Key Sector II — Industry

The industrial (secondary) sector — manufacturing, mining, construction and electricity — is the smallest of the three sectors in the successor state's income, but it is central to the state's post-bifurcation strategy of creating non-farm jobs and diversifying the economy.

The bifurcation setback. Losing Hyderabad in 2014 cost the successor state its principal industrial and IT metropolis. A large part of the state's established manufacturing, IT and pharmaceutical activity had been concentrated in and around Hyderabad, which went to Telangana. The successor state has therefore had to build new industrial centres and attract fresh investment.

Geographic advantage — the coast and the ports. The state's greatest industrial asset is its long coastline and its ports, which give it direct access to sea trade. Visakhapatnam is the state's biggest industrial city and home to a major port (one of the largest on India's east coast), the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, shipbuilding, and a large petroleum, petrochemicals and pharmaceuticals cluster. Several other minor/developing ports along the coast are intended to support port-led industrialisation.

Key industries. Besides steel and port-based industry at Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh has notable activity in pharmaceuticals and bulk drugs, cement (drawing on the state's limestone), textiles, food and agro-processing (rice milling, seafood processing), automobiles and auto-components, and mineral-based industries. Dedicated industrial zones and special economic zones (for example, the large industrial park near Tirupati/Chittoor in the south) have been developed to attract manufacturing. …