A southern state has won praise from many quarters for the big deal it struck by way of an investment. Andhra Pradesh signed the multi-billion dollar agreement with Google, which plans to set up a 1 gigawatt global data centre and an Artificial Intelligence hub in the port city of Visakhapatnam. Several factors helped the state clinch this deal, which should be an eye-opener or of special interest to those who care for national interest. The proposed investment is of the order of $15 billion, cited as being the largest-ever such investment especially in India’s technology sector. The offer also has a provision to provide around 1.50 lakh job opportunities, mainly for qualified techies in the next five years.
Notably, some southern states had a head-start in the IT sector since the 1990s. This was principally because Karnataka’s forward-looking chief minister in the person of SM Krishna – who later became India’s external affairs minister –was among the first to see the emerging sector’s huge potential. With good encouragement given to those like Narayana Murthy who fashioned Infosys, Bengaluru eventually emerged as the Silicon Valley of India with direct linkages to the United States’ IT hub. Rajiv Gandhi as prime minister, whose famous use of laptops was a novelty in the early 80s, pushed the IT sector’s growth in India with the likes of TCS, Wipro, HCL etc., also making waves. Chandrababu Naidu who was chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh took lessons from Bengaluru and promoted the IT sector in Hyderabad. Millions of engineers are working in these states as also in Mumbai and elsewhere now and drawing handsome salaries. Taxes from this sector are the main feeder line for these states’ exchequers. Naidu pursued his interest in IT growth when he returned as CM of the present Andhra Pradesh. He tames his image of being a corrupt politician with his imaginative and dynamic developmental pushes.
What has come to AP’s advantage, in multiple sectors today, is also the alliance Naidu forged with the BJP in the last assembly and parliament polls, a year ago, which helped him grab power again. To his and AP’s luck, the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi could form the present central government only with parliamentary support from Naidu’s Telugu Desam. Modi is said to be “bending like Beckham” to keep Naidu in good humour, though another important NDA constituent, the JDU of Bihar, is also extracting goodies for the state from the Centre. Notably, the present Google investment was made possible by special help that the Modi government extended to Naidu by way of amending the FDI rules. Naidu famously describes his establishment as a “double engine sarkar”—a phrase he borrowed from Modi, to mean that it is powered largely by liberal central funds and support. In a scenario when those at the helm in Delhi rubbish the systems and do governance in a personalised style, states that are not on the right side of the BJP and Modi are at a disadvantage.
