Naidu releases report of Task Force on Economic Development for Swarna Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday unveiled the report of the Task Force on Economic Development for Swarna Andhra Pradesh @ 2047 as its Chairman in a programme jointly organised by the Government of Andhra Pradesh and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in New Delhi.

Co-chaired by TATA Sons Executive Chairman N. Chandrasekharan, the expert panel made a host of recommendations to the government on diverse sectors that had the potential to catapult it to the league of progressive States.

The task force stated in its report that India emerged as one of the fastest growing economies in the world and was expected to be a developed economy by 2047, but its journey towards a ‘Viksit Bharat’ by the 100th year of Independence hinged significantly on how the States perform individually and drive the economic growth agenda.

In this context, it had been noted that with the third longest coastline in the country and one of the largest land banks, Andhra Pradesh was at a comparative advantage to become one of the champions of the country’s overall goal of achieving around US$ 35 trillion target over the next two decades. A.P.’s economy had more than doubled to US$ 174 billion in 2023-24 from US$ 86 billion (at current prices) in 2014-15 in spite of the challenges posed by the bifurcation in 2014.

The task force felt that though there were some gaps to be filled, A.P. was well poised to take the leap in its developmental journey towards a Swarna Andhra Pradesh by 2047.

It was pointed out that the top 15 districts — Visakhapatnam, NTR, Tirupati, Krishna, Eluru, Nellore, Guntur, Anantapur, Kakinada, West Godavari, East Godavari, YSR, Sri Sathya Sai, Anakapalli and Prakasam — contributed as much as 72% to the State’s economy. They were expected to contribute nearly US$1.70 trillion to the State’s overall target of US$2.40 trillion in 2047.

The task force laid down industries such as food processing, marine and aquaculture, electronics, automotive, and life sciences sectors as the potential growth drivers, while noting that emerging opportunities, which included the blue economy, would give a fillip to the growth prospects.

In terms of enablers, it was recommended that the State needed renewed focus on quality education and skills development.

Towards restoring industry confidence, the task force suggested introduction of a legislative mechanism to protect already announced incentives and concessions, regardless of a change in political dispensation, prioritising the clearance of all overdue incentive pay outs to help restore industry’s faith in the system. 

Expressing concern that the State’s current fiscal scenario was a cause for concern, , the task force recommended to the government to set up an independent agency to monitor the compliance of fiscal responsibility legislation provisions, and a State Institutions of Transformation in collaboration with the NITI Aayog, to establish an independent public debt management cell in line with the recommendation of the Fifteenth Finance Commission, and to strengthen the State Finance Commission.

The experts said the government should leverage the Central government’s initiatives such as the Aspirational Districts Programme to facilitate healthy competition among districts, have a graded incentive structure for specific regions and a dedicated policy for accelerated creation of growth centres in the different regions, and reap the benefits of One District-One Product programme for promoting exports.