ET@Davos: What differentiates Andhra Pradesh and other states is speed of doing business, says Nara Lokesh
Nara Lokesh, the minister of Information Technology, Electronics and Communications and the Human Resources in the government of Andhra Pradesh.
Budget with ET
How Budget 2025 can walk the tightrope of India's 'sins'
Will Budget add more firepower to defence industry's local manufacturing?
Sitharaman and co to fuel India's luxe aspirations, premium growth?
Attending his first World Economic Forum Summit in Davos, Lokesh, also the general secretary of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) along with chief minister and party supremo, Chandrababu Naidu, met up with several heads of state from Bahrain to Singapore as well as international CEOs like LN Mittal of ArcelorMittal, Ravi Kumar of Cognizant, and senior leadership from Cisco, Pepsico, Unilever, Google Cloud, Temasek, LG Chem, Apollo Tyres, Envision and Hitachi India. He tried to convince them that the change in political reality on ground is a testament to the changing investment climate.
“We have come here with a sharp agenda to attract investments,” said Lokesh, a day ahead of his 42nd birthday, while sipping tea in his hotel suite at Belvedere in between meetings. “We have seen power purchase agreements getting cancelled, companies thrown out or harassed. The reason why Andhra Pradesh has shown such a strong presence in Davos is to make it very clear that we are ready to do business all over again, and to give confidence to the investor community that we are here, we're willing to work with them, and get going.”
With several projects “already grounded in the last 7 months
