Yogi wants 100 day' report card from ministers

Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh is working on a 100 day agenda to metamorphose the work culture in the state bureaucracy to improve governance and thus faster socioeconomic development.

Now, the government has directed its ministers to issue a ‘White Paper’ pertaining to their departments at the end of 100 days of the new dispensation.

Yogi has asked all district magistrates and police chiefs to listen to the people’s grievances on a daily based during 900-1100 hours. The government has reiterated its zero tolerance policy towards law and order and corruption issues.

The government has also appointed individual ministers as in charge of different districts for better policy implantation, taking feedback and redress of grievance.

In recent weeks, Yogi has effected transfer of senior bureaucrats and police officials to post his choice of officials on key posts of district magistrates, commissioners, police chiefs etc. Recently, it posted UP’s senior most serving Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Sulkhan Singh as the new Director General of Police (DGP) of the state, which is home to the world’s largest single command police force.

Yogi mirroring Modi’s themes in UP

The month old Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh is not only transforming the work culture among policymakers and bureaucrats, but also embracing the flagships themes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

These themes viz. cashless economy, cleanliness, modern technology, social media tools etc. have been espoused by Modi, who is also their biggest icon in the country.

Taking cue from Modi, Yogi has asked UP information department to create a robust social media system for propagating state government policies and schemes.

The department has been asked to popularise schemes through Facebook, Twitter etc. He said the information was tasked with contributing towards making UP as the most progressive state through speedier dissemination of information.

Yogi has also espoused the objectives of cashless economy and cleanliness drives. He

directed the information department to prepare a work plan to apprise people of the life of BJP ideologue Deendayal Upadhyay in his birth centenary year.

However, while social media would be used liberally by departments, the government and police officials had earlier been advised to use social media with caution, especially while expressing personal opinion over controversial and sensitive issues.

Even the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ministers and leaders had been advised to exercise restraint lest they embarrass the party and government.

Bollywood superstar Vinod Khanna dead

Bollywood superstar Vinod Khanna today died at a Mumbai hospital at the age of 70 after battling cancer.

Khanna had worked in about 100 films playing a variety of roles ranging from the main protagonist, villain, character etc. He was born on October 6, 1946.

Besides, he also made a mark as a politician and represented Punjab's Gurdaspur parliamentary constituency four times as a BJP member.

He is survived by wife Kavita Daftari, three sons Rahul, Akshay and Sakshi, and daughter Shraddha. He had earlier divorced his first wife Geetanjali.

His starred in popular films such as Mere Apne, Mera Gaon Mera Desh, Imitihaan, Inkaar, Amar Akbar Anthony, Rajput, Qurbani, Kudrat, Dayavan, Suryaa, Jurm, Dabangg etc.

He had also won the Filmfare and other cine awards for his acting.

Of late, he had receded from the public glare due to ill health and recently his photograph recuperating in the hospital had gone viral in social media. The photograph featured a frail looking Khanna sporting a blue patient dress and flanked by his family members.

His death has been condoled by politicians, costars and other film stars.

Yogi formulating exit policy for industry

Providing a major succour to the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) in Uttar Pradesh, the Adityanath Yogi government is giving shape to a progressive exit policy for industry.

The exit policy for sick and defunct industrial units has long been pending with the state government over successive regimes, yet it could never see the light of day.

MSMEs have all along been demanding an exit policy to allow the promoters of such units start new ventures or dispose of distressed assets.

UP MSME and export promotion principal secretary Rajnish Dubey recently said here the exit policy, which had been pending for the last several years, was now under active consideration.

In its first cabinet meeting on April 5, the Yogi regime had constituted a Group of Ministers (GoM) to draft the New UP Industrial Policy. The GoM is chaired by deputy chief minister (CM) Dinesh Sharma and comprises senior ministers Rajesh Agarwal, Satish Mahana, Gopal Das Nandi and Srikant Sharma as members.

The GoM has been mandated to visit progressive industrial states such as Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh to study their relevant policies and prepare a similar document for UP to spur industrialisation and investment.

The MSME sector is the backbone of the UP industrial base and contributes about 60 percent to its annual industrial output. It directly employs roughly 40 million workforce and generates direct economic activity worth Rs 1,20,000 crore annually.

The state is home to over 5 million MSMEs and the sector is the second largest employment generator after agriculture.

To cut 'inspector raj' with regards to industry, especially relating to the labour department, the Yogi government is studying the Maharashtra state policy, which entails self certification by concerned industrial units.

Besides, the government is mulling setting up of private industrial estates and parks spanning 20-100 acres all over the state to boost industrialisation and startups.

UP MSME and export promotion minister Satyadev Pachauri had also met industrialists affiliated to Indian Industries Association (IIA) for taking their feedback for submission to the GoM. The new policy would contain provisions for the state MSME sector as well.

Another long pending grouse of the MSME sector relating to the single window system is also being addressed in the proposed new industrial policy. The GoM is studying the single window clearance system being followed in Telangana and Gujarat to evolve a similar system for the state to usher in both transparency and speed in the clearance process.

The MSMEs have even demanded that the single window system be implemented through legislation to give it a statutory status.

Yogi to intensify policing in industrial areas to boost investment

To attract investment and boost investors’ confidence in Uttar Pradesh, the Yogi Adityanath government is mulling posting a Superintendent of Police (SP) rank officer in select industrial clusters of the state.

At the same time, the draft UP Industrial Policy is likely to allow private industrial parks and industrial corridors to flank all major expressways and highways. The single window system, which has been in the existence in the state for several years now on papers than practically, would be energised and put in execution mode.

Poor law and order coupled with lacking basic infrastructure of roads, power and a non-functional single window clearance system in UP have long been cited as the main impediments towards rapid industrialisation in the state, which still remains largely agrarian.

In its maiden cabinet meeting on April 5, the Yogi dispensation had among other major decisions had constituted a Group of Ministers (GoM) to draft the New UP Industrial Policy. The GoM is headed by deputy chief minister (CM) and former Lucknow mayor Dinesh Sharma.

The GoM is mandated to visit comparatively progressive industrial states such as Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh to study their relevant policies and prepare a similar document for UP to spur industrialisation and investment. The new policy would further tackle unemployment and arrest the migration of youth to other states for jobs.

Yogi completes a month as CM

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has completed almost a month in office.

 

Over the past four weeks, he has dexterously underlined ‘Peoples First’ as his foremost agenda though his various initiatives and optics.

 

Yogi was sworn in as the 21st CM of India’s most populous state in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a galaxy of union ministers and peer CMs here on March 21.

 

Soon after taking charge, Yogi deftly started cultivating his image as an action oriented, austere and hard taskmaster CM through his frugal lifestyle, long working hours, impromptu inspections, public interactions, terse orders and above all not deciding to reshuffle the key posts in the bureaucracy and police departments to shrug off any suggestion of vindictiveness by opponents.

 

His unorthodox approach of governance by mixing with lower rung staffers, directly interacting with man on the street and unannounced visits of government offices, hospitals and police stations, has allowed the common man to identify with the leader.

 

He is further helped by his perceptible personal integrity, renouncement of family and uncompromising stance on corruption and law and order, which collectively create a rather positive perception about his style of governance.

 

The apprehensions of a section of people, including minorities, on his elevation to the top post, have largely remained in the realm of misgivings thus far.

FIEO targetting exports worth 500 billion dollars in FY18

FIEO president Ganesh Kumar Gupta expects merchandise and services exports to touch 315 billion and 185 billion US dollars respectively in 2017-18.

Besides, the Federation is targeting to end current fiscal 2016-17 with export of 270-275 billion against 262 billion dollars in the previous year; thus clocking growth of 3-4% in merchandise sector, whereas in services FIEO is expecting export of 160 billion dollars.

Gupta said India had clocked 300 billion dollars merchandise exports in the past too, and now the need was to aggressively spur exports, especially in the backdrop of February exports showing an impressive double digit growth of 17.5 percent.

He further stressed boosting exports under the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime with liquidity being the key challenge for exporters. He said in the upcoming midterm Foreign Trade Policy review, there was a need to relook at further diversifying the product basket, focusing more on high-tech products where India’s share in global trade is low, to further compete in the international market.

Juliet squirming in her grave!

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow

Juliet is anguished…and not without reason!

Romeo and Juliet, the classic Shakespearean tale about love and tragedy in the Victorian period, is being rewritten in a faraway land of the Ganges.

In the immortal saga, the two love birds had embraced self-inflicted death than concede to separating from each other.

In the Hindi heartland of Uttar Pradesh, the ‘anti-Romeo’ squad of UP Police is let loose with prying eyes on romantic couples getting ‘too close for comfort’ or just hanging around without ‘rhyme or reason’.

On spotting such couples, especially near derelict and desolate pads, the squad swoops upon the unsuspecting dreamy-eyed duo, separating Romeo from Juliet!

No prizes for guessing, that these dedicated posse of cops were instituted to curb rampant eve-teasing around girls’ colleges and market places, which automatically become hangout zones for some out of work or overenthusiastic teenaged boys, sometimes grownups as well.

Yet, unwittingly or otherwise, the genuine couples do, and have, sometimes been at the receiving end of this stern policing.

Alas! In such cases, the Juliet has to bear the pain of not just separating, although temporarily, from her legitimate Romeo, she has to witness him being subjected to intense quizzing by the police.

Add to that, the prospect of the cops apprising the girl’s family of her day out…which simply exposes her secret love interest to all and sundry!

Juliet is truly heartbroken and puzzled!

Earlier, Juliet had to be content with her name being linked to the Punjabi ‘Jatt’ in the popular Punjabi film franchisee of ‘Jatt & Juliet’ as well.

Seems, Juliet has no respite in destiny, even after death, and has to squirm in her grave. Mercy!