Experts: Andhra Pradesh needs entrepreneurial ecosystem for employment growth

VISAKHAPATNAM: Andhra Pradesh has contributed 8.8 lakh net new subscribers to the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation in the last four years, starting from April 2019, as per the provisional payroll data of EPFO released on February 20, Monday.
The official statistics indirectly point to the fact the state could create 8.8 lakh fresh jobs in the formal sector during these years.The payroll data released on Monday, which serves as an instrument to gauge the formal employment generation in the country, contained data until December 2022.

Andhra Pradesh is clearly lagging behind in contributing new subscriptions to the EPFO or in other terms creating formal employment compared to other major states. Maharashtra has added nearly 89 lakh new EPFO subscribers during the same four years- between April 2019 and December 2022, followed by Karnataka (42.8 lakh), Tamil Nadu (42.3), Gujarat (37), Haryana (34.5), Delhi (29.4) Telangana (25), etc. For example, Andhra Pradesh contributed to a mere ₹1,256 crore IT exports out of India's total exports of ₹11.59 lakh crore in 2021-22. The neighbouring Telangana accounted for Rs 1.81 lakh crore IT exports during the same period.
The ongoing uncertainty over the location of the state's capital and Covid-19 pandemic might have affected state's prospects in attracting new industries/generating employment in formal sector. Apart from the core industry sector, some experts say that the state lacks an entrepreneurial ecosystem like in neighbouring Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, etc.
Speaking to TOI, former rector and retired economics professor, Andhra University, Dr M Prasada Rao, said the employment in the formal sector generally depends on the foreign direct investments and MNCs making inroads into new markets. "The investments are generally centred around the capital region of any state. As we are yet to overcome the bifurcation-related issues, it may take a few years for the state to compete with the neighbouring states," said Dr Rao.
Andhra Pradesh will conduct a global investors summit in Visakhapatnam on March 3 and 4, targeting about ₹1.8 lakh crore investments into the state. This may give the needed impetus to the employment generation. On the other hand, the state has initiated talks with several IT majors to make sure to set up their shops in Andhra Pradesh, particularly in Visakhapatnam. AP is pulling out all the stops to make the investors summit a big hit to attract major investments and create jobs. The AP government has bagged several big-ticket projects in last three years. As many as 107 large and mega industries commenced commercial production with a committed investment of ₹46,002 crore since 2019.
EPFO has been releasing payroll data since September 2017. In monthly payroll data, the count of members joining EPFO for the first time through Aadhaar validated universal account number, existing members exiting from coverage of EPFO and those who exited but re-joining as members, is taken to arrive at net monthly payroll.