Development must be measured by its impact on people’s lives, says Naidu

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said on Thursday that though he had studied economics, society and people had taught him far more than textbooks ever could.

Addressing a two-day State-level workshop on ‘Economic Intelligence for Governance’, organised by the Planning Department as part of the Swarna Andhra 2047 vision, Mr. Naidu said the government’s real yardstick was not merely the growth reflected in indicators such as Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) and Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR), but the extent to which that growth transformed the lives of the poor.

Mr. Naidu said he had faced criticism when he unveiled what he described as the country’s first Vision 2020 document, and recalled that former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam had also believed in the need for a national vision document. He said the government was building a data lake to integrate information across departments and had digitised health records as part of the proposed Sanjeevani project.

Citing the P4 (Public-Private-People Partnership) programme, launched to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor, Mr. Naidu referred to the cases of Tulasamma and Padmamma, whose pensions he had personally distributed in Gudur, to illustrate how welfare schemes and DWCRA loans had transformed lives. Poverty could not be addressed through statistics alone, he said, adding that every family should progress economically and socially.

During an interaction with participants, the Chief Minister said he was not one to be easily satisfied, as complacency led to stagnation. He urged officials to continue exploring innovative approaches to governance and announced that a quantum computer would soon be established in Amaravati. He added that the State was also working towards developing the capability to manufacture quantum computers.

A panel discussion featured Saurabh Garg, Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation; V. Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India; R. Balasubramaniam, member, NITI Aayog; Prof. K.V. Raju; and Prof. S. Mahendra Dev, Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council. The panellists commended Andhra Pradesh’s constituency-wise vision plans and the use of artificial intelligence in governance, and suggested that such initiatives be replicated across the country. Senior officials, heads of departments and representatives of universities attended the workshop.