Did you know Chandrababu Naidu convinced Bill Gates to open Microsoft office in Hyderabad in just 40 minutes?

Fourth time Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu is credited for making Hyderabad a tech hub. For the unversed, Naidu became the CM of undivided Andhra for the first time in 1995. It was in 2017, when he convinced Microsoft co-founder to open the company’s office in Hyderabad.?

At the 2017 AP AgTech Summit, Chandrababu Naidu reminisced about his successful endeavor to secure a meeting with Bill Gates in the late 1990s

Naidu secured a 10-minute meeting with Bill Gates and ended up spending 40 minutes with the Microsoft founder

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“Gates was in New Delhi on some work. I contacted the officials of the United States for an appointment. They told me that he was very busy, and that if I was keen I could attend a cocktail party in the evening,” he had said.

“I made a presentation through a laptop and I was the first Indian politician to do so,” he claimed.?

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Initially planned for a brief 10 minutes, the meeting with Bill Gates extended to a remarkable 40 minutes, during which the Microsoft founder engaged extensively with Chandrababu Naidu.

“Not only Microsoft opened its development centre in Hyderabad but Satya Nadella who is from our place became Microsoft CEO,” he said.

Also Read:?'Networking like a pro', Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu's LinkedIn update amuses internet

Bill Gates shared that he was stunned to see Naidu using advanced tools to present a pitch

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Bill Gates also shared details of this meeting and said, “I was told that there is someone who believes in digital technology even more than you do. It was hard to believe but when we met, he had his digital equipment – computer – and he had the vision to make the government better by using advanced tools."

The Microsoft India Development Centre was established in Hyderabad in 1998.