Andhra Pradesh Government had an egg on its face on Monday when it had to “revise” its claim that software giant Microsoft has promised to establish a centre of excellence in Visakahapatnam and make amends saying that it had requested Microsoft to consider establishment of a centre for excellence.
The goof-up happened soon after the breakfast meeting between Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and CEO of Microsoft Satya Nadella where a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the State Government and Microsoft on Monday morning.
A highly-publicity crazy establishment the Telugu Desam Government has always been, pictures of Naidu and Nadella were flashed on the social media. Satya also met Nara Lokesh, son of Chandrababu Naidu, and Lokesh posted on Facebook: “Meeting with Satya Nadella…Thrilled to meet Satya Nadella and have an engaging conversation on Microsoft’s support to TDP in Big Data Analytics & Machine Learning. Devaansh got pretty comfortable with the Microsoft CEO who had his share of fun moments while pampering him.”
Nadella incidentally cuddled up Lokesh’s seven-month-old son, Devaansh. Thus he mate two fathers and two sons at the same premises.
Lokesh posted the pictures of Nadella with Devansh; and Chandrababu Naidu, Bhuvaneswari, Lokesh and Devaansh along with Nadella.
This post got more than 5,000 likes and hundreds of comments and over 500 shares, almost all of them praising the Nara family and the prospect of prosperity of Andhra Pradesh because if Naidu and also his good offices with Nadella. Some commentators ran riot demonstrating their figment of fertile imagination.
Against this background, the State Government too released pictures of the Microsoft CEO meeting with the Chief Minister and other officials. The same were put out in social media by the Telugu Desam Party, creating a buzz around Satya Nadella, who was an a private visit to Hyderabad. Nadella is a Hyderabadi boy who studied in Hyderabad Public School.
Coming to the press release part, the AP Government’s publicists in their enthusiastic exuberance heaped encomiums on the Chief Minister and the Microsoft CEO. The press release, instead of reading like an official communique on the MoU, began with hyperboles.
Some expressions sounded funny, if not ridiculous, in the press note. It went on like this: “One is a visionary whose missionary zeal transformed Hyderabad into a byword for IT and software. Another is a son of the soil who rose to become CEO of the world’s top technology company. It was indeed a rare and memorable occasion when Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Monday hosted a breakfast meeting at his residence for the technology giant’s CEO Satya Nadella.”
The press release issued first boisterously announced that Satya Nadella has agreed to set up a Centre for Excellence in Visakhapatnam. This doesn’t seem to have crept into the press note “by mistake”.
The release stated: “Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu hosted a breakfast meeting at his residence for the technology giant’s CEO Satya Nadella. The meeting which lasted for 80 minutes, during which Mr. Satya Nadella assured of total cooperation with the state Government in utilisation of cloud data for improving citizen services. He has also agreed to set up a Centre for Excellence in Visakhapatnam.”
Once the point was highlighted and put out as a story by wires, the goof-up was promptly highlighted and soon the publicists came up with an amended version. The revised press note reads: “Meanwhile, the state government has requested Microsoft to help set up a Centre of Excellence in Visakhapatnam. Mr Nadella, whose family hails from Andhra Pradesh, promised to visit native Anantapur District during his next visit.”
This is not the first time Andhra Pradesh Government had to eat crow with regard to foreign institutions. The AP Government had earlier announced that the United States Government was contemplating establishing a Consulate in the residuary State. Soon, the US State Department had to issue a rejoinder stating that it had no plans to establish any office or consulate in Andhra Pradesh.
Nadella, on his part, met another “VIP son” during the day. He met Telangana IT Minister K T Rama Rao, son of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, at Telangana Hub where the Microsoft CEO interacted with entrepreneurs and startup enthusiasts.
