Ghaziabad: Chief minister Yogi Adityanath said on Thursday UP had emerged as a major defence manufacturer for the country while laying the foundation stone for Central Electronics Ltd’s data centre in Sahibabad.At the event, which was also attended by Union minister (independent charge) for science and technology and earth sciences Jitendra Singh, the CM also praised the PSU, which manufactures parts for Akash and BrahMos in the Lucknow node of the state’s Defence Industrial Corridor, for its contribution to railways, security, surveillance and solar energy.Adityanath said it was a rare feat for a state to grow its economy 2.5 times in eight years, crediting his govt – which took office in 2017 – with changing the perception of the state from ‘BIMARU’ to a developing one by making it a safe place for investment.“Uttar Pradesh has emerged as a defence manufacturer, with components developed in six nodes (of DIC)… During Operation Sindoor, these missiles were successfully tested in Pakistan and have now become trusted by the world,” the CM said, referring to India’s military operation against Pakistan in response to the Pahalgam terrorist attack. “Till 2017-18, UP was considered a BIMARU state, but within just eight years, the state under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi got growth impetus, writing new success stories. The state managed to grow its economy by 2.5 times, and per capita income has also increased by 2.5 times while 6 crore people have been lifted above the poverty line,” Adityanath said. “We have received investment proposals in the state to the tune of Rs 50 lakh crore, out of which the groundbreaking of projects worth Rs 15 lakh crore has already been done,” he added.Speaking about his experience of meeting industrialists in Mumbai after he had been sworn in as CM in 2017, Adityanath said he had “requested an industrialist to invest in UP, to which he laughed”.“Such was our state’s perception. It was only after I allayed his apprehensions about the state that in 2020, during the pandemic, he approached me seeking to invest in UP. Since he could not come to the state because of travel restrictions, we got a survey of the land parcel done, which he liked. Finally, in 2022, we dedicated a data centre to the nation.”Praising CEL’s role in helping the state develop renewable sources of energy, the CM said by 2027, UP will generate 20,000 MW of energy from renewable sources.CEL’s green data centre is touted as a Rs 1,000 crore facility for which the PSU has tied up with ESDS. This will be UP’s sixth data centre since 2022. The data centre is designed to be tier-3 grade uptime compliant. Tier-3 data centres can be updated without taking systems offline. A green data centre is one that uses more renewable energy than a conventional data centre.(Written with PTI inputs)
