Hyderabad: Former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s emphasis on grassroots welfare and direct cash transfers appears to have come at a cost to investment, according to data tabled in Parliament this week.
Data presented in the Lok Sabha Wednesday indicated that the influx of global capital into Andhra Pradesh, that came in a trickle following the state’s populist pivot during 2019 and 2024 (YSRCP’s term), began picking up pace since the regime changed.Andhra Pradesh recorded a sixfold increase in foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows since the Telugu Desam Party-led regime took over in 2024, compared with YSRCP’s investment receipts in FY2023-24—Jagan’s last year in office.
Between October 2019 and December 2024, Andhra Pradesh got cumulative FDI equity inflow of approximately $1.11 billion (about Rs 8,679.14 crore), according to data from the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) under the Union commerce ministry, averaging about $92 million per year.In contrast, in just the previous two fiscals, FDI under the TDP-led government has been close to $608.59 million (about Rs 5,900 crore), according to figures presented in the Lower House.The data was presented when Tirupati MP Maddila Gurumoorthy, a YSRCP leader, sought the quantum of investments received for research and development in his constituency.The data projects a steady rise in investments on account of FDI inflows from $92.13 million in FY2023-24 to $233.14 million in FY2024-25, before rising further to $608.59 million in FY2025-26.In effect, the government more than doubled FDI in its first year and nearly tripled it in its second year. The biggest investments during FY2025-26 came in metallurgical industries, food processing, cement and gypsum products, services, automobiles, chemicals, electrical equipment and electronics, reflecting growing investor confidence across multiple sectors.The TDP is evidently using the data to score political points, stating that investments during Jagan’s term nosedived because of prioritising welfare over wealth creation. In a statement, the ruling party alluded to its government correcting the structural fault lines to turn around Andhra’s investment climate.For long, in its campaigns and poll messaging, the TDP has maintained that Jagan’s administration, policy shifts and regulatory friction triggered a dramatic exodus of investor confidence, relegating a once-top-tier investment destination to the bottom half of India’s FDI ladder.“We have focused on strengthening infrastructure and attracting global investors,” the TDP statement said.However, the MP from Tirupati told ThePrint that the Centre was politicising the data by stating the overall FDI inflows to Andhra when constituency-specific data was sought.“I asked them to help with FDI-related R&D projects in Tirupati. The NDA government (of which TDP is an ally) has used the opportunity to project its achievements, thereby misleading the House. By burying the responses to my question at the end of the reply, this is more a tactic to provide unwarranted information,” Gurumoorthy said.In its reply, the Centre also highlighted several national initiatives supporting investments in high-growth sectors, including Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes, the Semicon India Programme, BioE3 and other policy measures aimed at promoting manufacturing, innovation and research in Tirupati.In India, DPIIT is the nodal body for formulation of the policy on FDI. It is also responsible for maintenance and management of data on inward FDI into India, based upon remittances reported by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
