Andhra CM Naidu meets industrial giants

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu interacted with several industrial giants at the Taj Palace here on Monday and explained the ecosystem available in the state for investments.

The topmost industrialists of the country participated in interaction with the Andhra Chief Minister. The Economic Development Board has taken the initiative to make the interaction programme a success.

The Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board signed MoUs with industrial groups, including Retailers Association of India, for the growth of retail section in the state. The MoU was signed by EDB CEO J Krishna Kishore and Kumar Rajagopalan, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Retailers Association of India in the presence of Naidu.

The total retail market in India is Rs. 47 lakh crore and is growing at seven per cent. A significant share of the market remains untapped by modern retail and this presence is a huge opportunity for India, especially Andhra Pradesh.

Another MoU was signed with Hikvision India, which is one of the world's leading providers of innovative video surveillance products and solutions.

At first, Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Group met the Andhra Chief Minister as a courtesy call. Later, Nadir Godrej, the Managing Director (MD) of Godrej group met Naidu and discussed the company's expansion plans in Andhra Pradesh.

Sangeeta Prasad of Mahindra World City met Naidu and explained about the group's world city projects in Chennai and Jaipur. She reflected on the 'happy city concept'. The Andhra Chief Minister enquired about employment generation in the projects.

Aditya Birla group chairman Kumara Mangalam also met Naidu and explained about the infrastructure development projects.

Neel Chandru Raheja, the president of Raheja group, an expert in construction of hotels and convention centres and malls, explained about their plans and employment opportunities to about 6,000 to 10,000 youth to Naidu. The latter asked the group to construct big convention centres and malls at Tirupati, Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada, including a small outlet mall at Anantapur. He also requested the group to impart training to youth in hotel management.

Balakrishna Goenka, the chairman of Welspun, said that they are ready to enter into a joint venture in the cultivation of organic cotton with the farmers of Andhra Pradesh on a buyback mode. He further assured that farmers would get 33 per cent more yield and more than the MSP.

Goenka lauded Naidu and said that the country needs a dynamic leader like him for development and vision.

Meanwhile, Purnendu Chatterjee of Haldia group made a proposal to set up a unit in Andhra Pradesh to provide employment to five lakh people.

Also, Vikas Deep Gupta of Piramal group, a financial management group, Mangal Prabhat Lodha of Lodha group, Subhas Chandra of Essel group and Venkat Subrahmanian, MD of St Gobain India Limited, met Naidu in a one-to-one meeting and discussed on the project proposals.