Naidu Corner

Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, was born in Naravaripally village of Chittoor district on April 20, 1950. His late father Sri N.K. Naidu was an agriculturist and his mother Smt. Ammanamma is a housewife. Mr. Naidu had his school education in Chandragiri and his college education at the Sri Venkateswara Arts College, Tirupati. He did his Masters in Economics from the Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati. He was doing research for a Ph.D. degree at the same university, when he took to politics.

Mr. Naidu has been active in politics since his student days. He held various positions in his college and organized a number of social activities. 

Mr.Naidu was elected to the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1978 from Chandragiri constituency in Chittoor district. He served as a Director of the A.P. Small Scale Industries Development Corporation for some time. He subsequently became a Minister and held the portfolios of Archives, Cinematography, Technical Education, Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development, Public libraries and Minor Irrigation between 1980 and 1983. He also served as the Chairman of the State Karshak Parishad, constituted for the first time to look after the welfare of the farming community.

Mr. Naidu was the General Secretary of Telugu Desam Party since 1985.He was elected again to the State Legislature from Kuppam constituency of Chittoor district in 1989. 

In 1994 he was reelected to the Assembly from Kuppam constituency with a majority of 57,000 votes and held the important portfolios of Revenue and Finance. 

Following a 'controversial" take over of MLA's , Mr. Naidu, was unanimously elected as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh on 1st September 1995.

The Chief Minister has a modern outlook to administration. His style of functioning is more akin to that of a CEO as compared to a traditional politician.

The Chief Minister has initiated an exercise to define the Vision 2020 for the state. According to the Chief Minister, "Our vision of Andhra Pradesh is a State where poverty is totally eradicated; where every man, woman and child has access to not just the basic minimum needs, but to all the opportunities for leading a happy and fulfilling life; a knowledge and learning society built on the values of hard work, honesty, discipline and a collective sense of purpose." This vision reflects the Chief Minister’s forward looking perspective on the state’s development, and the details of the vision will be further concretized after public discussion.

The Chief Minister is undertaking administrative reforms in right earnest and would like to emphasise as much on processes of ‘transformating’ as on ‘informating’ within Government. As part of the Administrative Reforms, the Chief Minister would like to use Information Technology for providing better quality of governance for the common man.

At the Chief Minister’s initiative, a State Wide Area Network is being set up and the Government of India has agreed to the allocation of 2 Mbps of bandwidth over Optical Fibre cable for providing connectivity between Hyderabad and the districts. A Campus Area network has already been implemented in the Secretariat. Video conferencing links between the state headquarters and the districts are also being set up.

An Executive Information System for monitoring the progress of various governmental programmes has been set up in the Chief Minister’s Office. The information is now being fine-tuned and expanded to cover more details and a large number of subject areas. Geographical Information System (GIS) applications for the road network in the State, the Irrigation and Drainage System, Forestry and Wasteland development are also under implementation.

The Chief Minister is keen to set up distributed data warehouses in different government departments as part of a Governmental Intranet. The Chief Minister feels that the Internet technology holds immense potential for the future and should be used to provide high quality service to the citizen. It is therefore contemplated that all information relevant to the citizen should be made available on electronic networks. Such information can be conveniently accessed from electronic kiosks. This will ensure ‘one-stop’ ‘non-stop’ information to all citizens. As part of his vision for Information Technology the Government of Andhra Pradesh is planning to start moving towards the concept of paper-less offices using workflow concepts and enterprise wide computing. The Government of Andhra Pradesh is in the process of setting up value added network services in association with Singapore network services. The value added network services will provide greater convenience to the public to transact business with Government. Removal of a face-to-face contact for most Government services is also expected to reduce the levels of corruption prevailing for delivery of such services.

Recently, at the Chief Minister’s behest, the computerisation of the registration department covering 212 sub-registrars offices was completed. This computerisation will enable citizens to access services in a convenient manner in a fraction of the time previously taken. For example, registration of a land sale that previously used to take one week, can now be accomplished in less than one hour.

In recognition to the Chief Minister's leadership and vision in the field of Information technology, Mr.Naidu was designated as the Co-chairperson of the National Task Force on Information technology set up by the Government of India to prepare the IT road map for the future. The Chief Minister in his capacity as the Co-chairperson of the National Task Force, has taken a number of initiatives for dismantling the monopoly in the telecommunications sector and for promoting the use of Information technology for common citizens. At his instance, a programme for linking India's premier universities and specialised institutions, with high bandwidth connectivity has been launched in collaboration with the Carnegie Mellon University, as part of the IUNet India initiative. The stellar role played by the Chief Minister in promoting Information technology in the country has been widely recognised, both within and outside the country.

Recently, the President of the World Bank, while addressing the Governors of the bank made a mention of the initiatives taken up by the Chief Minister. The President stated, "In Andhra Pradesh in India, a state of 70 million people, the Chief Minister has a programme for 2020. A programme for literacy, for improved access to health care, for livelihoods, empowering women, developing backward areas, creating safety nets -- a programme with clearly monitorable targets that can be regularly checked". (Oct 6, 1998).

When the Chief Minister took over in 1995, the State’s finances were in very poor shape. Following the initiatives launched by the Chief Minister there has been a remarkable improvement in the State’s economic performance. Recently, the credit rating agency, CRISIL, improved Andhra Pradesh’s rating from A(-) to A. While improving Andhra Pradesh’s rating the credit rating agency stated, "The rating change reflects a significant improvement in Government of Andhra Pradesh’s fiscal parameters like revenue and fiscal deficits, a positive outlook on Government of Andhra Pradesh’s finances and Andhra Pradesh's economy as a result of progressive policies and sustained structural reforms on both the fiscal and the administrative front."

The Chief Minister is a firm believer in accountability of the Government and has taken steps to systematically incorporate accountability as an intrinsic feature of Government’s functioning.

The Chief Minister would like to achieve tangible results in a short time frame. His working hours extend from 6.30 in the morning to late into night. During this period, the Chief Minister devotes a significant portion of his time for meeting a large number of common citizens and addressing their problems and concerns. A grievance cell has been set up in the Chief Minister’s Office for monitoring the redressal of public grievances. The Chief Minister’s itinerary also includes surprise visits to the districts which are aimed at keeping administration on its toes. These visits are directed at curbing administrative corruption and lethargy.

The Chief Minister was recently awarded "The Business Person of the Year" award by the Economic Times. The award recognised the progressive policies pursued by the Chief Minister. While presenting the award, the citation mentioned that "it is a vote for reform, for a politician who means business and sees himself as a Chief Executive and his people as shareholders".

When World Link magazine of the World Economic Forum, decided to pick a dream cabinet of political leaders, it selected 15 truly outstanding leaders after consultations with various experts. Since political leadership was not necessarily confined to national governments, they also looked at regional leaders and panregional institutions who were largely successful in the struggle with the complex, fast-moving times. Mr. N.Chadrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh who made the grade in World Link’s dream cabinet shared the honours with the British Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair; Iranian President, Mr. Mohammed Khatami and Foreign Minister of New Zealand, Don McKinnon among others.

The Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu was given the "IT man of the year" award by the Computer World for his vision and contributions in harnessing IT for improving the lives of common citizens.

The Economist magazine in it's issue dated May, 22nd 1999 , stated that, "Chandrababu Naidu, the visionary Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, is trying to make government more transparent and responsive by making it more electronic" 

The Chief Minister is well known for innovative concepts and  programmes. The  “Dial your Chief Minister” programme, telecast by the Doordarshan Kendra of Hyderabad is one such interactive programme which is telecast every Monday. The Chief Minister addresses the citizens over a large number of issues. A subject is identified for the week and the citizens come up with their problems and communicate it to the  Chief  Minister .  The "Dial your Chief Minister" programme is a very popular one with citizens and the viewership of the programme is rated very high.  

The decision making process of the government has been expedited by the teleconferencing system. The teleconferencing unit provides a facility to the Chief Minister for simultaneously addressing all District Collectors or for consulting the Cabinet ministers on various issues.  The Chief Minister has been conducting teleconferences with Collectors on various issues like the power situation, clean and green programme, rythu bazaars, monitoring of prices, implementation of road works, sanitation and public health, law and order etc. The system has been extremely effective in overcoming the routine bureaucratic delays in the course of responding to issues of immediate public interest during these teleconferences.

The Chief Minister has launched a programme called  "Praja Deevena" to enlist the support of political neutrals, intelligentsia and uncommitted voters to exercise their franchise and support a party which they think will provide good governance. This is a part of the political reforms advocated by him where emphasis has been laid on cutting down election expenditure, removing corrupt people and criminals from public life and eliminating the role of black money.  The Praja Deevena programme has been conceived by the Chief Minister to encourage principled and value based politics and to ensure that the political leaders are of the highest moral and intellectual calibre. 

The Chief Minister is married to Mrs. Bhuvaneswari and has a son Lokesh.