Lucknow, Jul 16 (IANS): The Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) in Uttar Pradesh, Sidhartha Nath Singh, has said that the identity of the state has transformed and it is emerging as the backbone of India's industrial hub.

"It is because of the various proactive measures taken by the state government towards transforming the state into a favourable place for industries to grow, such as the ODOP (One District-One Product) programme, because of which the exports of UP have skyrocketed by 35 per cent," Singh said during a virtual interaction with the media.

He said that for the first time in the history of the state, loans worth Rs 2.5 lakh crore were disbursed to the MSMEs in four years, due to which a thumping investment of about Rs 4 lakh crore has come into the state and about 2.60 crore people have got direct and indirect employment opportunities.

He said that the MSME sector of UP generates employment opportunities and has emerged as the backbone of industrialisation.

In 2017, when the BJP government took over the reins of the state, a roadmap was prepared to fix the rural economy, under which the innovative ODOP was rolled out in 2018.

Accordingly, Common Facility Centres (CFCs) have been set up in 40 out of the 75 districts of the state.

District-wise strategies have been prepared keeping in mind every district to promote traditional industries. Also, for the marketing and promotion of products, MoUs have been signed with online platforms like Amazon, Flipkart and eBay.

Furthermore, Singh stated that during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, industries related to essential commodities and export units continued to operate in the state and in the second wave, a partial Corona curfew was imposed, in which industries and businesses operated as usual.

The minister said that work is being done on cluster development by connecting the CFCs. Eminent fashion designers of the country have been associated with the cluster. Along with this, the Quality Control of India has also been added.

Singh said that now industrialisation is being promoted in villages as well. It is being started in Prayagraj under a pilot project.

In the units to which loans have been given, a survey of three lakh units was conducted to know the status of employment, which showed that about 2.6 crore people have got employment through the MSMEs.

Navneet Sehgal, Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), MSME, said, "ODOP is a big reason for the increase in the exports of UP. For this, efforts were made at every level and an export policy was formulated. An Export Development Centre has been set up at the district level. The export of the state was Rs 88,967 crore in 2017-18, which has increased by 35 per cent to Rs 1,21,139 crore in 2020-21."

He also stated that over 40 lakh migrants had come to UP during the Covid wave last year. Their skill mapping was done and employment was provided to them at the local level. As a result, only four lakh migrant workers came in the second wave.