Cover: Heroes, Villains and Zeroes of '98: N Chandrababu Naidu

FACT FILE

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A financial publication named him 1998 businessman of the year, another put him in a list of 50 stars of Asia. The 48-year-old leader has made Hyderabad a favoured investment destination for global majors.

I want to make Andhra Pradesh the best investment destination in the new millenium
--N Chandrababu Naidu,
Andhra Pradesh chief minister

Nara Chandrababu Naidu of Andhra Pradesh, with his stubbly beard, looks like a zealot. Which he is -- the hi-tech CEO of Andhra Pradesh Inc, toting his IBM Thinkpad with the fanatic zeal of the Taliban holding aloft his AK-47. Naidu, an eye on information technology (IT), wants to leverage the state's it strength for attracting investment capital.

Naidu's goal is to turn Andhra Pradesh into a "modern" state, living down its past image of the agrarian backwaters of the peninsula. In over three years of his rule, Naidu has not only drawn respect of the world investment community -- he was highly praised by Bill Gates and World Bank President James Wolfensohn -- but has made the state eminently creditworthy.

HEROES
Amartya Sen: The Nobel Indian
Nuclear Tests: What a Blast
Digvijay Singh: Winner Takes it All
Gallantry: Knight Service
Neemuch eye donors: A People with Vision
Tata Indica: Swadeshi on Wheels
Development: Independent Action
NRI Bonds: Unlikely Harvest
Avelin Mary: Mission Possible
Asian Games: Runaway Winners
Daler Mehndi: Just Dalerious
Kuchh Kuchh Hota Hai: Picture Perfect
Sachin Tendulkar: Stroke of Genius

VILLAINS
Bal Thackeray: No.1 Yet Again
Jayalalitha: Tantrum Amma
Romesh Sharma: Fixer's Fixer
Yashwant Sinha: Rolling Back
Romesh Bhandari: Teed Off
Onion: Pungent Reminder
Sports: Politics at Play
UTI: Unfaithfully Yours
Dropsy: Death by Default
Salman Khan: Misplaced Machismo

ZEROES
Jain Commission: Who Done It?
L K Advani: Me Two
Kushabhau Thakre: Who?
Sitaram Kesri: Creature the World Forgot
Talbott-Jaswant Talks: It's the Weather, Stupid
P V Narasimha Rao's The Insider: Pen-ful Debut
Indo-Pak Dialogue: Dumb Charade
Amitabh Bachchan's Major Saab: Sunshine Boulevard
Sushma Swaraj: Calamity Behen
Laloo-Mulayam Entente: Thud Front
Sharad Pawar: Zero Power
I K Gujral: Bus to Pakistan

SIGNPOSTS
Ajit (1922-1998)
Protima Bedi (1948-1998)
Om Prakash (1919-1998)
Pradeep (1915-1998)
P N Haksar (1913-1998)
E M S Namboodiripad (1909-1998)
Lalita Pawar (1916-1998)
Vinod Mishra (1947-1998)
Raman Lamba (1960-1998)
Gulzarilal Nanda (1898-1998)
Persis Khambatta (1948-1998)
Laxmikant Kudalkar (1937-1998)