As he tells the story, Chandrababu Naidu smiles. On becoming chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, a state on India’s east coast, in 1995, he saw “IT was the future” and headed to America. Initially Bill Gates refused to meet him, but Mr Naidu insisted. In 1998 Microsoft snubbed(冷落，怠慢) Bangalore to establish its Indian base in Hyderabad, then the state’s capital. Today the city has 10,000-plus Microsoft employees and a big airport, and has doubled in population. More than as an investor(不仅仅作为投资者), Mr Naidu saw Mr Gates as a signal that would propel Hyderabad’s rise.
讲述这段往事时，钱德拉巴布·奈杜面带微笑。1995年，他成为印度东海岸安得拉邦的首席部长，当时他认定“IT是未来”，于是前往美国。起初比尔·盖茨拒绝见他，但奈杜坚持己见。1998年，微软冷落了班加罗尔，将印度基地设在海得拉巴——当时该邦的首府。如今，这座城市拥有超过一万名微软员工和一个大型机场，人口翻了一番。在奈杜眼中，盖茨不仅是投资者，更是一个信号，将推动海得拉巴的崛起。
The story captures Mr Naidu’s public persona(公众形象，表面人格)—a single-minded tech visionary, with a knack for wooing(争取，拉拢) investors and a mission to improve Indian governance. He is still at it; after a turbulent career he is, at 76, two years into his fourth term. He was almost assassinated in 2003 and briefly imprisoned in 2023; twice voters booted him out(把他赶下台). Most painful of all, in 2014 his state was cleft(劈开，分裂) in two. Hyderabad, the crown jewel(皇冠上的明珠，最珍贵之物), became the capital of a new state, Telangana. Andhra Pradesh, still the size of Tunisia and with a population of 54m, was left as an agrarian rump without a capital or an economic engine.(安得拉邦面积仍如突尼斯，人口5400万，却沦为无首府、无经济引擎的农业残部。)
这个故事体现了奈杜的公众形象——一位一心一意的技术远见者，善于吸引投资者，并肩负着改善印度治理的使命。他至今仍在坚持；在经历动荡的职业生涯后，现年76岁的他已进入第四个任期的第二年。2003年他险些遭暗杀，2023年曾短暂入狱；两次被选民赶下台。最痛苦的是，2014年他的邦被一分为二。海得拉巴这颗皇冠上的明珠成为新邦特伦甘纳的首府。安得拉邦面积仍相当于突尼斯，人口5400万，却沦为农业残躯，既无首府，也无经济引擎。
A dizzying(令人眩晕的，极度的) ambition was born. As chief minister of the rump state, Mr Naidu planned a shining new capital called Amaravati, the biggest greenfield(绿地（未开发土地）) city in India’s history, and among the biggest under way anywhere. And he formulated a new pitch(推销宣传，定位) for Andhra Pradesh, not as a rival to India’s software hubs, but as a magnet(磁石，有吸引力的人或物) for advanced manufacturing, data centres and quantum computing. To further these goals, he has allied his regional party to Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which rules in Delhi, supporting it as a coalition partner in exchange for financial backing.(为了推进这些目标，他将自己的地区政党与莫迪的印度人民党结盟，支持该党以换取财政支持。)
一个令人眩晕的雄心就此诞生。作为这个残存邦的首席部长，奈杜规划了一座崭新的首府——阿马拉瓦蒂，这是印度历史上最大的绿地城市，也是全球在建的最大项目之一。他为安得拉邦制定了新的定位：不是与印度的软件中心竞争，而是吸引先进制造业、数据中心和量子计算的磁石。为了推进这些目标，他将自己的地区政党与纳伦德拉·莫迪领导的、在德里执政的印度人民党（BJP）结盟，作为联盟伙伴支持该党，以换取财政支持。
