Lucknow, Jul 16 (KNN) Uttar Pradesh government’s policies such as One-District-One-Product (ODOP) and robustness of small industries, helped the state record a 36 per cent jump in exports to Rs 1.21 lakh crore in 2020-21 compared to Rs 88,967 crore in 2017-18, said, Sidharth Nath Singh, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) minister of the state.  

While addressing media persons on Thursday, the minister said that the MSME sector is the “backbone for employment generation and industrial growth in UP and due to its excellent performance, the state could achieve positive growth in exports even during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to central government data, UP was the fifth largest contributor in India’s export basket for the previous fiscal year after Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

Singh further asserted that the export growth is part of a conscious effort of the Yogi Adityanath government, which conceived the policy of ODOP to boost its rural economy immediately after it came to power in 2017.

“We launched it in January 2018. Now, it has caught attention nationally. The Union finance minister had mentioned it in the budget... Under this, we focused on promoting traditional industries specific to particular districts,” he added.

Giving the example of “kalanamak chawal” (black rice) which is basically a sticky rice, the minister said that the cultivation of this crop was towards extinction.

''We encourage it in Siddharthnagar. And, I’m happy to inform you that, despite the Covid pandemic, buyers from Japan and Singapore are engaging with our farmers to export it,” he avowed.