A political battle has erupted in Andhra Pradesh following a front-page story published by the Telugu daily Sakshi.
The controversial report claimed that under the current Telugu Desam Party (TDP) administration, Andhra Pradesh’s position in attracting business dropped dramatically from the number one spot to the eighth position.
The story heavily criticized the government’s industrial policies and investment claims, sparking immediate outrage from the ruling party cadre.
The criticism escalated quickly when TDP leader Vijay Kumar launched a direct attack on the publication’s report, calling it factually incorrect.
Opponents of the Sakshi story point out a major conceptual error in the reporting: they clarify that the traditional “Ease of Doing Business” (EoDB) global annual ranking model was scrapped by the World Bank years ago due to methodology changes.
According to their argument, the newspaper mixed up completely separate evaluation tools to create a negative narrative against the current government.
The core of the technical debate revolves around two completely different reports:
The Ease of Doing Business (EoDB): A historical ranking framework that previously placed Andhra Pradesh at the top spot for multiple years during older evaluation cycles.
NITI Aayog’s Investment Friendliness Index (IFI) 2026: A brand-new, comprehensive data-driven index recently launched by India’s central policy think tank. This modern index evaluates states based on 84 different indicators across eight new pillars to understand how ready they are to sustain long-term investments.
This clash highlights how differently political parties interpret national economic data. Supporters of the ruling TDP state that comparing older numeric rankings with the new NITI Aayog IFI framework is a deliberate attempt to mislead the public, as the assessment rules have completely changed.
On the other hand, the opposition camp uses the latest report to argue that the state’s industrial climate and business confidence have visibly slowed down compared to previous terms.
