People walk in front of the congress center where the World Economic Forum take will place, on the eve of the event in Davos. (AP)The Andhra Pradesh Government announced on Monday night that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Adani Green Energy at the World Economic Forum’s annual meet in Davos regarding an investment of Rs 60,000 crore in the state. The initiative includes a 3,700-MW hydro storage project and a 10,000-MW solar energy project, a statement from the chief minister’s office stated.
The MoU was signed by special chief secretary Karikal Valaven on behalf of the state and Ashish Rajvamshi for the Adani Group, in the presence of Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and Adani Group chairman Goutam Adani at the AP Pavilion. The two projects will provide employment opportunities to around 10,000 people directly and indirectly, the statement said.
CM Reddy also interacted with the heads of Tech Mahindra and Dassault Systemes, the statement said. Tech Mahindra CEO and MD C P Gurnani said that his company would collaborate with the Andhra Pradesh government in the field of skill development. The chief minister wants to develop Visakhapatnam as a technology hub with a focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and sought investments in that sector, he said. In three months, we will be working with Andhra University in drafting a syllabus for high-end technology for skill development, he said.
Executive vice-president of Dassault Systems Florence Verzelen also interacted with CM Reddy. “We had meaningful talks with the chief minister on skill development and new age energy. We are interested in investing in the education sector and are looking forward to partnering with the state of Andhra Pradesh,” she said, according to the statement.
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PremiumPremiumLater, a Swiss parliament member of Indian origin Niklaus-Samuel Gugger, along with his team, met the chief minister and discussed trade opportunities in Andhra Pradesh.
Others who met the chief minister include Mitsui OSK Lines president Takeshi Hashimoto and Hero Group CMD Pawan Manjul. Hashimoto said that they discussed opportunities in the areas of shipping and logistics. “The chief minister explained that Andhra Pradesh has great potential and we plan to expand our Indian operations as the state has a long coastline,” the statement quoted Hashimoto. The four new seaports coming up in the state make the atmosphere more conducive, it added.
Meanwhile, the Hero Group CMD discussed the expansion plans in the state. CM Reddy asked business leaders to explore trade opportunities in the state with shipping and logistics and the setting up of a bioethanol plant.
On the second day of the summit on Monday, CM Reddy participated in a group discussion on future-proofing health systems and made a presentation on healthcare being implemented in the state through Arogyasri. The CM said that as per the healthcare policy in place, at the micro-level, a village with a population of 2,000 will have a village clinic manned by health workers who will refer sick people to primary health centres manned by at least four doctors. At the macro level, teaching hospitals will take care of the curative part of the healthcare, he said, adding that the state has 11 teaching hospitals and 16 more would come up covering all the parliament constituencies in the state for equitable distribution of healthcare.
The chief minister said that the state had taken up a house-to-house survey 44 times during the Covid-19 pandemic and followed the policy of tracing, testing and treating which resulted in a lower mortality rate (0.63 per cent), lesser than the national average (1.21 per cent).
Others who took part in the discussion include Leif Johansson (AstraZeneca), Jayasree K Iyer (Access to Medicine Foundation) and Catherine Russell (UNICEF) while Nzinga Quanta moderated the discussion.
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