Madurai emerging as a manufacturing hub

MADURAI: Industry should come forward to make use of the peaceful work environment and the excellent social and cultural infrastructure of Madurai, which is virtually the capital of the southern districts thanks to its proximity to the leading industrial centres such as Virudhunagar, Tuticorin, Trichy and Sivaganga," said KKSSR Ramachandran, hon’ble minister for health, Government of Tamil Nadu.

Delivering the special address at Connect Madurai 2006, a part of the three-day Conference-cum-Exhibition, SPEED 2006 (Southern Prosperity through Enhanced Economic Development) being organised here by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Ramachandran said that this is the right time to start the business in Tamil Nadu, which has a proactive and approachable government and administrative mechanism that provide an industry-friendly climate.

The Minister said that though there are several industrialised Tier II cities in the State, Madurai also has a team of like-minded industrialists from the leading, traditional business houses, who are proactively working with the State government to promote the prosperity of the region. The southern districts have abundant talent and amicable workforce. The region offers high quality of life at low cost. Surrounded by interesting cultural and heritage centres, tourist destinations and low-cost, high quality hospitality infrastructure, Madurai also offers a wide variety of entertainment avenues for the employees.

Shaktikanta Das, IAS, Secretary to Government - Industries, Government of Tamil Nadu in his address said that the State Government is trying to push investment in infrastructure, manufacturing, etc to other parts of the State. Recently, the Taiwan based sportswear manufacturer has set up its base at Cheyyar, thanks to the efforts of the government. He said that SIPCOT is planning to setup an industrial park in Madurai to begin with in an area of 1000 acres, which would be later converted to a 2,500 acre special economic zone.

He said that in the last six months, the State Government has signed 6 MoUs with large multinational companies such as Dell, Motorola and Samsung. The combined investment of these projects would be worth Rs. 2700 crore that is expected to create 50,000 jobs. The private players have signed MoUs for as many as 318 projects, with the total investment of Rs 11,500 crore in the pipeline that would create 1.6 lakh direct and indirect jobs.

Dr C Chandramouli IAS, Secretary to Government - IT, Government of Tamil Nadu said that the government is determined to take the IT revolution to the Tier II cities of Coimbatore, Madurai, Trichy, Salem and Tirunelveli. The government will be setting up IT Parks and would be encouraging private players to establish IT infrastructure.

He said that Tier II cities have talent but what is lacking is the effort to enhance the employability of the graduates. Hence, the government is setting up an IT Academy in Madurai on public-private partnership model to identify the gap in the educational curriculum, train the faculty and develop the content. The State has also come up with a certification programme for rural areas to train students in softskills.

T Kannan, chairman, SPEED 2006 said that Madurai will emerge as the future knowledge capital of the State. The city, which has a long history of learning and knowledge acquisition since 800-1000 years, houses a large number of arts, science and engineering colleges. Madurai and the southern districts produce 15,000 engineering graduates annually. However, over 6000 of them are being employed in Bangalore and Chennai. He said that it is only logical that they are given employment opportunities in Madurai itself.

Kannan further said that since the cost of doing business in Madurai can be significantly lower than the metropolis now, the companies must take advantage of the opportunity.

R Dinesh, co-chairman, SPEED 2006, said that there has been a significant investment flow from the large IT and ITeS companies in Madurai, which will play a catalyst role for the home grown entrepreneurs in these sector to scale up their operations. There will be opportunity for these companies to become service providers for the large companies as sub outsourcing and Tier II service providers.

Gopal Srinivasan, chairman, Connect 2006 said that with the growing contribution of southern districts, the State's IT industry, which is generating IT services worth US$ 4 billion - that is, 14% of the production of the total services of the country, can grow by 5 times in the next five years to grab the market share of over 25% of the total software services.

Srinivasan also said that there is a potential to create 50,000 IT jobs in the next five years that would generate an income of 3,000 to 4000 crores to the local economy. However, the city must enhance its infrastructure - in terms of roads and airports. Importantly, it must try to enhance the quality of engineering education to improve the employability of the graduates.

Sanjay Jayavarthanavelu, chairman, CII - Tamil Nadu hoped that the SPEED initiative would bring fresh investment in auto and auto components, IT, textile, tourism and educational sector to Madurai and the southern districts.

R Ravi, Managing Director, RR Industries Ltd said that by 2010, there will be 80 million sq.ft., IT office space in Chennai, which is getting increasingly saturated in terms of availability of land. Hence, the Tier II cities will be the only option for the IT companies to setup their base. He urged the Government to take steps to extend the IT exemption offered to STPI registered units, which is going to be withdrawn by 2009, for at least a period of 10 years so that it will help save especially the small and medium IT companies.

CIOL Bureau