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.
Calling the reports of alleged snooping on prominent citizens using Israeli Pegasus spyware as "baseless", the ruling BJP on Monday said there is not a single shred of evidence so far that links either the central government or the party to this controversy.
Congress MPs from both Houses had met on Sunday afternoon at Rajya Sabha member Pratap Singh Bajwa's residence to discuss the issues related to Punjab and sought an appointment with Gandhi.
Apart from reviewing the security arrangements in the national capital, the Delhi Police have also strengthened the security in and around the Red Fort ahead of the Independence Day.
Police said acting on a specific information, Budgam Police along with the Army's 53 RR and 43 BN of the CRPF arrested one local terrorist linked with proscribed terror outfit LeT and recovered incriminating materials, arms and ammunition including one Chinese pistol, one magazine, eight live pistol rounds from his possession.
As the Pegasus spyware scandal unravelled within and outside Parliament, he termed it a "shocking assault" on India's democratic polity by the Union government, which had compromised the national security with "this blatantly disgraceful act".
The shocking incident happened on Sunday when the lawyer, Satyadev Joshi and his associate Ankit Tandon had gone to survey a land for a client in Dahisar suburb.
