Industry readies blueprint to bring back TN advantage

Tamil Nadu led the way in the yesteryears in industrial development, especially through MSMEs and the competition has caught up with the state. 

“The government has underscored its commitment to the promotion of MSMEs by almost doubling budgets in the current fiscal year. Considerable spadework has been completed and government orders issued, so implementation of these schemes have already commenced in several districts of the state,” he said, identifying the Energy Savings Scheme as an example where the government had extended subsidies and support to initiatives such as creation of awareness, training and conducting energy audits in the MSME sector. 

Likewise, any initiative by MSMEs for advancement of the sector will be viewed with great interest and government support and funding to such efforts will follow, the official said. Ar Rm Arun, Chairman, FICCI TN Council and Chairman, Valingro Group, said the Council had embarked on a new and special exercise under the brand “Advantage Tamil Nadu” to highlight the various strengths that TN offers to prospective investors as also the advantages to new and prospective investors in TN. 

With its legacy of strong and successful MSMEs over the last 60 plus years and even as of date, the state has the largest number of registered MSMEs in India … 6.89 lakh registered MSMEs producing over 8,000 products with a total investment that exceeds Rs 32,000 crore. 

With foreign investments flowing in across various sectors, there are a number of foreign MSME companies entering India and there is a need for hand-holding in such joint ventures and facilitation, said Arun. 

A brainstorming session on sunrise industries in TN also took place, wherein N Shekhar, President, Aerospace Industry Development Association for TN (AIDAT) said aerospace industry should be viewed as a sunrise industry for it can help bring size dimensions in a significant way. 

“Aerospace has the potential to create 1 lakh jobs over 10 years.  It is a sunrise industry for TN,” said Shekhar.