New investment has brought in employment

Q/ There is criticism that the state’s second place in the Ease of Doing Business ranking is unreliable as it is based on user feedback and does not account for actual processes.

A/ We do not have to question the rankings just because they are done by the government. Our jump in the rankings shows that we have been constantly working on ourselves and implementing the business reform action plan…. Our single window Nivesh Mitra portal has very high user satisfaction, and this reflects in the ranking. After many years, the state has a standalone ministry for industry.

Q/ Industries have always stayed away from Uttar Pradesh because of poor perception. How has that changed?

A/ The state always had great potential but its image was marred by corruption, ransom, lawlessness and organised crime. We have managed to curb these…. The kind of vasooli (extortion) that industries had faced has completely stopped. The other perception was that laws and processes were too cumbersome. We have implemented 186 reforms spread over areas such as labour regulation, property registration, environment clearances and land allotment…. There is a definite change in perception.

Q/ Of all the laws and processes that have been eased, which have been the most remarkable?

A/ The Revenue Code has been amended to ease purchase of agricultural land above the ceiling level and powers of approval have been delegated to districts. Post lockdown, the government lowered the mandi tax from 2 per cent to 1 per cent, bringing relief to the food processing industry. To discourage blocking of land, the UP Industrial Area Development Act, 1976, has been amended to enable cancellation of land allotted if there is no production in five years.

To facilitate electronics system maintenance and development and component manufacturing, we now provide incentives on fixed capital investment up to 40 per cent on refurbished plant and machinery. To reduce regulatory burden on the state, we have started to identify licences/NOCs in terms of renewals, inspections, registers and records to ease or repeal them.

Q/ How much employment can industries provide?

A/ While it is true that where industries come, employment comes, the sector itself has only a 16-17 per cent share in employment. Employment comes from agriculture and services…. Having said that, new investment has brought in employment. The government diligently pursued investors who came for the Investors Summit in 2018. Of the MoUs signed, 207 projects worth Rs50,520 crore are under commercial production, and employ 1.27 lakh people. An additional 120 projects worth Rs35,830, that are under implementation, will create 20,500 jobs.

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