Anand Mahindra explains why he set up research centre in Tamil Nadu

Chennai: Industrialist Anand Mahindra on Monday said the quality of human resources and efficient bureaucracy in Tamil Nadu were the reasons behind the Mahindra Group setting up its research and development centre in the state.

Participating in a session on 'Tamil Nadu as an Ideal Investment Destination' on the sidelines of the two-day Global Investors' Meet 2024 organised by the DMK Government, he said the quality of human capital always matters.

Mahindra, who did his schooling in Tamil Nadu, said education is literally worshipped in the state.

"It became very apparent in school, that the high achievers are not always sportsmen or speakers, but it is about the academics and that is the first memory of Tamil Nadu (I have)," Mahindra said in his address.

Referring to the company’s association with Ford in the mid-1990s, the Mahindra Group chairman said the officials from the US carmaker encouraged him to look for land near Chennai to set up a manufacturing facility.

"It is the Americans (officials from Ford Motor Company) who did not know much about India, said we should seriously look at Tamil Nadu because of the quality of human resources and the engineering skills available here. We at Mahindra have always valued that and learned from that," he said.

Mahindra acknowledged the presence of the company’s head of research and development, Velusamy among the audience, who also hails from Tamil Nadu.

“Velu is a story in himself. He schooled entirely in Tamil Nadu and he has risen to become one of the most respected automobile engineers in India and even in the world. Congratulations to you,” he said earning applause from the audience.

On the setting up of Mahindra World City near Chennai, Mahindra said the company initially had planned to set it up as Mahindra Industrial Park and when it had identified the land, the auto-component suppliers had already moved to other locations.

“I was told that I am creating a white elephant and it is better to give the land back to the state government. That was the attitude then. But we pivoted and repositioned Mahindra Industrial Park as Mahindra World City as we strongly believed in the resources here and convinced (Infosys Chairman) Narayanamurthy to set up an office here (at Mahindra World City) and then there was no looking back,” he said.

“All of you know what kind of tenants and what kind of people we have (at Mahindra World City). But they all are here because of the human resource here,” he said.

Before concluding his speech, Mahindra also lauded the "outstanding bureaucracy" of Tamil Nadu.

"All our projects were enabled because of the outstanding bureaucracy. Whatever political regimes came and went here, the bureaucracy is simple and outstanding. Very supportive and always with you and stood with us whenever we had teething troubles in our projects," he said.

“The human resource is a brahmastra and Tamil Nadu’s brahmastra is its weapon of empowerment and it is going to ensure that the power of human capital pushes new frontiers and makes the world a better place," he said.