Investors Summit: Yogi looks for investment in defence manufacturing sector

CM Yogi has pegged investment potential in UP at Rs 1 trn

Even as the Uttar Pradesh government is giving final touches to lay out the red carpet for the Global and India Inc at UP Investors Summit 2018, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath would be gunning for the emerging sector of defence manufacturing in the state.

Adityanath has already said UP has the potential to attract private investment of almost Rs one trillion in the sector, especially in the backdrop of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre aspiring for greater defence indigenisation under ‘Make in India’.

The importance that Adityanath attaches to this new age manufacturing segment is indicated in his scheduled presence at the session on ‘Defence & Aerospace: Investment Opportunities in Uttar Pradesh’ which would be chaired by union defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman on the second and concluding a day of the Summit on February 22.

The state government has also planned to develop a defence manufacturing hub in the arid region of Bundelkhand, which has an abundance of non-agricultural land. The proposed 320 km long Bundelkhand Expressway connecting Jhansi and Kushinagar districts and intersecting 302 km long Agra-Lucknow Expressway and proposed 352 km long Purvanchal Expressway at Lucknow is projected to boost the prospects of the defence manufacturing corridor through faster road connectivity and better logistics.

According to estimates, India is projected to incur 250 billion US dollars on defence procurement over the next decade. Modi has willed India to shed the tag of the world's largest arms importer by encouraging foreign firms to collaborate with Indian entities and manufacture defence wares in the country.

The Adityanath government has prepared a new defence manufacturing policy to offer a gamut of sops and incentives to companies setting up shop in the state and aiding UP in emerging as an ideal destination for defence manufacturing

The two-day Summit would be inaugurated by Prime Minister Modi on Wednesday. So far, over 5,000 delegates have registered for the Summit. Some partner countries at the Summit, include Netherlands, Japan, Czech Republic, Finland, Slovakia and Mauritius.

Meanwhile, the state has claimed to have already signed over 900 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with companies in different sectors viz food and agro-processing, tourism, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), dairy, infrastructure etc. The total committed investment in these MoUs has been pegged at Rs 3 trillion, according to sources.

On the inaugural day, Adityanath would host a high profile dinner for about 200 dignitaries, including top industry captains, including Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani, Tata Group chairman N Chandrasekaran, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Gautam Adani, Subhash Chandra, Sudhir Mehta, Sanjiv Puri, Hemant Kanoria, Kulin Lalbhai, G M Rao, Shiv Nadar, Subramanian Sarma etc.

President Ram Nath Kovind would be the chief guest at the valedictory function of the high ticket event, which is touted as the biggest such event in the calendar of the ‘City of Nawabs’, the endearing eponymous of Lucknow. The event is also projected to give a major boost to the tourism sector in the state.

In run-up to the Summit, the state government had organised roadshows at six metropolises, including New Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kolkata and Ahmedabad in run-up to the Summit. At Mumbai, Adityanath had interacted with industrialists, including Ratan Tata and Mukesh Ambani, bankers and investors. Later, Birla and Shiv Nadar had called upon Yogi in Lucknow to discuss investment opportunities.