Author Interview: Unravelling Tamil Nadu’s secret industrial growth story

Mumbai and to an extent, Delhi dominate the business world. But interestingly Chennai is the base for more industries than either of those two cities. Tamil Nadu’s industrial growth is probably India’s best-kept secrets. It is this secret that author and business journalist Sushila Ravindranath seeks to explore through her book, Surge: Tamil Nadu’s Growth Story. Examining both old-economy and new economy industries, profiling scions of well-established families as well as young upstarts, home-grown talent and those who came in from outside the state, this book fills an important niche in the story of Indian industrialisation. The book was released in August this year. 

Talking about why the state’s business growth story is still its best kept secret, Sushila puts forth, “I see several reasons. The entrepreneurs are genuinely publicity shy. It is a manufacturing state and this sector is not exciting enough to attract media coverage. The businessmen don’t play the stock market. So the financial press tends to ignore them. If you go through the business dailies and magazines you’ll see what little space anything outside Delhi and Mumbai get.” She has spent close to three years researching and writing the book. Any particular reason, she chose to come up with the book this year? She responds, “I have been wanting to do this for a long time. Now, 25 years after liberalisation, it seemed the right time to write about a state which is not what it was till the 80’s.” 

She goes on to talk about how every small town in Tamil Nadu has a success story. She elucidates, “If you go outside Chennai, you will discover people doing all kinds of things you won’t imagine. Namakkal, apart from being one of the largest centres for poultry industry, builds body parts for trucks not from India but from other neighbouring countries as well. RSM Autocast of Coimbatore is the market leader in the manufacture of brake drums for commercial vehicles exporting to 30 countries. Seven out of 10 people in Sankagiri in Western Tamil Nadu are in transport business. Tiruchengode is the largest provider of bore wells in the country. Sakthi Masala in Erode is the largest manufacturer of condiments again employing a large number of women and disabled people. Then there is Lion Dates, the single largest supplier of dates in the country and it is based outside Trichy.” 

But she is hopeful that things are changing for the better and the state is slowly and steadily making its presence felt. “Improvement has to come in infrastructure and some government support. A beginning was made with the Global Investor’s Meet. Many pioneers continue to move forward. TI Cycles has gone on to becoming the leader in sports bikes and life style biking. Royal Enfield which introduced the first motorbike in the county has changed hands. The new owner the Eicher group has revived the iconic Bullet brand and has gone global,” she says. 

Talking about the kind of response from the business community for her book, she says, “It has been mostly positive. I don’t expect the business community to thank me. I will be embarrassed if they did! I have just told the story of the state as I saw it.”