With his state having clinched some high-profile investment deals of late, Andhra Pradesh’s IT and HRD Minister N Lokesh Naidu is not shying from taking jibes at neighbours. On Tuesday, the state government announced that Google will invest $15 billion over five years to set up an artificial intelligence (AI) data centre at Visakhapatnam – its biggest investment yet in the country.
In response, Karnataka IT Minister and Congress leader Priyank Kharge said that the incentive package offered to Google by Andhra Pradesh was an economic disaster.
Andhra Pradesh has been trying to attract IT companies to the state after losing Hyderabad to Telangana, while Bengaluru continues to grow as the country’s IT capital. On Wednesday, Raymond Group announced that it would invest close to Rs 1,000 crore in the state with its subsidiary JK Maini Global Aerospace Limited.
“They say Andhra food is spicy. Seems some of our investments are too. Some neighbours are already feeling the burn! If other states are inefficient, what can I do? I urge them to focus on fixing issues like pothole-ridden roads and power cuts. We are the only double-engine bullet train government in India,” Lokesh wrote on X on Tuesday.
His jibe comes at a time when the Karnataka government is feeling the heat from industry leaders on the state of public infrastructure there. Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and Karnataka ministers have been engaged in a spat over her posts on Bengaluru’s poor roads and garbage management. While speaking to mediapersons about Shaw’s tweets, Kharge, who said that constructive criticism was welcome, was asked if Google preferred Andhra Pradesh over Bengaluru due to the civic issues.
“They will only tell you about the investment amount… they will not tell you the push they are giving to get those investments. They will not say that they offered Rs 22,000 crore in incentives, 25 per cent discount in land and water costs, 100 per cent SGST reimbursement. Transmission (power) is free. They are making tall claims, yet people from Andhra Pradesh are coming here for jobs,” Kharge responded.
Kharge, however, came under fire from the opposition Janata Dal (Secular), which said, “While AP brings in $15 billion Google AI hub, Kharge seems more invested in Twitter spats than in attracting investors. Maybe fixing power cuts, corruption and bad infra would help more than hashtags. And Deputy CM, your deadlines on potholes and Bengaluru infra sound great… sadly, they never make it past the press conference.”
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Even as Nara Lokesh took aim at his neighbours, former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSRCP slammed current CM and his Lokesh’s father N Chandrababu Babu over his “propaganda machinery making false claims on development and IT sector”.
YSRCP general secretary Gadikota Srikanth Reddy said, “The big claims of Chandrababu Naidu and Lokesh Naidu on IT and data centre are false and mere hype. They are not going to create as many jobs as is being peddled by the CM and his son. Costly land is being given for free to these IT companies. During his earlier terms, too, Chandrababu made such claims when the reality was otherwise. Karnataka and other states made great progress, but there, no CM has made such claims.”
