Investing in Andhra

The big question is how rapidly an agrarian state can industrialise

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THE BIG-TICKET MOUs or investment intentions of $150 billion for Andhra Pradesh at the CII Partnership Summit in Visakhapatnam will definitely be transformative for its ambitions to become a developed state by 2047.

There have also been other investment proposals since N Chandrababu Naidu returned to power in Andhra last year and became chief minister for his fourth term. Even if a fraction of these investment proposals are implemented, this can easily propel Andhra to become a $2.4-trillion economy from current levels of $188 billion. Google’s investments of $15 billion anchor the state’s plans to accelerate the artificial intelligence industry locally. ReNew Energy Global Plc seeks to bring a fully integrated clean energy value chain to the state with fresh investments of $9.3 billion. A quantum computing hub is also planned in the state’s capital, Amaravati, which aims to attract investments of $1 billion by January 2029. Naidu ambitiously hopes to attract $500 billion over the next three years. These mind-boggling numbers appear a dramatic transformation for a state that is a relative backwater for industry after it was bifurcated from Telangana with Hyderabad becoming the latter’s capital in 2014.