here in this thread we will share about Tamil Nadu's economy and infrastructure updates...

A satellite town for Bangalore in the making : HOSUR


Thanks:BUSINESS-STANDARD

Consider this picture. Businessmen from Bangalore travelling to Hosur in Tamil Nadu from the Karnataka city’s suburbs near Electronic City, Bangalore’s hub of IT (information technology) activity (which houses companies like Infosys and Wipro), just like Delhiites commute to Gurgaon or Mumbakars to Navi Mumbai.

Hosur is a mere 30 km away from Electronic City and the Tamil Nadu government wants to make the industrial township a giant satellite town like Gurgaon or Noida.

The Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT) will commission a study shortly along with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on how Hosur can be transformed into an information technology and IT- enabled services centre.

“The study will assess the socio-economic and technological potential of Hosur as an IT destination. It will be done by one of the top five consultants and will be completed in three to six months,” says Vivek Harinarain, IT secretary, government of Tamil Nadu.

Hosur, he says, has been chosen as it can dovetail the strengths of Bangalore’s deep talent pool and salubrious climate with Tamil Nadu’s infrastructural forte and relatively inexpensive real-estate rates.

Making Hosur an IT hub, however, will be a tough task. In 2003-04, when Tamil Nadu exported Rs 7,643 crore worth of software, Hosur’s contribution was zilch. Tamil Nadu is keen on changing this.

“We will consider building a 250,000 sq ft facility, on the lines of TIDEL Park in Chennai, at a cost of between Rs 35 crore and Rs 50 crore. This initiative, we hope, will create a light-house effect and boost investor confidence,” Harinarain says.

He says the Tamil Nadu government is likely to use a private-public partnership to upgrade Hosur’s present infrastructure, including schools, hospitals and shopping malls, to build Hosur into a viable satellite town.

The state government will provide all supporting infrastructural requirements such as land, sewerage, electricity and water.

The Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) plans on setting up a park at Hosur. The Union mMnistry of IT and Communications has asked the Tamil Nadu government to allot land for the building.

“With a TIDEL-type park, Hosur is a very viable idea. Lots of residential complexes will be thrown in between Hosur and Bangalore. Travel time is faster outside Bangalore to Hosur rather than within the city,” says K Pandia Rajan, managing director, Ma Foi Management Consultants Limited, the recruitment agency.

Yet the Tamil Nadu government will have to invest in improving the quality of people in the districts closest to Hosur. “There is a need for investment in schools and colleges in Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri to develop human capital ,” Pandia Rajan points out.

It is not as if Hosur doesn’t have anything other than its proximity to Bangalore going for it.

It has been an industrial hub for more than two decades now and home to the manufacturing plants of Ashok Leyland, Titan Industries, T.T. Prestige, Reckitt Benckiser, Hindustan Lever, Carborandum Universal and TVS Motors. So, the basic infrastructure is firmly in place.

“Hosur’s potential to become a prime outlying suburb of Bangalore, on the lines of Noida and Gurgaon for Delhi and Navi Mumbai for Mumbai, has been largely underutilised. This is primarily due to the lack of adequate connectivity with Bangalore,” notes Shivaram Malakala, executive director, Habitat Ventures.

IT majors such Infosys and Wipro are just a stone’s throw away in Electronics City which is midway between Bangalore and Hosur.

These companies would be wary of setting up operations in Hosur as they are already battling the Karnataka government over the lack of proper roads to Electronic City from Bangalore. If anything can stop Hosur’s advances to becoming a IT super city, it will be poor road links.

Wipro and Infosys are already pushing a proposal for an elevated high-speed corridor between Electronic City and Bangalore. “Work on the Rs 400 crore, six-lane expressway will begin in April with a deadline of 18 months to complete the project,” K H Muniyappa, Union minister of state for road transport and highways, said early this year.

The IT industry has committed Rs 100 crore to the project and Karnataka will contribute Rs 100 crore, with the rest being invested by the National Highways Authority of India.

The initiative to develop the roads between Electronic City and Hosur will have to be taken up by the Karnataka state government, but it has no reason as of now to kickstart the process.

“The road to Hosur from Electronic City does not have a lot of traffic pressure as of now and both governments may work together to improve road connectivity,” says Sudeep Jain, managing director of ELCOT.

Also, Hosur’s residents are unlikely to shop in Bangalore. “Residents of Hosur might have to pay commercial taxes if they make purchases from stores in Bangalore. In Delhi, cross-border taxes are slowly being phased out,” adds Shivaram.

The Tamil Nadu government does not think this is a major roadblock because it believes that the roll out of the value added tax in April will solve this problem.

However, real estate prices are 25-30 per cent lower in Hosur than in the areas of Bangalore closest to Hosur. What do the software companies think of Hosur?

“We are not considering Bangalore or Hosur as of now. But assuming that we were, the primary concerns would be travel time, overheads and the cost of attracting talent,” says Arun Jain, chairman and CEO, Polaris Software Lab.

He adds that Hosur as an IT destination will be viable only if a company is considering setting up a 5,000 to 10,000 personnel organisation. “Setting up operations in Hosur might prove counter-productive if travel times are extended,” Jain remarks.

“Twenty-year tax incentives, subsidised land-registration charges and the creation of a special economic zone would help us invest in Hosur,” says an official at an IT major, who heads its Tamil Nadu operations. The proposed airport in the northern part of Bangalore will further challenge Hosur’s prospects of attracting industrial and employment generating industries.

So if Hosur is to become a hub of technology companies and industrial activities, it will need good infrastructure and road links to Bangalore.

In the long run, it is also Bangalore’s interests to assist in the development of Hosur as one of its satellite towns. This will only pave its way to becoming a true megapolis.

Tirupur: India's Textile Valley

George Iype in Tirupur | February 15, 2005

Quota-based curbs for textile exports to the United States and European nations were lifted on January 1, 2005.

With the restrictions off and globalisation in full swing, the Indian industry is now exposed to global competition. Indian manufacturers and exporters now have to compete with the global players and also face emerging tariff and non-tariff barriers.

So what will the manufacturers and exporters have to do? With its speed of operation, skill, quality and low-cost labour, the industry is now gearing up for the quota-free regime.

rediff.com brings to you the third part of this special series on what the lifting of quota restrictions means to the Indian textile industry.


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If Bangalore can be India's Silicon Valley, Tirupur can be our Textile Valley," points out K Palaniraman, a garment manufacturer in India's textiles hot-spot in Tamil Nadu.

There is robust logic in Palaniraman's argument. Manufacturers like him believe that just like the technology boom that swept across cities like Bangalore in the last decade, there will be a textiles boom in India in the coming years following the dismantling of the Multi-Fibre Agreement on international textiles trade.

Palaniraman has seen Tirupur's growth over the years. In the beginning, in the 1970s, he recalls, he operated from a one-room shed and did the knitting himself. Today, he employs dozens of workers and has imported machinery for the knitting and dyeing jobs.

Palaniraman is all geared up to meet the new challenge: produce the best quality technical textiles for a global marketplace.

Like him, garment exporters in Tirupur are all resurgent.

Look at some facts on Tirupur's garment industry:

Tirupur is one of the largest foreign exchange earning towns in India. Last year, the export turnover from the town was more than Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion). There are some 7,000 garment units in the town that provides employment opportunity to close to one million people.
The first spot of any international buyer for Indian garments is Tirupur. Buyers from 35 countries frequently visit Tirupur. Tirupur can deliver customised samples in less than 12 hours; half a million pieces in a matter of days.
Fifty-six per cent of India's total knitwear exports come from Tirupur. The Export Import Policy of 2002-2007 makes laudable tribute to Tirupur for its contribution to the export efforts and calls it a 'Town of Export Excellence.'
According to, A Sakthivel, President, Tirupur Exporters Association, the first hosiery factory with hand-operated machines was set up in Tirupur in 1935.

"For more than 30 years, garment manufacturers in the town were producing mainly grey and bleached banians (vests)," he says.

It was in the late 1960s that the industry slowly diversified into manufacturing other inner garments, including banians and underwears, consumed largely by the domestic market.

"But Tirupur's fortunes took a dramatic turn in the late 1970s when we began exporting our items," says Sakthivel.

He recalls it all began when some exporters in Mumbai introduced an Italian, Antony Verona, to Tirupur. "Verona began importing woven garments from Tirupur and he introduced more Italian businessmen into trade with Tirupur," he says.

Sakthivel says these days there is no competitor to Tirupur in the garments industry in India.

But there is a darker side to Tirupur. Amidst the prosperity that has befallen this textile town, many ills afflict it. These include potholed roads, acute shortage of water, environmental pollution and virtually non-existent sewage systems.

The discharge of salts in effluent from the dyeing factories in Tirupur has led to large-scale environmental degradation.

Environmentalist P K Sundaran says the huge textiles manufacturing is concentrated in a small geographical area in Tirupur that it has exerted extreme pressure on natural resources.

"The groundwater and soil fertility levels in Tirupur are very low. The textiles industry has progressed here at the cost of the environment," Sundaran points out.

The Save Water Forum Sundaram heads has conducted a study that says the level of Total Dissolved Solids in the groundwater has gone up to 5,000 to 6,000 milligrams per litre.

The water scarcity is so acute in the town that water for dyeing units is fetched in tankers from as far as 20 kilometres by the garment units.

But Sakthivel says the water problem is one serious issue that the industry needs to get solved quickly. A water supply project to make good quality water available for wet processing has already has taken shape in public-private partnership.

The New Tirupur Area Development Corporation Ltd is implementing this project.

It is not just water scarcity alone that worries Tirupur's garment makers.

Some of them say although quota restrictions have been dismantled, domestic textile players continue to be caught in archaic Indian government regulations.

Consider this: Under the 'Handloom Reservation Order,' that the government has issued, production of 11 items including non-terry towels and varieties of bed sheets has been reserved exclusively for the handloom sector. A regular garment maker cannot produce and sell these items, which they say has huge export potential.

There is also the 'Hank Yarn Obligation Order' from the government which stipulates that 40 per cent of the cotton yarn produced by every garment unit in the country has to be in hank form for use by the handloom sector.

"But the real problem that the government does not understand is that there is no market for the hank yarn," says an exporter.

According to textile industry estimates, the unsold hank yarn stock currently stands at about 18 million kg

Coimbatore is shedding its conservative image and taking competition head on in its effort to come on top in the globalised environment.

THE mood is palpably upbeat in Coimbatore. The end of the textiles quota regime under the Multi-Fibre Agreement, the promise shown by the Information Technology (IT) sector, the growth that most companies posted last year, rising exports, the jump in the number of BPO (business process outsourcing) centres, and the real estate boom, all signal the end of a recessionary spell that had kept Coimbatore shackled for much of the 1990s.

Most important, the textile industry, which has been at the core of Coimbatore's industrial scene, is picking up the threads; stocks of most textile companies are on the rise as much because of fundamentals as the bull run in the stock market. The boom is not restricted to textiles alone. A European team that came shopping to India early in 2003 had identified over 80 manufacturers of Coimbatore - the highest number from a single city - for sourcing valves, pumpsets and automobile components.

Coimbatore has well proved that it can take on competition, domestic or international; it earned over Rs.10,000 crores in exports last year. The volume of software exports from Coimbatore more than doubled.

A recent study of the top 36 Indian cities done for the Confederation of Indian Industry by Bibek Debroy, Director, Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies, and Laveesh Bhandari of the research firm Indicus Analytics, ranked Coimbatore fourth in growth potential after Delhi, Mumbai and Chandigarh, and ahead of Bangalore (fifth), Chennai (sixth) and Hyderabad (ninth). (The study looked at professional education, private finance, communication, road transport, tourism - business and leisure - and relative growth.)

Another recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers on the feasibility of setting up an IT park in Coimbatore pointed to the city as one to be watched. According to the study, the total volume of trade in automotive components, textiles, pumpsets and other products exceeded Rs.16,000 crores annually. Most of the products find their way to the United States, Europe, and East, South-East and West Asia.

Coimbatore supplies over 30 per cent of all the automotive components used in the country; many international auto majors also source from the city. The city makes over 60 per cent of the water pumps and 45 per cent of the motors used in India. According to the Coimbatore-based Southern India Engineering Manufacturers Association (SIEMA), Coimbatore's 400 foundries have a combined turnover of Rs.1,000-1,200 crores. Its engineering units registered a 15 per cent increase in turnover in 2003-2004 and their exports, which rose by 21 per cent, have crossed Rs.1,400 crores.

Coimbatore district, with an excellent academic infrastructure that churns out over 20,000 engineering and 28,000 non-engineering graduates every year, is poised to emerge as one of the largest suppliers of human resource by 2008. Over 40 per cent of the industrial units in Coimbatore have their own captive power-generating units. The city's teledensity (telephones per 1,000 people) of 150 is one of the highest in the country.





At a spinning unit in Coimbatore.

According to N. Krishna Samaraj and Nandini Rangaswamy, Chairman and Vice-Chairperson respectively of CII, the organisation has decided to push six sectors - textiles, engineering, auto components, IT and IT Enabled Services (ITES), health care and education - in which Coimbatore shows great potential. The CII's involvement is two-fold - helping industries build internal competencies in areas such as cost management, training and human resource development, and interacting with government agencies on issues such as policies and infrastructure development. Separate panels have been constituted to deal with different segments of industry and service activities.

According to Coimbatore Management Association (CMA) president P.M. Jagatheesan, the region is fast emerging as the knowledge hub with 25 business schools. The three sectors that are growing at breakneck speed are auto components, IT and medicare. Coimbatore is also showcasing its medical tourism potential, what with major surgical operations costing nearly 40 per cent less than in Chennai. The CMA is also trying to market Coimbatore as a "place to work". With the State government giving the nod for an IT park, Coimbatore is all set for a galloping growth. The auto component sector is growing annually at 200 per cent and the textile sector are all set to grow with the disbanding of the MFA. According to Jagatheesan, the inherent strength of Coimbatore is the three generations of work culture, which is ready to make the most of globalisation.

But the crucial question is whether the euphoria generated by globalisation can be sustained. Suguna Pumps managing director V. Lakshminarayanaswamy says that the global market offers an excellent opportunity despite the threat of cheaper and more sophisticated products coming into the Indian market. Coimbatore now offers a huge product range from which manufacturers should find a niche product for themselves and build on that. This, he feels, will increase efficiency and lower costs owing to the volumes involved.

According to Pricol's Col. A.N. Ramesh, Coimbatore is showing strong signals of revival, if one were to go by the orders flooding all industries - automobile components, textile machinery, pumps and foundries - and the hectic construction activity. "With heavy reinvestment, the excellent brand equity of Coimbatore products, the increasing professionalism and the effort to be contemporary, Coimbatore's industries are going great guns," he says.

Says Roots Industries director N.V. Krishnan: "Coimbatoreans, with their enterprise, are quick to change. This has led such companies as Ford to seek us as reliable ancillary component suppliers." This, he feels, is only going to strengthen in future given the upbeat mood of the industrialists.

Sakthi Sugars vice-president and managing director M. Manickam is equally optimistic. According to him, Coimbatore is a "private town". Its industrialists have taken the town forward solely by their enterprise and resilience, without any government help. According to him, in such areas as textiles and sugar, government policies have, in fact, created problems. Now, with the government withdrawing from these areas and leaving everything to the market, Coimbatore will surely benefit, he says.

Dr. R. Nandagopal, director, PSG Institute of Management, says that now almost all industrialists in the city want to face competition, which is a healthy sign.

A lot of restructuring is happening in industries of all kinds and sizes - small, medium and big. In the past century, industries in Coimbatore grew tremendously, one feeding another and showing resilience in the face of every downturn. But in the process they accumulated a lot of flab, which is now hurting - in terms of reduced profits and high costs - in the environment of recession and enhanced competition.

With trade barriers falling, industries have realised the need to be able to compete internationally and have been restructuring themselves at a feverish pace. Restructuring - to improve quality and cut costs - is happening in several ways, including staff downsizing, product diversification, fine-tuning of manufacturing processes, adding value, modernising, improving quality, branding, and financial cleansing (high-cost debts are retired to lower the interest burden). There is now a tendency to look at long-term rather than quick gains.

While companies in Coimbatore are shedding their conservatism and are becoming more modern, some like UMS chief executive officer Dr. B.V.D. Rao feel that they have a long way to go to become professional and transparent. Almost all big companies are family-run and hence, often, family problems get reflected in their operations. Most important, says Dr. B.V.D. Rao, is to send out to the outside world signals of the behavioural change that has happened.

But the real beneficiaries of the economic recovery are companies that had conserved during the recessionary period; they are registering growth ranging from 15 to 50 per cent in turnover. A number of corporate bodies, manufacturing for multinational corporations, source components from here. For instance, Suzuki of Japan sources auto components from Coimbatore for its unit in Thailand. With over a third of the Fortune 500 companies sourcing components from Coimbatore, little wonder that Coimbatore is emerging as one of the major global outsourcing centres for manufactured products; the city's annual exports of engineering products now exceed Rs.12,000 crores.

Big companies such as Roots, Elgi Equipments and LGB & Sons have adopted modern manufacturing processes such as total quality management (TQM), making it easier for automobile manufacturers to look for reliable supply sources in Coimbatore.

A lot of consolidation is also happening as part of the restructuring process. Most medium and big companies are outsourcing from small and tiny firms, as the former rapidly automate their processes to improve quality and cut labour costs. This may mean fewer jobs with big companies, but labour is being absorbed in the small and tiny units though at lower wages and on a non-permanent basis.

According to Elgi Equipments' company secretary H. Mohan Ram, his company is creating a network of tiny units in and around Coimbatore to source from. In fact, Elgi is trying to revive several tiny units that have gone sick, in order to bring them into its feeder chain. His company will assemble and test the components that it acquires from its feeder units before exporting. The Elgi experiment seems to be catching on and several big and medium companies have started to contract work out to small units and concentrate on assembling, testing (to ensure quality) and research and development (to improve product quality, the technology is being passed on to the tiny units).

No doubt the restructuring has hit the labour badly - most permanent jobs have become casual, many jobs have gone, almost all workers have taken sharp wage cuts, working hours have increased, and workers now perform multiple tasks. Over 250 mills are closed; nearly 50 per cent of the working ones have reduced their workforce by half, one-fourth by 75 per cent, and the remaining have made all workers non-permanent. According to the Coimbatore District Mill Workers' Union, over half the 60,000 mill workers, most of them women, in Coimbatore and Erode are casual workers.

AquaSub Engineering's general manager V. Krishna Kumar feels that competition from Chinese imports is only a perceived threat. According to him, while the Chinese cater to pumps of only one voltage specification, pumps made in Coimbatore can be used for different voltages that the market needs. But the real threat is from the unorganised sector, which caters to the bulk of the demand and at a much cheaper price, as it does not attract excise and other duties.

According to Elgi's Mohan Ram, India's advantage over China is that India can cater to mid-segment buyers who require 10,000-20,000 pieces, while China can only supply to bulk buyers. G. Rajendran, director of CRI Pumps and former president of SIEMA, says that the small and tiny foundries and pump manufacturers are going through a tough time despite being major suppliers of pumps in the country - worth over Rs.800 crores - on account of the high cost of inputs such as steel, coke, power and copper.

Says G.K. Sundaram of Lakshmi Mills: "Coimbatore has done very well for itself without government help. It is the industries - textiles, sugar, foundries, and so on - that are dependent on government policies (usually haphazard, fluctuating and inconsistent) that are hit the hardest." According to him, if the government stops "policing" and "leaves us to do our business, we will be much better off". Most industrialists here agree with this sentiment. But the only help they want from the government is better infrastructure - better air, rail and road connectivity, in particular.

THE boom in Coimbatore is also palpable with the enhanced activity in real estate and retail business. For instance, Srivatsa Real Estates managing director C.S. Ramaswamy says that a number of real estate companies such as Land Marvel, Sahara Homes and Appaswamy Real Estates are coming to Coimbatore. In business since 1996, Srivatsa Real Estates has constructed one million square feet of commercial and residential space and done business for Rs.100 crores; it is looking ahead to taking a large pie of the booming real estate market. Says its executive director V. Jayaraman: "The next five years are surely going to be a boom period for Coimbatore."

According to Sree Kumaran Thangamaligai director P.K. Aroomugum, there is a big rush to buy jewellery as it is considered the best form of investment, particularly after the fall in savings bank interest rates. While several players came into the jewellery business in Coimbatore in the last few years, those with ethics and good quality products have survived. Sree Kumaran Thangamaligai has imported a carat meter that can check gold quality. According to Aroomugum, there are 60,000 skilled jewellery artisans in Coimbatore. To utilise their skills it is important that the government rationalise the tax structure so that shops that operate with small margins can benefit and hire more skilled workers consistently. The increase in jewellery sales indicates a rise in the purchasing power of the people - a sign of an upbeat economy.

In fact, many people feel that one of the primary reasons why IT did not take off in Coimbatore is the lack of good air connectivity. But now, with the government planning to set up an IT park, IT majors such as Wipro, Satyam and Tata Consultancy Services are showing interest in setting up shop in Coimbatore. With several more making inquiries, Coimbatore is hopeful of making it big. The industrialists feel that software and auto components will propel Coimbatore's growth.

The Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) has called for the establishment of the Kongu Development Authority to boost the development of the Coimbatore region, which is seeking to become a global outsourcing hub for different industries.

As the city is on the threshold of becoming the second largest IT centre after Chennai in Tamil Nadu, the chamber has urged various government departments to address the issue of infrastructure bottlenecks in order to attract potential investors and improve the quality of life of its citizens. It wants the airport expanded and modernised for more national and international flights, and a ring road built linking Coimbatore with Salem, Pollachi, Tiruchi, Palakkad, Mysore and Udhagamandalam so that long-distance travellers can bypass the city.

Says M. Krishnan of Krishna Sweets: "We have good reasons to believe that the worst is over and there will be an upswing." This feeling is echoed in almost every nook and corner of Coimbatore.

Hyundai to build second plant in Chennai

http://www.hindu.com/2005/02/17/stories/2005021706991700.htm


CHENNAI, FEB. 16. Hyundai Motor Company said on Wednesday that it would build a second automobile plant in India to meet the growing demand and aimed to use the country as a regional export hub.

Hyundai Motor Chairman Chung Mong-koo revealed the plan during his visit to the Chennai unit. He said the company would utilise India to manufacture and ship vehicles to Europe, South America and West Asia.

Addressing the employees at Hyundai Motor India, Mr. Chung said Chennai facility was targeting to produce 2.50 lakh units (16 per cent increase in sales growth) in the current year. He, however, did not give the financial details on the cost of building the plant, which will be located next to the existing plant in Chennai.

The new plant will have a production capacity of 1.50 lakh vehicles a year.

It may be recalled that the Hyundai Santro was designed and developed in India at the integrated auto-manufacturing unit at Irrungattukatoi near Chennai.

The plant produced 2.15 lakh vehicles last year. Of these, 1.40 lakh units were sold in India and the balance was exported. If the second plant was put into full operation, the company would almost triple its overseas production from 8.90 lakh units this year to 2.38 million by 2010.

Employment unlimited in Tirupur
Friday February 18 2005 00:00 IST
TIRUPUR: While in the rest of the country ‘No Vacancy’ boards are a common sight, in Tirupur one sees boards announcing ‘We Want Workers’ put up in front of most units, big and small.

With the existing ones on a modernisation spree and new ones being set up in the wake of the lifting of quota restrictions, this knitwear town is expected to create over one lakh employment opportunities in the next couple of years, according to the South India Hosiery Manufacturers Association (SIHMA).

Major trade unions, like the CITU and AITUC, predict the employment market here to grow by 25 to 30 percent by the end of this year. The newly set up Nethaji Apparel Park, promoted by about 70 exporters, would alone require about 15,000 skilled workers.

‘‘The demand for labour is very high, but unfortunately we are not getting skilled manpower in adequate numbers,’’ says G Karthikeyan, secretary, Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA).

‘‘TEA will shortly forge tie-ups with polytechnics in the southern districts for intake of skilled manpower,’’ he says. At present only unskilled manpower from the southern districts land in Tirupur.

‘‘Necessary training is needed in various sectors of the garment manufacturing process,’’ says SIHMA president Mohan Kandaswamy. With business enquiries pouring in from abroad, he says adequate training is a must for workers from the southern districts and from Kerala.

Ahil Rathinasamy, president, Knitcloth Manufacturers Association, says, ‘‘there is ample scope for more modernisation as only Rs 8,000 crore out of Rs 25,000 crore from the Technology Upgradation Fund (TUF) has been utilised so far.’’ Usually, modernisation and technological upgradation result in workers losing jobs in thousands.

However, in Tirupur, modernisation means ever more manpower. ‘‘There are not many exporters used to producing in large volumes. Production capacity can’t be increased overnight. Expansion will be gradual and the need for skilled manpower will grow with it,’’ says K P Govindasamy, president of TEKMA.

Last year, Tirupur spent roughly Rs 5,000 crore on import of machinery. This year, an additional Rs 2,000 crore will be spent. ‘‘More machinery entails more skilled labour here,’’ notes Govindasamy.

‘‘The search for unskilled labourers has been going on at a rapid pace,’’ says K Kamaraj, a trade unionist.

The Tirupur exporters in fact send dozens of trucks to neighbouring Kerala to source such labour, he points out.

While bigger companies with larger output enrol skilled hands as regular employees, the smaller units employ labour only on contract basis; mostly as daily wagers for a short period.

Once an assignment is completed, the workers are on their own, looking for other avenues, which are not lacking anyway. That explains the plethora of ‘Velaiku Atkal Thevai’ boards everywhere here.

The manufacturing vertical owes a lot to Tamil Nadu, because it is here that this vertical thrives at its best. Called the Detroit of India, Chennai today houses some of the very big names in the automotive industry. Ford India, one of the big-ticket auto investments that came into Chennai in the mid-1990s, has become a key hub for Ford in the Asia-Pacific region. The Ford plant in Maraimalai Nagar near Chennai rolls out models like Escort, Ikon, Endeavor, and Mondeo. The Chennai unit's latest achievement is the spanking new offering from its stable is the mid-sized urban utility vehicle- Fusion. Ford has put in place a state of the art plant in Maraimalai Nagar and has used IT heavily in all process of its manufacturing right from sourcing raw materials to the shop floor. According to industry sources, Ford has invested around Rs 1,600 crore on the 350-acre plant, which has the capacity to roll out one-lakh cars a year.

The Driving Force
Not far away from Ford, another biggie in the automotive space is Korean giant Hyundai Motors, which launched its Indian operation in 1996. It has its Indian plant at Irungatukottai near Chennai. From here, Hyundai rolls out models like Santro Xing, Accent, Getz, Elantra and Terracan. Hyundai has so far pumped in close to $700 mn on its plant here and plans are on the anvil to scale up its manufacturing capabilities to up its car production in excess of two lakh a year.



TVS, automobile and electronics company, is a home-grown spectacular success story


Meanwhile, Hindustan Motors also has large mandates and its plant in Thiruvallur makes the Ambassador, Lancer, and Pajero in alliance with Mitsubishi. Also heavy earth moving equipments are manufactured in a tie-up with Caterpillar. Another company on the niche auto space is Tractor and Farm Equipment (TAFE), started in 1961. TAFE holds close to 15% market share in this space and sells close to 24,000 tractors a year. The company has also implemented SAP and developed many in-house IT applications for HR.

Meanwhile, entities like Rane Group and Sundaram Fasteners dominate in the auto ancillary space they make critical components ranging from bolts, nuts to fasteners. Ashok Leyland, the truck major, which signed out of last year with around 48,000 units, is also an aggressive user of IT and an Oracle global case study reference.

On the two-wheeler segment, a company that is challenging the mighty Hero Honda is TVS Motors. When Suzuki exited from its JV with TVS three years back, many in the industry wondered how TVS is going to make the transition without Suzuki. But it overwhelmed the skeptics by successfully launching four stroke motorbikes, which is today its flagship product indegeneously built. The success of TVS' Victor brand of four-stroke motorbikes has eaten into the four-stroke pie and today competes head on with Splendor and Caliber brands.

On the Periphery
All types of manufacturing thrives in Chennai and if we look at the IT peripherals market, TVS Electronics is the company that has carved a name for itself in the printer space by its flagship Dot Matrix Printer offerings. TVSE started out its operations in Chennai in 1998 and since then has almost doubled its productivity from 450 printers a day, to 750 printers a day, presently. Says Gopal Srinivasan, director, TVSE, " The company has been successful largely because of manufacturing excellence through TQM principles and combining the principles of Six Sigma.With business agility that the IT market demands, we have been able to successfully sustain and compete against global players." Meanwhile, players like HCL Peripherals and Numeric Power Systems also have manufacturing facilities out of Chennai.

Rs.12-crore project to revamp traffic system in Madurai

MADURAI, FEB. 19. A massive exercise to revamp the traffic system in the Temple City has been mooted with focus on road safety, modern equipment and traffic education.

The Rs. 12-crore project has been approved by the Traffic Advisory Committee and forwarded to the office of the Director-General of Police for administrative sanction. This will be in addition to the Rs. 75-lakh traffic improvement scheme funded by the Madurai Corporation.

Pilot project


Besides infrastructure, the pilot project has taken into account engineering and environmental aspects that would cater to the requirements of road-users for at least a decade. Aimed at minimising road accidents, traffic congestion and pollution levels, the draft report elicited the views of traders, consumer organisations, autorickshaw drivers, bus/lorry operators and the media. Expert opinion was also sought from the National Highways Authority of India, Public Works Department, State Highways and the Madurai Corporation.
http://img230.exs.cx/img230/4954/tntop8ig.jpg
Escalators, closed circuit television (CCTV), traffic park, multi-level parking, flyovers and sub-ways are part of the project. A task force formed by the Commissioner of Police, Vijay Kumar, undertook a month-long survey to study the traffic problems. Subways at the St. Marys, Goripalayalam, Kalavasal, Dindigul Bypass, East Gate and Old TVS Junctions and flyovers at five places have been recommended.
http://img134.exs.cx/img134/1592/impn01b5ht.jpg
Road development

Police have chalked out a road development plan recommending widening of several roads, construction of medians, pedestrian platforms and relocation of electricity board lamp-posts.

http://img185.exs.cx/img185/1430/impn013tc.jpg

( note: 50 unauthorised construction of temples,churches,mosques along the road side were demolished )

only now the Govt has got the guts to do so....mainly because Maduari High Court has ordered for demolition.

As much uncomfortable as I am to watch that temple fall to the ground, I know it must be done all over the country with all illegally constructed places of worship to give our cities a semblance of order.

( note: 50 unauthorised construction of temples,churches,mosques along the road side were demolished )


good move !

Work on NHAI projects in and around Chennai to start in 15 days

http://www.hindu.com/2005/02/22/stories/2005022208320400.htm

"The contracts have been awarded and the execution will be on a fast-track basis," L.K. Joshi, NHAI member (project implementation), told The Hindu here today after reviewing the progress of the schemes with field officials.

In addition to the construction of the second phase of the Chennai bypass and widening of the Tambaram-Maduravoyal stretch to four lanes, the projects include flyovers at Koyambedu, Kathipara and Padi and near the airport. A few weeks ago, the former Chief Minister, M. Karuanidhi, formally launched the work on the schemes.

The second leg of the Chennai bypass is from Maduravoyal to Madhavaram via Ambattur over 13 km. This segment will have four lanes. The existing bridges, one across the Adyar and the other over the Porur lake, both forming part of the first stretch of the bypass, will also be widened. The entire cost of the bypass project is estimated at Rs. 480 crores. The NHAI has been executing the other schemes at a cost of Rs. 235 crores.

Asahi plans Rs 930 cr facilities upgrade in chennai

http://news.indiamart.com/cgi/newslink.mp?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.business-standard.com%2Fcommon%2Fstorypage.php%3Fstoryflag%3Dy%26leftnm%3Dlmnu1%26leftindx%3D1%26lselect%3D1%26chklogin%3DN%26autono%3D181870

Asahi India Glass is in the midst of a Rs 930 crore upgrade of its manufacturing facilities to continue for two more years and equip the company with three integrated glass factories to serve the automobile and construction industries.

The company inaugurated the first phase of an automotive glass plant in Chennai today. Asahi invested Rs 55 crore in the first phase, and the total investment is expected to go up to Rs 180 crore once the fifth phase is done.

The Chennai plant has been started with a capacity of 5 lakh laminated windshields a year, and would serve companies such as Hyundai, Toyota Kirloskar, Ford and Volvo. The company also hopes to use the Chennai plant for exports.

Highlights of Union Railway Budget 2005-06-Tamil Nadu

*Delhi Dadar-Chennai Express to a superfast one (150kph)

NEW TRAINS:
1)New Shatabdi between Chennai and Bangalore (six days a week )
2)New train between Chennai and Pondicherry
3)New train between Chennai-Secunderabad via Kurnool
4)New passenger train between Kumbakonam and Thanjavur daily
5)New passenger train between Thiruvarur and Thanjavur daily
6)New passenger train between Madurai and Manamadurai daily

LINE EXTENDED TRAINS:
Chennai-Erode express extended upto Coimbatore
Chennai-Vizag express extended upto Buvaneshwar
Mysore-Thanjavur express extended upto Kumbakonam
Trichy-Thanjavur 2 passenger trains extended upto Thiruvarur

SURVEY FOR NEW TRAINS
Chennai-Cuddalore (Via Mahabalipuram)
Sathyamangalam-Mettur (Via Anthiyur)
Mayiladuthurai-Karaikal (Via thirunalaru, Thanrangapadi)

Cudalore to have Textile-processing Park

Chennai, Feb 26: The Tamil Nadu government proposes to set up a Rs 1000 crore 'textile processing park' at Cuddalore soon, state secretary for Handlooms, Handicrafts, Textile and Khadi A Elangovan today said.

^^^ Hey cool, Cuddalore is my home town.

Vestas plans 300 MW capacity addition, new plant in Chennai:

[India News]: Kolkata, Feb 27 : Vestas RRB India Ltd, a leading player in wind power generation in India, was planning a capacity addition of 300-400 MW while aiming a turnover of about Rs 1,000 crore in 2005-6.

The Indo-Danish joint venture, which has already installed over 1,000 wind power generation units generating about 350 MW of power, planned a capacity addition of another 300-400 MW by next year, company managing director Rakesh Bakshi told PTI here.

Given the enormous potential of wind power generation in India, ''we are also planning to set up a new plant in Chennai to manufacture blades and controllers (of wind electric generators) at an investment of Rs 35 crore,'' Bakshi said.

The company, a 51:49 JV between RRB Consultants and Engineers Pvt Ltd, India and Vestas Wind Systems A/S of Denmark, expected to garner a turnover of Rs 600 crore in 2004-5 while aiming to exceed Rs 1,000 crore next year following the capacity addition.

The company's new wind power projects would come up in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Kerala.

Bakshi, though optimistic about India's potential to become a 'super power' in renewable energy sector, clamoured for a national policy and legislation to attract private investment.

''The potential for wind power generation in the country is estimated at 45,000 MW while installed capacity is only 3,000 MW. There exists a huge gap in between, mainly due to the absence of a national policy or legislation for the renewable energy sector,'' he said. PTI

Cognizant Technology Solutions will expand to other cities in TN by next year

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEB20050227101421&Page=B&Title=Business&Topic=0&

Lakshmi Narayanan, president and CEO, Cognizant says....
It is mandatory for us and for the government to develop other cities outside of Chennai, lest the city be congested like Bangalore. I think the city planners and policy makers should consciously re-direct any investments into Chennai beyond a certain threshold to places like Coimbatore, Tiruchy and Madurai and prepare the infrastructure there for growth. The good thing is the level of urbanisation in Tamil Nadu is so high that a few steps in the right direction will make things easy for all

One million more IT jobs in State by 2009


Around one million more jobs would be generated in the IT sector over the next four years in the State.

Speaking to this website’s newspaper on Monday, IT secretary to the Government of Tamil Nadu, Vivek Harinarain, said the State would witness a tremendous employment generation in the field of IT and ITES in the next four years.

‘‘We are looking at the prospect of generating one million new jobs in the IT sector in the next five years,’’ said Harinarain.

This comes in the backdrop of the Union Budget 2005-2006, in which Finance Minister P Chidambaram announced that around seven million jobs would be generated in the IT sector in the country.

That Tamil Nadu alone would grab around one million of it, as per government reports, would mean new avenues for all the 70,000-odd professionals who pass out of the 220 engineering colleges spread across the State every year.

According to him, the State was capable of generating more than two lakh jobs annually for the next four years if the existing trend did not falter. ‘‘The tremendous change in infrastructure seen over the last few years will attract a number of new companies to set up shop here and this will mean more jobs,’’ he added.

Multiple reasons have been attributed to the tremendous boom in the IT sector in TN. If the proposed Express Highway in Chennai has been attracting companies in the last couple of years, there are indications that other districts like Madurai and Coimbatore are also in for improvement in infrastructure with IT giants themselves looking at the prospects of upgrading the facilities similar to what Infosys has done in Mangalore.

Allotment far from adequate for rail gauge conversion

CHENNAI, MARCH 1. There is a mismatch between allotment of funds and commitment to certain gauge conversion works in Tamil Nadu.

The Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad, in his budget announced that the Kumbakonam-Mayiladuturai section of the Villupuram-Thanjavur project, the Manamadurai-Mandapam section of the Madurai-Rameswaram project, the Tiruchi-Pudukottai section of the Tiruchi-Manamadurai project and the Vriddhachalam-Attur section of the Salem-Vriddhachalam project will be targeted for conversion for the coming financial year.

But the funds allotment is far from adequate, say Southern Railway officials here.

As per Mr. Prasad's announcement, a stretch of about 350 km is to be converted in the next financial year and will require about Rs. 350 crores at the average cost of conversion of Rs. 1 crore a km. But the allotment for the targeted portions is just Rs. 160 crores, less than 50 per cent of the requirement.

The allotment for the 32-km Kumbakonam-Mayiladuthurai stretch is just Rs. 1 crore. Passengers complained that the Thanajvur-Villupuram section was the most neglected stretch in Southern Railway and that gauge conversion had been going for years with no end in sight.

At present there was no direct link to Chennai from Mayiladuturai, Chidambaram and Cuddalore. The passengers had to get down at Tambaram, 25 km from the city. At this rate of allotment, it would take at least five more years for the project to be completed.

Only for the Tiruchi-Pudukottai and Vriddhachalam-Attur sections have sufficient funds been sanctioned. A sum of Rs. 50 crores has been granted for the 53- km stretch from Tiruchi to Pudukottai.

As the State Government is sharing 50 per cent cost of the Cuddalore-Salem project, the amount sanctioned (Rs. 42 crores), along with the State's equal contribution, will help the Southern Railway complete the Vriddhachalam-Attur section (84 km) in the next financial year. For the Manamadurai-Mandapam section (97 km), only 25 crores has been allotted. This is one of the most important works of Southern Railway, as it will put the pilgrim town Rameswaram on the broad gauge map.

Another major project hit by poor fund allotment is the Karur-Salem new line. As against the estimated cost of Rs. 230 crores, Rs. 70 crores has been spent on the new line. In the current year, Rs. 1 crore was allotted. Land acquisition is said to be a major reason for the delay in completing the project.

However, officials here are hopeful of getting more funds during the year. They said even last year the allotted money was less than the requirement. But the zone succeeded in completing all targeted projects including the Egmore-Tambaram suburban, Madurai-Manamadurai, Rajaplayam-Tenkasi and Thanjavur-Tiruvarur sections, mobilising the required amount. They would complete the stretches this year too, they added.

Budget gives importance to rural sector

In an election year budget, Tamil Nadu Finance Minister C Ponniayan today announced two 'poverty reduction programmes' at a combined cost of Rs.735 crore and did not propose any fresh taxation measures, leaving the overall deficit of Rs.260.41 crore uncovered.

The Tamil Nadu empowerment and poverty reduction project, at a cost of Rs.715 crore would be implemented in 15 districts with World Bank aid, Ponnaiyan told the Assembly while presenting the budget.

Each selected village would have a "village livelihood fund" to support the poor families and improve their economic condition, with particular focus on disadvantaged families.

Another comprehensive scheme to benefit three lakh "ultra poor" families would be implemented at a cost of rs 20 crore. The scheme would provide a comprehensive social safety net consisting of food security, access to facilities like education and health care, he said.

A comprehensive road infrastructure development programme would be implemented at a cost of Rs.1050 crore, for which Rs.750 crore had been provided in this year's budget, he said.

The investment on highways, roads, electricity, urban development, water supply and sewerage has been stepped up "enormously", she told reporters. "In a nutshell, it is a growth-oriented, pro-poor and brilliant budget," she said.

Ponnaiyan said the Chennai's water requirement of 840 mld would be met by setting up a desalination plant, for which global tenders had been floated and by completion of the New Veeranam extension project, costing Rs.300 crore.

Despite increase in the diesel price, he ruled out upward revision of bus fares in the state.

Cuddalore and Nagapattinam minor ports would be developed at a cost Rs.70 crore, he said.

A special task force would be constituted to go into the problem of pollution of rivers by the industry, he announced.

Ponnaiyan presents tax-free TN budget

Keeping an eye on the next year's Assembly polls, the AIADMK government in Tamil Nadu today presented a tax-free budget for 2005-06, leaving an overall uncovered deficit of Rs 260.41 crore.

"This deficit will be covered mainly by control of expenditure and improved compliance in tax collections without changing the tax rates," Finance Minister C Ponnaiyan said while presenting the budget to the state Assembly today.

To benefit the people of the state and improve the infrastructure, the budget also proposed a 'bouquet' of new schemes, which included a Rs 5,086.85-crore Metro Rail System for the metropolis.

Ponnaiyan said a detailed feasibility report for the development of Metro Rail in Chennai had been prepared by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) in assosiation with RITES.

"This will be followed by the preparation of a detailed project report. We have provided seed money assistance of Rs 200 crore in the budget estimates from the infrastructure development fund to the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority to leverage funds for financing of such infrastructure in the Chennai Metropolitan area.

"With World Bank assistance, a special component of Rs 540 crore for road and traffic improvement in Chennai had been planned under the proposed Tamil Nadu Urban Development Project-III. This will go a long way in improving the traffic and transportation services in the city in the coming year," Ponnaiyan said.

Pointing out that the total power generation capacity available in Tamil Nadu had now gone up to 9,657 MW, Ponnaiyan said plans had already been announced to add another 4,000 MW, including 2,000 MW at Koodangulam where a nuclear plant is coming up.


"We have revived the Jayankondam Lignite Power Project which will now be taken up as a joint venture between Tamil Nadu Electricity Board and the Neyveli Lignite Corporation. This project will be taken up at a cost of Rs 5,000 crore with a capacity of 1,000 MW."

Work on IT park at Kovai to start soon

indianexpress news....
http://www.chennaionline.com/colnews/newsitem.asp?NewsID={FF343B55-A2F8-4807-95D3-5AAE16A49122}&CategoryName=TECH

For those who don't know, Kovai is the Tamil name for Coimbatore.

Sridhar, Coimbatore is also a Tamil name ,but Kovai is a short form of coimbatore...
like chennapatnam as chennai....
pudhucherry(pondicherry) as pudthuvai..
pudhukotai as pudhugai..
tirunelveli as nelai

Well - I know that. What I was saying is that in general, when the city is referred to in Tamil (say the Tamil news), it is called Kovai. But never in an English news bulletin. Same for the rest (except Chennai which is referred to as Chennai in both languages now).

The purpose of my post was to ensure that everybody understood what you were talking about.

6 mn jobs in textile sector by 2009

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IET20050303111608&Page=T&Title=Southern+News+%2D+Tamil+Nadu&Topic=0

Out of 12mn jobs which is to be created in India,Tamil nadu alone will take more than 50% of it.

the aftermath

Evictions ease Madurai traffic situation (http://www.ndtv.com/morenews/showmorestory.asp?slug=Evictions+ease+Madurai+traffic+situation&id=69433) '

There is a sigh of relief for commuters in Madurai, as they now have wider roads, clean roadsides and a smooth flow of traffic.

The transformation came in following a large-scale eviction by the Madurai Corporation after the Madurai bench of the Madras High court ordered removal of encroachments in all southern districts of Tamil Nadu.

Over the past many decades, more than 300 worship places have been constructed on encroached areas primarily to shield them from demolition, often with the connivance of corporation officials.

Driving in Madurai has become an absolute pleasure. The court has directed this to be maintained for the next three years, and the people are certainly delighted.

Rs. 40 crores for textile park: Union Minister

http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/07/stories/2005030708730400.htm

`Madurai has a great potential'

MADURAI, MARCH 10. Madurai and the surrounding districts in the south would soon hog the limelight as the hub for doing bilateral trade with the US, thanks to the efforts of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce.

The IACC (Tamil Nadu branch) Chairman, T. R. K. Ramakrushna Rajha, and the regional secretary, D. V. Venkatagiri, undertook a couple of visits to the Temple City recently to identify potential for trade in the southern districts. It was found that the southern districts had tremendous scope in textiles and garments, and engineering / auto exports. There are other sectors such as printing and also the merchandise, which seem promising, sources told The Hindu .

According to Mr. Ramakrushna Rajha, a printing firm at Sivakasi has been faring excellently well on the export sector. It has silently been exporting orders worth Rs.300 crores per annum. The surgical firms located in Rajapalayam and Chatrapatti have been exporting surgical bandages valued at Rs.200 crores, and there were firms, which had an annual turnover of Rs.500 crores, he said.

Interestingly, medicinal herbs worth about Rs.300 crores were being exported to the US. Already Madurai and neighbouring districts were making a silent revolution and they would soon occupy the centre-stage for bilateral trade with the US. Enthused over this, the IACC has proposed to take up a comprehensive study, soon, on prospects in the textiles and garments sector, horticulture, herbal exports, and engineering and auto parts.

"We are willing to provide all particulars for outsourcing and have plans to conduct a special seminar for printers and publishers at Chennai soon," Mr. Ramakrushna said. "The Indian products are renowned for their quality at the international level and all the Indian business community ought to do is to learn the nuances of promoting its firms and products," he says and adds documentation, brochure presentation, web site and legal framework were certain important aspects which require utmost attention.

What could be the size of exports to the US if the domestic industry in south Tamil Nadu woke up and seized he opportunity? "Unlimited. And we are here to promote bilateral trade in a big way," he said.

The one day seminar: Business with USA - Madurai Meet 2005, to be organised by the IACC at Hotel Sangam here on March 11 is touted to lay the foundation for large-scale trade. Besides top officials from the American Consulate General, Chennai, experts in the field would address. Panel discussions apart, guidance session on US business visa, sourcing from the US, textiles and garments exports to the US, positioning Tamil Nadu as the leading partner for trade and investment with the US, were the other topics to be covered.

Pollachi tender coconut for European market

http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/14/stories/2005031411230400.htm

Bad political blood may spoil TN’s infrastructure party

http://www.news.indiamart.com/cgi/newslink.mp?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.financialexpress.com%2Ffe_full_story.php%3Fcontent_id%3D85147

TN Govt. proposes to form new ring road

Madurai, March 18. (PTI): The Tamil Nadu Government has proposed to form a new ring road linking Madurai - Melur and Madurai - Dindigul roads.

The ring road would link Dindigul-Madurai highway with Thirubhuvanam via Natham, Oomachikulam, and Othakadai, a top official of the highways department said.

The advantage of the new ring road is that several way-side villages would get high quality road facility.

banned again? :eek2:

New corporation to mobilise resources for infrastructure projects in TN

http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/23/stories/2005032312980400.htm

Rs 1,023-cr Tirupur water project nearing completion

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IET20050324103656&Page=T&Title=Southern+News+%2D+Tamil+Nadu&Topic=0&

Automotive sector gears up for big leap

The automotive industry in Tamil Nadu would have a turnover of $18 billion by 2015 if the ‘Vision for TN automotive Industry’, prepared by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), proceeds without hitches

As per the Vision 2015, Tamil Nadu alone would generate around 35 percent of the total revenue of the Indian automotive industry by 2015 – a sum of $ 18 billion (more)http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IET20050325011738&Page=T&Title=Southern+News+%2D+Tamil+Nadu&Topic=0&

Wipro to build BPO hub in Coimbatore

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1063096.cms

Wipro Ltd will be allotted 10-12 acres of land in Coimbatore for setting up a centre for its business process outsourcing (BPO) division

Wipro Ltd's entry into Coimbatore would be a big boost for Tamil Nadu in its efforts to develop second tier cities such as Coimbatore, Hosur, Trichy and Madurai for attracting IT and ITeS companies

Rs 3,480 crore Petroleum refinery in Cuddalore

A Rs 3,480 crore petroleum refinery project, with a capacity of 60 lakh tonnes per annum, will come up in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu, which will ultimately become a 'mother unit' for several downstream petrochemical industries in the state.

Nagarjuna Oil Corporation Ltd (NOCL), a joint venture of Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) and the Nagarjuna Group, when commissioned by October 2007, would be the first project to receive the 'structured assistance' in terms of the new industrial policy announced by the government in 2003, Industries Minister Nainar Nagenthran told the state Assembly today.

This was the single largest private sector investment in the state. Construction would begin next month.

Nokia may set up plant in Tamil Nadu

http://in.rediff.com/money/2005/mar/30nokia.htm

Top officials of the Finnish mobile handset maker Nokia, which is planning to set up a manufacturing facility in India, met Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Wednesday.

Jukka Lehtela, director (India operations), accompanied by senior manager Josh Foulger and business development manager Vineet Sehgal, held discussions with the Chief Minister and other state government officials, a government release said.

In December last year, Nokia announced an investment of up to $150 million over the next four years for setting up a manufacturing facility in India, which would give employment to about 2000 people.

Nokia, which has 34 per cent market share in mobile handsets globally during the quarter ended December 2004 at 66.1 million units, is yet to announce the location for the proposed manufacturing facility.

Officials said Nokia was holding discussions with various state governments and a decision would be announced soon. The company is looking for a site that provides an ideal mix of good infrastructure, logistics and skilled manpower, they said.

Besides, the company is also expecting a host of tax incentives from the state government to kick-start its manufacturing activities

State Government plans to amend labour laws

The State Government, in tune with its new Industrial Policy, today announced follow-up measures to meet the challenges of globalisation and the demand for new areas of development.

Moving the demand for grants, the Minister for Industries, Nainar Nagenthran, said, "the Government is proposing to enact an Infrastructure Development Enabling Act together with the setting up of an Infrastructure Development Board to encourage private participation in infrastructure building."

He said the Government was also reviewing the labour laws on lay-off, retrenchment, engagement of contract labour and flexibility of timings of work. It proposed to implement the recommendations of the Second National Labour Commission and take steps to amend the labour laws wherever necessary with the concurrence of the Centre.

An Industrial Promotion and Business Deregulation Statute is being enacted to simplify pre-project procedures and approvals, application forms, returns, inspection and certification routines. (more)

http://www.hindu.com/2005/03/31/stories/2005033108910400.htm

Coimbatore, the new IT hotspot

http://in.rediff.com/money/2005/mar/31it.htm

Tata announces plans for Rs. 3000 crore plan in TN
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holnus/006200503311745.htm

Centre approves two NH projects in TN

Chennai, April 5: Union Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways T R Baalu has approved two works costing Rs 211.97 lakh on NH-45A in Tamil Nadu.

Under the first proposal, approval has been granted to acquire land for improvement to geometrics of NH-45A in Thanjavur division at a cost of Rs 179.27 lakh, an official release said here.

The second proposal that has been approved is tsunami damage repair work in Villupuram NH division, it added. Due to the December 26 tsunami disaster, the embankment on the approaches to major bridge across river Coleroon had been badly damaged.

"Approval has been granted for construction of revetment using cement concrete blocks for protection of embankment at the location on NH-45A at a cost of Rs 32.70 lakh," the release said

http://us.rediff.com/money/2005/apr/06nokia.htm

Nokia selects Chennai for cellphone plant; to hire 2,000

April 06, 2005 11:42 IST
Last Updated: April 06, 2005 15:04 IST


Finnish mobile handset major Nokia has said it would set up a manufacturing plant in Chennai with an investment of up to $150 million to meet the booming demand in the country.

The construction work for the plant will start this month and production is likely to begin in the first half of 2006.

The expansion of the plant will see an intake of approximately 2,000 employees after production is in full swing, the company said in a statement adding it anticipates investing an estimated $100-150 million in the plant.

The Chennai unit will be Nokia's tenth mobile device production facility globally and will roll-out India-specific entry level and mid and upper end GSM and CDMA handsets.

Earlier, Nokia president Pekka Ala-Pietial had called up Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran to inform him about the company's board decision on selecting Chennai as the site.

Welcoming the decision, Maran said: "This is the result of efforts of the Communications Ministry and the subsequent formation of an inter-ministerial task force in October last year with a view to coordinate with the state governments."

Maran had earlier said Nokia Board is scheduled to meet here in May and expected to disclose further details.

This also coincides with the inauguration of Elocteq manufacturing facility in Bangalore on April 11. Positive signals are coming from other mobile manufacturers too, Maran said.

Government expects $800-900 million FDI in telecom manufacturing segment in the current fiscal.

"Mobile penetration in Asia-Pacific is expected to be a major contributor to the global mobile subscriber base surpassing the two billion mark by the end of 2005. Therefore, India which is set at the heart of the region, where mobile communications is growing rapidly, was a natural location of choice for the new production facility," the statement said.

Establishing a new factory in India is an important step in the continuous development of our global manufacturing network. Skilled labour, friendly business environment, support from state government, good logistics connection and overall cost efficiency criteria made us choose Chennai, Pietila said in the statement.

There are about 52 million wireless customers in India and the number is expected to cross 80 million by December 2005. More than 37 million handsets are likely to be sold in India in 2005, with the annual number rising to 50 million by 2008.

Nokia is the leader in India's $2.5 billion handset market, believed to have about 45 per cent market share. Other players include Samsung, LG Electronics Inc and US major Motorola.

Korean major LG recently set up a mobile phone plant in Pune

the significant announcement by the world’s biggest mobile phone manufacturer Nokia to set up a manufacturing facility in Chennai is set to make Tamil Nadu the most favoured investment destination,

Nokia joins a host of other companies like Hyundai, Ford, Saint Gobain etc. And if Nokia is here, can others be far behind, say telecom industry sources. The state could very well turn out to be a manufacturing hub for mobile phone companies in the future
According to senior Nokia officials, the company evaluated several locations for the facility before zeroing in on Chennai. And the factors that tipped the scales in favour of Chennai were the availability of skilled manpower, overall development of the area and, of course, the pro-active policies of the State Government.

More important, as Chief Minister Jayalalithaa put it, ‘‘was the good commercial and natural environment and the good law and order situation’’ .Getting Nokia to invest in the state was not an easy task.

Unlike other states, Tamil Nadu has often made rapid strides in attracting foreign direct investment into the state in a silent way. The State government believes that rather than making tall claims, it is concrete announcements that will beckon prospective investors

Sethusamudram project gets environmental clearance.

In what can be termed as a shot in the arm for the much delayed Rs 2,000 crore Sethusamudram canal project, minister for surface transport and shipping TR Baalu said in Chennai on Wednesday the government had received environmental clearance for the project. “We have received the enviromental clearance for Sethusamudram project,” Mr Baalu told reporters in Chennai.

Full story here:
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=87232

Coimbatore - IT Destination Next?

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/mp/2005/02/17/stories/2005021700120100.htm

Why Nokia chose Tamil Nadu for plant

http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2005/apr/07nokia.htm

Finally it was Tamil Nadu that came out trumps. Nokia India Managing Director, Sanjeev Sharma, in a telephonic chat with rediff.com said that the decision to set the $150 million manufacturing facility on a 210-acre site in Sriperumbudur, 40 km from Chennai, was taken because of qualitative factors and not just on quantitative factors of cost.

"I think one of the reasons why we set up our plant in Chennai was the excellent support and facilitation from the state government. The terms of our MoU (memorandum of understanding) with the state government are confidential and hence we cannot divulge it but the cooperation we received from them was excellent," Sharma told rediff.com.

A breakthrough for Tamil Nadu in hardware segment

http://www.hindu.com/2005/04/08/stories/2005040806090100.htm

For the State, the decision by Nokia to set up its facility here marks another feather in its cap. After IT majors Infosys, Wipro, and Satyam decided to expand their operations in and around Chennai and the World Bank selected the State's capital to set up its back office operations, the latest project, officials said, pointed to an "Advantage Tamil Nadu" situation in the extremely competitive environment.

Ray of hope for Nanguneri hi-tech park

The Nanguneri hi-tech park project is once again seesawing between being airborne and being grounded. Just when it was thought to be a non-starter, the arrival of a foreign team, led by Charles V Loucks, managing director of ATMAC Ltd., the US-based promoter of the project, has kindled hopes of the project taking off soon.

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IET20050411132238&Page=T&Title=Southern+News+%2D+Tamil+Nadu&Topic=0&

Rs. 15-crore master plan for Hogenakkal

A master plan encompassing all aspects that would safeguard, beautify and increase tourism in Hogenakkal would be implemented in July at an outlay of Rs. 1.5 crores

http://www.hindu.com/2005/04/15/stories/2005041501420300.htm

PM to lay foundation for Sethu project: Baalu

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would soon lay the foundation for the Rs.2,233 crore, 167 km-long Sethu Samudhram Ship Canal Project in the presence of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and DMK president M Karunanidhi

http://newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IET20050414105927&Page=T&Title=Southern+News+%2D+Tamil+Nadu&Topic=0&

Flash news:

1200km National Highways to become 4 lane in Tamilnadu..

Tindivanam-Tiruchy
Pondicherry-Tindivanam
Trivandrum-Kanyakumari
Trichy-Karur(including Trichy ring road )
Nagapatnam-Tanjore-Trichy
Madurai-Tuticorin
Salem-Ulunderpetai
Krishnagiri-Tindivanam
Thirupathi-Thiruthani-Chennai

CII agenda for TN: Think big, think global

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/04/19/stories/2005041901181700.htm

Flash news:

1200km National Highways to become 4 lane in Tamilnadu..

Tindivanam-Tiruchy
Pondicherry-Tindivanam
Trivandrum-Kanyakumari
Trichy-Karur(including Trichy ring road )
Nagapatnam-Tanjore-Trichy
Madurai-Tuticorin
Salem-Ulunderpetai
Krishnagiri-Tindivanam
Thirupathi-Thiruthani-Chennai

This is great news. What is the source for the above info?

When added to the GQ / NSEW (NH4/NH7) portions where work is underway and already four laned NH45 segments - this would mean that more that 60% of the NH mileage in the state would be four laned. Awesome!

i got this news from thatstamil.com..

Totally all over India 4000km of NH is to be made four lane and in that TN gets a lion share of nearly 1200km..

cheers to TR Balu

The Union Government has decided to set up two Institutes of Information Technology Design and Manufacturing, at a total project cost of Rs 114.60 crore during the 10th plan, Union Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, said today.

one institute would be located at Kancheepuram in Tamil Nadu

http://www.chennaionline.com/colnews/newsitem.asp?NEWSID=%7B5E37BCF2%2D1647%2D4E30%2D884D%2DD826049D4223%7D&CATEGORYNAME=TAMIL+NADU

TVS MOTOR COMPANY LTD AT HOSUR..is expanded at 323 acres....the proposal provides for the expansion of existing vechile assembly,prod engg, research,dining,admin,training and support facilities,and visitors centre...

http://img244.echo.cx/img244/599/tvsvcnight20copy5pm.jpg

TN companies lead in hiring confidence: Study

FOR the quarter April-June 2005, companies in Tamil Nadu have expressed the highest hiring confidence, followed by Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.

Surprisingly, Karnataka, home to more than a thousand IT and ITES companies, comes seventh in the hiring confidence list, after Maharashtra, Haryana and Delhi

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/04/26/stories/2005042600381700.htm

NHAI all set to take up four-laning of Chennai-Tiruchi-Madurai section

The expansion and strengthening of the 125-km highway forming part of the Chennai-Tiruchi-Madurai four-laning project, would give a fillip to the economic growth and infrastructure development of the central and southern districts

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is all set to take up four-laning of the Tiruchi-Madurai National Highway (NH 45-B). The Rs. 524-crore project, tenders for which have been floated, is likely to begin by July-end. It is expected to be completed in 30 months


Informed sources said the NHAI decided to take up four-laning of the Tindivanam-Tiruchi section under the Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) scheme. Given the heavy traffic load of about 20,000 to 25,000 passenger car units a day on this stretch, good response was anticipated for the contract from the private sector.

http://www.hindu.com/2005/04/27/stories/2005042703920400.htm

Work on phase-3 of East Coast Road begins

Work on the third phase of the East Coast Road, linking coastal districts from Chennai to Kanyakumari, has started, according to an official of the Tamil Nadu Road Development Project.

He told reporters at Ramanathapuram that the third phase, costing Rs 143 crore, would link Kattumavadi in Pudukottai district and Ramanathapuram, stretching to 100 km.

The work was expected to be completed in 36 months.

The width of the road would be seven metres, with 1.5-metre-wide solder roads on both sides. The work would involve construction of five bridges and 100 culverts.

The work is part of the Rs 2,150 crore East Coast Road project, aided by the World Bank, the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.

Sethu project would develop TN cost

With the Union Cabinet clearing the Rs 2427.40 crore Sethusamudram Project, a long cherished dream of the people of Tamil Nadu would come true.

The project would speed up industrialisation of the backward southern districts of the State.

http://209.235.239.210/colnews/newsitem.asp?NewsID={CE292FF7-94C8-47D9-A9EC-6918B1243A83}&CategoryName=CHN

Work apace on Nagapattinam-Tuticorin road

Work on the Tamil Nadu Road Sector Project-Package II is in progress in the coastal areas of Thanjavur district.

The World Bank-funded project to lay a coastal road connecting Nagapattinam to Tuticorin will prove a boon to the Nagapattinam, Tiruvarur and Thanjavur districts by providing a world-class road that will spur tourism and also provide connectivity

http://www.hindu.com/2005/05/20/stories/2005052004220400.htm

A surge in recruitment

Vani Doraisamy

"Tamil Nadu wins hands down in terms of quantity and quality of manpower"

http://www.hindu.com/2005/05/31/stories/2005053105190100.htm

Tamil Nadu found suitable for mega industrial estates for petrochemicals

http://www.hindu.com/2005/06/01/stories/2005060104110600.htm

Tamil Nadu getting real on realty

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=92956

`IT, auto sectors in TN ooze confidence'

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/06/10/stories/2005061001481700.htm

DMK wants automotive testing centre to be set up in TN

CHENNAI: The DMK president, M Karunanidhi, on Sunday requested the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, to ask the ministry of heavy industries and public enterprises to set up its proposed National Automotive Testing and Research and Development Centre in Tamil Nadu.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Karunanidhi said a joint government-industry team constituted by the ministry had inspected various locations in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka to assess the suitability of the location for setting up the centre and had submitted its report.

Tamil Nadu housed many automobile majors like Ashok Leyland, Hyundai, Tvs Motors, Ford and Madras Motors, he said and requested the Prime Minister to set up the centre in the state.

He said the ministry had taken an initiative to set up three such centres-one each in South, North and West-to make the country's automotive industry competitive in the global market.

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IET20050612064234&Page=T&Title=Southern+News+%2D+Tamil+Nadu&Topic=0

^^ i think central govt has decided to set up automotive testing center in Chennai and karunanidhi might have got the news and now he writies to PM and publicises his letter just to get the credit once the project is announced officially.
----------------------------------------------
Sethusamudram project `holds key to development of southern districts'

In the report, `Industrialisation of southern districts-The unexplored opportunity,' the CII has drawn up a model, `Southern Prosperity Through Enhanced Economic Development (SPEED)', which will propel the region into a higher trajectory along with Chennai and Coimbatore.

The report envisages the development of Madurai as a manufacturing hub and Tuticorin as service hub. In between, a `knowledge corridor' is to be formed linking Madurai, Virudhunagar and Tirunelveli districts, and a `tourism corridor' connecting Madurai, Ramanathapuram and Kanyakumari districts

hi, does any one have photos of recent development from southern tamil nadu particularly ramanathapuram district since my family comes from there.

^^^ Not too sure abt South TN :dunno:. Maybe you should search thru the older threads.

DMK wants automotive testing centre to be set up in TN

CHENNAI: The DMK president, M Karunanidhi, on Sunday requested the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, to ask the ministry of heavy industries and public enterprises to set up its proposed National Automotive Testing and Research and Development Centre in Tamil Nadu.

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IET20050612064234&Page=T&Title=Southern+News+%2D+Tamil+Nadu&Topic=0

^^ i think central govt has decided to set up automotive testing center in Chennai and karunanidhi might have got the news and now he writies to PM and publicises his letter just to get the credit once the project is announced officially.



I wrote first to PM on auto testing facility, says Jaya
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IET20050614120054&Page=T&Title=Southern+News+-+Tamil+Nadu&Topic=0

Look at the competition between the arch rivals to get the credit...

I wrote first to PM on auto testing facility, says Jaya
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IET20050614120054&Page=T&Title=Southern+News+-+Tamil+Nadu&Topic=0

Look at the competition between the arch rivals to get the credit...

Elections, determined CM, some good Ministers, better infrastructure, etc. may see number of projects going TN's way. Ultimately the state stands to gain.

World Bank cautions TN on reversal of reforms

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/06/17/stories/2005061701461700.htm

Elections, determined CM, some good Ministers, better infrastructure, etc. may see number of projects going TN's way. Ultimately the state stands to gain.


Exactly. I wish there more JJs and CBNs in our country. The only bad thing is the public. They vote out people who do good for them. Just look at CBN :ohno:. MuKa will bring some stupid point and will get votes :bash: :bash:. I hope that does not happen.

Centre to invest Rs 600 cr on Salem steel

The Centre will invest Rs 600 crore on modernising the Salem steel plant in Tamil Nadu, Union Minister for Steel, Fertilisers and Chemicals, Ram Vilas Paswan has said.

"We are going to invest Rs 600 crore on the blast furnace of the plant as part of the modernisation programme,' he said while speaking to newsmen .

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1146132.cms

Electricity Board clears 15 biomass-based power projects

"Tamil Nadu leads the nation in the entire spectrum of renewable energy projects"

Mr. Kymal said the estimated wind energy potential was 45,000 MW of which India harnessed 3,600 MW. With a capacity addition of 1,100 MW, India recorded the highest addition of generation from wind in a single year. This helped India edge past Denmark to take the fourth position globally.

http://www.hindu.com/2005/06/24/stories/2005062413700800.htm

Does anybody have access to India Today web edition. They have published a nice article about TN in this week's edition.

India Today (http://www.indiatoday.com/itoday/index.html)

Tamil Nadu government to implement IT in its agricultural department

In what could be seen as an initiative to take IT to the grass-root level, Tamil Nadu will probably be creating a history of sorts by implementing IT in a big way in the agriculture department

http://www.ciol.com/content/news/2005/105062305.asp

Does anybody have access to India Today web edition. They have published a nice article about TN in this week's edition.

India Today (http://www.indiatoday.com/itoday/index.html)

Do u ve the subscription,if so please could u post the article here

yeah this the website for india today
http://www.indiatoday.com/itoday/index.html

yeah this the website for india today
http://www.indiatoday.com/itoday/index.html

Thanks, we know the web address already, but since its a paid site we asked someone who has already subscribed to post the article here in this thread ( i donno whether its leagal to do so).

^^^ Well earlier I did have access to it, but now my subscription has expired and I didn't renew it :(. Earlier I posted a couple of articles in it.

http://img84.echo.cx/img84/6149/chart198gh.gif (http://www.imageshack.us)


http://img186.echo.cx/img186/8643/chart19a0su.gif (http://www.imageshack.us)

Volvo bags bus order in B'lore (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1153580.cms)

Some pics of how these buses will look (I think these pics are from service in Finland...but same chassis and body):

http://www.saunalahti.fi/~rvleino/kuvat/040828/ss_43.jpg

http://www.saunalahti.fi/~rvleino/kuvat/0411/ss_44.jpg

http://www.saunalahti.fi/~rvleino/kuvat/040811/ss_42.jpg

Manmohan Singh will become very popular in TN, look at his speech today in madurai...very different politician.


MADURAI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday launched the prestigious Rs 2,427 crore Sethusamudram Shipping Channel Project (SSCP) and urged the project authorities to be mindful and respectful of nature and the maritime environment of the channel.

Addressing the gala inaugural ceremony, Singh said he was confident that the project authorities would address all environmental issues. “We will make all efforts to preserve our natural heritage while implementing this project so that everyone's livelihood is protected”, he said.

“We will also protect the livelihoods of fishermen”, he added.

The Prime Minister's remark about environmental issues assumes significance in the backdrop of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s boycott of the function, alleging the centre had given the go by to all environmental issues with regard to the project.

“I am delighted to be here today to launch the commencement of work on the SSCP, which has been the dream of the people of this region for over a 100 years”, Singh said.

“It is also the fulfilment of a sacred assurance we gave the people of our country, especially the people of Tamil Nadu, through the National Common Minimum Programme”.

Stating that the SSCP was one of the most ambitious projects to be ever conceived in the Indian Port sector, Dr Singh said on Saturday was a historic day for the country and the people of Tamil Nadu.

“The Sethusamudram project, first conceived in 1860, almost one and a half centuries ago, is now being implemented. Getting this project begun has been the goal of many leaders”, he said and congratulated DMK president M Karunanidhi, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Union Shipping Minister T R Baalu and engineers and officials associated with the project for their role in realising this dream.

The SSCP would reduce travel time between the east and west coasts of India and would be particularly beneficial to small fishermen.

“It would lead to the all round development of coastal areas of Tamil Nadu and the Coromandel coast. It will rejuvenate ports and harbours, reduce the cost of maritime transport and promote the movement of cargo along the coast”, he said and hoped that the people of this region, in a few years time, would see their lives transformed for the better by this project.

Singh said Indian Port cities were bustling centres of trade and commerce and the people of Tamil Nadu had been leaders in this. “The Pallava kings had a great maritime tradition and reached far off lands. Later the Cholas and Pandyas also promoted trade and contacts with the rest of the world. Even today we find large Tamil merchant communities in many countries around the Indian ocean.”

“Today as India once again becomes a major trading nation and as its sea links with neighbouring countries are revived, we foresee a burst of activity in our ports. In this adventure of enterprise and creativity, the Sethusamudram project is an important milestone.”

Singh hoped that the project would encourage a revival of India's great and glorious maritime tradition.

Observing that all great nations and economies of the world have had a vibrant and prosperous maritime economy, the Prime Minister said shipbuilding, ports and global trade were linked and generated employment, new opportunities and new challenges.

Port and shipping development were extremely important for the development of India, he said and added that the coastal regions had a fantastic opportunity to capitalise on their location and become centres of trade and commerce once again.

Stating that the country's maritime economy and shipping had not developed as much as it should have in the recent past, the Prime Minister said the government was paying special attention to the development of ports and maritime trade.

“The introduction of tonnage tax by the government has been extremely popular”, he added.

Expressing the hope that this project would benefit not only India but also its neighbours, Singh said, “All of us have a common and shared destiny. Their prosperity is our prosperity, their welfare is our welfare”.

“This channel will be a bridge with our neighbours.”

The Prime Minister said Tamil Nadu and the people of this region had not only been an integral part of India's great maritime history, but also the country's cultural ambassadors in the region.

Tamil literature was full of references to trade with Rome, Greece and other countries, he pointed out. The great Tamil kings, the Cheras, Cholas and Pandyas had carefully nurtured the port cities of Korkai, Musiri, Thondi, Poompuhar and Vaanchi, he said and added that the great expeditions taken from these Port cities had spread Indian culture far and wide.

“They have taken Tamil language, an ancient and classical language along with Sanskrit, to distant lands”, he said.

Saluting the people of Tamil Nadu, Singh said the UPA government had restored Tamil to its ancient glory by recognising it as a classical language of great antiquity on par with Sanskrit.

“We are committed to the full development of this great language of a great people”, he said.

http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IET20050702082645&Title=Southern+News+%2D+Tamil+Nadu&Topic=0&

''Made in Tamil Nadu''

A world class Automobile Testing Facility (ATF) will be set up near Chennai, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced on Saturday.

This would be a major project that would attract huge investments both directly and indirectly, he said after laying the foundation stone for the prestigious Sethusamudhram Shipping Channel Project.


''It will give a boost to Tamil Nadu's already developed automotive sector. Let Tamil Nadu be a rival to Detroit in the future,'' Dr Singh said.

He said Tamil Nadu had been at the forefront of national development. ''Your state is one of the most industrially developed states. To give further boost to the industrialisation of Tamil Nadu, our government has taken several steps to boost textiles, leather, sugar and automobiles industries. I am happy to announce that we have decided to help in creating a world class automobile testing facility near Chennai''.

According to a vision document prepared by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Tamil Nadu would emerge among the top three destinations of choice in Asia for the manufacture of automobiles and automotive components by 2015.

The output of the state's automotive sector would be USD 18 billion by 2015, contributed by components, fully built vehicles and engineering services provided to both domestic and global markets. Such growth would provide employment to six lakh people additionally. To realise the vision, the document said the substantive role of the state government would be three-fold. It included creating world class infrastructure that facilitated logistics and enabled cost competitiveness.

It had sought key policy initiatives from the state government towards fostering vision 2015 for the automotive sector, such as declaring the automotive industry a thrust sector, reinforcing the ''Made in Tamil Nadu'' brand and establishing it globally. In addition, product development capabilities for automotive industries had to be facilitated by establishing world-class testing facilities, preferably by way of government-industry collaborations.

Elaborating on the testing facilities, the document highlighted that the objective was to provide impetus to product development capabilities, and thereby manufacturing in the state, by creating state-of-the-art testing facilities.

The global trend in the automotive sector was that component manufacturers carried out a large proportion of product development activities.

Many leading Indian auto component makers would have the potential to transform themselves from being mere component manufacturers to suppliers with capability to design, test, validate and manufacture components and vehicle systems, it noted.

The present small-scale of operations of Indian auto companies implied that most of them could not afford huge investments in testing facilities, which would impede product development capabilities. To enhance this in Tamil Nadu, the state must play an active role in setting up testing facilities, which the industry could use effectively.

The Centre had realised the need for setting up state-of-the-art test facilities for the automotive industry. The Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises was planning to establish world class testing facilities, including a test track, one in North India and another in South India, the document said.

Against this backdrop, it said the state should offer to provide land at cheap or nil cost for setting up the test centre, to share a part of the cost, besides offering utilities at concessional rates for the centre. The state might consider sharing a reasonable part of the test centre cost in Tamil Nadu, keeping in mind the importance of the centre to the development of industry in the State.

www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/jul22005/update14423200572.asp

Rs 1,650-crore TN project gets World Bank nod

The WB noted that the Indian Government viewed Tamil Nadu’s urban development projects as a ‘‘way to bring to fruition a model that could be replicated in other states as they reach Tamil Nadu’s level of urbanisation and reforms’’


http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IET20050706103744&Title=Southern+News+%2D+Tamil+Nadu&Topic=0&

It was nice of Mr. Manmohan Singh to speak so highly (and accurately) of Tamil history and culture.

Here is another astounding facet of Tamil history and culture worth publicizing:

The historic Tamil region in South India, which includes present day Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Southern Karnataka and Southern AP, has not experienced any major violent conflicts in the last 250 years, if not more. By major conflicts, I am referring to episodes of wars, insurgencies, and large-scale religious/ethnic violence. One exception is Eelam region in Sri Lanka - Hopefully, peace there will endure.

The Tamil region has on the other hand experienced nearly 200 years of British rule of law followed by another 60 years of independent Indian liberal democracy. It even went through two major socio-political revolutions largely peacefully – The Indian Independence movement and the Dravidian revolution leading to social-political reform. No major region in the world can make such a grand claim.

Back to the present:

· Tamil Nadu urbanization rate has gone up to 47% currently, from 43% in 2001. It is nearing the milestone, when the state will be more urban than rural – The first for a major state in India. This indicates rapid industrialization and a transition to a more modern economic structure and even more rapid growth ahead

· Tamil Nadu is currently experiencing an economic growth rate of 8 to 10% and is back on the high growth trajectory of the 90s (after slowing down in early 2000s)

· The Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) – This has major implication with respect to fertility rates, life expectancy, and child health - in TN has fallen dramatically from 50/1000 in year 2000 (already 3rd lowest in India) to 30/1000

· The proportion of rural communities with sanitation coverage (toilet facilities) has gone from 15% to 43% since 2000

· Child labor rates have fallen dramatically (to at least about 10% of the rates 10 years ago) and the State Government hopes to make the state “Child Labor Free” by year 2007

These are some statistics I gathered from official reports. If they are accurate, they seem to indicate that dramatic transformations are gathering steam in TN. What do you guys think? What is the reality on the ground, in TN?

South India apparel exports poised for growth

"Tamil Nadu is in the best position to grow rapidly as it has ideal conditions such as major ports, industrial towns and cities, and several textile and weaving production centres. Leading national and international apparel brands are opening buying offices, manufacturing facilities and marketing/trading depots in the south," it said.

http://www.hindu.com/2005/07/09/stories/2005070902771700.htm

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/1194/thiru6mx.gif (http://www.imageshack.us)

A three day international conference on Thirukkural, a 2000 year old literary and ethical treatise of Tamils starts on 8 July Friday at Smith Auditorium, Howard Community College, Columbia Maryland in USA. Professor George Hart, a well known Tamil scholar who holds the position of The Tamil Chair at the University of California Berkeley, will be one of the keynote speakers, organizers said. State of Maryland has issued a proclamation declaring 8-10 July as a "Thirukkural Conference Week."
Thirukkural, a secular work that has gained widespread acceptance as the Gospel of the Tamils, has been translated to several languages.

The Maryland conference is being sponsored by expatriate Tamil organizations in the U.S. and the proceedings will be in English and in Tamil, organizers said.

Several Tamil scholars from South India are expected to address the conference.

The objectives of the conference are, "to understand how Thirukkural can be a guide to humanity, to create and promote awareness of Thirukkural in USA among Americans and the youth of Indian origin and to compare Thiruvalluvar with other philosophers of the world," the conference leaflet said.

The real name of the author of Thirukkural is not known as with many ancient Tamil classics. Thirukkural is attributed to Thiruvalluvar as Tholkappiyam is attributed to Tholkappiyar. The prefix Thiru, means 'sacred' and the word 'Kural' means a 'pithy couplet'.

The 1330 couplets of Thirukkural are divided into 133 chapters of 10 couplets each and grouped into three sections, Ahathuppal or Justice, which contains lessons on dharma and morals, Porutpal or material aspects, which contains teachings on man's duties and guildance to the right way to lead one's material life, and Inbathuppal or section on love, which teaches about love.

Though Thirukkural was written nearly two millennia ago, it is understandable to modern speakers of the Tamil language.

The language, which existed in the South India and Sri Lanka, before Sanskrit was spread throughout North India, is said to be the oldest and the least subjected to Sanskrit influence among the languages in the Dravidian language family.

Tamil, after almost 120 years of lobbying by Tamil scholars and political leaders in Tamil Nadu, was declared Classical language of India by the Government of India in September 2004.

Tamil is an official language in the state of Tamil Nadu in India, Sri Lanka and Singapore, and one of the national language of India,srilanka,singapore,malaysia, mauritius and fiji

CM earmarks Rs 920 cr for road works

Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today allocated Rs 920 crore towards improving all roads in the State and directed the authorities to expedite the work. She had already announced that State highways, major district roads, other districts roads, panchayat and panchayat union roads would be improved and strengthened at a cost of Rs 1050 crore this financial year.

In the first phase, she had approved separate projects for improving 563.86 km of highway at Rs 100 crore, strengthening of 63.56 km major district roads (Rs 100 crore) and reconstruction of 52 bridges (Rs 30 crore).

Now, in the second phase of the Comprehensive Road Infrastructure Development Programme, the Chief Minister gave the nod to improve about 1420 km of highways at a cost of Rs 300 crore.

Similarly, 1676 km of major district roads would developed at Rs 300 crore while Rs 220 crore would be spent on 3597 km stretch of other district roads.

Further, the panchayat and panchayat union roads would be strengthened at Rs 100 crore, an official release here said.

The State Highways Department maintains 61,289 km of roads and the present government has been giving priority to ensure safe roads which in turn would facilitate faster movement of vehicles and goods.

During the last four years alone, 33,156 km of roads had been improved, the release added.

http://newstodaynet.com/10jul/ld1.htm

Tamil Nadu – A Vision Of the Future

Tamil Nadu should take a leaf from its own history and look east towards its coast, the Indian Ocean and our neighboring shores in South East/East Asia for economic development, business and cultural links.

This vision has already been already been articulated by some senior leaders in the State like KK and JJ.

Some points to consider:

· Chennai can become The Gateway to the Indian Ocean and to Southeast Asia

· The Pacific region and East Asia is where the future is brightest, while West Asia and greater Middle East is where the future looks the bleakest

· Oceans are the last frontier on the planet and their resources the least developed expect for fishing. Even in fishing the Indian ocean is the least fished of all the Oceans

· We know more about and can more easily access the surfaces of the Moon and Mars than the Ocean floor due to the extreme pressures

· The large difference in temperature between the surface of the ocean and its depths and the enormous pressures and cold temperatures at the depths can be conceptually used to generate cheap, abundant, clean electricity, desalinate water cheaper than piping water and air-condition entire cities cheaply

· The sea floor deposits of metallic nodules could be mined for many strategic and precious metals

· All the Oil and gas deposits under the sea floor have yet to be discovered

· Carbon sequestration (a solution to energy crisis, reduce Co2 emissions and global warming) and Nuclear waste sequestration (another solution to the energy crisis, pollution and global warming) and geological long term safe storage is most promising under the ocean floor and in under-sea tectonic subduction zones

Tamil Nadu is positioned right next to Indian Ocean which is one of the least “tamed” of the oceans – as it has only unpopulated Antarctica to the south and no major powers on its periphery – the largest power is India, which itself is a developing nation

We certainly do not need and cannot afford any of the bloody fanaticism that comes from the North and the North West

Historically, the most advanced cities and regions that controlled trade and commerce and that were the centers of innovation, education and culture were in river valleys or on the coast. Today the great cites that are the centers of trade and engines of globalization, innovation and culture are mostly coastal. Some examples: NYC, LA, San Francisco, London, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Shanghai, Sao Paulo, Hong Kong, Singapore etc.

I am confident that Chennai will join the above list in the next 15 to 20 years.

Reference: Geography as Destiny, by Jeffery Sachs, Columbia University.

http://mrbschalkboard.com/pdf%20documents/international%20relations%20pdf%20files/prisoners%20of%20geography.pdf

Another example in our own region, that of our brothers in Kerala:

Almost all of Kerala lives along a narrow and long 60-100 km band along the coast, bounded by the Western Ghats in the east. This geographical feature has enabled the great Kerala history of maritime trade and contacts with the outside world, which has made the Malayalees as a people most open to new ideas and influences from the outside world in South Asia. Hence we find a large Muslim and Christian population and also the practitioners of the other imported “religion” Marxism coexisting harmoniously. Although, the Marxism is a uniquely Malayalee version - not the brutal Russian version - adapted to major success, at least in the social sphere. Actually, Kerala now needs to move away from Marxism a bit now that it is sort of outdated.

It is also not surprising that Kerala today is the most educated and globalized State in India. Almost 10% of its population works abroad!

Interestingly, TN is the latest leader in sending the maximum number of workers abroad. It sent over 100,000 workers in 2004-05 compared to Kerala’s 65,000 or so. This is a very good development as apart from the income and opportunities generated, it also helps in the rapid globalization of the State.

Also, interestingly, TN is of late slowly turning towards its coast. Not least because of the Tsunami. Apart from booming coastal Chennai we have many new developments:
· Sethu Samudram
· East Coast Highway
· Sea-water Desalination plants
· Coastal Nuclear power plants (Koodankulam and Kalpakkam)
· Coastal Wind Power Plants (Ramanathapuram and Kanyakumari)
· Coastal Petro-Chemical complexes (Ennore and Cuddalore)
· Ports 3 major and 13 minor
· Coastal tourism

And lastly and sadly,

· Tsunami reconstruction, over a billion dollars US is to be spent in the reconstruction. It will in the end be an economic boost to the coastal communities.

Nirm - Good series of articles. I have always felt that the Chennai and Ennore ports are an asset the state has not fully exploited. It gives Chennai and its surroundings such an edge over rival cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad, epsecially for manufacturing related activity - you would expect Chennai to bag just about every auto/tech and other mafufacturing related project. The fact that they have to fight for them is a reflection (TN does OK but they should be cleaning up) of the pathetic short sighted policies of both the Dravidian parties who spend more time at each others throats than thinking ahead. That TN has done well despite this is credit to its progressive people and the inherent infrastructure advantage.

Recently you had posted that the state had grown at near 10% rates since 2001 - any sources for the same? I never quite understood why the growth crashed in 2000-2001 period, I suspect its a data issue?

Historically, the most advanced cities and regions that controlled trade and commerce and that were the centers of innovation, education and culture were in river valleys or on the coast. Today the great cites that are the centers of trade and engines of globalization, innovation and culture are mostly coastal. Some examples: NYC, LA, San Francisco, London, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Shanghai, Sao Paulo, Hong Kong, Singapore etc.

I
Also, interestingly, TN is of late slowly turning towards its coast. Not least because of the Tsunami. Apart from booming coastal Chennai we have many new developments:
· Sethu Samudram
· East Coast Highway
· Sea-water Desalination plants
· Coastal Nuclear power plants (Koodankulam and Kalpakkam)
· Coastal Wind Power Plants (Ramanathapuram and Kanyakumari)
· Coastal Petro-Chemical complexes (Ennore and Cuddalore)
· Ports 3 major and 13 minor
· Coastal tourism

And lastly and sadly,

· Tsunami reconstruction, over a billion dollars US is to be spent in the reconstruction. It will in the end be an economic boost to the coastal communities.

The fact that they have to fight for them is a reflection (TN does OK but they should be cleaning up) of the pathetic short sighted policies of both the Dravidian parties who spend more time at each others throats than thinking ahead.

The next generation of politicans should be much better than the present lot. We can already see some ministers willing to cut across political differences (PC, Baalu, Maran, etc). We should be able to see rapid development of the state.

I dont have enough information to compare the quality of governance in the 4 southern states, but it seems to me that Tamil Nadu politics is on the better side, although like everything else in India it is all relative. However, what is clear is that the “Cow Belt” politicians are a bigger problem for Tamil Nadu, because of their influence on national economic policy through the Central Government. These are politicians the citizens in TN do not have any political control over.

One good example the railways: The Indian Railways is a joke. The railways are used as a vote getting political instrument by semi-literate and semi-criminal politicians from the Cow Belt.

Just imagine a southern regional railway system (say, Southern Railways) in the control of the TN State government, even without the 1000s of reforms the railways system needs – which the State government would have implemented faster - I bet it would be run a whole lot more efficiently and would have expanded the infrastructure much faster.

Urgently needed improvements are sacrificed in place of adding more unfirable public sector employees and introducing “free” village trains along uneconomical routes

What the railways in TN needs is investment in infrastructure like
· Uni-Gauge
· Track doubling
· Route electrification
· Newer coaches and locos (with improved toilets)
· Computerized signaling
· Inter-Modal transport
· Sub-urban and Metro rail
· Station amenities

The center has held back Tamil Nadu for decades. Just look at the faster transformation in the last 15 years after just partial reforms and partial relaxation of central control. Now they are worried about states like TN bolting off right out of the door because of widening disparity – Whether this is good news or bad news depends on which side of the disparity you are located at.

If you are from the South, you would probably say, like I: Give me more disparity, please!

TN along with few other states have almost got rid off from the biased policies of central govt, and these potential states are growing faster after 1992, thanks to the reforms by narasimha rao govt.

Given below is a list of projects for TN. Please post your suggestions, comments, project updates, etc, so that this list can be kept current.

Updated: November 7, 2005

IT/Telecom/Bio:
CDOT Alcatel Broadband Wireless Research Center, Chennai -- Inaugurated on Sep 9, 2005
International Tech Park, Chennai (phase 1) -- Inaugurated on Sep 14, 2005
Cisco Network Lab -- Planned
Ericsson R&D center -- Planned
International Tech Park, Chennai (phase 2) -- U/C
International Tech Park, Chennai (phase 3) -- Planned
SIPCOT 1000 acre township, Siruseri -- U/C
500 acre 2nd IT Park, Siruseri -- Planned
Lee Kim Tah Holdings integrated township at Siruseri (phase 1) -- U/C
Govt. IT Park, Coimbatore -- Planned
Govt. IT Park, Hosur -- Proposed
Nokia hand sets and base station controllers mfg. plant -- U/C
Nokia's Network Operating Centre -- Planned (Chennai is a possible location)
Infosys dev. center, Mahindra Park (phase 1) -- U/C
Infosys dev. center (phases 2 and 3) -- Planned
Wipro dev. center, IT corridor -- U/C
TCS dev. center, Siruseri -- U/C
Satyam dev. center -- U/C
Syntel campus style facility, Siruseri (phases 1 and 2) -- Planned
Flextronics mfg. facility -- Coming up at Sriperumbudur, MoU signed
Solectron mfg. facility -- Chennai and Bangalore have been shortlisted
UT Starcom mfg. facility -- Chennai and Bangalore have been shortlisted
Bio-IT Park -- Proposed at Chennai
BSNL's India - Sri Lanka Submarine cable project -- Landing Station at Tuticorin (Pact signed)
Ascendas 1 million sq ft IT park in Mahindra City -- Proposed
Unitech acquired 90 acres at Pallavaram for building a software park
South India's largest township at Chennai by Runwal group -- Planned
Hiranandani group has acquired 100 acres of land at Navalur to develop a residential township with some commercial facilities
Sahara City Homes -- Planned
Other IT parks (22 million sq. ft under construction)
http://www.elcot.com/realestate/upto-sholing.pdf
http://www.elcot.com/realestate/beyond-sholing.pdf
http://www.elcot.com/realestate/guindy.pdf
http://www.elcot.com/realestate/ambattur.pdf
http://www.elcot.com/realestate/other_areas.pdf

Roads/Highways:
Grade separators at Kathipara, Padi, Koyambedu -- U/C
Trisulam flyover -- U/C
IT expressway (phase 1) -- U/C
IT expressway (phase 2) -- Approved
13 km elevated expressway from Chennai port to Maduravoyal -- Planned
Flyovers at Padi, Vyasarpadi, Vadapalani, Halda Jn, Mulakadai, Thirumangalam-Anna Nagar Jn -- Proposed
Ennore Expressway -- U/C
TNUDP (Upgradation of GST, IRR, GNT, Poonamallee - Avadi road) -- U/C
TNUDP (3 km flyover from Eldams road - CIT Nagar 1 main road) -- Planned
TNUDP (Flyover from General Patters road Jn. to Spencers Jn.) -- Planned
TNUDP (Flyover from Pulla Reddy Avenue Jn. to Anna Arch) -- Planned
TNUDP (several other ROB, RUB, pedestrian subways) -- Planned
Multi-level parking lot -- Bids inivited for T Nagar location
Several other road projects are being carried out by the NHAI and the state govt.

Railways:
MRTS upto Velachery (phase 2) -- U/C
MRTS Velachery to St. Thomas Mount (phase 3) -- In-principle Approval
MRTS Velachery from St. Thomas Mount (phase 4) -- Planned
Rail line from Chennai to Mahabalipuram -- Planned
Chennai Metro Rail (phase 1, 2 lines) -- DPR being prepared
Chennai Metro Rail (phase 2, 3rd line) -- Planned
Egmore - Central elevated link -- Approved
Pondy - Villupuram electrification -- U/C
Madurai - Dindigul line doubling -- Approved
Chengalpattu - Villupuram (Existing MG to BG conversion) -- Proposed
Villupuram - Trichy (BG electrification) -- Proposed
Chennai Central second terminal -- Proposed

Water:
Chennai desalination plant -- Approved. 100 MLD plant coming up at Minjur, Northern suburb of Chennai
Second desalination plant in southern Chennai -- Proposed

Shipping/Ports:
SethuSamudram -- U/C
Development of 13 minor ports -- Planned
Chennai port 2nd box terminal -- Planned
National Maritime Complex, Chennai -- Proposed

Aviation:
New international airport for Chennai -- Planned
Upgradation of airports at Trichy, Madurai and Coimbatore -- U/C
Aviation University, Madurai -- Proposed

Gas/Electricity:
2000 MW Koodankulam nuclear power plant, Tirunelveli district -- U/C
LNG terminal at Ennore -- Planned
1000 MW coal-fired project, Ennore -- Planned
Nagarjuna Oil refinery plant, Cuddalore -- Approved
Chennai - Madurai oil pipeline -- Commissioned
Chennai airport - Manali pipeline -- Planned
Bangalore - Chennai pipeline -- Proposed

Auto Industry:
Hyundai's 2nd manufacturing plant, Irungaatukotai -- U/C (To be ready by September 2007)
Hyundai's car design facility -- U/C
Auto Testing Facility, Oragadam Industrial Estate, Sriperumbudur -- Construction to begin soon
BMW Assembly plant, Mahindra City, 40 Km from Chennai -- Approved
F-1 racing circuit -- Proposed
Vehicle test track by Madras Motors sports club -- Planned
Mahindra & Mahindra's Test and R&D Facility -- Chennai and Pune have been shortlisted
Toyota Kirloskar -- Haryana, Karnataka and TN are being considered
VW -- VW is in talks with several state govts. TN is one of them.
Hero Honda's 3rd manufactuing plant -- Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Karnataka are being considered
GM small car project -- TN and MH being considered
Auto ancillary cluster, Chennai -- U/C
Sundaram Brake Linings (TVS Group) -- New unit Planned at Mahindra City
Ennore Foundries -- New unit Planned

Leather:
Footwear Park, Chennai -- Planned
Shoe component park, Irungaatukotai -- U/C
Leather cluster, Ambur -- Planned
A Taiwanese Footwear Company (name unknown) has planned a footwear company in Chennai

Hospitality/Leisure/Entertainment:
Sathyam IMAX, Chennai -- U/C (2006), Planned (2008)
Sathyam IMAX -- 2 other theatres have also been planned (location unknown)
City Centre Mall, Chennai -- U/C
Ampa Centre One Mall, Chennai -- U/C (Expected to open Sep '06)
Mall on Nungambakkam high road -- Planned
Leela group 5 star hotel, Chennai -- U/C (Expected to open 2008 end)
Empee group 5 star hotel, Guindy, Chennai -- Construction to start soon. To be ready by July 2007
ITC's 7 Star Luxury Hotel -- Proposed

Others:
Saint Gobain's 2nd Float Glass Plant -- U/C (To be opened in November '05)
Tata Ryerson Plate Processing Unit -- Chennai and Bangalore have been shortlisted
Cereals, pulses and staples milling cluster, Madurai -- U/C
Pump, motor, foundry and allied industries cluster, Coimbatore -- Approved
Coir and allied products cluster, Krishnagiri -- Planned
Mango pulp cluster, Krishnagiri -- Planned
Printing cluster, Sivakasi -- Planned
Pharmaceutical cluster, Chennai -- Planned
Hosiery cluster, Tirupur -- U/C
Carborundum's Abrasives plant, Sriperumbudur -- Planned
Rubber Park, Nagercoil -- Approved

Chennaiforever, great job.

Thanks and i appreciate ur enthusiasm.
---------------------------------

Hyndai's car design facility has been confirmed

Nagarjuna Oil Corporation Ltd is likely to set up a Rs 2850 crore oil refinery plant at Cuddalore.

Automobile Testing Facility is to be promoted for the Formula-1 circuit,
if Kalamadi becomes sports minister then its disadvanatge for Chennai.

^^ No problem man. You've done an amazing job in keeping this forum alive. Please help in making this list current.

The State Government accordingly has sent the following proposals under the INDUSTRIAL INFRASTRUCTURE UPGRADATION SCHEME to Government of India.

1. Auto Ancillary Cluster, Chennai.

2. Hosiery Cluster, Tirupur.

3. Cereals, Pulses and Staples Milling Cluster, Madurai.

4. Pump, Motor, Foundry and Allied Industries Cluster, Coimbatore.

5. Coir and Allied Products Cluster, Krishnagiri.

6. Mango Pulp Cluster, Krishnagiri.

7. Leather Cluster, Ambur.

8. Printing Cluster, Sivakasi.

9. Pharmaceutical Cluster, Chennai.



Under this scheme, the following three projects have been approved by Government of India and are under Implementation

1. Auto Ancillary Cluster, Chennai.

2. Hosiery Cluster, Tirupur.

3. Cereals, Pulses and Staples Milling Cluster, Madurai.

:applause:. Great job guys. From now on, I will also try to do my bit for this.

No doubt the southern states are better governed compared to the cow belt states - but is that the benchmark we want to compare them against? And I agree that PC, Maran, Baalu, Elangovan and Aiyar are really trying to make a difference.

Today, I would agree that TN is the best governed state in the south - now that Naidu and Krishna are no longer in power. Kerala's retarded domestic politics of constant infighting with an activist press and strong pro-left tendencies of the people means nothing will ever get done there. Kerala is a lost cause - there is just no hope beyond tourism and Gulf remittance.

But even now we see daily reports of the TN state govt. not co-operating on central projects e.g. Amma creating a stink regarding the Sethu Project, or the state not assisting in land acquisition for roadway projects, and going for its own desalination project and not taking up the center's offer of Rs. 1000 crore for the same. I believe both the parties need to share the blame here, but why should everything be a game of one-upmanship?




I dont have enough information to compare the quality of governance in the 4 southern states, but it seems to me that Tamil Nadu politics is on the better side, although like everything else in India it is all relative. However, what is clear is that the “Cow Belt” politicians are a bigger problem for Tamil Nadu, because of their influence on national economic policy through the Central Government. These are politicians the citizens in TN do not have any political control over.

If you are from the South, you would probably say, like I: Give me more disparity, please!

For those engineering types, this would be an interesting read:

http://www.nrel.gov/otec/applications.html

The technologies are not science fiction, they are all very practical, just have not been commercialized yet. Good business opportunities for any tech/business wizards out there!

Take for instance sea-water desalination: Once this was academic, the year 2005 was a milestone year, when gradual technical improvements in materials, design and control systems made Reverse Osmosis (RO) desalination using grid electricity economically viable and comparable with piping water from large distances (IF SOURCES ARE AVAILABLE!!). Hence we see what would be one of the the world's largest seawater desalination plant being built in in Chennai!


http://www.desalco.bm/d-pdfs/deepsea.pdf


With ocean energy and additionally using ocean depth pressure for RO (which works by using pressure to basically in multiple stages squeeze out fresher water through a osmotic membrane, leaving behind salt water) it would become cheaper than piping water.

Just got to do it and you don’t have to worry about the Cauvery or white elephant projects like linking rivers anymore!

I agree with sshank, land acquisition seems to be the greatest obstacle to infrastructure development in India.
Obviously politics is a problem.

One solution:

The situation is so urgent that they need to set up special independent courts to vacate all the land dispute cases and stays and/or process the arbitration of the disputes offline without delaying the projects at hand.

In the US, recently the Supreme Court passed a judgment saying that the local government can take over PRIVATE property, for re-development by OTHER PRIVATE parties as long as it serves the larger community. This was a controversial but sensible ruling, at least in the relatively corruption free US.

Anniyan, The list has been updated. Thanks. The Coimbatore cluster has also been approved.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/bline/2005/05/16/stories/2005051601281500.htm

Chennai_Forever,
Good Job!!
I am a new member here and its heartening to see so many projects in Tamilnadu. Hopefully atleast 60% of the proposed projects see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Isnt Volswagon already planned to set up in Vizag,AP despite the controversies. Lets keep the proposed projects in a separate list so as not to let our hopes too high.

Cheers,

VS007

Tirupur Water Supply Project

The 1,023-crore project is under construction and nearing completion.

Its is model PFI project by TN govt.

Projects by District - Tamilnadu

hope this will do, those who have time can do some research to find the status of these projects

http://www.projectstoday.com/preview-state/State30a.htm

Major Projects Under Implementation

Corporate Group / Company Project and Rs. in crores


Jayamkondam Lignite 7,500
Tamil Nadu Petroproducts Ltd. Petro Refinery 5,000
TIDCO Steel 3,500
National Aromatics & PTA 2,000
SPIC Polyester 1,900
Neyveli Lignite Lignite Mining Corporation Ltd. Expansion 1,874
Thapar Dupont Ltd. Nylon 1,600
Aban Lloyd Group Petroleum Refinery 1,340
Pennar Refineries Ltd. Petroleum Products 1,080
Sterlite Industries Copper Smelter 1,000
Tamil Nadu Newsprint Glazed Newspaper 525
American Truck and Tyres Ltd. 400

Destination of choice fund set up in TN

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government is setting up a destination of choice fund (DOCF) with a corpus of Rs 2 crore to attract investments on a larger scale in the Information Technology (IT), IT-Enabled Service (ITES) and business process outsourcing (BPO) sector into the State, and in particular Chennai.

While the government will contribute Rs one crore towards the setting up of the fund, the balance will be mobilised from the private sector by Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT), the nodal agency for the state’s IT initiative.

The State government will sanction Rs 25 lakh as initial investment in the fund, and further instalments of its contribution will be released after the contributions from the private sector have been tied up.

The fund will be managed by a DOCF Committee, which will include representatives of the government, private sector IT majors and educational institutions.

The DOCF will draw up action plan to promote and establish Tamil Nadu as destination of choice in consultation with leading media and advertising consultants and create a brand equity for the State.

It will also identify and take delegations on a public-private participation to select global destinations as part of the DOC initiatives, and also to promote such initiatives at important locations within the country.

One of the major initiatives in this regard is the proposal to showcase Chennai to the top Fortune 500 companies for IT investments. The CEOs and COOs of companies will be invited over to Chennai to gain first hand knowledge of the infrastructure and other facilities available.

It will explore new and emerging IT markets from the point of view of potential investments from Chennai and the secondary cities in the state.

The DOCF committee is likely to be constituted shortly.

excellent work CF!

the list looks well organised

Major Projects Under Implementation

Corporate Group / Company Project and Rs. in crores


Jayamkondam Lignite 7,500
Tamil Nadu Petroproducts Ltd. Petro Refinery 5,000
TIDCO Steel 3,500
National Aromatics & PTA 2,000
SPIC Polyester 1,900
Neyveli Lignite Lignite Mining Corporation Ltd. Expansion 1,874
Thapar Dupont Ltd. Nylon 1,600
Aban Lloyd Group Petroleum Refinery 1,340
Pennar Refineries Ltd. Petroleum Products 1,080
Sterlite Industries Copper Smelter 1,000
Tamil Nadu Newsprint Glazed Newspaper 525
American Truck and Tyres Ltd. 400


Do you know the status of any of these? I'll try to keep the list updated as often as possible.

Chennai_Forever,
Good Job!!
I am a new member here and its heartening to see so many projects in Tamilnadu. Hopefully atleast 60% of the proposed projects see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Isnt Volswagon already planned to set up in Vizag,AP despite the controversies. Lets keep the proposed projects in a separate list so as not to let our hopes too high.

Cheers,

VS007

Welcome VS! I think we have a very good chance of seeing many projects being implemented. Let's keep our hopes high :)

TVS group plans unit in Mahindra city

Sundaram Brake Linings Ltd, a leading producer of friction material and part of the TVS Group, today said it was planning to establish a unit in Mahindra World City, a special economic zone located about 40 km from Chennai, and was hoping to be a supplier to the Railways department in the near future

http://www.chennaionline.com/colnews/newsitem.asp?NEWSID=%7BBC97050E-7FA8-417C-A451-C259E3ECA4A2%7D&CATEGORYNAME=BIZ

VAT in Tamil Nadu next year

Industry and trade have come to accept the fact that Value Added Tax will not be implemented in Tamil Nadu this financial year.

With an influential section of traders opposing VAT and the financial implications not clear, the State Government has apparently decided to put it off.

http://www.hindu.com/2005/07/22/stories/2005072210410100.htm

Malaysia Airlines defers service in Tiruchi-Kuala Lumpur sector

The airlines planned to begin operations from Tiruchi this winter but has now postponed it to the summer schedule beginning March next, owing to uncertainty over completion of the runway expansion in time.

Qatar Airlines has joined the bandwagon and evinces interest in operating services to the Gulf from Tiruchi. Air India Express, the budget airline of the national carrier, too, is said to be exploring possibilities of introducing services possibly to a few destinations in the Gulf from Tiruchi.


http://www.hindu.com/2005/07/23/stories/2005072309710100.htm

Rubber Park in Tamil Nadu


The Union Government has given sanction for a rubber park in Kanniyakumari district of Tamil Nadu, a Rubber Board release said here today.

The park would promote rubber-based industries in the district and help entrepreneurs to produce quality products at a competitive price.


The Tamil Nadu Park is being set up at Nagercoil in an area of 110 acres at an estimated cost of Rs 14.5 crore. As it is near the Chembakaraman Puthur windmill farm, power will be easily available.

http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=8279

CM allots Rs 400 cr to upgrade urban roads

Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today announced a special scheme - the Tamilnadu Urban Local Bodies Road Development Project 2005 - to upgrade the mud and macademised roads in the six Corporations and Municipalities in the State at a cost of Rs 400.81 crore

http://newstodaynet.com/23jul/ld2.htm

Chennai-Madurai pipeline project nearing completion

"Economical, environmental-friendly and a safer mode of transporting petroleum products." This is how Indian Oil Corporation describes its Chennai-Tiruchi-Madurai pipeline project.

The Chennai-Madurai sector of the first ever petroleum pipeline project in Tamil Nadu is nearing completion and its commercial operation likely to begin by September.
http://www.hindu.com/2005/07/24/stories/2005072408520100.htm

Carborundum plans greenfield plant

Abrasives manufacturer Carborundum Universal proposes to put up a greenfield plant for manufacturing coated abrasives at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu, at an investment of Rs 46 crore

The investment is part of the Rs 78-crore capacity expansion programme for the year. The other Rs 32 crore will go for expanding the company's bonded abrasives unit in Hosur

http://sify.com/finance/fullstory.php?id=13902338

The good minister says that the state has 4212 KM of National Highways while NHAI website says 3800. Baalu should know being the MOS for Highways - so what are some of the new NH segments in TN? When was this announced?

Also, he says that 2918 KM of the above NH will be four laned - now this is a bigger mystery! I know the GQ segment and the NSEW segments together total about 1000 km, the Tambaram - Tiruchi- Madurai is another 500 km, where does the rest come from? Any one know?


http://www.hindu.com/2005/07/25/stories/2005072503640600.htm

Excerpts from the article:

TIRUNELVELI: Union Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways T.R. Baalu laid the foundation for the four-laning of the 38.86 km-long Kovilpatti-Virudhunagar Section of National Highways- 7 on the North-South Corridor at a function at Kovilpatti on Saturday evening.

The Rs. 219.05-crore contract, assigned to M/s. IVRCL Infrastructure and Projects Limited by the National Highways Authority of India would be completed in 30 months. The proposed road with a carriageway width of 7 metres, would have a median of 4.50 metre-width in rural areas while the separator in other areas would be 1.50 metre wide. Apart from two road over bridges and nine under passes, the stretch would have 12 minor bridges and four major overpasses.

Mr. Baalu said that of the 4,212 km-long National Highway in Tamil Nadu, a 2,918 km-long stretch was being converted into four-lane thoroughfare, employing 1,21,800 persons for three years.

Flash news:

1200km National Highways to become 4 lane in Tamilnadu..

Tindivanam-Tiruchy
Pondicherry-Tindivanam
Trivandrum-Kanyakumari
Trichy-Karur(including Trichy ring road )
Nagapatnam-Tanjore-Trichy
Madurai-Tuticorin
Salem-Ulunderpetai
Krishnagiri-Tindivanam
Thirupathi-Thiruthani-Chennai

Have a look at one of my previous post few months ago.

Thanks, Anniyan. This is great news - we will have perhaps the best road network in India thanks to Baalu.

Even as late as mid 90's we had only about 1800 KM of NH in Tamil Nadu.In about 10 years we have more than doubled the NH KM and now most of it will be four laned!

Have a look at one of my previous post few months ago.

^^^ I think even Gujarat has pretty decent road network.

^^^ I think even Gujarat has pretty decent road network.

Yes Gujarat has good roads, but density wise TN stands 2 second next only to Delhi.

Tenders for chennai desalination project was finalised today... Hyderabad based IVRCL with the joint collaboration with Spain company has succesfully won the bid.

The decision has been recommneded to CM, and work order to the sucessful bidder is to be issued soon.

Source: Dinamalar, Tamil Daily Newspaper.

X posted from India Aviation thread..

Aviation varsity to take off in Madurai?

Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has suggested setting up an Aviation University to exploit the buoyant growth in air traffic in Indian market and urged Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to establish this varsity at Madurai, which she said 'is the ideal place in all respects'.

In a letter to the Prime Minister yesterday, Jayalalithaa said 'the Tamilnadu government would go all out to bring this idea to fruition' and requested him to approve the proposal for establishing an Aviation University at Madurai.

Considering the boom in the air traffic in India, there was need for setting up proper academic institutions for training of airport managers, air traffic controllers, navigation and communication engineers, etc, she said.

(more)..

http://newstodaynet.com/06aug/ld3.htm

Maran is the best thing thats happened to Tamilnadu since quite a long time. God speed. Maran also innaugrated STPI-IT software park in Kovai as posted by Anniyan in the Coimbatore thread, which again is a great news for CBE and TN.

India's future is R & D in IT : Maran

Coimbatore, Aug. 6 (UNI): Union Communication and Information Technology Minister Dayanidhi Maran, today said that India's future is in Research and Development in the Information Technology field.

Delivering the Graduation Day address at the Karunya Institute of Technology and Science here, he said it was necessary for India to concentrate on sophisticated technology to retain its position in the field of IT.

Stating that India was exporting software worth 23 billion US dollars, the Minister said Bangalore stood first followed by Chennai and Hyderabad.

Later, talking to newspersons, Mr Maran said multinationals like CDOT and ALCATEL, were setting up their R and D unit in the country.

As a policy the Government had approved for the setting up of semi-conductor labs, he added.

Mr Maran said a bio-technology park would soon be set up in Chennai with public and private partnership.

Maran is the best thing thats happened to Tamilnadu since quite a long time. God speed. Maran also innaugrated STPI-IT software park in Kovai as posted by Anniyan in the Coimbatore thread, which again is a great news for CBE and TN.


Mr Maran said a bio-technology park would soon be set up in Chennai with public and private partnership.

Is this Bio Park project for which different states were vying each other..

Rs 500 crore for rural roads in Tamil Nadu

Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has ordered the repair and upgrading of 7,848 km of rural roads at a cost Rs 500 crore.

This is the third major announcement relating to road infrastructure development that the Chief Minister has made in the last one month

It was only on July 10 that she had ordered upgrading and repairs of 6,693 km of state highways, major district roads and other district roads at a cost of Rs 820 crore under the Comprehensive Road Infrastructure Development Programme.

This had been followed by the orders for works on municipal and municipal corporation roads at a cost of Rs 400.81 crore under the Tamil Nadu Urban Local Bodies Road Development Project 2005.

Jayalalithaa said that the State Government was committed to improving the road infrastructure facilities to help the economic and industrial development of the state.

Towards this end, under the Comprehensive Road Infrastructure Development Programme, the government had initially sanctioned Rs 200 crore earlier this year for upgrading 1227.42 km state highways, major district roads and other district roads and another Rs 30 crore for renovating 52 bridges.

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IE920050805113019&Page=9&Title=Chennai&Topic=0&

^^^ I think even Gujarat has pretty decent road network.

Maharashtra has the best roads in India.. it has won the best infrastructure award for 5 straight yrs..which takes into consideration, roads, railways, number of buses between cities and the frequency.. etc...followed by gujrat... Andhra has some of the worst roads in India.. offcourse. outside Hyderabad.
City wise. in 2003 Delhi was awarded as the city with the best roads.

Anniyan: Is this Bio Park project for which different states were vying each other..
--> Most likely yes. Even for submarine landing cable also WB and TN are contendeders. Heard that Ticel Park is not doing good unfortunately. Chennai should attract biotech cos like BLore.

Anniyan: Is this Bio Park project for which different states were vying each other..
--> Most likely yes. Even for submarine landing cable also WB and TN are contendeders. Heard that Ticel Park is not doing good unfortunately. Chennai should attract biotech cos like BLore.
I dont think Bangalore has many bio tech companies than chennai, as far as i know only hyderabad & Pune have relatively higher.

regarding maran's annoucement about Bio tech park, i donno whether it Bio-IT park or just BioTech park. There was stiff competion only for Bio-IT park, which was mooted by central govt.

I think it is the Bio-IT park bcos Maran was not involved with any other project.

chennai forever, i think your are right,

read this old article, it clearly says..

India Plans World's First Bio-IT Park

An initiative for the setting up of the world's first Bio-IT park has been announced by the Indian Minister for Communication & Information Technology (MCIT). The establishment of a dedicated, integrated infrastructure for the Bio-IT industries is seen as a significant Government initiative to promote India as a global hub for IT solutions (products & services) within the life sciences sector. The Bio-IT park will be set up by Software Technology Parks of India (STPI).

The Park would be in the form of a Public-Private Partnership. STPI would invite proposals for participation from private parties to collaborate in the initiative, which is expected to attract both domestic and foreign investments. According to the Minister, several major steps to establish the proposed Park - such as the conducting of a series of workshops across the country and the Park's concept refinement - have already been completed. - The STPI has engaged the leading global consultancy firm Ernst & Young for feasibility studies and joint venture partner search.

The Bio-IT park will be a geographic concentration/cluster of industry (IT & life sciences), research institutions, and sci-tech academia and will house companies, wet labs, dry labs, business facilities, etc. In terms of virtual networking, the Park will be connected to critical resources and facilities through the Grid system. Being a major datacom service provider to the software exports community, STPI would provide datacom connectivity to the tenants of the Park. - The Bio-IT park will be developed in three phases. The first phase is scheduled to be completed by 2005-2006. The Park will be set up in one of six short-listed locations: Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, NCR, and Pune.

T.R. BAALU APPROVES NATIONAL HIGHWAYS RENEWALS WORTH RS. 12.41 CRORES IN TAMIL NADU

The Union Minister of Shipping and Highways, Thiru T.R. Baalu has approved road improvement works at a total cost abut Rs. 12.41 crores under the Periodical Renewal on various sections of National Highways in Tamil Nadu.

Allocation of Rs. 22 crores has already been earmarked for the Periodical Renewal / Special Repair works for the year 2005-06 for the State of Tamil Nadu. Eleven Road repair works have been approved under Periodical Renewal at a cost of Rs. 12.41 crores on various sections of NH-45B, NH-49, NH-49-Extn., NH-68, NH-208 and NH-209 in Tamil Nadu. The divisions which have been covered under these works are Coimbatore, Madurai, Salem, Tirunelvelli, Virdhunagar and Ramanathapuram.

The provisions made in these Periodical Renewals, inter-alia, include restoration of road shoulders, road making, signage and providing central median etc
http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=11024

TN gives lessons in higher education

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=98605

wow, they are praising.

first i used to think that many private engineering colleges in the state is not good, but now the govt seems to show it as plus point while marketing to attract companies.

Tiruchi has a `Tidel Park' potential

http://www.hindu.com/2005/08/09/stories/2005080908430100.htm

Project list updated.

ATF in Tamil Nadu getting final shape

The much-awaited automobile testing facility (ATF) in Tamil Nadu, coming up at Oragadam, near here, is getting into final shape with the state government clearing 200 acres of land for the purpose

http://sify.com/finance/fullstory.php?id=13916838

TN telecom heads for significant consolidation

http://www.business-standard.com/iceworld/storypage.php?hpFlag=Y&chklogin=N&autono=197579&leftnm=lmnu9&leftindx=9&lselect=0

NHAI plans Rs 1,260-cr four-laning of TN highway

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/08/24/stories/2005082401491900.htm

Tamil Nadu flooded with investment proposals

Growth of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) is 8.73 per cent in 2004-05 and that of manufacturing is 8.7 per cent.

Ficci proposes to promote Tamil Nadu in the ‘Global Investors Summit’ during the next year

TN standing tall, says an 'out of breath' CM

“Earlier, it always used to be a question of why there were not enough investments. Today, the issue is how do we handle the flood of new investments? To be honest, I am out of breath even as I allot time to meet with investors,” she said in her special address at a FICCI meet here on Monday.

In the manufacturing sector Tamil Nadu was looking at a double-digit growth on a point-to-point basis now, predicting a great year for manufacturing

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IE920050829105237&Page=9&Title=Chennai&Topic=0&

INVESTORS MAKING A BEELINE....


Saint Gobain's 2nd plant to start in Oct-Nov

http://tinypic.com/bfkisj.jpg

French delegation meets Jaya

French glass major Saint Gobain, which is investing Rs 700 crore on its expansion plans in Chennai, will commence production from its second float glass plant in October-November this year.

The delegation, which called on Jayalalithaa, said Saint Gobain chose to expand in Chennai itself due to the favourable investment climate, strong and reliable infrastructure like power, port logistics, abundant availability of skilled manpower and excellent support offered by the state government, a Tamil Nadu government release said.

The 32 billion euro turnover (Rs 1,79,200 crore) Saint Gobain had already invested Rs 525 crore in Chennai to set up the first float glass plant with a capacity of about 1.80 lakh mt per year. "The Chennai plant has become one of the most cost-effective plants and has emerged as an export production centre," the release said.

http://www.chennaionline.com/colnews/newsitem.asp?NEWSID=%7B40C0F443-67F3-4C45-98BE-C71EC731568E%7D&CATEGORYNAME=National


---------------------
BMW car assembly plant in Chennai

German car major BMW will set up its premium car assembly plant at Maraimalai Nagar, near Chennai, with an investment of 40 million US dollars (about Rs 180 crore).

http://tinypic.com/bfkj78.jpg

German delegation meets Jaya

The BMW team informed the Chief Minister that the choice of Chennai was due to the "favourable investment climate, abundant availability of skilled labour force, matured auto components industry base, reliable supporting infrastructure and logistics, besides support from the government."

http://www.chennaionline.com/colnews/newsitem.asp?NEWSID=%7B77893A22%2D8E0F%2D406A%2D8094%2DF13C6ADF7505%7D&CATEGORYNAME=NATIONAL

TN consortium to start software parks

The Consortium of Self-Financing Engineering Colleges of Tamil Nadu is to start small software and hardware parks in all the districts of the state to provide employment to students coming out of these colleges

http://chennaionline.com/colnews/newsitem.asp?NEWSID={8668CC0B-8FDD-4968-A9C7- (http://chennaionline.com/colnews/newsitem.asp?NEWSID={8668CC0B-8FDD-4968-A9C7-146A7E9BEE0C}&CATEGORYNAME=CHN)

Baalu to lay stone for mega highway project


Union Shipping Minister T R Baalu will lay the foundation for the Rs 283-crore project four-laning of Madurai-Virudhunagar section at Thirumangalam on September 2.

According to an official release, the project is being undertaken on National Highway-7 as part of the North-South Corridor Development Programme which connects Srinagar and Kanyakumari.

The work, which is to be completed in 30 months, will involve four-laning of the 49.20-km road.

“To be built with the state-of-the-art technology on a par with international standards, the four-lane highway has been designed for high speed travel, keeping in view the safety requirements,” the release added.

Two roads over bridges, 14 ‘under passes’ and one major bridge across river Vaigai will also come up under the project.

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IET20050901014301&Page=9&Title=Chennai&Topic=0&

Please can you update with new projects, in last few days alone FDI projects above Rs 1000 crore has been sanctioned..

BMW, Saint-Gobain, Alcatel etc..

Also this one:

Centre to set up e-tech research centre in Chennai
Saturday September 3 2005 00:00 IST

NEW DELHI: Research in e-technologies and the IT revolution will get a fillip as the Centre has decided to set up a Rs 212-cr joint venture company -C-DoT Alcatel Research Centre - in Chennai within three months.
http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IEH20050902105823&Title=Top+Stories&Topic=0&

Done :)

http://www.iht.com/getina/files/273561.html

It is really amazing the kind of investments that Chennai/TN is attracting in auto and auto-ancillary space. If Volkswagen gets to Chennai, I am sure Chennai would get the global branding that Bangalore enjoys in software space. But they have not indicated the kind of investments. My guess is it should be similar to Ford Chennai.

Toyota also is looking to establish a small car facility and I hope it comes to TN. They are clearly unhappy with Karnataka. Toyota should be a major investment similar to Hyundai. I think TN should strongly promote Hosur for getting Toyota because of it's proximity to it's existing facility near Bangalore should make it attractive.

M&M also is planning on R&D investment either in Chennai/Pune depending on sops available. I don't know what kind of sops they are looking for, but they already have a well developed infrastructure in their own Mahindra city which they could use. Mahindra city has space ear marked for Auto and ancillaries.

Another potential auto investment is Hero-Honda's 2 wheeler manufacturing facility. They want to have one in South India and should finalize by December 2005.

T R BAALU APPROVES NATIONAL HIGHWAY IMPROVEMENT WORKS IN TAMIL NADU
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

13:3 IST
The Union Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Thiru T. R. Baalu has approved road improvement works on National Highway sections in the State of Tamil Nadu at a total cost of Rs. 647.01 lakh.

Approval has been granted for improvement of Stretches of NH-205 (Avadi-Ambattur-Padi) from 68/0 to 81/5 kms at a total cost of Rs. 387.03 lakh and NH-45 (Trichy-Dindigul ) from 369/0 to 378/0 at a total cost of Rs. 259.98 lakh. The stretches of NH-205 and NH-45 are included under NHDP phase IIIA. These stretches are required to cater to a large volume of traffic for a considerable period by which time, the upgradation work is expected to be completed.

http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=11885

BSNL Undersea Cable to land at Tuticorin

Amidst High Competition From haldia(Kolkatta) BSNL Had finally Decided to Land their Submarine Cable between India and Srilanka(Connecting International Route) at Tuticorin

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=147722

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEH20050908105422&Page=H&Title=Top+Stories&Topic=0

http://www.i4donline.net/news1.asp?fol_name=Wireless&file_name=wire102&get_pic=wire&p_title=News

http://www.chennaionline.com/colnews/newsitem.asp?NEWSID=%7B61263660-156A-4CAD-BBFE-562C475CAF8C%7D&CATEGORYNAME=Chennai

Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today said the State government was building necessary infrastructure at the IT corridor with a new water pipeline of 20 MLD (million litres per day) capacity and also looking at extending the rail link right down the corridor along the Buckingham Canal.

Unveiling the plaque to mark the inauguration of the Phase I of International Tech Park, Chennai (ITPC), located next to the Tidel Park, the Chief Minister said Singapore and Tamilnadu shared a long-standing relationship and unique bond which had now been renewed by a new world powered by the information technology. She said the recently- concluded Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) between the two countries had marked a new chapter in bilateral relations. 'I earnestly hope that this framework agreement will enhance economic cooperation taking it to new heights for our mutual benefit,' she said.
http://www.newstodaynet.com/14sep/ld2.htm

Baalu announces Chennai - Ennore port connectivity project

http://newstodaynet.com/14sep/rf7.htm

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blnus/09141506.htm

A special purpose vehicle, the Chennai-Ennore Port Road Company Ltd, will execute the road connectivity of Chennai and Ennore Port with the national highway network at a cost of Rs 230 crore, the Union Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Mr T R Baalu said on Wednesday.

The project, to be completed by December 2006, was part of the National Highways Authority of India's project to improve connectivity to all major ports across the country for integration with the NH network, Mr Baalu said at Ennore after inspecting various ongoing projects and facilities of Chennai Port Trust (ChPT).

WORLD BANK PROJECT TO IMPROVE URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE IN TAMIL NADU SIGNED

Agreements for World Bank assisted 3rd Tamil Nadu Urban Development Project were signed between Government of India and World Bank, here today, under which World Bank would provide a loan of US$ 300 million.

http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=11984

TN to get 210 new industries

As many as 210 new industries set up at a cost of Rs 122.06 crore in the state are all set to start functioning soon, Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa said on Tuesday and urged the financial institutions to clear applications from 177 eligible entrepreneurs awaiting loans.

Speaking after inaugurating the seminar on New Anna Marumalarchi Scheme and exhibition on the agro-based and food-processing industries here, the Chief Minister said under the scheme, so far 290 industries had been started at an estimate cost of Rs 189.09 crore, which provided employment to 10,867 persons, of which 7470 were women. Besides, as many as 35 of the above industries were being managed by women

About the project to upgrade the infrastructure facilities in the Guindy Industrial Estate for which she laid foundation on Tuesday, Jayalalithaa said while the Central and State Governments would contribute Rs 2 crore each, the proprietors of the industrial units inside the estate would provide Rs 2.70 crore and the Chennai Corporation Rs 1.20 crore

http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IE920050913104915&Title=Chennai&Topic=0

A new IT firm every 3 days in Tamil Nadu

http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2005/sep/13it.htm

NATRIP project in Tamil Nadu approved

The Centre has given its approval for setting up the Southern Center of National Automotive Testing R and D Infrastructure Project (NATRIP) in Tamil Nadu at a cost of Rs 1,718 crore.
http://www.newkerala.com/newsdaily.php?action=fullnews&id=21795

From seeing alloted budget i think it is going to be a very big project , and i believe there will be test track as well.

Four-laning project to be completed by March 2008


Four-laning of the 123-km National Highway Project between Kovilpatti and Panagudi, part of the north-south corridor, will be completed by March 2008.

Foundation for the Rs. 630-crore project was laid by DMK president M. Karunanidhi at a function at South Nanguneri near here on Sunday. He said the Centre, which was pumping several crores into the State, was expediting the ongoing four-laning of National Highways in Tamil Nadu. This would accelerate development of the State.


The National Highways Authority of India has proposed to implement the project in three segments — Kovilpatti-Kayathar (40 km, cost Rs. 173.50 crores), Kayathar-Tirunelveli (40 km, cost Rs. 232.46 crores) and Tirunelveli-Panagudi (43 km, cost Rs. 224.36 crores).

Three road over-bridges, two in the Kayathar-Tirunelveli section and the rest in the Tirunelveli-Panagudi segment, are expected to come up.

Sri Lankan Airlines plans exclusive freight service in Tiruchi-Colombo sector

The Sri Lankan Airlines is planning to operate an exclusive freight service in the Tiruchi-Colombo sector soon.

http://www.hindu.com/2005/09/19/stories/2005091902490300.htm

Flash news:

1200km National Highways to become 4 lane in Tamilnadu..

Tindivanam-Tiruchy
Pondicherry-Tindivanam
Trivandrum-Kanyakumari
Trichy-Karur(including Trichy ring road )
Nagapatnam-Tanjore-Trichy
Madurai-Tuticorin
Salem-Ulunderpetai
Krishnagiri-Tindivanam
Thirupathi-Thiruthani-Chennai

One more route they could consider along with Pondy-Tindy is the Pondy-Cuddalore section. Prolly one of the busiest sections in India.There is a bus every 5 min or so in one direction between 5AM to 10PM. That is like around 420-430 bus trips everyday in both directions. Plus it is important for places like Chidambaram which is so important. And they have an engineering college and a huge medical college and hospital(the hospital looks ultra modern). I hope they do make it 4-laned.

PS: 4-laning must also must be done in Cuddalore Chidambaram sector. That is also a pretty busy section. And they have SIPCOT with all their chemical plants on that road. That would be quite useful.

Impressive!!!

Promising performance

Tamil Nadu is one of the fastest growing economies in the country. With an impressive 8.73 per cent growth of gross state domestic product (GSDP) in 2004-05, Tamil Nadu was ahead of most of the other states.

http://www.indeconomist.com/300805_cover.html

One more route they could consider along with Pondy-Tindy is the Pondy-Cuddalore section. Prolly one of the busiest sections in India.There is a bus every 5 min or so in one direction between 5AM to 10PM. That is like around 420-430 bus trips everyday in both directions. Plus it is important for places like Chidambaram which is so important. And they have an engineering college and a huge medical college and hospital(the hospital looks ultra modern). I hope they do make it 4-laned.

PS: 4-laning must also must be done in Cuddalore Chidambaram sector. That is also a pretty busy section. And they have SIPCOT with all their chemical plants on that road. That would be quite useful.


Perhaps the most important stretch of highway in Tamil Nadu after Chennai-Bangalore would be Salem –Erode-Tirupur-Coimbatore and onwards to Palghat-Trissur-Kochi on NH47. I don’t know why they have not given priority to this stretch – although, I gather this stretch is covered under the NHAI’s port connectivity sub-project.

Fresh proposal for Chennai-Cuddalore railway line along East Coast Road

If cleared, a line will be laid through Mahabalipuram and Pondicherry

PONDICHERRY: : Southern Railway will soon submit another proposal to the Railway Board for the Chennai-Cuddalore rail line project along East Coast Road.

"The findings of two earlier surveys on the project's viability are being updated considering the development activities along the ECR... These will be submitted to the Railway Board by October-end," a senior Southern Railway official has told The Hindu .

If the project is cleared, a line will be laid from Chennai to Cuddalore through Mahabalipuram and Pondicherry.

http://www.hindu.com/2005/09/22/stories/2005092208490100.htm

Kamal Nath leading trade team to US
The process has brought the States of Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu; Export Promotion Councils and the Indian tourism industry to participate in a big way in the Focus India Show.
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200509240345.htm?headline=Kamal~Nath~leading~trade~team~to~US

Looks like Toyota would be expanding at it's exisiting facility itself. And I doubt Volkswagen would come to TN. Hero Honda is still not made up it's mind, but it's investment is going to be very small: about 200 crores. So, it looks like Chennai would only have BMW. Thatz peanuts.

Survey for rope car project begins

Palani, Sept 28: The Rail India Technical and Engineering service (RITES) has begun survey for "Rope Car" project linking the temple town with hill station Kodaikanal.

According to Official sources RITES had been allocated Rs.11 lakh for the survey work of which Rs.8 lakh was handed over today.

The General Manager of RITES Mishra and Surveyor Dass visited the Palani hills yesterday for initiating the work which would be completed in six months.

"Palani-Kodaikanal rope car project,if completed,would be the longest Rope car in the country", the sources said.

The RITES had already submitted survey report,regarding Rope car project linking Palani and Idumban Malai which was undertaken at a cost of Rs.Four Lakhs.

South Australia, Tamil Nadu to collaborate in water technology

http://www.hindu.com/2005/10/01/stories/2005100104580200.htm

Tuticorin could become the hub port for South

http://newstodaynet.com/07oct/bu1.htm

CII Madurai commissions study for upgrading Madurai airport

http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage.php?storyflag=y&leftnm=lmnu2&leftindx=2&lselect=1&chklogin=N&autono=202021

Flextronics Chooses TamilNadu.
http://www.hindu.com/2005/10/07/stories/2005100718600100.htm
Now after Nokia its the turn of the Flextronics to Choose TamilNadu. Its a good sign and wonderful development for the state.
We are much awaiting the announcement from INTEL. Hot competition between TN, Karnataka and Noida, Lets see who wins. I am relying much heavily on the wonderful infrastructure of Mahindra City to Attract them to Chennai....Go Chennai Go...
Lets hope for some more projects to kickstart.

Its Finally confirmed Now, Flextronics is to be in chennai..thats good news...Nice to see lot of people with common interest... i would put my bit of effort to bring in positive news and at times negative too...
As Satish as remarked, Toyota plans to expand in its present Haskote location.
Probably if VW is looking out as the article mentions, then its high time our CM should make up for the lost opportunity. Earlier they had a very bad experience with our CM..(no offences Meant) to just get the appointment to meet her.
Lets also hope INTEL Makes it to chennai, beating Noida and Bangalore.

I think the Tamilnadu Government on its part is planing for couple of Grade Separators one at the Vadapalani--Inner Ring Road Intersection, which would help to ease the traffic very much. Similarly a Flyover near Thirumangalam Signal and Annanagar Intersection. The advertisements have been floated to seek consultants. Lets hope that we get the announcement in couple of months...

^^ Welcome, Palani. News reports regarding the flyovers (at 6 new locations) are being discussed in the Chennai Projects Thread.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=249196&page=3&pp=20

Pics of the ones being constructed by NHAI can be seen at:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=180484&page=15&pp=20

click for news.... (http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/10/08/stories/2005100803380200.htm)
Mumbai , Oct 7

GANGOTRI Textiles Ltd, a Coimbatore-based yarn and garments manufacturer, is planning a Rs 351-crore expansion-cum-integration programme.

The project will consist of setting up weaving and processing facilities. It will also augment power generation capacities.

Of the funds earmarked for expansion, Rs 291 crore qualifies for subsidy under the TUF Scheme. The remaining Rs 60 crore will be invested in setting up six wind mills of 1.65 MW each in Tamil Nadu.

The project is to be implemented in two phases. The first phase will see investment of Rs 130.64 crore in the weaving and processing facilities; Rs 78.58 crore in the spinning facilities; Rs 29.53 crore to set up windmills, and Rs 7.83 crore to set up garment manufacturing facilities, adding up to a total of Rs 246.58 crore.

Phase II will see investments of Rs 104 crore in expanding spindlage at an investment of Rs 74.83 crore. Windmills will cost Rs 29.59 crore.

According to Mr Manoj Kumar Tibrewal, Managing Director, Gangotri Textiles, about 30 per cent of its future annual turnover will be earmarked for exports.

The company's total income rose to Rs 179 crore this fiscal from Rs 137 crore the previous year; net profit rose to Rs 3.25 crore (Rs 59 lakh).

On Friday, the Gangotri Textiles scrip closed at Rs 202 compared to the previous close of Rs 200.95.

Looks like TN has got its basics right.

TN is seeing a windfall in Investments in the following focus areas

Infrastructure
IT
Auto & Engineering
Electronics
Textiles
service sector (hotels, retail sales, transportation, real estate)

while staying away from Much of the polluting and resource (water) intensive industries like

iron and steel making
Petro, pharma and heavy chemicals
paper, wood based,
other mineral based indusries

Way to go TN. :applause:

Hi , Palani, KVS, welcome to the forums :).

Cell cos keen on TN

Cellular phone companies Motorola and Ericsson have evinced interest in starting operations in Nokia's industrial park at Vadamangalam near Sriperumbudur, IT and Communication Minister Dayanidhi Maran said on Tuesday

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1259652.cms

Hi hari, Chennai Forever, Anniyan,KVS,
its Nice to meet you all.
Here is the latest Update on the Industrial Front:
"FFE Minerals lands Kuwaiti order"
http://www.hindu.com/2005/10/14/stories/2005101402201700.htm
J. H. Rasmussen, Chairman of the F.L. Smidth Group said that the two Indian firms of the F.L.Smidth Group - FFE Minerals and S.L. Smidth Ltd. - would move into a new common office on the IT corridor in Chennai. He said that the engineering centre in Chennai would play a significant role in the group in the coming days. Indications were that all the detailed engineering work done by the group across its three global centres would now be consolidated in Chennai. The basic engineering work wouldhowever, continue to be done in the U.S. and Denmark centres. Mr. Rasmussen said that all these three centres would be networked on a joint IT platform. He expected the Chennai engineering centre to have a head count of 1,200 by 2007 from the current 650. He indicated that the group had acquired enough land to increase the headcount to 3,000.

Hi All,
I recently joined this website and all the users and information are awesome. I thought I will add something I can to this wonderful forum.

Some of the IT Parks and their status and are given in this link.

Tamil Nadu Government link to Details about all IT Parks and their status in TamilNadu (http://www.tidco.com/ShowSubCategory.asp?src=TIP)

The above link will give latest status of all IT parks and contacts.

Also there is a whole lot of links on the left side of the frame.

~ Prem :runaway:

I am wary of all kinds of politicians, but I can say this much. The AIADMK and JJ, despite all the negatives, is still way better than the DMK for purely economic reasons. The last time JJ was in power, she converted a deficit state into a surplus one for the first time since Rajaji was CM. Five years of DMK rule and the state was unable to even pay for salaries of its employees for the first time in its history. Forget about development projects - the fiscal situation was as bad as that of the worst managed states of the union. Incredibly, within a couple of years, JJ was again able to turn things around and while the state is not in fiscal surplus yet, it is counted amongst the best managed states again on the fiscal front.


This is a very interesting discussion and I want to take this discussion forward.

I was looking at the following links from TN gov site:
http://www.tn.gov.in/budget/budsph2005-06-8.htm
http://www.tn.gov.in/budget/archives/white.htm

During JJ previous regime we still had fiscal deficit. And I only partly agree with Sridhar that fiscal postion of TN is much better now than during DMK rule. Certainly the quality of deficit is better now because the revenue deficit as a percent of fiscal deficit is much lower - 30% for 2004-05 RE compared to around 70% during DMK's regime. Important stat to look out for is FD/GSDP. It is still about 4%. During DMK's regime it was I think around 5-6%. That is a significant improvement. But you have to see this under two perspective:
1. There is now an incentive to reduce the fiscal deficit. Central gov provides additional grant to states that manage to reduce FD/GSDP%.
2. During DMK regime previous Finance commision significantly reduced to income (they increased the outlay to states with larger population). Central aid as % of TN's state revenue reduced from 12% to 8%. That worsened FD of not just TN but most progressive states in India.

Another significant point to note is, this reduction in FD has come at the cost of growth. Take a look at the medium term fiscal chart. It shows the growth at 10% during last 2 years (2003-2004-2005). Mind you that 10% is at current prices and not fixed price (this is mentioned at the top of the table). That translates to a growth of just 4-6% after accouting for inflation (it is really irritating to see growth rates given in current prices). TN grew far slower than rest of the country. I think India's GDP during these 2 years grew at 5% and 8%.

So, I think there is not much difference between the two governments. But of late I tend to think that DMK gov has served Chennai better. I think golden period of Chennai was during 1970's when most of the planning was done. Anna Nagar was planned early 70's and was the last planned residential area on that scale. KK Nagar, Besant Nagar were all planned during that period. Master plan provided for developing satellite townships like Maraimalar Nagar, Gummidipoondi and Thiruvallur and also to develop Ambattur, Avadi, Tambaram and Manali. I think MGR's regime totally neglected Chennai and probably focused more on rural economy.

But the last DMK rule (with Stalin as Mayor) and present ADMK government, have brigtened hopes for Chennai. But given that central government has DMK ministers, I think it would be better if DMK comes to power in TN. But I would be happy even if JJ comes back to power so long as she doesn't obstruct the central gov projects since having different parties at state and centre would help keep corruptions lower. But I think that is a remote possibility with the current alliance.

These are all my own views and would be happy to see me corrected if I am wrong.

Urban development project-III launched

The third Tamil Nadu Urban Development Project (TNUDP-III), to be implemented at a cost of Rs 1,925 crore, was launched by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa here today.


http://www.chennaionline.com/colnews/newsitem.asp?NEWSID=%7BAF47A5A3-A184-4569-BE69-5BA7C27DF2E1%7D&CATEGORYNAME=Chennai

Was it not during MGR's period those subways were constructed in Madras? Chennai is the first city in India to have subways.

MGR was an unmitigated disaster. Everything he did was populist and he had no concept of development and investment. How about free rice to every family? Why work at all? Lets add free bus passes to everyone while we are at it? What can one expect from a semi-literate film star anyway? Its a pity people of TN are so swayed by these "stars" - which is also a topic of much amusement to people outside the state.

JJ, though also a ex-film star is better - she is bright and gets it for the most part. If only she can work better with the center rather than butting heads with them at every opportunity. We have not had any large central investment - the likes of the Rs. 6000-8000 crore investment that ONGC is putting up in Mangalore and AP coast.

I am also disappointed at Mani Shankar Aiyer - he has not done jack for the state.

Was it not during MGR's period those subways were constructed in Madras? Chennai is the first city in India to have subways.

sshank, my opinion exactly matches with what you have written. I donno much about the capabilities of MGR since i was young during his period, but i would say Karunanidhi is a good administrator, but for the next period i dont want him to be the CM, the reason being i wish some one energetic and young(even 50+ is young in politics) person to be the CM, let it be Jaya,Stalin or Vaiko, (pls dont ask 'y not our Captain?').
The fortunate thing happened in TN politics is the transformation of Jaya,she seems to become a matured politician now.

And coming to the next election, its very hard to predict the winners. Nokia , BMW or Microsoft will not bring them votes. In rural areas people generally do vote based on local factors and in urban areas its hard to say but govt's favour to govt employees will be major factor. As we all know DMK is more govt staff friendly, thats why they have a strong hold in urban constituency( remember in last election DMK won all the constituency in district head quarters). Last time Jaya won only by coalition numbers, the difference in each constituency was less than 3000. This year we have to wait and see how they the coalition is going to be. Like last year if Karunanidhi is adamant with PMK in seat sharing then surely they would run behind ADMK which would be a big blow for DMK.

By seeing the Jaya's recent performance, my vote goes for Madam.

MGR did not do much on the economic front, but we cannot forget his single most important achivement, 'Noon meal scheme'. Thought it is not his idea he implemented it and thanks to it we have a increased level of primary and secondary eduction among the masses. JJ has been phenomenal in the last 2 years, but the the recent developments should also be seen in the context of bangalore being bangalored and TN having had Vivek Harinarain(it is a shame that he is fired) and AP not having Naidu garu. Not to deny the fact that JJ offlate seems to be very sincere in her performance.

The crucial factor for the next election should be the presence of the same party in the center and state. We have a great representation in center in MARAN, all we need is a party in TN that can act in synergy (fully agree with you satish) rather than lock horns. But the outcome as always is decided by the simple electoral arithmetics. If MK can sustain his alliance, it is Atchi for them, but as told by Annian, MK is getting old, they need a replacement. But if amma can break it, it is Atchi for Amma. Captains entry in politics (what a pity, one more to the list of clowns) is definetly going to change the equation, I was told that he has a very good sincere fan following in the south, a traditional vote bank for AIADMK.

Are we discussing too much politics in an economy & infrastructure thread ? afterall is there an economy with no politics !

Anniyan - agree fully. I want some one young as well. Do you think DMK will let Maran be the CM? Or will they still push for the retarded Stalin? Maran will be great for the state. I think he has been the surprise of the decade for TN. Finally, we have a politician from TN who is sincere, educated, poised with a good personality to interact with investors and business people, and more importantly - he gets it. But can he connect with the people? I hear Vaiko is decent, but I dont know much about him.

Amma's trump card is the women vote - she has it locked up. I am sure she does poorly with men. DMK is ok but I despise their partners PMK and other assorted goons.


sshank, my opinion exactly matches with what you have written. I donno much about the capabilities of MGR since i was young during his period, but i would say Karunanidhi is a good administrator, but for the next period i dont want him to be the CM, the reason being i wish some one energetic and young(even 50+ is young in politics) person to be the CM, let it be Jaya,Stalin or Vaiko, (pls dont ask 'y not our Captain?').
The fortunate thing happened in TN politics is the transformation of Jaya,she seems to become a matured politician now.

And coming to the next election, its very hard to predict the winners. Nokia , BMW or Microsoft will not bring them votes. In rural areas people generally do vote based on local factors and in urban areas its hard to say but govt's favour to govt employees will be major factor. As we all know DMK is more govt staff friendly, thats why they have a strong hold in urban constituency( remember in last election DMK won all the constituency in district head quarters). Last time Jaya won only by coalition numbers, the difference in each constituency was less than 3000. This year we have to wait and see how they the coalition is going to be. Like last year if Karunanidhi is adamant with PMK in seat sharing then surely they would run behind ADMK which would be a big blow for DMK.

By seeing the Jaya's recent performance, my vote goes for Madam.

^^ I'd also go with JJ as CM unless it is Maran as CM. Maran has been an excellent find and is a very good prospect for TN (even though it is a very long shot, I'd like to see him as CM after the 2011 elections).

PMK and the others allies of DMK are all pathetic. I hope they are not on the winning side. I definitely don't want MK as CM. The other alternatives are Stalin and Vaiko. Stalin had some good ideas when he was the Mayor of Chennai. The Onyx cleaning initiative transformed Chennai. Don't know much about Vaiko excpet that he was in jail for about 2 yrs. But will the ppl vote for anybody other than MK as CM? I also hate MK for he'd try to do some petty things like bring back the Kannagi Statue to the Marina beach (its a beach for god's sake). Get those oldies out from politics.

JJ is a really good administrator and has done well over the last 4 yrs. She realized some of the mistakes from her last term and has not repeated those. JJ has focused equally on the urban and rural areas (the vote bank). DMK may have slightly lost focus on the rural side during its last term. JJ seems to have understood this well.

She really has matured (though she shd cooperate more with the Centre). Efficient handling of the strike by the govt. workers (strong move by her), cutting down on populist measures to bring the finances back on track (granted, ppl won't like these measures), handling the tsunami rehab efficiently, etc.

Captains entry in politics (what a pity, one more to the list of clowns) is definetly going to change the equation, I was told that he has a very good sincere fan following in the south, a traditional vote bank for AIADMK.

Just a wild guess. Captain would forge an alliance with JJ for the elections. DMDK-ADMK electoral alliance. :)

AP cautious but optimistic about Volkswagen project
We are still in the race, says Jaya

HYDERABAD, OCT 19: While the Andhra Pradesh government appears confident about getting the Volkswagen (VW) car project, its neighbour Tamil Nadu claims they are still in the fray. In a recent announcement, Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa revealed the company had approached the state after the Vasishta Wahan episode which defrauded AP of Rs 11 crore.

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=106112

Looks like GM is in talks with TN govt. I couldn't find any other news article.

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanh...76920051028.asp

JJ should pro-actively take steps to get this project. We almost lost VW to AP despite an established auto component base and infrastructure.

I am also disappointed at Mani Shankar Aiyer - he has not done jack for the state.
Now thats not true. He was desperately trying to move that multi billion ONGC expansion project from Banglore to TN. Just that it didn't work out.

Looks like GM is in talks with TN govt. I couldn't find any other news article.

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanh...76920051028.asp

JJ should pro-actively take steps to get this project. We almost lost VW to AP despite an established auto component base and infrastructure.

Here is the link:
http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/oct292005/business176920051028.asp

Originally Posted by sshank:
I am also disappointed at Mani Shankar Aiyer - he has not done jack for the state.

I am not, because as a union minister, he is busting his balls trying to secure the energy needs of the country. The dude seems to be busy securing drilling rights with other nations. We took a big hit when China beat us to the PetroKazakh deal. I am sure things of this nature must be on his mind more right now.

At this point, it doesn't matter to me if an electricity plant is set up in your state or mine, as long as it is run efficiently on cheap fuel and betters the lives of the citizens, be in Chennai or Chandigarh, Shillong or Shimla.

Looks like Ayyar is contributing a little bit to TN...
:)

Pilot Plant for Helium production in Kutralam (http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/11/01/stories/2005110102310200.htm) .

Kolkata , Oct. 31

ONGC has entered into an MoU with the Department of Science and Technology and the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics for launching a Rs 200-crore pilot project for production of helium from natural gas at Kutralam in Tamil Nadu.

ONGC will fund 95 per cent of the project cost and will hold the commercial production rights.

Announcing the development, Mr Raha said helium was available in traces in natural gas.

The pilot project will study the feasibility for commercial production.

A gas of strategic importance, helium is used as a coolant in space technology and atomic energy sciences among other things. The entire requirement of helium in India is currently met through imports.

here is the link (http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/11/01/stories/2005110101490300.htm)

VISHNU Fabrics (P) Ltd, a manufacturer of high tenacity advanced technical textiles to reinforce roads and buildings, plans to go for backward integration to produce sand to finished composite fabrics at a cost of Rs 18 crore.

The company based in Srivilliputtur, Tamil Nadu, has been promoted by Mr P.D. Sundar Raja and the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation.

It plans to tap the capital market in 2006, according to a press release.

The unit makes speciality coated glass fibre technical textile mesh fabrics for reinforcing roads, gypsum walls and plaster; alkali resistant mesh to reinforce cement plaster; glass mesh for external insulation finishing system, glass geo-textiles for preventing soil erosion; glass mesh jointing self-adhesive tapes for jointing gypsum and calcium silicate boards; and Cenfill glass fibres for fibre reinforcement for cement and gypsum.

The full-fledged glass fibre fabric processing and coating plant, set up at a cost of Rs 16 crore, is a 100 per cent export-oriented unit that plans to exploit the domestic market also. Major consumers would be infrastructure companies in road construction and building interior finishers. Vishmat, its brand, has registered an Indian process patent for the technology development in-house.

It has started exports to the UK, South Africa, Israel, West Asia and the American markets. It has a liaison office at Dorset, the UK, to tap the European markets and has a representative in Shenzen, China, to reach the Far East.

It also plans to introduce quake resistant composite fabrics from a combination of glass, carbon and aramid materials

Hosur hopes to attract IT firms from Bangalore

The Electronic Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT), the nodal agency to promote IT industries in Tamil Nadu, has identified a leading consultant to undertake a feasibility study for setting up an IT park in Hosur. With crumbling infrastructure hampering the expansion of IT companies in neighbouring Bangalore, ELCOT has speeded up preliminary studies on setting up an IT park in Hosur in a bid to woo top IT firms from Karnataka.

Top officials in the Krishnagiri Collectorate said the spat between former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and Infosys could force IT bigwigs in Bangalore to identify Hosur as an alternative location. According to a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) report, Tamil Nadu tops the list of states in IT investments, followed by Punjab, Kerala and Karnataka.

ELCOT manager S Prabhakaran told this website’s newspaper that ELCOT has awarded the contract to Frost & Sullivan, a leading consultant, to conduct the feasibility study for setting up the IT park. The state government has allotted Rs 4 lakh to ELCOT to undertake preliminary studies on the project.

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IET20051102110344&Page=T&Title=Southern+News+-+Tamil+Nadu&Topic=0

Tamilnadu adds 364 MW of additional Wind power generating capacity between April 05 and September 05.
TN is the leader of the nation when it comes to Non-conventional energy, and is moving in the right direction as far as environment protection is concerned.
The 364 MW capacity addition would prevent burning about 2 million tonnes of coal and generating other greenhouse gases.

Tamilnadu adds 364 MW of additional Wind power generating capacity between April 05 and September 05.
TN is the leader of the nation when it comes to Non-conventional energy, and is moving in the right direction as far as environment protection is concerned.
The 364 MW capacity addition would prevent burning about 2 million tonnes of coal and generating other greenhouse gases.

thats great.. :applause:

Tamil Nadu, which now stands first in the country, will soon become the world's largest producer of power through wind turbine generators when it crosses the magic mark of 2,045 MW.

Inaugurating an awareness seminar on `Renewable Energy and Renovation of Ooranis', the Chairman and Managing Director of Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency, K. Alaudin, said the country was producing 3,800 MW power through wind turbine generators, in which Tamil Nadu's share was 2,040 MW, thanks to the State Government's strong support to set up wind farms at Aralvaimozhi Pass near Nagercoil, Coimbatore, Kayathar and other places.

Since California in the United States was producing 2,045 MW power, just 5 MW more than Tamil Nadu, through wind turbine generators to become the largest wind power producer in the world, Tamil Nadu would soon overtake the American State in near future as more wind turbine generators were coming up, he said.

Sintex To invest 35 cr in a plastic processing plant in TN

Sintex will be setting up three units for manufacturing plastic products, one in Bhachau with a expected installed capacity of 10,000 metric tonnes with an investment of Rs 35 crore and two other in Salem, Secunderabad, each with a capacity of Rs 10,000 crore, with and investment of Rs 35 crore and Rs 25 crore respectively," informed L M Rathod, chief finance officer, SIL.

Link to the news (http://www.hindu.com/2005/11/12/stories/2005111213510100.htm)
.........................The Board has initiated the process of establishing a hydropower project in the Kundah region. The 500-MW project will be on the lines of the Kadamparai plant, where power is generated when water is pumped from a lower level lake to a higher-level reservoir.

This is estimated to cost about Rs. 2,500 crores. The preparation of a project report is under way.

On getting State Government approval, funds from the Rural Electrification Corporation and the Power Finance Corporation may be tapped....................

This study published on Rediff says "Tamilnadu is the best place in India to do bussiness" :) good sign

http://us.rediff.com/money/2005/nov/12guest2.htm?q=tp&file=.htm

tamil nadu is the kick ass state of india. soon we should aim to become the first indian state to attain developed staus( according to international standards) :rock:

capitan has some solid following in madurai and ramanathapuram districts .but enough of actors/actress becoming politians ,i sincerely hope some day a mba graduate will rule tamil nadu as chief minister

thats great.. :applause:

Tamil Nadu, which now stands first in the country, will soon become the world's largest producer of power through wind turbine generators when it crosses the magic mark of 2,045 MW.

Since California in the United States was producing 2,045 MW power, just 5 MW more than Tamil Nadu, through wind turbine generators to become the largest wind power producer in the world, Tamil Nadu would soon overtake the American State in near future as more wind turbine generators were coming up, he said.

anniyan,
TN had 2045 MW in april 05. It has added 365MW since then. So by this time TN would have surpassed California already if CA has not added additional Windpower capacity.

Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, which are among the top six states in the country on the composite economic freedom index, have high ratios of taxes on commodities and services to their gross state domestic product (GSDP).

West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and Assam did not generate a large proportion of their revenue from this head, pointed out “Economic Freedom for States of India 2005”, a study by Bibek Debroy and Laveesh Bhandari.

Tamil Nadu topped a list of 20 states on the Composite Economic Freedom Index. Gujarat, the top-ranked state last year, slipped to the second position, while Kerala was ranked third.

http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage.php?storyflag=y&leftnm=lmnu2&leftindx=2&lselect=3&chklogin=N&autono=205349

http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage.php?storyflag=y&leftnm=lmnu2&leftindx=2&lselect=1&chklogin=N&autono=205517

Six road widening projects to be taken up in TN, Pondicherry

SIX build, own and transfer (BOT) road widening projects worth Rs 2,247 crore are to be taken up in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry.

The projects will be undertaken under the National Highways Development Plan phase II. The projects will cover a total length of the 523.61 km in Tiruchi, Dindigul, Karur, Thanjavur, Madurai, Tuticorin, Pondicherry, Tindivanam, Salem and Ulunderpet, according to information available on the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) Web site.

http://tinypic.com/fo3ck3.jpg



The NHAI has invited qualification and financial proposals from companies interested in design, engineering construction, development, finance, operation and maintenance of the projects. The scope of the work includes widening of existing two-lane roads to four lanes, including operation, maintenance and tolling of the project highway stretches.

An agreement will be drawn up between NHAI and a selected bidder on a real toll basis. Revenue from the proposed tolling of the project will accrue to the special purpose company undertaking the project, NHAI said.

The NHDP (phase I and II) was launched in 1999 covering a length of nearly 14,000 km at an estimated cost of Rs 54,000 crore.

NHDP phase III was launched in 2005 for improving and four-laning of 10,000 km of selected high-density corridors of National Highways at an estimated cost of Rs 55,000 crore, information on the Web site says.

Leather Industry: Leaving a footprint

FOOTWEAR’S IMPORTANCE & TAMIL NADU’S ADVANTAGE

Over the last couple of years, footwear has emerged as the driver of growth in the leather industry. The segment (refer table) is not only the biggest in India's leather exports, it is also the fastest growing.

The commerce ministry's Council for Leather Exports (CLE) has forecast that India's leather footwear exports would rise from $856 million in 2004-05 to $2.5 billion by 2010, an annual growth rate of about 17 per cent.

Tamil Nadu has been a key contributor to India's footwear exports, and is likely to be the major beneficiary of CLE's forecast.

According to CLE, there are 70 leather footwear units in Tamil Nadu that generated an export business of Rs 1,194 crore in 2004-05. Tamil Nadu-based units contributed over 40 per cent to Indian footwear exports.

CAUSES FOR THE BOOM

Some leather footwear manufacturers traced the change in the fortunes of Indian footwear exports to early 2003, when travel to China was negatively impacted by the outbreak of SARS.

China is one of the biggest players in the leather trade. Travel restrictions to China made US buyers (US footwear imports made up about 50 per cent of the trade in footwear) to look for alternative sources of supply, said industry hands.

By the end of 2003, the first signs had begun to emerge that India was considered a credible alternative. Wal-Mart, for instance, had begun dealing with footwear manufacturers in Tamil Nadu, among other places

INFRASTRUCTURE READY IN TAMIL NADU

Even as seemingly random events have created favourable conditions for the Indian industry, infrastructure enhancement has started.

Tamil Nadu is a natural location for some of the central government-sponsored infrastructure developments as it is home to a key segment of the leather industry.

A leather footwear complex and two footwear component parks near Chennai are under development. They are expected to act as the hub for manufacturing in the region.

http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage.php?storyflag=y&leftnm=lmnu1&leftindx=1&lselect=6&chklogin=N&autono=205615

Tamil Nadu could also make it for the state itself. It can become fashion city(Chennai) like Paris. They make many goods in clothing beside leather! :)

edit-- oops, wrong thread :eek:

Some quick action needed to promote Tier II cities.

TN realtors seek single-window system for plan approval

REAL estate promoters in Tamil Nadu want the Government to formulate common Development Control Rules for the entire State, other than Chennai city, to give a fillip to the real estate sector that is witnessing a sustained boom for more than a year.

It also wants the Government to revise upwards the Floor Space Index (FSI) norms to enable real estate promoters to construct more units on a plot of land.

Mr Mohan said Coimbatore was on the threshold of becoming the next IT hub in Tamil Nadu after Chennai. But the time taken for getting building plans sanctioned was almost equal to the time taken for construction of the entire project and this acted as a deterrent. While a proposal for construction of a 10-storey building in Bangalore was cleared in 15 days, in Tamil Nadu it sometimes took even 2 years to get the approval. He wanted a single window system for building plan clearance.

The association said the present FSI restriction of 1.5 in Tamil Nadu was one of the lowest in the region and pointed out that in Bangalore an FSI of even 3 was permitted. They wanted the FSI to be raised to at least 2.0 in Tamil Nadu so that the actual built up area compared to the land area could be much larger than what was permitted at present.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/11/16/stories/2005111602661300.htm

I am glad Ticel park is full now. When it was opened, there were hardly any takers and no news came after that.

TICEL Bio Park Ltd, the R&D infrastructure facility for biotechnology companies promoted by the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation, is expanding its facility. It is also scouting for a private sector partner, according to sources in the know.

Ticel will quadruple its built-up space to about six lakh sq ft from 1.5 lakh sq ft, which has been fully booked by biotechnology companies.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/11/17/stories/2005111702151900.htm

Link to news (http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/11/18/stories/2005111803240900.htm)

SOUTH India Corporation (Agencies) Ltd (Sical) will set up a joint venture with L&T and MMTC, once it is formally announced that the consortium has won a contract for implementing a Rs 500-crore iron ore terminal project at the Ennore Port.

A formal announcement of the consortium winning the tender for the project is to be made, but the Union Minister for Shipping, Mr T.R. Baalu, had recently informed presspersons of the decision to award the project to the Sical-led group. ..................

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Thursday night said her state was on a high-growth trajectory and was a top performing state in every indicator, a feat which she had achieved in the past four-and-a-half years of her rule in the state.

''Today, Tamil Nadu is the top destination for investment in it, BPO and manufacturing. Chennai today is the new jewel of the east, India's eastern gateway to the world.'' in this context, she pointed out that the world bank and the Asian Development Bank were not ready to locate any project in the state in 2001. Foreign investors did not even want to visit Chennai.

''Today, Tamil Nadu is on a high-growth trajectory. India today also rated Tamil Nadu as a top performing state in every indicator.'' When it was pointed out that much of the investment in the IT sector in the past year had come because of a dynamic Union IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran (of the DMK), Ms Jayalalithaa said, ''I cooperate with the centre, not with any particular minister.''

Asked why she was not visiting abroad to bring in investments for the state, she said with confidence that ''sitting here in Chennai, I have managed to get Ford, Hyundai, Saint Gobain, Nokia, Flextronic, BMW, World Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and ABN Amro. They are coming here on their own.'' ''so you believe people should come to you,'' she was asked.

''It is not what I believe but that's what is happening. I have paid attention to the fundamentals here. I have concentrated on building world-class infrastructure in a planned and comprehensive manner for the growth of Chennai. Today that hard work is paying off. People are queuing up to invest in Tamil Nadu so why should I go abroad unnecessarily?,'' she asked.

http://www.newindpress.com/newsItems.asp?id=IEL20051117130657&Title=B+R+E+A+K+I+N+G++++N+E+W+S&rLink=0

Link to news (http://www.hindu.com/2005/11/19/stories/2005111904731600.htm)

KOLKATA: Shalimar Paints Ltd (SPL) is planning to invest about Rs. 25 crore in a greenfield venture near Hosur in Tamil Nadu for making decorative and industrial paints, S. L. Agarwal, Managing Director, said.

Announcing the technical pact with Kunsul Chemical Industries of Korea for making pre-coated metal (PCM) coatings, Mr. Agarwal said the company was in talks with "some big European companies for setting up joint ventures'' to fortify its presence in niche markets.

Talking to reporters, he said the monthly capacity of the new plant would be 1,000 kl initially, which would be expanded to 1,800 kl within a year. This would be the fourth unit of SPL. While the mother plant was located at Howrah in West Bengal, SPL had one unit each in Nashik in Maharashtra and Sikandrabad in Uttar Pradesh.

Sandeep Sarda, chief operating officer, SPL, said PCM found use in architectural applications and in the white goods industry. Tata Steel, POSCO and Vardhman Steel were setting up coil coating lines and the market for these paints would grow, he said.................

Hi!

I am new to this forum, amazing job everybody.Can any body tellthe total rupee amount of all the projects put together in tamilnadu that is approved and in process?

Thanks!

Hi!

I am new to this forum, amazing job everybody.Can any body tellthe total rupee amount of all the projects put together in tamilnadu that is approved and in process?

Thanks!

As of March 2003, it was 1,40,000 crore. These are outstanding investments. Don't know the latest numbers. Possibly close to 2,00,000 crore.

http://www.tidco.com/tn_policies/new_investment/projectsmarch2003.xls

But these numbers are generally not so useful. Some of these projects take a very long time to execute and until these are executed they are still part of this figure. Others are postponed indefinitely and yet are not removed from this list.

TN is generally in the top 3 along with Maharashtra and Gujarat. But in the last one year, Orissa and Jharkhand could have easily overtaken these states.

Thanks for the info. But atleast the ones which are under implementation in 2003 is 140,000 crores. That is a whooping 3.1 billion dollars!!! From the latest news many of these projects are completed or in process .

Also a closer look at the figurees indicate lower fdi..which shows tn's rise in enterspise and management. Atlast time for the real innerstrengths of the state to show up.

If these were the figures in march...with the real estate boom and rising fdi, new road project within the city...tcs, wipro, hcl, satyam all pumping money in, the estimate could well close to 10 billion. (projects under implementation, not those planned or stalled)

Great going TN!!! Amma sure did beat expectations!!!

Link to news.. (http://www.chennaionline.com/colnews/newsitem.asp?NEWSID=%7BFF2E3BC2%2D24B9%2D4240%2D9D8F%2DF1BE993A4E8C%7D&CATEGORYNAME=BUSINESS)

....Mumbai, Nov 17: Film production company GV Films will soon be investing up to Rs 2,000 crore to set up entertainment townships in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Maharashtra.


GV Films is in talks with a few multinational companies for technical assistance in this regard, a release issued here today said......

Link to News.. (http://www.chennaionline.com/colnews/newsitem.asp?NEWSID=%7B0C8E19C9%2D2937%2D4548%2D8814%2DAE3C37044412%7D&CATEGORYNAME=BUSINESS)


......Coimbatore, Nov 22: In view of the infrastructure needs of the knitwear hub of Tirupur, which is aiming at Rs 10,000 crore business by 2010, a hosiery park is coming up near the town, promoted by a private builder.


In the first such initiative in private sector, the park, with an investment of Rs 14 crore, would have 23 sheds on a sprawling four acres of land at Tirumuruganpoondi, just 10 km from Tirupur town, K J Prabhakaran, CEO, J S Promoters, told reporters here today.


The work for the ergonomically designed industry zone would start next month and the park would be ready for occupation by January 2007, Prabhakaran said.


With a common conference hall and restaurant, each shed of the park would possess a built-up area of 6,000 sq feet -- ground and two floors -- with land area of 4,200 sq ft, he said. ...........

Wow! thas good news by GV film...hope they bring some sense to bollywood movies. Movies rotated more around the average indian, and less superficial glamour.

As of March 2003, it was 1,40,000 crore. These are outstanding investments. Don't know the latest numbers. Possibly close to 2,00,000 crore.

http://www.tidco.com/tn_policies/new_investment/projectsmarch2003.xls

But these numbers are generally not so useful. Some of these projects take a very long time to execute and until these are executed they are still part of this figure. Others are postponed indefinitely and yet are not removed from this list.

TN is generally in the top 3 along with Maharashtra and Gujarat. But in the last one year, Orissa and Jharkhand could have easily overtaken these states.

Orrisa & jarkand?..well whats happening there other than Mittal, Posco & tata steel putting up their units? (With steel being the only sector)

Orrisa & jarkand?..well whats happening there other than Mittal, Posco & tata steel putting up their units? (With steel being the only sector)


But that's it!!!

States that have developed policies for capital intesnive industries like mining, manufacturing etc. would automatically recieve the highest FDI as more capital is required to set these up. Southern states which predominantly excel in services, which as you know are not capital intensive, would require way less FDI. So states rich in mineral, oil & gas, manufacturing infrstructure (like West Bengal) would be the biggest netters of FDI and not the southern states.

MP

True, minerals lead to heavy investment. But i am talking about a narrow sector in Orissa & harkand -steel. u r right about west bengal which has a wide variety of industry and is not restricted to steel. So what makes orrisa & jarkand have higher growth rates than other cities? (i am not saying they cannot)

Thanks for the info. But atleast the ones which are under implementation in 2003 is 140,000 crores. That is a whooping 3.1 billion dollars!!! From the latest news many of these projects are completed or in process .

Also a closer look at the figurees indicate lower fdi..which shows tn's rise in enterspise and management. Atlast time for the real innerstrengths of the state to show up.

If these were the figures in march...with the real estate boom and rising fdi, new road project within the city...tcs, wipro, hcl, satyam all pumping money in, the estimate could well close to 10 billion. (projects under implementation, not those planned or stalled)

Great going TN!!! Amma sure did beat expectations!!!

1,40,000 crore is about $30 billion.

True, minerals lead to heavy investment. But i am talking about a narrow sector in Orissa & harkand -steel. u r right about west bengal which has a wide variety of industry and is not restricted to steel. So what makes orrisa & jarkand have higher growth rates than other cities? (i am not saying they cannot)
Higher growth rates ? Not yet. These are just proposals.

Mittal Steel alone is proposing 50,000 crore in Jharkand. Thatz a third of total investments that were being executed in TN in 2003. Tisco is investing about 60,000 crore in Jharkand. And there are plenty more. Same with Orissa. Posco is investing about 50,000 crore. Tisco about 20,000 crore. There are many other projects related to improving infrastructure because of these projects like Port, road & rail development. Surely these are a lot of investments.

But it remains to be seen how much of these proposals see the light in the end. Half of these investments are likely to be abandoned. Surely, you would these investment proposals remain in the list for a very long time.

oops..yep u right...now that i am beginning to see the second point of urs of about the projects getting stalled...thas too much money considering close to half is spent by the government.
thanks!

I was mentioning growth rates as growth rates are proportional to the investment climate...

what u said is also very true..many of these proposals may not see light at the end of the tunnel.

Rs 140,000 crores equals $31 Billion and not just $3 billion as stated earlier :)

OOPS sorry Satish, did not see that you had already mentioned that. Arvakolaru :bash:

these investments could change the scene of both orissa and jharkhand

Friends, If you dont mind can I humbly request you to limit the discussions, and post only when there's some positive news about TN or ChennaiIT in respected threads.
Thanks
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Kanishk Steel buys Italian plant, to relocate unit in TN

M. Ramesh

Chennai , Nov. 23

KANISHK Steel Industries Ltd has purchased an 8-year-old 1.5-lakh tonnes steel re-rolling plant from Lamifer of Italy.

The company plans to relocate it to India and set it up at Mayiladuthurai in Tamil Nadu, its Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Ravi Gupta, told Business Line.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/11/24/stories/2005112401630300.htm

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y?

^^^ Coz its a Tamil Nadu thread. For the rest, we have the all India economy thread.

chill hari just drawing comparisons

Towards making `Little Japan' a world brand

A very good article about Sivakasi, read the full content
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/11/25/stories/2005112500170200.htm

Sivakasi wants to move forward and faster. The process of globalisastion has presented an opportunity for the entrepreneurs of this industrial town in south Tamil Nadu, nicknmed `Little Japan', to feel confident to turn `Sivakasi' into a brand name and make `Made in Sivakasi' a reality and acceptable the world over. As this century belongs to India, so it does for Sivakasi, they aver. However, the efforts of entrepreneurs will need a matching of the spirit and efforts from the Government and civic authorities too to succeed is obvious as it is with the IT industry in Chennai and unfortunately so with Bangalore

Sivakasi, situated in a dry belt area in Virudhunagar district, emerged in the industrial scene with the setting up of the first units in fireworks and safety matches in 1923.The printing industry added a feather to its cap in 1937. They have been through many trails and tribulations in the succeeding years, weathering many storms, before being proudly nicknamed "Little Japan". Into the third generation, diversification has started and young entrepreneurs are hopeful that they can carry forward the march and spread.

The printing industry gained prominence in 1930's with the establishment of the Sivakasi Industrial Printing Works that paved way for the name and fame that the industry enjoys today. The industry is the second largest in the world now, next to Guthenburg city in Germany. There are around 600 small, medium and large printing presses including Litho, Offset and Flexo type units located in and around Sivakasi. They undertake multi-various works including security jobs and get orders from overseas including U.K., U.S.A., Middle East, Sri Lanka, France and Canada.


Each industry, over the years, has witnessed changes. The fireworks industry successfully broke the monopoly of China in the world market in 1977-78. It was followed up with exports to Japan and Middle East. Exports suffered due to fierce competition from China and a variety of other factors for a good time. Thanks to the process of globalization, the Standard Fireworks has opened a factory in China under a joint-venture entered into in 2002

Another small piece of info i came across sivakasi adding to anniyan's point

The town of Sivakasi is a leader in the areas of printing, fireworks, and safety matches. It was fondly called as Kutty Japan or "little Japan" by Mr.Jawaharlal Nehru.

It contributes to 80% of India's production of safety matches as well as 90% of India's total fireworks production. Sivakasi provides over 60% of India's total offset printing solutions and ranks as one of the highest taxpaying towns in India. Sivakasi also is a 100% employed town, putting it in the company of very few towns in India.

check this link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_Nadu

Link to news (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1308252.cms)

....Adidas' proposal for a footwear SEZ at an investment of Rs 300 crore in an area of 100 hectare in Tamil Nadu has been given in-principle nod.
SRM Infrastructure's multiproduct SEZ in Mewat, Haryana received in-principle approval along with Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation proposal for multiproduct SEZ in Krishnagiri in Tamil Nadu......

Four laning of Madurai - Virudhunagar begins, to be completed by march 2008

http://tinypic.com/hunmah.jpg

http://www.dinamalar.com/2005Nov27/fpnews3.asp

oops

Six road widening projects to be taken up in TN, Pondicherry

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/11/15/stories/2005111502271900.htm

its an old news, it has already been posted here

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=6197936&postcount=183

Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy plans to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh along with a team of MPs from the State next week to bring to his notice attempts of Union Minister for Information Technology Dayanidhi Maran to shift the proposed FAB facility from Hyderabad to somewhere in Tamil Nadu.

A FAB facility to manufacture high-precision semi-conductors was proposed to be set in the Hardware Park near the international airport coming up at Shamshabad near here. Dr. Reddy was here to lay the foundation for a new Collector's office complex.

Later, speaking to reporters at the helipad, the Chief Minister said that the State had offered to provide necessary infrastructure, including water and power, for the facility. "We should get the project on the basis of merit and the Centre's assistance," he said. Expressing concern over the efforts to shift the project to Tamil Nadu, Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy said that he would explain to the Prime Minister that it would be unfair to deprive the State of the facility.
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Not sure if Hyderabad was selected earlier. YSR should not blame that the project is being shifted some where. The project is proposed by the center and Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai are in the race.

Not sure if Hyderabad was selected earlier. YSR should not blame that the project is being shifted some where. The project is proposed by the center and Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai are in the race.

Being the Union minister, he should be unbiased and allow states to compete on merit. He is the servant of the Union, not TN !! Time and again, these TN ministers, like most politicians, are keen to pour money to their states/constituencies.

lets not discuss politics please!

I think TN politicians are following the proverb 'Make hay while Sun shines'. Anyway its good, instead of involving in corruption while they get the chance atleast they are doing something good for their constituency and trying to keep up their election promises.

Maran is not shifting any project from any state. The Fab project was conceived few months back and three cities are shortlisted. Chennai has two sea ports and an International airport besides home to a vibrant manufacturing industry. The entry of Nokia and Flextronics reflect this strength. It is unfair to accuse Maran.

Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy plans to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh along with a team of MPs from the State next week to bring to his notice attempts of Union Minister for Information Technology Dayanidhi Maran to shift the proposed FAB facility from Hyderabad to somewhere in Tamil Nadu.

A FAB facility to manufacture high-precision semi-conductors was proposed to be set in the Hardware Park near the international airport coming up at Shamshabad near here. Dr. Reddy was here to lay the foundation for a new Collector's office complex.

Later, speaking to reporters at the helipad, the Chief Minister said that the State had offered to provide necessary infrastructure, including water and power, for the facility. "We should get the project on the basis of merit and the Centre's assistance," he said. Expressing concern over the efforts to shift the project to Tamil Nadu, Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy said that he would explain to the Prime Minister that it would be unfair to deprive the State of the facility.
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Not sure if Hyderabad was selected earlier. YSR should not blame that the project is being shifted some where. The project is proposed by the center and Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai are in the race.

What a loser this YSR is :|.