VIJAYAWADA: Mentioning that the coalition government is going ahead with the cluster based policy as part of fulfilling the promise of providing employment to 20 lakh people in five years, Minister for HRD and IT Nara Lokesh said as many as 22 clusters were identified so far.
Giving reply to the questions raised by the MLAs in the AP Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, Lokesh said automotive cluster in Anantapur, renewable energy and cement cluster in Kurnool, electronics manufacturing cluster in Kadapa and Chittoor, glass and AC cluster in Nellore, compressed biogas cluster in Prakasam, quantum computing cluster in Amaravati, aqua cluster in Godavari districts, pharma, medical devices manufacturing and steel cluster are coming up in North Coastal Andhra. Drone City and Space City are also being planned. The government’s goal is not just basic manufacturing but also bringing ancillary units into the same cluster, Lokesh explained.
“Out of every 100 air conditioners manufactured in India, 50 are produced in Andhra Pradesh. With the efforts of Industries Minister TG Bharath, companies like Daikin, LG Electronics, and Blue Star have established units here. AC production in AP is expected to rise to 70% in the next two years. These companies have requested linkage of ITIs to their units, offering to provide curriculum and equipment and guide ecosystem development,” Lokesh informed the House.
The government has decided to conduct job melas once every three months in each constituency. So far, 1,587 job fairs have been conducted, with 11,373 companies participating and 1,08,747 people securing placements, he added.