How Telangana beat Andhra Pradesh in the race to host Ivanka Trump

AMARAVATI: At the much-hyped Global Entrepreneurship Summit, White House adviser Ivanka Trump will be Telangana's pride, but Andhra Pradesh's envy. As Telangana readies to host the 2017 edition of the summit on Tuesday, strenuous efforts made by Andhra Pradesh to invite US President Donald Trump's daughter have failed to bring results. The United States authorities turned down requests made by the Chandrababu Naidu-led Andhra government to have Ivanka visit the 'sunrise' state, highly-placed sources said. AP's Economic Development Board (EDB) chief executive J Krishna Kishore pursued the issue with US authorities on behalf of the state government, but to no avail, they said. The Andhra government, as part of its "brand building" efforts, had felt that a visit by Ivanka Trump would bolster the southern state's image internationally. It also wanted to line up several US companies for investments in Andhra Pradesh, the sources said. The state government had informed the US Consulate that they were ready to organise the event either in Amaravati or Visakhapatnam, and had sought Ivanka's time. "But we were told that she would not be attending any other programme, apart from the GES and those in New Delhi. So, we did not get a chance to host her," a senior official involved in the entire process said. The EDB CEO could not be reached for comment. The Global Entrepreneurship Summit-2017 will be inaugurated by Prime Minster Narendra Modi. Ivanka will lead a delegation from her country at the event. Over 1,500 delegates, including entrepreneurs and investors and CEOs of major knowledge-based companies, are expected to attend the summit.