writingonblog uncensored: Rival states open Chennai offices to woo Tamil Nad...

writingonblog uncensored: Rival states open Chennai offices to woo Tamil Nad...: C Shivakumar @ CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu's status as one of India's favoured industrial destinations is being tested on its own ground. Ri...

Rival states open Chennai offices to woo Tamil Nadu's investors and its dealmakers

C Shivakumar @ CHENNAI:

Tamil Nadu's status as one of India's favoured industrial destinations is being tested on its own ground. Rival states are opening offices in Chennai to reach the companies that have long looked to the city when expanding.

The Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board, an investment promotion agency, is contemplating to establish its presence here and Invest UP, Uttar Pradesh's investment promotion agency, has established a presence in the city. Haryana is also expected to follow, say sources.

The contest is also over people. Both agencies are drawing on investment-promotion professionals trained at Guidance Tamil Nadu, the state's investment promotion agency. The state Industries department has described poaching as a "serious concern". As it prepares a pay revision, staff have been asked to sign a bond promising not to join a competing state, according to people familiar with discussions held this week.

"There is huge demand for officials of Guidance because they are more skilled," a former Guidance official said.

The exposure is institutional as well as personal. Guidance was set up 34 years ago and was among the first state agencies to bring investment promotion in-house rather than lean on consultancies such as Boston Consulting Group, Ernst and Young and KPMG, a former Guidance official said. Officials from Kerala, Telangana and Karnataka have visited Chennai to study the model. Guidance has also spent years cultivating a network of target companies that newer agencies lack. Losing experienced staff could mean losing knowledge of investors, projects and negotiations, not just headcount.

A Industries department source told TNIE that there had been attempts to lure Guidance employees. He argued that states should compete on the strength of their propositions, not on each other's staff. "Our approach has never been to compete on incentives alone," he said, pointing to Tamil Nadu's industrial ecosystem, infrastructure, talent, speed of execution and policy continuity.

Andhra Pradesh plays down the rivalry. Openly we don't see it as a competition, an Andhra Pradesh industries official said, adding that it was not as bad as people over here think. The state's priority is anchor projects around which suppliers can cluster, and it will need closer links with Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai to build them.

Tamil Nadu has nonetheless lost ground to it. Under Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Andhra Pradesh has pursued investors aggressively. Hwaseung Enterprises, the South Korean footwear maker, moved a planned Rs 1,720cn non-leather footwear plant to Kuppam in Andhra Pradesh after being offered more lucrative land-linked incentives last year. It had earlier signed a memorandum of understanding with Tamil Nadu. Andhra Pradesh also beat Tamil Nadu to a proposed flight-testing and integration complex for the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft, India's fifth-generation stealth fighter programme, and tried unsuccessfully to court a $4 billion HD Hyundai shipbuilding project, coming up in Thoothukudi.

Uttar Pradesh is taking a more direct approach. Its Chennai office, has been operating for about a month under a general manager, according to an Invest UP official. Offices are also being set up in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi and Mumbai. The aim is to meet investors "on the ground" rather than wait for them to come to Lucknow. Chennai's concentration of automotive, electronics and engineering companies makes it an obvious target. The state is also weighing country-specific enclaves for Taiwanese, South Korean and Japanese companies. Invest UP official has privately called the contest among states a "blood sport".

Tamil Nadu insists the new arrivals do not change its approach. The Industries department official said it remains in regular contact with companies in India and abroad, digitally and in person. "If India has to grow, every state has to grow," the department official said, arguing that states should aim to enlarge the overall pool of investment rather than redistribute it.

writingonblog uncensored: TN registers one lakh property documents online

writingonblog uncensored: TN registers one lakh property documents online: Tamil Nadu has registered more than 100,000 property documents in the 44 days from August 17 to September 30, under the state’s “Presenceles...

writingonblog uncensored: Qatar interest fuels Kothari Industrial’s Tamil Na...

writingonblog uncensored: Qatar interest fuels Kothari Industrial’s Tamil Na...: CHENNAI: Kothari Industrial Corporation is seeking to accelerate its expansion in Tamil Nadu with interest from Qatar’s Al Thani family, as ...

Qatar interest fuels Kothari Industrial’s Tamil Nadu expansion

CHENNAI:
Kothari Industrial Corporation is seeking to accelerate its expansion in Tamil Nadu with interest from Qatar’s Al Thani family, as the group diversifies beyond footwear into design education, fertilisers, drones, food and consumer goods.

At its 56th annual general meeting in Chennai on Wednesday, executive chairman Jinnah Rafiq Ahmed said Sheikh Jassamal Al Thani had expressed interest in supporting KICL’s next phase of growth. The company did not disclose the size or structure of any proposed investment.

Tamil Nadu is at the centre of its expansion. KICL is developing a 225-acre project in Madurai and evaluating opportunities in Ramanathapuram. Its footwear operations include Phoenix Kothari Park at Padalur and an Adidas facility in Karur. The company is also partnering with Italy’s IUAD to establish a design school in Hosur, with short-term programmes expected from November and degree courses from April 2027.

KICL is reviving its fertiliser business, expanding drones into manufacturing and entering FMCG, a release stated.

TN registers one lakh property documents online

Tamil Nadu has registered more than 100,000 property documents in the 44 days from August 17 to September 30, under the state’s “Presenceless Registration” system, which allows documents to be submitted online around the clock without a physical visit to a registration office.

The system was made mandatory on August 17 for the first sale of plots and flats in apartment projects. From September 15, it was extended to title-deed deposits and receipt deeds involving banks and financial institutions.

The registration department in a release stated it would gradually extend presenceless registration to other categories of documents, with changes to the software being made on the basis of feedback from citizens, developers, banks and other users

writingonblog uncensored: Uttar Pradesh vows to chase southern states indust...

writingonblog uncensored: Uttar Pradesh vows to chase southern states indust...: C Shivakumar @ Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh, long associated with agrarian economy and jobless growth, is seeking to rewrite its economic narrativ...