A $200 Billion Opportunity Cluster in 20 Years

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are my own and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any of my past, current, or future employers.

Hope you all are gearing up for a great summer. Recently, I had some time to catch up on travel, reading, meeting old friends, and working on some interesting problems.

I could write extensively about Strategy, Digital Transformation, Architecture, Cloud, Startups, Data, Blockchain, and the recent hot topics like Generative AI and LLMs. However, I will save those discussions for my next article or two.

For now, I want to share some thoughts I gathered during my two trips to India over the past two years. You might be wondering what the title of this article has to do with these trips. Well, I wanted to grab your attention with a compelling hook while still making sense of it.

The India I grew up in is vastly different from the country it is today. Yes, many countries are experiencing growth, but the growth in India is something every country should be noticing. This is good news for both local and global investors. India, with its 1.5 billion population, is on a digital growth path and is a prime destination for increased bilateral trade with the USA and other global countries. I am biased toward the USA because it’s where I call home and where I am raising my family today, and I am okay with that.

The opportunity for global investors in the USA and beyond is not isolated to one city or cluster but spans the entire nation. I want to introduce you to a maturing opportunity that is shaping up in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, India. Andhra Pradesh is where I was born, brought up, and went to school at St. John’s, Gannavaram. https://stjohnsgvm.org

Recently, I came across a post by Brendan Rogers on LinkedIn, and I will shamelessly use it as a hook to further develop this conversation. Yes, I am inspired by it.

[LinkedIn Post by Brendan Rogers](https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/brendanprogers_gdp-in-india-is-exploding-maharashtra-is-activity-7201104126183645185-3Jd1?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop )

What would it take to create a new $200 Billion Opportunity Cluster in 20 Years in Andhra Pradesh?

During my post-COVID travels to India, I was fortunate to visit and interact with family, friends, and individuals from multiple cities across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, New Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh.

The way India shops, travels, stays culturally rooted, moves, and pays for goods and services has come a long way. These are just some of the many behavioral shifts I personally noticed and experienced during my travels in the country.

Here are some articles that capture the sentiment of these trends and detail the opportunities they present to both local and global investors alike:

- [How India Shops Online](https://www.bain.com/insights/how-india-shops-online-2023/ )

- [How India is Traveling](https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/travel-logistics-and-infrastructure/our-insights/from-india-to-the-world-unleashing-the-potential-of-indias-tourists )

- [How India is Culturally Rooted](https://www.marketbrew.in/weekly-insights/religious-tourism-india )

- [How India is Moving](https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/in/pdf/2020/09/the-future-of-mobility-in-post-covid-19-india.pdf )

- [How India Pays for Goods and Services](https://www.pwc.in/assets/pdfs/consulting/financial-services/fintech/publications/the-indian-payments-handbook-–-2023–2028.pdf )

- [How India is Looking at eHealth Services](https://www.bain.com/insights/healthcare-innovation-in-india/ )

- [How India is Insuring Itself](https://www.swissre.com/institute/research/topics-and-risk-dialogues/economy-and-insurance-outlook/india-insurance-market-growing-fast-build-resilience.html )

What does this mean for the country’s GDP and the global economic opportunity it presents?

The opportunity is indeed massive. I have personally noticed this through my involvement with digilife.fund (under the leadership of https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/venkatadri-bobba-7881289/ ) when we were enabling companies based in the USA to capture the market in India and helping companies based in India do the same in the USA.

Partnerships and collaboration promote trade, trade promotes economic development, and economic development uplifts an entire community in any country.

The cumulative impact of such collaboration and trade between India and its strategic partners like the USA and others is evident in these articles:

GDP of India: Current and Historical Growth Rate, India's Rank in the World

(https://www.forbesindia.com/article/explainers/gdp-india/85337/1 )

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in India: Inflows in 2023 and Last 10 Years

(https://www.forbesindia.com/article/explainers/fdi-in-india-inflows/89609/1 )

However, challenges continue to exist, just like in any other country:

Debt-to-GDP Ratio of Indian States in 2024

(https://www.forbesindia.com/article/explainers/debt-to-gdp-ratio-indian-states/88469/1 )

and the growth is not uniform across the country.

https://www.investmentmonitor.ai/insights/india-states-foreign-investment-best-performing/?cf-view

India’s 1.4 billion people went to the polls this summer. I was lucky to witness firsthand the intricate details of what it takes to conduct elections at that scale. A few thoughts came to my mind: How does technology play a role or not in the process? What are some operational challenges on the ground?

My home state Andhra Pradesh went to the polls too. Unlike the disclaimer you find in financial markets where past performance is not an indication of future results, the future success of a global opportunity of $200 billion for Andhra Pradesh, India, and its strategic partners like the USA does depend on the return of a leader who has delivered on this promise. This leader has been instrumental in creating the “Hyderabad”, Telangana cluster worth $115 billion (highlighted in Figure titled "India GDP Cluster Cities | 2021 | Source: Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation"). I was fortunate to meet Nara Chandrababu Naidu and listen to him talk about e-Governance at my alma mater, Columbia University.

The future opportunity is centered around the city of Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh:

- [Amaravati Masterplan](https://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/amaravati-masterplan )

- [World Bank Report on Amaravati](https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/pt/650051486971245674/pdf/Environmental-and-Social-Management-Framework.pdf )

The Audacity of a global vision for a local state, the Ambition for a better tomorrow for every constituent across the socio-economic demographic spectrum, and the Authentic leadership to bring global partnerships and bilateral trade to practicality and deliver change on the ground are what separates leaders who can execute a manifesto from those who fail to mobilize growth.

For a AAA-rated world-class bond, look no further than what will come out of this part of India in the next five years under the leadership of CBN and his team. CBN and diverse team members like J A Chowdary (JA) have successfully bootstrapped an $80 billion software industry that powers the Hyderabad cluster and supports the ambitions of global Fortune 500 companies. (Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HITEC_City ) This time around, I hope the central government and the world will support the build-out of what could be a modern era success story of a global model state and city in East India built from the ground up.

As they say in the software community: Let’s build, build, and build more.

Taylor Swift is one of the many artists I like listening to, but I have to conclude this article by referencing Rihanna’s song from a recent Super Bowl:

Shine bright like a diamond.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKgZntdJSgc

And I hope the sun will shine big and bright in the Sunshine State Andhra Pradesh tomorrow, changing the destiny of every segment of the population for the better.

Godspeed!

The founding fathers are watching; we better put on a good show out there.

Cheers!!

Thank You

Nara Chandrababu Naidu venkatadri bobba J A Chowdary (JA)