AP investment board recast; CM son among 5 newsly-inducted ministers

Nara Lokesh, son of CM Chandrababu Naidu, newly inducted in the cabinet Lokesh will be a part of the State Investment Promotion Board (SIPB) 

The Andhra Pradesh government today reconstituted the State Investment Promotion Board (SIPB), bringing in five newly-inducted ministers, including Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu's son Nara Lokesh as members.

With the government on a massive MoU signing spree to attract large-scale industrial investments into the state, the SIPB assumes a significant role in clearing proposals for mega projects with an investment of over Rs 500 crore each, official sources said.

While the CM will be the Chairman of the SIPB, Deputy Chief Minister (Revenue), Ministers for Finance, Information Technology, Municipal Administration, Agriculture, Energy, Industries and Labour will be the members.

The SIPB was constituted in November 2014, months after the Naidu government assumed power. As the Chief Minister himself held the Energy and Industries portfolios at that time, the SIPB had only seven ministers as members.

Now that new ministers have been handed over the Energy and Industries departments, those two have also been included in the reconstituted SIPB, taking the total number of ministers to nine.

The Chief Secretary will be the member-convenor of the SIPB, an order issued by Industries Secretary Solomon Arokia Raj said.

"The SIPB will meet once a month to clear all important projects and the critical issues coming in the way of investment promotion," Solomon said.

Lokesh was inducted in the Naidu Cabinet earlier this month and given the Information Technology (IT) and Panchayat Raj departments.