Virendra Singh Rawat / Lucknow
Despite the pandemic, the merchandise exports surged by 30 percent year-on-year to more than Rs 1.40 trillion in the financial year 2021-22 in Uttar Pradesh.
The state’s exports jumped from Rs 1.07 trillion in (Apr-Mar) 2020-21 to breach the Rs 1.40 trillion mark in 2021-22.
Interestingly, the UP’s flagship programme to promote indigenous and traditional industries, one district, one product (ODOP) contributed nearly 72 percent to the state’s merchandise shipments in 2021-22.
UP additional chief secretary, MSME and export promotion, Navneet Sehgal said the ODOP had been a ‘grand success story’ during the last five years. ODOP was launched during the maiden UP Foundation Day celebrations in January 2018.
“We are leaving no stone unturned to fulfill the resolve of chief minister Yogi Adityanath to augment the export of ODOP basket as well as double the employment and self-employment opportunities in the next 5 years,” he informed.
Compared to the exports of Rs 88,967 crore in 2017-18, the UP’s exports have proliferated by nearly 58 percent to over Rs 1.40 trillion in less than five years.
In fact, the state government believes that the ODOP scheme has the potential to be the growth engine of the state’s economy. “The ODOP spectrum will play an important role in the ambitious goal of UP becoming a $one trillion economy in coming years,” Sehgal noted.
To further strengthen export facilitation, the Yogi government is planning to launch a ‘Niryaat Sarathi App’ to provide all information related to exports at one click.
Moreover, the government is looking to simplify all export-related schemes and procedures so as to benefit the state’s exporters and merchandisers.
The UP government is targetting to double exports in five years. Under Adityanath government 2.0, almost 2.5 million people were provided with employment or self-employment opportunities at the local level from the ODOP scheme.
Now, Common Facility Centres (CFCs) are being set up to provide amenities to stakeholders related to different products under ODOP in the state. So far, 5 CFCs have already been completed while the work is on in other districts.
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“Training programmes have been started in a phased manner to ensure that ODOP products remain competitive in price and quality in the national and international markets,” he added.