- Uttar Pradesh’s low human-development standards, high crime rates, and political instability made it a difficult zone for large electronics manufacturers to set up shop
- But over the last few years, the state’s western belt—Noida, Greater Noida, and Yamuna Expressway—has seen immense development
- The state’s policy push helped. But it’s left out the still-underdeveloped interior regions
- Heavy dependence on incentives also means the growth is limited and not rooted in the state’s fabric
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A line snakes outside every eatery and tea stall, both inside and outside the Gamma shopping complex in Greater Noida. Amid the incessant honking of autorickshaws, herds of students from nearby colleges and factory workers from the adjacent Surajpur-Ecotech industrial belt crowd the area.
“During lunch time, we don’t even get a minute to breathe,” said a Domino’s Pizza staffer as he sprinted off to the kitchen. “Even five years ago, this place used to be empty.”
The buzzing shopping complex reflects Uttar Pradesh’s pivot in India’s electronics-manufacturing boom. The country’s most populous state was once known for its small-scale industries, low human-development standards, shaky politics, and dismal ease-of-doing-business ranking. Today, it hosts nearly 200 electronics firms, including the likes of LG Electronics, Haier India, and Oppo India, among others.
Supply-chain shocks induced by the pandemic saw the world reduce its dependence on China. That gave India its China+1 moment, and Uttar Pradesh quickly pounced on it.
From nearly nothing about a decade ago, the state now
“In the last 10 years, the government policies have been very conducive to the growth of electronics in UP,” said Amrit Manwani, managing director of electronics-design and manufacturing firm Sahasra Electronics. He set up the company’s first unit in Noida 25 years ago.
Production-linked incentives, electronics-manufacturing clusters, and the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority’s (Yeida) plug-and-play land parcels propelled the state to the second position in the government’s business-reforms ranking. The upcoming international airport in Noida, after prolonged delays, is finally expected to start operations in mid-December. That’ll only tighten the belt’s pull on electronics manufacturers.
But UP’s triumph masks an underlying tension: all of its industrial growth is concentrated in one belt—Noida, Greater Noida, and the Yamuna Expressway corridor—which makes up barely 2% of its expanse.
“Most big manufacturers are in Greater Noida not because UP suddenly became highly developed, but because it sits right next to Delhi,” said the India head of a global electronics manufacturer.
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