At cross roads once again, people of Andhra are rediscovering their roots, their history, their strengths. This is a brief attempt to narrate History of Andhra from entrepreneurial perspective.

1. ANDHRA ENTREPRENEURS
past, present and future
A.S.Rao
President
Indian Innovators Association
indiainvents@gmail.com

2. A limited view of Andhra history from
1830 to 2030

3. Guntur – my home district in 1830
• Population- about 5 lakhs,
• One thirds of revenues were sent out of India
every year and land revenue is the most
important revenue of Indian revenue. The
burden of taxation falls heavily on cultivators
of soil. They can save nothing in years of good
harvest and every year of draught is a year of
famine.

4. Great Guntur Famine
• In 1776 British acquired the delta of Godavari
and Krishna. From that time for 80 years
famines regularly occurred destroying the
people.
• Guntur Famine – 1,50,000 people died of
starvation, also 74,000 bullocks, 1,59,000 milk
cattle and 3,00,000 sheep & goats.

5. Images

6. Images

7. Indentured labourers
Britain abolished slavery in 1834. This created
demand for Indian indentured labourers .
They were sent, sometimes in large numbers, to
plantation colonies producing high value crops
such as sugar in Africa and the Caribbean. Many
Indians agreed to become indentured labourers
to escape the widespread poverty and famine in
the 19th century.

8. Indentured Indians arriving in Colonial
Natal

9. Migration to Burma
• The Telugu speaking people in Burma were
known as “Coranghees” since theyt migrated
from a port called Korangi.
• As early as 1865-66 large-scale emigration
from Vizagapatnam to Lower Burma averted
the spread of famine from neighbouring areas
into that district. In 1896-97 the number of
emigrants from Ganjam to Burma doubled
and those from Vizagapatnam tripled as a
result of widespread famine in these districts.

10. Migration pathways

11. Reasons for poverty & migration
• Zamindari system worsened the flight of poor peasants
because of high taxes.
• Frequent famines. Lack of employment.
• Shrinkage of cottage & handicraft industries owing to
introduction of European factory produce.
• In 1840 it was mainly barbers, washer men, tailors and
weavers who had gone to Burma, while in 1863
majority of the emigrants were weavers and in the
twentieth century emigrants were drawn from the
agricultural communities.
• Emigration became an escape route and a habit.

12. First Generation Entrepreneurs:
Famer Capitalists of Coastal Andhra.
Modern history of this region begins with
irrigation systems off the Krishna and Godavari
rivers.
These canal irrigation schemes virtually
obliterated subsistence agriculture and created
a near mono-crop economy in the deltas,
transforming them from areas of frequent
famine to ones of intensive wet rice cultivation.

13. Sir Arthur Thomas Cotton

14. Zamindars and Landlords
• The early industrial entrepreneurs of coastal
Andhra were mostly zamindars and large
landlords.
• For example, the new film industry in Madras was
heavily financed by zamindari families of the
region, notably the Raja of Mirzapuram.
• Most of the new industries in the region were
agro-based. Common were sugar factories-but
other enterprises such as financial institutions
and transport companies were also floated by
wealthy landlords.

15. Raja Venkat Rama Appa Rao
Bahaddoor alias Mirzapuram Raja.

17. Rayagada sugar factory (1936)
It was built with an initial capital outlay of six
lakhs by V Ramakrishna. The company acquired
land in the Jeypore region and encouraged
experienced sugarcane cultivators to migrate to
the area to produce cane for the factory. The
company later expanded into mining, and in
1958 established a ferromanganese plant with
an investment of rupees sixty lakh

18. Velagapudi Ramakrishna, ICS

19. Mullapudi Harishchandra Prasad

20. New Farmer entrepreneurs
These new entrepreneurs invested primarily in
small non-industrial types of business requiring
low capital outlays, such as construction and
public works contracting, real estate
development and speculation, and transport.
Trade and agro-industry continued to be the
major types of business pursued by rural-based
families.

21. Sri Ramadas Motor Transport
Company (SRMT)
Started by a group of local cultivators in
Kakinada in 1944. Originally a small passenger
transport company with a few buses running in
the rural areas around the town, it later
expanded into motor vehicle parts and service,
acquired the Tata lorry dealership for the area
and some other machinery distributorships, and
started a production unit. It is now the largest
firm of its type in the region.

22. Abolition of Zamindari
• The abolition of zamindari estates in 1949
induced the more enterprising zamindars to
convert their assets into industrial capital.
• Members of the Kapileswarapuram zamindari
family, for one, established a textile mill in
Kakinada, and later expanded into sugar and
other industries.

23. Investment of agriculture surplus
• Very small percentage of the surplus
produced in the region is re-invested in
agriculture.
• Rice mills, rice trade, Trade in agricultural
inputs (fertilizer, pesticides), contracts for
government projects in the rural area, 'chit
funds, oil mills, dal mills, factories for drying
and grading tobacco, cotton gins and presses
etc.

24. Nagarjuna Sagar Dam gives birth to
Infrastructure Kings
• Navayuga, Soma, CMR, GVK, IVRCL, Lanco,
Maytas, Nagarjuna Construction- all started as
small contractors.
• In 2002-3, Nagarjuna was the biggest and
ranked 11 in India. 2007-8, three of them
Nagarjuna, GVR, IVRCL , Maytas rank among
the top 10 in India and top 15 has 6 Andhra
firms.

25. Nagarjunasagar Dam

26. Vallurupalli Nageswararao

27. Rajivgandhi Airport

28. Grandhi Mallikarjuna Rao

29. Dr Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramayya
founder of Andhra Bank

30. Factor behind success of first
generation entrepreneurs
• Andhra entrepreneurs are different from Marwari
and others who were traders by profession.
• KG belt is not the first to be irrigated. Agriculture
surplus always do not produce entrepreneurs.
• Andhra farmer entrepreneurs success was based
on their roots as soldier-peasants, cultural
influences and empowerment of women in the
community.

31. Second generation Andhra
Entrepreneurs: Technopreneurs
• Drugs
• Vaccines
• Engineering
• Media
• Corporate hospitals
• Corporate Education

32. Drugs
Dr Reddy Labs: Kallam Anji Reddy

33. Vaccines
Bharat Biotech International: Krishna Ella.

34. Engineering
Amar Raja Batteries: Ramachandra Naidu Galla

35. Media
Eenadu group:

36. Corporate Hospitals
Appolo Hospitals: Prathap C Reddy:

37. Corporate Education
Narayana Group of Educational Institutes:

38. Factors behind success of second
generation Andhra Entrepreneurs
• Heavy investment in education by middles
class aspiring parents.
• Deep professional knowledge.
• First mover advantage.

39. SME gloom and IT boom
• Many small enterprises became sick due to
partnership problems, inefficiency , strategy
built on scarcities / license became irrelevant.
• Y2K boom opened doors to USA.
• Popular Strategy -Land in Andhra- House in
Hyderabad- Job in USA.
• Capital migrated to Hyderabad.
• Young people left villages.

40. Immigration to USA

41. AP youth in USA

42. The future
• Andhra in 2030
• Andhra entrepreneurs in 2030
- Third Generation Digital Entrepreneurs of
Andhra..

43. Andhra in 2030.

44. Swarnandhra Vision 2029
Growth Engines
Agriculture : Rice, Dairy, Poultry, Horticulture,
Fisheries and Agro-industry;
Industry: Infrastructure, Construction, Garments,
Leather Products and Other Export-oriented
Industries, Mining, Pharmaceuticals and Small
scale Industries;
Services: Information Technology, Knowledge-
based Services, Tourism, Logistics, Small-scale
Services, Healthcare and Education.

45. E-pragati- 72 projects, 14 packages

46. The future of Jobs
Job reduced in- administration, manufacturing,
extraction, construction
Job increase in- Computers, engineering,
architecture, finance.
Factors- Mobile internet and cloud technology,
Advances in computing power and Big Data , Rapid
urbanization, transition to a greener economy, New
Energy technologies, Internet of Things, Longevity
and ageing customers, Women’s rising aspiration…

47. Opportunities : Tourism

48. Travel & Tourism startups
• USA- 1974 companies, 1113 investors.
• Oyo Rooms- Ritesh Agarwal, is the founder
and CEO of OYO Rooms, dropped out of
college.
• As of November 2015 it has 4,000+ hotels
(more than 40,000 rooms) in 170+ cities of
India.
• The company is valued at Rs 2500 crores.

49. Global Travelers
• 50 million outbound travelers; $40 billion
• Thomas Cook is an established player. Make
My Trip is a startup.
• Airbnb- Airbnb hosts share their spaces in 190
countries and more than 34,000 cities. All you
have to do is enter your destination and travel
dates into the search bar to discover
distinctive places to stay, anywhere in the
world.

50. Startups in Logistics
• Logistics startups received $617 million funding in
2015.
• Ola Cab is a taxi service aggregator. Similar is
Shipping Exchange, the two-year-old startup, is
trying to make shippers discover real pricing,
across all ports in India, on its portal, while
exporting or importing a product. Shipping
Exchange brings freight forwarders, non-vessel
operating common carriers (NVOCCs) and
shipping lines on a common platform.

51. Startups in Hardware

52. IOT in Agriculture

53. Orchard pest control
Farmers can monitor insects online using the
camera and sensors, and set scheduled releases
of the pheromones to confuse the mating habits
of the insects and drastically reduce the amount
of pests.

54. Vertical Farming

55. Farmer innovations

56. Summery
• Farmers are first generation entrepreneurs from
Andhra.
• They made use of irrigation system, worked hard
and used the savings to educate their children
and invested in other revenue generating
activities available in their region.
• They migrated, invited and uninvited, to buy
additional farm lands outside Andhra.
• Factors that shaped their outlook are; roots as
part time soldiers, women empowerment and
social reforms.

57. 2nd generation entrepreneurs-
Professionals
• Second generation entrepreneurs are
professional, first movers in their field.
• Factors favoured their success- good
education, strong domain knowledge,
community support and market opportunity.
• Like first generation entrepreneurs of Andhra,
second generation also did not compete with
entrenched traders.

58. Third Generation Andhra
Entrepreneurs- Digital Entrepreneurs
• Building on the past and leveraging global
linkages, Digital Entrepreneurs will
dramatically change the service and
agriculture sector.
• Favorable factors: Political Leadership, IT savvy
customers, consumption economy and large
shift from rich rural to quality urban areas in
Andhra.

59. Thank You.