Chennai Economy thread

[R2IChennai]

I think it matches with country and state gdp figures

[murlee]

Kinda disappointed with Chennai employment figures..

[Cosmicbliss]

Originally Posted by murlee

Yep.. Look at the Chinese dominance.. Urumqi (Wulumuqi) in remote corner of China has a higher GDP than Chennai, Banglore and Hyd and just less than Kolkata..

Why be surprised? Chinese are enterprising and business savvy people, even as far as west indies you find chinese traders and businessmen. Also, China has invested very heavily in tier ii, iii and iv and even v cities. That's why chengdu and chongqing in Sichuan province are now emerging as global hubs. If you want to take growth beyond delhi and mumbai, than you have to give a priority to the construction industry (as it generates a lot of employment for poor people) and take up big projects in these cities. Just one KFC or Pizza Hut opening in small town won't do, these cities need huge infrastructure development. India invests too little or nothing in its non metro cities. If you go to non metro cities (not all) they often lack even basic infrastructure. Eateries or malls are cosmetic though much needed changes; you need to invest in these cities: transport, healthcare, roads, electricity, airports, etc.

[murlee]

I'm not surprised.. It was more of a rhetorical disappointment..

[Cosmicbliss]

Originally Posted by murlee

I'm not surprised.. It was more of a rhetorical disappointment..

You have to invest not waste all the money on freebies and money guzzling schemes like MNREGA. No money for metros in Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Lucknow etc etc and thousands of crores for MNREGA. :: The government spends so much money on populist schemes and projects which are desperately needed are starved of funds.

[sridhar_n]

I thought this scheme is meant for the needy and UID scheme would ensure that the money goes to directly to them eliminating all middlemen.

[ranga]

Originally Posted by murlee

I'm not surprised.. It was more of a rhetorical disappointment..

Why disappoint when our country is like what it is.Except boastful articles in print and debates on TV we maintain sanctity in status quo.We don't compete with China becos we can't.Simply blabber Mumbai vs shanghai.Until u enter china u don't realise the shortcomings of our so called developing country.We take solace in telling often "MERA DESH MAHAAN" and sing "SARE JAHAN SE ACCHA HINDUSTAN HAMARA.But ASLIYAT (truth) is we are BEKAAR
(Useless)

[ranga]

Originally Posted by sridhar_n

I thought this scheme is meant for the needy and UID scheme would ensure that the money goes to directly to them eliminating all middlemen.

Even with direct cash tranfer there is no gurantee that the beneficiaries will put to the use for which it was meant.Even with this step it is impossible to eradicate middlemen becos most of the ultimate beneficiaries are illeterate and naive and men may indulge in higher consumption of liquor with the money received.

[sridhar_n]

Originally Posted by ranga

Why disappoint when our country is like what it is.Except boastful articles in print and debates on TV we maintain sanctity in status quo.We don't compete with China becos we can't.Simply blabber Mumbai vs shanghai.Until u enter china u don't realise the shortcomings of our so called developing country.We take solace in telling often "MERA DESH MAHAAN" and sing "SARE JAHAN SE ACCHA HINDUSTAN HAMARA.But ASLIYAT (truth) is we are BEKAAR
(Useless)

Let us not think like losers, pls. Yes, we do lag behind, but we are at least on the right path. Elders like you should guide the youth and the next generation to follow the right path instead of continually bashing and demoralizing.

[Step]

Originally Posted by murlee

Yep.. Look at the Chinese dominance.. Urumqi (Wulumuqi) in remote corner of China has a higher GDP than Chennai, Banglore and Hyd and just less than Kolkata..

When people are happy and have started to vote/display picture of the ex cabaret dancer/actor, where is the question of GDP. Tamil Nadu has turned into garbage nadu, with no basic infrastructure like roads, eletricity. Added to it is administrative meltdown with frequent political murders and caste violence against dalits. State govt should restore law and order and ensure basic rights of the people are respected before talking about 'vision 250 ' or 'monorail' or GDP.

[murlee]

[georgenadar]

World's 25 major cities and economic growth...

http://www.rediff.com/business/slide...h/20121205.htm

India's 5 best cities to live in

http://www.rediff.com/business/slide...n/20121205.htm

[karkal]

TVS restructuring: Venu Srinivisan and Gopal Srinivisan go separate ways amicably

CHENNAI: In May this year, Sundaram Clayton, the parent company of TVS Motor, underwent a reorganisation in its shareholding that on the face of it seemed unremarkable. But what it has resulted in is quite significant - a de facto distancing between Venu and Gopal Srinivasan, scions of one of south India's most prominent business families.




With the restructuring, the brothers have ended their co-existence under the Sundaram ClaytonBSE -0.22 % umbrella, a part of the century-old TVS Group that comprises 30 firms, has sales of Rs 27,000 crore and employs over 40,000.

Venu, 59, is now in charge of the automobiles-focused Sundaram ClaytonBSE -0.22 % while Gopal, 54, oversees Sundaram Investment, with interests in electronics, software and asset management. Under the old arrangement, Sundaram Clayton, a maker of aluminium castings, operated through four subsidiaries - Anusha Investments, TVS Motor, TVS Investments and Sundaram Investment - which meant that both Venu and Gopal had responsibility for completely unrelated businesses under the same board.

TVS Rejig


"They have only separated the operating companies to give management focus and enhance value for stakeholders," said TVS Group veteran H Lakshmanan.

"The brothers have not split," said Lakshmanan, who is an executive director of the Rs 1,100-crore Sundaram Clayton. Neither Venu nor Gopal replied to emailed questions seeking views for this report.

It isn't unusual for Indian business families to go through such transitions. And unlike the tussle between the Ambani brothers, there have been many that have been effected amicably and without much noise. Two years ago, one such quiet settlement took place between RPG Group brothers Harsh and Sanjiv Goenka. Around the same time, the Munjal family of Hero MotoCorpBSE 0.77 % split their business. The revamp, which has made Venu and Gopal in-charge of different holding companies, is quieter. A senior partner at a multinational accounting firm which has handled mandates for the TVS Group said he does not "see any problems" between the brothers. One of the key reasons for the separation, he observed, is "to avoid any problem for Gopal in future, especially with Venu's children joining his companies".

Venu's daughter Lakshmi, who's married to InfosysBSE 0.27 % founder NR Narayana Murthy's son Rohan, joined Sundaram Clayton's board in March 2010. Last year, she was joined by her younger brother Sudarshan.

"Both Venu and Gopal are known for their passion for driving businesses which they like the most," said K Ramakrishnan, executive director of investment banking firm Spark Capital Advisors. "The restructuring will give them more freedom to drive these businesses independently."

Specifically, it has made Gopal, an MBA from the University of Michigan, accountable to the overall holding company, TVS & Sons, which has 12 members from the four family wings that constitute the group. A partner at another accounting firm close to the group said Gopal was accountable to the Sundaram Clayton board, and he relied on its strength for managing companies like TVS Capital and TVS Electronics. Companies such as two-wheeler manufacturer TVS Motor, run by Venu - an engineer and MBA from Purdue University - have largely defined Sundaram Clayton until now. TVS ElectronicsBSE 0.32 %, Gopal's baby, had a promising start before it fell into stagnancy, from which he's trying to revive it now. Gopal's most recent initiative is private equity firm TVS Capital.

The split has also corrected an anomaly in the group. Each son of founder Sundaram Iyengar, who began his business stint with a bus service, formed the four different branches of the TVS Group. While three of them headquartered their businesses in Chennai, one did so in Madurai. In the case of the non-Madurai groups - which oversee companies such as Sundaram Fasteners and TVS MotorBSE 0.63 % - all except Venu and Gopal were running the businesses separately. There's no exception now. The Madurai group runs the logistics and tyre-making arms, among other businesses, of the group.

Sundaram Iyengar's business was taken forward by his sons and then grandchildren. Venu's children Lakshmi and Sudarshan, as also Sundaram Fasteners' chief Suresh Krishna's daughters Arathi and Arundati, represent the fourth generation.

It was in 1979 that Venu came to the helm at Sundaram Clayton, started exactly 50 years ago as a tie-up between TVS and the UK's Clayton Dewardie. Gopal entered the picture in 1986 with the founding of TVS Electronics.

[தமிழன்]

November refinery throughput shrinks

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/b...w/17697352.cms

[chennaidesi]

Top Office space cities at 2007

1-Tokyo metro area:more than 100 million m² / 1 billion sq. ft (Central Tokyo: ca. 55 million m² / 600 million sq. ft)
2-New York metro area:61.6 million m² / 662.8 million sq. ft
3-Paris metro area: 49 million m² / 527 million sq. ft
4-Greater London: 28.5 million m² / 307 million sq. ft
5-Washington DC metro area: ca. 21 million m² / ca. 230 million sq. ft
5-Bay Area of San Francisco: ca. 21 million m² / ca. 230 million sq. ft
6-Chicago metro area: 20.3 million m² / 218 million sq. ft
7-Berlin metro area:18.1 million m² / 194.7million sq. ft
8-Munich metro area: 16 million m² / 172 million sq. ft
9-Toronto metro area: 15 million m² / 164 million sq. ft
10-Hamburg metro area:13 million m² / 139.9million sq. ft
11-Brussel metro area: 12.7 million m² / 136.6million sq. ft
12-Rome metro area: 12 million m² / 129 million sq. ft
12-Frankfurt metro area: 12 million m² / 129 million sq. ft
14-Milan metro area: 11.1 million m² / 119 million sq. ft
15-Vienna metro area: 10 million m² / 108 million sq. ft
16-Zurich metro area: 9.8 million m² / 106 million sq. ft
17-Hong Kong: 9.8 million m² / 105 million sq. ft
18-Madrid metro area: 9.36 million m² / 100.7 million sq. ft

Indian cities like Mumbai and Bangalore are nearing 100 million sq ft this year.

[karkal]

del

[karkal]

‘Create a company that creates wealth for society’



R. Thyagarajan says his focus is that people should look at Shriram as a company with social commitment and responsibility. Photo: R.A. Chandroo/Outlook Business

Updated: Fri, Dec 21 2012. 09 45 PM IST

Chennai: Ramamurthy Thyagarajan , 75, founder of Chennai-based Shriram Group, is renowned for his modest ways. He dresses in a safari suit, drives a Hyundai Santro hatchback and doesn’t own a mobile phone. Thyagarajan has built Shriram Group into a Rs.60,000 crore business, with interests in financial services and other areas. The group has moved its non-financial businesses worth Rs.4,500 crore to a new holding firm, Shriram Venture, to meet the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) norms and likely apply for a banking licence when the avenue opens up.

Since 2004, Shriram Group has attracted 20 private equity investments and Thyagarajan has created a trust in which employees are partner-owners. An ardent Carnatic music enthusiast and an atheist, Thyagarajan spoke in an interview about the evolution of the business.

Edited excerpts:

How did you come to branch off on your own and set up your own business?

In the late 1950s, the Kolkata-based Indian Statistical Institute offered a stipend of Rs.125 a month (the hostel fee was Rs.15 and food was Rs.35). This was the attraction for me to join (it) as I wanted to be financially independent, and against the wishes of my dad, who wanted me to continue at Vivekananda College, Chennai, and pursue my masters in Mathematics.

I applied to New India Assurance in 1961 after seeing an advertisement for management trainee—(it offered a) training stipend (of) Rs.500 (higher than the Rs.300 other companies typically paid) at the time and got selected among 12 other people.
In the early 1970s, the government nationalized the (general) insurance companies and the day it was announced, I made up my mind to quit the organization in a year or two and set (out) on my own. I knew New India Assurance will not be the same organization after the government had taken over. However, I managed to (stay) till 1976; I quit for an entirely different reason—to turn around an ailing firm called Mount Mettur Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

What prompted you to set up Shriram Chits in 1974? Did you think that it would grow to become such a large group in four decades?
Honestly, I had no vision; each business was set up to help a friend who wanted to do something—like Shriram Chits. Hyderabad-based A.V.S. Raja, a friend working in the railways, wanted to do business. To enable him to set up a business, I asked nine of my other friends, my brother and me, (we all) invested Rs.10,000 each.

We set up the chit firm because I (had) set up a commercial financing business in 1964 while I was working in New India Assurance. I drew money from my family firm, which was into finance.

I diverted the money to commercial financing partly because I felt it was (a) safe and better business and it created (a) premium for my job and helped my career.

New India Assurance had a subsidiary, Jayabharat Insurance, which was converted into a hire-purchase finance and commercial leasing company called Jayabharat Credit Ltd, which the company asked me to look after since they knew I was doing a commercial vehicle business.
Jayabharat Credit was inflexible so I set up another public company called Madras Motor Finance and Guarantee Co. Ltd to support the activity of Jayabharat. If a poor customer required Rs.25,000 to buy a truck, Jayabharat would offer only Rs.20,000, so I set up this commercial vehicle company which will pitch in the additional credit of Rs.5,000 as it would enable the customer to buy an asset and when he repaid Jayabharat, he would pay us as well.

In 1979, Shriram Transport Finance was born to help Lalgudi Jayaraman, a Carnatic violinist, who travelled a lot to perform at music concerts. I told to him that he should remain in Chennai and not waste his energies in travelling to earn an income. (Thyagarajan asked Jayaraman to contribute whatever he could and started Shriram Transport Finance along with investments from some of his other friends and his own contribution.)

In 1998, RBI cautioned depositors of Shriram in a notification. How did you manage to overcome this?

The RBI notification hurt Shriram badly, although it was not their intention. Yes, it was front page news in many newspapers. We had deposits worth Rs.800 crore of 2 lakh depositors with us; if our depositors had panicked and withdrawn the money, we would have defaulted as most of it was lent... It would have been a total disaster for Shriram.

Yes, it came as a shock and we had to keep things under control—I didn’t lose my heart. We had 5,000 employees—all I did was to keep the morale of employees high and asked them to talk to depositors. Three months later when things were under control, I told employees about Winston Churchill’s famous speech during World War II when he spoke about (the) German invasion through air and how Britain’s small Royal Air Force saved the country... I said (in Churchill’s words that) never was so much owed by so many (our depositors) to so few, referring to the employees who spoke patiently and assuaged the fears of customers.

Shriram Financial Services manages about Rs.60,000 crore in funds, but the non-financial business revenue is about Rs.4,500 crore. Why hasn’t Shriram’s non-financial business grown as fast as the financial services businesses?

It is not actually so. In 1985-86, when the vehicle financing business was successful, I felt 10% of its resources can be deployed in non-financial services like industries, which would take eight to nine years to grow, and set up a couple of companies...in the interest of shareholders to give them better returns. However, RBI thought we were siphoning off the money and disapproved (of) the diversification. After RBI’s notification, in 1999-2000, we were forced to sell mature businesses like Medicorp Technologies, Sembawang Shriram Integrated to the Singapore partner and Hi-Tech Arai to (the) Japanese, all at a premium... We (then) went slow on diversification, but now we have created a new holding company for all the non-financial businesses to give it the much-needed focus.

What prompted you to set up the Shriram Ownership Trust in 2006, a unique structure in India?

No one individual can create wealth; it is in partnership with others (that) we do it. It was only fair to share the wealth that was created in partnership with employees. Employees who helped build Shriram are partners in it. There are about 36 senior employees who have grown with the group, who own about 1% to 2.5% depending on their seniority and contribution. The remuneration would kick in only when they retire.

How do you envisage Shriram’s growth? Do you see it becoming a bank?

It is okay if it becomes a bank and it is fine if it doesn’t. My focus is that people should look at Shriram, that it is a company with social commitment and responsibility, (that it) acts like a trustee. Like Gandhi said, create a company that creates wealth for society and employment, and run it like a trustee—you are just in charge to create the wealth, not own it.

[Maverick7]

To the Japanese, sushi and sake, their favourite dishes, go hand in hand. But Tamil Nadu laws do not allow restaurants to serve liquor, so we make do without sake in Japanese restaurants here, says Shinya Fujii, Director General, Jetro, regretfully. The dissatisfaction of not being able to take the rice wine with their signature rice and fish dish seems to illustrate the position of Japanese companies who have invested in Tamil Nadu. Somehow, an essential component seems to be missing.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/...cle4238423.ece

[chennaidesi]

I dont know what TN govt is doing. Why not take care these petty things.

[Indiadreams]

Originally Posted by chennaidesi

Top Office space cities at 2007

1-Tokyo metro area:more than 100 million m² / 1 billion sq. ft (Central Tokyo: ca. 55 million m² / 600 million sq. ft)
2-New York metro area:61.6 million m² / 662.8 million sq. ft
3-Paris metro area: 49 million m² / 527 million sq. ft
4-Greater London: 28.5 million m² / 307 million sq. ft
5-Washington DC metro area: ca. 21 million m² / ca. 230 million sq. ft
5-Bay Area of San Francisco: ca. 21 million m² / ca. 230 million sq. ft
6-Chicago metro area: 20.3 million m² / 218 million sq. ft
7-Berlin metro area:18.1 million m² / 194.7million sq. ft
8-Munich metro area: 16 million m² / 172 million sq. ft
9-Toronto metro area: 15 million m² / 164 million sq. ft
10-Hamburg metro area:13 million m² / 139.9million sq. ft
11-Brussel metro area: 12.7 million m² / 136.6million sq. ft
12-Rome metro area: 12 million m² / 129 million sq. ft
12-Frankfurt metro area: 12 million m² / 129 million sq. ft
14-Milan metro area: 11.1 million m² / 119 million sq. ft
15-Vienna metro area: 10 million m² / 108 million sq. ft
16-Zurich metro area: 9.8 million m² / 106 million sq. ft
17-Hong Kong: 9.8 million m² / 105 million sq. ft
18-Madrid metro area: 9.36 million m² / 100.7 million sq. ft

Indian cities like Mumbai and Bangalore are nearing 100 million sq ft this year.

Where did you get this? It seems you had extracted this from a report of real estate consultant. Can you please post the source