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Andhra Pradesh was placed at the centre of India's next phase of growth as business leaders announced concrete plans for finance, skills and healthcare at the CII Partnership Summit 2025 in Vizag.
Sanjiv Bajaj, CMD of Bajaj Finserv, said the state was "not just a state, it is a strategic growth engine for India," pointing to its coastline, infrastructure and governance as a gateway "for trade, for technology and digital and tech innovation." He said a modern and inclusive financial system must keep pace with this growth and added that Bajaj Finserv looked forward to enabling "every Andhraite in their own journey." He stated the company hoped "to cover over 30 lakh Andhraites, individuals, small businesses... disbursing over Rs15,000 crore just in this year alone, only in Andhra Pradesh." He also spoke of skilling, noting that the Rahul Bajaj Centre of Excellence in Skilling had set up skilling and career counselling centres "not only in Amravati, but in Vijayawada, in Vishakhapatnam, in Tirupati, in Sri City," with plans for Rajahmundry and other locations. Healthcare leaders underlined the same theme. Shobana Kamineni, Promoter, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise, said Andhra Pradesh was "a land of opportunity," adding that "today, Andhra Pradesh is not just competing, it's leading," across renewable energy, IT, manufacturing and healthcare. She highlighted the state's work on health indicators, medical education and rural technology outreach, and said Apollo was building a full "healthcare ecosystem." She said Apollo had a large presence in cities including Vizag, Tirupati, Vijayawada and Chittoor, supported by digital platforms and district outreach, with "almost 21,000 people" working in the Apollo family for the state. She said the telemedicine program had done "over 20 million teleconsultations" and would scale further. Kamineni added that Apollo had partnered with the University of Leicester "to establish a center for digital health precision medicine at Apollo University in Chittoor," and said Apollo would "double down," aiming to train talent to serve India and the world. Setting the wider context, Suchitra Ella, Joint Managing Director, Bharat Biotech and Vice President, CII, said global trade was shifting with tariff barriers and protectionist trends. She said India was responding with "self-sustaining growth" led by manufacturing and clean energy, noting "the 209 gigawatt already achieved as of January 2025" toward the 2030 renewable target. She added that atma-nirbharta meant "partnership, innovation, shared growth," and recalled India's vaccine role during the pandemic and the early groundwork "when Genome Valley was created... at Hyderabad." (ANI)
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