brahmotsavam - andhra pradesh · pdf filemotsavam are due because of adhika masam ......

Brahmotsavam is the most glitteringfestival in the temple of Lord

Venkateswara, the Lord of the seven hills.Every day during the Festival, both in themorning and the evening, the processionaldeity of Lord Venkateswara calledMalayyapa Swamy, is taken in a colourfulprocession through the decorated four

mada streets around the temple. Allthrough the nine days the hill wears acolourful look with a sea of humanitythronging the place. This year, two Brah-motsavam are due because of AdhikaMasam - one is in Salakatla Brahmotsavam(September 16 to 24), another NavaratriBrahmotsavam (October 14 to 22).

BRAHMOTSAVAM of the Lord of the Seven Hills

C O N T E N T SAP hot investmentdestination

First LNG TerminalOn The East Coast

Of India

Bringing back the Tel-ugu cultural heritage

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13

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e-pragati to pave wayfor e-governance

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Birth ofAmaravatiTo Be ASpectacu-lar Extrav-aganza

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The state-wise reportreleased by the WorldBank on September14 ranked the newState of AndhraPradesh at secondplace, after Gujarat.

China’s LONGi to SetUp Solar Cell-Manu-

facturing Plant

State emerges as ElectronicsHub

Happening Andhra

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9 32

SnapshotIndustry Sector

34State batsfor bestPublicHousingModels

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‘Develop-ment pos-sible onlythroughleadership’

12 BIA to Help MakeAP Knowledge Hub

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Various developments across thestate of Andhra Pradesh.

Amazing AP:Lambasingi

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Historic Linking ofRivers

Chief Minister’sSocial Network

TISS to Help AP Increase Employability

of Students

Singapore PM invitedfor Amaravati Founda-tion

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OCTOBER 20154 ANDHRAPRADESHMAGAZINE.ORG

IN AN ACCELERATED MODE..

Two landmark achievements in September have made thefledgling state of Andhra Pradesh proud. First, coming out inflying colours for creating business-friendly environment in a

short time of sixteen months is an acknowledgement of the stu-pendous work done by Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu. Beingranked as the second best state in the country for ‘Ease of DoingBusiness’ by the World Bank Survey is no small a measure of recog-nition. And analysts across the country rightly underlined the factas to how the re-born Andhra Pradesh, under the dynamic lead-ership of Chandrababu Naidu, ‘stole the show’ in this regard.The linking of Godavari-Krishna, through Pattiseema Project, is an-other feather in the cap for the State Government. The completionof the first phase in such a short time was made possible onlythrough the tenacity of the Chief Minister, who stood by his com-mitment to stick to the deadline - thought of as impossible by hisdetractors. Pattiseema is not only a testimony to Naidu’s dedica-tion but also to his resourcefulness. No wonder, he has beenpraised for his ‘political dexterity to quickly reassess his positionand come out with a low-cost, temporary solution with minimalimpact on river ecology’.The investments are flowing in, the irrigation facilities are expand-ing and the economy of the State is showing visible signs ofvibrancy. With Amaravati, the new capital of Andhra Pradesh, allset for a grand foundation this month in the presence of the PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, the positive vibrations are set to get afurther boost for the Sunrise State.

RAMESH KANDULAChief Editor

EDITORIAL

Publisher & CommissionerDr P Krishna MohanChief EditorRamesh KandulaEditorNaresh NunnaAssistant EditorShruti Mathur

Cover PageCM N Chandrababu Naidu

Second CoverTirumala Brahmotsavalu

Third CoverCM at various events

Fourth CoverAPIIC Advt on Sunrise State

Published by:Information & Public Relations DepartmentGovernment of Andhra PradeshHyderabad - 500 028Ph: 040-23300258Views expressed by various authors in this issue reflect theirpersonal opinions.DesignKarthik BeesuPrinted atCaxton Offset Pvt. Ltd.Hyderabad

Each Issue : Rs 5/-Annual Subscription : Rs 50/-www.andhrapradeshmagazine.orgEmail: [email protected]

ANDHRA PRADESHPublished Monthly In English & Telugu

October 2015Volume: 9 Issue: 4Salivahana Era 1937

Edited, Printed and Published by RAMESH KANDULA on behalf of Commissioner, Information and Public Relations Dept., (on behalf of Govt. of AP); Published at Samachar Bhavan, AC Guards, Hyderabad - 500028 Ph: 040-23300258 Printed at M/s Caxton Offset Pvt. Ltd., 11.5.416/3, Red Hills, Hyderabad - 500 004

OCTOBER 2015 ANDHRAPRADESHMAGAZINE.ORG 5

Prime Minister Narendra Modihas accepted the invitationextended by Andhra PradeshChief Minister ChandrababuNaidu to lay the foundation stone forthe state’s new capital city. The PrimeMinister will visit the state on theauspicious day of Vijaya Dasami onOctober 22nd to lay the foundation forAmaravati. This was revealed by theChief Minister during a review meetingof the Capital Advisory Committee onthe status of works for the foundation-laying ceremony.“The location where the foundationstone will be laid should be vaastu-com-pliant and a picturesque spot. In future,it will become the nerve centre ofAndhra Pradesh, signifying river-linkingand a spot where soil from all mandalswill be mixed with the soil of Amara-vati,” the Chief Minister said, after hewas informed that the river-front loca-tion of one of the three identified unitsof the SEED capital came up for discus-sion. The Chief Minister suggested de-veloping the location into a publicspace. “This could have an exhibitionfrom portraying Amaravati’s past towhat it is in the present to what it will

be in the future.”Stating that the “Birth of Amaravati –the People’s Capital” should be a spec-tacular extravaganza that should createan emotional bond with people ofAndhra Pradesh, the Chief Minister saidevery citizen of the state shouldparticipate in capital building.On October 22, sarpanches fromvillages in all the mandals will carry soilfrom their respective places and congre-gate in the Capital Region. “The soilbrought from all the mandals across thestate could be mixed with the Amaravatisoil to establish an emotional connec-tion. The soil will be brought in aPurnakumbham after a pooja. All thePurnakumbhams then could be formedinto a massive sculpture or an idol,signifying the contribution of people tothe People’s Capital or may be intoBodhi tree, reflecting its connectionwith Buddhism. Let us come up withdifferent ideas and finalize them.”The Chief Minister also said thatimmediate beautification works ofVGTM areas should begin. “Bring in uni-form colour-coding and illuminationacross the state. We can also buildmomentum to the campaign by

clubbing the celebration with Dasara’sNavarati as a build up to the main event.This will also add a cultural spin to theevent, retaining our tradition and bring-ing in a festive mood” he added.During the meeting, MP Galla Jayadev,GVK’s Sanjay Reddy, GMR Group’sSrinivas, Sri City’s Srini Raju andMandava Prabhakar of Nuziveedu Seedsalso pitched their opinions to the ChiefMinister through a video-conference.Galla Jayadev suggested that “Amaravatishould be the model for India yet retainits cultural hue.” Sanjay Reddysuggested that the moment should bemade memorable for every person fromthe state. “People could wear a singlecolour (including NRIs), everyoneshould feel they have contributed andsay it is their capital. Not only that, butIndia should feel proud about such acity.”From a gigantic exhibition to anAmaradwaram with farmers’ names(who gave their lands for the capital)imprinted on it to a massive AmaravatiPavilion, the event comprises of every-thing. The event is being planned for1000 VIPs and 50,000 general audienceby an event management company.

Birth of Amaravati To Be ASpectacular Extravaganza

The capital city ofAmaravati will be adynamic city that allTelugus will be proudof, said CM Naidu, ashe confirmed PrimeMinister NarendraModi’s presence dur-ing the foundation-laying ceremony onOctober 22nd.

v

6 ANDHRAPRADESHMAGAZINE.ORG OCTOBER 2015

The sunrise state of AndhraPradesh has outshined Telan-gana in World Bank list of in-vestor-friendly states in thecountry. In an acknowledge-ment to Chief Minister N Chan-drababu Naidu’s relentless efforts toturn around the economy, AP hasbeen selected the ‘second hot desti-nation for investment in India’, ac-cording to the latest World Bankreport on ‘Ease of Doing Business’.The state-wise report released by theWorld Bank on September 14 rankedthe new State of Andhra Pradesh atsecond place, after Gujarat, in termsof creating friendly atmosphere forinvestors. Telangana fared at 13thposition in the rankings.According to the report, Gujarat is atthe top place with a score of 71.14

per cent, whereas AP secured the sec-ond rank with 70.12 per cent.Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naiduexpressed happiness over AndhraPradesh taking the 2nd rank in Easeof Doing Business in India. Thisshows we're making an impactthrough our work, the Chief MinisteraddedThe BackgroundIn December, 2014, at the “Make InIndia” workshop, State governmentsagreed to a 98-point action plan forbusiness reforms to all States andUnion Territories. The objective ofthe action plan was to lay out the firstof a series of recommendationstargeted at increasing transparencyand improving the efficiency andeffectiveness of various governmentregulatory functions and services for

APSECOND HOT INVESTMENT DESTINATION IN COUNTRY:

WORLD BANK

In just a year after thebifurcation, the residual stateof Andhra Pradesh has madetremendous progress increating business andinvestor-friendly environ-ment, scoring second rankamong all states in an all-Indiastudy done by World Bank on‘Ease of Doing Business’.Chief Minister N ChandrababuNaidu’s hand is obviously atwork here!

business in India. Simplifyingregulatory burdens on business atthe State level is an important com-ponent of the ambitious Ease ofDoing Business in India initiative.The AssessmentThis assessment, the first of its kind,has been conducted to take stock ofreforms implemented by States inthe period January 1 to June 30,2015. Data was collected through astructured questionnaire that wascompleted by each State and UTGovernment. The responses werevalidated through a series of in-depth workshops with State Gov-ernment representatives, and thecollection of supporting evidence oneach of the parameters of the ques-tionnaire.This report contains detailedanalysis on each of the 285questions studied in theassessment, and outlines whichStates are leading on each.MethodologyThe report assesses implementationstatus of reform measures acrossthe following eight areas:Areas Considered s Setting up a businesss Allotment of land and obtainingconstruction permits Complying with environment pro-ceduress Complying with labour regula-tionss Obtaining infrastructure related utili-tiess Registering and complying with tax

proceduress Carrying out inspectionss Enforcing contractsOverall results

The implementation status of each Statehas been converted to a percentage, and,on the basis of this total percentage, thereport calculated the State rankings asshown in the table (previous page).OCTOBER 2015 ANDHRAPRADESHMAGAZINE.ORG 7

1 Gujarat 71.14%2 Andhra Pradesh 70.12%3 Jharkhand 63.09%4 Chhattisgarh 62.45%5 Madhya Pradesh 62.00%6 Rajasthan 61.04%7 Odisha 52.12%8 Maharashtra 49.43%9 Karnataka 48.50%10 Uttar Pradesh 47.37%11 West Bengal 46.90%12 Tamil Nadu 44.58%13 Telangana 42.45%14 Haryana 40.66%15 Delhi 37.35%16 Punjab 36.73%17 Himachal Pradesh 23.95%18 Kerala 22.87%19 Goa 21.74%20 Puducherry 17.72%21 Bihar 16.41%22 Assam 14.84%23 Uttarakhand 13.36%24 Chandigarh 10.04%25 Andaman and Nicobar Islands 9.73%26 Tripura 9.29%27 Sikkim 7.23%28 Mizoram 6.37%29 Jammu and Kashmir 5.93%30 Meghalaya 4.38%31 Nagaland 3.41%32 Arunachal Pradesh 1.23%

Rank State Score

Andhra Pradeshwould competeamong the world'stop 10 investmentdestinations in"ease of doing business" in thenear future.

- N ChandrababuNaidu

Chief Minister


As per the report, AP is ranked in thecategory of ‘Aspiring Leaders’ whichmeans the overall implementationstatus is to be between 50 per cent and75 per cent.The report of the World Bank statedthat AP has implemented an effectiveonline single-window system withprovision for filing, payment, satustracking, online scrutiny and approvalof applications. The report also praisesthe VAT registration system followed byAP along with states such as Gujarat,Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka.The Chief Minster pointed out that thisrating will act as a major indicator forprospective investors across the globelooking at investing in India. It attractsthe global investors to considerinvesting in AP.The new state, several business publica-tions observed, is giving toughcompetition to its neighbours in attract-ing investments. The Business Standardsaid, “Over the past year, a number ofbig-ticket projects bound for TamilNadu have gone to Andhra Pradesh'sswanky new business district called SriCity, about 50 Kms from Chennai.Andhra Pradesh now boasts of severalbig names like Mahindra & Mahindra,Hero MotoCorp and Japanese automo-bile manufacturer Isuzu Motors as itsinvestors. This week, Chinese solar cellsmanufacturer Longi announced it wasinvesting Rs 8,000 crore in the state. Ahost of IT companies have opted for SriCity too, driven by the ease of doingbusiness there and the promise of high-speed internet connectivity.’’The report also pointed out that thecost of setting up business is alsocheaper in Andhra Pradesh, as the state

government is doling out tax incentivesand land at throwaway prices to wooinvestors. Hero MotoCorp, for example,has been provided 100 per cent exemp-tion on value-added tax, or VAT, on bikesproduced in the state, say industrysources.Sri City is also leveraging its proximityto Chennai, a huge market, andconnectivity to ports both in the northand south to boost its prospects.“Tamil Nadu has a lot to do to catch upon the power front with AndhraPradesh which offers electricity at ahighly subsidised rate of 75 paisa aunit,” the report said.Meanwhile, the Chief Minister said thatthe state government is targeting to benumber one in the country in ease ofdoing business. “The state will have tocompete with the industriallydeveloped countries in this regard,” hesaid.The World Bank Report on Ease ofDoing Business has already broughtattention to the potential of AndhraPradesh as an attractive businessdestination, from across the world. Therecognition has come as a shot in thearm for the Chief Minister, who hasbeen leaving no stone untured in hisrelentless efforts to bring in invest-ments.While earlier Chandrababu Naiduwould take pains to explain in detailabout the advantages of doing buisnessin AP during his foriegn visits, now hehas a World Bank Report to vouch forthe reforms brougt in by hisgovernment to facilitate easy establish-ment of businesses. Speaking at the media interactive ses-sion organised by the Institute of South

Asian Studies, a think-tank of NationalUniversity of Singapore (NUS) duringhis latest Singapore trip, Naidu told thegathering that Andhra Pradesh wouldcompete among the world's top 10 in-vestment destinations in "ease of doingbusiness" in the near future.Stating in a media interview that thereare over Rs 1.13 lakh crore of invest-ments in various stages of pipeline, theChief Minister said, “..given the seriousconstraints we inherited, I think what-ever has been achieved so far is a goodhumble beginning and we are happywith the progress so far.”The World Bank recognition was madepossible due to a series of steps takenby the State Government including theindustrial policy. Since the day he tookover, Chandrababu Naidu spentconsiderable time in bringing aboutchanges in the various policies that havea bearing on the ease of doing business.A series of meetings with departmentsconcerned, and a close follow-up onimplementation of various measures -set as benchmark in the interfacebetween the businesses and thebureacracy - resulted in a revamp of thewhole system of approvals and permits.Even as the recognition came in fullmeasure for all the efforts put in by theState Government for ease of business,the resolve of the Chief Minister toreach the top in attraci investments, isfurther bolstered.

Ramesh Kandula

Another interesting fact to emerge from the study is the contrasting per-formances of two states that were earlier one:Telangana and AndhraPradesh. Even though the former emerged with the crown jewel of Hyder-abad in its kitty, it is Naidu’s rump Andhra Pradesh that is stealing the show.With an overall score of 70.12, Naidu has left his Telangana bête noire KChandrashekhar Rao in the dust. The latter scored just 42.45. The split clearlyis bringing out the best in Andhra Pradesh, which wants to prove a point.Again, competitive federalism is clearly at work here.

- R Jagannathan, Editor-in-Chief, Network 18


With the formal launch of thePattiseema lift irrigationscheme in Andhra Pradesh,the country took a step forward in itsambitious but long-pending goal tointerlink major rivers to form a nationalwater grid. The Pattiseema project liftsflood water from the river Godavari andpumps it into the Polavaram right canalthat empties into the river Krishna inVijayawada.The interlinking of the Godavari and theKrishna has been on the anvil for almostfive decades and with the commission-ing of the Pattiseema scheme, fourmajor rivers in Andhra Pradesh are nowconnected to one another: Godavari-Kr-ishna, Krishna-Pennar and Pennar-Tungabhadra. Naidu unveiled a pylon at Ferry villagenear Ibrahimpatnam on September 16to formally launch the project.Amid the chanting of Vedic hymns bythe priests, Naidu performed puja at theconfluence of the two rivers. His cabinetcolleagues and ecstatic local peoplewere present. Naidu later left forPattiseema in West Godavari district toswitch on the first pump of his pet proj-ect to release water from Godavari intothe Polavaram right main canal thatlinks with the Krishna river upstream ofthe Prakasam Barrage in Vijayawada.Thousands of farmers in Krishna,Guntur, Prakasam, Kurnool, Kadapa,Anantapur and Chittoor districts willbenefit from the Godavari-Krishna link-age. About 17 lakh acres including 13lakhs in the Krishna delta will getassured irrigation water for two agricul-tural crops round the year. Thousandsof villages en route will get drinkingwater supplies. The project is expected to meet the irri-

gation and drinking water needs ofdrought-prone Rayalseema region.Naidu described it as a historic occasionand named the Ferry village asGodavari-Krishna Pavitra Sangamam,which will be developed as a tourismspot.The project is designed to draw 120 tmcft (thousand million cubic feet) fromGodavari and release them into theKrishna. This is expected to change theface of both Rayalaseema and Krishnadelta.Considered rice bowl of India, Krishnadelta is facing water shortage due toconstruction of dams in upstreamKarnataka. Megha Engineering InfrastructureLimited (MEIL) has completed the firstphase works in less than six months. Allthe 24 pumps brought from China willbe ready for operation by March nextyear.The completion of the first phase of thisRs.1,300 crore project as a majorachievement. The project was firstmooted in 1950s by eminent engineerKL Rao, who was also the central waterresources minister. About 3,000 TMC of the Godavari’sflood waters flows into the Bay ofBengal every year. Successive AndhraPradesh governments have been tryingto harness at least 10 per cent of thiswater and divert some of it into theKrishna, whose delta faces an acuteshortage of water for irrigation fromJune to August. While the plan is to eventually divertwater from the Polavaram dam, sincethe dam is still under construction andwill take at least 4 to 5 years to beready, the Chandrababu Naidu govern-

ment decided to divert Godavari waterfrom the Pattiseema Lift IrrigationScheme. The Pattiseema plan Pattiseema is a village in Polavarammandal of West Godavari district. 80TMC of flood water from the Godavari atthis point will be diverted into thePolavaram Right Main Canal, which isnearly complete up to PrakasamBarrage on river Krishna at Vijayawada,174 km away. But this water has to belifted from the Godavari at Pattiseemaand pumped to the Polavaram RightMain Canal, 3.9 km away. By next year,24 vertical turbine pumps of 4,611 HPeach will lift and pump the waterthrough 12 rows of pipelines into thePolavaram canal. v

Andhra Pradesh hasbecome the first state in thecountry to link major rivers,Godavari and Krishna.

GODAVARIKRISHNAPavitra Sangamam

With waters from the Godavaririver flowing into the Krishnariver in Andhra Pradesh (AP),the idea of river interlinkinghas yet again found a place innational discourse. While theoriginal plan to connect thetwo rivers demanded the con-struction of the Polavaram damacross the Godavari river, thismega project has been delayedand its fate is uncertain. This iswhere AP Chief Minister NChandrababu Naidu can becredited for displaying the po-litical dexterity to quickly re-assess his position and comeout with a low-cost, temporarysolution with minimal impacton river ecology.From National Newspaper DNA”

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Chief Minister N ChandrababuNaidu extended invitation toSingapore Prime Minister LeeHsein Loong for the foundation stone-laying ceremony of Amaravati on Octo-ber 22nd, 2015. The Prime Ministerreplied in the affirmative and said hewill definitely try his best to make it tothe ceremony.Chandrababu Naidu met the Prime Min-ister of Singapore on the third and finalday of his visit to the country andcongratulated him on his re-election.During the meeting, Chief Ministerthanked the Singapore Prime Ministerfor extending all the help from their sidein making the master plan for Amara-vati and submitting them as planned. Further, the Chief Minister also told

Loong that Singapore could extend helpin building the state’s infrastructure andsupport Andhra Pradesh in making it aknowledge economy.Explaining how Andhra Pradesh has setits eyes on long-term development andgrowth, the Chief Minister told theSingapore Prime Minister that the gov-ernment is planning to make the state alogistics hub. “We need your support,”he added. Replying to the Chief Minister, the PrimeMinister said that Singapore willsupport Andhra Pradesh and will sharewhatever expertise and experience ithas. When the Chief Minister informed thePM that the World Bank has rankedAndhra Pradesh 2nd in the country in

‘Ease of Doing Business’, Loong said thatthe ranking reflects how the state hasmade a difference within a short span. Loon also lauded the Chief Minister’sefforts in pooling land for the capital.Following this, the Chief Ministerexplained the main features ofAmaravati and how it will be con-structed as a sustainable and smart cityfor future generations.Earlier in the day, the Chief Minister andthe AP delegation visited the SingaporeCity Gallery and got insights into its keyphysical features such as residential,industrial, commercial areas, airbases,reservoirs etc of the City. They were explained about the planningfor the Civic district, Marina Bay and theplanning for green and blue spaces,

SINGAPORE PM INVITEDfor Amaravati Foundation

Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu extended invitation to Singapore PrimeMinister to the foundation stone-laying ceremony of the new state capitalin October, and sought the island nation’s partnership in construction ofthe capital city.


recreation spaces, island-wide watercatchment, waste management,integration of land use plans with publictransport networks and conservationplanning.Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidubegan his Singapore visit by meeting anurban development team from Malaysiasoon after landing at Singapore cityalong with the State government dele-gation.The delegation from Iskandar MediniDevelopment Authority, Malaysia gave apresentation on their experiences indeveloping Medini Iskandar, a Green-field development spanning 2,230 acresdesigned to become the centralbusiness district.On Day 2 of his Singapore visit, ChiefMinister began his day with a privatemeeting with Second Minister for Tradeand Industry S. Iswaran where they dis-cussed about the new CapitalAmaravati.After a lunch meeting with Iswaran, theChief Minister took part in a public lec-ture at the Institute of South Asian Stud-ies (ISAS) which was moderated byAmbassador Gopinath Pillai. Delivering the welcome address, Pillaisaid that the overwhelming response atISAS is a mark of Naidu’s popularity inSingapore. “He built the IT sector inAndhra Pradesh and is famously knownto be the brain behind Cyberabad. Now,he is building the new capital of AndhraPradesh, Amaravati,” Pillai elaborated tothe audience at ISAS. Explaining the advantages of the newState of Andhra Pradesh, Pillai said thatthe state has rich natural and humanresources. “Next year ISAS will have aSouth Asia Diaspora Meet to which AP isan invite. One more state from India andanother state from Pakistan will be theinvitees,” he added.Taking over the dais from AmbassadorPillai, the Chief Minister said thatAndhra Pradesh is a new state which isjust one year and three months old.Emphasizing the need to nurture thestate carefully, he elaborated on devel-opments during his previous stint. Stating that India is moving in the rightdirection, the Chief Minister said thatIndia, China and the US will be the lead-ing economies in the world by 2050.

“We have a long sea coast. The advan-tage we have is that we are the onlystate with such a long coast on the Eastand hence, we aim to develop this asLogistics Hub of Southeast Asia. We areranked second in cargo handling in thecountry and we will reach the top posi-tion,” he added.The Chief Minister also informed theaudience that the state government hasrecently linked the mighty Godavari andKrishna Rivers in the state, reiteratingthe fact that hard work and determina-tion will pay off if leaders commit them-selves to development. Despite challenges, the Chief Ministersaid, the government sees capital build-ing as one of the greatest advantages forthe state. “Indian Prime MinisterNarendra Modi has accepted our invita-tion to lay the foundation for Amaravation October 22nd. I will be meetingSingapore Prime Minister tomorrow, toinvite him for the historic occasion onOctober 22nd,” the Chief Ministeradded.Recalling his first visit to Singapore lastyear, the Chief Minister said: “I firstasked them to come up with a MasterPlan for our Capital. They did. Now, I'mnow asking Singapore to join us to buildour capital. I’m hopeful they will comeforward to do this as well,” he said,adding that Amaravati will not onlyserve as an administrative area but alsomodel itself as a economy andknowledge driver.“I’m also happy to inform you that ourstate has been ranked second in ‘Ease ofDoing Business’ by World Bank, afterGujarat. I’m confident that we will rise

to the top spot next year. We will be adistant number one.”From tourism to logistics agriculture,infrastructure, industries and othersectors, the Chief Minister elaboratedon the potential for investments inAndhra Pradesh. “We are aiming at Dou-ble-digital growth. I’m confident that APwill rise to become one of top moststates in India. I invite each one of youto come to AP at least with one project.Come, experience AP and invest in ourstate,” he added. The Chief Minister also explained aboutthe initiatives of creating social capitalthrough women Self-help Groups. “SHGwomen have emerged as a strong andindependent force in the state. They arerural entrepreneurs who lead and in-spire the community, are financial inde-pendent and eventually, empower thesociety. They make their own goods andsell them online.” Meanwhile, an entrepreneur who has anindustry in AP, said he suffered fromlack of power for last five years. “AfterChandrababu Naidu became the ChiefMinister of new AP, within a fewmonths, there were no power cuts,” hequipped, adding that he wanted to sharehis experience and show that in AP thegovernment works. To this, the ChiefMinister replied saying: “We have givenpriority to power sector. Now, we our T& D losses stand at 10.4%. We will soonbring it down to to single digit.”Nunna Naresh


v

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu answered questions from the audience aspart of the Q & A session after his public lecture at the Institute of South AsianStudies (ISAS) in Singapore. Excerpts.

‘Development possible only throughLEADERSHIP’

Q “Do you think that the followingdemocratic tradition will constrain theefforts for economic development?What assurance can you give us thatpolitics won’t trouble the new state ef-forts at development?A It all depends on the quality ofleadership. A motivating leadershipand stable leadership can balance de-velopment. For example: The previ-ous government at the Centrebrought in the Land Acquisition Act.It made land acquisition impossible.But, to create a win-win situation foreveryone in the state, I adopted theland pooling system where people re-sponded to my call. We have procured33,000 acres of land with land own-ers voluntarily giving their land, withthe hope of getting better value fortheir land in future. Despite being aDemocracy, we have completed sucha massive task with people’s support.”Q What will AP do to help start-ups? A In my last stint as the Chief Minis-ter, I had promoted a lot of entrepre-

neurs. Now, I want to start-ups andMSMEs. I want to make AndhraPradesh the Silicon Valley of India.We already have established a Start-up Village in Visakhapatnam. We arealso going to start the InnovationFund. That apart, a venture capitalfund and incubation centre are oncards.”Q How are you balancing environmen-tal concerns with fast clearances ofprojects? Can you do environmentalimpact assessments in such short time?A We will take all measures for envi-ronmental assessments and followregulatons. Other routine clearanceswill be granted within 21 days. For agreener state, we will go in for mas-sive plantation.”Q Lot of students go abroad fromIndia. Most from AP. What steps do youtake to retain them in AndhraPradesh? What steps do you take toencourage research in amaravati espe-cially bioengineering?

A I want to make AP an educationhub. In my previous stint, I have in-creased the number of engineeringcolleges from 30 to 300. We alsobrought a lot of focus on biotechnol-ogy. Q What are you doing to get gooduniversities to AP? A I’m networking with many world-class universities. And, we are alsoinviting foreign faculty members tocome as visiting professors to our col-leges/universities. Q What are your plans to improvequality of schools in AP? And also toimprove the quality of teaching, voca-tional training?A That (improving the quality of edu-cation) is the biggest challenge inIndia. We have to build skills, buildcapacities and inspire others by shar-ing experiences. That is how a cultureof learning will seep in.


Multinational oil and gas compa-nies Royal Dutch Shell Plc andGDF Suez SA have signed aterminal company agreement withAndhra Pradesh Gas Distribution Corp.to build floating storage and regasifica-tion units with an initial investment ofRs 1,800 crore.They signed two in-principle agree-ments with the government of AndhraPradesh and GAIL (India) Ltd to start afloating LNG terminal at Kakinada deepwater port, not far from the oil and gasdeposits of Krishna-Godavari (KG)basin. This will be the first LNG terminalon the East Coast of India.The first MOU is the Terminal CompanyAgreement between APGDC, GDF SUEZand Shell. It supports the develop-ment/execution of the terminal. APGDC(a JV company between the Governmentof AP and GAIL), GDF SUEZ and Shellwill have 48%, 26% and 26% equity inthe project respectively.The second MOU is the Trading Com-pany Agreement between GAIL, GDFSUEZ and Shell and covers both thesourcing of LNG and the marketing ofthe regasified LNG from the terminal.GAIL, GDF SUEZ and Shell will have48%, 26% and 26% equity in theproject respectively.

The Kakinada LNG terminal will use theFloating Storage and Regasification Unit(FSRU) with a peak capacity of 5 milliontonnes per annum (mtpa) with the pro-vision to double the capacity. It will alsouse high-end technology and will be oneof the first of its kind of PPP projects inIndia. The Kakinada port was foundsuitable for a project of this nature,owing to its availability of a naturalbreak-water in the Hope Island – a bar-rier that protects against the impact ofhigh seas.Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidudescribed the LNG terminal as a greatopportunity in the development of aproject that shall ensure continuousavailability of natural gas and supportthe government’s gas grid which is oneof the five grids. “FSRU-based LNG proj-ect is the fastest and most cost-effectiveway to secure energy supply while bol-stering sustainable development and si-multaneously cutting down onpollution,” he said. “I’m fully committedto the project and am sure that thesedomestic and international partners,who have come together, will bring thebest expertise, technology and speedi-ness from all over the world to completethe project within 18 months.”Considering the state and country’s

need for energy, the Chief Ministeradded that there are opportunitiesaplenty for scaling up. “This will be thefirst LNG terminal on the East Coast ofIndia. In my efforts to boost port-led de-velopment, I realize that this projectwill help us in making the state a logis-tics hub,” he added.BC Tripathi, CMD of GAIL, informed thestate gas utility has been anchoring theproject and expressed confidence inmeeting the deadline of 18 months. “Asa booming economy, we will supportthe state and the country in pushingthis project and put in our best efforts.”Secretary (Infrastructure, Energy andInvestments) Ajay Jain said that this is astep in making Andhra Pradesh a gashub. “There are massive reserves of gasin the KG-D6 and we need to realize thatthis will be the only LNG terminal onthe East Coast. So, if this project is suc-cessful and is completed within 18months, it will be the best example ofPPP projects in the country,” he said.Given that there is likely to be a short-age of gas of 15mmscmd and this mightfurther drop to 40 mmscmd, the CMsaid this LNG Terminal would prove tobe an important infrastructure forimport of LNG on the eastern coast. v

Andhra Pradesh has reached a significant milestone in its journey towards developing a gas gridin the State. The State Government signed two joint venture agreements for the establishmentof an LNG Floating Storage and Re-gasification Unit (FSRU) at Kakinada deepwater port.

First LNG Terminal On The East Coast Of India


he Andrha PradeshChief Minister N Chan-drababu Naidu has di-rected the officials ofthe Tourism Depart-ment to make effortsto bring back the in-valuable Amaravatisculpture. Stunningpieces of Amaravati,excavated during the19th century by theBritish, found theirway to museums inLondon and Chennai.As many as 120 pieces de-picting the famed Amaravatisculptures are housed at theBritish Museum in London. Thestunning collection from Dipala Dinnearea in Guntur district was excavated bythe British two centuries ago and thesculpture shipped to the UK fromMadras. Many others are lying unat-tended at Madras Museum.Depicting Buddhist themes rangingfrom a large stylised lotus to elephantsand a five-headed snake, the sculptureswere originally taken from a 2,000-year-old stupa at Amravati in Gunturdistrict of Andhra Pradesh. Built withlocal limestone called Palnad marble,the stupa was cased with carved panels

whichcollapsed during the medieval periodand were virtually buried. The slabswere excavated in early 19th century bythe British and over 120 slabs werelater shipped to the UK.The British Museum acquired the slabsin 1880 and displayed them along thefront hall staircase. There theyremained until 1940 when they had tobe dismantled during the World War IIBlitz of London. In 1950, they were

taken out of the base-ment and displayedin a corner of thefront hall.But nine yearslater, when thecorrosive effectsof air pollutionbecame appar-ent, they werereturned to theby now air-condi-tioned basement.Hauling up the slabs- the pillars aloneweigh several tonneseach - to the refurbishedfirst floor gallery presenteda formidable problem. It re-quired cutting holes in the floorand using heavy machinery.A glorious historyFormer Prime Minister ManmohanSingh’s daughter Dr Upinder Singh re-searched the journey of Amaravatisculpture in a study, “Amaravati: the dis-membering of the Mahācaitya (1797-1886)”, which details the rathercolourful history of the famed Buddhistsite and its excavations.Amaravati (in modern Guntur district,Andhra Pradesh) on the banks of theKrishna River was a major Buddhist

T

Bringing back the Telugu

CULTURAL HERITAGEMasterpieces of Buddhist sculptures from Amaravati need to be

restored back to the new capital city, where they belong. The StateGovernment is expected to make a move in this direction.


centre of ancient India. The history of this monastery complexspans some seventeen centuries, from its inception in thethird century B.C to its demise in the fourteenth century A.D.Once abandoned, nature took its course, and the stupa gradu-ally came to be enveloped in layers of dust and debris whicheventually obscured it completely from sight. Then, towardsthe end of the eighteenth century, Amaravati was discoveredby local zamindar Raja Vasireddy Venkatadri Naidu. This dis-covery was followed by the first documentation of the site byColonel Colin Mackenzie.Mackenzie was the first to document the remains at Amara-vati. His account (Mackenzie, 1807) indicates the condition ofthe site at the end of the eighteenth century. Mackenzie de-scribed a circular trench, about 10 feet wide and 12 feet deep,dug into a mass of masonry composed of bricks 16 inchessquare and 4 inches thick."Ruins of Amravutty, Depauldina and Durnacotta," publishedposthumously in 1823 in the Asiatic Journal and Monthly Reg-ister. Mackenzie gave a detailed description of the modern town ofAmaravati, describing the major buildings (including theAmaresvara temple), the chief festivals celebrated there, andlocal traditions associated with the area. He described the re-mains of an ancient fortified settlement at Dharanikota, situ-ated some 500 yards from the western end of Amaravatitown, and referred to other mounds in the vicinity. He alsodrew attention to some 17 or 18 megalithic stone circlesabout a mile west of Dharanikota.Mackenzie removed a number of sculpted stones fromAmaravati. A fragmentary note written by him, dated 7thApril 1817, and pasted onto the volume of drawings, statesthat 11 stones of Dipal-dina, including an inscription (i.e. aninscribed stone) were given over to the charge of Major Cot-grave at Masulipatam. These eventually found their way toCalcutta. Two were presented by Mackenzie to the Asiatic So-ciety of Bengal, from where they were sent to the Indian Mu-seum in Calcutta. The other nine pieces were sent to the EastIndia Company's Museum on Leadenhall Street, London,probably some time after Mackenzie's death in 1821. In 1845, Walter Elliot, Commissioner of Guntur, visitedAmaravati and indulged in some haphazard excavation.Accordng to Upinder Singh, Walter Elliot's excavations atAmaravati added next to nothing to the documentation of thesite. What it did lead to was the largest haul of sculpturesfrom the place. Elliot sent a large number of pieces to Madras,where they lay for many years in the open in front of theMedical College. In 1853, after the Court of Directors madeinquiries about them, they were placed at the front entranceof the Central Museum "more or less exposed to the forenoonsun, but otherwise sheltered".The 121 "Elliot marbles" arrived in London in 1860 andremained at Beale's Wharf in Southwark for a year. This wasthe period when, in the aftermath of the 1857 Mutiny, the ruleof the East India Company had made way for that of theBritish Crown. There was no place for the sculptures to go. In1861, they were finally moved to the stables of Fife House

where the India Museum had been housed. A few of the bestpieces were placed along the outer wall of Fife House, whilethe rest continued to languish in the stables. They had their pride of place only in 1992, when 70 piecesout of the stunning collection, was put on display at the IndiaMuseum in London after nearly 30 years of oblivion in thebasement of the museum. The exhibition was inaugurated bythe Queen at the British Museum.According to an India Today report in 1992, the display waswidely welcomed and appreciated by historians and art con-noisseurs."It makes my blood boil to see what the British looted fromIndia," was the indignant reaction of an Indian woman visitingthe magnificent new Josephe Hotung Gallery.The carvings had to be reconstructed schematically in an air-conditioned and .dehumidified glass-room to prevent any

They had their pride of place only in 1992,when 70 pieces out of the stunning collec-tion, was put on display at the India Museum in London after nearly 30 years ofoblivion in the basement of the museum


further damage by pollution. The glass-room, which provides the dramaticfinale to the 110-m long gallery, wasbuilt with a Euro 500,000 (About Rs 37crores)-gift from the Japanese newspa-per Asahi Shimbun. The Japanese arepredominantly Buddhists, and AsahiShimbun is the largest newspaper inJapan.The collection at the Hotung Gallery atthe British Museum had art critics rav-ing. "One of the most elegant exhibitionspaces In London - no, make that in theworld," wrote one. As for the Amravatipieces, another commented: "You won'tsee anything like this in India itself." Infact, the awesome beauty of thecarvings has been compared with thefamed Elgin Marbles, according to the

India Today report.India Today said that Dr Robert Knox,the museum's deputy keeper of OrientalAntiquities, points out that India neverasked for the carvings to be returned."I have every sympathy for this lady, butwe're not brigands," he protested. "Weare trying to show them to the world.Six million people come to the museumevery year and this allows India to walkon to the world stage. To me, the carv-ings are the most important in theworld."Half the Hotung Gallery is devoted toChinese bronzes, jades, paintings, ce-ramics and Buddhist sculptures. Thesecond half, which culminates in theAmravati sculptures, includes what themuseum calls "the greatest collection of

Indian religious sculpture outside thesubcontinent". Among the masterpiecesis a 1110 AD bronze figure of Nataraja. While the Amaravati sculptures at theBritish Museum are on a grand displaywith full care and protection, thoseremaining at the Government Museumin Chennai are in a pathetic state, lan-guishing due to neglect. Many of theprecious carvings have been severelycorroded due to excess salt deposits. With the new state of Andhra Pradeshand its visionary Chief MinisterChandrababu Naidu expressingdetermination to give Amaravati and itsBuddhist heritage a pride of place in thelives of Telugus, we can hope to soonmarvel at these precious pieces of ourpast heritage in the new capital.

Chennai MuseumThe collection in the museum inChennai (formerly Madras) has alarge number of sculptures in re-lief, which they have been classi-fied by four periods of activitystarting in the second century BCand stretching to the second cen-tury AD. The first period covers the100 years between 200 and 100BC, the second period covers 200years from 100 BC to AD 100, thethird covers AD 100 to 150, and thefourth covers 150 to 200. There isno purpose-built exhibition spacefor these sculptures, and in fact, re-ports say that since these valuablepieces were not put under air-con-ditioning, they are showing signs ofdamage due to weather conditions.

British MuseumThe collection in the British Museumconsists of over 120 different piecesmade from a limestone called Palnadmarble. The segments can be divided intoa number of categories, including parts ofthe stupa's toranas or gateways, and thesymbolic wall connecting them, and partsof the stone facing of the mound dome ofthe stupa itself. They include pillars,crossbars and copings, drum frieze pan-els and slabs, pillar fragments, twoguardian lions and a number of miscella-neous pieces, some of which date fromlater periods. In total, they represent themost important collection of ancient In-dian sculpture outside the sub-continent.The separate exhibition space for Amara-vati collection attracts thousands of visi-tors every day at the British Museum.

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v

The state government’s‘Andhra Pradesh Uni-versity Students Em-ployability SkillDevelopment Programme’received support from theTata Institute of Social Sci-ences (TISS) over imple-mentation of programmesand activities related to theprogram.The Government of AndhraPradesh inked an MoU withTISS for the implementationof National University Stu-dent Skill Development Pro-gramme (NUSSD), whichaims to enhance employa-bility skills of university stu-dents. The MoU was signedin Visakhapatnam on theoccasion of Teacher’s Day, inpresence of Chief MinisterChandrababu Naidu andstate HRD Minister Ganta Srinivas Rao.“We aim to transform Andhra Pradeshstate into a Knowledge Hub by provid-ing quality education and giving oppor-tunities for students to developemployability skills among the Universi-ties and Colleges in the state,” the ChiefMinister said. The MoU involves strategic partner-ships with civil society organisations,public sector bodies, private sector in-stitutions and social entrepreneurshiporganisations to complement the effortsof the AP State Knowledge Mission, andaccelerate its progress for achievementof the Mission objectives.A comprehensive skill developmentmodel has been developed that willhave elements of English communica-tion and soft skill, digital/computerskills, analytical skills, financial literacy,legal literacy, entrepreneurship, leader-ship development and will also add on aspecialisation in a specific domain to

make the graduating youth employable.The programme will be carried outthrough Jawahar Knowledge Centres(JKC) across the state and will also in-clude some of the best courses andpractices from National University stu-dents Skill Development Programme.During the three year graduation pe-riod, students can earn a Certificate inManagement and Soft Skills (on comple-tion of 1st year), Certificate in Domain(on completion of 2nd year) andDiploma (on completion of 3rd year).The Certificate programme and thediploma provided by TISS for this pro-gramme are approved by the AcademicCouncil of TISS and are highly recog-nised by the industry.Calling upon teachers to help transformAndhra Pradesh into a knowledge hub,the Chief Minister said, "Education isvery essential for development of thecountry and eradication of poverty.Though Andhra Pradesh stands at a

good position in higher edu-cation, it is lagging behind inprimary education. It is theresponsibility of teachers towork with commitment andlook after the welfare of stu-dents. Help transform thestate into knowledge hub infuture.”The objectives ofthe MoU arev To ensure significant,measurable increase in em-ployability of studentsstudying in universities anddegree colleges in APv To form collaborationwith higher institutes andindustries for implementingthe Employability Skill De-velopment programmev To design curriculumby identifying local industrial needsto develop employable skills of theyouth in colleges, particularly forrural SC and ST youth

v To participate in developing a broaderframework for assessment of techni-cal education and engineering educa-tion to enhance the qualityv To strategically implement throughadvisory role as well as participate inmonitoring and evaluation to suggestthe mid-course corrections during thestrategy implementationv To assist in capacity developmentstrategy and train master trainers indifferent skill sectorsv To facilitate linkages with Higher Edu-cation institutes to AP State Skill De-velopment Corporation (APSSDC) atstate level and National Skill Develop-ment Corporation (NSDC) at nationallevel.

TISS To Help AP Increase Employability of Students


Andhra Pradesh becomesthe first state in India toexecute full enterprisearchitecture model inthe form of e-Pragati.The state Cabinet has approved theimplementation of the Rs 2,400 croreproject, which essentially is a compre-hensive e-governance project simpli-fying the process of delivery ofgovernment and citizen services.The success ratio, in terms of e-gover-nance, has Andhra Pradesh in the nu-mero uno position among the 29states in our country. Going all-for-technology, Andhra Pradesh’s journeyto the top began way back in 1999with the introduction of online citizenservices platform e-Seva, when inter-net was the fancy of a rather smallsection of society. e-Seva currentlytops with a maximum number of e-transaction involving state-level citi-zen services and money transfersunder various welfare schemes,among all other states in India. Thestate of Andhra Pradesh registered659.2 million e-transactions pertain-ing to state government services 7months alone (January 2015 – August2015; as per the data released by theDepartment of Electronics and Infor-mation Technology, GoI). AndhraPradesh accounts for close to 23 percent of total e-transactions registeredacross the entire country. At all Indialevel, the total number of e-transac-tions were registered at around 2.3billion.

E-GOVERNANCEe-pragati to pave way for

Andhra Pradesh government is all setto implement Rs2,400 crore comprehensive e-governance project, named e-pragati, to simpli-fythe process of delivery of government and citizen services.


The state government offers nearly332 services through its onlineMee Seva platform including utilitybill payments, caste or family in-come certificates apart from mak-ing online payments to a crosssection of citizens in terms of so-cial welfare pensions, studentscholarships or payment of treas-ury bills.And now, with the state alreadytopping the country’s e-transac-tions, the government had rechris-tened the AP State EnterpriseArchitecture (APSEA) as e-Pragati.The state Cabinet accorded a for-mal approval to APSEA, has been acomprehensive architecture toleverage the latest advances in e-governance tools, which will bringall the government services underone roof. e-Pragati has been designed withan estimated investment of Rs2,358 crore of which the State willshare Rs 1,528 crore over a periodof three years. The project is aimedat bringing together 745 G2B (gov-ernment to businesses), G2C (gov-ernment to citizens), G2E(government to employees) andG2G (government to governments)services offered by 33 departmentsand more than 300 governmentagencies. With e-Pragati, AndhraPradesh also becomes the firststate in India to conceive and exe-cute state-wide enterprise archi-tecture.The ground work for the ambitiousproject, which has been entrustedto IT major Wipro, has been goingon since January. As many as 72projects of various departments ofsimilar nature such as welfare de-partments, works departments,land management wings and sec-tors (tourism, industries etc.) havebeen grouped under 14 packages.The government is gearing up toinvite expression of interest frominterested companies/enterprisesfor developing appropriate soft-ware programmes for the projects.“This will become a model in Gov-ernment Enterprise Architecture inIndia,” Chief Minister ChandrababuNaidu said, adding that Countrieslike South Korea, Singapore, the

United States, Estonia, Norway,Denmark, Australia and NewZealand have all embraced thistype of architectural approach to e-governance. “e-Pragati aims fo-cuses on achieving a unified andconnected government with citi-zen-centricity at its core. Imple-mentation of e-Pragati will lead tofree-flow of information among de-partments, paving the way for anintegrated, outcome-driven and ac-countable government,” the ChiefMinister said. The major components of e-Pragatirevolve are 7 missions, 5 grids and5 campaigns:s AP Fibre Grid (to all gram pan-chayats) s AP State Data Centre (to host allthe data and applications)s e-Highway (to seamlessly con-nect all the departments digi-tally)s People Hub (to house all thesocio-economic data of the citi-zens of the state which will beused to implement welfareschemes and development pro-grams)s Lab Hub (that contains details ofall types of land parcels in thestate)s Dial AP (a unified contact/callcentre that the citizens can useto access a wide range of serv-ices)s e-Learning platform (that pro-vides learning and online mate-rial/education aid to enhancequality of education)s Social benefits management sys-tem (that includes all benefitsschemes)s APcan (comprehensive systemfor management of cancer)s m-Seva (a platform for providinga wide range of citizen serviceson mobile)s e-AgriMarket (a platform thatenables farmers to sell their pro-duce online to get the best price)s e-Panchayat (enhances efficientof Panchayat Raj institutions).

The AP achieved a growth rate of9.72 per cent in first quarter asagainst national achievement of7.1 per cent.Of the 9.62 per cent growth, agricultureaccounted for Rs. 9854 crore, while in-dustries accounted for 15,834 crore; theservices sector achieved Rs. 32,504crore taking the GSDP to Rs. 58,191crore (at constant prices). Speaking at the Collectors Conference inVijayawada, Chief Minister Chan-drababu Naidu said the government seta target of achieving 10.44 per centGSDP this year. The government wasaiming at 18 per cent growth in agricul-ture and allied sectors to reach Rs.1,69,552 crore in 2015-16 as against Rs.1,43,498 crore in 2014-15. The target forindustry sector was 16 per cent to con-tribute Rs.124240 crore in 2015-16 tothe GSDP as against Rs. 1,07224 in 2014-15. The services sector was expected togrow by 21 per cent to contribute Rs.324307 crore in 2015-16 from Rs.269307 in 2014-15.Andhra Pradesh has improved its per-formance during 2014-15 and occupiedsixth place in the country relating toGross State Domestic Product (GSDP).The State was in eighth place in 2013-14. v

AP SurpassesNationalGrowth Rate

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Chinese solar module makerXi’an LONGi Silicon MaterialsCorp. will set up a solar cell andcomponents factory in Sri City, with aninitial investment of Rs 1,670 crore. Theplant will have an annual capacity of500MW and will employ 1,000 people. World’s largest solar energy equipmentmanufacturer, Xi’an LONGi Silicon Mate-rials Corp of China, signed an MoU withAndhra Pradesh government for settingup a solar cell and module productionunit in Sri City in Chittoor district, withan overall investment of nearly Rs 8,000crore.Xi’an LONGi Silicon Materials Corp,which is amongst the top 5 global sili-con wafer producers with four produc-tion bases in China and 3 GW of wafercapacity, will invest Rs 1,670 in the firstphase. The company proposes to manu-facture 1,000 MW solar cells and 1,000MW solar modules in its 500 MW solarpower park in the Sri City. The project isexpected to employ 1,000 people.The Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) was signed in New Delhi by theLONGi’s Chairman Baoshen Zhong andPrincipal Secretary (Energy, Infrastruc-

ture and Investment), Government ofAndhra Pradesh Ajay Jain, in presenceof Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu.Another MoU was signed between SriCity (P) Ltd and Xi’an LONGi SiliconMaterials Corp.Speaking on the occasion, Chief MinisterNaidu said, “This is a very good invest-ment from China in Andhra Pradesh.Solar power is the best solution for sus-tainable economic growth. I want to cre-ate a Solar Manufacturing hub inAndhra Pradesh. With the interest inthe sector from solar manufacturingcompanies, I’m hopeful that more than50% of India’s manufacturing capacitywill be set up in AP in the long term.Currently, we share 10% of the coun-try’s target for solar power.”Quoting the Chinese motto of ‘Scale-Skill- Speed’, Naidu said Chinese indus-tries are known for innovation and su-perior quality and hence they couldhelp AP in developing high qualitypower at affordable prices. “I Know,Scale, Skill & Speed is your motto. Bringall these S’ to us with the same enthusi-asm. AP has been categorized as thesecond best State in the country in term

of Ease of Doing Business by the WorldBank”, he added. The Chief Minister alsoelaborated on the opportunities in thecapital city region and how AndhraPradesh is focusing on creating the bestecosystem for the manufacturing sector.Mr. Baoshen Zhong, Chairman, Xi’anLongi Silicon Materials Corporationadded, “This plant will manufacturestate-of-the-art Solar Modules withhigher efficiency than currently avail-able systems. In this way, we are partici-pating in both ‘Make in India’ as well as‘Innovate in India’. This is just the firststep, I’m sure we will invest much moreand other companies will follow suit.”After signing the MoU, Ajay Jain said,“This is also a success story of China-India trade relations. Our Chief Ministerhad visited China in April this year, andseveral companies which we had metthere, are now investing in AndhraPradesh.”This is one of the major investmentsfrom a Chinese company in AndhraPradesh following the visit of ChiefMinister and the delegation from theGovernment of Andhra Pradesh in Aprilthis year..

China’s LONGi To Set Up Solar Cell-Manufacturing Plant

World’s Largest Solar Energy Equipment MakerTo Invest In AP

Xi’an LONGi inks pact with Government ofAndhra Pradesh

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With MoUs inked be-tween the state gov-ernment and three topnotch Indian mobilephone companies, the Sunrise Stateis all set to emerge as an ElectronicsHub. The Indian CellularAssociation, which had been scout-ing for an ideal location to locate thehub, has zeroed in on Tirupati aftergetting assurances on taxes and fasttrack logistics support to connect toChennai.Micromax, Karbonn Mobiles andCelkon – domestic mobile phonemakers – are coming together to setup the country’s first mobile phonemanufacturing hub at Tirupati, giv-ing a fillip to Chief Minister Chan-drababu Naidu’s dream of makingthe state an Electronics Hub, as alsothe Union government’s Make inIndia initiative.

According to CM Naidu, this will bea huge boost to electronics manu-facturing in Andhra Pradesh. "Werecently had Xiaomi's entry intoAndhra Pradesh, now we will haveMicromax, Celkon and Karbonn Mo-biles. I'm confident that these com-panies will create an electronicsmanufacturing ecosystem in thestate," he said, adding that morecompanies means more jobs.In an attempt to create the ecosys-tem for electronic devices in thestate, the Andhra Pradesh govern-ment has agreed to give VAT exemp-tion to component makers for 10years. This is in addition to the 10-year VAT exemption promised tothe three firms.“Manufacturers, if they come one byone, there will be an ecosystem,”Chief Minister Naidu said, adding,“We want to create this ecosystem.

If you create the ecosystem, Indiawill move very fast.”The State Government will set upthe phone manufacturing cluster atRenigunta near Tirupati, with an ag-gregate investment of more thanRs 600 crore. The State Governmenthas identified an 80-acre site atRenigunta to be allotted to the threecompanies through the AndhraPradesh Industrial InfrastructureCorporation (APIIC). The three com-panies will manufacture smartphones, tablets and mobiles at thesite. Operations are likely to commence by March next year, saidDirector of Industries KarthikeyaMishra, who signed the MoUs onbehalf of the State Government inthe presence of Chief Minister Chan-drababu Naidu.The agreement will also serve to ex-pand the supplier base and relatedservices, while generating nearly10,000 jobs. “Andhra Pradesh willbe made a hardware hub and de-liver the best ecosystem for indus-tries to flourish. My aim is topromote local players and helpthem transform into global players,”the Chief Minister said.The three companies can look for-ward to a pledge made by the StateGovernment to source devices fromIndian manufacturers to supply toits employees. CM Naidu said pur-chase priority would be given tolocal manufacturers while sourcingtablets and other equipment. TheGovernment has already distributedover 1 lakh tablets to governmentofficials in the lower rungs of thebureaucracy and there are plans toprovide 15 to 20 MBPS phone andinternet connectivity to each house-hold by March next year.The agreements signed with thethree Indian mobile phone compa-nies comes close on the heels ofState Government’s tie-up withFoxconn, which has established a fa-cility in the Sri City multi-producteconomic zone in Chittoor. This wasfollowed by another agreementwith Chinese mobile phone majorXiaomi at Visakhapatnam.

State Emerging as Electronics Hub

vY Guru, CMD of Celkon and Kartikeya Misra, Director of Industries, Andhra Pradesh signing MoU


Thanks to the indifference ofour historians towards thelocal struggles against theBritish, many an inspiringuprising did not find place inhistory books. And first serious up-rising of sepoys in Andhra Pradeshis no exception. Interestingly it isquite 77 years ahead of well-chroni-cled historic first war of independ-ence 1857. Surely its scale and

spread is limited, nevertheless itsspirit and courage is no less and itsimpact and influence is no differentpaving the way for later day revoltsin this region.It took place on 3rd October 1780 atVisakhapatnam then popular asVizagpatam. It had its origin in thecallous indifference of the British of-ficials to the service conditions ofthe native sepoys and their con-

tempt for them.Originally the native sepoys were re-cruited for local duties connectedwith revenue collection. But theywere chartered for assignments infar away places with no incentivesfor duties beyond stipulated range.The British disdain for the localscompounded the grievances of noincentives. The British did notbother to take note of the obvioussigns of discontent and remainedcallous.The war with Hyder Ali in the Car-natic weakened the British to a con-siderable extent.For thereinforcement of the troops in meet-ing the challenge posed by HyderAli there, Governor of Madras presi-dency John Whitehall requisitionedsepoy grenadiers from coastal dis-tricts. To this effect, he addressed aletter on September 14, 1780 to thethen chief of Vizagpatam and Mas-sulipatam settlements, James HenryCasamajor to keep in battle readi-ness for embarkation. While the se-poys from Masulipatam and Eluruobeyed the orders, their counterparts at Visakhapatnam defied itgiving a heavy jolt of shock to theBritish. Under the command of Lysaught,the Sartine frigate arrived atVisakhapatnam to take thegrenadier companies of sepoys. Tillnoon on October 3rd, 1780 every-thing was going on as per schedule.In fact, the company was ready forembarkation aboard the Sartinefrigate under the command ofLysaught and even the mandatoryparade was conducted before thechief. The officers drank for the suc-cess of the British arm and sat incompany in a pleasant and placidstate of mind on 3rd October, 1780.After the launch at the bungalow oftheir chief, officers of all the compa-nies went down to witness the em-barkation. But they were in for ashock as alarmingly uncommonnoise rent the air around. On enquiry it was found out that thesepoys refused to go on board Sar-tine. The English officers rushed to

VIZAGSEPOY RISING

Portraint of an Indian sepoy, who participated in Vizaguprising.

The Little Known Story of


the spot and tried to execute their or-ders.An altercation between some officersand sepoys frayed their patience andsuddenly by 3 pm, sepoys trained theirguns against the British and fired indis-criminately. The British officers ran hel-ter-skelter for cover. Lieutenant Crisps,cadet Kingsford Vennerm and RobertRutherford died on the spot. CharlesMaxton got wounded in head and man-aged to rush into ship. Some sepoyshelped seriously wounded captain Lanein getting into ship. However much targeted LieutenantBrown providentially escaped from con-tinual firing and reached the Sartine.Sergeant Ellis, Sergeant Crouse andCollins also managed to reach the shipswimming the entire stretch of the backwaters. Several British officers tookshelter in various parts of the town.Subedar Sheik Mohammad assumed thecommand of the rebels. Local chiefCasamajor and many other Europeancivil servants were taken into custody.The rebels freed a French spy from theBritish confinement and held their cap-tives in the guardroom. Under tough in-terrogation Casamajor yielded thedetails of the British wealth in cash andgold in the town. It resulted in the totalplunder of the property of the EastIndia Company and the British individu-als in the town. But for a kind heatedsepoy, who prevented other sepoysfrom firing at the captives, Casamajorwould have been shot dead.For more than a day the rebels lordedover the town and British writ did notrun anywhere in town. It is believedthat even the locals joined the rebels.The Company's cash amounting toRs 21, 999 fell into their hands. It didnot end with the killing of a few officers.The rebels were determined to liberatethe district from the East IndiaCompany and join the forces of HyderAli to drive the British away from thecountry. The next day the rebels pro-ceeded towards Hyderabad taking thecaptives along with them. After travel-ing for some considerable distance fromthe town they set the captives free.Though local Zamindars and rulers ofVizayanagaram remained mute specta-

tors to the crisis. Gajapthi Nayana Devof Kimedy rescued many Europeansfrom the wrath of the rebels and negoti-ated the release of Casamajor. In appre-ciation of this crucial assistance at thetime of crisis the British reinstated himas the Zamindar of Kimedy. As therebels left the town, the British tookcharge of their areas. They collected se-poys loyal to British and went after therebels. Buckled under the pressure fromthe British, Vijayaramaraju, the ruler ofVizayanagaram, instructed localZamindars under his control to checkthe march of the rebels. Acting accordingly, Berabhupathi ofGolugonda refused permission for thesepoys to pass through his territory. Thesepoys moved in different direction andfaced Butler. In the fight that ensuedmany sepoys were killed and a few werecaptured, who were later grantedgeneral amnesty but those died in the

fight were many fold in number thanthose captured. However, Subedar SheikMohammad, who the British thoughtwas the main conspirator for the revoltescaped. A few months later SubedarSheik Mohammad was captured andwas brutally executed.The revolt was short-lived and wascrushed. However, it made one thingclear that the British were not invinci-ble and could be challenged. This, in away, emboldened some native chiefs tocome together that led to Padmanab-ham battle in 1794. The British hadlearnt its lesson from the event andbecame more vigilant thereafter whichhelped them win the battle ofPadmanabham.Velcheti Subrahmanyam


Andhra Pradesh is set toemerge as a state with one ofthe best public housing mod-els. The NTR Housing Pro-gramme, will undergo some majorimprovements as the state governmentis mulling changes like using pre-fabri-cated and pre-cast technology and in-troducing PPP model to make costeffective housing available to people.Stating that a place of residence shouldbecome an asset for the owners, ChiefMinister Chandrababu Naidu suggestedstandardisation of construction normsfor public housing, at a meeting held onNTR Housing Programme. “Our housesshould be of top quality. We should usethe latest technologies in constructionsuch as pre-fabricated structures andalso experiment with the concept of in-corporating green technologies into itso that temperatures in the house donot soar.” According to the Chief Minis-ter, a PPP model of housing would workbest as this will ensure transparencyand efficient management of projects.

Expressing his dissatisfaction about thework of the previous governments, theChief Minister said they “had broughtbad image to the government by con-structing low-quality, sub-standardhousing which is inhabitable. They havenot been able to make use of prime lo-cations for public housing efficiently.”He suggested the Housing Departmentcan confine itself to monitoring theprojects while execution could be takenover by experienced global and nationalrealty players. “Come up with a goodpublic housing policy which will includequality, efficiency and social integrationof cultures and races. Explore how wecan create best colonies mixing Low in-come group (LIG), Middle income group(MIG) and High income group (HIG) byinvolving consultants, best internationaland national real estate players andconstruction companies. You can alsoexplore if we can give some benefits tohouse owners who take care of theirageing parents or houses that save en-ergy?,” the Chief Minister said, stating

an example of the Singapore model ofpublic housing.Every colony should become a growthengine eventually, the Chief Minister ex-plained, adding that gradually theseplaces will emerge as an economic pow-erhouse through supporting activities.“Explore setting up a corporation or apanel including all experts (national andinternational) for rural and urban hous-ing which will give ideas on best prac-tices. Eventually, we should also set up aBureau or a body that will monitor al-lotments and sale of the houses effec-tively without any discrepancies.”For urban housing, the Chief Ministersuggested that the entire common infra-structure linking the colony or the proj-ect should be completed. To ensure thatofficials are equipped with necessaryskills to deal with the upcoming largescale activity in the housing sector, theChief Minister suggested capacity build-ing workshops with experts from thefield.

State bats for best Public HOUSING MODELS


On slum upgradation, the Chief Minister askedto assess the total area of the slum and thenumber of houses as part of it. “Based on this,can we decide the plinth area on pro-rata basisand that way, those owners who are willing togive some area of their site for common infra-structure can be given profit from the com-mercial/common infrastructure built in thatarea. Explore this option and chalk out a plan,”the Chief Minister added.For funding, synergize both Central housing aswell as state housing schemes and find thebest policy which reduces loan burden onhouse owners and enables government to givesubsidy, the Chief Minister added. On the otherhand, the Chief Minister also directed the de-partment officials to explore the viability ofpre-fab structures and work out the cost-bene-fit analysis of the technology. “Construct sam-ple houses within a month. Organizedistrict-level meetings with beneficiaries andseek a consensus on these structures. Assessthe financial constraints too,” the Chief Minis-ter said.The Chief Minister sought details on the num-ber of people without houses or house sites inthe state. He enquired whether the depart-ment had held any survey to get a headcounton the number of people without houses. Tothis, the officials responded saying they havetaken the Census numbers into account.“Based on the property taxes, power bills paid,assess the total number of beneficiaries. Also,use Google maps to geo-tag existing housesites/structures,” the Chief Minister said,adding that the aim of the government is to en-hance the quality of living of the beneficiariesby providing them quality, affordable housing.Under the Housing for Economically WeakerSections (EWS) scheme, while the cost perunit (or house) stands at Rs 2.75 lakh, SC/STbeneficiaries will be given a subsidy of Rs 1 75lakh and for others, a subsidy of Rs 1.5 lakhwill be given. Meanwhile the loan granted forSC/ST beneficiaries on the house will be Rs 1lakh and for others, Rs 1.5 lakh. The plintharea will be 275 sq.ft.The model house will have one multi-purposeroom with 2 bedrooms and a toilet. The gov-ernment is also exploring Ground+1 orGround+2 models which depend on benefici-ary acceptance and availability of lands. Thespecifications will include pre-fabricated/hy-brid technologies, foundation, walling androofing, external and internal plastering,kitchen and stair-case. About the cost for lay-ing pre-cast foundation for these houses, “Ex-plore collapsible wall concept too,” the ChiefMinister suggested.

The Biscuit King’ Britannia hasevinced interest in the state ofAndhra Pradesh. With annualrevenues standing at nearlyRs 7,176 crores and with 13 dif-ferent biscuit brands, cakes, dairyproducts, breads and rusks in itsportfolio, the FMCG giant is all setto setup an agro-processing unitin the state.The maker of Good Day and Tigerbiscuits is is planning to invest Rs125 crores in the state. FMCGmajor Britannia has evincedinterest in setting up an agro-pro-cessing facility in Chittoor districtof the state. The facility will serveChennai and Bengaluru markets.Chittoor is strategically locatedbetween the two cities and housesplants of other FMCG companies,such as PepsiCo Inc. and KelloggCo.Britannia Managing DirectorVarun Berry called on ChiefMinister Chandrababu Naidu saidthat the company is planning tocommission the phase 1 of theproject by the end of 2016. “Wewant to zero in on a locationwhich helps us serve markets inChennai and Bengaluru,” Berrytold the Chief Minister, to whichthe latter said they could considerlocating the unit in the Chittoordistrict as it allows the companyto serve both the markets. He sug-gested the company could exploreoptions in the dairy sector. Berry

informed the Chief Minister that75 per cent of the company’s busi-ness comes from biscuits whilethe remaining from cakes, dairyand rusk.The Chief Minister explained theadvantages in Andhra Pradesh andsaid, “We are focusing on agricul-ture and allied activities - horticul-ture, livestock, fisheries, dairy andpoultry whose estimated growthrate for 2015-16 is 24 per centwith Rs 1.87 lakh-crore against Rs1.43 lakh-crore in 2014-15.”In Andhra Pradesh, the ChiefMinister said, the government isworking to strengthen the Self-help Groups (SHGs). “To improvedairy production, we are givingback-end subsidy on fodder culti-vation. SHG women will measurethe yield from each animal and thefodder cultivation will be plannedaccording to the yield,” the ChiefMinister explained.Andhra Pradesh has the advantagein the fisheries sector, the ChiefMinister said, continuing that thestate stands at the top in shrimpproduction and wants to lead inexports of sea-food. “Our longcoast on the East, abundant waterand 14 ports give us the opportu-nity of being the logistics hub ofSouth East Asia.” Berry appreci-ated the Chief Minister’s vision forAndhra Pradesh and said that thestate will become the top statewithin 10-15 years.

FMCG Giant BRITANNIATo Invest Rs 125 Cr In AP

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Britannia Managing Director Varun Berry Meets Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu


In August this year, scores of In-dians assembled in a movietheatre in Santiago, Chile for anunusual event. There was ex-citement in the air and all ofthem played a small part inwhat can only be termed as amagical moment. After all, it was thefirst time in the history of Chile that aTelugu film was going to be screenedand that happened to be MaheshBabu, Shruti Haasan starrer Sriman-thudu. Incidentally, just a week be-fore the film arrived on the shores ofChile, it was screened in BuenosAires, the capital city of Argentina.Coincidentally, Srimanthudu was thefirst Telugu film to be screened inArgentina. And the film whichopened the doors for Telugu moviesin South America was Baahubali,when it was screened in July in Mon-tevideo, Uruguay.Although Baahubali andSrimanthudu were screened justonce in these three cities in SouthAmerica, it's a huge leap forward forTelugu cinema and it's high time thatour filmmakers embrace this oppor-tunity to reach out to millions ofNRIs. Any filmmaker worth his saltwould vouch for the fact that the ob-

reakingarriers:

Why Telugu CinemaHas To Go Beyond ItsBorders

BThe success ofBaahubali and Srimanthudu in the international circuithas given a glimmer ofhope for Telugu filmindustry to chart newterritories across theworld. It's an opportu-nity which is too goodto let go for Telugu filmindustry, writes He-manth Kumar.

.


session which Telugu people have forcinema is unparalleled and thanks tothe IT industry, thousands of Teluguspeaking populace are spread all overthe world. Unfortunately, most of themlive in countries which aren't in theradar of the producers and distributorsin Telugu film industry. As a result, mostof these people end up relying on pi-rated content to stay abreast with ourfilms. Traditionally, most film producers havefocused on countries like the US, Aus-tralia and Middle Eastern countries likeUAE, Kuwait to rake on moolah outsidethe borders of India. With the market inthe US maturing to a stage where a goodfilm, starring an A-list actor like MaheshBabu, Prabhas and Pawan Kalyan, hasthe potential to amass more than $2million in under two weeks, it's nowtime for the film industry to focus onother countries like Canada, UK, SouthAfrica, Germany, France, Malaysia whichhave turned into viable markets for In-dian films, thanks to the popularity ofBollywood and Tamil Cinema. So what needs to be done? The first stepwould be to forget about short termgains. To quote an example, the pro-ducer of a popular Telugu film refusedto let his film be screened in NewZealand because the local distributorwasn't ready to pay what the producerwas expecting. The latter tried to reasonthat the Telugu speaking population inNew Zealand is quite low and that itwould be a risky proposition for him ifhe bought the film at an exorbitantprice, more than what he can afford.Hypothetically, if the film was allowedto be screened there, the distributorand the producer could have pocketed arespectable sum of 10,000-20,000 NewZealand dollars. Similarly, a group of In-dians had to move heaven and earth toget permission to screen Baahubali inUruguay. At this point, it would be improbablethat anyone is going to make profits inthe initial stage; however, that's no rea-son why films shouldn't be screened ina non-traditional market. It's a process,which could take years to succeed andonly in the long run will we see its bene-fits. A case in point - the theatricalrights of Rajinikanth starred Muthuwere sold for just $1 to a distributionhouse in Japan in the 90s. Today,Rajinikanth is a noted star in Japan, has

fan clubs on his name and severalJapanese tourists pay a visit to hishouse in India when they come to India. Another factor is the exorbitant costthat one has to bear to ship a film printor even a hard disk, which contains thefilm, to a far flung country, apart fromcoughing up thousands of dollars toscreen the film. As a result, the price ofthe tickets is hiked to make up for allthe additional overheads, which detersseveral people from watching the film infirst place. The third and the most important factoris the subtitles. It's high time that ourfilmmakers make it mandatory to addsubtitles to every film which is screenedoutside Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.And we could take a cue from Bolly-wood or even Tamil film industry, bothof which have been aggressively push-ing their content in foreign markets.And if anyone is still wondering why it'seven necessary to add subtitles, checkout scores of blogs and tweeters fromforeign countries on social media whohave an appetite for Telugu films. The

bottom line is that if Bollywood hasmanaged to reach out to so many peo-ple, there's no reason why Telugu filmindustry should hold itself back andmiss an opportunity.The success of Baahubali and Sri-manthudu has put the spotlight on Tel-ugu cinema, and there's a genuinecuriosity about the films that are com-ing out from the four film industries inthe South. With Baahubali's interna-tional version slated for release laterthis year, it's a million dollar question ifother filmmakers too would take a cuefrom the makers of Baahubali and reachout to a wider audience across the globebecause the time is right for us to flyhigh. And every time a Telugu film is in-deed screened in a foreign country or afilm festival, it would be a good enoughreason for us to celebrate.Hemanth Kumar

28 ANDHRAPRADESHMAGAZINE.COM OCTOBER 2015

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With an aim of providingquality education andgiving opportunities forstudents to developemployability skills among theUniversities and Colleges in thestate, the state government underthe leadership of Chief MinisterChandrababu Naidu intends to makeAndhra Pradesh a Knowledge Hub.“Education is very essential fordevelopment of the country anderadication of poverty. ThoughAndhra Pradesh stands at a goodposition in higher education, it islagging behind in primary educa-tion,” the Chief Minister once said.Now, receiving a huge fillip to hisdreams of making the state a Knowl-edge Hub, Bridge InternationalAcademies, a pre-primary and pri-mary education provider, has ex-pressed keen interest in partneringwith the state government.BIA co-founder and chief strategy of-ficer Shannon May called on ChiefMinister Naidu and expressed their

desire to be associated with the de-velopment of education system inthe state. She said BIA office wouldbe set up in Vijayawada and latershifted to the capital city ofAmaravati. The Chief Minister askedBIA to help support strengthen de-livery of early childhood education,improve education and praised itsefforts the world over and hoped itwill help bring about a change in ed-ucation system in AP. He said thatthe Group can use the low-cost tech-nology it has pioneered in, to radi-cally improve the learning outcomesthrough accountable delivery. Aboutthe Chief Minister, Shannon Maysaid, “It is rare to find a visionarylike Chief Minister Naidu who leadshis government with data-driven de-cision making, a leader who sees theimportance of school accountabilityin delivering learning outcomes forour children. We are looking forwardto serving as a partner to AndhraPradesh in the decades to come.”Bridge International Academies is

world’s largest and fast growinglow-cost education services providerworking with children from under-served communities for pre-primaryand primary education. It is backedby leading investors such as BillGates (Founder, Microsoft), MarkZuckerberg (CEO, Facebook), KhoslaVentures, IFC (World Bank Group),and others.Bridge International Academies cur-rently educates hundred thousandchildren in more than 400 schools inKenya, Uganda and Nigeria plans toforay into India with its proposedpartnership with the AP govern-ment. It follows a standardizedmodel for all its operations tostreamline costs and allow for scala-bility. They also claim to be focusedon collecting data at every step to as-sess and improve their programs.The instructional model used in theschools is direct instruction withcarefully prepared scripts for teach-ers to follow. Their schools are"cashless", i.e., there are no cash pay-ments. All payment, ranging from tu-ition fee payments by parents topaying for salaries and equipment, isdone using mobile phones.With this partnership between theGovernment of Andhra Pradesh andBIA, the education sector in the stateis all set to transform. The state gov-ernment has time and again shownits commitment of providing qualityeducation by bringing reforms, likee-learning which it is introducing inschools across all the13 districts inthe state, introduction of bio-metricsystem for monitoring mid-daymeals, higher transparency in educa-tion and punctuality of teachers. Inthis year’s budget, the state govern-ment has allotted a whoppingamount of Rs 16,000 crores for atransformation in the Education Sec-tor.

BIA TO HELP MAKE AP KNOWLEDGE HUBThe world's largest and fast growing low-cost pre-primary and primary education services provider partners with Andhra Pradesh to make the state a Knowledge Hub.

Shannon May, Co-founder & Chief Strategy Officer of Bridge International Academies meetsCM Naidu

OCTOBER 2015 ANDHRAPRADESHMAGAZINE.COM 29

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CM Chandrababu Naidu is an active socialmedia user. Many of you have been activelyfollowing his activities with admiration. Hereare a few snapshots from his Twitter account.

chief minister’ssocial network

Compiled by Shruti


Amazing Andhra Pradesh

LAMBASINGIthe Kashmir of AP


attractions:a Lambasingi is known for its picturesque natural beauty, impressive wa-terfalls, stunning valleys, and sprawling pepper and coffee plantations.These entire plantations are being cultivated since the British Regimein India. Coffee grown here is exported to the USA.a Snowfall, fall which can hardly be seen in the entire South India, can beseen in this place as temperatures go no higher than 10 °C. In winters,the temperatures drop to as low as 0 °C. Travellers to this region will beastonished to observe that the villages which are close (as close as even10-15 Kilometres) to Lambasingi have normal temperatures of be-tween 25-35 degrees.a Greenery and valleys are important areas that you can cover. Somespots are famous for trekking and adventure events like camping. How-ever, walking the area will give you more enjoyment as you will be ableto watch the natural beauty closer.

accommodationA trip of Lambasingi is that of absolute adventure. Andhra PradeshTourism has added Lambasingi into its Tourism map, in a bid to make thestate a Tourism Hub, APTDC is soon going to set up resorts and restaurantsas the place gains popularity. Currently, accommodation facilities are avail-able at Valley Resort and Haritha Mayuri in Araku and Haritha Hotel,Haritha Beach Resort and Haritha Jungle Bells in Vizag. The government-owned Haritha group of hotels have air-conditions suites, rooms and stan-dard rooms.

Shruti Mathur

how to reachLambasingi is well connected by roads. It is 107 kilometres fromVisakhapatnam, 19 kilometres from Chintapalle, 32 kilometres from Narsi-patnam and 154 kilometres from Balabhadrapuram. The nearest airport isthe Vishakhapatnam Airport. State buses and taxis are available to reachLambasingi from Vizag. It is well-connected via NH 5. The nearest railwaystation is Chintapalle, situated at a distance of 19 km from the town.

Imagine you are at a really calm placeand fog is spread in everywhere. Yousmell fresh air, see greenery every-where around you, and altogetherfind solace... Nestled at an altitude of 2,600 feetabove sea level, the tiny hamlet ofLambasingi is one of the coolest placesin Andhra Pradesh. A land once anony-mous and undiscovered, Lambasingiearned the sobriquet of ‘Andhra Kash-mir,’ with night temperatures oftenfalling to sub-zero level. Picturesquebeauty, dense foliage, chilled weatherand mist makes the places even moremysterious and amazing. Laden with rich natural beauty,Lambasingi has been a high tourist flowoff late. Wrapped in foggy climate, theplace also attracted many shutterbugsand nature lovers from across the coun-try.Lambasingi is also known as KorraBayalu (korra – stick, Bayalu - outside)in the local language this means “ifsomeone stays outside the house in theopen they will freeze like a stick.”The Andhra Pradesh Government inassociation with the Union Ministry ofTourism will give a facelift to the hill sta-tion. As part of the facelift planned, a re-sort will come up in an area of six acresat a cost of Rs 5 crore, and a botanicalgarden in an area of 37 acres at a cost ofRs 4 crore is also on the list. The AndhraPradesh Tourism Development Corpora-tion (APTDC) recently sent a detailedproject report (DPR) of the projects tothe Centre, which has assured to finan-cially support the corporation. The stategovernment, on its part, has supportedthe project by converting the forest andtribal land and transferring it to theTourism department to be used only fortourism development purpose.For a quick getaway to a pristine placeof scenic beauty, Lambasingi is bang on!

A hidden gem in South India,Lambasingi is a perfect getaway place, surroundedwith hills, dense forests andunbelievable flora and fauna.The only place to be coveredin a blanket of ice in AndhraPradesh, Lambasingi is a hillstation paradise of SouthIndia.


Ola Cabs has partnered Andhra Pradesh government toinvest Rs 150 crore and add 40,000 vehicles to its plat-form over the next three years. The proposed invest-ment will encourage driver entrepreneurship and createemployment opportunities in the state. Currently, Olahas over 10,000 vehicles on its platform in AndhraPradesh. Mobile technology-driven transportation appslike Ola can play a major role in creating job opportuni-ties for thousands of people in the state as well as pro-vide timely and efficient transportation for all.

In order to reduce dependency on hydro and thermalpower and promote non-conventional energy, the stategovernment has decided to implement various eco-friendly initiatives in seven major temples in the State.The government is keen on implementing the plan ofaction within the next six to nine months. The templesidentified under the project are: Kanaka Durga temple(Vijayawada), Varaha Narasimha Swami temple(Simhachalam), Satyanarayana Swamy temple (An-navaram), Venkateswara Swamy temple (DwarakaTiru-mala), Srikalahastheeswara temple (Srikalahasti), SriMallikarjuna Swamy temple (Srisailam) and VarasidhiVinayaka Swamy temple (Kanipakam).

Singapore-based Sembcorp Industries has commissionedthe second and final 660MW unit of the $1.5bn coal-fired power plant in the coastal town of Krishnapatnam.The 1,320MW power station, which is the first powerproject of Sembcorp in India, features two units. Each ofthe unit has a power generation capacity of 660MWwith the first unit already being operational since April.

Adelegation from China Railway 23rd Bureau Group Co.(International) Ltd. (CCRC) met Chief Minister Chan-drababu Naidu to outline the areas in which AndhraPradesh and CCRC could work together. Dong Fengie,General Manager, Overseas, CCRC said they are keen towork in sectors like railways, metro rail projects andmulti-purpose dam projects. The Chief Minister hasasked the CRCC executives to participate in the tender-bidding process for the metro rail in Vijayawada andVisakhapatnam. He also explained that there are nu-merous opportunities for investors in infrastructure, air-ports, ports and the housing sector in Andhra Pradesh.

To enhance the quality of education in colleges and uni-versities of the State, the Government of AndhraPradesh has decided to form a 3-member committeewhich will submit a report on October 1st by identifyingdeficiencies, indicating gaps in the higher education sys-tem and suggesting interventions to repair the highereducation system. The Chief Minister reprimanded offi-

cials for not making interventions to bring results andefficiency in the system. The Chief Minister said that theperformance of lecturers and every person in the sys-tem should be linked to the outcome. One of the firststeps, the Chief Minister said, should be to sensitizestaff and motivate them to work.

GPS will be installed in all 12,000 buses of Andhra PradeshState Road Transport Corporation before October 12 tomonitor their movement. The monitoring with GPS willenable the depot-level staff to inform the passengersabout the arrival and departure of buses in advance,which would ultimately improve occupancy. The APSRTCmanagement is focusing on improvement of occupancyof the buses from the existing 72 per cent. The manage-ment is also concentrating on fuel consumption effi-ciency from the existing 5.17 kmpl to 5.27 kmpl for eachbus.

More than 12 years after the foundation stone was laidin 2003, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu released

water from the Thotapalli Irrigation Project, turning thelong-cherished dream of the farmers of Vizianagaramand Srkakulam into reality. The Sardar GouthuLatchanna Thotapalli Project will irrigate an ayacut of1.35 lakh acres, besides stabilising 64,000 acre ayacut inVizianagaram and Srikakulam districts. Under phase-1,water will be released into the right canal to supply irri-gation water to 50,000 acres ayacut. The water to theremaining 85,000 acres will be supplied in a phasedmanner. The irrigation facility is already being providedto about 64,000 acres through the left canal of the proj-ect for the past few years.

Ateam of Japanese officials called on Chief MinisterChandrababu Naidu and evinced interest in financiallyaiding the development of Amaravati. During a meeting,they informed the Chief Minister that they would comeup with specific proposals to fund the development ofAP's capital city through the Japan Bank for Interna-tional Co-operation (JBIC). The delegation also said theywill come up with proposals to finance metro railprojects at Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada through theJapan International Co-operation Agency (JICA).

In an endeavour to promote collaboration with Interna-tional institutions in Higher Education, Thailand’s AsianInstitute of Technology (AIT) has agreed to transfer thetechnology and help in establishing Andhra PradeshFisheries and Ocean University. Bhimavaram-basedUddaraju Ananda Raju (UAR) Foundation of AnandaGroup of Companies has come forward to establishAndhra Pradesh Fisheries and Ocean University in West

HAPPENING AP


Godavari district. The new university, proposed underPublic-Private-Partnership (PPP) mode would beconstructed in about 150 acres. In this regard, UARFoundation has entered into a Memorandum of Agree-ment (MoA) with the AIT recently. The MoA betweenwill enable to hold orientation programmes and work-shops for aqua farmers.

The government of Andhra Pradesh is planning to intro-duce mobile veterinary services where veterinary doc-tors travel to treat animals in villages. This was decidedin a review meeting on Animal Husbandary, Livestockand Fisheries. Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu sug-gested the officials to take up another innovative idea ofentrusting the job of collecting data on livestock bytraining DWCRA women. This will not only help obtaindata on the number of livestock but also help assess themilk production from each animal.

With the Indian Start-up Ecosystem witnessing an un-precedented surge in investments, the Government of

Andhra Pradesh aims to make the state rise on theGlobal Start-up Map. In this direction, Chief MinisterChandrababu Naidu has recently launched the “Inte-grated Risk Guarentee Scheme for Support to Public Pri-vate Partnerships in Creating World-Class TechnologyBusiness Incubators (TBI).” Under this scheme, the gov-ernment plans to create five world-class incubators withRs 750 crore investment over the next four years. Thetotal investment will bring 500,000 Sq Ft of incubationinfrastructure across Andhra Pradesh creating a densitythat would create a mini silicon coast as the first corecluster of a start-up ecosystem. Areas targeted are fu-turist technologies like Mobile-Internet, Internet ofThings, Social Media, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC), Elec-tronics, Fabless Semiconductors etc. The selectionprocess is open throughout the year and non exclusive.

In order to strengthen the State Disaster Response Force(SDRF), the government will be spending a significantamount on training SDRF in rescue and relief operationsduring emergency situation. Further, the governmentalso plans to deploy around 600 personnel from theAndhra Pradesh Special Police (APSP) battalions on dep-utation in the SDRF. As part of this plan, new fire sta-tions will be set up in major cities and towns. Thesestations will also be used for disaster managementtraining facilities by NDRF personnel.

Inviting industrialists from Republic of Korea to invest inAndhra Pradesh, State Chief Secretary IYR Krishna Raosaid a Korea Desk would be set up to facilitate investors.Drawing upon the historical linkage between the two

countries, the Chief Secretary said the relations be-tween the India and South Korea was cultural and notcommercial and emphasised on the need to strengthenthe two millennia-old relationship that began withPrincess of Ayodhya marrying King of Korea in AD 48.

Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has appointed seniorIRS officer J Krishna Kishore CEO of AP Economic Devel-opment Board (APEDB). Kishore, who was till recentlyPS to TDP MP and Union aviation minister AshokGajapathi Raju, has been sent on deputation to the APgovernment for three years and will be the key man forattracting foreign investment to Andhra Pradesh. CMNaidu will be the chairman of this board and Kishorewill work closely with him. The APEDB seeks to ensureease of doing business in Andhra Pradesh and making itthe number one destination for investments. It seeks totake the state towards double digit growth.

In a significant development, which might enable rapid in-frastructure growth in power sector in Andhra Pradesh,the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), a publicsector company, has agreed to provide a loan assistanceof Rs 9,000 crore to APGenco for setting up of powerprojects in the State. An MoU was signed between AP-Genco and REC in the presence of Chief Minister NChandrababu Naidu in New Delhi. Out of loan, Rs 3,000crore would be used for setting up of 500 MW solarpower projects in Anantapur district and the remainingRs 6,000 crore would be used for transmission and dis-tribution network in AP like under-ground cabling, gasinsulated sub-stations, transmission and sub-transmis-sion system improvement.

Giving thrust to the Andhra Pradesh’s power sector, WorldBank has readied to provide Rs 2,400 crore financial aidto the state to take up reforms in the sector. That apart,Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has alsosanctioned Rs 295 crore for the implementation of HighVoltage Distribution System (HVDS) project to reducedistribution losses and provide quality power supply tothe agriculture sector in state. The state governmenthas effectively brought down T&D losses to 10.54 % byAugust this year against the 17.05 % recorded in 2010-11. Due to this, the state was able to save aroundRs 1,950 crore by adopting power saving reforms duringthe last 18 months. The Energy Department is now tar-geting to further reduce T&D losses between 5-6% onpar with international standards by 2016-17. The gov-ernment is also planning to invest Rs 27,000 crore in thepower sector in the coming years to ensure qualitypower supply to its consumers.

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34 ANDHRAPRADESHMAGAZINE.COM OCTOBER 2015

a Industry sector is a key growth driver of achieving Vision2029

a The sector has contributed 23% to GSDP (at constantprices) in the last decade

a Accounted for over 20% (Rs 1.07 lakh crore) of state’s GDPin last fiscal (2014-2015)

a Contribution in current FY expected to increase to Rs. 1.24lakh crore (15.87% increase)

Largest contributors to industry sectora) Construction – 41%b) Manufacturing (registered) – 30%

c) Manufacturing (unregistered) – 13%d) Mining & Electricity– 9%e) Water Supply & Gas – 9%

a Construction sector is the fastest growing at CAGR of over17.8% between 2004-05 and 2014-15

a Mining growing at a pace of 16.5%

a The Sector witnessed compound annual growth rate of11% during 2005-06 to 2014-15

a Industrial Sector is expected to contribute 25% to stateGDP by 2020

a 30% contribution of the sector is targeted for 2029

INDUSTRY SECTOR

INDUSTRY2013-14 – Rs 98,097 crores2014-15 – Rs 1, 07,224 crores2015-16 – Rs 1, 24,240 crores

CONSTRUCTION2013-14 – Rs 39,349 crores2014-15 – Rs 43,159 crores2015-16 – Rs 50,007 crores

MANUFACTURING (Registered)2013-14 – Rs 29,360 crores2014-15 – Rs 31,893 crores2015-16 – Rs 36,955 crores

MANUFACTURING (Unregistered)2013-14 – Rs 12,210 crores2014-15 – Rs 13,865 crores2015-16 – Rs 16,065 crores

ELECTRICITY, GAS & WATER2015-16 – Rs 10,598 crores

MINOR MINERALS2015-16 – Rs 7,284 crores

MAJOR MINERALS2015-16 – Rs 3,331 crores

GOVERNANCE TO THE PEOPLE

Though Hyderabad remains joint capital for many more years to come, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu hasdecided to function from Vijayawada to be closer to the people and the local adminstration. Accordingly, hehas been spending most of his time in make-shift offices in Vijayawada till he moved to the Camp Office. He

also leased out a temporary residence, through the facilities at the moment are very limited. Here are a few pics ofthe CM at the karmabhoomi.

Pic 1: Chief Minister moved to the new Camp Office at Vijayawada. Seen on the auspicious occasion are Deputy CM N China Rajappa, Minister Y Ramakrishnudu, MLA Balakrishna and Chief Secretary IYR Krishna Rao.

Pic 2: CM addressing the two-day Collectors’Conference held at Vijayawada.Pic 3: CM greeting Muslims on the eve of Bakr-Eid.

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Regd. No. H-HD-1082/2013-15 APENG/2007/20679Published on: 01/10/2015 Posting Dt: 6th

brahmotsavam - andhra pradesh · pdf filemotsavam are due because of adhika masam ......

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