Chief Ministership of N. Chandrababu Naidu

During Naidu's tenure The Andhra Pradesh government aimed at attract $2 billion of investments and create about 100,000 jobs in the information technology (IT) sector.[23][24] His government defined the goals in the CII summit and the Infrastructure Mission.[25][26]

In way of investments and attractive incentives, the Naidu government won the honour of best tourism performing state[27] with about 24% in all national tourist arrivals, record international aircraft movements, and occupancy raised by 100% in the same year. The state government decided to treat the tourism policy similar to that of industrial ventures to attract foreign tourists.[28] 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.[29][30]

The newly formed state of Andhra Pradesh had been ranked as the easiest Indian state to do business in for the two consecutive years in a survey released by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and Ministry of Commerce and Industry.[31][32][33] And Andhra Pradesh is the only state to be ranked, at 51, in the Global Competitiveness Index of the World Forum, where India's rank was 56.[34] Andhra Pradesh also ranked top in the Ease of Doing Business according to team of researchers led by Tan Khee Giap, co-director of Asia Competitiveness Institute. Tan recognised chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu's leadership and relentless efforts in shaping a vision for the new sunrise state of Andhra Pradesh.[35]

Naidu headed the chief ministers' committee on digital payments during the time when TDP was part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.[36] During his tenure he submitted an interim report to the Government of India on the issue of banks and financial institutions making digital transactions costlier by levying unwarranted charges and have sought its intervention to subsidise the digital transactions, so that banks and financial institutions are not burdened and the citizens find digital transactions attractive.[37][38][39]

Naidu meeting Arun Jaitley and Shaktikanta Das in 2016

With the attempt to take the benefits of e-governance to the citizens, Naidu launched e-Seva centers in 2001 for paperless and speedy delivery of results to applicants.[40] These e-Seva centers served the purpose of one-stop solution providing all government information and services online such as utility bills, banking services services, issuing birth and death certificates, written test for drivers licence, government orders, and APSRTC tours and travel operators booking.[41][42] The government introduced an outsourcing employee system where government-related services are done under a contract agreement and after a certain period of time, the employees are granted the status of permanent government employees.[43]

Real Time Governance Society is an Indian e-governance initiative of chief minister Naidu.[44] It was formed on 6 September 2017. The department reports to the chief minister.[45] The idea is to use electronic communication and technology to deploy e-governance in Andhra Pradesh. It has 13 district centers and 1 state center for reporting.[46] Data from Andhra Pradesh Weather Forecasting and Early Warning Research Center, drones, machine learning systems, biometric systems and other surveillance systems are collated and reported through the RTGS system in real-time. A call center addresses internal grievances.[46][47][48]

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.[49] 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.[50][51] The programme was subsequently continued during his third term.[52][53]

From 1997 onward, the 'Clean and Green Campaign' was initiated where school students and teachers participated in institutional and household plantation with government employees.[54] 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.[55]

Naidu's government started the "self help groups" (SHG) 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' (DWCRA) where each group had 15-20 female members and chose a leader who conducted group meetings.[56] 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 (two-hundred-thousand) bicycles to the girls who joined the government high schools as part of women empowerment initiative.[57][58]

Prajalato Mukhyamantri a phone-in initiative is a programme that encourages open dialogue between the chief minister and the common people of Andhra Pradesh state.[59] There is a live broadcast every Monday, on both Doordarshan and All India Radio (AIR) where Naidu interacts with the callers directly to know their issues and address them.[60] 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.[61]

Rythu Bazaar was launched by Naidu on 26 January 1999 with the objective to control the skyrocketing prices of fruits and vegetables.[62] Under this program, farmers were encouraged to sell their produce directly to the consumers and in the process, eliminate the middleman.[63] 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.[64]

In November 1998, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, then prime minister of India and Chandrababu Naidu inaugurated the HITEC City (nickanamed Cyberabad) by opening the Cyber Towers, a landmark building in Hyderabad.[65] In anticipation of the growth of technology in the future, his government also concentrated on providing infrastructure such as 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.[66]

Cyber Towers at HITEC City, a landmark building in Hyderabad was inaugurated during Naidu's tenure in 1998

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 such as L&T Infocity Ascendas Park, Cyber Gateway, Raheja Mindspace Madhapur IT Park, and CyberPearl IT Park[67] 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"[68] and gave a brief PowerPoint presentation to Bill Gates[69] that convinced him to establish Microsoft Corporation Research and Development (R&D) in Hyderabad, the company's second-largest research and development campus outside the United States, a significant milestone in Hyderabad's bid to become an information technology hub.[70]

In 2001, the Naidu government declared the creation of the Cyberabad Development Authority (CDA) as a special enclave for the location of IT firms, research institutions and allied services around the existing HITEC City area in Hyderabad. Spread over an area of 52 km2, in the western periphery of the city covering the townships of Madhapur, Gachibowli, Kondapur, Manikonda, and Nanakramguda, CDA 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.

According to several national and international surveys, 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.[71] 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, leading to massive real estate developments, gated residential apartments, food and restaurants, intelligent business offices, cinema, and shopping malls in the area[72] and Naidu's efforts to make HITEC City India's first and largest cybercity while today Cyberabad is a big technological project in Hyderabad, which emerged as the backbone of Telangana state's economy.[73]

Naidu in discussion with students as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh

in 1999, Naidu established the Pharma City, an original, state-of-the-art biotechnology park in the country to the north of Hyderabad and promoted Genome Valley[74][75] to leading multinational pharmaceutical companies like Novartis Pharma India, Shantha Biotechnics, Bharat Biotech, Biocon, Biological E. Limited, Jupiter Biosciences, and also requested other global IT companies like IBM, Dell, HSBC, Oracle Corporation to move to Hyderabad, making presentations to global CEOs and convincing them to invest and establish offices in Hyderabad.[76]

Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (Shamshabad Airport) is an initiative of Chief Minister Naidu.[77][78] When Hyderabad was attracting global investments the then operating Begumpet Airport was unable to handle air traffic. 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). Naidu led government acquired 5,495 acres of land for the airport in 2003.[46][78] The airport was built on public private partnership basis, where only land is provided by the government, but entire construction cost and planning has to be taken care by Grandhi Mallikarjuna Rao Group and Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad in exchange of 76% stake in airport.[46] The land lease and state share holder agreement was completed in 2003.[78][46] Central concession agreement was signed by Dr. Manmohan Singh in December 2004. The airport construction has started and completed between 2005 and 2008 by GMR.

In 2003, Hyderabad Multi-Modal Transport System, which began construction in 2001,[79] was opened to the public under the Naidu Government.[80][81] A joint venture between the Government of Andhra Pradesh and the South Central Railway, The Phase-I was flagged off with the first MMTS train at Secunderabad railway station by the Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani[82] while Naidu inaugurated its second leg.[83] Over an operational length of 43 km, spanning 26 stations, the system operates over three major routes, Falaknuma–Lingampalli, Hyderabad–Falaknuma and Hyderabad–Lingampalli.

In 2002 during Naidu's second term, the government of the state planned for the construction of the G. M. C. Balayogi Athletic Stadium, a multipurpose stadium at Gachibowli, Hyderabad to host the 2003 Afro-Asian Games which was named in honour of the former Lok Sabha speaker G. M. C. Balayogi.[84][85] This tenure also witnessed the commissioning of the construction of Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium as proposed by the Hyderabad Cricket Association in 2003 and the government allocated the land for the purpose in Uppal, Hyderabad along with the contract for a open auction for the construction which was later inaugurated by the subsequent congress government after the completion of the stadium in entirely and named to honour the former Prime minister Rajiv Gandhi[86]

Prime Minister Narendra Modi lays foundation stone of Amaravati in 2014

After the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, Naidu planned for a new capital city at Amaravati for Andhra Pradesh. Prime minister Narendra Modi attended the foundation stone laying ceremony and performed the pooja rituals.[87][88]

Pattiseema Lift Irrigation Project is a river interlinking project connecting Godavari River to Krishna River.[109] It was inaugurated by Naidu in March 2016 while it was completed in span of one year and holds a record in Limca Book of Records.[110][111]

Naidu inaugurated Potharlanka Lift irrigation scheme in 2018 constructed at a cost of 50 Crore rupees in Guntur district to facilitate the irrigation of 5000 acres of land in 11 villages.[112]

Naidu at Vishakhapatnam airport during cyclone Hudhud in 2014

In the year 2014, Visakhapatnam and the neighbouring districts of Vizianagaram and Srikakulam of Andhra Pradesh was affected with a cyclone called Hudhud during Naidu's third term. He was lauded for his efforts in disaster management during the cyclone. He mobilised the Army, Navy, and the National Disaster Response Force to provide relief to over 2,80,000 people in 44 mandals across four districts.[122] He shifted base from Hyderabad to Visakhapatnam after the cyclone made landfall. To monitor the disaster relief work that was being undertaken, he stayed in a bus parked outside the city collectorate.[123] He also undertook visits to districts bordering Odisha such as Srikakulam which were badly hit by the cyclone. Post the disaster, he vowed to rebuild Vizag which was badly affected by it.[124]

The Afro-Asian Games was the largest sporting event ever held in Hyderabad, and one of the largest in India during the Naidu tenure from 23 October 2003 to 1 November 2003.[125][126]

Naidu with Bill Gates at Visakhapatnam in 2017

In 2017, Bill Gates again met Naidu at Vishakhapatnam, Addressing the valedictory of the three-day AP AgTech Summit 2017, the co-chair of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where he recalled that he was really excited at meeting Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu for the first time over 20 years ago.[127] Gates visited the exhibition stalls in the summit along with Andhra Pradesh chief minister. The summit focused on innovative ideas, technologies and global best practices to push agricultural transformation in the state.[128][129]