INSIDE AP'S NEW MANTRA: 'SPEED OF DOING BUSINESS'

Nara Lokesh is facing off against rival states and historical financial strain. Can he repeat his father's legacy?

- N. Madhavan

Nara Lokesh (right), Andhra Pradesh's minister for HRD, IT and electronics, with his father N. Chandrababu Naidu, the state's chief minister, at the 30th CII Partnership Summit 2025 in Visakhapatnam last week.

Sometime in August 2024, Nara Lokesh, Andhra Pradesh's minister for human resources development (HRD), information technology (IT) and electronics, offered to drive Tata group chairman N. Chandrasekaran to the airport. The latter was in Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh's capital, to co-chair the task force for economic development of the state.

"What should a young politician who wants to do good for society do?" Lokesh asked Chandrasekaran during the 40-minute drive. "You should promise and deliver on the speed of doing business," he responded.

Ticket sizes of investments, the Tata chairman explained, were increasing and even a few months delay can cause the business case of the project to go for a toss.

That advice couldn't have come at a better time for the 42-year-old son of the state's chief minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader N. Chandrababu Naidu. Lokesh had just been crowned the chairman of the group of ministers tasked with job creation; he was looking at ways to regain investor trust and attract largescale investments.

Since then, he appears to be on steroids. The state cabinet, in the following months, approved investments to the tune of ₹12.71 trillion with a potential to create 913,000 jobs. This includes Google's $15 billion artificial intelligence (AI) data centre at Visakapatnam, ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel's $1.8 billion plant in Anakapalli district, and LG Electronics' $600 million investment in a new production facility at Sri City in Tirupati district.