IT giant bowled over by Naidu

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, SEPT. 5. The Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, has been described as one of the Hidden Seven, doing wonders around the world, by Profit, a monthly magazine published by Oracle Corporation, US.

Hailing the Chief Minister's initiative, the writer, Mr. Blair Campbell said, ``On a trip to India in 2000, the then President, Mr. Bill Clinton, made a special point of visiting Hyderabad, the capital of Indian State of Andhra Pradesh. He wasn't there to see the city's famous Salarjung Museum or the thousand pillared temple at Warangal, instead, he went to observe the amazing experiment in e-governance that has revolutionised the way Andhra Pradesh's citizens interact with their State.''

Mr. Campbell has further praised Mr. Naidu thus: ``When he became Chief Minister six years ago, Naidu immediately developed an information technology policy. A huge proponent of using IT to achieve Government reforms, Naidu also made an impressive effort to attract both multi-national and Indian technology companies to invest in his State. Today, his vision to have these companies fund IT training centres, software development centres and IT- enabled services is a reality. Oracle has set up a major development centre in Hyderabad, an Naidu's tech savvy initiatives an online kiosk for government services, for example have made Andhra Pradesh an object of praise around the world.

Naidu is particularly pleased with the ripple effect the writing of his Government is having on its citizens. ``Slowly people are using IT and establishing an IT culture,'' he says, adding, ``our Indians are doing extremely well all over the world in IT. For this we are going in a a big way to promote education.

Having been profiled in the Economist, The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Naidu may not be hidden talent for much longer. In fact, he is emerging as an IT force to be reckoned with. As he puts it, ``Information is strength,'' the writer noted.

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Section  : Southern States
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