For two consecutive years, 2025 and 2026, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and his son Lokesh travelled to the World Economic Forum at Davos. The outcome for Andhra Pradesh is stark: zero investments. Investors have turned away from the state. Under the shadow of “Red Book” culture and the excesses of coalition leaders, confidence has collapsed. Instead of announcing projects, the yellow media is now scrambling, unable to figure out how to cover up yet another embarrassing failure.
Chandrababu has gone to Davos many times in the past, each visit accompanied by grand promises and loud hype. Today, even his supporters are being forced to confront uncomfortable questions. Where did his much-advertised “experience” and “vision” go? For years, Davos was used mainly to polish Chandrababu’s personal image. Once again, those publicity gimmicks have fallen flat.
Decades of Davos hype comes crashing down
For decades, Davos tours were projected as Chandrababu’s global triumphs. The reality, however, has now fully unravelled. In both 2025 and 2026, Chandrababu and Lokesh went to Davos in consecutive years and returned empty-handed. This cycle has become routine: go to Davos, generate noise, receive glowing yellow-media coverage, and come back without a single concrete investment for the state.
2025: Media Hype, Then a Convenient U-Turn
The scale of yellow-media promotion during the 2025 Davos visit was unprecedented. Crores of rupees were spent on advertisements, including in English television channels and newspapers. Propaganda went to absurd levels, stories were planted about ministers and young officers wearing jackets and sweaters while Chandrababu supposedly braved the freezing cold in just a shirt, woke up before everyone else, and reached the pavilion first.
The truth, however, could not be hidden. While neighbouring Telangana received investments, Andhra Pradesh got nothing. After returning home, Chandrababu made a dramatic U-turn, declaring that it was a myth that Davos trips bring investments. Yet, despite this admission, Chandrababu and Lokesh again went to Davos in 2026, recreated the same hype, and once again failed to deliver any investments. This time, they even disappointed the yellow media that relentlessly promoted their tours. Now, unable to script another cover story, those media loyalists are left pulling their hair in frustration.
‘Red Book’ rule has tarnished AP’s image
Since the coalition government assumed power, Andhra Pradesh’s image has deteriorated sharply. Murders, sexual assaults, violent attacks, and political vendettas have become routine under what is widely described as “Red Book” governance. Over the last 19 months, hundreds of YSRCP leaders, workers, and social-media activists have been booked in false cases and jailed. From Rasheed earlier to the recent killing of Manda Salman, several YSRCP leaders and activists have been murdered. Even IAS and IPS officers who served under the previous government are facing sustained harassment.
At the same time, coalition leaders are accused of intimidating industrialists and entrepreneurs, both those who want to set up industries and those already operating, demanding cuts, commissions, and favours. As a result, potential investors are fleeing Andhra Pradesh in fear. Chandrababu’s failure at Davos only reflects this collapsing credibility.
What happened to the ‘Vision’ and ‘Experience’?
Chandrababu repeatedly proclaims himself a visionary, claiming unmatched experience. Netizens and observers are now asking a simple question: if that is true, why has he consistently failed to bring investments from Davos? Why did none of the investments announced after multiple Davos visits ever materialise?
Between 2014 and 2019, he repeatedly went to Davos, raised people’s hopes by claiming that global giants were lining up to enter Andhra Pradesh—and ultimately disappointed the state. He created hype around supposed agreements with companies such as Lockheed Martin, high-speed rail manufacturers, hybrid cloud firms, Saudi Aramco, Airbus, and Alibaba. Yet, Chandrababu failed to bring even a single global giant to Andhra Pradesh.
Photos with billionaires, not projects for State
Intellectuals are openly asking whether Chandrababu can point to even one concrete project that came to Andhra Pradesh because of his Davos visits, apart from photographs with global tycoons and headline management. They are questioning what happened to all the investment announcements made between 2014 and 2019.
From 2015 to 2018, Chandrababu attended Davos four consecutive times. In the election year 2019, then IT Minister Nara Lokesh led a delegation. After bifurcation, Chandrababu’s first Davos visit was widely publicised for his meeting with Microsoft founder Bill Gates and discussions with CEO Satya Nadella, claiming Microsoft was interested in setting up a Business Development Centre in Visakhapatnam. More than a decade later, Microsoft has not even looked towards Andhra Pradesh.
Similarly, there was hype about Infosys, Wipro, Deloitte, Pega Systems, and several other IT firms entering the state. Not a single project was actually delivered during Chandrababu’s tenure. Officials who were part of those Davos delegations later revealed that up to Rs. 55 crore of public money was spent, but not even Rs. 1 crore of real investment came in.
Even in Davos, only Political attacks
Even at Davos, instead of focusing on attracting investments, Chandrababu and Lokesh were seen making political attacks on YSRCP president and former Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, prompting comparisons to “beating the drum when there is no real work to show.”
The contrast is telling. In 2022, Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy attended Davos as Chief Minister with a 19-member delegation at a cost of only Rs. 11.9 crore. He secured investment agreements worth Rs. 1.26 lakh crore and ensured their rapid grounding.
When Tech Mahindra CEO C.P. Gurnani merely expressed interest in setting up a bio-ethanol plant, land was immediately allotted in Rajamahendravaram. A Rs. 200-crore unit was established and production commenced. At the same Davos summit, agreements were signed and implemented for Adani Group’s green-energy projects worth Rs. 60,000 crore, Greenko’s projects worth Rs. 37,000 crore, and Aurobindo’s projects worth Rs. 28,000 crore.
While Y.S. Jagan converted MoUs into functioning projects without publicity theatrics, Chandrababu, who even met Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry in Davos in 2016, ultimately achieved nothing.
