In an effort to tackle rising youth unemployment in Uttar Pradeh, the Central Government has kicked off a massive digital push in centres of excellence, technology parks and entrepreneurship centres.
The Ministry of Electronics and IT, in December, had launched seven Internet exchanges across the election-bound state, a centre of entrepreneurship in Lucknow and a centre of excellence in Meerut.
Yogi Adityanath, the UP Chief Minister, launched a drive last week to distribute free tablets and smartphones to one crore undergraduate and postgraduate students. This was part of the state government’s effort to link the youth with the Centre’s flagship Digital India campaign.
Moreover, the Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar inaugurated Internet exchanges in Prayagraj, Gorakhpur, Lucknow, Varanasi, Meerut, Kanpur and Agra in December. It was also launched in UIDAI-Aadhaar seva kendras in Varanasi, Gonda, Moradabad and Saharanpur.
An official statement said the MedTech CoE, centre of entrepreneurship at Lucknow, is expected to be a huge catalyst for innovation, entrepreneurship and startups in medical and health technologies. This will help position Uttar Pradesh as one of the country’s important R&D and manufacturing hubs for medical electronics products and solutions.
It shall be a big hub for the MedTech startup ecosystem in the state leading to employment generation and entrepreneurship opportunities for the youth. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also pushing for the BharatNet project, a Rs 29,500 crore project to connect every village by broadband in 16 states. This project is expected to be completed in the coming months and Uttar Pradesh will be a major beneficiary.
Officials said the state is in the running to benefit the most from the recently announced Rs 76,000 crore scheme for the production of semiconductors and display boards. The programme aims to provide support to companies and consortia that are engaged in the production of silicon semiconductors, displays, compound semiconductors and other related products.
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It should be noted that Uttar Pradesh is already among one of the biggest beneficiaries of the production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes for mobile and electronics manufacturing, computer hardware, all-in-one personal computers, servers and other related equipment.
