Lucknow: To create an industry-friendly ambience in the state for the ease of doing business, big business honchos belted out a number of impressive investment offers to the tune of over Rs 88,000 crore at the inaugural session of UP investors’ summit-2018 here on Wednesday.

While Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) committed an investment of Rs10,000 crore over the next three years, Adani Group announced to invest Rs 35,000 crore over the next five years in various sectors in Uttar Pradesh. Similarly, Aditya Birla Group committed an investment of Rs 25,000 crore, Mahindra group and Essel group offered an investment of Rs 200 crore and Rs 18,000 crore respectively in different sectors.

Leading the series of speeches by corporate captains, Reliance group chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani said that Reliance Jio Infocomm had invested Rs 20,000 crore over the years in UP and another Rs 10,000 crore would be invested in the next three years. 

Also, Jio would make over 2 crore JioPhones available in UP within the next two months on a priority basis, claimed Ambani. The RIL chairman promised that Jio would be present in every single village in UP by the end of 2018.

In addition, Ambani also assured the creation of over 1 lakh sustainable livelihood opportunities in the state through Jio and other business ventures like retail, polyester and petroleum in the coming years. However, without naming the university, Mukesh Ambani promised a Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution on the campus of a reputed university in Uttar Pradesh. While delivering his address, he reiterated his commitment to be a part of Namami Gange project through Reliance Foundation by joining it at the stage of execution.

Addressing the gathering, Adani group chairman Gautam Adani promised to stand by the UP leadership in transforming the state. He committed an aggregate investment of Rs 35,000 crores in various core sectors including energy, logistics, solar power, roads and agriculture. “Almost 17 per cent of the total population of the country lives in Uttar Pradesh…the development story of the country cannot be written without the state,” he said.

Reminding of a long association of his company as one of the earliest investors in UP since 1950s, Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of Aditya Birla Group, said UP was an unsaturated land of opportunities. He also mentioned the huge pool of human resources and the proximity to NCR as high points which can play an important role in state’s industrial growth.

"UP will become our Group's highest investment state. We will continue to be the biggest investor here. We are very bullish and invest Rs 25,000 crore in the next five years on various sectors," Kumar Mangalam Birla said.

Striking a personal note and tracing his roots in Lucknow, Anand Mahindra, chairman of Mahindra group, claimed it felt being home at Lucknow after roaming around the world. “UP should be compared to other countries. UP's targets should not be compared to the targets of other states, instead to other countries,” he suggested. 

Mahindra announced an investment of Rs 200 crore through company’s high-end hospitality facility Club Mahindra in Varanasi-Vindhya circuit. Anand Mahindra also committed to set up electric vehicle plant in Uttar Pradesh.

Similarly, Subhash Chandra of Essel Group said he had worked out a MoU for a larger investment. The chief minister, however, brought it down to Rs 18,750 crore. “This is good and workable and he appreciated the honest approach,” said Chandra.

N Chandrasekhar, who completed a year as chairman of Tata Sons on Wednesday, said his company had a holistic presence in UP. “We are committed to participating in the growth of different sectors. TCS has a strong presence here. We are committed to building a campus for 30,000 employees. We will have a very strong presence in Lucknow. We will continue to have it and consolidate it further besides investing in Varanasi,” he maintained.