Development over politics: Singapore's model and Naidu's vision for growth

As I was growing up, Lee Kuan Yew’s “Singapore story” was my favourite bedtime read. I remember being fascinated by how LKY combined steely resolve and a firm commitment to reform for transforming a sleepy harbour into one of the world’s most advanced city states. He believed that only the quality and vision of its leaders would make a country great. His life and journey have shaped my own ideas of leadership and reform. 

Singapore today wields significant clout in the world order as a model for urban development and social harmony, and as one of the leading sovereign investors. Singapore also holds a special place for our family. In the 1990s, my father and reformer Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu studied the urban planning model of Singapore to evolve the basic building blocks of new Hyderabad. As a young CM, Mr Naidu walked the streets of Singapore in the early hours of the morning, observing garbage disposal, and personally took notes to replicate it for Hyderabad. Hyderabad today still follows this blueprint and is among the cleanest cities in India. Over the years, I have travelled extensively to Singapore, my wife Brahmani has worked here, and our son Devansh admires Singapore as some sort of a futuristic wonderland! 

There are many areas in which India can learn from Singapore – from the high-quality social infrastructure to urban planning, and most of all, on framing public policy. There is an attention to detail in Singapore policy that leaves one amazed. For instance, Singapore regulations on construction activities are designed to ensure minimal inconvenience to the surrounding community. The developer needs to ensure that the construction site is completely barricaded with metal sheets with dust and noise barriers. Construction trucks leaving the site are required to wash their tyres before leaving the site. Trucks are required to ensure their tyres don’t leave dust marks on nearby roads as they leave. These are the standards of urban construction we need to achieve in India. Many of our Indian cities today have become large construction sites, with resulting dust resulting in high AQI levels. Given that property prices in Indian cities are comparable to Singapore, I see no reason why we can’t replicate Singapore’s construction regulation. 

Singapore is now the cosmopolitan capital of Southeast Asia, where different communities live in harmony. The best-in-class taxation framework, urban infrastructure and world-class universities have brought together the best talent from around the world to build a great city. Singapore also boasts a world-class civil service. They hire the best from the market by paying top salaries, often even poaching from the private sector. This is important for us to replicate – we can build a world-class country only when our civil service is world class. Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji is taking several important measures to reform the civil service, and I am sure this will be achieved in time. 

One of the oft-overlooked aspects of Singapore’s development is how they worked on social cohesion very early. Singapore is a mix of Malay, Chinese and Indian populace. LKY realised that bringing people together under a common Singaporean identity was essential for national progress. Several measures were taken to achieve this, and yet each subculture was allowed to find its space. Today, while Singapore blends into a common national identity, many metro stations still have signboards in multiple languages and there are little pockets like Chinatown and little India where each community flourishes with pride. This can be an effective model for a multicultural society like India. 

An important lesson from Singapore is that to achieve sustained growth, we need to set politics aside and work together as one country. In Mr Naidu’s last term, we had achieved significant progress in bringing a world-class Singapore consortium to build our greenfield capital city Amaravati. The successor government embarrassed both Andhra Pradesh and India by cancelling the project in 2020 and taking back the allotted land. This avoidable event has been cited as one of the low points in the India-Singapore relationship and a stark reminder that if we want to grow in a sustained manner, we need to relegate petty politics to the backseat. Given this history, we need to work with more resolve and clarity and purpose than ever before. 

This week, as team Andhra Pradesh sets out on a roadshow in Singapore under the leadership of our Chief Minister Mr Naidu, we aim to restore our strong relationship and invite leading corporates and funds to India. Our approach will be India first, and Andhra Pradesh next. Singapore is the largest foreign direct investor for India, and sovereign funds Temasek and GIC are deeply invested in Indian renewable energy, infrastructure, data centres and real estate. Andhra Pradesh, with its upcoming Amaravati capital city, renewable energy targets and the Vizag “Data City” project, is a perfect landing point for Singapore capital. It gives me great pride that Andhra Pradesh houses the GIC-platform Greenko’s $4.2 billion Pinnapuram renewable energy complex, combining 5,000 solar and wind energy, with 1,680 Mw of pumped hydro storage. More such collaborations are the need of the hour. Singapore capital, Indian entrepreneurship and Mr Naidu’s leadership — this is the magic mantra for Andhra Pradesh’s growth. This historic visit from Andhra to Singapore is not just a transaction but a transformation. We aim to build not just infrastructure and data centres, but trust and a shared future. 

The writer is minister for human resource development in the Andhra Pradesh government