'We're now in the era of speed of doing business'

The Andhra Pradesh government on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Reliance Industries under which the conglomerate will invest ₹65,000 crore to set up 500 compressed biogas plants in the state in five years.

NARA LOKESH, who led negotiations, tells Archis Mohan in an interview over telephone and email that the government moved from proposal to MoU in just 30 days, underscoring its conviction that the "era of 'ease of doing business' is over".

Popular in Andhra Pradesh as the "job creator in chief", the state minister of IT, electronics & communications, and human resource development, says the mantra now is "speed of doing business".

Edited excerpts:

What are the expectations for Reliance's investment in compressed biogas (CBG) plants in Andhra Pradesh (AP), and how does this align with your broader vision of positioning the state as a clean energy hub?

Additionally, how was the RIL investment negotiated and finalised in 30 days? Over the past five years, we had a deeply anti-business government. Rather than encouraging businesses, it created an environment of extortion and fear that stifled expansion. Several businesses left AP for neighbouring states.

Reliance is among India's most valuable corporations with the finest track record of execution of projects at scale. They have been partners to AP over the past two-three decades across businesses spanning oil & gas, retail, and telecom. However, even their investments tapered in AP over the past few years. This investment commitment by RIL is extremely significant for us, because it reinforces a message: AP is open for business again. It is a matter of pride that we were able to move from proposal to MoU in 30 days, besides developing a favourable policy for the bio-fuel sector in the interim.