Lucknow: At the inauguration of the Youth Conclave & Expo–2025 at Indira Gandhi Pratishthan in Lucknow, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath launched the UP Mart portal and signed MOUs between MSME and 17 institutions. Addressing the gathering, he criticized the previous governments, remarking, “Those who think only about their family, how will they think about lakhs of youth?”
Without naming Samajwadi Party, Yogi said that before 2017, businesses suffered under frequent curfews and lawlessness. “No business opened, no curfews lifted only chaos,” he said, asserting that the MSME sector was broken under past regimes but is now a pillar of employment.
He highlighted that MSMEs now employ nearly 1.75 crore people in Uttar Pradesh, second only to agriculture. “One District One Product has become a national brand,” he said. The UP Mart portal will connect youth to machinery, resources, and government schemes. MSME Minister Rakesh Sachan said over ₹2,000 crore in loans has been disbursed under the CM Yuva Rozgar scheme.
The two-day expo features startup exhibitions and business models like franchise and business on wheels. CM Yogi encouraged informed entrepreneurship and warned against blind imitation without proper training or awareness of schemes.
