India, Nov. 9 -- Eight years ago, a midnight drive from Lucknow to Kanpur was a gamble with death. Toll plazas were extorted by local bahubalis ; police stations doubled as safe houses for the same men who looted the highways. In 2016, Uttar Pradesh recorded 4,94,179 cognisable offences more than 57 every hour. Communal riots erupted 67 times that year; women in western UP locked their doors by 6 pm. The state's per capita income languished at Rs 46,000, lower than Bihar's in real terms. Investors joked that the only "ease of doing business" was the case with which a factory could be shut down by a phone call from mafias. Today, the same stretch of road is lit by solar lamps, patrolled by women constables and flanked by upcoming industrie...