How has 2017-18 been for Tamilnadu?
It is well-known (by June 2018) that Tamilnadu is the state to be, if running protests and riots is your primary business.
Oh, we have started to specialize in protests for specific industries and I would not be surprised if there are courses in arts colleges in TN teaching domain-specific protesting techniques.
My concerns mainly
So it was with fear and concern for my state, I discovered and shared a media report recently with friends.
This is from a popular TV channel in June 2018 and I have not seen anyone contesting these numbers so far.
It basically says the following about the year that saw the heaviest political turmoil and the peak of protests in TN's history:
(1) The industry investment into Tamilnadu has gone down by 11,000 crores within last 1 year
(2) About 50,000 industrial establishments have been closed down in Tamilnadu
(3) Small and Medium Enterprise sector has seen a job loss of over 5,00,000 people.
Here is another well-researched answer by someone in Quora who shares similar thoughts that TN will become a terrible place to live if the same kind of protests continue: http://qr.ae/TUp22v
So, it confirmed my suspicion that we are staring at darker days of the state and a strong political and industrial leadership seems missing.
Is there light at the end of the dark tunnel?
Looking at an alternate perspective, there was a silent news that I do not know how many people caught on to!
https://swarajyamag.com/economy/how-tamil-nadu-is-silently-mopping-up-big-investments
Ironically, this was from Swarajya which is a magazine many in India credit to be a right wing major. Going by their reputation, they should be kind of against what is happening in Tamilnadu. But this article astonishingly supports TN and highlights its growth!
The key points from the article are:
(1) In January 2018, the ruling AIADMK government passed the Business Facilitation Act that allows single point of receipt of allocation to get clearances required to set up or expand a company. Under this act, so far 10 approvals for pre-establishment of an industry have been integrated in the Tamil Nadu Industrial Guidance and Exports portal. Though the act is for all industries, including large, medium, small and micro scale, initially it is for large-scale units.
(2) The ease of doing business in Tamil Nadu has improved also with accessibility to bureaucrats improving. Earlier, during the rule of J Jayalalithaa, entrepreneurs had to wait to meet her. They couldn’t directly meet any bureaucrat. Now, things have changed and businessmen are allowed to meet bureaucrats. This is true from my own personal experience also in the state.
(3) Tamil Nadu offers incentives to investors based on the employment opportunity they create or offer. Take Hyundai, for instance. It has 703 vendors supplying components and 115 of them from South Korea. Nearly 85 per cent of the automobile maker’s components are made in Tamil Nadu by these vendors, most of who operate around the company’s vicinity in clusters.
It is well-known (by June 2018) that Tamilnadu is the state to be, if running protests and riots is your primary business.
Oh, we have started to specialize in protests for specific industries and I would not be surprised if there are courses in arts colleges in TN teaching domain-specific protesting techniques.
My concerns mainly
So it was with fear and concern for my state, I discovered and shared a media report recently with friends.
This is from a popular TV channel in June 2018 and I have not seen anyone contesting these numbers so far.
It basically says the following about the year that saw the heaviest political turmoil and the peak of protests in TN's history:
(1) The industry investment into Tamilnadu has gone down by 11,000 crores within last 1 year
(2) About 50,000 industrial establishments have been closed down in Tamilnadu
(3) Small and Medium Enterprise sector has seen a job loss of over 5,00,000 people.
Here is another well-researched answer by someone in Quora who shares similar thoughts that TN will become a terrible place to live if the same kind of protests continue: http://qr.ae/TUp22v
So, it confirmed my suspicion that we are staring at darker days of the state and a strong political and industrial leadership seems missing.
Is there light at the end of the dark tunnel?
Looking at an alternate perspective, there was a silent news that I do not know how many people caught on to!
https://swarajyamag.com/economy/how-tamil-nadu-is-silently-mopping-up-big-investments
Ironically, this was from Swarajya which is a magazine many in India credit to be a right wing major. Going by their reputation, they should be kind of against what is happening in Tamilnadu. But this article astonishingly supports TN and highlights its growth!
The key points from the article are:
(1) In January 2018, the ruling AIADMK government passed the Business Facilitation Act that allows single point of receipt of allocation to get clearances required to set up or expand a company. Under this act, so far 10 approvals for pre-establishment of an industry have been integrated in the Tamil Nadu Industrial Guidance and Exports portal. Though the act is for all industries, including large, medium, small and micro scale, initially it is for large-scale units.
(2) The ease of doing business in Tamil Nadu has improved also with accessibility to bureaucrats improving. Earlier, during the rule of J Jayalalithaa, entrepreneurs had to wait to meet her. They couldn’t directly meet any bureaucrat. Now, things have changed and businessmen are allowed to meet bureaucrats. This is true from my own personal experience also in the state.
(3) Tamil Nadu offers incentives to investors based on the employment opportunity they create or offer. Take Hyundai, for instance. It has 703 vendors supplying components and 115 of them from South Korea. Nearly 85 per cent of the automobile maker’s components are made in Tamil Nadu by these vendors, most of who operate around the company’s vicinity in clusters.
So, what does 2018 entail for Tamilnadu?
Going by the current trend of protests, am cautiously pessimistic. But the recent strong steps by the government of Tamilnadu have done a bit in restoring my confidence towards taking a cautiously optimistic vision for the state in 2018.
(1) Plastic ban by TN Government is seen as a welcome move
(2) TN Chief Minister gives a strong statement out to protestors of the Chennai-Salem highway
(3) TN Chief Minister talking about the police shoot-out at Sterlite protest
I am sincerely hoping that my fears about the state losing its industrial advantage will be proven wrong by end of 2018 ... will do some fact-finding on some of these protests in my future blogs.
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