Seven months into his role as industry minister,
Thangam Thennarasu
is slowly redrafting
government policies
, promising to take industries to the state’s hinterland. The minister shares the government’s plans.
Excerpts:What is your assessment of the current industry scenario?Commitments to start business in the state shows investor confidence in the leadership of chief minister
M K Stalin. The manner in which the government handled the pandemic with minimal disruption to business is seen as a plus point in this globalised trade era. Business houses, small and big, and exporters were allowed to function with safeguards so they were not impacted by the lockdown.
What changes can we expect in incentive patterns?We cannot go by a set path. We have to redefine ourselves. We are looking at policies for emerging sectors. We are strong in general manufacturing, automobile engineering, textiles and leather. But just these sectors cannot take us to our goal of being a $1 trillion economy by 2030. Solar panel manufacturing, wind energy, e-mobility, fintech and data centres offer huge growth opportunities, and we are focusing on these.
Is it essential to reserve jobs for locals?r locals? And when we talk about investments, we are also concerned about employment opportunities. And it is necessary to reserve jobs for locals. If someone is setting up an industry in a location, all the resources that are meant for the locals of that area are used by the industry. We are taking their land and apportioning the resources that the locals are entitled to. So we should give something back to them. We can’t give cash doles, instead we can help them get employment which is a long-term benefit. We are asking companies to give us a commitment to e m p l o y l o c a l s, though we haven’t set any quota for them. Incentives will be linked to this criterion.
How difficult is taking industries down south?It has been a constant need. A dedicated corridor like the MaduraiTuticorin industrial corridor was announced by Kalaignar Karunanidhi in 2009. Unfortunately, nothing happened in the past 10 years. An SPV was established to attract investments there, but it never took off. There was no focus or thrust. Soon you will see more investments in southern
Tamil Nadu. A dedicated furniture park is coming up in Tuticorin. Investments are coming in the solar and wind energy sectors; textile factories are evincing interest.
What about the services sector?It is a cash cow that has grown and contributed without much support. We can get more from it. We will look at strengthening the services sector with specific policy initiatives. A big change will be on the HR front and tech skills. Now we want to pivot it for investments and help startups.
What is being done to meet the changing industry needs?It is important to have workers near the place of work for operational efficiency. Sipcot has established residential quarters for garment unit workers in Tirupur, similar to the Chinese model. They are in the process of setting up one more in Oragadam for Foxconn. We will look at setting up such facilities wherever the industry needs.
Most of the software professionals working in Chennai are from southern Tamil Nadu. They can work from these towns. There will be huge cost benefits. We have started discussions with software companies to go to tier II cities where we have announced three Tidel parks.
Zoho Corporation
is a story worth emulating. HCL Tech is becoming big in Madurai.
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