Andhra Pradesh

And Andhra Pradesh, a coastal state on the southeastern seaboard of India, stretches over 162,970 km² and boasts a 974‑km shoreline along the Bay of Bengal. Established as a separate entity on 1 November 1956 after the States Reorganisation Act merged the Andhra State with the Telugu‑speaking districts of the erstwhile Hyderabad State, it is the seventh‑largest Indian state by area and the tenth‑largest by population, with 2023 estimates placing its inhabitants at roughly 53 million. The official language is Telugu, the third‑most‑spoken language in India, and the state’s current administrative capital, Amaravati, is being built as a planned “smart” metropolis. ## Historical Background The region that is now Andhra Pradesh was the cradle of the Satavahana dynasty (c. 1st century BCE–3rd century CE), whose capital at Pratishthā (modern Paithan) oversaw trade routes linking the Deccan plateau with the eastern coast. Successive powers—including the Eastern Chalukyas, the Kakatiyas of Warangal, and the Vijayanagara Empire—left a mosaic of temples and inscriptions that date from the 7th to the 16th centuries. Under British rule the area formed part of the Madras Presidency until the creation of Andhra State on 1 October 1953, led by Chief Minister Tanguturi Prakasam, a milestone that set the stage for the 1956 merger. The 2014 bifurcation that carved out the new state of Telangana reduced Andhra Pradesh’s area by 30 % and transferred Hyderabad’s status as capital to the successor state. In response, the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly passed the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority Act (2014) to empower the APCRDA, which appointed architect‑planner S. M. S. R. K. S. Reddy as its first chairman. The same year, N. Chandra Babu Naidu’s government launched the “Vision 2020” roadmap, targeting a per‑capita income of ₹2.5 lakh by 2020 through diversification of agriculture, industry, and services. ## Geography and Climate Andhra Pradesh is bounded by Odisha to the north, Telangana to the northwest, Karnataka to the west, Tamil Nadu to the south, and the Bay of Bengal to the east, creating a varied topography that includes the Eastern Ghats, the Deccan plateau, and the fertile deltas of the Godavari and Krishna rivers. The Godavari, entering the state near Rajahmundry, spans 1,465 km within Andhra Pradesh, while the Krishna contributes 1,300 km of navigable waterway, together supporting more than 70 % of the state’s irrigated agriculture. The climate ranges from tropical wet and dry in the coastal districts to semi‑arid in the interior Rayalaseema region, with average annual rainfall of 900 mm along the coast and 600 mm in the western highlands. Summer temperatures peak at 45 °C in interior towns such as Kurnool, whereas winter lows rarely fall below 12 °C in the coastal city of Visakhapatnam. The state records an average of 4–5 cyclonic disturbances per year, the most recent being Cyclone Nivar in November 2020, which caused 30 km of coastal flooding. ## Economic Profile Agriculture remains the backbone of Andhra Pradesh’s economy, accounting for 18 % of its Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) in 2022‑23. The state produces approximately 12 million tonnes of paddy annually, representing about 20 % of India’s total rice output, and is the nation’s leading supplier of the Totapuri mango, with 150,000 ha under cultivation. In 2018 the Gannavaram railway station near Vijayawada became the world’s first fully solar‑powered station, featuring a 1.2 MW rooftop photovoltaic array that supplies 100 % of its electricity demand. Industrial activity clusters around Visakhapatnam, where the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (established 1992) contributes 5 % of national steel production, and around the Krishnapatnam Port, which handled 70 million tonnes of cargo in FY 2023, making it the fastest‑growing private port in India. The state’s information‑technology sector, anchored by the “Cyberabad” hub in Hyderabad’s former jurisdiction and the newer “Vijayawada IT Park,” employed 250,000 professionals as of 2022, attracting investments of ₹12 billion from firms such as Microsoft and Amazon Web Services. ## Governance and Development Initiatives The Amaravati capital project, unveiled in 2015, envisions a 217 km² smart city built on a public‑private partnership model, with an estimated investment of ₹1.5 trillion and a projected population of 1 million by 2030. Singapore‑based urban‑design firm Surbana Jurong drafted the master plan, emphasizing mixed‑use zones, a 100‑km rapid