TN aims for ₹1-lakh-crore project proposals at GIM

The Tamil Nadu government plans to seek investments of ₹1 lakh crore from sectors such as aerospace, energy, biotech, electronic manufacturing and ITeS.

Launching the road show for Tamil Nadu Global Investor Meet (GIM) here, CV Shankar, Additional Chief Secretary to the Tamil Nadu government, said that a bulk of these investments will come from non-automotive related sectors, as the Sate seeks to diversify its sources of income.

“We want to go beyond automobile or component manufacturing,” said Shankar. The State contributed 25 per cent of the national automobile output, according to government officials.

For this, the government has tapped 14 countries, including France, the UK, Germany and Singapore, who are expected to make the bulk of these investments. In the aerospace sector, the government is eying investments from component makers for aircraft engines and other affiliated areas.

“We expect 30 such companies to set up shop in the next few months,” Shankar said.

The State government is also pushing for electronic manufacturing, since it believes that it has the right mix of engineering colleges and past manufacturing.

V Veerappan, co-founder of Tessolve Semiconductor, pointed out that Tamil Nadu has a well-developed eco-system for electronic product companies and that was the reason for the company to set up a manufacturing base in the State. While the Nokia plant has been closed down, government officials point to other companies such as NCR, which has built its first plant for manufacturing ATMs in India.

Government officials also point to the talent ecosystem in the state that could attract companies in knowledge sectors such as biotech and ITeS.

“We have 500 polytechnics, 50 universities and 570 engineering colleges,” said Shankar.

Corporates agree. According to D Ravichandran, CEO of JSW Steel, skilled manpower, connectivity to ports and robust road infrastructure are some of the factors for the company to set up a 1-million-tonne plant in the state.

The other business sector that the state believes will attract investments is energy and power. Nagarjuna Oil Corporation Ltd (NOCL), a joint venture of Nagarjuna Fertilizers and the government's Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation, is expected to go on stream by 2015 at Cuddalore which has a capacity of 12 million tonnes.

“We will start operations once we have decided on the strategic investor,” said S Ramasundaram, MD and CEO, Nagarjuna Oil Corporation.

Similarly, Shankar pointed to Tamil Nadu's power generation capacity, which along with renewable energy generates more than 20,000 MW.