# *Andhra Pradesh Priorities* (2020) Back to [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/Books/Books Overview|Books Overview]] · [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/BjornLomborg-x-profile|@BjornLomborg]] · Topic: [[Topics/Climate Change Science and Policy Debate/Climate Change Science and Policy Debate|Climate Change Science and Policy Debate]] > **Reference outline for a reader who has read the book.** Full title: ***Andhra Pradesh Priorities: analysing costs and benefits***. This is the popular book of the **Andhra Pradesh Priorities** project, part of **India Consensus**, a partnership between the Copenhagen Consensus Center and **Tata Trusts**. I did not have the typeset book this run ⚠️. Facts below come from the CCC book and project pages, Amazon product details, the official **Eminent Panel** three-pager PDF (*The Smartest Solutions for Andhra Pradesh*, A4, 3 pages, file title "Andhra Pradesh EP 3 PAGER FINAL Wednesday.docx", created **20 June 2018**), a two-page brochure PDF (`ap_brochure_v2.1.pdf`, created **25 May 2018**), and the CCC write-up of the 20 June 2018 presentation to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu (posted 25 June 2018). I have not checked the typeset introduction, panel commentaries or chapter texts against those PDFs ⚠️. This title was not on the original Oct 24, 2026 lomborg.com / Wikipedia overview list; it is on the CCC books page. ## Publication facts - **Authors:** Amazon lists **Bjorn Lomborg**, **Saleema Razvi** (the project's manager on CCC pages) and **BM Naidu**. The CCC book page does not print co-authors on the heading. I did not open a title page ⚠️. - **Foreword:** the CCC project page says the book has a foreword by **Ratan N. Tata**, and that Finn Kydland, Mahendra Dev, Vinita Bali and Nisha Agrawal "comment on their personal rankings." I did not open those pages ⚠️. - **Publisher:** CCC book page: **CCC & Tata Trusts**, **2020**. Amazon: **Copenhagen Consensus Center**, publication date **4 March 2020**. Report both ⚠️. - **English paperback:** ISBN-13 **978-1-940003-22-1** (ISBN-10 **1940003229**), **138** pages, 5.5 × 0.32 × 8.5 in (Amazon). - **What it is:** CCC: "all researched development solutions are presented in an accessible language accompanied by graphs and infographics." It is not the "more than 1,100+" pages of research papers (project page). I did not open a table of contents ⚠️. - **Place in his work:** The second India Consensus state volume, after [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/Books/Rajasthan Priorities|*Rajasthan Priorities*]] (same publisher year). Next on the CCC books page is *Ghana Priorities* (CCC & NDPC, 2021). Later: [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/Books/Best Things First|*Best Things First*]]. ## Thesis The CCC project page describes Andhra Pradesh as "a new state" facing "acute social and economic development challenges," with "great strides in creating a positive environment for business" and a claim that it "was recently ranked **2nd** in India for ease of doing business." I did not independently check that ranking or its year ⚠️. The stated ambition is to become "the leading state in India in terms of social development and economic growth." The question is the usual one: with which policies can every extra rupee help the most? The May 2018 brochure's campaign line is: "Shifitng just 1% of Andhra Pradesh spending towards great ideas could generate benefits worth **₹48,000 crores** annually" (same typo as the Rajasthan brochure). I did not re-derive that total ⚠️. ## How the project was run Head-counts and process figures shift by document ⚠️. Combined from the 20 June 2018 findings PDF, the 25 May 2018 brochure, and the CCC project / findings pages: 1. "**18** Sector Expert Consultations" in Vijayawada, Guntur, Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad (project page), plus "more than **100** meetings" (brochure and findings page). 2. Ideas: project page "**Over 600** interventions" from "over **220** experts"; brochure "**More than 500** people … identified **77**" solutions and "more than **600** ideas." 3. Research: "**24** teams of Indian and international economists" (brochure) on **77** solutions and "**1,000+** pages" (brochure) / "more than **1,100+** pages" (project page). The findings page also says research papers were commissioned "to analyze the costs and benefits of **77** specific proposals." 4. An **Eminent Panel** at a "**3-day** conference in Vijayawada," **18–20 June 2018** (CCC book page). The findings PDF is dated by its file metadata **20 June 2018**. 5. Outreach in *Andhra Jyothy*, *Hindustan Dainik*, *Times of India*, *Hindustan Times* "and many others" (brochure). The panel's question, on the CCC findings page: "On which initiatives should additional resources be spent first?" Each member ranked the proposals. Unlike the Rajasthan findings page, this one is consistent: both the "Eminent Panel Approach" and "Ranking of Proposals" sections say the published order "was calculated by taking the **median** of individual rankings" and that the panel "jointly endorses the median ordering." The 20 June 2018 findings PDF does not itself say how the four ranks were combined ⚠️. The findings page also says the panel "gave weight both to the institutional preconditions for success and to the demands of ethical or humanitarian importance." ## The Eminent Panel Four members, from the findings PDF (roles as of June 2018): 1. **Finn Kydland** — shared the 2004 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics with Edward C. Prescott; director of the Laboratory for Aggregate Economics and Finance and professor, Department of Economics, University of California, Santa Barbara. (The CCC findings page also lists the Henley Professorship at UCSB, a distinguished professorship at Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School, and a part-time post at the Norwegian School of Economics; those titles are not in the PDF ⚠️.) 2. **Nisha Agrawal** — former Chief Executive Officer of Oxfam India; previously 18 years at the World Bank; more than three decades on poverty, inequality and development. 3. **Vinita Bali** — then Chairman of GAIN (Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition); previously a business executive at Britannia Industries, The Coca-Cola Company and Cadbury Schweppes. 4. **S. Mahendra Dev** — then Vice Chancellor of the Indira Gandhi Institute for Development Research and President of the Indian Economic Association; former Chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices and Acting Chairman of the National Statistical Commission. The May 2018 brochure instead styles him "Director" of IGIDR ⚠️. **Academic Advisory Committee** (findings PDF / brochure): Ashok Kumar Jain (then Adviser, NITI Aayog); S. Galab (Director, Centre for Economic and Social Studies; Young Lives); Faizan Mustafa (Vice-Chancellor, NALSAR University of Law — the brochure expands this as "National Academy of Legal Studies and Research"); Pavithra Kumar R (then head of Tata Trusts operations in South India); Usha Vyasulu Reddy (Centre for IT and Public Policy, IIIT Bangalore); Shri G. Sudhir, IAS (Retd). ## Official ranking (20 June 2018 findings PDF) The panel ranked **77** proposals. Ranks below are from the PDF's table. I compared that table with the CCC "Eminent Panel Findings" webpage: the **order and wording match**, including at #39 (unlike the Rajasthan webpage, which disagreed with its PDF). Two spelling differences are worth flagging ⚠️: the PDF's top-ten blurb uses "**Immunisation** camps," while its ranking table (and the webpage table) uses "**Immunization** camps"; the PDF uses British "**enrolment**" for the girls'-school items, while the webpage uses "**enrollment**." I follow the PDF table. Benefit-cost ratios are from the 25 May 2018 brochure, not from the findings PDF ⚠️. The brochure predates the June panel. "Local food processing" is printed as a range, "**1 to 4**." | # | Proposal | Brochure BCR | |---|---|---| | 1 | Computer assisted learning at the right level | 62 | | 2 | Micronutrients for pregnant women at ANC visits | 39 | | 3 | Immunization camps in lagging districts | 37 | | 4 | Education for complementary feeding and hand-washing | 61 | | 5 | Secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease | 31 | | 6 | Self-help groups against domestic violence | 22 | | 7 | Group and teach children at the right level | 33 | | 8 | Community mobilisation against domestic violence | 19 | | 9 | Package of nutrition based interventions | 9 | | 10 | Improved cyclone early warning systems | 21 | | 11 | Improve land records digitisation | 51 | | 12 | Tablets to reduce anaemia in adolescent girls | 15 | | 13 | Supplementary food for mother and child | 10 | | 14 | Diabetes screening and treatment | 18 | | 15 | Hire local teachers to improve pre-school classes in AWCs | 18 | | 16 | Certified seed production | 15 | | 17 | Family planning for unmet need | 16 | | 18 | Toilet provision for girls' secondary school enrolment | 12 | | 19 | Bicycle transfer for girls' secondary school enrolment | 12 | | 20 | Expand urban ambulance network | 17 | | 21 | Improved maternal and neonatal health care | 7 | | 22 | Conditional cash transfer for ANC visits | 6 | | 23 | Improve private sector TB care | 117 | | 24 | Improve private sector TB care and active case finding | 109 | | 25 | Expand rural ambulance network | 6 | | 26 | Cash incentives to attend pre-school classes in AWCs | 10 | | 27 | Seafood certification for export | 8 | | 28 | Build warehouses, storage and cold chain | 9 | | 29 | Subsidised apprenticeships | 7 | | 30 | Treatment for children with severe acute malnutrition | 4.0 | | 31 | Drip irrigation and mulching in high value crops | 5 | | 32 | Vocational training program | 16 | | 33 | Connect rural households to national fibre optic network | 7 | | 34 | Improved mobile phone advisory | 6 | | 35 | Mass media breastfeeding promotion and counseling | 8 | | 36 | Flush / Pour-flush sanitation - rural | 5 | | 37 | Expand skill training for women | 4.4 | | 38 | Indoor air pollution: Improved biomass cookstoves promotion | 6 | | 39 | Cash transfer for girls' secondary school enrolment | 5 | | 40 | Elevated bus line system | 4.0 | | 41 | Improved drinking water supply - urban | 4.7 | | 42 | Zig-zag brick kiln technology to reduce air pollution | 7 | | 43 | Vertical shaft brick kiln technology to reduce air pollution | 7 | | 44 | Flush / Pour-flush sanitation - urban | 4.0 | | 45 | Behavioural change for household treatment of drinking water | 3.0 | | 46 | Expand water use efficient irrigation | 3.7 | | 47 | Improved drinking water supply - rural | 2.6 | | 48 | Coastal economic zone | 12 | | 49 | Well-structured incentives to teachers | 15 | | 50 | Urban 24x7 piped water supply | 3.3 | | 51 | Direct non-monetary incentives to reduce child marriage | 3.0 | | 52 | In-situ slum redevelopment | 2.5 | | 53 | Urban waste collection 100 percent | 2.1 | | 54 | Expand poverty graduation and livelihood programs | 3.5 | | 55 | Energy efficient agricultural water pumps | 3.1 | | 56 | Double teacher-pupil ratio | 5 | | 57 | Cervical cancer screening and treatment | 1.6 | | 58 | Credit support to micro, small and medium enterprises | 6 | | 59 | Expand UID (Aadhaar) based payments for MGNREGA | 11 | | 60 | Upgrade agricultural power distribution | 2.8 | | 61 | Mental health counselling in schools | 2.4 | | 62 | Behavioural change for use of existing sanitation facilities | 1.4 | | 63 | Indoor air pollution: Free LPG connection to poor households | 2.8 | | 64 | Expand crop insurance coverage | 1.4 (brochure footer also says 1.5 ⚠️) | | 65 | Hiring centres for farm machinery | 1.9 | | 66 | Local food processing | 1 to 4 | | 67 | Urban metro rail system | 3.3 | | 68 | Energy storage in commercial buildings - water | 2.7 | | 69 | Energy storage in commercial buildings - hybrid salts | 2.6 | | 70 | Private-public affordable housing projects | 1.6 | | 71 | Subsidised do-it-yourself extension and construction | 1.3 | | 72 | Urban sewerage and wastewater treament 100 percent | 1.1 | | 73 | Breast cancer screening and treatment | 0.4 | | 74 | Training of teachers | 1.0 | | 75 | Port infrastructure and hinterland connectivity | 0.9 | | 76 | Indoor air pollution: LPG subsidy reduction by 50% | 0.7 | | 77 | Farmer loan waivers | 0.99 | The panel did **not** simply follow the BCRs. The two highest ratios on the brochure — private-sector TB care (**117**) and TB care plus active case finding (**109**) — were ranked only **#23** and **#24**. Land-records digitisation (**51**) is #11. Complementary feeding and hand-washing (**61**) was ranked below micronutrients (**39**) and immunisation camps (**37**). Teacher incentives (**15**) sit at #49. A coastal economic zone (**12**) is #48. Water-based energy storage in commercial buildings (**2.7**), which the Rajasthan panel put at #9, is #68 here. Farmer loan waivers (**0.99**) and a 50% cut in the LPG subsidy (**0.7**) are at the bottom, as in Rajasthan. The findings page adds four panel notes: mobile-phone agricultural advice should reach **women**, not only the men of the household; family planning should not be "left entirely to women"; mass-media breastfeeding promotion and ANC cash transfers need "new, better interventions" and a larger evidence base; and land-records digitisation should consider **transferring land ownership to women**. ### What the top ten were claimed to do Figures are from the findings PDF's opening blurbs. - **#1 Computer assisted learning at the right level.** Educational software that adapts to students' learning levels and pace, "together with a teacher for 90 minutes a day." "**5** months per student cost is **₹1300**, for benefits in lifetime earnings worth **₹83,000**." Brochure BCR **62** (83,000/1,300 ≈ 63.8; I did not reconcile the one-to-two-point gap ⚠️). - **#2 Micronutrients for pregnant women at ANC visits.** Health workers, training and supplements cost "**₹88 crores** annually, and would avoid more than a lakh of maternal anemia, and **1,400+** deaths." Brochure **39**. - **#3 Immunisation camps in lagging districts** (table spelling: Immunization). Programmes in lagging areas, "with a meal to encourage parents to attend." Cost "**₹10 crores** and could save **220** children annually." Brochure **37**. - **#4 Education for complementary feeding and hand-washing.** Counsel mothers on breastfeeding, complementary feeding and hand-washing, "to cut deaths from diarrhea." Cost "**₹1,200**" per mother, "benefits of **₹71,400**." Brochure **61** (71,400/1,200 = 59.5; I did not reconcile ⚠️). - **#5 Secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease.** Screen **70%** of 30–69 year-olds and treat elevated blood pressure with polypills. "This could avoid more than **2.6 lakh** deaths over **13** years, at an average treatment cost of **₹4,000**." Brochure **31**. No programme-wide cost is stated in the blurb. - **#6 Self-help groups against domestic violence.** "Combine microfinance with module on gender transformation. **₹142 crores** will reduce intimate partner violence by **55%**, with health and economic benefits worth **₹3,000 crores**." Brochure **22** (3,000/142 ≈ 21.1). - **#7 Group and teach children at the right level.** Group children by learning level. "Per student cost is as little as **₹1110**, generating benefits in lifetime earnings worth more than **₹49,000**." Brochure **33** (49,000/1,110 ≈ 44.1 — a larger gap than the others; I did not re-open the paper ⚠️). - **#8 Community mobilisation against domestic violence.** "Support communities to change norms in four-phased program. **₹164 crores** will reduce intimate partner violence by **55%**, with health and economic benefits worth 3,000 crores" (no rupee sign on the benefit figure in the PDF). Brochure **19** (3,000/164 ≈ 18.3). - **#9 Package of nutrition based interventions.** Behaviour-change counselling, supplementary food and micronutrients. "**₹12,900** per beneficiary; increasing coverage by **10%** will avoid nearly **200** deaths and reduce stunting by **20%** in beneficiary group." Brochure **9**. - **#10 Improved cyclone early warning systems.** "Increase effectiveness of the EWS up to **99%** of the population. This will avoid losses worth **₹1.2 lakh crores** over **35** years." Brochure **21**. No programme cost is stated in the blurb. ## How the claims have held up - **Presentation to the Chief Minister.** A CCC news post dated **25 June 2018** says the panel, Lomborg, a Tata Trusts team (Shireen Vakil, Rajendra Ravuri) and the AP Priorities team (Saleema Razvi, BM Naidu, Tejbir Soni) met Chief Minister **N. Chandrababu Naidu** at his residence in Vijayawada on the evening of **20 June**. He called it "a very good study" and said: "I invite Andhra Pradesh Priorities to present an Action Plan for implementation." I did not check whether that action plan was delivered, or what the successor government did with the ranks ⚠️. - **TB as a "best buy," ranked mid-pack here.** Private-sector TB care has the highest brochure ratios but finished well outside the top ten. That is a clear panel-versus-BCR departure from [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/Books/Rajasthan Priorities|*Rajasthan Priorities*]], where the same family of intervention was #1 and #2. Later global CCC work still treats TB as a best buy; see [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/Post Analyses/Post Analysis - BjornLomborg on Tuberculosis as a Best Buy (2026-09-25)|TB as a best buy (Sep 25)]] and [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/Books/Best Things First|*Best Things First*]]. I did not check Andhra-specific TB outcomes after 2018 ⚠️. - **Education and nutrition as top-ten items** match later CCC themes. I did not check Andhra-specific learning or stunting outcomes after 2018 ⚠️. - **Loan waivers and subsidy cuts.** Farmer loan waivers (#77, 0.99) and a 50% LPG-subsidy reduction (#76, 0.7) are at the bottom. I did not track later state policy against those ranks ⚠️. - **The ₹48,000-crore "1% of spending" figure** and the "2nd in India for ease of doing business" claim were not independently checked ⚠️. - **No DCSD connection.** The Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty episode concerns *The Skeptical Environmentalist* (2001) and does not apply to this book. ## Reception - **20 June 2018 Vijayawada briefing** of the Chief Minister, as above. The book-page and project-page accounts of that meeting match the 25 June news post on the wording of Naidu's invitation. - **4 March 2020:** English paperback published, well after the 2018 panel. - I did not open later news coverage beyond the CCC pages ⚠️. ## Links to his X posts and later books - Same India Consensus series: [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/Books/Rajasthan Priorities|*Rajasthan Priorities*]]. Next on the CCC books page: *Ghana Priorities* (2021). Later: [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/Books/Best Things First|*Best Things First*]]. - TB, nutrition and chronic disease: [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/Post Analyses/Post Analysis - BjornLomborg on Tuberculosis as a Best Buy (2026-09-25)|TB (Sep 25)]], [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/Post Analyses/Post Analysis - BjornLomborg on Chronic Disease Policies Saving 1.5 Million Lives (2026-02-12)|chronic disease (Feb 12)]], [[Authors/@BjornLomborg/Post Analyses/Post Analysis - BjornLomborg on Agricultural R&D $5.5bn Saving 133 Million from Hunger (2026-05-17)|ag R&D and hunger (May 17)]].