Lokesh On His Birthday Busied With Investment Hunting

The minister, whose birthday fell on Thursday, had as many as 45 engagements since the morning — a schedule that left many other worthies there visibly surprised.

Officials from the AP team said the young minister stayed glued to boardrooms and discussion tables at the World Economic Forum, holding talks with global industrialists well past Thursday night, underscoring a single-minded focus on bringing investments to the state.

The four-day WEF summit concluded Thursday with Lokesh emerging as one of the most active Indian faces at Davos. The Andhra Pradesh delegation, of which Lokesh was a part, was led by chief minister Chandrababu Naidu.

Participating in a high-level round-table organised by ReNew Power on the theme “Navigating Multiple Realities: Energy Diplomacy, Decarbonisation and Digitalisation”, the minister said, “The world is currently at a historic inflection point shaped by three powerful and interconnected trends — digitalisation, decarbonisation and de-globalisation.”

“These are no longer abstract ideas. They are real, parallel challenges that governments must manage simultaneously,” he observed.

The IT minister said digitalisation remained his core responsibility, noting that growth across artificial intelligence, data centres and digital public infrastructure was fundamentally technology-driven.

However, he cautioned that digital expansion “comes with a hard reality” — the massive energy demand. “Data centres, cloud platforms and AI compute cannot scale up without access to clean, reliable power,” he said.

Highlighting the state’s strengths, the minister said Andhra Pradesh has an estimated renewable energy potential of nearly 160 gigawatts, spanning solar, wind and pumped storage technologies. Unlike intermittent power, this capacity can support round-the-clock green electricity, making the state an ideal base not only for clean power generation but also for downstream green industries.

Referring to landmark projects, Lokesh said India’s first green ammonia terminal — also the world’s largest with a capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per annum —was coming up in AP and would be commissioned next year. The project, he noted, is a striking example of how digitalisation, decarbonisation and industrial transformation converge.

On de-globalisation, Lokesh clarified that it does not mean retreating from globalisation but restoring balance to global supply chains. Manufacturing, he said, is shifting from excessive concentration to resilience, diversity and trust.

The AP minister’s interactions included 25 one-on-one meetings with industrialists, two government-to-government discussions, four Congress sessions, eight round-table meetings and five international media interactions. During these, he showcased Andhra Pradesh’s resources, incentives, policy support and investment-friendly ecosystem.

Lokesh’s energetic push has already yielded tangible results. The RMG Group has agreed to invest $10 billion in AP. Drawing parallels with the previous WEF, where discussions eventually translated into investments worth `2.5 lakh crore in AP, the investor enthusiasm this year indicated the potential for at least double that figure, he felt.

Officials said the entrepreneurs were impressed by Andhra Pradesh’s citations of its speed of doing business, single-window clearances and the stable leadership of Chandrababu Naidu. Lokesh also highlighted the 25 industrial policies the present government framed, successfully pitching their benefits to global investors.

With Davos turning substantially into an investment festival for Andhra Pradesh, Lokesh wrapped up his visit on a high note and took a flight for Hyderabad. He’s expected to land there on Saturday morning.