Industries, Indian, Science, Technology, Festivals, Dance, Tamilian music culture

Industries

Tamil Nadu is among the most industrialized States in India today. The State ranks next to Maharashtra in terms of the contribution of the manufacturing sector to NSDP. The major industries are automobiles, cotton, textiles, rubber, food products, machinery, transport equipment and leather and leather goods. During the 1980s, the average growth of the industrial sector was 4.52 per cent while during the 1990s the average growth rate increased to 5.35 per cent. However, the industrial growth rate fluctuated significantly from year to year registering growth rates as high as 16 per cent in 1983–4 and as low as -7.4 per cent in 1991–2. Growth rates should become sustained in the future given current policy initiatives.

The Government of Tamil Nadu has followed and is following a very liberal and pragmatic industrial policy which has created a conducive industrial climate in the State. The success achieved so far is also due to the fact that the State Government has been focussing on strengthening its industrial and social infrastructure in terms of power generation, communication networks and development of minor ports. Evidence already exists that things are looking up for Tamil Nadu. The State is rapidly attracting a large number of foreign and domestic investors to locate their production facilities in Tamil Nadu.

According to a report by the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CMIE), Tamil Nadu stands third in terms of foreign direct investment (FDI) approval. The FDI approval was of the order of 2351 billion in August 2002. This is 8.32 per cent of the total FDI in the country. More than 50 per cent of the investment is for the development of infrastructural facilities of which more than 50 per cent is for power generation.

Tamil Nadu was also rated by CMIE as the second best State in the country in terms of the quality of infrastructural facilities. Tamil Nadu also has been at the forefront in attracting foreign investment into the local information technology (IT) industry. In 1998, the State announced an industry friendly IT Policy, and set up an IT task force to monitor its implementation. The software exports have zoomed from almost nothing to over US $ 1 billion in 2001–02. The Chief Minister announced the new IT Policy, 2002 on 19 September 2002, designed to establish the State as the ‘Destination of Choice’ for information technology (IT) investments and to develop the State as a global centre for business process outsourcing (BPO).

Besides promoting e-governance and IT applications in Government and introducing electronic delivery of services (EDS), the digital divide will be bridged by accelerating internet penetration in rural areas, setting up of kiosks and online libraries and a bilingual internet portal with links to State Government Departments and Services.