Andhra Pradesh, the Sunrise State

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra PradeshThe Sunrise State of Andhra Pradesh is one of the fastest growing States in India with GSDP of 7% in 2013-14 to 11.2% in 2017-18.

The State is seen as the gateway for the growing markets and promising opportunities, opening its doors for investments in various sectors. Besides rolling the red carpet to big ticket companies, the State is also encouraging Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) by giving them attractive incentives. A thrust to the IT sector is being given in Amaravati, Visakhapatnam, Anantapur, Tirupati and Godavari districts.

AP VISION 2029

Vision 2029 charts out an ambitious path for Andhra Pradesh to be amongst the top three States in India by 2022 and a developed State measured in terms of citizen life satisfaction and Happiness Index by 2029. Come 2050, the Sunrise State of Andhra Pradesh aims to be among one of the most prominent investment destinations in the world.

KEY MILESTONES

Key Milestones

The government has taken it on a priority basis to develop the IT sector in the State, so given the much-needed boom to the IT jobs market. The State has witnessed creation of 40,109 jobs in IT sector since 2014 and is expected to add another 72,278 jobs in near future.

FOCUSED APPROACH IN VISAKHAPATNAM

 Visakhapatnam has been attracting huge investment proposals because of its connectivity, infrastructure and cosmopolitan city status. In a significant development, Google X has also agreed to establish its first development center outside America in Visakhapatnam. The approach road for a world-class IT township is under development at Kapulapada where the government has earmarked 400 acres for a new layout.

DEFINING FACTORS

Defining Factors

Under the Government of India’s BPO Promotion Scheme, the city has bagged highest number of seats in first phase. The second phase allotment is under process. The current incentive structure, talent availability and infrastructure facilities will go a long way in attracting more investments to the city.

DESTINATION FOR BANKING AND FINANCE

The Government of Andhra Pradesh (GoAP) has a motto of “Visible Governance, Invisible Government”. In line with this, Andhra Pradesh has always been at the forefront of deploying innovative and new advanced technologies in governance. In fact, we are the first fully digital government in the country, and with innovative initiatives such as Real Time Governance Society (RTGS), we have reinforced our leadership position in digital transformation of governments. Further, GoAP has aligned its focus on creating a pro-development environment that stimulates growth across sectors and achieves common goals within stipulated timelines.

The Sunrise State is emerging as India’s first blockchain Hub; aiming to transform Visakhapatnam as a world class Fintech ecosystem bringing government, academia, corporates, investors and entrepreneurs together.

Fintech Ecosystem

On the policy front, the State has created a robust policy framework to promote IT/ITeS and Electronics sectors, including Consolidated IT Policy, Electronics Policy, DTP Policy, GIC Policy, IIT Policy, Cybersecurity policy, Innovation and Startup policy, AI Cloud Hub Policy, and Animation Visual Effects and Gaming Policy.

These policies, along with our country’s leading practices in Ease of Doing Business, where we have been ranked #1 for two consecutive years in 2016 and 2017, have enabled Government of Andhra Pradesh to attract investments from marquee names in Fintech such as Conduent, HDFC, Franklin Templeton Investments, Paytm, Cardlytics, Paytm, ICICI, Broadridge, Mastercard Mahindra Finance, Black Cactus Global Technologies, Conduent.

Visa has also collaborated with GoAP to develop Visakhapatnam into India’s first ‘Less Cash’ City. GoAP’s digital initiatives combined with strong policy frameworks have also facilitated consistent double-digit growth rates for the State. In 2016-2017, the State has witnessed economic growth of 11.61%, compared to 10.95% in 2015-16, while the per capita income has increased from $1,517 to $1,990 during the same period.

To ensure sustainable accelerated growth, GoAP is focused on creating a conducive business environment to attract investments from companies and wants to ensure that the local population can derive maximum benefits from the influx of such investments.

The Government of Andhra Pradesh (GoAP) has identified Fintech Valley Vizag as a high priority impact project for the State, with the potential to create tremendous growth and employment opportunities.

The Fintech Valley, a Government of Andhra Pradesh initiative, in Vizag is a self-sustainable global Fintech ecosystem where global financial services companies, government and academia come together in this valley to build capacity, infrastructure, market access, connectivity, funding channels, and incentive mechanisms to achieve unmatched business goals and successes.

Further, GoAP understands the need of creating a critical mass of talent pool to support the fintech and banking ecosystem, in making Andhra Pradesh a Knowledge Economy focused on advanced technologies.

GoAP has set up the Andhra Pradesh Information Technology Academy (APITA) and Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) to address and bridge gaps in skillset among graduates and develop an industry-ready talent force.

Further, the State established the International Institute of Digital Technologies (IIDT) to train and equip students in advanced digital technologies such as blockchain, machine learning, robotic process automation and analytics.

To provide the right mentorship to advanced technology start-ups, a global fintech core group has been set up with industry experts to provide guidance and interact with start-ups to mentor them in building sustainable start-ups and, in turn, build a robust start-up ecosystem for the State.

GoAP also has created the largest repository of use cases (for banks, regulators or government) in the world. This market access is nothing but the use cases that many financial companies have put forward for startups in Fintech Valley Vizag.

The State of Andhra Pradesh has an already existing 50 million connected user base market, providing a readily available market base for the start-ups.

GoAP aims to create a platform to connect start-ups with this user base. The Government of Andhra Pradesh is supporting banking and financial institutions for setting up operations or for expansion of business by providing the following incentives:

  • Regulatory support and incentives
  • Access to local and global investors
  • Leverage learning from mentors
  • Access to professional services providers (e.g. tax, recruitment)
  • Access to talent pool
  • Access to corporate partners
  • Access to physical and technical infrastructure

At the recently held Vizag Fintech Festival, GoAp has signed MoUs with CII, HDFC, Deloitte, Whub, SOSA from Israel, Wadhwani Foundation, Udhyam Association, FinTech Association of Hong Kong, UK-based Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (CISI) to galvanise fintech corporates and start-ups, provide the necessary resources, and, in turn, help in nurturing and promoting Indian Fintechs/Insurtechs by developing a launchpad environment and support system that will enable them to thrive and flourish.

The Government of Andhra Pradesh aims to develop Vizag as a Fintech innovation valley with the intent of making Visakhapatnam the Fintech epicenter of the world. The Government of Andhra Pradesh is going all out to create the best ecosystem for Fintech development in the city and providing incentives to entrepreneurs in the field.

GoAP is focused on being the best in class in terms of implementation of blockchain and other advanced financial technologies to attract financial institutions and banks to invest and make the State of Andhra Pradesh as their business destination.

IT LANDSCAPE IN THE STATE

The city, which registered a turnover of approximately Rs 2,600 cr, during the financial year 2017-18 is further pushing to increase the turnover to Rs 3,500 cr at the end of 2018- 19.

Visakhapatnam has prominent IT players such as Wipro, Tech Mahindra, HSBC, Concentrix, IBM and Cyient. The city boasts of providing 12,000 jobs in the IT and IT enabled service sector and is estimated to add more than 20,000 jobs within a year.

The city has experienced BPO talent pool serving F&A, Healthcare, Telecom Industry, HRO in voice and non-voice processes.

BPO HubIT landscape

 

 

 

 

IT RELATED POLICIES

 IT policy is based on key four pillars namely, Human Capital, Infrastructure, Incentives and above all, a system of Good Governance. The policy envisages abundant investment opportunities for the industry, employment generation and enhancing productivity and competitiveness.

IT INCENTIVES

The Sunrise State of Andhra Pradesh, with a keen emphasis on creating 1 lakh IT jobs by 2019-end, is offering best in class incentives to IT companies. The State also initiated various skill development programmess and ranks #1 in employable talent in India.

Andhra Pradesh Integrated Innovation and Technology Policy

AP IT Policy

AP DTP Policy

 

 

 

 

FISCAL INCENTIVES & NON FISCAL INCENTIVES

Fiscal IncentivesNON FISCAL INCENTIVES

 

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