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.
There will be a gradual increase in rainfall activity over the Northeast, peninsular and adjoining east central India from August 15 while there will be subdued rainfall very likely over the rest of the country during the next five days, IMD said in a release.
The Rapid Response Unit of the Wildlife SOS has rescued an Indian rat snake from the head office of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) located on the Mall Road here.
The official informed that the high-mast flags have already been erected at three locations -- East Kidwai Nagar, East Vinod Nagar and Rani Bagh. The remaining two in Kalkaji and Dwarka will also be erected by August 15.
The Home Ministry's response came after the Shiromani Akali Dal President Sukhbir Singh Badal's tweet apprehending that the Centre was planning to appoint a full- fledged Administrator for Chandigarh.
The food claimed the lives of three of her family members including the father, younger sister and elder brother last week. The police said that the 15-year-old girl had mixed weedicides into food to 'punish' her brother and mother who used to rebuke and scold her over household chores.
