AP CRDA Commissioner Ch. Sreedhar on Saturday said the transformation of Amaravati into a world-class city with an investment outlay of nearly ₹45,000 crore in the next couple of years offered tremendous scope for innovations. “Amaravati is intended to be not just an economic hub but also a happy, liveable city. Obviously, this will not be possible without the participation of private companies, particularly those creating ripples in the startup space,” he observed.
An innovation
Participating as chief guest in the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Vijayawada Zone annual meeting and public session on ‘Startups: Accelerating growth through innovation’ here on Saturday, Mr. Sreedhar said the pooling of approximately 33,000 acres for the construction of Amaravati was itself an innovation, which had few parallels in the world. The adoption of blockchain technology for securing land records revolutionised the way the CRDA managed the voluminous information related to land-holdings in the capital region and facilitated transactions thereof without the possibility of manipulations.
“As the State government targeted to make Amaravati a great city by bringing around the global best practices, startups can foster tie-ups with the agencies involved in it, and the CRDA will be happy to hand-hold youngsters coming forward with disruptive ideas,” Mr. Sreedhar added.
A.P. Innovation Society (APIS) CEO V. Valli Kumari said the APIS and CII were jointly promoting a National Startup Centre at Tadepalli in Guntur district.
Right ecosystem
CII A.P. Chairman J.S.R.K. Prasad said these days belong to startups and the young entrepreneurs were fortunate to have the desired ecosystem with not only the corporate sector but also governments extending their support like never before.
Indus Law Principal Associate Basava Rao said the valuations of startup ventures should be realistic lest they should suffer a massive erosion when the venture capitalists decide to dilute their stakes.
ITC Ltd. General Manager P. Venkat Ram Reddy, CII Director (A.P.) S. Jyoti Kumar and Vegesna Bio Solutions CEO V. Sarath were among others present.
