Lokesh Courts Big Tech, Healthcare Firms for Andhra Pradesh Investments
Andhra Pradesh IT and HRD Minister Nara Lokesh met with top executives from several prominent companies, including Cisco Systems, Vivo India, Abbott, Mastercard Inc., SAP, Godrej Industries Group, and Yara International ASA. The meetings took place in New Delhi on Thursday as part of an effort to attract investments to the state.
Lokesh requested Harish Krishnan, Managing Director (India & South East Asia) of Cisco Systems, to set up a manufacturing unit for unified computing system servers, switches, and routers in Andhra Pradesh along with an Engineering Center / Global Capability Centre (GCC) in Visakhapatnam. He also noted that the state was already involved in various projects, including the Visakhapatnam Innovation Center, Tirupati Centre of Excellence, Vijayawada Smart City Project, and AP FiberNet.
Lokesh invited Arijit Sen, President of Vivo India, to explore the possibility of setting up a mobile component manufacturing unit in Tirupati and developing a Components Manufacturing Park for its suppliers. He also appealed to Ishteyaque Amjad, MD of Abbott (U.S.A.), to set up a medical devices / diagnostics manufacturing unit in one of the AP MedTech Zone / electronics manufacturing clusters in the State.
The Minister met Mastercard Inc. Vice-President Abhishek Lahiri and asked him to establish a GCC / Technology Center in Visakhapatnam, as well as join as a fintech advisory member in the Ratan Tata Innovation Hub (RTIH) to mentor and promote startups. He also discussed various other proposals with executives from SAP, Godrej Industries Group, and Yara International ASA.