Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has sent letters to the chief executives of IT, BPO and electronics majors in the US and other Western countries, inviting them to invest in the State.
“The letter indicates the opportunities available in the new State and the benefits companies will get when they set up their bases here. We have already written to Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella last month, asking him to set up base in Andhra Pradesh,” a senior official told Business Line .
If the combined State generated revenues of ₹64,354 crore last year (mostly from Hyderabad), the share of cities in present AP was only ₹1,629 crore.
Starting off virtually from scratch, the Government on Monday explained to IT entrepreneurs how it wants to grow the industry. IT Minister Palle Raghunatha Reddy and Principal Secretary (Industries) JVS Prasad participated in the meeting.
The State, which will get special incentives as part of the Bifurcation Act, will come out with an industrial policy in the next two weeks. “We will come out with attractive propositions, including allotment of land. We will set up a mega IT hub on 3,000 acres,” the IT Minister said.
The Minister told Business Line after the meeting that the Government would focus on the hubs of Visakhapatnam, Kakinada, Vijayawada-Guntur, Tirupati and Anantapur.
“We will develop these hubs as the Silicon Corridor of the country. Anantapur, being just 100 km from the Bangalore International Airport, will help us attract investments,” the Minister said.
Start-up villageEntrepreneur Satish Andra will establish a start-up village on the lines of the one at Kochi.
“We will set up an Incubation Centre for Entrepreneurs (ICE) to encourage start-ups in the new State. A ₹100-crore fund is planned, in association with the Centre, public and private investors, to promote start-up activity.
“This will provide seed funding for young entrepreneurs in the range of ₹10-20 lakh,” IT Secretary Sanjay Jaju said.
The ICE has set itself a target of incubating at least 500 start-ups by 2019.