It has been just over a month since A Revanth Reddy took charge as Telangana chief minister and within this short period, he has proved that he means business.
It was surprising that within a month of becoming the chief minister, Revanth Reddy flew to Davos in Switzerland to attend the 54th World Economic Forum meeting to attract investments to the state. He wants to introduce himself to the industrial bigwigs of the country as well as the global investors.
Analysts say it is actually a good move on the part of Revanth Reddy. For the last nine years, Telangana has been the investment destination for the global companies, thanks to the initiatives taken by former IT and industries minister K T Rama Rao of Bharat Rashtra Samithi, who had been attending the WEF meetings regularly.
Just because KTR had taken the initiative, Revanth Reddy did not keep himself away from the global investors. Had he decided against attending the WEF summit this year, it would have created a negative image about Telangana among the investors that the Congress government doesn’t want to continue the investor-friendly policies of the previous government.
This would have damaged the reputation of Telangana. In order to sustain the reputation, Revanth Reddy quickly chose to attend the meeting. Not only that, he had taken along with him the same officials like Jayesh Ranjan or Vishnuvardhan Reddy, who were playing a key role in KTR ministry, so that he would feel at home at the WEF summit.
This is in sharp contrast to the stand taken by Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy. He did not continue the pro-investor policies of his predecessor N Chandrababu Naidu nor did he continue the same officials of Naidu regime, who were playing a key role in attracting investments.
Not only that, Jagan did not show interest in attending the WEF meeting in the initial years. Of course, in the next two years, it could be due to Covid pandemic. It was only in May 2022 that he chose to go to Davos and signed agreements with only Indian industrial groups like Adani. That was the only time when he went abroad in the name of attracting investments.
“Jagan is surrounded by too many advisors and none of them has any freedom to take decisions or give advices to him. But Revanth Reddy doesn’t have any advisors around him, but has good IAS officers who he continued from the previous regime. That is the difference,” an analyst said.