TO RDS TO RDS

which despite being UP’s capital and largest city, has often missed out on the momentum enjoyed by UP’s commercial capital and most populous city Kanpur, and newer planned cities like Noida and Greater Noida. Many of the investment proposals, especially in manufacturing and real estate development, have been for projects to be set up in Lucknow, and this will ensure that UP’s capital city will be a major manufacturing and realty hub in the near future. At the same time, CM Yogi Adityanath has taken special care to ensure that development reaches all nook and corner of the vast state, and already tens of thousands of crores worth of investment proposals have been bagged by Gorakhpur, Chandauli & hubs in Eastern UP.

One distinguishing factor of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s leadership in this GIS has been the fact that he is equally focused on the macro and micro aspects of it. For instance, in expanding the investment target by 70% to Rs. 17 lakh crore and in positioning the GIS 2023 as a vehicle to fulfil the state’s ambitious target of being a $1 trillion economy, the CM has shown his skill for the macro view. At the same time, the CM has been quick to point out that the ultimate objective of the UP GIS is to increase the per capita income of the people of Uttar Pradesh.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had personally led the Global Investors Summit 2023’s roadshows in India’s economic capital Mumbai, signalling the importance with which the CM is regarding the upcoming investment meet in February. The state also has Centre’s full backing, with none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi deciding to inaugurate the high voltage international event, scheduled for February 10-12.

UP HAS BEEN MOVING AT A RAPID PACE TO DEVELOP SEAMLESS CONNECTIVITY THROUGH AIR, WATER, ROAD AND RAILROAD NETWORKS, WHICH WILL ENHANCE THE ACCESSIBILITY OF LOGISTICS TO ENABLE INDUSTRIES TO ACCESS GLOBAL AND DOMESTIC MARKETS.

The UP government delegation to Mumbai led by Chief Minister Yogi returned successfully from the roadshow with investment proposals worth around Rs.5 Lakh crore. During the event in Mumbai, the Chief Minister also interacted with Bankers to highlight the investment potential of the State and the need for the funding of industrial projects. He also met film fraternity and apprised them about incentives under the film policy of Uttar Pradesh and the upcoming film city in Noida region.

There were several other highlights too in the Mumbai roadshow. Reliance Industries has announced that Jio Centres will open in every district of UP to improve its health services with the help of Artificial Intelligence. Adani Group on its part has shown interest in setting up medical colleges in Ballia and Shravasti on the PPP model. Ramki Group is proposing to build a satellite city between Kanpur and Lucknow, and this was announced in the road show. India’s largest conglomerate Tata Group has also announced that Air India will fly to every city of spiritual importance in UP.

With the competition intensifying between the leading industrialized states to attract high value projects, Chief Minister Yogi is not waiting for the event itself, but proactively choosing such projects for his state. Such an outreach has recently resulted in the state inking significant investment proposals worth thousands of crores from firms in the US and Canada.

This may just be the tip of the iceberg, as even in this run up to the summit, with the event just a month away, the state has attracted investment proposals worth over Rs. 7 lakh crore. This massive momentum has recently encouraged the UP Government to increase the investment target by 70% than earlier planned, and set it as Rs. 17 lakh crore.

Qualitatively also, the momentum being witnessed in UP’s upcoming GIS has been superlative. The Chief Minister had sent high level teams, comprising of ministers and senior officials, to many global hubs including Germany, Canada, UAE, USA & Mexico. These high level delegations from UP met industry groups belonging to various core and buzzing sectors including technology, pharmaceuticals, electric motor industry, research and development, telecom, food processing, investment banks, capital markets etc. Many of the sectors that have promised participation are the very ones that UP has been most bullish about promoting in the state.

Many CEOs or such top ranked officials from major companies from India and abroad have indicated that they will be participating in UP GIS. This list is surely set to swell as more and more global and Indian CEOs will find it compelling to personally check out the prospects of investing in UP.

One distinguishing factor of CM Yogi Adityanath’s leadership in this GIS has been the fact that he is equally focused on the macro and micro aspects of it. For instance, in expanding the investment target by 70% to Rs. 17 lakh crore and in positioning the GIS 2023 as a vehicle to fulfil the state’s ambitious target of being a $1 trillion economy, the CM has shown his skill for the macro view. At the same time, the CM has been quick to point out that the ultimate objective of the UP GIS is to increase the per capita income of the people of Uttar Pradesh.

The Chief Minister has also proved to be a marketing and communication genius when it comes to projecting and highlighting the unique strengths of his state. In almost all his engagements with overseas investment delegations the CM has been effectively pointing out such unique facts that many foreigners may miss out on the state. For example, the CM has never failed to highlight that UP is home to 25 crore people, which makes it India’s largest consumer as

UP Delegation in UAE

well as labour market.

Secondly, the CM has often pointed out UP’s edge in the higher education and skilling sectors. The state is home to an unbelievable 72 universities including world-class institutions like IITs, IIMs, two AIIMS and six Agricultural Universities. In order to improve the health facilities in every nook and corner of the state, the CM has been spearheading a program to facilitate at least one medical college in each of the 75 districts of the state.

He has also pointed out to global investors that apart from making available a huge talent pool for their projects, this focus on higher education is also an opportunity for them to invest in the higher education and medical education sectors of the state.

Agriculture is another domain where this Chief Minister and his state has been most bullish about. With one of the richest fresh water resources in India, including its mega rivers, UP has one of the world’s most fertile agricultural lands. CM Yogi’s vision for agriculture is to increase the income of farmers by going back to natural farming but using the latest concepts like zero budget chemical-free farming.

While mega events like UP GIS and the kind of largescale overseas investors it attracts may not feel like a ready fit with UP’s huge number of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), Chief Minister Yogi has never failed to highlight this as a strength of the state. There is indeed a synergy between large enterprises and

MSMEs, especially in sectors like technology and defence, as these smaller units can prove to be the supply ecosystem of these large projects.

The UP Government is also working on several industrial projects across the state, which includes one of the two Defence Industrial Corridors in the country designed for making India self-sufficient in the field of defence production. Under this project, six nodes, Agra, Aligarh, Kanpur, Lucknow, Jhansi and Chitrakoot have been identified in UP.

There are over 90 lakh MSME units in UP, which is one of the primary sources of employment in the state. Apart from working as feeder units to large-scale manufacturers,

IN THE COMING YEARS.

the UP Government has promoted the unique ‘One District, One Product’ scheme which has succeeded in identifying the most promising traditional product of that district and facilitating its exports too.

On the infrastructure front too, the Uttar Pradesh Government has been moving at a rapid pace to develop seamless connectivity through air, water, road and railroad networks, which will enhance the accessibility of logistics to enable industries to access global and domestic markets.

Under CM Yogi’s competitive vision, the state has been pushing for industrial development through policy driven governance by formulating around 25 policies to attract investments in various sectors including IT and IT enabled services, Data Centres, ESDM, Defence and Aerospace, Electric Vehicles, Warehousing and Logistics, Tourism, Textile & MSME.

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SRK WOULD SPREAD A CLOTH & SLEEP ON FLOOR IF VANITY VAN WASN'T READY, RECALLS ADITYA

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Punjab Starts Entrepreneur Scheme In 31 Govt Schools As Pilot Project

Punjab Minister of School Education

Harjot Singh Bains on Tuesday launched the "Business Blasters Young Entrepreneur Scheme" as a pilot project in 31 government schools across Punjab. "We aim to launch it in all senior secondary schools next year," he tweeted. Under the scheme, the students of Class 11 will be provided seed money of ?2,000 to start a business.

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A study published in Nature Communications found that blue whales, the largest animals on the planet, off California's coast are consuming about 1 crore pieces of microplastic every day. A whale that feeds mostly on fish consumes about 2,00,000 pieces a day, the study found. Some microplastic consumed by the whales are even smaller than 5 millimetres, the study added.

O YOU LIKE TO BE ADDRESSED AS YOUR EXCELLENCY, MR PELE? A REPORTER IN THE EASTERN INDIAN CITY OF KOLKATA (THEN CALCUTTA) ASKED THE FOOTBALL LEGEND DURING HIS THREEDAY-TRIP TO PLAY AN EXHIBITION GAME WITH HIS STAR-STUDDED TEAM NEW YORK COSMOS 45 YEARS AGO. THE BRAZILIAN STAR, THEN 37, GAVE A "DISARMING SMILE AND BURST INTO LAUGHTER," REPORTED THE HINDUSTAN STANDARD NEWSPAPER, A DAY BEFORE THE GAME ON 24 SEPTEMBER, 1977 AGAINST MOHUN BAGAN, A STORIED LOCAL TEAM AND ONE OF THE OLDEST FOOTBALL CLUBS IN ASIA.

ndia's football-crazy city was agog with excitement over Pele's first game in India at the iconic Eden Gardens stadium, which then accommodated more than 60,000 spectators. Mohun Bagan, the papers said, had spent nearly 1.7 million rupees to get Pele and the glamorous US club to play in the city. Around 35,000 policemen would be deployed to control rowdy fans. Tickets were priced between five and 60 rupees.

The papers variously called him "King Pele" and "The Emperor". The Hindustan Standard rhapsodized: "Without appearing to be even immodest, let alone vain and arrogant, Pele can compare himself with the other all-time greats in history like Leonardo da Vinci and Beethoven. Maybe to connoisseurs of the game, Pele's football is as rapturously beautiful as the Mona Lisa or the Ninth Symphony".

The build up to the game was intense. Pele - and that too in Calcutta is unbelievable, said a tea shop billboard. A local paper ran a graphics-led series on its front page explaining how Pele played his game. The star's name featured in advertisements for health drinks. Long queues of fans to buy "lottery coupons" - tickets would be sold after a draw - snaked outside football grounds. An astrologer played spoilsport, predicting Pele would fall ill and would not be able to play the entire duration of the game.

When Pele arrived in an Air India plane from Tokyo - Cosmos Club was ending a two-week goodwill trip to Asia, with stops in Japan and China - around midnight on 22 September all hell broke loose. Mass hysteria had gripped the city. Newspapers reported a sea of screaming fans inside and outside the airport. Cries of "Long live Pele!" rent the air. "I have never seen such a crowd at this time in the night outside the airport. Fans have come from all over the city and the suburbs," a reporter with the Ananda Bazar Patrika, the largest-selling Bengali newspaper, wrote.

On the tarmac a wave of fans brandishing garlands broke through the security cordon and surged towards the Boeing 707 plane. Pele stepped out of the plane, his fingers in his familiar V salute, and went back inside after seeing the scrum below, according to the papers. Only after the police dispersed the crowd, the footballer stepped out with wife, Rosemeri, followed by the rest of the team, that included stars like Brazil's World Cup-winning team member Carlos Alberto Torres and Italian player Giorgio Chinaglia. They went to the terminal building, where Pele told waiting reporters: "I am tired, will see you in the field."

So much was the desperation to know more about Pele, reporters pounced on a Japanese co-passenger on the flight. "I thought I would get friendly with him on the flight. But the English is poor and I didn't want to impose myself on him. Also Pele slept through the flight," the passenger said.

The mayhem continued. Inside the airport, police baton charged fans who smashed glass panes and flung shoes for not being able to catch a glimpse of their idol. Outside, thousands of fans prowled around the car park. Occasionally a roar would go up - "Pele is leaving! Pele is leaving!" - and fans would run in all directions trying to find the vehicle that would take the team to the city, the papers said.

The police whisked Pele and Cosmos players into a bus to take them to a luxury hotel in the heart of Kolkata. Fans teemed outside, and crowded the hotel lobby. Over the next two days, according to the papers, Pele was mostly holed up in his suite with his wife, secured by his "enormous bodyguard" in the next room. He turned up at two receptions hosted by the US consulate and Mohun Bagan. "We are trapped in this fortress of love," Rosemeri told a reporter.

Pele, of course, turned up at the Eden Gardens with his team for the weekend game, vowing to play for the entire 90 minutes, despite the wet and slushy ground and a grim weather forecast, according to local papers.

Novy Kapadia, a football writer, offered a different version in his book, Barefoot to Boots: The Many Lives of Indian

Football. "Pele almost refused to play because of the slippery conditions... Police officials implored Pele, saying the crowd would get violent and lynch the Mohun Bagan officials if he did not play. The great Brazilian finally relented, but was cautious throughout the match," he wrote.

By most accounts, the game turned out to be a bit of an anti-climax. Despite taking a few unsuccessful shots at the goal, Pele was mostly off-colour against a spirited home team on a muddy ground battered by rains earlier in the week. The game ended in a 2-2 draw. When Pele left the ground, there was a hushed silence, the papers said. In contrast, tens of thousands clapped in frenzied unison when the Mohun Bagan team left the field.

Kolkata's manic love affair with Pele was beginning to unravel. One headline said: "It is clear that Pele has grown old". Local football pundits were unforgiving.

"Pele was invited to Kolkata so that our young footballers could learn more about the game. At least, that's what the organisers told us. What they actually learnt from Pele is how to spend 90 minutes on the field without doing much," wrote Moti Nandi, a respected Bengali sports writer, in Ananda Bazar Patrika. The hysteria over Pele now evaporated quickly. Crowds outside his hotel thinned. A deflated fan accosted a minister of the ruling Communist government and said "a fake Pele had been brought to Calcutta". A Communist MP told the same minister: "You need to refund the ticket money for the game."

So when Pele left for New York on a Sunday night, there were no crowds at the airport. "The King's Depressing Departure," headlined a newspaper story. The exuberance of fans had waned. Santosh Kumar Ghosh, a veteran journalist, said a fraction of the money spent on Pele and Cosmos could have "beautified many of the roads in the city". The parting shot on this "most uncompetitive match" was provided by Arijit Sen, a well-known sports commentator of the time.

"The Cosmos players did not offer more than 25% of their capacity and were content to play out the time," he wrote. "Their purpose had been served. Their kitty had swelled with the poor Indians' hard-earned money".

(Credit: BBC)