Hyderabad--The rivalry between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana has reached the United States of America as the sons of chief ministers of both states have landed there to woo investors to the two new states. While N Lokesh Naidu, son of Andhra CM Chandrababu Naidu, landed in California on May 3, K T Rama Rao, IT Minister and son of Telangana CM K Chandrasekhara Rao, landed in New York today. Both the political heirs have MBAs from US—Lokesh from Stanford University, and K T Rama Rao from Baruch College-City Univerisity of New York.
Though Lokesh, 33, does not represent the AP Government nor is he an elected member, he has been tasked by the senior Naidu to build bridges with the large population of Andhra community in the US. Lokesh will meet investors and entrepreneurs and hard sell AP as the ‘Sunrise State’, seeking investments and also promote it as a industrial and manufacturing hub. He will attend meetings and functions organized by the local NRI groups.
Lokesh’s first meeting was in Los Angeles, where he was taken out in a procession of 100 limousines, for Smart Village-Smart Wards where he requested NRIs to adopt villages they hail from. Nearly 600 NRIs attended the meeting at Hotel Sheraton Cerritos and 126 persons signed up for adopting a village or ward. He also attended an event hosted by BluePointe Capital, attended by 90 niche investors in IT, ITES & Electronic Manufacturing. He also met Krishna Yarlagadda, head of Imagination Technologies. He would be visiting Austin, Texas, and New York, Washington DC, Chicago, New Jersey and Dallas. “Lokesh’s aim is to solicit the participation of Telugu NRIs in development in Andhra Pradesh by adopting villages and participation in Smart AP Programme launched by State Government,” a TDP leader said.
Indian Express
