Tamil Nadu Global Investors Meet: Outcomes Must Live Up To State’s Hallowed Industrial Legacy

Back in the latter half of 2015, the then Jayalalithaa government organised the first Tamil Nadu Global Investors Meet (TNGIM), and announced that more than a 100 MoUs with various investors, to raise Rs 2.4 lakh crore of investment, had been signed during the much-ballyhooed event.

Upon closer scrutiny of the details much later, it emerged that many of the projects that were inked during the jamboree were actually previously announced.

They were all made out as if the event managed to attract a huge chunk of global funds for setting up industries in Tamil Nadu.

The first TNGIM was touted a major success and Jayalalithaa used it extensively during her election campaign in the summer of 2016, and actually romped home bucking the traditional anti-incumbency trend in the state. 

In January 2019, Edappadi Palniswamy government organised the second edition of TNGIM, and big numbers were thrown up as ever.

But evidently, his bid to make political capital out of it came unstuck as the poll results in 2021 did not go in his party's favour. 

But the fact of the matter is Edappadi Palniswamy too used the TNGIM numbers in his party's campaign plank. The point is, the TNGIM event has been some kind of jubilee for the ruling party to take advantage of.

And so there is little surprise that when the third TNGIM is about to kick off in Chennai on 7 January, the feeling is that it is going to be a Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) fest.

Setting the tone for it, in a pre-event video, the respected head honcho of TVS Motor Company, belonging to perhaps the most celebrated home-grown industrial group in Tamil Nadu, Venu Srinivasan, spoke about the skilled and dedicated industrial workers.

And speaking about the industrial policy of the state, he took the names of former chief ministers K Kamaraj and M Karunanidhi.

Egregiously, he did not mention MGR and J Jayalalithaa, the chief ministers who have also done a lot to continue a seamless industrial policy in the state.

Tamil Nadu Industrialisation Started Much Before Dravidian Politicos Arrived

Venu Srinivasan's compulsions can be understood considering the political climate currently prevailing in the state. Nonetheless, he should also have known better as his own illustrious group was started by that patriarch Thirukkurungudi Vengaram Sundaram Iyengar way back in 1911, when Kamaraj was not 10 yet and Karunanidhi was not even born.

In fact, that belt near Thirukkurungudi in the Tirunelveli district, comprising places like Kalliddaikurichi and Alwarkurichi, had been a trendsetter in the industrialisation of Tamil Nadu, long before any of the Dravidian outfits had become a political force.

India Cements, among the biggest names from Tamil Nadu, had its origins there with one of its founders Sankaralinga Iyer hailing from that area. He and Narayanaswamy (N Srinivasan's father) set up their cement plant in Sankarnagar (Thalaiyuthu) in Tirunelveli district.

Sankarlinga Iyer, whose origins lie in Kallidaikurichi, also founded the famed Sanmar group. From Kallidaikurichi itself came K R Sundaram Iyer who set up the Royal Enfield company in 1955 to manufacture the famed motorcycles.

Another well-known output from Kallidaikurichi was Eswaran Iyer, who started as a trader in bicycles through the Easun Group, which is now well established company for electrical power solutions.

K S Vaidyanathan of Paterson & Co was also from Kallidaikurichi. Paterson, a stock broking firm, was responsible for the first public issue in independent India in 1948. As it happens, the IPO was ‘India Cements’.

Not too far from Kallidaikurichi is Alwarkurichi, which is the home town of S Anantharamakrishnan, founder of the Amalgamations Group, which is into automobiles, plantation and trading, among others.

And there are also time-tested big industrial groups in the Coimbatore-Erode belt, which have been operational for several decades now. 

This detour into the industrial history of Tamil Nadu is necessary to drive home the idea that big companies had emerged in the state long before these Dravidian forces came to power. The industrialisation of the state happened not because of the much vaunted 'Dravidian model'.

Tamil Nadu And The Luck Of Engineering Colleges Glut

To be fair, though, the Dravidian parties did not drop the ball when their time came and have ensured a certain continuity in the industrial policy.

A good chunk of technological companies have also set shop in the state in the last 30-40 years, using the engineering talent available in abundance locally.

The emergence of engineering students in huge numbers happened at the right time when India was breaking free from the clutches of dreary socialism from the mid-80s. 

And fortuitously it was exactly the period when engineering colleges emerged left, right and centre in Tamil Nadu. Fortuitously because there was no great planning or forethought behind the arrival of the new fangled engineering colleges in the state.

They were mostly approved by the MGR government (on its last days) and the short-lived V N Janaki government (it last for a mere 23 days). The colleges, most of them with no real facilities or faculty then, were given permission as a political favour to known party functionaries, and through an allegedly corrupt process.

But these colleges, over time, got better and when the Narasimha Rao government opened up the economy and industries began to sprout, the newly emerging engineers from the state were right on the threshold to reap the benefit. It is a tale of both happenstance and talent.

It is the same engineering pool that also took wings to start working in America and other places of the world. That the nearby Telugu speaking folks took inspiration from Tamil Nadu and have beaten it up in this game of engineers' diaspora is an altogether different story.

The good presence of Indian engineers (especially from the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra) in places like the US and UK all through the 90s, kind of ensured that when big tech companies wanted to come to India, these states became the main destinations in the first decade of this century.

Now in 2024, engineering talent is no longer Tamil Nadu's domain alone. Many states have caught up. Of course, the relatively peaceful industrial climate of the state, a labour force known for its skills and work ethic are still some of the advantages for Tamil Nadu.

And despite the occasional worker unrest, like in Apple products manufacturing unit of Foxconn back in December 2021, the Communist have also been kept at bay for the most part.   

But then again, Andhra and Telangana, not to speak of states like Maharashtra and Gujarat, are not slouches. They too are making strides. The competition is intense, and has big political ramifications.

It is in this context that events like TNGIM 2024 have to be seen. It can show whether the state continues to enjoy the confidence of global industrial conglomerates. 

Of course, there will be plenty of noise of new MoUs being signed and lakhs of crores of rupees coming in as investment. But once the hullabaloo dies, and when the real numbers are parsed, the truth will emerge.

It will show whether the ruling government in the state has managed to pull off what it will doubtless claim.