13 months on, UP still weighing its options

LUCKNOW : About 13 months after initiating the international bidding process for the selection of a consultant to boost Uttar Pradesh’s (UP) economy to one trillion dollars and subsequently amending and cancelling the bids, the UP government appears to be still working on its options. The objective was supposed to be achieved in five years by 2025.

UP government had issued a notice, calling for bids for the appointment of a consultant on June 19, 2020. It revised the RFP (request for proposal) with October 9, 2020 set as the last date for the submission of bids. It opened the financial bids on November 27, 2020 and zeroed in on the selection of a consultant but cancelled bids on March 22, 2021, saying, “Fresh tender notice in this regard is likely to be published soon.” While a considerable period from the given timeline (2020-25) has gone by, there are indications that UP government is exploring the option of selecting a government agency as the consultant. “CM Yogi Adityanath is upset over the delay. Making the state a trillion-dollar economy is on the government’s priority list. The government will soon appoint a consultant by way of bidding or opting for a government institution/agency,” said a senior officer. Those aware of the development said Invest India, a national investment promotion and facilitation agency, made a presentation on the issue at a high-level meeting early this month.“We are in the process of taking a decision and will take a call on revising the timeline only after a decision on selecting the consultant is taken,” said another officer.

“The government has been talking about making UP a trillion dollar economy since 2018. But there is no clear roadmap to achieve this objective. If you look back at UP’s performance in the past three years, the rate of GSDP growth has been low and even negative in 2020-21. This does not inspire confidence. Given the present size of UP’s GSDP, an annual growth rate of about 45% would be needed to achieve the target. It would be better if UP government works out a long-term perspective plan of development and the trillion dollar economy may be a midterm target,” said Yashvir Tyagi, former professor at department of economics, Lucknow University. UP government began working on the idea after PM Narendra Modi spoke on the issue at the UP Investors’ Summit 2018 on February 21, 2018. PM referred to his association with the investors’ summit as CM of Gujarat and later with the UP Investors Summit-2018 as the PM. “Will UP government compete with other states? The more the competition, more will be the investment. This will result in the creation of more jobs and strengthen the concept of cooperative federalism,” he had said.