BS Samriddhi: UP's GSDP to surpass Rs 32 trillion in FY25, says CM Yogi

UP Yogi Adityanath added that the crackdown on land mafias by the anti-land mafia squad has freed 64,000 hectares of land

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday said the foundation of the state’s rapid cultural, economic, and industrial growth since 2017 had been its zero-tolerance policy towards crime. He said the state’s gross domestic product (GSDP) should surpass Rs 32 trillion by March 2025, and Uttar Pradesh was now competing to become the country’s top economy.

 

Addressing the Business Standard Samriddhi roundtable, Adityanath detailed his government’s investments in improving the state’s infrastructure, especially through the construction of expressways. He also highlighted efforts to attract foreign direct investment (FDI), with proposals amounting to nearly Rs 40 trillion, which would create 15 million jobs for the state’s youngsters. The CM emphasised the government’s support for traditional industries, such as Moradabad’s brass, Firozabad’s glass, and Bhadohi’s carpet manufacturers, as well as the state’s agricultural sector.

 

In his nearly hour-long speech, the CM said his government had “ruthlessly” crushed mafia groups and that rioters now know their actions will have consequences. “From the lawlessness of ‘one district, one mafia group’ during the previous governments, the state has transitioned to ‘one district, one product’,” the CM said.

 

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath added that the crackdown on land mafias by the anti-land mafia squad has freed 64,000 hectares of land. “Today, there is no scarcity of land for setting up businesses and for infrastructure development,” he said.

 

The CM said that when his government took over, the size of the annual Budget for a large state like UP, with a population of 220 million, was a mere Rs 2 trillion, which has now increased to Rs 7.5 trillion. The GSDP has risen from Rs 12 trillion to Rs 26 trillion in 2023-24, and will touch Rs 32 trillion by March 2025. He said the state was on track to achieving its goal of becoming a trillion-dollar economy.

 

Adityanath also said that, over the past seven years, UP’s ease of doing business (EODB) ranking has improved from 14th in 2016-17 to number two in 2019. Currently, the state is the top achiever in EODB. He said Uttar Pradesh’s economy, previously ranked seventh behind Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, West Bengal, and other states, is now the second-largest economy in the country. “Today, I can say with confidence that we are the number two economy in the country, the fastest emerging economy and competing for the top spot. We have also carried reforms in the farm sector, such as our compressed biogas plants,” he said.

 

UP’s Cabinet Minister for industrial development, export, and investment promotion, Nand Gopal Gupta ‘Nandi’, said Adityanath’s leadership has led to multifaceted development in Uttar Pradesh. “As much as half of the country’s expressways are now in UP, as well as 21 airports, the highest number in any state,” he said, adding that cultural revival and prosperity due to the Ram Temple in Ayodhya and the Kashi Vishwanath corridor have been accompanied by industrial growth.

 

In a subsequent panel discussion on environmental protection with infrastructure and tourism development, former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer and advisor to the UP CM, Awanish Kumar Awasthi, attributed the state’s economic growth to “Yoginomics”. Awasthi said the key tenets of ‘Yoginomics’ include absolute enforcement of the rule of law, the use of technology as a force multiplier for government departments, ensuring that Uttar Pradesh becomes number one in achieving the targets of central schemes, such as PM Awas Yojana, making the state a leader in agricultural production (especially foodgrains), generating employment for youth, providing a safe working environment for women, and prioritising capital expenditure over distributing freebies.

 

During his speech, Adityanath also pointed out that Uttar Pradesh, home to 250 million people with a sufficient human resource base and fertile land, as well as knowledge and educational centres in Kashi and Prayagraj, had lost its way and failed to keep pace with the times, leading to an identity crisis among its residents. He spoke of how his government had rooted out arbitrary policymaking by previous administrations, reached out to investors, framed policies for over two dozen sectors, including defence production, semiconductors, logistics, and compressed biogas, introduced an FDI policy to attract investments from Fortune 500 companies, and created a land bank.