In February 2023, an Indian business group signed agreements with the Uttar Pradesh government at its Global Investor Summit to invest an eye-popping Rs 1.65 lakh crore in the state “to set up semiconductors, display fab and chip units,” among other projects. 

Another domestic company signed an MoU (memorandum of understanding) for projects worth Rs 18,000 crore in Ghaziabad and Gautam Buddha Nagar. 

A third MoU had a college committing to invest Rs 40,000 crore in the state, while a relatively smaller but still considerable Rs 1,400-crore investment agreement was inked with an NGO. 

These agreements, along with others, add up to the Rs 33.5 lakh crore of pledged investments the Yogi Adityanath government tom-tommed at the conclusion of its 2023 Global Investors Summit. That figure is also used to sell UP’s vision of becoming a $1 trillion economy by 2030. 

What doesn’t add up is the background of some of the companies and organisations that have signed these mega investment agreements. 

RG Strategies Group, the group that entered into MoUs of close to Rs 1.65 lakh crore, has no traceable corporate record in India. 

It is run by a family linked to 2BE Educate (India) Private Limited, the company that pledged to invest Rs 18,000 crore. This company is yet to file even a balance sheet and is being shut, according to its director.

The educational institute that planned to invest Rs 40,000 crore has only 600 students and a rather modest balance sheet, while the NGO which signed the Rs 1,400 crore MoU proved remarkably difficult to pin down, with an individual claiming its director owes multiple people money.  

An investigation by Newslaundry reveals extraordinary and intriguing discrepancies like these, forming a pattern that runs through dozens of investment agreements the Yogi Adityanath government has paraded. 

The collapse of the Rs 25,000 crore Puch AI deal with the UP government earlier this year had raised questions about how investor credentials are vetted. 

This investigation suggests those questions extend far beyond a single startup. And while MoUs signed at investor summits are not legal commitments, these findings raise a bigger question about the actual utility of these agreements beyond generating favourable headlines, and highlight the wide gap between promise and delivery.

The source

Answering a question in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council last year, Industrial Development Minister Nand Gopal Gupta ‘Nandi’ gave details on all the MoUs signed in the 2023 summit.