Tamil Nadu retains investment destination tag in 2022 with Rs 1 lakh crore investments

Chennai: Often billed as a favoured investment destination, Tamil Nadu managed to garner over Rs 1 lakh crore in investments committed by various companies in 2022, a year that brought both challenges and opportunities to the southern state. It faced the challenge arising out of various issues like the Russia-Ukraine conflict or the suspension of production at US automaker Ford near here among others.

This year, Tamil Nadu signed a memorandum of understanding with over 60 companies which committed investments of Rs 1.25 lakh crore that would generate around 75,000 new jobs.

Chief Minister M K Stalin has been reaching out to investors at various platforms to make Tamil Nadu become the most attractive investment destination in South Asia and endeavour towards 'Made in Tamil Nadu' products reaching all parts of the world.

The government also maintained Tamil Nadu was the only state in the country to post a 'positive growth' during the Covid-19 enforced lockdown period while other states reported negative growth.

According to the Industry department, TN is the second largest state economy in India accounting for 9.47 per cent of the GDP in FY 2020-21. In 2021-22, the economy saw a rebound with the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) increasing from Rs 19.02 lakh crore to Rs 21.79 crore.

The government, besides its many policy initiatives, announced establishing the Rs 20,000 crore greenfield airport at Parandur with an aim to give a fillip to the state's economy. It can handle an annual capacity of 10 crore passengers. The airport expected to be operational by 2029-30 would have two runways, a terminal building, taxiways, an apron, a cargo terminal and other required amenities.

To reach the ambitious USD 1 trillion economies by FY 2030-31, the government has drawn up several plans which include attracting Rs 23 lakh crore investments in the manufacturing sector and creating 46 lakh new jobs.

To achieve a USD 1 trillion economy, the manufacturing sector must take the centre stage for economic development, an official said.

Tamil Nadu is a manufacturing hub in the country due to its significant presence in sectors like automobiles and auto-components including electric vehicles, textiles and wearing apparel, leather, chemicals including rubber and plastic, electronics, machinery and fabricated metal products, the official said.

On the exports, front Tamil Nadu accounted for 8.40 per cent of the country's total exports with Rs 1.90 lakh crore of shipments made overseas.

The Guidance Bureau, a nodal agency to boost investment promotion in the state, has been enhancing the single window portal to provide a seamless experience for investors.

The government has been working on new policies including life sciences promotion policy, research and development, leather and footwear policy and also upgrading the existing electric vehicle policy to accelerate the growth of these sectors.

Some of the major projects ensured by the government include the large-scale furniture park, one of its kind, which is expected to come up in the SIPCOT industrial park in Tuticorin at an estimate of Rs 1,000 crore.

Another investment milestone achieved in 2022 was the Rs 3,500 crore investment commitment from Dubai-based Lulu Group.

An E-vehicle park and future mobility park are also on the development stage with SIPCOT establishing the former in over 300 acres of land in Manallur at an investment of Rs 167.30 crore, the official said.

To support environmentally, sustainable and modern transportation solutions, SIPCOT also planned to establish a Future Mobility Park on a 300-acre land in Shoolagiri, Krishnagiri district at an outlay of Rs 300 crore.

Electric vehicle maker Euler Motors founder-CEO Saurav Kumar said 2022 has shown that EVs are the future of mobility.

There is demand and customer willingness towards an electric transition across spaces -- retail and institutional in every segment category be it two-wheelers or commercial, he said in a statement.

This year, US-headquartered Ford Motors decided to suspend production at its TN unit as part of a 'restructuring exercise'.

While the decision was already made by Ford in September 2021, the process which was planned to end by March 31, 2022, culminated only on September 30, as it faced labour unrest during the period.

The nearly 2,000-odd employees resorted to protest claiming that the severance package offered by the company was not sufficient.

In July Ford rolled out the last product -- sports utility vehicle (SUV) EcoSport from the assembly lines at the unit located about 45 km from here.

While Ford had plans to manufacture electric vehicles in the facility, the project was 'shelved' despite receiving approvals from the government for production-linked incentives. On the information technology and software front, a CII-KPMG report had said the IT companies in Tamil Nadu were focusing big on Metaverse, Web 3.0 technologies towards enabling Tamil Nadu to reach the USD 1 trillion economies.

According to the report, for Tamil Nadu to reach the vision, Metaverse, Web 3.0 and related technologies would help achieve the overall gross state domestic product.

Minister of information technology and digital services T Mano Thangaraj had said the government should come out with a policy on Global Capability Centres.

The policy on GCC follows similar policy announcements by the government including on Cyber Security policy, safe and ethical artificial intelligence policy, IT policy among others.

In the banking sector, Tamil Nadu-based public sector Indian Bank and Indian Overseas Bank reported better performances in 2022 as compared to 2021 largely impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Indian Bank reported a 13 per cent increase in its net profits for the July-September period at Rs 1,225 crore as against Rs 1,089 crore registered in the corresponding period of last year.

Indian Overseas Bank registered a 33.2 per cent increase in its net profits for the July-September period at Rs 501 crore.

Commenting on the poultry industry performance, Coimbatore-headquartered Suguna Group chairman B Soundararajan said, "we have noticed that the consumption pattern of consumers has slowly shifted from food security to nutritional security with an increased awareness towards protein consumption." The year 2022 was favourable to the poultry sector as a whole. In India, the poultry industry produces and consumes 600 billion eggs and six million tonnes of chicken meat every year, he said.

"We anticipate considerable breakthroughs in the poultry industry, as well as increased consumption and adaptability of processed meat in India by 2023," he said.