Of all the chief ministers of Indian states, none has more snap, crackle and pop than Chandrababu Naidu of Andhra Pradesh. Whether that will get his party re-elected in the coming state election remains to be seen in a country where Kellogg's has failed to find consumer acceptance. Critics say he is just the sort of politician who is loved by foreign investors, lionised by the World Bank and rejected by the voters.

Although he heads a regional party, his vision is global, and he wants computers and globalisation to propel his state to prosperity. He aims to make Andhra Pradesh a world leader in computer software, and has succeeded in attracting several top companies, among them Microsoft. He proposes to link every village by computer to pep up the administration and make it more open. He holds video conferences with his bureaucrats early every morning.

Admirers say rural computerisation will improve the administration and enable villagers to get information,forms and documents without paying bribes to petty bureaucrats. But critics say it is silly to push for computerisation when rural electricity is scarce and erratic, and illiteracy is high...

Mr Naidu's plan to provide villages with computers is opposed by many bureaucrats, who fear that it will reduce their powers. Earlier this year they threatened an indefinite strike. Mr Naidu assured them that not a single government job would be cut by computerisation. But what was really at stake for the bureaucrats was not their jobs but their ability to extract bribes. Mr Naidu did not want to risk a paralysing strike in the approach to the election, and settled for a diluted version of computerisation.