Tamil Nadu needs strategic interventions in focus areas to attain $1 trillion economy by 2030: FICCI report

The three strategic areas would enable the state to leverage its current strengths that would harness the competitive advantages to effectively grow its economy, the report said.

Tamil Nadu has immense untapped potential in the electric vehicle (EV) space and the focus needed today is to establish an automotive cluster connecting Chennai, Kancheepuram, Chengalpet, and Tiruvallur corridor, it stated.

"The state has already put its best foot forward with the advent of the Tamil Nadu EV Policy 2023 — identifying key EV cities of Chennai, Coimbatore, Tiruchirappalli, Madurai, Salem and Tirunelveli — with the goal of making TN as the preferred destination for EV manufacturing in South East Asia," it said.

With food processing being the primary sector, Tamil Nadu can look at becoming a food processing hub utilising the agrarian prowess of the Cauvery delta region with Nagapattinam, Thanjavur and Tiruvarur primarily being agriculture-dominant districts.

On the textile front, the study said the state should aim to help industries to diversify their export following the impact caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

According to the report, orders from Europe to textile manufacturers in the state have dwindled bringing down the total textile export by over 45 per cent. "This has led to a large loss of employment and closures of spinning, weaving, and knitting units," it said.

Tamil Nadu has the potential to build on the exports from information technology-enabled services (ITES) and global capability centres (GCC) hub contributing up to 10 per cent of the $1 trillion target.

The state already has a 'well-established' GCC base and currently hosts 150-170 such centres, the report said.

Similar GCCs should be set up in Tier-II cities like Hosur, Salem, Tiruppur, and Tirunelveli to truly transform these cities into a hub for advanced technology services and research and development.

With its cultural heritage and coastline, Tamil Nadu has proven its capacity in boosting tourism by holding global meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions and successfully hosting the Chess Olympiad 2022.

To consolidate its position as a global tourism hub, the state can consider entering public-private partnerships (PPP mode) with property developers to establish convention centres.

On research and development, the report recommended that the state must aim to make Chennai the leading startup hub along with other cities like Coimbatore, Madurai and Tiruchirappalli.

The government would need to expand efforts under the Tamil Nadu Startup and Innovation Mission (StartupTN) in terms of seed funding, investor-founders network, provision of dedicated office spaces, outreach support and others.

On aerospace and defence manufacturing, the report said special focus could be given to emerging sectors like unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), defence electronics and communication devices, advanced weapons and ammunition among others.

"The state can incentivise defence sector companies that set up Centres of Excellence for defence technology in leading universities…," it said.

While noting that Tamil Nadu needs to grow at an average of 16.5 percent to achieve this milestone of a $1 trillion economy, the report said structured strategic interventions need to be made in focus areas to reach its goal.

"Achieving this growth rate (16.5 percent) will require the introduction of path-breaking policies and economic planning to attract investments, enhance production and expand exports," it said.

Tamil Nadu would require to climb up the value chain across the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy to increase its value addition.

The study also recommended that structured strategic interventions require constant monitoring, evaluation and fine-tuning in the focus areas.

The key performance indicators must be closely monitored at the chief minister's level and immediate course correction should be taken by government departments, it said.