Mumbai visit showcases Yogi as face of change, leading a ‘new Uttar Pradesh’

In the past one month, Adityanath has addressed envoys of different countries, led domestic road shows, including in Mumbai where he this week met industrialists and bankers, and sent out high-level teams out of the country to make a push for the state. Next up is Adityanath’s visit to the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos later this month – the first by a UP CM, as per the BJP – where he will present his “vision” for the state.

Sources said that with the eastern region now well-connected witht expressways, the government is inviting businesses to invest in areas such as Purvanchal, Bundelkhand and Terai that remain largely out of their umbrella.

Indicating confidence about its efforts, the Adityanath government recently increased its investment target from the coming Global Investors’ Summit in February from Rs 10 lakh crore to over Rs 17 lakh crore. It claims to have got over Rs 7 lakh crore investment proposals from abroad and about Rs 5 lakh crore from Mumbai alone.

In another difference, learning from the experience of the last Global Investor Summit held in February 2018, Adityanath is not just monitoring the process but will also be holding one-on-one meetings with investors. The focus will be to emphasise “safety” as well as “ease of doing business”.

In Mumbai, apart from business meetings, the CM separately held individual meetings with over 17 businessmen, including Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries, Karan Adani of Adani Ports and SEZ, Ashok P Hinduja of Hinduja Group, Sanjiv Mehta of Hindustan Uniliver, Kumar Mangalam Birla of Birla Group, Pirojsha Godrej of Godrej Industries, N Chandrashekharan of Tata sons, S N Subrahmanyan of Larsen and Toubro, as well as a meeting with actor Akshay Kumar.

Additionally, Adityanath met businessmen and other representatives from UP living in Mumbai, bankers as well as representatives from the film industry to convince them to invest in the Film City in the state.

In the coming week, as part of the road show, high-power UP teams will tour Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, led by the two Deputy Chief Ministers, Finance Minister, Industrial Development Minister and IT minister, and including top bureaucrats.

Last month, after eight teams of over 14 ministers and 35 officials had toured 21 cities of 18 countries, they were told to not just submit reports but also give individual presentations on the outcomes and set up “follow-up” desks to stay in touch.

“Just like last time, each of these teams are expected to submit a report on the specific outcomes of their visits and keep track of the feedback,” a senior official said.

The Adityanath government is also hoping to make a splash with the G-20 events planned in the state. At the meetings held as part of the preparations, officials were told to ensure that the visitors got the idea of the state’s rich “culture and craft” as well as a feel of the “new Uttar Pradesh”.