UTTAR PRADESH

In an attempt to boost the Food Processing sector in the state, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has launched Uttar Pradesh Food Processing Policy-2023 under which subsidies and other facilities are being given for setting up food processing industries.

The Uttar Pradesh government is providing additional facilities to encourage investors, including subsidy, interest subvention and transport subsidy. It has been divided into four parts, first is the grant of projects, second is interest subvention, the third is transport grant and the fourth is major incentives.

Under the policy, the Yogi government is giving a grant of 35 per cent of the project cost (on plant, machinery and technical civil work) or a maximum of Rs 5 crore on the establishment of new food processing units.

Similarly, 35 per cent of the project cost of a minimum Investment of Rs 25 crore (five units) or a maximum of Rs 10 crore by the agro-processing group, a grant of 35 per cent of the project cost or a maximum of Rs 5 crore for the development of a priority processing centre at the farm Gate, collection centre, cold storage, dry warehouse, mobile pre-cooling unit, reefer trucks, IQF facility distribution centers, and retail outlets under backward and forward linkage, is being given.

Not only this, a maximum of Rs 5 crore of the project cost is being given for agricultural promotion chain development study, 50 per cent of the project cost or a maximum of Rs 50 lakhs is being given on the construction of decentralised procurement storage and processing unit.

Under major incentives, exemption of 2 per cent fee on the declaration of non-agricultural use, 25 per cent on circle rate on exchange of government land, 50 per cent on change fee on land use conversion, 75 per cent on external development fee, is being given.

Taking a cue from the decision of Kanpur zone Police to set up 20-bed L1 and L2 hospitals inpolice linesin all ninedistrictsunder its jurisdiction, theUttar Pradeshpolice has issued directives for the establishment of similar facilities across the state.

Setting up of Covid-19 L1 and L2 hospitals in police lines, mooted by Kanpur police zone in nine districts and Kanpur Nagar commissionerate, is a model for others to emulate.

An 11-point strategy was prepared in coordination with the chief medical officer and chief medical superintendents of all nine districts. The zone has a force of about 25,000 policemen, including Home guards and helping staff.

Uttar Pradesh is turning into an export state of India as among the 43 Centers of Export Excellence selected by the Central government, 12 are from Uttar Pradesh.

The Central government, while releasing the countrys Policy-2023 recently, declared four more places, including three in Uttar Pradesh Varanasi, Moradabad and Mirzapur as Centres of Export Excellence, which speaks volumes about the development being witnessed in the state. Mirzapur is known for its handmade carpets, Moradabad for carpets and Varanasi for handloom and handicrafts.

The other nine cities of UP, which are already on this list, include Kekhra (for handloom), Malihabad (for Horticulture), Kanpur (for leather products), Agra (for leather products), Firozabad (for bangles-glass items), Saharanpur (for handicrafts), Bhadohi (for carpets) and Noida (for apparel products).

Being included in this list means that these cities will have priority access to the Export Promotion Fund and all these cities will be able to get common service provider benefits for fulfillment of exports under the Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) scheme.

Uttar Pradesh, despite being a landlocked state, has seen a remarkable Growth in its exports in the last six years of the Yogi government going up from Rs 88,967 crore to Rs 1.57 lakh crore. As per the intention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is laying special emphasis on exporting traditional products of Uttar Pradesh along with ensuring Ease of Doing Business in the state. With the establishment of dry Ports and opening of a water route between Varanasi to Haldia, the State Government has opened new doors of possibilities for entrepreneurs investing in UP.

In this context, the government is focusing on taking the exports further from Rs 1.57 lakh crore to Rs 2 lakh crore at the earliest. Various facilities are being provided to investors as well as to entrepreneurs from the state.

The government has also introduced 25 sectoral policies to boost industrial growth in diverse sectors. A framework is being prepared to implement Investment proposals worth Rs 35 lakh crore received through the Global Investors Summit (UP GIS-2023).

The Yogi government has introduced the concept of dry ports through the UP Warehousing and Logistics Policy-2022 to facilitate transportation of export cargo to sea ports and many entrepreneurs are investing in it.

As Uttar Pradesh is a landlocked state with various export clusters, emphasis is being laid on development of dry ports in the state. An inland port is made under dry ports, where the customs formalities between the exporter and the importer are completed. After this the containers are sent to the port

The dry ports operating currently are Moradabad Rail Linked Joint Domestic and Exim Terminal, Rail Linked Private Freight Terminal and Inland Container Depot (ICD) in Kanpur, and ICD at Dadri Terminal.

Deputy CM Keshav PrasadMaurya virtually inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of 8,413 projects worth over Rs 10,000 crore to lend a boost to better road connectivity in the state.
The projects include 4,703 roads of 8,737 km across 353 assembly constituencies and 132 bridges in 79 assembly constituencies.

He said that work has been done to connect villages up to a distance of 5 km from the national highway, state highway, main district road and other district roads. He said that before 2017, the length of national highways in the state was 6,000 km, which has now increased to 12,000 km. Construction works have been done while removing all obstacles.

Despite having 40% more sugarcane cultivation area,Uttar Pradeshhas been outperformed byMaharashtra in sugar productionbecoming the “largestsugarproducing state in the country”, according to a recent report of the directorate of economics and statistics in the Union ministry of Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture and farmers welfare.

Maharashtra has been maximising production due to better management of Resources, proper utilisation of the mills’ crushing capacity and enhanced recovery rate, the report said.

The report also suggests that the country’s totalsugar productionhas gone up by 7 lakh tonnes from 358 lakh tonnes in 2021-22 to 365 lakh tonnes in the current crushing season. This increase has been estimated despite a rise in sugarcane diversion for ethanol production and other activities by 11 lakh tonnes in the current year, compared to last season.

As per the report, the sugarcane cultivation area in Uttar Pradesh in 2021-22 was on a par with 23.1 lakh hectares while it had produced about 102 lakh tonnes of sugar. On the other hand,Maharashtraproduced 137 lakh tonnes of sugar with cane crop cultivated in 13.5 lakh hectares, less by around 42% compared to UP.

As the farmers in UP sowed over 90% of the sugarcane crop in spring to harvest it in October-November after its Growth of 8 to 9 months, it was not so rich in juice.

Prime MinisterNarendra Modiis likely to inaugurate the 341km-longPurvanchal Expressway, between Lucknow and Ghazipur, on November 16.

This is one of the several projects in the state lined up to be inaugurated by the PM, who is expected to set the political temperatures of poll-bound UP soaring by making frequent visits to inaugurate or lay the foundation stone of mega projects in November and December.

According to UP government, the PM is scheduled to dedicate the Purvanchal Expressway from Sultanpur on November 16. Constructed at an estimate cost of Rs 42,000 crore, the expressway is being touted as a Catalyst to boost development in socio-economically impoverished east UP. The foundation stone of Purvanchal Expressway was laid by Modi in Azamgarh in July 2018.

As part of a series of steps aimed at Muslim outreach, theYogi Adityanathgovernment now plans to organise job fairs in the minority-dominated regions of the state.

According to sources, the departments of minority welfare and labour & EMPLOYMENT will jointly organise the fairs expected after Diwali. Sources in the labour department said that the fairs are proposed to be organised close to the minority institutions and other centres of Islamic Learning.

Accounting for around 19% of the Population, the Muslim community lags far behind in many socio-religious categories (SRCs) such as Education, economic, employment, housing, landholding, access to credit and other development indicators. In fact, in government jobs, Muslims constitute 10.08% of the OBC castes, researches show.

PM Modi launched theAzadi@75 New Urban India Conclave on 5 October in Lucknow.

Highlights:

The Conclave was coordinated by the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) from 5 October to 7 October as a part of ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’.
The theme of Lucknow Urban Conclave is “transforming the urban landscape”.
All States & UTs will participate in the event to help share experience, direction and commitment for further action.
PM Narendra Modi digitally interacted with beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Urban (PMAY-U) houses and handed over the keys to 75,000 beneficiaries across 75 districts in Uttar Pradesh.
He also released a Coffee Table Book comprising 75 projects implemented under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
He also announced the Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Chair’s setting up in the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (BBAU).
75 Urban Development Projects in Uttar Pradesh under AMRUT Mission and Smart Cities Mission and 75 smart electric buses were flagged off under FAME-II for seven cities were also launched by the Prime Minister. Those seven cities were Lucknow, Varanasi, Kanpur, Prayagraj, Gorakhpur, Ghaziabad and Jhansi.