Lucknow: From former Infosys chief financial officer Mohandas Pai to L&T Defence Business senior executive vice-president Jayant Patil and the executive vice-chairman of staffing company TeamLease Services Manish Sabharwal, Yogi Adityanath has drafted over a dozen captains in business and industry to “make Uttar Pradesh a trillion-dollar economy”.
Eight years as CM in Uttar Pradesh have earned Yogi Adityanath the name of “bulldozer baba”, not only for his tough stance against constructions his government deems “illegal” and so demolishes with bulldozers, but also for the “encounters” of criminals by his police.
In his second term, Yogi Adityanath seems likely to focus more on the economy. A newly formed Economic Advisory Group has brought together industrialists, professors, economists, and entrepreneurs, reflecting the CM’s “one trillion dollar economy” goal.
The 15-member EAG, constituted by the Yogi government 18 June this year, includes Mohandas Pai, now the president of private equity fund Aarin Capital; Vineet Rai, the founder-chairman of impact investing fund Aavishkaar Group; Manish Sabharwal of TeamLease Services; Jayant Patil of L&T’s Defence Business; S.M. Sundaresan with the L&T Semiconductor Technologies Ltd; Vishwaprasad Alva, the founder-managing director of medical technology firm Skanray Technologies, etc.
The EAG coordinator is Nachiketa Tiwari, a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur. Yogi’s Economic Advisory Group has a two-year term, making it virtually coterminous with the government. The EAG held its first meeting 12 July last month. The group is likely to meet the CM quarterly and give presentations.
Both K.V. Raju, the CM’s chief economic adviser, and IAS Alok Kumar, the principal secretary of the UP Planning & Programme Implementation, as well as nodal officer of the ‘one trillion dollar economy’ target, played a significant role in the formation of EAG.
Speaking to ThePrint, Raju said, ”It is a group of professionals from different sectors. Each one of them comes with years of sectoral experience, regardless of their sector. So, the state would like to utilise their experience … Initially, they gave presentations before the CM and departmental heads. Now, the respective sectoral chiefs are meeting the respective departmental heads. The planning department is anchoring the meetings.”
According to Raju, the meetings are for the chosen experts to identify the main issues, suggest strategic options for the state, and an action plan, while highlighting the role they can play.
The association between K.V. Raju and CM Yogi Adityanath go back more than seven years. According to Raju, in the past seven years, there has been a change in how the top industrialists perceive Uttar Pradesh.
Speaking to ThePrint, Alok Kumar, who was also behind forming Yogi’s Economic Advisory Group, said that the government formed the group in mid-June. The primary aim was to bring together industry experts from different sectors and receive valuable input from them.
“For example, Aavishkaar Group founder Vineet Rai is an authority in the agricultural sector, while S.M. Sundaresan is a specialist in the semiconductor industry. Similarly, Mohandas Pai, a former Infosys CEO now working in the education sector, also has a rich experience to share. In total, we have over a dozen experts representing various fields,” Alok Kumar said.
After their meeting last month with the CM, the Economic Advisory Group has begun conducting department-wise meetings. “As of now, we have completed a total of six meetings on tourism, agriculture, health and MSME, among other sectors,” Alok Kumar added.
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Another senior UP government official said that the industry experts in Yogi’s Economic Advisory Group maintain direct contact with senior bureaucrats and the chief minister, and they not only listen to their suggestions but also follow up on their implementation.
The official recalled an instance when an idea from Mohandas Pai caught the attention of Yogi. In the last 12 July meeting, Pai pointed out that there were 28 daily flights from UP to Bengaluru, mainly because children from the state studied or worked in Bengaluru, and their parents frequently travelled to visit them. He suggested developing the UP service sector to create jobs within the state for these professionals to work closer to home.
The CM, appearing excited, said, ”We should focus on it.”
Sometimes, the CM took feedback at the departmental meetings with the EAG Group, thereby instructing his office to conduct regular follow-ups.
In Yogi’s Economic Advisory Group, the line-up includes people from nearly all the industries, where UP has, of late, been focusing more.
The official added, ”The idea behind adding experts such as Jayant Patil of L&T Defence Business and Bharat Forge Limited’s vice-chairman and joint managing director Amit Kalyani is that they belong to the defence sector and UP is developing a defence corridor through Aligarh, Agra, Kanpur, Lucknow, Jhansi, and Chitrakoot. We have Rajendra Kumar Mishra, the founder of the Centre for Smart Cities, as well as an expert in construction and public transportation. His suggestions will be helpful for smart cities’ projects.”
Anil Bhardwaj, an EAG member and Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME) general secretary, told ThePrint, “We can understand the vision and seriousness of the government. EAG will be here for two years, not just a few weeks or for some meetings. Also, in this group, there is no one from the BJP’s front organisations, suggesting the government wants independent advice.”
“There is an intention to ensure their responsibility for the tasks they have. It means we would not only propose our ideas but also see the process of functioning.”
Bhardwaj shared the idea of what he calls a ”temple economy” with CM Yogi Adityanath. “During the meeting, I mentioned our study of four cities in UP—Ayodhya, Gorakhpur, Varanasi and Mathura. In these towns, we should focus on selling our local products to tourists. I feel value additions are possible, such as through re-packaging local products, which are a part of the MSME industries.”
According to Bhardwaj, CM Yogi is committed to the implementation part, which is what the Uttar Pradesh economy requires as a boost.
‘One trillion dollar economy’
In February 2025, CM Yogi Adityanath declared that Uttar Pradesh would be a trillion-dollar economy by 2029 while attacking the Opposition for calling such an objective unachievable. That was the first time that Yogi Adityanath had set a deadline of sorts for UP to achieve the trillion-dollar economy target.
Since 2022, the state government has drawn up a roadmap and a five-year timeline to achieve the objective, he said.
”Uttar Pradesh, which has all the resources, was placed in the category of a BIMARU (poor) state by the Samajwadi Party-led government, but has become the second-largest economy in the country now and will surely become a trillion-dollar economy in 2029,” the CM, at the time, said in the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly.
“I assure the House. Uttar Pradesh will not only become a trillion-dollar economy by 2029, but it will also become the largest economy in the country.”
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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