File photo of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav (Agence France-Presse)
Uttar Pradesh's capital Lucknow is all set to get the state's first and very own IT city. The project being developed by HCL will be spread across 100 acres and will see an investment of more than Rs 1500 crores by the company. The state government has marked this crucial project as a Special economic zone.
The biggest direct benefit will be employment for about 25,000 people in the IT sector for the state which has traditionally had a high rate of unemployment. The latest National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) had predicted that by 2017, Uttar Pradesh would have almost one crore unemployed people.
The IT city will be part of a mega township called CG City on Sultanpur road in the capital. The campus will also feature another private investment in the form of a 1000 bed super specialty Medanta hospital.
The state government, from its end, is setting up a 50 acre Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) campus, in partnership with the Centre and UP Electronics Corporation.
Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will be inaugurating these projects in the presence of HCL Founder and Chairman Shiv Nadar and Medanta's Chairman and Managing Director Naresh Trehan.
Keeping with the spirit of these technology based projects, the event will be live tweeted and also Aired on YouTube - a first for any government initiative in the state.
Apart from the crores of investment the state hopes to attract through IT companies, these mega projects are also an attempt by the state government to break away from the image of UP as a backward state.