Uttar Pradesh Approves New Startup and Data Centre Policies

The Uttar Pradesh Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, approved the Uttar Pradesh Startup Policy-2026 and the Uttar Pradesh Data Centre Policy-2026 on July 7, 2026. The Data Centre policy replaces a previous framework that expired in January 2026 and aims to establish the state as a green, AI-ready hub. The government targets more than 2 lakh crore rupees in investments, the addition of over 2 gigawatts of capacity, and the creation of approximately 50,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Key priorities of the data infrastructure plan include GPU-based infrastructure, energy efficiency, and sustainable operations. To ensure balanced regional development, the state will provide additional benefits to the Bundelkhand and Purvanchal regions. These initiatives are designed to accelerate cloud computing and artificial intelligence adoption while strengthening India's digital sovereignty through increased domestic data processing.

Simultaneously, the Startup Policy-2026 increases financial support for entrepreneurs, raising seed funding from 7.5 lakh to 15 lakh rupees. The policy provides special incentives for deep-tech sectors, including quantum technology and robotics. To coordinate these efforts, the state will establish a Startup Mission Directorate and 20 new Centres of Excellence. In a separate move, the Cabinet allocated 14,988.50 crore rupees for Panchayati Raj Institutions for the 2026-27 period.