GIS-2023.

A government official said the number of investments is likely to go up since the classification of the country of origin is yet to be determined for the MoUs signed with companies from 17 countries throughout the summit.

Admitting that their pitch to investors rested on improved “governance and law and order”, UP government officials said the idea was to seek out prominent members of the Indian diaspora in the UAE, Canada, Europe, East Asia, the Americas, the UK and Australia, especially those from UP.

Experts, while welcoming the investments, said pledges by these companies owned by NRIs and persons of Indian origin did not make up a major chunk of the total investment of Rs 33 lakh crore received by the UP government.


Also Read: ‘Unavoidable reasons’: UP discom scraps Adani Group tender for 70 lakh prepaid smart meters


‘No longer BIMARU state’

According to details of the “top 44” investors who have signed MoUs with the UP government during these roadshows and meetings abroad, 21 are either fully or partially owned by Indian-origin individuals or NRIs.

Among the 21 companies, the highest investment was offered by Sify International, which boasts of being “India’s first private ISP (internet service provider)”. The information and communication technology major has proposed to invest a total of Rs 8,300 crore in a data centre in UP — data centres have emerged as the most sought-after sector among foreign-based investors.

Greater Noida in UP is home to north India’s first hyperscale data centre Yotta Yotta D1, which was inaugurated in November 2022. Four data centres are expected to come up in the state in the backdrop of the UP government notifying its Data Centre Policy in 2021.

Canada-based Gurvinder Chohan, a businessman of Indian origin who is the founder and CEO of QSTC Inc — a major space engineering solutions provider — had signed a Rs 8,200 crore investment intent with the UP government last December. Similarly, Mobility Infrastructure Corp founded by Dr Ravindra Verma, an IIT-BHU alumnus, signed an MoU of Rs 8,200 crore with the UP government in the logistics sector. 

Singapore-based Universal Success Pte Ltd, owned by Bengali-origin entrepreneur and industrialist Prasoon Mukherjee, proposed an investment of Rs 5,100 crore to set up another data centre and logistics park in the state.

Yusuff Ali M.A’s Lulu Group, which owns Lucknow’s Lulu Mall, has also promised to invest Rs 3,300 in the state. The Kerala-born billionaire said Saturday that the group will open three more malls in Uttar Pradesh, one each in ‘Taj Nagri’ Agra and temple cities Ayodhya and Varanasi.

Further, Netherlands-based Mahler Fund led by Rajindre Tewari, who also heads the Indo-European Forum in Brussels, has expressed its intent to invest Rs 2,600 in the real estate sector, a UP government official told ThePrint on condition of anonymity.

Germany-based Motherson and Singapore-based Sing Fuels & Group, too, have expressed intent to invest Rs 500 crore and Rs 2,000 crore in the automobile ancillary and intent of things (IOT) product categories, respectively, during the delegations’ tours to Germany and Singapore.

“We have approached the UP diaspora and they want to come back because the governance and law and order have improved. We took the UP transformation story to them and held specific sessions to firstly, instill a sense of pride that the UP they belong to is no longer a BIMARU state and secondly, they have opportunities opening here now and they should look at setting up spaces here,” said additional chief secretary Arvind Kumar.

Speaking to ThePrint, Dr Yashvir Tyagi, former head of the economics department at Lucknow University said he welcomes the Indian diaspora being attracted by the GIS and the policies of the UP government.

“This is not unnatural, given the fact that the government delegations had gone abroad and were in touch with the Indian embassies abroad. They have a list of persons of Indian origin with whom the government tries to connect with. This is similar to China, where the investment boom was also driven by persons of Chinese origin. Also, they help establish a connect with foreign nationals abroad,” he went on to say.

Tyagi added that the government now needs to ensure that these investments are converted into full fledged projects and the process is quickened.

(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)


Also Read: Why Kanpur traders protested over Yogi’s GST raids — ‘heavy fine for discrepancy of even Re 1’


 

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