Yogi Adityanath announces Rs 1,000 crore start-up corpus

A formal MOU will be signed with SIDBI, says Yogi

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath today gave a clarion call for unlocking the youth power through entrepreneurship for spurring economic development and employment generation in the state. 

He further informed that UP had decided to create a corpus of Rs 1,000 crore to promote start-ups and entrepreneurial ventures and a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) would be signed with the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) on September 15. 

On its part, SIDBI had in 2016 launched a Rs 10,000 crore ‘SIDBI Make in India Soft Loan Fund for MSMEs’ (SMILE) scheme to provide soft loan to MSMEs in form of quasi-equity to meet the required debt-equity ratio and term loan to cover project cost on relatively soft terms. 

Yogi said UP was home to the largest youth capital in India and if only the latent youth power could be harnessed, the state would soon realise its potential of economic progress.

The CM was addressing a gathering of youth and entrepreneurs after inaugurating ‘Start-up Yatra’, a platform for all stakeholders to discuss and generate inputs for assisting the government in promotion of entrepreneurial zeal and creating awareness about establishing an entrepreneurial ecosystem in UP. In the coming weeks, similar events are lined up for 15 cities in the state and the Yatra targets reaching out to over 40,000 youth and 400 colleges.

Meanwhile, Yogi stressed UP was unique in the sense that all its 75 districts were identified and associated with a distinct craft or traditional industry, which in the present context need to be revived, reenergised and reinvented with the active participation of the youth. 

He especially mentioned the Chikan craft of Lucknow, Banarasi sari of Varanasi and carpet making in Bhadohi saying the revival of these traditional industries would generate employment and boost local economic ecosystems. 

Meanwhile, he exhorted entrepreneurs to innovate in solid waste management segment to serve the dual purpose of disposing off the unwanted trash and simultaneously leverage some economic value off it. 

“There are start-up ventures engaged in recycling plastic waste for road making. There is a huge potential in recycling waste into energy generation as well,” he added.

Yogi further said UP was an expansive agricultural domain, and called upon enterprising youth to volunteer and take up the challenge of adopting a village each for facilitating their transformation through innovative ideas and cooperative interventions. 

The Yogi government had already announced its new industrial policy, that seeks to integrate ‘Make in UP’ the with the ‘Make in India’ theme to benefit from the central government sops and schemes. 

Since, both the Centre and UP are ruled by the same outfit, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), economists and industry players are confident it would foment synergies between the two dispensations for greater benefits in longer term.