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UP will leverage India's Detroit to tap $ 20 billion toy market

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

Uttar Pradesh is gearing up to snatch a chunk of the $ 20 billion toy export market, presently confined in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

As a first step in this direction, the UP government would create India's first Toy City in Greater NOIDA, a fast developing suburb of Delhi. NOIDA, or the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority, was constituted in the early Nineties to prove room for the industrial as well as domestic spillover of the national capital.

"The Toy City would get going by next year," claimed UP's Industries Secretary Rohit Nandan, who also heads the state's industrial promotion body, Udyog Bandhu, (friends of the industry).

"Since India has already excelled in electronics and software development, we could put our expertise to good use in a virgin sector like toys," he pointed out. "After throwing the idea before potential investors, we received a very encouraging response and as many as 120 industrial plots had already been allotted to prospective toy makers," he said.

Some of the allottees were also in the process of seeking foreign collaborations or tie-ups with well-known international toy brands. "Cheaper Indian labour was an added attraction for many foreign producers," said Nandan.

"Thanks to the initial arrival of Korean giants like Daewoo and LG, that was followed by the Japanese Honda Siel, Greater NOIDA was fast turning into a favoured destination for several other Korean and Japanese industrial houses which have shown keen interest here," said Nandan.

Several incentives and concessions were also being made available to applicants in this area, where a large area was also being earmarked for the development of a Women Entrepreneurs Park, where the proposed investment is around Rs 1.3 billion.

Greater NOIDA, according to Nandan, is poised to emerge as India's premiere modern city spread over an area of 40,000 hectares with infrastructure to match international standards. "Considering that we've already attracted investments of the order of Rs 68 billion, of which the bulk was in the automobile sector, we could soon be boasting of creating another Detroit here."

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Uttar Pradesh