Economist's praise for Naidu

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, JULY 30. A publication devoted to Asian Economic Research has written about how the Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu's information technology driven vision for Andhra Pradesh has seen the gross State domestic product jump from two per cent at the start of the 1990s to nearly eight per cent at the end of the decade.

The 13-page article written by Ms. Geeta Rajam, an economist, in Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia (CLSA), said in just five years Andhra Pradesh had emerged from an unheard of State to a position of admiration and international recognition. A summary of the report was released to the press by the Chief Minister's office here on Sunday.

It said that change was slowly but surely taking place in India, though only at a snail's pace. The States were realising that they could no longer rely on the Central Government to bail them out and Mr. Naidu was in the fore-front in this new wave of change.

The publication said the Chief Minister did not start with a bag of goodies. During the 1980s, the average GSDP was 5.1 per cent which fell to 2.5 per cent in the first half of the 1990s. The State's per capita income was only 75 per cent of the national average and 95 per cent of its tax revenue was going towards the wage bill.

However, the policies adopted by Mr. Naidu had raised the State income levels and the attractiveness of AP to industrial investment improved to fourth from 22nd position. The key difference from the past was vision as leaders in the past did not have a long-term strategy. The report listed out the achievements of Mr. Naidu since 1995, praised the interactive programmes he had undertaken and drew a parallel with Karnataka in respect of developments in the field of information technology.

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