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

Mr. Naidu held various positions of office in his college and organized a number of social activities.  Following the 1977 cyclone, which donations and relief material from Chittoor district for the cyclone victims.  Mr. Naidu has been evincing a keen interest in rural development activities in general and, the upliftment of the poor and downtrodden sections of society in particular.

Mr. Naidu was elected to the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1978 from the Chandragiri constituency in Chittoor district.  He served as a Director of the A.P. Small Scale Industries Development Corporation for some time.

He subsequently became a Minister and held the portfolios of Archives, Cinematography, Technical Education, Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development, Public Libraries and Minor Irrigation between 1980 and 1983.  He also served as the Chairman of the State Karshak Parishad, constituted for the first time to look after the welfare of the farming community.

He was elected again to the State Legislature from Kuppam constituency of Chittoor district in 1989.  He served as Coordinator of the Telugu Desam Party, in which capacity he effectively handled the party’s role of main opposition in the assembly, which won him wide appreciation from both the party and the public.  His 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.

In 1994, he was reelected to the Assembly from Kuppam constituency with a large majority of 57,000 votes and held the important portfolios of Revenues and Finance.  During this tenure Mr. Naidu systematically introduced transparency in Government, thus breaking the tradition of inordinate secrecy in the Finance department.

The mantle of leadership fell on the shoulders of Mr. Naidu at a most critical juncture in the State’s politics.  Following a popular upsurge in the party, Mr. Naidu was unanimously elected as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh on 1 September 1995. Following the elections to the State assembly wherein the Telugu Desam Party led by Mr. Naidu emerged as a winner, he was sworn in on 11 October 1999 as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh for the second term.  He was elected with a majority of more than 65,000 votes.

Mr. Naidu has a modern outlook to administration.  His style of functioning is more akin to that of a CEO rather than a traditional politician.  Mr. Naidu has a firm conviction that modern technology should be used in the service of the common man.  Consequently, he lays great emphasis on the use of modern information technology in Government.  He would like the State to be run professionally as an efficient organization rather than as a bureaucracy saddled with red tape.

Mr. Naidu’s vision for the future includes multidimensional development of all citizens of the State.  He is keen to develop the full potential of all citizens based on a strong moral foundation.  Mr. Naiud has been propagating a return to ethical and value based precepts in day-to-day life.  In keeping with this commitment, he has launched new initiatives, like the Janmabhoomi programme, which aims at achieving excellence in all walks of life and focuses on community building through team work.

In order to achieve greater involvement of the people in the implementation of Government programmes, he has been encouraging the concept of social audit, which involves making information available to all citizens about the works being taken up with public funds in their area.  The Chief Minister has also taken the initiative for setting up self-help groups like water users’ associations, for involving farmers in the management of irrigation systems.  Other self-help groups like Watershed Development Committees, Women’s groups, Youth groups, Village Education Committees and Village Health Committees have also been set up.  These self-help  groups have significantly contributed to removing intermediaries and have been widely acknowledged for improving the condition of the poor.

Mr. Naidu has initiated an exercise to define Vision 2020 for the State.  According to Mr. Naidu, “Our vision of Andhra Pradesh is a State where poverty is totally eradicated; where every man, woman and child has access to not just the basic minimum needs, but to all opportunities for leading a happy and fulfilling life; a knowledge and learning society build on the values of hard work, honesty, discipline and a collective sense of purpose”.  This vision reflects Mr. Naidu’s forward looking perspective on the State’s development, and the details of the vision are proposed to be fine-tuned in consultation with the people on a continuing basis.

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

  In recognition of Mr. Naidu’s leadership and vision in the field of Information technology, Mr. Naidu was designated as the Co-chairperson of the National Tast Force on Information technology set up by the Government of India to prepare the IT road map for the future.  In his capacity as the Co-chairperson of the National Task Force, has taken a number of initiatives for dismantling the monopoly in the telecommunications sector and for promoting the use of Information technology for common citizens.  The stellar role played by Mr. Naidu in promoting Information technology for better governance has been widely recognized, both within and outside the country.

Mr. Naidu is a firm believer in accountability of the Government and has taken steps to systematically incorporate accountability as an intrinsic feature of Government’s functioning.  Mr. Naidu would like to achieve tangible results in a short time frame.  His working hours extend from 6.30 in the morning to late into the night.  During this period, Mr. Naidu devotes a significant portion of his time to meeting a large number of common citizens and addressing their problems and concerns.  A Grievance Cell has been set up in the Naidu’s Office for monitoring the redressal of public grievances.  Mr. Naidu itinerary also includes surprise visits to the districts, which are aimed at keeping the administration on its toes.  These visits are directed at curbing administrative corruption and lethargy.

Mr. Naidu had conducted videoconferences with Collectors on various issues like the power situation, Clean and Green programm, rythu bazaars, monitoring of prices, implementation of road works, sanitation and public health, and law and order.  The system has been extremely effective in overcoming the routine bureaucratic delays in the course of responding to issues of immediate public concern.

Mr. Naidu is well known for innovative concepts and programmes.  In his tenure as Chief Minister “Dial your Chief Minster” programme, telecast by the Doordarshan Kendra of Hyderabad was initiated. In this programme the Chief Minister addresses the citizens over a large number of issues.  A subject is identified for the week and the citizen come up with their problems and communicate it to the Chief Minister.  The “Dial your Chief Minister” programme was very popular with the citizens and the viewership of the programme was rated very high.

In his tenure as Chief Minister he had laid a lot of emphasis on water conservation and water harvesting.  He has taken up a campaign for sensitizing the people of the State and the administration for better management of water to prevent drought situation in the future.  Launching of an innovative programme called ‘Neeru Meeru, formation of Watershed Committees, promotion of Water Shed development have all been taken up in the State for better management of water on the insistence of the Chief Minister.  Water Conservation Mission has been formed as a step in this direction.  Inspired by his efforts there has been a voluntary participatory movement amongst the citizens of the State towards water conservation.  A number of households have built rain water-harvesting structures towards this cause.

Mr. Chandrababu Naidu has drawn attention and has concentrated on evolving a new way looking at Center-State finance relations.  He has spearheaded the campaign for fiscal federalism in the wake of the recommendations of the Eleventh Finance Commission.  He has emphasized on equity and efficiency in the devolution of Central revenues and sharing of resources between the Center and the States.

Mr. Naidu has won numerous awards including “IT Indian of Milleneum” (India Today) Business Person of the year (Economic Times) member of the World Economic Forum’s Cabinet and South Asian of the (Time Asia).

Mr. Naidu was chosen as one of 50 leaders at the forefront of change in the year 2000 by the Business Week magazine for being an unflinching proponent of technology and for his drive to transform the State.

Till May 2004, he was long standing Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.  In 2004, he was re-elected to the AP assembly from Kuppam constituency, with a large majority of 6000 votes.  And presently he is the leader of opposition to AP Legislative Assembly, discharging the constructive role as leader of Opposition besides President, Telugu Desam Party, Andhra Pradesh.

Mr. Naidu is married to Mrs. Bhuvaneswari and has a son Lokesh.  His father-in-law, the late Mr. N.T. Rama Rao, was one of the most accomplished film actors of Telugu Cinema. Who later founded the Telugu Desam Party and was also the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.