This is the first time in the history of Uttar Pradesh that investment proposals to the tune of Rs 33.52 lakh crore have come to all the 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh through the recently concluded Global Investors Summit (GIS), Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Wednesday.

The youth of the state will no longer have to go elsewhere seeking job as these investments would create job opportunities for them in their own villages, he added.

In an interview given to a private news channel during a conclave here, Yogi Adityanath said the GIS has given just a glimpse of the potential that the state has always had and that prior to 2017, this could not be achieved because the “governments were mortgaged due to casteism, communalism and family politics.”

He said, “Uttar Pradesh has always been a state of immense potential. In 1947, the per capita income of UP was better than the national average. But it fell later on to one third of the national average as those in power committed the sin of dividing the society on the basis of caste, religion and belief. Corruption flourished in the name of family politics and the government was mortgaged. However, we have grown rapidly and have doubled the per capita income and the GDP in the last six years. And I am sure, the per capita income of UP will be ahead of the national average in the next five years.”

The chief minister said the youths of the state have immense talent and the government will take its developmental agenda for the state forward by using their talent and energy.

CM Yogi said that there won’t be the need to send the state’s youths to China as Chinese investment would be coming to India and UP, to make the state the growth engine of India’s development.

“The state has progressed in a meaningful direction in the last six years. We have agreed to develop some institutes of vocational education with the Tatas. In the coming times very good centers of world class skill development are going to be built in UP. Tata wants to work together with us in this,” he said.

The CM said that the specialty of Nivesh Mahakumbh is that investment proposals worth more than 33. 52 lakh crore have been received in all the 75 districts, including proposals of up to 10 lakh crores in Eastern UP and worth 4.29 lakh crore in Bundelkhand. Earlier, the youths had to migrate from the state to find jobs, but today there are a bundle of opportunities for them within the state itself. They will get jobs near their homes.

“When the raw materials for the factories, farmers, laborers, materials, bricks, sand and rebars will all be available here, why would anyone go outside,” he quipped.

The CM said UP is very prosperous and the anchor unit for the industry would be established here.

Speaking about the increase in exports from the state, he said the state not only boasts of the largest base of MSMEs in the country today, but also has undertaken innovative steps like encouraging traditional enterprise through One District One Product, which were dying before 2017.

He informed that the exports from Moradabad have gone up from Rs 2,500 crore before 2017 to Rs 15,000 now because of the government’s steps to include brass items among ODOPs and supplying electricity to the units.

Similarly, he said, Bhadohi’s carpet industry had almost died and handloom-powerloom artisans were roaming around unemployed. “People used to complain about the absence of technology as well as a level playing field to compete in the international market. We gave technology, design, market and export subsidies. As a result, items worth Rs 6,000 crores are being exported from there. Through promotion of ODOP’s, 1.61 crore youths were linked with employment, he added.

Pointing out that while prior to 2017 the unemployment rate was 19 per cent in the state, today, it has come down to about 3 per cent with every section of people benefiting from PM Mudra Yojana and CM Yuva Swarozgar Yojana. The government has connected 60 lakh entrepreneurs directly with banks.