‘Google investment will put Vizag on global map, everyone else will follow’

Fresh from clinching a $15 billion investment commitment from Google to set up its artificial-intelligence (AI) hub in Visakhapatnam (Vizag), Nara Lokesh, Andhra Pradesh’s minister for human resource development, information technology and electronics, outlines the southern state’s new investment strategy. Speaking to Asit Ranjan Mishra from the chief minister’s residence on the banks of the Krishna on the Vijayawada-Amaravati Road, Lokesh says the government has shifted its focus from seeking “special-category status” for the state to building an investment-driven growth model. Edited excerpts:

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Andhra Pradesh has adopted a cluster approach to regional development. Could you elaborate how it is working and how you have selected various regions for investment clusters?

We have looked at what the natural advantage of a particular area is and which industry suits it. If you look at the electronics industry, we said we should look at it from the other side, which is Chennai, because Tamil Nadu has done well in electronics. So it augments well in Kadapa and Chittoor.

Because of our wind and solar profile, the same can be said for renewable energy in North Anantapur and Kurnool. Kia in Anantapur made sense because we are on the other side of Bengaluru. Then we have aquaculture because it is East Godavari.

Quantum is here (Amaravati-Vijayawada region) because we have the intellectual powerhouse. Air conditioning and diverse industries are in Nellore because they augment themselves with good diversified manufacturing there. We have done a lot of work in compressed biogas in Prakasam district for the reason that there is much wasteland that can be rejuvenated and turned into a biogas project.

Then there is the Arcelor Mittal steel plant in North Andhra because of the Vizag steel plant (and Vizag is the second steel city of India). We have focused on manufacturing medical devices in Vizag because the pharma ecosystem exists there. So this is a vertical approach.