N. Chandrababu Naidu


Nara Chandrababu Naidu, popularly known as CBN, is an Indian politician and former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and current leader of opposition in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly. He is a former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, serving from 2014 to 2019. He was the first Chief Minister of the state after it was divided. Previously, he served as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh from 1995 to 2004, before the state's division, and as the leader of the opposition in the United Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly from 2004 to 2014. He is the National President of the Telugu Desam Party, and the longest-serving Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.
Naidu has won a number of awards, including IT Indian of the Millennium from India Today, Business Person of the Year by The Economic Times, South Asian of the Year from Time Asia and membership in the World Economic Forum's Dream Cabinet. Naidu chaired the National IT Panel under the National Democratic Alliance government and was described as one of the "hidden seven" working wonders of the world by Profit. Naidu was offered an honorary professorship by US business school - the Kellogg School of Management in 2000. He was the Chairman of National Task Force on Micro-irrigation from Government of India, Ministry of Agriculture in 2003. He was the head of 13-member Committee of Chief Ministers to promote digital payment systems and financial inclusion in India which was constituted by federal government in 2016.

Early life and education

Naidu was born on 20 April 1950 at Naravaripalle, Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh in an agricultural family. His father, Nara Kharjura Naidu, worked in agriculture and his mother, Amanamma, was a housewife. Since his village had no school, Naidu attended primary school in Seshapuram up to class five and the Chandragiri Government High School up to class nine. He went to Tirupati for his higher education, studying there from class 10 until he received his master's degree. Naidu completed his BA degree in 1972.

Early political career

Naidu was drawn to politics at an early age, and joined the Indian Youth Congress as a student leader in Chandragiri, near Tirupati in Chittoor district. After the emergency was imposed on the country in 1975, he became a close supporter of the Indian Youth Congress president, Sanjay Gandhi and Narala Saikiran.

Legislative career, 1978–1983

Naidu became a Congress member of the Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly for Chandragiri constituency in 1978. The party's 20% quota for youth to run for the office was beneficial for him. Not long afterwards, Naidu was appointed as the technical education and cinematography minister in T. Anjaiah's government at the age of 28. He was the youngest minister in the Congress cabinet.
As the cinematography minister, Naidu came in contact with N. T. Rama Rao, a popular film star in Telugu cinema. In 1980, he married Bhuvaneswari, Rao's second daughter.

Telugu Desam Party

In 1982, N. T. Rama Rao formed the Telugu Desam Party and swept the assembly polls held in 1983. Naidu, who was then still in the INC, was defeated by a TDP candidate in Chandragiri. He joined the TDP soon after.

Rise in the party

Naidu demonstrated his political skills in August 1984, when Nadendla Bhaskara Rao staged a coup against N. T. Rama Rao. He rallied the TDP MLAs together and paraded them before the President of India. N. T. Rama Rao was reinstated as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh 31 days later. Impressed with his son-in-law's manoeuvre, Rao appointed Naidu as the General Secretary of the party and he began playing an important role in the TDP after Nadendla Rao's coup attempt. Later, when N. T. Rama Rao married Lakshmi Parvathi, Naidu took over the TDP legislative party predicting the problems in the party and became the Chief Minister of united Andhra Pradesh.

Legislative career, 1989–1994

In the 1989 assembly election, Naidu contested from Kuppam and won by 5,000 votes. INC, however, had regained power in the election so Naidu had to sit in the opposition. He served as a coordinator of the TDP, in which capacity he effectively handled the party's role of the main opposition in the assembly which won him wide appreciation from both the party and the public. Naidu's role during this phase, both inside the Legislative Assembly and outside, was a critical factor for the subsequent success of the party at the hustings.

Becoming Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh

On 1 September 1995, Naidu came to power as the Chief Minister by revolting against N.T. Rama Rao. In the last interview, with Reuters, N. T. Rama Rao compared himself to Shah Jahan, a 17th-century Mughal emperor who was imprisoned by his son, and predicted that he would gain his revenge against what he called "the backstabbers" in his family, especially his son-in-law and successor, Naidu.

Chief Ministership (1995–2004)

First term

After taking charge as the Chief Minister for the first time, Naidu focused on rural development and poverty eradication through involving people in sustainable development process and triggering new reforms in the administration.

Janmabhoomi Programme

Naidu launched the Janmabhoomi Programme in February 1996. The main aim was to involve people in the reconstruction and revitalisation of the society. The programme works at a micro level, planning to identify people-represented problems through Gram Sabha discussions by regional officers, especially in villages, and to send project proposals for the government to work on. The core concentrated areas are community work, primary school education, drinking water, health and hospitals, family welfare, and environmental protection through watershed and joint forest management activities.
From 1997 onward, the 'Clean and Green Campaign' was initiated where school students and teachers participated in institutional and household plantation with government employees. A total of 46 million trees in the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh state were planted. About 3,906,835 people participated in sanitation work, with 1,438,850 persons engaged to remove garbage and 40,921,447 people participated in health awareness rallies. The Naidu idea was to make every habitation and municipal ward 'clean and green' and it was one of the largest and most successful events organised by his government.
His government started the "self help groups" such as water user associations, Vanasamrakshana Samities, Rythu Mithra Groups, CMEY Groups, School Education Committees, and promoted the 'Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas' where each group had 15-20 female members and chose a leader who conducted group meetings. The main purpose was to offer microfinance through government and bank-linkage that would help rural women to start income generating activities, know about their rights, and the importance of education. The Naidu government distributed two lakh bicycles to the girls who joined the government high schools as part of women empowerment initiative and launched the Deepam scheme in 1999 to reduce dependence on forest firewood, and to provide gas connections to poor rural members of the DWCRA groups and families below the poverty line.

Dial your Chief minister

Prajalato Mukhyamantri Phone is a programme that encourages open dialogue between the chief minister and the common people of Andhra Pradesh state. There is a live broadcast every Monday, on both Doordarshan and All India Radio where Naidu interacts with the callers directly to know their issues and address them. The live show is conducted in two sessions: in the first session, there is a discussion with vice-chancellors, academicians, and writers and in the second session, there is interaction with the people. Naidu was described as "a leader, who mingled with the masses after shedding his official status and time as Chief Minister." The innovative program found acceptance in the country's information and broadcasting systems.

Rythu Bazaar (farmers market)

Rythu Bazaar was launched by Naidu on 26 January 1999 with the objective to control the skyrocketing prices of fruits and vegetables. Under this program, farmers were encouraged to sell their produce directly to the consumers and in the process, eliminate the middleman. In the first phase itself, the program succeeded and reached various towns. Prices were down by 70 to 75 percent, and it benefited both the farmers and the direct consumers.

Sudden Inspections

Naidu actively conducted surprise inspections of the state departments. It provided him first-hand knowledge of the functioning of various departments and have direct interaction with the members of the public about the in-house facilities and availability of government staff, doctors, teachers, and other public services. If any anomalies were noticed, the related authority had to file an Action Taken Report that was actively followed-up. The element of surprise motivated the departments concerned to constantly strive for excellence.

Vision 2020

In 1999, Naidu produced a vision statement called "Andhra Pradesh Vision 2020" that outlined various goals and objectives to be achieved by 2020. It was prepared in collaboration with US consultants, McKinsey & Company, who proposed the following:
After returning as Chief Minister in 2014, Naidu updated the document to version 2.0, titled Sunrise AP Vision 2029.

1999 election victory

The Telugu Desam Party, led by Naidu, won a majority in the state legislature: 185 of 294 seats in the Assembly and 29 of 42 at the parliament in the 1999 general election, making it the second-largest party in the BJP-led NDA coalition government.
in 2000

Second term

As second time winning chief minister the Naidu government showed interest in revenue generation possibilities by shifting focus to industrialisation with public–private sector partnerships, foreign investments policy in the state, and digitising government services and records. All the panchayat offices were equipped with Internet and computers completely branded as smart governance. Focus was given to the employment generation with the development of information technology and the pharmaceutical industry.

Swarnandhrapradesh State

In 1995–1996, the Singareni Collieries coal mining company under the control of the state and federal government had devastating losses and came close to closure. Naidu put efforts into restoring the company and introduced technological security measures for miners and fixed the ability of the management team with IAS A. P. V. N. Sarma as the C&MD. They were promised a share of 10% in profits and bonuses, plus medical healthcare and insurance policy to the coal mining employees and their families. After years of combined work, in 2001, the coal company earned high profits.

E-governance

With the intention of bringing e-governance to the citizens, Naidu launched e-Seva centers in 2001 for paperless and speedy delivery of results to applicants. These e-Seva centers were one-stop solutions providing all government information and services online such as utility bills, banking services, issuing birth and death certificates, written test for drivers licence, government orders, and APSRTC tours and travel operators booking. The government introduced an outsourcing employee system where government related services are done under a contract agreement and after a certain time, they are declared as permanent government employees.

Gully sunken pits

In the year 2000, the Naidu government, under the Neeru-Meeru programme, started gully sunken pits Inki Guntalu, for harvesting rainwater in farm fields that were built with a low cost of Rs 500 to Rs 800. The water conversion mission allows deeper percolation of water, with the twin purposes of checking erosion control in gullies and of increasing ground water reservoir.

World Bank loan

As chief minister Naidu impressed the World Bank and looking at his long-term strategic policies allotted a loan of Rs 2,200 Cr under the Economic Restructuring Programme. Andhra Pradesh is the first state in the world to independently obtain a loan from the World Bank at the state level, without national government interference. The purpose of the loan is to transform the state is to put efforts in transformation through reforms and performance in education, Decentralization of power, facilitating civil society to improve as good governance and world bank condition is to bring reforms of sustainable development of high growth in which problems like poverty and unemployment can be solved and quality of life improved but instead of distributing welfare schemes to the public. But the oppositions Congress and the CPI criticised the World Bank loan as being pro-rich and for creating huge debt on the state.

Investment policy

In way of investments and attractive incentives, the Naidu government won the honour of best tourism performing state with about 24% in all national tourist arrivals, record international aircraft movements, and occupancy raised by 100% in the same year. This led to employment generation direct and indirectly for 37.7 lakhs people raised by 12% in the hotel and hospitality industry, food and beverage services, recreation and entertainment, cabs and transportation, travel trade and booking services and bagged 6 tourism awards for excellence out of 14 categories at the national level.
In 1992–94, the Andhra Pradesh State Electricity Board had an operating deficit and a decline in financial position because of adverse change in Hydro-thermal mix and higher growth in consumption of electricity by agriculture and domestic consumers compared to industries. The government promoted private finances in the power sector to bring efficient conditions in terms of cost and quality to support the economic development of the state and to reach world class levels in 2 to 5 years. This privatisation of power sector increased the states' power tariff rate and opposition parties made several heated protests with political demonstrations, but Naidu has managed to ride out this storm, and remained in control of the party and state while remaining committed to the reform program.
For attracting global investments, a world class airport was required for Hyderabad city. Naidu called for a global tender under a public–private partnership for Shamshabad Greenfield international airport with a 5,495 acres of land already acquired by his government and in possession. Then after Naidu assigned the bid to the consortium Grandhi Mallikarjuna Rao and Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad in December 2002. The next successive Congress government of Andhra Pradesh, after the airport's completion, named it 'GMR Group - Rajiv Gandhi Hyderabad International Airport'.
In 2000, both Bill Clinton and Tony Blair visited Hyderabad and met with Naidu. Bobby Ghosh of the American news magazine, Time commented, "In just five years, he has turned an impoverished, rural backwater place into India's new information-technology hub", and the magazine named Naidu, 'South Asian of the Year'.

Hyderabad's development

Naidu played a crucial role in reshaping Hyderabad as a happening world-class city with global recognition.

HITEC City

Naidu created a platform of an entirely new Metropolitan city to the west of Hyderabad city and named it 'Cyberabad'. In November 1998, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, then prime minister of India and Chandrababu Naidu inaugurated the HITEC City by opening the iconic 'Cyber Towers', a landmark building in IT Hyderabad. In anticipation of the growth of technology in the future, his government mainly concentrated on providing planned trunk infrastructure making the requirements ready and Welcome, be it buildings, roads, safety and resilience, transportation, telecommunications, IT parks and five-star hotels for the delegates meetings and accommodation and the HITEX International Convention and Exhibition Center. We are open for business with showing a plug-and-play office-space model to attract global and domestic enterprises while giving the pathway of employment creation with more than two lakhs jobs contribution in all related major industries.
Naidu once coined the slogan "Bye-bye Bangalore, hello Hyderabad" to further this aim and his government allotted lands and laid the foundations for major IT parks like L&T Infocity Ascendas Park, Cyber Gateway, Raheja Mindspace Madhapur IT Park, and CyberPearl IT Park to partake in the IT industry boom. Naidu, at a press conference, discussed his plan to develop the state of Andhra Pradesh by making the major cities showpieces for foreign investment, especially in "key sectors such as information technology, biotechnology, healthcare, and various outsourcing services" and gave a brief PowerPoint presentation to Bill Gates that convinced him to establish Microsoft Corporation Research and Development in Hyderabad, the company's second-largest research and development campuses of Microsoft outside the United States, which leads to a significant milestone for Hyderabad a turning point to recognize as the next information technology hub.

Genome Valley

Along with Cyberabad in 1999, Naidu also established the Pharma City, the first of its kind state-of-the-art biotechnology park in the country to the north of Hyderabad and promoted Genome Valley to leading multinational pharmaceutical companies like Novartis Pharma India, Shantha Biotechnics, Biocon, Biological E. Limited, Jupiter Biosciences, and also requested other global IT companies like IBM, Dell, Deloitte Technology Fast 500, Mahindra Satyam, CA Technologies, HSBC, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and Oracle Corporation to move to Hyderabad, making presentations to global CEO's and convincing them to invest and establish offices in Hyderabad.
According to several national and international survey reports has mentioned that Hyderabad became an IT Hotspot of India in 2002 and Hyderabad became ranked number one in the city competitiveness compared of major cities in India to attract businesses. The economic reforms and new policy initiatives taken by the Naidu government in creating HITEC City provided a boost to Hyderabad's urbanisation and with big tech industry jobs in hand has increased consumer purchasing power that leads to spawned massive developments of real estate gated residential apartments, food and restaurants, intelligent business offices, cinema, and shopping malls around the city area and Naidu efforts instrumented HITEC City as India's first and largest cyber city while today Cyberabad is one of the biggest technological revolutions of Hyderabad which emerged as the backbone of Telangana state's economy.

Recreational Activity Zone

In 2000, Naidu Government declared a special development area, surrounding the Hussain Sagar Lake with covering the area of 900 hectares was formed for the purposes of tourism, eco-tourism, and theme park development. This special purpose authority has been named as Buddha Purnima Project Authority. The Authority under urban landscape development has identified seven major tourism development pockets for beautification and enhancement around the Hussain Sagar Lake. These selections of development included such projects as the creation of NTR Memorial and Gardens, Lumbini Park, Laserium a laser show project, Necklace Road, Peoples Plaza have become star attractions of the twin cities for both local and nonlocal tourists.

Cyberabad Development Authority

While the process of restructuring the metropolitan boundaries was underway, re-configuration and delimitation of space for special purposes was also taking place. Following Vision 2020 policy suggestions, his government prioritised the development of high-tech enclaves in Hyderabad as a way to spark IT-driven growth. In 2001, the Naidu government declared the creation of Cyberabad Development Authority as a special enclave for the location of IT firms; research institutions and allied services around the existing ‘HITEC City’ area in Hyderabad. In conjunction with the name Hyderabad, this new cyber enclave has been named ‘Cyberabad’. The CDA covers an area of 52 km2 in the western periphery of the city covering the townships of Madhapur, Gachibowli, Kondapur, Manikonda, and Nanakramguda with also having a separate cyberabad metropolitan police commissionerate and the CDA was conceived as a self-contained enclave providing premium infrastructure, such as gated residential housing, intelligent buildings, shopping malls, and transport facilities among others. The master plan of the CDA was characterised by mixed land-use with more than 25% of the total land area for residential purposes and more than 32% for software industries. Along with residential and software industries, the CDA includes Indian School of Business, University of Hyderabad, the Indian Institute of Information Technology, a sports complex and a golf course. The creation of the CDA paved the way for the development of special enclaves meant for special purposes. Further, to provide global connectivity to the elite digeratis, a premium expressway was built to connect Cyberabad with the newly built international airport

Hyderabad Airport Development Authority

To achieve the desired growth trajectory and to leapfrog toward an information society, the state required heavy investment in premium Infrastructure for global connectivity. Therefore, in 1996, the Naidu government initiated the construction of a new greenfield international airport at Shamshabad, 21 km southwest of Hyderabad's city centre. To promote the planned development of the area around the international airport, the Naidu government declared a special development area and called it as Hyderabad Airport Development Authority. HADA covers around 458 km2 in the south-western periphery of the Metropolitan. The master plan of HADA prepared in 2003 covering 458 square kilometres for the promotion of an International Airport surrounding with ancillary economic activities such as a cargo hub, aviation engineering hub, free-trade zone, luxury hotels, residential apartments, and other additional services to make the enclave a growth centre. The region is being connected to the core of the city by radial roads and by an expressway link to Cyberabad. A Hyderabad Metro train link has also been proposed and the construction is underway. As part of the first phase of development, the international airport has been completed and inaugurated in March 2008 along with a luxury hotel. The second phase of development includes Cargo complexes and industrial zones.

MMTS - Multi-Modal Transport System

In 2003 MMTS was first started in India under Naidu Government and Andhra Pradesh now Telangana is the first state to have a multi-modal transport system, integrating the railway infrastructure with road network in hyderabad. The first phase was flagged off with the first MMTS train at Secunderabad railway station by the Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani and second phase of MMTS was inaugurated by Naidu while six-coach local trains to run from Secunderabad-Lingampalli and Hyderabad-Lingampalli for 29 km and Secunderabad- Falaknuma section was also brought under the network. As a joint project between Andhra Pradesh state and Indian railways for development of urban rail services covering 43 km and 26 stations.spreading support for people who had to Commuter rail daily for work.

Hyderabad Metro Rail

Naidu quickly attracted potential investors with IT and Biotechnology policy, a 600 square-kilometer enclave like "Geome valley" the 30 kilometres north of the Hyderabad but the initiatives has not sufficient and Naidu put substantial effort to upgrade the city's transport network already suffering rising congestion and travel delays under the impact of rapidly increasing ownership of car and motorcycles with 10% per annum. After MMTS, a much larger prestigious railway initiative was taken by Naidu Government to develop a metro to serve the city as a whole, beginning with the center and a few main access corridors where the Hyderabad Metro rail project has come into existence and first steps for the project has come in the same year 2003 where the Hyderabad Multi-Modal Transport System local trains were launched and in 2003 the Union Ministry of Urban Development approved nod for the construction of Hyderabad Metro Rail Project, directing the DMRC to conduct a survey of the proposed lines and to send DPR, while this mega project has been delayed for a decade by the successive Congress governments with the cancellation of bids and land acquisition and finally the construction begin in May 2012 with L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad Ltd has completed the proposed metro project lines in the year 2020.
In his tenure by end of the financial year 2003–04 software exports from Hyderabad reached $1 billion. and the state rises up from deficit revenue state to surplus revenue state in annual budget and it becomes the fourth-largest exporting city in India. By 2013–14 exports had grown by more than ten times, employing about 320,000 people directly working in this IT & ITES fields in Hyderabad alone.

Role in selection of the President of India

Naidu took the initiative to select K. R. Narayanan from the Dalit community as President of India. In 2002 Vajpayee then hoped to give the post of President to the Muslims. Naidu at the time played a leading role in the National Democratic Alliance and proposed the name of eminent scientist A. P. J. Abdul Kalam as its presidential candidate as Kalam pursued as scientist that the president would be an inspiration to the younger generation. Naidu as kingmaker appealed to the opposition Congress, the left and other national and state parties to support the Kalam candidacy at this crucial juncture after the 2002 Gujarat riots happened in the Narendra Modi government's tenure where the nation was racked by violence and there was a need to send the right signals to the international community and within the country with the support of Abdul Kalam from Muslim community. Naidu described the Dr. Kalam as the best choice besides making an outstanding contribution in the field of science and technology and said he was humble, patriotic and non-political personality. Naidu was instrumental in Krishan Kant's, then governor of Andhra Pradesh, elevation to the vice-president's post in July 1997 when the United Front was in power at the Centre and Naidu was the UF convenor.

Assassination attempts

The Telugu Desam Party failed to retain power after two successive wins, losing to the Indian National Congress after winning only 47 of 294 seats in the state assembly and five of 42 in the Lok Sabha. While many of his ministers lost, Naidu won decisively in Kuppam and the loss was due to the government prioritising agriculture and farmers less in the annual budget than industrialisation and IT service-based improvements.

2009 election defeat

The TDP formed the Grand Alliance with support from the TRS Party who pitched for a separate state of Telangana, but Naidu lost to the Indian National Congress. Naidu's party won only 92 of 294 seats in the state assembly and 6 of 42 in the Lok Sabha.

Uttarakhand flood victims

During the 2013 Uttarakhand floods, many pilgrims from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh visiting the Kedarnath temple Char Dham yatra became stranded in the valleys. The ruling congress state government did not take measures and coordinate with various agencies leaving pilgrims stranded as other state governments helped their own states, pilgrims, with rescue and relief operations. Naidu as the opposition leader of Andhra Pradesh was in San Francisco, the United States at the time. He returned at once and reached the flood victims' camp in Dehradun, capital of Uttarakhand state and was involved in the relief and rehabilitation of flood victims. Naidu's first step make shifting them for shelter from Dehradun via bus to the national capital, Delhi and also opened a helpline assisting with information regarding victims and missing persons for their family members in the state and arranged for three special aircraft at Delhi airport to return all the victims to the state, providing food and water from the state-owned guest house Andhra Bhavan Canteen, while his party members already arranged the doctors from NTR Trust Bhavan has sent to Delhi and provide medical treatment to affected flood victims. After arrival in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam airports with a separate bus has also arranged for flood victims to reach their respective destinations.

2014 election victory

The Telugu Desam Party alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party and Jana Sena Party
returned to power in Andhra Pradesh state, winning 102 seats out of 175 seats. Naidu led the TDP to an outright majority. Naidu took oath as the first Chief Minister of the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh at Mangalagiri on the grounds of Acharya Nagarjuna University near Guntur.

Third term

During this tenure as third time Chief Minister, the government of Andhra Pradesh gave priority to both Welfare and Development, and received a total of 635 awards at the national level, while the main targets in completion of minor and major irrigation projects, building Amaravati as the new capital city, and making Visakhapatnam City as Fintech capital, Rayalaseema Four districts as the manufacturing hub, and moreover providing 24 Hours Power Supply to industrial purposes and residential homes, Ease of doing Business first in state, youth skills development and implementing agriculture best policies like Zero Budget Natural Farming.

Welfare schemes

List of popular Social Welfare schemes launched by the government of Andhra Pradesh
For the first time in India, under Naidu's government in Andhra Pradesh, transgender persons were issued driving licences. The Transport Department placed an additional column for the 'third sex' in the online driving licence application form. Thirty-two transgender people were issued Learner Licence Registration certificates at a Legal Services awareness programme held in Kadapa District. The Naidu cabinet has a transgender policy where they will be provided skill development for financial stability, which also includes loans from banks to setup small business and eligibility for ration cards, plots, and scholarships. A pension of Rs 3000 per month has already been made available to transgenders by the government under the pension scheme.

Bike ambulances for tribal areas

Bike ambulances were launched by Naidu government to make medical care accessible to the remotest parts of the state where these vehicles transport patients who require emergency care from the interiors of the forest to roads, especially in areas inaccessible by regular ambulances. This has been a boon in the Tribal Areas where the access by road is limited.

Irrigation projects

Projects undertaken by the Government of Andhra Pradesh:
is the pet project of Andhra Pradesh CM Naidu because of his stubbornness in building it while the opposition parties and some intellectuals alleged the Pattiseema project was a waste of public money. After completion it pumps and diverts 100 TMC water from the Godavari river to the Krishna river to target the Krishna delta agriculture lands and serve the 13 lakh acres and the construction was completed in just one year, which was registered at Limca Book of Records.

Polavaram Irrigation Project

The Polavaram National Project is a mega-project with a lengthy construction period and a large budget at West Godavari district. Naidu said Polavaram project is a lifeline for Andhra Pradesh and is his life's mission is to complete it. Naidu inaugurated the pylon on 11 June 2018 for the completion of the diaphragm wall and the first crest gate was erected between 40 and 41 pillars on Polavaram Dam at 24 December 2018 and 70% of the irrigation works was completed as of May 2019.

Sunrise State

After the division of Telangana from Andhra Pradesh, the state was forced to have a new capital and decentralise its development unlike Hyderabad. With Amaravati decided as the new capital for Andhra Pradesh, and Visakhapatnam was declared as the Financial-technology Capital by founding the Fintech Valley Vizag while initiated the Sunrise startup village an incubation centre for the encourage of Information Technology startups and building an iconic Millennium IT Towers, AP Medtech Zone Limited and Naidu laid the foundation for new Bhogapuram Greenfield international airport is to cater to east of India in Visakhapatnam and having its ITSEZ – Special Economic Zone. As part of the developments Naidu started a program called 'AP Cloud Initiative' and also launched 'Digital Summit' while other regions selected like Kurnool for Mega solar park and Orvakal Airport and Anantapur with KIA Motors and Nellore with Isuzu Motors India as districts for an automobile manufacturing hub and Chittoor as Electronics Manufacturing clusters with Sri Venkateswara Mobile and Electronic Manufacturing Hub.

Future Decoded - Microsoft

Naidu gave a presentation at the 'Future Decoded' event in Mumbai in 2017, organised by Microsoft Inc. Naidu said that his goal was to make the Sunrise Andhra Pradesh state one of the top three in India by development by 2022, and to be number one by 2029 and by 2050, Andhra Pradesh should be the best destination for investments, not only with Economic indicators but with the Happiness Index. Naidu explained how the 62,000 police officers of Andhra Pradesh were connected via Kaizala, a secure messaging and work management application, and about how Andhra Pradesh is a "cloud-first state" in India utilising technology and integrated with Andhra Pradesh government across various 22 departments and 100k+ users that stay connected and informed with related authorities in collaboration of government work which was being used to generate real-time, on the ground data, and he added that it worked well on basic Android handsets, even on 2G network connections and Naidu says ideas like this make possible the system like real-time governance at ease.
Naidu said that we are committed to create 14.4 million jobs and LinkedIn has shown the way and we will sign up right away and we move in that direction as he referred to Project Sangam as with the Aadhaar advantage, made possible the finger is enough to transact anything from health, education, banking to any services and also mentioned about E-Pragati, APFibernet, Internet of Things has deployed 10 lakh IoT devices to give real time data in the state. Officials can access a real-time dashboard to see the information of all 33 departments including rainfall and groundwater measurements.

Zero Budget Natural Farming

The Naidu government launched a scale-out plan of Climate Resilient Zero Budget Natural Farming in 2018, with training provided to farmers through the Rythu Sadhikara Samstha, a not-for-profit organisation belongs to the government making Andhra Pradesh the first state to adopt natural farming in India while the plan is to make transition all the 6 million farms/farmers from the use of chemical fertilizers to Zero-Budget Natural Farming by 2024, with considering of multiple objectives as every village will become a bio-village enhancing farmers welfare, consumer welfare and for the conservation of environment. “The success of climate-resilient, Zero Budget Natural Farming in Andhra Pradesh will not only help India in meeting its SDGs but it can also inspire and transform the lives of millions of farmers across the developing world,” said Naidu. He noted that the average lifespan in India was 65–69 years now, and it could shoot up to 85–90 years by consuming food grown through natural farming."ZBNF will help people live a healthy and happy life. It will also contribute to a clean environment," he said.
As Naidu declared if any farmers from the state would be rewarded with Rs 100 crore from the government of Andhra Pradesh if they won Nobel prize in natural farming and AP farmers should become role models to the world in natural farming.

World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum has invited Naidu to participate in its meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Five consecutive times Naidu received an invitation after he took charge as the Chief Minister of the bifurcated Andhra Pradesh. He was chosen as a special invitee for the summit by WEF President Klaus Schwab for a session on the “Future of Urban Development,” where he pitched about his vision for Andhra Pradesh and its goals. and has also been invited by the Japanese delegation as the special guest for a session on “Vision for tomorrow, Japan Learning for structural challenges” as part of the “Japan Night” session. The Naidu government has taken up a unique initiative to project the state as an investment destination. The government had a special bus at the 2016 summit highlighting Andhra Pradesh as No.1 Destination for Corporate Investment. The aim is to attract industrialists and investments from abroad to the new Andhra Pradesh after its bifurcation. The Summit has been useful for Andhra Pradesh as the state is in an advantageous position for fully utilising technologies. It is mainly concerted efforts to achieve the best results to touch double-digit growth. Naidu held discussions with investors with the focus on sectors like Global Funds, Financing, IT, Infrastructure and Manufacturing. He also apprised them about the available opportunities, Human resources, etc. for investing in Andhra Pradesh and the functioning of State Administration and discussed with experts about the sustainable agriculture sector, mechanisation, and farmers-Producers-Organisations. Naidu also reached to Zurich one day before Davos and hold one-to-one discussion with possible investors and moreover he speaks at "India and Emerging Markets in the new phase of globalization" at Boston Consulting Group-CII session and another session at "New Vision for Agriculture-Building and Strengthening Multi-Holder Partnerships.

United Nations Environment Programme

Naidu delivered a keynote address at an event titled “Financing Sustainable Agriculture: Global Challenges and Opportunities”, organised on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly. Out of all the conferences and forums. Naidu addressing about ZBNF program at the United Nations conference has started his speech in Telugu language and said it has been the most proud and unforgettable experience of his life. Naidu said that the state government has been encouraging ZBNF to reduce costs and risks in farming, more and safe food with nutritious values, reverse migration to villages and enhance soil health to safeguard our collective future. He said microbial seed coating, bio inoculants, cover crops, mulching, soil aeration, and zero chemicals will promote living soil concept. He said a target was set to make villages as bio villages in five years period. The scale at which AP has implemented ZBNF has gathered massive praise and recognition internationally. ZBNF, its benefits must be shared with the global community for which leaders across nations must join hands in terms of knowledge-sharing, philanthropy, financing, and marketing. He said that the zero budget farming will help to reach sustainable development goals.
As part of this, Naidu attended the Sustainable Development Impact Summit organised by the World Economic Forum and Bloomberg Global Business Forum held in New York, 2018. Naidu as Chief Minister, launched the findings of the project, “Accelerating Sustainable Production” in Andhra Pradesh and reiterated the state's commitment to achieving most of the SDGs by 2022. The report highlighted the progress achieved under the SDG framework in its first two years and pointed out areas that demand extra attention. The previous year's report about SDG's was also presented at the High-Level Political Forum, hosted at the United Nations headquarters, New York in July 2017.

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)

The CII organised the 22nd edition of CII Partnership Summit in 2016 with a partnership with the State Government of Andhra Pradesh, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and Ministry of Commerce and Industry at APIIC Ground, Harbour Park, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. Chandrababu Naidu signed 331 memoranda of investment proposals worth Rs 4.78 lakh crore into Andhra Pradesh and suggested steps to promote exports. It is expected that these understandings produce more than 10 lakh jobs in the next five years in the state. And in 2018 CII Summit approaching through innovative ways Naidu promote Sunrise Andhra Pradesh as the destination for business in India with attracting new investors as part of a summit with displaying the products that are manufactured in the State, including Kia cars, Foxconn cellphones, Apollo tyres, and others. “The exhibits have included everything that reflects the achievements, desires, and potential of the State. Three Summits from 2016-2018 attracted delegates from 40 – 50 countries, witnessed cumulative participation of over 10,000 delegates, and served as the platform for execution of cumulative 1,437 MoUs with a committed investment of Rs 13.35 lakh crores and committed employment of 24.60 lakhs.

Real Time Governance Society(RTGS)

An approach with a people-first motto, the Naidu government strives to provide an agile and efficient public service delivery system benefiting nearly 50 million citizens in a 360-degree life cycle approach through its Real Time Governance initiative. With the help of RTG, Andhra Pradesh can now swiftly resolve citizen grievances and monitor infrastructure projects, Crime and incidents, weather and climatic events across the state in real time, leveraging technology services. Keeping technology in its mind and citizen centricity in its heart, Real Time Governance is set to revolutionise governance in Andhra Pradesh, catalysing government operations to create a safer, more efficient and sustainable society. The Real Time Governance model is the most powerful and intellectual initiative by the Naidu government to make insightful decisions that vibrantly transform citizen services from pensions to street lights on/off time, that garnered global recognition and AP Real Time Governance facility has received Hitachi Transformation People's Choice Award. And RTG is able to analyse big data sets operates from State Command and Communication Centre housed in the Secretariat Complex at Amaravati gathered from various data input sources from CC cameras, drones, biometric augmented technology and virtual reality, machine learning technology, Internet of Things, etc., adopting the most advanced technology of international standards for governance

Sports project ''Gandiva''

The new sports policy announced for the period 2017-22 by Naidu Government with a mission to groom sports talent and initiated a unique programme named ‘Project Gandiva’ that helps nurture the young talent by training them as competitive sportsmen. The project was formally launched on 24 July 2018 at Vidyadharapuram in Vijayawada by Naidu and said ‘Project Gandiva’ to revolutionise sports culture in the State and government will select students of age between 10–16 years from village to State level, and provide them with international level facilities, infrastructure, and coaching. Project Gandiva will ensure that every talent in the State of Andhra Pradesh is identified, nurtured and trained by international coaches. We will see Olympians rise from this sunrise State,” Naidu said. Project Gandiva is a long-term athletic development programme designed by the State. As part of the policy, the talented sports persons will be picked up and groomed to compete at national and international events with winning medals and bring laurels to the State. For 2018-19, a long-term athletic development scheme under the programme was launched. The objective is to ensure that AP excels in sports in a span of 10 years from now. The project envisages that by 2021, the State should become number one in national athletics and by next year, the State should secure medals in Asian and Commonwealth Games. By 2024, State should represent Olympics and by 2028 Olympics. Naidu laid the foundation stone for the construction of ‘Amaravati International Sports Complex’ and the sports complex is designed to be built in 8.9 acres with a budget of Rs 60 crore and would feature world-class infrastructure with high-end equipment for sportsmen in Vidyadharapuram

Ease of Doing Business

In commitment of Ease Of Doing Business always been to provide the best business environment, the Andhra Pradesh state ranked at Number 1 in 2016 and retained its position for the second consecutive year in 2017, and ranked second in EODB after Gujarat in India in 2015. The Naidu government took up various initiatives towards this endeavour has created the most stable business environment in state that been built on consistency in policies, end-to-end technology initiatives, several business reforms, decentralisation and investor outreach. The 'Single Desk Portal' launched in 2015 is an initiative taken up by the Naidu government to establish a one stop portal for Government to Business services offered across the business cycle, offers 69 services cutting across 19 departments and all approvals for setting up an industry in Andhra Pradesh are provided online within a maximum of 21-days. SDP has greatly improved service delivery to businesses. Physical visits to the departments are eliminated and timelines for service delivery are monitored through the Core dashboard by the Chief Minister's office. To support the SDP, the Government released the Single Desk Policy, 2015, that provides the framework for monitoring the functioning of the online SDP system. Further, the Single Desk Bureau, headed by the Commissioner of Industries, was also set up to regularly monitor the functioning of SDP. All concerned departments have been made part of SDB to review the approval process on SDP. As of 21 December 2018, a total of 33,565 approvals have been provided, with service level compliance of 99.85%. Single Desk Portal was rated as a best practice by Government of India and World Bank in 2016.

Disaster management

Cyclone Hudhud

On 12 October 2014 Cyclone Hudhud struck the east coast of India near Visakhapatnam with wall and roof collapses and uprooting of trees on roads, which was pounded by rains and galeforce winds at 170/180 km/h of speed causing devastating effect and makes it even difficult to travel and conduct rescue operations to the Vishakhapatnam with railway lines being badly damaged and airport services affected. At the time Naidu alerted officials infront the Cyclone Hudhud threat and reviewed the preparedness of the state in Disaster Management while hands-on in Vizag, Naidu immediately shifted base from the capital of Hyderabad to the port town of Vizag to ensure his administration delivers and worked from a Bus turned into the makeshift as War-Room, Office and Home and directed the collectors and officials to set up relief camps and to evacuate people especially the tribals the first thing to do is minimise casualties from areas confirmed that have cyclone threat and make sure ready with stock up essential commodities for relief camps and serve the affected with providing food and he advised the officials to ensure that health camps have continuous power supply. The Naidu government issued an order deputing district officials, heads of departments and every government employee would be on duty until relief, restoration and rehabilitation works were fulfilled. For Naidu, his biggest concern is that phone lines remain dead, placing communication limits for rescue and relief operations. He criticised telecom providers for lack of restoration even a couple of days after the cyclone and said his efficiency in disaster relief works has gone down by 50 percent because of the communication gap, adding that he is unable to engage with the disaster relief work force and people on the ground due to lack of connectivity and asked them to expedite reconnection of the network and to send continuous updates to people about the cyclone threat and SMS would be sent in Telugu to people. This apart, officials have been directed to give updates about the cyclone through All India Radio. Naidu has utilised the Hyderabad National Remote Sensing Centre to use GIS, GPS and remote sensing instruments to detect the detrimental effects caused by Cyclone Hudhud in the region. The NRSC employed geo-tagging to create a map of the damages, in order to facilitate the action of the national Disaster response forces deployed to provide support relief. Although precaution and mass evacuation plans have been implemented after NASA's cyclone alert on 8 October, the storm generated severe consequences, including property and live losses and communication systems' disruption. According to Andhra Pradesh's Revenue Department. a total of 2,48,004 people were affected by Hudhud, 61 persons were killed which also damaged 70 houses and left 34 animals dead, trees and hoardings, crop loss, damaged roads, bridges, reservoirs, tanks and railway lines and the Vizag airport roof was blown away while its communications satellite network collapsed, has suffered a loss of Rs.500 crore and 40,000 electricity poles were damaged and around 6,000 transformers damaged. Enormous damage happened to the agriculture sector, resulting in crop loss of Rs 948 crore in 2.38 lakh hectares and horticulture sector was also the worst hit with the loss estimated at Rs 1339.2 crore also including damage to the tune of Rs 6,136 crore to private industries and other Damages to Visakhapatnam Steel Plant at Rs 1,000 crore, Indian Navy Rs 2,000 crore, Andhra University Rs 300 crore were estimated.
In three days the Naidu government had evacuated 1,50,000 people and accommodated in 223 relief camps and 6,85,000 people had been provided food and return the city to normalcy while restoration the power supply is the first priority with began erecting electric poles and transformers being laid brought in 500 trucks, 250 proclains and many gensets in hundreds from wherever they were available and moreover clearing thoroughfares of trees on roads and supply of essential commodities like food, milk and water tankers to households, ensure stock availability of petrol in filling stations and revived of Public Transportation services, cell phone towers and internet connectivity were almost restored, after all it was devastated by the cyclone fury. According to Naidu, the exact financial loss caused by Cyclone Hudhud is calculated and estimates indicate that it up to Rs 70,000 crore and central government announced the interim aid of 1000 crore for operations. Naidu said in an interview he will be in Vizag till he is satisfied about a job accomplished and noted the extent of the damage...we cannot visualise, imagine, assess it but the government was able to reduce loss of life due to the precautionary measures taken proactive and timely action and after to re-stabilize their livelihood

Cyclone Titli

Following Cyclone Hudhud, the next cyclone that battered the north-east coastal Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts of Andhra Pradesh state was Cyclone Titli, leaving as many as 2.25 lakh families in about 18 mandals on 11 October 2018, triggering gales of causing extensive damage. As per official estimations, 9.07 lakh people, in 202 villages, in 18 mandals were affected due to the cyclone. About 8,962 houses were damaged, of roads were destroyed, 386 trees fell and 80 minor irrigation projects and tanks were damaged. Power supply was affected in six towns and 319 villages. The cell phone networks of BSNL, and private telecom companies were affected, sending communications out for two day. Horticulture was hit with damages to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore followed by agriculture. Naidu acted as soon as the cyclone warning was received by alerting the administration to prepare for the calamity and was in constant touch with officials of the Indian Space Research Organisation, Real-Time Governance and alerted the Collectors of both Srikakulam and Visakhapatnam districts. The Naidu government appealed to people in the cyclone-affected villages to be alert to prevent loss of life and directed the officials to take up relief and rehabilitation works in the affected regions and issued immediate orders for necessary assistance to the villagers and farmers who suffered severe losses. rice was provided to the families and to the families of the fishermen community. Additionally, dal, palm oil, potatoes, onions and sugar were distributed to families, and milk was made available to children in cyclone-affected regions. Rs. 5 lakh was announced as an ex gratia grant to family members of 8 persons killed by the cyclone, and that asbestos sheets would be distributed free of cost to fishermen to help with the repairing of their houses, also to pay Rs 2 lakh for the fisheremen who lost their boats. Compensation will be Rs 6 lakh for motor boats and Rs 10,000 for each net. Aqua farmers will receive Rs 30,000 compensation per hectare to recover from the damage. 100 Deputy Collectors were pressed into service to take part in cyclone relief operations and with a nodal officer appointed in-charge of each mandal to supervise relief operations. More than 50% of the power supply was restored by the next day. Naidu addressed people at Lollaputtuga, Balliputtuga, Patavaraka, Manikyaputtuga, Borivanka, and Sompeta and interacted with them on the relief measures while feedback was collected from people to know whether they received water and food and restoration of power supply was assured. The Real Time Governance Society correctly forecast the course of Cyclone Titli in the coastal region of Srikakulam district above Kalingapatnam. The cyclone made its landfall at Pallesarathi village, Vajrapukothuru Mandal on the night of 11 October 2018. The clear prediction helped in communicating with the local agencies to evacuate the coastal population to safe places in time and taking other preparatory measures while passing the communication to fisherman to remain off the sea for fishing due to the cyclone and rough sea. All these measures by RTGS ensured that the number of casualties due to Cyclone Titli remained low. Though protective measures were taken, there was still eight people killed, seven in Srikakulam district and one in Vizianagaram, whereas Titli claimed more than 62 lives in Odisha State.
Naidu wrote two letters stating the total damage assessment to the central government to declare Cyclone Titli as a national calamity, while demanding Rs 1200 crore as interim relief. He also requested the central government to depute teams to assess damage from the cyclone. Naidu expressed disappointment at the lukewarm response from the central government despite large-scale damage in Andhra Pradesh from the cyclone.

Cyclone Phethai

Due to the previous experience with Cyclone Titli, the Naidu government challenged the third cyclone using RTGS and was able to deftly handle Cyclone Phethai, which hit central coastal Andhra Pradesh near Kakinada on 17 December 2018. RTGS monitored the entire track of Cyclone Phethai right from its inception as a low-pressure system 1400 south-east of Bay of Bengal to the time it formed into a depression, deep depression and severe cyclone until it made landfall off AP Coast between Kakinada and Yanam. Understanding the movement of the cyclone, RTGS alerted the rural departments in central districts especially Guntur, Krishna, East and West Godavari and up to Visakhapatnam to further advise farmers to quickly complete harvesting of their standing crops. This ensured more than 30,000 hectares of Paddy crops were saved from lodging and inundation due to the cyclone and Fishermen were alerted one week before Landfall not to venture into the sea considering a forecast of rough sea and tidal waves. There was not even a single casualty of fishermen during the cyclone. RTGS alerted the fisheries department, local administrations, local communities, village functionaries of the impending storm through IVRS calls advising them to stay off the sea. Based on RTGS recommendation, communication was also sent to fishermen who went into the sea to return. Nearly 350 vessels were made to return before the cyclone. There was a case of four boats that went deep into the sea that could not be communicated using mobile phones. RTGS utilised the FM radio and sent advisories to these vessels naming their villages asking them to immediately return. The Naidu government also pressed helicopter operations taking the support of the navy to identify the four vessels carrying 26 fishermen that drifted off from East Godavari and one casualty were reported and advisories were also sent to the citizens of vulnerable mandals along the coast where the cyclone was predicted to make the landfall forcing the evacuation of 20,000 people have been sheltered in relief camps.

Rayalaseema development

Kia Motors in Anantapur

Naidu put constant pressure on South Korea's Kia Motors officials to set up a mega manufacturing plant at Yerramanchi village, Penukonda mandal of Anantapur district while Kia having huge competition from other states for their plant setup and Kia looking for alternative locations for their investment. Despite the Kia make several query's about scarcity of water in drought prone region that is essential for their plant in that area. At the time, Naidu promised the Kia corporation with continuous water supply and within six months his govt make built of 7 km pipelines to plant with also inaugurating the Gollapalle water reservoir as water source and also Naidu woo the Kia Motors Corporation with given basic facilities and special incentives to establish the plant in Anantapur. Besides Naidu had a strategy to bring in other sub ancillary and industry units after this plant operations. Finally Naidu efforts fulfilled while Kia Motors entered into an MoU with Naidu Government of Andhra Pradesh on 20 April 2017, to produce 3 lakh vehicles per year with an investment of Rs 13,000 crore to provide employment opportunity to 11,000 persons, including 4000 direct jobs. Naidu spoke at the frame installation event of Kia motors and expressed his gratitude to the farmers who gave their lands for the industry and opined that with the Kia Motors manufacturing plant, the face and fate of Anantapuramu district would change. “This is a significant and first step in our efforts to turn Andhra Pradesh into an automobile manufacturing hub. It is a historic day and the strong bond between AP and Kia will endure,” Naidu said. Also the APIIC allotted 535.50 acres for the main plant, 36 acres for the Korean township and 11.20 acres for the training centre. Kia Plant construction was completed in 18 months. while Naidu inaugurated the first Trial Car of kia in January 2019.

Foundation of Amaravati

The foundation for the city was laid at Uddandarayunipalem on 22 October 2015. The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, Naidu as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, the Vice-President of India and the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu; then Governor E. S. L. Narasimhan; the Japanese minister for economy trade and industry, Yōsuke Takagi; and the Singaporean Minister for Trade and Industry, S. Iswaran; laid the foundation for the city.
At a summit, Naidu said his ambition was to make Amaravati one of the happiest cities, encompassing the highest standards of livability and infrastructure with a thriving economic environment. Amaravati is based on trust and partnership with no single cash transaction between farmers and government in an agreement of returnable developed plots. It is the world's largest successful voluntary land pooling, with 27,956 farmers offering 33,920 acres within three months was the beginning of the city. The Land Pooling Scheme is now widely acknowledged as a global best practice without any land agitation from local people taken by Naidu's government.

Amaravati development

His tenure as the chief minister began with the new capital city Amaravati starting from zero, a 16,000-crores revenue deficit, and an uncooperative central government. Naidu developed Amaravati as the state capital of Andhra Pradesh, and introduced various government offices and services for the purpose of administration. The Naidu government notified the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority as the urban-planning agency.
Some of the developmental initiatives were:
Naidu assured the people of Visakhapatnam that it will be transformed into an international city, and the financial capital of the state besides developing it into one of the world's leading tourist destinations. Naidu inaugurated the City Central Park in the heart of Visakhapatnam city in 2016. And Naidu inaugurated the much-awaited Heli tourism project for a bird's-eye view of Vizag city being jointly run by the Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority and tourism department in 2017. The Naidu government launched the international Hot air balloon festival in November 2017 and second edition in January 2019 to promote the tourism at Visakhapatnam. To develop tourism in 1996, the Naidu government created the Araku tribal museum with Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation representing the tribal culture and traditional lifestyle of tribals living in the forest and the entire complex is build with mud and other metals giving it a rural, native appearance, right from the architecture at the Araku valley.
In August 2002 the Naidu government inaugurated the INS Kursura Museum at RK Beach and it was converted into a submarine museum by his government. The Kursura played a pivotal role in the 1971 Indo-Pak war and served the nation for 31 years. It was the first submarine in Asia to be converted into a museum and the second in the world. In 2017, Naidu laid the foundation for the TU 142 Aircraft Museum and it is constructed very near the INS Kursura and described as a deepavali festival gift to the people of the Visakhapatnam city. Naidu also sent another proposal to the Defence Ministry to develop the INS Viraat aircraft carrier into a tourism center in Visakhapatnam after its decommissioning and the Indian Navy has agreed to hand over the INS Viraat to the Government of Andhra Pradesh.

Infrastructure

As Visakhapatnam is the largest city and the main hub of economic activity for Andhra Pradesh state. In 2018, Naidu proposed a three-route Metro rail project covering of 42.55 km in and around Vizag city to reduce traffic as was providing a good public transport system in the city and Naidu government has allocated a 250 acres of land for the establishment of Metro Rail in Vizag and the project will be constructed under the PPP partnership model while the land can be used for commercial purposes so that the revenue could be used for the metro rail construction and called for bids for the project. In 2016, Naidu unveiled a pylon on the stadium premises to mark the first Test between India and England. Visakhapatnam lacks an international stadium of repute, instead having only ACA–VDCA Cricket Stadium established by the Naidu government in 2003 under ACA and Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh. Naidu planned a new world-class stadium as the sports ecosystem his government created in Gachibowli for the Afro-Asian games in 2003 so Vizag can host the Asian Athletic Championships in the future and proposed construction of a sports complex with a football field of international standards and state-of-the-art facilities including a synthetic athletic track and an indoor stadium hosting badminton and basketball matches, volleyball, table tennis, boxing, wrestling and weightlifting to be ready as soon as possible so the city can host international sports events and the Naidu government has held talks with the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant for over 250 acres of land to build a sports village and authorities accepted the land proposal.

Fintech valley

Naidu launched the Fintech Valley Vizag in 2016 with the further goal of elevating the City of Destiny as the City of Fintech capital and to be one of the top three Blockchain research and development hubs in the world. The motive to target the financial center is because Information technology has already existed in several cities in India and it is difficult to approach and attract the same businesses from IT and Naidu looks for alternative means to create a huge platform for the financial tech industry with a vision to make Vizag a financial destination in India and his government initiated AP Electronics and IT Agency, an autonomous body to encourage investments with the previously introduced Fintech Valley Accelerator Program. As Vizag is the biggest city in the state and has the potential, Naidu provided the infrastructure by inaugurating the Millennium IT Towers, made available the 40-acres IT park in Rushikonda, proposed a 600-acre IT park at Kapuluppada, planned to develop the Mega IT hub at Madhurawada, and his government signed several MOU's with the multinational companies especially the Google X development center to create campuses in the valley and some have already established their Center of Innovation offices including the Franklin Templeton, the Fortune 500 company. As part of this, the Naidu government has arranged many Fintech conferences and hackathons relating to Blockchain and cyber security in the city. Furthermore, he inaugurated the Sunrise Startup Nation, an incubation centre to promote technology startups and for young entrepreneurs to share their ideas in the state.

Araku coffee

Naidu became the brand ambassador of Araku products when he was Chief Minister and came up with a novel way to promote Araku Coffee and the Araku Valley in Visakhapatnam. The coffee produced at Araku has a history dating to the 18th century. In 1898, the British introduced coffee to the East Godavari district in Pamuluru before it spread to Araku in the early 19th century. After independence, the Andhra Pradesh Forest Department took up coffee plantations in the valley and by 1956, the Coffee Board of India appointed Girijan Cooperative Corporation for its promotion through local tribal farmers. In a significant development, the Naidu government and SpiceJet, the third-largest airline in the country by number of domestic passengers carried, came forward to serve the organic brew of Araku to its passengers. SpiceJet air hostesses would make special announcements about the brand and its significance, and about the coffee plantations in Araku Valley. To increase visits to tourist places located around Araku Valley, a scheme of scratch cards was introduced. Cards would be given to every passenger and two lucky passengers, along with their families, would receive free accommodation in Araku Valley and the tourism department would pay the airline to promote Araku Coffee. The brand became so popular and exotic that Naidu gifted them to Korean and Russian delegates during their visits and the coffee was marketed in all the international investor meetings organised by the state. Naidu once said that Araku Valley's tribal coffee is competing with Colombian and Sumatran coffee in the international market. Large-scale procurement and dedicated promotion of Araku coffee are creating employment opportunities for tribal youth. The coffee production became a pet project of Naidu and promised to ramp up coffee cultivation by an additional 100,000 acres of pesticide-free plantations, boosting the income levels of tribal farmers in the valley. while it is planned to launch the next set of retail stores in New York and Tokyo and under its own brand name "araku COFFEE" have already launched its first retail store in the Le Marais, Paris.

Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone

The Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone, a modern medical-equipment manufacturing and testing facility, open to manufacturers and innovators was formally inaugurated in December 2018 by Naidu. The MedTech Zone will meet the requirements of the domestic market as well as the export market, according to Naidu speaking at the inaugural session of the fourth WHO Global Forum on Medical Devices after dedicating the MedTech Zone to the nation, Naidu said 80-90 per cent of the medical devices in the country were imported and most of them could be manufactured at the MedTech Zone and even exports could be taken up at a later stage. The park will give a tremendous boost to the medical devices segment in the healthcare industry, he added.
Visakhapatnam in 2018
AMTZ envisions India on the global map of high-end medical-equipment production and making health-care products affordable and accessible for India and other countries. AMTZ also has two world-class incubation facilities for innovators and start-ups in the field. India's first government-funded medical-devices manufacturing park made formal agreements with two companies for which the layout has been approved and construction has been completed. The park which also houses four medical-device testing centers with 18 different types of testing facilities under one roof booked 28 out of 45 companies in the first phase. Naidu said it was the first time the World Health Organisation Global Forum on Medical Devices was being held in India and thanked the WHO for choosing Visakhapatnam and MedTech Zone for the purpose. He offered to host it the next time as well.
The Naidu government said the Zone will provide capital-intensive scientific facilities required by most medical-device manufacturers and more than 200 modern state-of-the-art independent manufacturing units. The AMTZ built on in two phases, will be a hub for manufacturing medical devices in the country. The first phase was completed at a cost of Rs 450 crore and the second phase will be completed at a cost of Rs 110 crore. Around 240 companies will manufacture medical equipment at the Zone, generating 25,000 jobs. From thermometer to CT scan machines, all medical tools will be manufactured and tested at the AMTZ. The facilities include the largest 3D-printing center, bio-material testing, X-ray tube testing, prototyping, rapid tooling, CT Scan tube, the largest gamma sterilisation plant for medical devices, R&D specialists and skill specialists. With good scope for manufacturing medical equipment, by 2030, India has the chance to win $40 billion in marketing opportunities. Addressing representatives from 90 countries, Naidu urged them to invest in the AMTZ. AMTZ organised a mega-business conference meeting ‘MedAsia Business Forum’ attended by over 200 medical device manufacturers, original equipment manufacturers facilitators, small and medium-sized enterprises, innovators, start-ups, design solutions, venture fund managers and government entities. As per the National Medical Devices Manufacturing Policy 2015, Naidu said investors in the AMTZ would receive permission through a single-window process.

Bhogapuram airport

The initial idea to develop an international airport in Vizag began when Naidu was Chief minister of Andhra Pradesh in January 1997, then his government announced its proposal to build the international airport with the help of private participation at a cost of Rs. 5 billion, aiming to make Visakhapatnam airport the primary gateway to eastern India and southeast Asia. The plan is a part of making Vizag an "International City" and the state's tourism hub. The proposal to build the international airport is part of his Vision 2020 as per which two new international airports are proposed, Shamshabad International Airport and Visakhapatnam Airport. After returning in 2014, his government acquired 2,703 acres of land, but it required four years due to land-owner disputes and acquisition at Bhogapuram, Vizianagaram and Naidu laid the foundation for a new greenfield international airport for Visakhapatnam in February 2019 and said the Bhogapuram International Airport would boost the economic development of northern coastal districts and a world-class airport is needed for the promotion of IT and tourism in Vizag. While the airport developed under PPP mode will also be integrated with Aerocity, a Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul facility and an Aviation Academy and Naidu assigned the contract to GMR group, the same infrastructure company he assigned the contract to build and operate the Shamshabad International Airport at Hyderabad in 2002. The current Visakhapatnam International Airport is a naval airfield belonging to the Eastern Naval Command, which proposed separate flying slots for civil and military flights at city airport. And Naidu strongly opposed proposed military constraints on the airport as this may slow the development of Brand Vizag city. The new civilian international airport is projected to be completed by 2023 and will replace the existing Indian Navy airport.

2019 election defeat

The Telugu Desam Party lost the 2019 general elections to the YSR Congress Party led by Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy. It was the party's biggest defeat since its inception in 1982; TDP won 23 assembly seats out of 175 and 3 Lok Sabha seats out of 25.

Arrest in 2019

In 2019, Naidu was taken into preventive custody by the police citing law and order issues as he planned to organise the Chalo Atmakur rally to protest political violence and the massacre of his Telugu Desam party activists by the ruling party. Following his arrest, Naidu went on a hunger strike to protest his house arrest.

Heritage foods

The Heritage Group was incorporated by Naidu in 1992. In 1994, HFL went for public issue to raise resources. It was oversubscribed by 54 times. Its shares are listed under the B1 Category on the Bombay Stock Exchange , and National Stock Exchange of India . Currently, the organisation is being led by Nara Brahmini, Naidu's daughter-in-law. Heritage has hundreds of outlets throughout Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and a significant presence in Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Odisha, NCR-Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, and Himachal Pradesh which comprises a solid portion of Naidu's current assets.

Literary works