Revision summary
Pandemic reverse migration pushed UP to sell itself as a factory destination for returnees. The Industrial Investment and Employment Promotion Policy, defence corridor, and expressway land banks were the pitch. Noida–Yamuna belt and ODOP were used to show both MNC depth and district products. Labour-ease and single-window were the speed argument. Jobs stick only if MoUs become plants and returnees are skilled, not only counted.
Model answer
Introduction
COVID-19 reverse migration sent millions of workers back to Uttar Pradesh and exposed an economy still thin on local industry. Examination must link that shock to the State’s bid for multi-national and large private investment, not treat MNCs as a separate story.
Body
Pandemic labour context
- Returnee mapping, skill surveys, and MGNREGA expansion were used to absorb distress while the State argued that factories at home would reduce future exodus.
- Labour-law relaxations and a promised single-window clearance were marketed as speed for investors who might leave crowded coastal hubs.
Efforts to attract MNCs and large capital
- The Uttar Pradesh Industrial Investment and Employment Promotion Policy, defence industrial corridor nodes, and expressway-linked land banks (Yamuna, Purvanchal, Bundelkhand) packaged sites for electronics, defence, and food processing.
- Noida–Greater Noida–Yamuna Expressway already held IT and mobile manufacturing; the pitch after 2020 was to deepen that belt and to push inland districts via One District One Product and food parks.
- Investor summits, plug-and-play sheds, and power-land-labour facilitation were the administrative face of the campaign.
Examination
- Announcements and MoUs outran grounded plants in many inland districts; MNCs still cluster where logistics and skills already exist.
- Returnee labour is not automatically factory-ready; without apprenticeships, the migration shock can repeat.
- Attracting MNCs helps the state economy only if local vendors and returning workers are written into the same policy, not only land for the parent firm.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD M[Reverse migration 2020] --> S[State industrial pitch] S --> P[Investment policy corridors ODOP] P --> F[MNC and large plants] F --> J[Local jobs if skills match] M --> G[MGNREGA and skill mapping]
Conclusion
Uttar Pradesh answered pandemic migration with industrial policy, corridors, and labour-ease messaging aimed at MNCs. The effort is real along the western manufacturing belt; inland absorption of returnees still depends on skills and on MoUs becoming payrolls.
Quick related
Students also ask
-
What is India's Diaspora policy? What are the challenges before Indian Diaspora at present?
Next question in the 2020 paper (Q9). View answer →
-
Did MNCs come only because of the pandemic?
No. Noida’s manufacturing base predated 2020. The pandemic added a labour-return and China-plus-one argument to an existing pitch.
-
Is attracting MNCs the same as employing every migrant?
No. Capital-intensive plants hire fewer workers than MSME clusters. Returnee absorption needs both.
PYQ trend
When UPSC asked this
Related PYQs from other years, newest first. Open a question to read it.
-
2024 · Q14 · UPGS2 · 12 marks
What role can the Finance Commission play in addressing regional disparities in India and what measures has it taken so far? -
2023 · Q20 · UPGS2 · 12 marks
'Indo-Pak relations are an illusion at present'. Discuss the inherent problems that repeatedly embitter India-Pak relations. -
2022 · Q6 · UPGS2 · 8 marks
Critically examine the role of Finance Commission in the Centre-State financial relations. -
2021 · Q5 · UPGS2 · 8 marks
Describe the financial relations between the Centre and States in India. -
2020 · Q13 · UPGS2 · 12 marks
What are the functions of Finance Commission? Examine its emerging role in Fiscal Federalism. -
2019 · Q2 · UPGS2 · 8 marks
Briefly state the role of National Human Rights Commission in India.
More from this paper
Q1 · UPSC Mains 2020 · UPGS2 · 8 marks
Explain the concept of Judicial Activism and evaluate its impact on the relationship of Executive and Judiciary in India.
Executive and Judiciary
Judicial activism is gap-filling rights enforcement through PIL and Articles 32, 226 and 142. Cases such as Maneka Gandhi and Vishaka show courts acting where the Executive lagged. The impact is dual: more accountability and more friction over policy and appointments. NJAC (2015) and scheme-monitoring illustrate the strain on separation of powers. The relationship works when decrees are exceptional and the Executive then legislates.
Q2 · UPSC Mains 2020 · UPGS2 · 8 marks
"The President of India cannot become a dictator." Explain.
Indian Constitution
Article 74 after the Forty-fourth Amendment binds the President to ministerial aid and advice. Shamsher Singh treats the President as a formal head of a parliamentary executive. Ordinance and emergency powers are not personal; they ride on the Council. Five-year tenure, electoral college, and Article 61 impeachment block self-perpetuation. Courts can test whether an act was truly on advice, so dictatorship has no constitutional door.
Q3 · UPSC Mains 2020 · UPGS2 · 8 marks
Critically analyse the role of the Inter-State Council in promoting Co-operative Federalism in India.
Union and the States
Article 263 and the 1990 Presidential Order created the Inter-State Council after Sarkaria. It is a political forum for Centre–State and inter-State coordination, not a court. It can record disputes and recommend; it cannot bind the Union like a statute. Infrequent meetings and a PM-chaired, recommendatory design weaken its role. GST Council and fiscal bodies now often bargain harder than this Council.
Toppers' copies
Toppers' copies for this question will be uploaded soon.