Lucknow, Aug 20 (IANS) American tech giants Microsoft and MAQ Software, as well as PepsiCo have come forward to set up their units in Uttar Pradesh at a cost of Rs 2,866 crore, giving a boost to industrial development in the state.
According to a state government spokesman, the factories being set up by the three US-based multinational companies will provide employment to 7,500 people.
Microsoft and MAQ Software will set up their units in Noida whereas PepsiCo has started construction of its factory in Mathura, said an Industrial Department official.
Encouraged by these developments, several other US investors associated with the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum are also keen to invest in Uttar Pradesh.
Siddhartha Nath Singh, the MSME and Export Promotion Minister, said that the US investors associated with the forum have also contacted the UP government in this regard.
The companies including Adobe, Amazon, American Tower Corporation, Apple, Caterpillar, Delphi, Cisco, Deloitte, Emerson, Ernst & Young, Google, Johnson & Johnson, JP Morgan & Company, Lockheed Martin, Marriott International, MasterCard, Mondelez International, Carlyle Group, Walmart, Warburg Pincus, IHS Markit and USIBC are willing to invest in UP and in other parts of the country, according to Singh.
The details came to light during an interaction with the entrepreneurs associated with the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum in which the representatives of these companies expressed particular interest in investing in the areas of medical equipment manufacturing, food processing, automobiles, IT and digital payments.
Among them, companies like Adobe, Amazon, Microsoft, Delphi New Holland, Global Logic, Excel, PepsiCo, Synopsis and Cargill are already operating in India while Microsoft, MACQ Software Noida and PepsiCo have stepped up efforts to set up their units in UP.
Singh said that more than 40 foreign companies, including American companies, proposed to invest about Rs 17,000 crore in UP in the last four and a half years of the Yogi Adityanath government.
Microsoft has been allotted 60,000 sq. metres of land in Noida to set up its 'largest' centre in the country, which will employ 3500 people.
The multinational software giant has told the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority that the company will start operations within the stipulated time of five years so that people residing in NCR can benefit from it at the earliest.
At present, the company has its largest unit in Gachi Baoli, Hyderabad.
Similarly, MAQ India Private Limited has also been allotted 16,350 sq. metres of land in Noida's Sector-145 to set up its plant.
The IT major will invest Rs 252 crore to set up its unit which will provide employment to around 2500 people.
The multinational food and beverage company PepsiCo is setting up a potato chips factory in Kosi Kalan, Mathura.
Production at the PepsiCo factory, which is being built at a cost of about Rs 800 crore, is likely to start this year itself.
Around 1500 people will get direct or indirect employment in this project. Potatoes to make the chips will be procured from local farmers to benefit them.
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He said that the "endgame" in fighting the pandemic is vaccinating everyone. At the same time, he said that all of India should "shut down", as some states have done.
There is desparate struggle for oxygen and there is a major shortage of hospital beds. Crematoriums and morgues are packed and can't keep up with the constant flow of corpses coming in.
Social media is flooded with desparate pleas from people for oxygen for their loved ones while others have no option but to circle hospitals in the capital Delhi while begging for a bed.
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