Andhra Pradesh Priorities
As a new state, Andhra Pradesh faces a bright future, but it is still experiencing many acute social and economic development challenges. It has made great strides in creating a positive environment for business, and was recently ranked 2nd in India for ease of doing business. Yet, progress needs to be much faster if it is to achieve its ambitions of becoming the leading state in India in terms of social development and economic growth.
With so many actors and the wide breadth of challenges from access to sanitation and clean water to rural development and agriculture, women’s health and infant nutrition, transport end energy, along with literacy and labor market skills, what should the top priorities be for policy makers, international donors, NGOs and businesses? With limited resources and time, it is crucial that focus is informed by what will do the most good for each rupee spent.
The Andhra Pradesh Priorities project as part of the larger India Consensus – a partnership between Tata Trusts and the Copenhagen Consensus Center, worked with stakeholders across the state to identify, analyze, rank and disseminate the best solutions for the state.
We engaged people and institutions from all parts of society, through newspapers, radio and TV, along with NGOs, decision makers, sector experts and businesses to propose the most relevant solutions to these challenges. We commissioned some of the best economists in India, Andhra Pradesh, and the world to calculate the social, environmental and economic costs and benefits of these proposals.
After the groundbreaking new research was available, we asked everyone - from Nobel Laureates to everyday citizens - to set their priorities for the state, sparking a nationwide conversation about what the most effective and efficient solutions are for Andhra Pradesh.
In a hurry? Download the 1-page overview of all cost-benefit research results.
New book with foreword by Ratan N. Tata
In this book, all researched development solutions are presented in an accessible language accompanied by graphs and infographics. Nobel Laureate professor Finn Kydland, Mahendra Dev, Vinita Bali, and Nisha Agrawal comment on their personal rankings of the researched interventions for Andhra Pradesh.
Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Welcomes Eminent Panel Outcome
The Andhra Pradesh Priorities Eminent Panel of economists, along with Dr Bjorn Lomborg, the Tata Trust senior team of Shireen Vakil, Rajendra Ravuri and the AP Priorities team comprising of Saleema Razvi, BM Naidu and Tejbir Soni met the Hon’ble Chief Minister of AP - N. Chandrababu Naidu at his residence in Vijayawada on the evening of 20th June.
The Chief Minister welcomed the findings of the Andhra Pradesh Priorities Eminent Panel which prioritised 77 policies and interventions to help Andhra Pradesh achieve its goal of becoming India’s leading state in social development and economic growth. He said that he intended to continuously work with the project team.
Hon’ble N. Chandrababu Naidu said
It’s a very good study and I am very happy with it. I invite Andhra Pradesh Priorities to present an Action Plan for implementation."
The Process
First, we listened. We organised 18 Sector Expert Consultations to solicit inputs from local experts about the best solutions for Andhra Pradesh. These consultations were held in Vijayawada, Guntur, Visakhapatnam & Hyderabad. Over 600 interventions in total were suggested during the consultations with over 220 experts participating.
Then, we researched. We asked leading international and Indian economists to examine the most promising solutions in their fields, which produced groundbreaking new research that was then published and presented to leading news outlets.
Finally, we scrutinized and compared the proposed interventions. Applying limited resources to unlimited problems means prioritizing—finding the policies that do the most good for Andhra Pradesh. At our 2018 conference in Vijayawada, we asked an Eminent Panel of economists and development experts to analyze the proposals and identify the smartest investments for Andhra Pradesh.
The Research
Andhra Pradesh Priorities research explored 77 solutions to help Andhra Pradesh, covering themes from poverty and health to education, infrastructure and gender equality. In total, more than 1,100+ pages of groundbreaking, made-for-Andhra Pradesh research were written by leading local and international economists.
