In a significant development, over 2400 villages in the residue state of Andhra Pradesh have been adopted by the Non-Resident Indians. Thanks to TDP party workers' welfare fund coordinator Nara Lokesh who made it possible. Lokesh, who is on 10-day visit to the United States, managed to persuade Indian-Americans to adopt 2417 villages of AP and provide them basic amenities, infrastructure so that they'll flourish on their own which in turn create employment opportunities to many youths. The villages were adopted under Smart Village-Smart Ward programme which aims at comprehensive development of the areas with people's participation. It's brainchild of CM Chandrababu Naidu.

Lokesh met several Indian-Americans in Los Angeles, San Jose, Chicago, New York, New Jersey, Washington, Portland and Dallas, and asked them to invest in the villages in AP. He met Assistant Secretary of Commerce Arun Kumar and discussed the smart city project in particular that of Visakhapatnam, a media statement said yesterday. Lokesh also met Texas Governor Gregg Abott and Indian- American Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.

Lokesh also met a host of business leaders including Vinod Khosla, founder of Sun Microsystems, Shantanu Narayen, CEO of Adobe and Paul Humphries, group President of Flextronics.