Lucknow: As part of its efforts to attract companies to invest in the state, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh is gearing up to establish a Pharma Park and Medical Device Park in the view of situation arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
To this end, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath asked officials on Saturday to chalk-out a plan of action to attract investors for these core sectors to meet the demands, keeping the coronavirus pandemic in mind. One Pharma park will be established in the underdeveloped and perennially-dry Bundelkhand region. Yogi has also asked officials to finalise a policy for production of medicinal plants.
The move aims to boost investment and employment generation considering the challenges before the state. Over 20 lakh migrant workers have returned to the state from across India. UP now has the daunting task of arranging livelihood resources for such a huge number of unskilled, skilled and semi-skilled workers.
On Saturday, the CM had held a high-level meeting to discuss the scope of investment and employment scenario in the state, especially since the state has top Central government research labs, two IITs (BHU and Kanpur) and other medical research institutes. This includes the Central Drug Research Institute, National Botanical Research Institute, Institute of Industrial Toxicology Research, Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, King George Medical University (all in Lucknow) and Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.
CM has already formed an economic task force that will focus on companies willing to move out of China following the coronavirus outbreak, said Siddharth Nath Singh, minister for investment, export promotion and MSMEs in the state.
Investors from Thailand are expected to visit in October, while a meeting with companies from South Korea is expected soon, Singh, who heads the taskforce said.
Earlier this month, a webinar was organized with the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum, in which more than 100 American firms, including Microsoft, Adobe, Boston Instrumentation, UPS, and FedEx had participated.
Meanwhile, the government has disbursed Rs 208 crore to NGOs on Saturday under “revolving and community investment scheme”.
All 58,000 gram-panchayats have been asked to have one Bank Correspondent Sakhi to expand banking services to each and everyone. The government will provide Rs 4,000 to each Bank Sakhi who will also earn through each bank transaction.
The government has given Rs 15 crore in the UP start-ups fund of SIDBI.
“To promote entrepreneurship, the government has asked universities to frame their programmes in such a way that graduate and postgraduate students can take a year’s leave to do internship and learn skills of self-employment,” an official said.
Over one lakh students will be selected for internship and they will get Rs 2,500 as a month stipend as well.
The State had already disbursed loans worth Rs 2,000 crore to MSMEs a week ago to boost employment.
