Seven major Indian and global corporations sat across the table from Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu at the 31st CII Partnership Summit on Thursday, 12 November 2026 — and walked away praising the state's signature 'Speed of Doing Business' approach as a model worth watching.

The Chief Minister's Office confirmed that Naidu was joined by IT Minister Nara Lokesh and Industries Minister TG Bharat for the meeting, which brought together the top leadership of Hero Group, Bharat Biotech, Apollo, Sun International, ReNew, Rockwell Automation and GMR Group. The CEOs and CMDs did not hold back — they specifically commended Andhra Pradesh's pace of clearances and its investor-friendly posture.

What 'Speed of Doing Business' actually means for Andhra Pradesh

The phrase is deliberate branding, and it has roots going back to Naidu's first stint as Chief Minister between 2014 and 2019, when the state introduced single-window clearance systems and climbed national ease-of-doing-business rankings. After returning to power following the 2024 state elections, the government revived and re-pitched those investor outreach programmes — with an explicit emphasis on the speed of approvals and sector-specific incentives. The hashtag #ChooseSpeedChooseAP (Choose Speed, Choose Andhra Pradesh) captures the pitch in four words.

The dual presence of the IT minister and the industries minister at the same meeting is a signal in itself. Andhra Pradesh is not positioning itself as purely a manufacturing corridor or purely a technology hub — it wants both lanes open simultaneously, with the same administrative machinery serving each.

The company roster and what it signals

The seven groups at the table span a striking range of sectors. Hero Group straddles automobiles and financial services. GMR Group builds and operates airports and energy infrastructure. Bharat Biotech is synonymous with domestic vaccine manufacturing. ReNew is one of India's largest renewable energy platforms. Rockwell Automation brings global industrial automation expertise. Apollo anchors healthcare. That is essentially a cross-section of the economy India wants to accelerate over the next decade — and Andhra Pradesh is making the case that it wants to host a large chunk of it.

Competitive pressure from other states is real. Multiple state governments now deploy their chief ministers as direct investment salespersons at forums like CII, running similar ease-of-doing-business messaging. What distinguishes a pitch at the table, though, is follow-through — the MoUs, the land allotments, the portal updates and the actual time-to-ground-breaking that come after the summit lights go off.

What investors and watchers will track next

The immediate question is whether the boardroom conversations at the CII summit translate into formal investment commitments or memoranda of understanding in the days and weeks ahead. Any update to the state's single-window portal or new land-allotment announcements will be read as proof that the 'Speed of Doing Business' label is a live promise rather than a legacy talking point. The presence of Bharat Biotech and ReNew in particular will draw attention — biotech manufacturing and renewable energy are two sectors where central and state policy incentives are actively converging in 2026.

Andhra Pradesh has consistently used moments like this to reset its investment narrative. The 31st CII Partnership Summit gives it another running start. Whether it converts the applause in the room into capital on the ground is the only metric that will matter.