Noida, Ghaziabad sit on opposite sides of the fence

The poll heat is rising in tandem with the daily temperature.

- RAKSHIT KUMAR

However, 23-year-old Amit Kumar, an employee with a talent management firm, remains optimistic about both. While the rain on Tuesday brought some relief from the sweltering heat, Kumar's optimism regarding Noida's prospects is also sky-high.

Kumar works for Spectrum Talent Management, which hires workers for companies in the area. One of his clients is Noida-based Dixon Technologies (India), an electronics manufacturing firm.

"About 4,500 to 5,000 people are at work at any given time," he says, standing outside one of Dixon's Noida units that manufacture boAt headphones, waiting people for some who went inside the unit.

The likes of Samsung and LG have also set up plants in the city, giving direct and indirect job opportunities to youths like Kumar and those whom he hires for the company.

Several people attribute this surge in employment opportunities to the Centre's production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme and the localisation push that has attracted investment in electronics manufacturing in this area of Uttar Pradesh's Gautam like power supply and lack of public transBuddha Nagar district portation in Noida.

"(The Centre's) Make in India initiative has benefited us (the city)," says Sudhir Srivastava, vice-president of the Noida Entrepreneurs Association. He also lauded the goods and services tax regime and single window clearance system, saying that they brought transparency to business activities.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is playing up its industrial policies in the elections.