ఆంధ్రప్రదేశ్ మంత్రి నారా లోకేష్ అమెరికాలో జరిగిన ఇండియా-యూఎస్ స్ట్రాటజిక్ పార్టనర్షిప్ సమ్మిట్లో పాల్గొన్నారు. ద్వైపాక్షిక సంబంధాలు, ఇన్నోవేషన్, టెక్నాలజీ, ఇన్వెస్ట్మెంట్ అవకాశాలపై చర్చలు జరిగాయి. భారత-అమెరికా వ్యాపార సంబంధాల బలోపేతం దిశగా ఇది కీలక అడుగుగా భావిస్తున్నారు.
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00:04Can I request people in the back, just please pay some attention?
00:12Please, at least a courtesy to the minister, spend some time there.
00:19Thank you so much.
00:20Are we on?
00:21Yeah.
00:22First, as Mukesh said, it's really a pleasure to be here.
00:26And thank you, John, and thank you, Mukesh, for your leadership with U.S. ISPF.
00:32I'm thrilled to be here with you, Mukesh.
00:35Let me first start off by saying,
00:38So, you know, I have to show a little bit of my Telugu because, as he knows, I also grew up in Hyderabad,
00:48and we have a lot in common, both in terms of spending time in Hyderabad as well as spending time in the Bay Area.
00:54I'll start off with a little bit of a story, and then maybe I'll get into the questions for him.
01:01When I left 40 years ago for the United States, I was in this small town called Hyderabad and Sikandrabad.
01:09It was the twin cities.
01:11And when I left and I went to the U.S., virtually nobody knew where Hyderabad was on the map in terms of where it was in India.
01:20But it was the vision of Shri Naidu that by the time I came back a few years ago,
01:27and I think that vision that was created to put Hyderabad on the map,
01:43what I've heard from you and what I see is a vision to even eclipse that with what you're doing in Andhra Pradesh, in Amravati.
01:52And so why don't I first start off and give you the opportunity to just talk about your vision,
01:58your father's vision, and as you said, you're actually a third generation in terms of giving back to the community.
02:04So with that, why don't you start?
02:07Thank you, John. Thank you, Mukesh, for having me here.
02:10Shantanu ji, thank you very much for hosting the Fireside Chat.
02:15For those of you who don't know me, I'm Lokesh Nara.
02:19I am the HRD IT Electronics Minister for the state of Andhra Pradesh.
02:23A little bit of my background, I did my bachelor's at Carnegie Mellon, worked at the World Bank.
02:28A Stanford MBA, came back to the family business.
02:32We run one of India's largest private sector dairy company.
02:36Then my wife came back from Stanford, kicked me out of the business.
02:39I ended up in politics in 2013.
02:42I'm a third generation politician, second generation entrepreneur,
02:46and I'm enjoying what I'm doing.
02:48And I keep telling my wife, you know, in business, what I could have done in a lifetime,
02:53I get to do it in five years in Indian politics.
02:56So that's a bit of my background.
02:59The state that I represent is a $180 billion economy,
03:03aspiring to be a $2.4 trillion economy.
03:07The government was voted in in the last 17 months back.
03:13We've attracted, so far, $120 billion worth of commitment.
03:18All that is getting grounded as we speak.
03:21Two of the marquee investments which we are particularly proud of,
03:23one is, of course, Google, who have invested close to,
03:28who are now investing close to $15 billion.
03:31And this is India's single largest FDI investment ever.
03:35So we are particularly proud of that.
03:38Second one, of course, is Asler Mittal building India's largest steel city
03:41in Vishakhapatnam, south of Vishakhapatnam.
03:45And this got closed over a Zoom call.
03:48So speed of doing business is our unique selling point.
03:53But I'll give you two more reasons why you should consider Andhra Pradesh.
03:57First one, of course, is speed.
03:58The second one being our leader.
04:00Mr. Naidu has a track record of building cities.
04:04And we are out to do it all over again, this time at a state scale.
04:08Third is, in India, I'm sure you would have heard of double-engine Sarkar,
04:12which is the federal and the state government being from the same political establishment.
04:16Yes, there are quite a few double-engine Sarkar states,
04:18but there's only one double-engine bullet train Sarkar.
04:22And that is in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
04:25Under the leadership of the Honorable Prime Minister,
04:31Under the leadership of the Honorable Prime Minister, Narendra Modi ji,
04:34Andhra Pradesh is spearheading all the reforms that Government of India wants us to deliver.
04:40All of you would have heard the term Namo.
04:43That's Narendra Modi.
04:45No, no, no. It's Naidu and Modi ji.
04:49So we have the Namo in Andhra Pradesh.
04:52If you're not yet sold on investing in Andhra Pradesh,
04:55I think after the fireside chat, I look forward to catching up.
04:58Thank you very much.
05:00Well, thanks a lot. And again, may I please ask the people at the back
05:03to give our chief guest the honor of listening to him.
05:07Maybe if you are next to somebody who's talking,
05:10you can just put them on the spot and ask them to stop talking.
05:13But let me start off with something that you talked about, namely speed of doing business.
05:19And everybody talks about the opportunity in India.
05:23But one of the issues is that they talk about, you know, the speed is not always what it needs to be.
05:28And you've given two examples, whether it's Google with 13 months or our slow middle.
05:32So tell me how you're accomplishing the aspect of not only attracting people and the momentum is incredible,
05:40but this aspect of doing speed.
05:43What is different and how are you in Andhra Pradesh making sure that you continue to focus on that?
05:48No, I mean, it's technology and people.
05:51Technology comes in where we are looking at policies.
05:53We are using AI to compare it to other states.
05:57We are looking at coming up with best in class policy.
06:01The second part is, as a company, once you apply, we actually compare your application with other applications using AI.
06:09And looking at how can we give best in class incentives and attract you to Andhra Pradesh.
06:13The second part, the other side of the coin is, you know, people.
06:19Relationships matter.
06:21And if you look at Mr. Naidu and his track record, for now almost four and a half decades.
06:26He has an amazing Roledex.
06:29And we're just leveraging upon it.
06:31And once we shake hands that we are going to invest in Andhra Pradesh,
06:35it's no longer your project, it becomes our project.
06:38And I'm sure partners here who have already looked at Andhra Pradesh know it.
06:41We create a WhatsApp group.
06:44I'm sure Matai is happy with me mentioning WhatsApp here.
06:47We create a WhatsApp group and then we are in touch, we follow it through.
06:51Anywhere things get stuck, we are very frank and open with each other
06:55and we sort of look at how can we sort of streamline it.
06:58And it's a great lesson that as a state we can learn.
07:01So the next partner who's coming to our state doesn't go through the same process all over again.
07:05I think a big reason why India actually has been so successful on the global stage
07:10is to your point the investment in education.
07:14And in the past that used to be engineering institutes which were world famous.
07:18But I was inspired to hear that you're talking actually about AI literacy
07:23and what you're doing to make sure that it's the next generation of skills that you're investing in.
07:27Maybe you can share with people a little bit more about how you're doing this in a field that is so evolving as we speak, namely in AI.
07:37Honestly, all of us are learning.
07:40It's clear that AI and then quantum is the next frontier for us.
07:44So as earlier I was telling, we are very focused on the cluster based approach where we look at not only bringing in the companies but the entire ecosystem associated with it.
07:57And education plays a very important role.
07:59So we're using AI as a tool of course to impart education but we're also working with the industry to revamp curriculum in all our colleges and universities.
08:07And I'm working hard, hopefully I'll be able to get it through, is to recreate the ISB model for the AI university.
08:17I believe that is going to enable us to lead from the front.
08:21And I think you'll be pleasantly surprised that Mr. Naidoo has been talking about skill senses.
08:27While other political parties talk about caste senses, we're talking about skill senses.
08:32It's easier said than done because we need to skill assess across multiple traits.
08:38You know Mr. Naidoo is a great visionary, I mean all of us can accept that.
08:42But then execution falls on people like me.
08:45So he said skill senses, I said great, I was so excited, I tried it and I failed the first time.
08:50I did it in my own constituency.
08:52But now you'll be surprised to hear we're using AI.
08:55So if you're an AC mechanic, we're using conversational AI to assess your skill level.
09:00We're asking like tell me a problem and then how you went about solving the problem.
09:06So we are able to assess a carpenter, an AC mechanic to an AI engineer.
09:12And then create this entire ecosystem where skill, you know, up gradation or skill development if I may, is tailor made.
09:20So I think that's what makes Andhra Pradesh again very unique in the way we're doing things.
09:24The ambition that you have shown in creating a brand new city, I mean I think we all have to go back to maybe Chandigarh being the last city that was actually a planned city in terms of creation.
09:36To even think about creating a brand new city with the infrastructure that you're trying to invest in Amravati, I mean that is an incredibly daunting task.
09:48Maybe you can speak a little bit to the scale of what you're trying to do in Amravati and you know how that's proceeding.
09:53See, Mr. Naidu has a track record of building cities.
09:58And as you shared, Hyderabad, Sikhandrabad, Saibrabad.
10:01It's a very similar model.
10:02So you have Vijayawada, Guntur and then you have Amravati now coming up.
10:06So when the state got split, we were capital-less.
10:10So we had to go about figuring out where we would position our new capital.
10:13So this is right off the banks of River Krishna.
10:18And this is a city designed, planned by Singaporeans.
10:23They brought in a lot of their expertise, their knowledge.
10:26And then we're working with the Government of India on various funding models.
10:30We're done with the first part.
10:32So we're going about executing it.
10:34Because honestly, it's India's time.
10:36As John has said, India is either going to be number one, if we don't do our job right, number two.
10:44We as in politicians.
10:47We have a potential to be number one.
10:50That means we need to build new cities.
10:53While existing cities are getting choked, we should use the existing infrastructure but build new ecosystems.
11:00What we've done is we've made farmers part of the entire ecosystem.
11:03So 30,000 farmers came forward, gave their land, we pooled all the land, created all the infrastructure,
11:11developed land back to them and part of it to the state.
11:15So I believe this is a model that's workable.
11:17And this is a model that I believe that could lead the way for India to build new cities and ecosystems.
11:23I always say that when I grew up, you know, people used to say, go west, young man.
11:27I really believe that today, if anybody is growing up in the U.S., you'd say, go east, young man.
11:34But maybe just a message to the people here in terms of those who are considering investment in India and in Andhra Pradesh.
11:42You know, why you think, as you pointed out, it's India's time.
11:45And then I don't know if we have time for a few questions, but I'd just like to give you this opportunity to tell them all the things that you've been sharing with us as a board of what's exciting and happening.
11:57I'm sure quite a few of you are from California.
12:01So you think about Andhra Pradesh as California of the East.
12:04So we have an amazingly long coastline, a beautiful city's ecosystem getting built across the state.
12:13For people who have followed Hyderabad and its growth trajectory, there's a leader who has a track record and are sharing with the board that it is India's time.
12:23And in India, it is Andhra's time.
12:26What you're seeing is history getting created in front of your eyes.
12:29It could be with Google.
12:30It could be the project we have done with Meta.
12:32It could be the investment that Asalur Mittal is now doing.
12:36We are creating history.
12:38And I request all of you to come, visit us, see what we are doing.
12:43And please don't miss this bus.
12:46Together we can create history.
12:48And coming back to John, India will be number one.
12:51The question is, can we do it before 2047?
12:56With that agenda, please come, visit us, and we'll make it a worthwhile trip together.
13:03Thank you so much.
13:04Do we have time?
13:06If there's any questions?
13:08Okay.
13:09Do you have a few more minutes to ask?
13:10Okay.
13:11Thank you, sir.
13:12Thank you, sir.
13:13Hi.
13:14Arun Deep here from the Hindu newspaper.
13:17I'm just curious.
13:18A lot of states in their electronics and semiconductor manufacturing plants are talking about how much the diaspora coming back,
13:28is helping them in terms of, you know, experts who are abroad.
13:29So, in Andhra, what has been the role in this industrial renewal of people who have spent a long time in the U.S. coming back and being part of this new growth story?
13:42No, that's a very valid question.
13:43Brain drain to brain gain, if I may.
13:44I think that was your question.
13:45Now, we are seeing a lot of interest for youngsters who spend a decade or less than a decade in the West looking for people who are helping them in terms of, you know, experts who are abroad.
13:57And with the kind of ecosystems and clusters that we are building, I've shared with the board that, we are looking at a very decentralized development.
14:12And if there's something that we can learn from our neighbors, it's the power of cluster.
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