Brand UP to get image makeover with CII Help

‘Brand Uttar Pradesh’, which is still to catch the fancy of investors and business community, is in for a positive makeover.

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) will offer its services to the government for propping up ‘Brand UP’ among India Inc and attracting investment in the state.

CII will invite its member and non-member industrialists to Lucknow for an interaction with top state government officials to explore investment options in Uttar Pradesh.

The event would be held in the first half of September. Besides, the state would be encouraged to participate in CII road-shows and other national events on sustained basis for greater visibility and marketability of the state’s investment opportunities.

“The state has immense industrial and business opportunities in the agricultural and allied sectors. Besides, the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) segment has numerous investment avenues, which CII will explore for attracting investment in the region,” CII Northern Region Chairman and NIIT CEO Vijay Thadani said here.

He said CII focus in Uttar Pradesh centred around education, environment, employment, employability and entrepreneurship. “We want to increase the employability of trained youth according to industry requirements and take up programmes that boost up entrepreneurship zeal in MSME sector,” he underlined.

Expressing that Uttar Pradesh had not received proportionate share of investment, Thandani noted in a knowledge economy, availability of skilled people was prerequisite to attracting investment. CII is setting up four Centres of Excellence on Skills in northern region and five University-Industry Partnerships, including one in Uttar Pradesh.

Meanwhile, CII is starting a skill development programme in association with British Council and Aditya Birla Group in Sitapur district, wherein 1,500 industrial training institutes (ITI) students would be trained in two years.

In another programme, CII would work towards training ITIs teachers/trainers in about 16 districts in first phase.

“UP has taken some good steps to increase the competitiveness of industry, however, UP branding needs to improve. We are holding joint sessions with industrial development department and industry interface Udyog Bandhu,” CII UP State council chairperson Ved Krishna said.