5-year Information Technology target achieved in 3 years: Uttar Pradesh Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma

The Uttar Pradesh Government on Saturday said it has achieved a five-year target of attracting Rs 20,000 crore investment and providing three lakh jobs in Information Technology sector in three years only. UP Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, who also holds the IT portfolio, said many reputed companies from China, Taiwan and Korea are keen to set up their manufacturing units in state’ Electronics Manufacturing Cluster, being developed in 100 acre land in Greater Noida.

"Following the implementation of the UP Electronics Manufacturing Policy-2017, a target of securing Rs 20,000 crore investment and generating three lakh jobs in the IT sector in five years by 2022. “I am happy to announce that our government has achieved this target in three years only,” said Sharma. Following the success of 2017 policy and achievement of its target before time, the government has now set up an ambitious target of securing Rs 40,000 crore investment and generating four lakh jobs as per the new UP Electronics Manufacturing Policy 2020.

He added that under the 2020 policy, three state-of-art Centre of Excellence have been proposed to promote the ESDM industry in the state out of which in-principle approval has been granted for the first COE to facilitate Li-ion Cell manufacturing. To promote the IT industry, IT Parks are being developed with an investment of approx Rs 200 crore in all 18 divisions of the state by Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), he said.

"Operation in these IT parks in Meerut, Agra, Gorakhpur and Varanasi is expected to begin in the first half of the coming year. Apart from this, the actions are being taken to start the work for the development of IT parks in Aligarh, Saharanpur, Azamgarh and Jhansi," he added. Under the start-up policy, so far 16 incubators have been made functional across the state. Currently, more than 3,300 UP-based start-ups are registered under Startup India programme with a presence in more than 60 districts of the state, the minister said. The UP Government is also mulling a dedicated policy for attracting Data Center industry in the state which will be released soon.

A State DBT portal has been developed and hosted at Uttar Pradesh State Data Centre (UPSDC). Presently, 130 DBT Schemes of 27 departments have been on-boarded on the State DBT portal, said Sharma.

During Financial Year 2020-21, more than Rs 56,000 crore has been transferred to beneficiaries' bank account directly through the DBT, he added. Uttar Pradesh was awarded under “Emerging Startup Eco-System” category in the recent Startup Ranking 2019 by the central government, he added. Under the UP Start-up Policy 2020, startups in all sectors including agriculture, medicine and health, energy, khadi, education, tourism and transport will get encouragement, the deputy chief minister added. "The policy aims to set up more than 100 incubators, minimum one in each district of the state and creation of an ecosystem compatible with the establishment of at least 10,000 startups in the state," the UP government said in a statement.