Trillion-dollar economy goal: Uttar Pradesh government allows more time for submission of e-bids

The Uttar Pradesh government had on March 15 floated global bids inviting proposals for the appointment of a consultant by April 14. The extension till April 29 is apparently meant to give more time to bidders to put concrete proposals together.

The Uttar Pradesh government has extended the last date for submission of e-bids for the appointment of a consultant who would work out a roadmap to make the state a trillion dollar economy in the next five years.

UP’s GSDP (Gross State Domestic Product) needs a four-to-five-time upward push to achieve the trillion-dollar goal. (REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE)

The extension till April 29 is apparently meant to give more time to bidders to put concrete proposals together.

The state government had on March 15 floated global bids inviting proposals for the appointment of a consultant by April 14.

In a notice issued on April 13, special secretary (planning department) Rishikesh Dubey extended the last date for the submission of e-bids to April 29. The technical e-bids will now be opened on May 4 instead of April 18.

Senior officers did not comment on whether the state government failed to get concrete proposals by the deadline.

UP’s GSDP (Gross State Domestic Product) needs a four-to-five-time upward push to achieve the trillion-dollar goal.

“The GSDP has already touched ₹15.80 lakh crore (US dollar 230 billion) with a rich growth rate of 7 per cent over the previous year. However, it would be a challenging task to boost the size of the GSDP by nearly five times to reach the target of one trillion-dollar in five years (2022-27), discounting for the dollar fluctuations and global trends. It enables and would require sustained and aggressive efforts at the state level,” reads the Request for Proposal (RFP) document circulated on March 15.

The Directorate of Economic and Statistics of the UP government, in its advance estimates, has indicated the GSDP for 2021-2022 was about Rs. 19.10 lakh crore.

“This (GSDP) has to be increased to ₹76 lakh crore, considering the current exchange rate of ₹76 to a dollar. In terms of dollars, the present size of GSDP comes to about 251 billion dollars. Hence, raising the present GSDP by four times over the next five years would require an annual growth rate of 31.85%. Further, this is contingent upon the rupee not depreciating. In case the rupee depreciates, which is more likely, a higher growth rate would be required to achieve the target,” said Professor Yashvir Tyagi, former head of the department of economics, Lucknow University.

“A more realistic scenario is that in the next five years, the state strives to maintain a double digit growth or, at current prices, about 15% per annum, to double its GSDP to a level of $500 billion or about ₹38 lakh crore,” said Tyagi.

This is not for the first time that the state government has issued RFP for appointment of a consultant on the issue.

It was during the first term of the Yogi Adityanath as UP’s chief minister that the state government had begun working on the idea of making the state a trillion dollar economy after Prime Minister Narendra Modi floated the concept at Lucknow in 2018.

Speaking at the Uttar Pradesh Investors Summit 2018 on February 21, 2018, Modi recalled his association with holding the investors’ summit as the chief minister of Gujarat. He said Maharashtra, too, had set a target to become a trillion dollar economy.

“Can Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh compete with each other to become the trillion dollar economy? Will the Uttar Pradesh government compete with other states? The more the competition, the more will be the investment. This will result in the creation of more jobs and strengthen the concept of cooperative federalism,” the prime minister had said.

The state government soon began various rounds of discussions with reputed institutions on the issue and a formal process of floating global bids for appointment of a consultant began on June 19, 2020. The state government soon decided to revise the Request for Proposal (RFP) document and the timelines. It asked for submission of e-bids by October 9, 2020. A premier management institute of the country was among the ones who submitted the bids. Four of the bidders had qualified the technical round and their financial bids were opened on November 27, 2020. The authorities had nearly zeroed in on the selection of a bidder as the consultant when the state government decided to cancel the bids, apparently for technical reasons, through a notice dated March 22, 2021.