Is Andhra Pradesh Rebranding & Rebuilding Itself As The New Industrial Hub Of India ?

Year 1956 - Andhra Pradesh was recognised as a state through the States Reorganisation Act of 1956. 

Year 2014 - Telangana was bifurcated from Andhra Pradesh, with the IT city of Hyderabad going away to the new state. Andhra now had to rebuild itself. 

Year 2023 - Union Minister Nitin Gadkari promises Rs 20,000 crore for increasing road connectivity of Andhra Pradesh and connecting all the ports with National highways. This gave the state the much needed boost to rebuild itself. 

It has been one of the most prosperous states in India since ancient times. The bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana saw AP losing out on its major developed cities. Andhra Pradesh was now standing at a threshold once again, where it needed to build itself once again. But in recent years, Andhra Pradesh has emerged as one of the fastest growing economies in the country and with this boost from the centre and the efforts of the Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, it is all set to rebuild itself strongly.  

According to the Reserve Bank of India’s January 2023 report, the expenditure on development has been continuously increasing annually in recent years. The development expenditure in AP increased from Rs 1.17 lakh crore in 2021 to Rs 1.42 lakh crore in 2022. 

RBI has further estimated that the expenditure will increase up to Rs 1.84 lakh crore in 2023. 

The RBI report further states that Andhra’s tax revenue increased by 28 per cent, from Rs 81,869 crore in 2020-21 to Rs 1.05 lakh crore in 2021-22. The CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of exports from AP has been 13.35 per cent from 2019-20 to 2021- 22, while in the financial years 2015-16 and 2018-19 it has only been 7.29 per cent. 

The latest feather in AP’s cap is the investment proposals of Rs 13 lakh which the state signed during the recent AP Global Investors Summit. With a major chunk of these Memorandums of Understanding coming for the renewable energy sector, it is clear that Andhra Pradesh, which was once known as the IT hub of India, is all set to become the Renewable Energy Hub of India. 

The GIS only adds to the fact that AP has become one of the preferred destinations for industrial investment amongst the new states in the country. According to the statistics of the Department for Promotion of Industries and Internal Trade (DPIIT) by July 2022, the industrial investment in India was Rs 1,71,285 crore. Of this AP stood first with investments worth Rs 40,361 crore. 

Before the GIS, the Andhra Pradesh State Investment Promotion Board

(SIPB), chaired by the Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, has already given approval for investments worth Rs 23,985 crore in December 2022. These include a proposal by JSW Steel to setup a plant in Kadapa at a cost of Rs 8,800 crore and pumped hydro storage projects to be set up by Adani Green Energy with a cost of Rs 6,330 crore. 

Despite having lost out its IT hub status by losing Hyderabad to Telangana, AP has decided to regain the lost glory. According to the statistics of the AP Electronics and IT Agency (APITA), the number of IT companies in Andhra rose to 372 in 2022, against 178 till 2019. Visakhapatnam has become the new hub for the IT sector, as 194 companies including Infosys, HCL, Technotask, iGen American Softwares, Techbull, Complex Systems and others have set their base in Visakhapatnam and in Tier-II cities of the state. 

In its journey towards rebuilding itself, Andhra Pradesh has all support from the Centre too. The presence of Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and major announcements in the APGIS for infrastructure development collaborate this fact. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah too met Jagan on Friday, where the CM asked them to find a resolution to the issues that have emerged with the state bifurcation. This journey may be slow, but under the “Brand Jagan Mohan Reddy”, as Andhra’s Industries Minister Gudivada Amarnath says, AP is steadily rebranding and rebuilding itself.