After Naidu took over, his main focus has been to hard sell Andhra Pradesh as an investment destination. He revamped the Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board (APEDB) that had remained inactive during the five-year YSRCP rule. The APEDB now has a 12-member team.
Published Oct 13, 2024 | 9:00 AM ⚊ Updated Oct 13, 2024 | 9:00 AM
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Ever since winning the Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections in June, N Chandrababu Naidu has been building a narrative that the industrial climate in the state is conducive for investments.
The narrative is not totally false. Chief Minister Naidu is trying to woo investors from India as well as abroad to Andhra Pradesh, where the situation has changed from what it used to be under the previous YSRCP government.
Investments were a rarity in the past five years under the YSRCP government. The then-chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy was more focused on welfare schemes and hoped that the money spent on people would cement his position.
However, Jagan was wrong as his calculation went wrong. In the recent Assembly elections, the YSRCP suffered a molecular disintegration.
Now that Naidu has taken over, his unwavering focus is on wiping out Jagan’s image from the psyche of Andhra Pradesh. One important way of doing it is to promote the state as the choicest destination for investors. The state wants to sell ‘Brand Naidu’ to woo investors.
And Naidu, once known as the Chief Executive Officer of Andhra Pradesh, seems to be reaping initial dividends.
To put the state on the road to development, Naidu is set to release his Swarnandhra Vision-2047 document on 1 November.
The document reflects Naidu’s intention to transform the state into a USD 2.4 trillion economy by 2047, with an annual growth rate of 15 percent, achieving a per capita income of USD 43,000, and ensuring broad-based and inclusive economic development. Naidu, who believes in meticulous planning also has a roadmap to reach the goal.
The latest is that the Naidu-led NDA has roped in TCS. IT Minister Nara Lokesh has persuaded TCS to set up its development centre in Visakhapatnam. It is a major achievement since it will employ about 10,000 people.
Apart from providing employment, the IT major would pump money into Andhra Pradesh’s economy, making it buoyant.
Though some effort into getting TCS to Andhra Pradesh was made when Jagan was the chief minister, the real push came after Naidu took over. The development is seen as a benefit accruing to the state after Tata Sons chairman Natarajan Chandrasekharan was made the co-chair of a task force Naidu had constituted to make the state a red-hot destination for investments.
There has been a mixed reaction to the decision to locate the TCS facility in the port city. For those living in the central part of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad is more convenient than Visakhapatnam.
However, the fact that TCS will set up its development centre in the City of Destiny has warmed the cockles of the aspiring techies from Andhra Pradesh, particularly in North Andhra.
Naidu’s focus has been to hard sell Andhra Pradesh as an investment destination. He revamped the Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board (APEDB) which has remained inactive during the five-year YSRCP rule. The APEDB now has a 12-member team to liaise with investors.
Investors, on their part, are showing interest in Andhra Pradesh. Abu Dhabi-based LuLu Group International has a change of mind. When the YSRCP was in power, the LuLu Group said it would not return to Andhra Pradesh to invest, but after the change of the government, it now wants to invest. This has been viewed as Naidu’s achievement.
The group had signed an agreement with the Naidu government in 2014-19 to set up an international convention centre, shopping mall and a luxury hotel in Visakhapatnam. After the advent of the YSRCP government in 2019, it went back following the cancellation of the sea-facing four acres allotted to it.
LuLu’s exit from Andhra Pradesh was a blessing for Telangana. It set up a huge five lakh sq ft mall in Hyderabad.
LuLu chairman MA Yusuff Ali visited Naidu recently in Amaravati and decided to go ahead with investments. This has become possible with the chief minister taking a proactive role in dispelling any misgivings Ali may have had about Andhra Pradesh.
The LuLu Group now wants to set up a mall, multiplex in Visakhapatnam, hypermarket and multiplexes in Vijayawada and Tirupati, Naidu later said on X.
Similar was the experience of Amara Raja batteries. Amara Raja chairman Gall Jaidev, who was a TDP MP from Guntur, announced quitting politics in January this year resenting the government weaponising its agencies at the industries to sub-serve their needs.
Amara Raja had fought a legal battle with the YSRCP government after it issued a closure notice to its units in Chittoor district. It resumed operations only after obtaining a stay order from the high court in May 2021.
In May 2023, it set up India’s largest, and Telangana’s first Gigafactory at Divitipalli in Mahbubnagar district, amidst speculation that it was pulling out of Andhra Pradesh.
Now, with a gradual change in the situation, the investment ecosystem is improving. In the pipeline, according to sources, is Foxconn which is planning to set up Foxconn City in Amaravati.
Foxconn, which is known in China and Taiwan as Hon Hai Technology Group, is into electronics contract manufacturing. Established in 1974, it has its headquarters in Tucheng District, New Taipei City, Taiwan.
The electronics major is understood to be planning to manufacture electronic components. There are several leading names abroad that are showing interest in investing in Andhra Pradesh like Google LLC looking to set up a YouTube Academy in Amaravati, and Brookfield Corporation evincing interest in parking capital in Andhra Pradesh in the area of infrastructure development.
As infrastructure is key to economic development, Naidu is seeking the Centre’s help. This is one sector that has taken a hard hit during the last five years.
In his recent visit to Delhi, he prevailed upon the Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to speed up the conversion of the Howrah-Chennai railway double line into four lines as it traverses through the Andhra Pradesh coastline.
Besides, he prevailed on the Centre for a direct railway line to Amaravati from Vijayawada and a bullet train corridor connecting Amaravati, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad for which the works are expected to begin in 2026.
After making presentations to the prime minister and central ministers, Naidu said: “Already ₹75,000 crore railway works and ₹60,000 crore road works are in progress.”
This apart, Naidu now calls the shots in the NDA as his support is crucial for its survival. He is making the best use of the situation to get as many projects as possible for the state.
The major projects that the Centre has cleared include a ₹1 lakh crore Green Hydrogen project expected to come up in Visakhapatnam and BPCL’s ₹60,000 crore petrochemical complex and refinery.
He is focusing on a 183-km ring road around Amaravati and persuading the Centre to let the state take possession of 22,000 acres along the seacoast for setting up industries.
Apart from these projects, Amaravati and Polavaram are likely to move faster, which would send the right signals that Andhra Pradesh is a happening state.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is expected to expedite the assurances made in the budget that ₹15,000 crore would be “arranged” for Amaravati works, while the Centre has already cleared an ad hoc grant of ₹2,800 crore for commencing the balance words of Polavaram project in November or December.
This is probably the reason why Naidu said after returning from Delhi: “I am proud to be in the NDA.”
(Edited by Ananya Rao).
