The Nagarjuna Sagar project on the Krishna River, completed in 1960, is one of the largest irrigation projects. Forested areas, which cover about 23 percent of Andhra Pradesh, yield timber products such as teak, eucalyptus, cashew, casuarina, softwoods, and bamboo. Andhra Pradesh is also one of India's most industrialized states. The industries, built up largely since 1947, include steel, shipbuilding, machine tool manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, heavy electrical machinery, fertilizers, cement, chemicals, sugar refining, and jute processing. Andhra Pradesh also has important mineral deposits, including coal, natural gas, asbestos, barites, copper, mica, and iron ore.
Tourism is of growing importance to the economy.
Andhra Pradesh has a single-chamber Legislative Assembly of 295 seats. It has 23 local government administrative districts. Sanskrit writings from the 7th century BC describe the Andhra people as Aryans from the north who migrated south of the Vindhya Range and mixed with non-Aryans. This date has been held to be the beginning of the Andhra historical record. Andhras were at the forefront of Indian nationalism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.