writingonblog uncensored: Danish Industry turns to Tamil Nadu engineers to p...

writingonblog uncensored: Danish Industry turns to Tamil Nadu engineers to p...:   C Shivakumar @ CHENNAI:  Danish Industry plans to deploy Tamil Nadu engineers to Denmark under a joint pilot with the state government, ...

Danish Industry turns to Tamil Nadu engineers to plug skills gap

 

C Shivakumar @ CHENNAI: 
Danish Industry plans to deploy Tamil Nadu engineers to Denmark under a joint pilot with the state government, even as Danish companies expand research and development and scale up their Chennai presence to address skills shortages and support long-term investment.

Under the pilot project, being undertaken jointly with the Tamil Nadu government, the state will identify candidates while Danish Industry will screen 50 mechanical engineering graduates for placement in Denmark, said Jesper Bollerup Gade, managing director of Danish Industry India.

Speaking after the inauguration of the Confederation of Danish Industry’s new office and workspace in Pallavaram, Chennai, Gade said the programme marked a shift in how Danish companies viewed India’s engineering talent.

“When Danish Industry first came to India in 2022, the idea was to scout for relatively cheaper manpower to do jobs Danish engineers found less attractive. That has changed,” he said. “Engineers in Chennai are so good that, in many cases, they are actually better than Danish engineers.”

The growing confidence in Indian talent has prompted Danish companies to move more innovation-led work, including research and development, to India, particularly Tamil Nadu. Gade said the Technical University of Denmark already has a collaboration with IIT Madras, with discussions under way with other technical institutions in Chennai.

Reflecting the deepening engagement, Gade said Danish Industry had started operations in Chennai in 2022 with a 10-seater office in Guindy, but within four years had expanded to a 140-seater facility, underscoring the importance Denmark places on Chennai as a strategic base in India.

Engineers recruited under the programme would be paid on par with their Danish counterparts and supported through what Gade described as an ethical recruitment process, with emphasis on individual welfare and cultural integration.

“This is a pilot project, but it will continue and is likely to expand to other areas depending on industry needs,” he said.

Beyond engineering talent, Danish companies are also eyeing opportunities in India’s energy transition under the Green Strategic Partnership between the two countries. Gade said there was strong interest in Danish hydrogen-production technologies and efforts were under way to bring these to India, potentially leveraging a proposed free trade agreement with Europe.

India is competing with markets such as China and the US for Danish investment, Gade said, adding that while India could be a challenging market, it offered compelling long-term partnership opportunities.

Lars Sandahl Sørensen, chief executive of the Confederation of Danish Industry, said Danish businesses had been present in India for over a century, with the fastest recent growth concentrated in Chennai and Tamil Nadu.

“Chennai and Tamil Nadu are something special,” Sørensen said. “This region stands out for its vibrancy in development, skills and labour, as well as the current DMK government’s focus on attracting investment.”

Sorensen said discussions with Industries Minister T R B Rajaa had focused on expanding Danish investments in the state. “The government is ambitious and keen to create the best possible conditions for business,” he said.

On the offshore wind project that failed to take off in Rameswaram, Gade said the company was reassessing its financial model. Offshore wind projects are significantly more expensive than onshore alternatives and rely on a different supply chain, he said, adding that developers were reluctant to bid without mechanisms such as government-backed viability gap funding.

writingonblog uncensored: Tamil Nadu realtors back infra thrust in Budget, f...

writingonblog uncensored: Tamil Nadu realtors back infra thrust in Budget, f...:  Chennai: Tamil Nadu stands to gain from the Union Budget 2026–27’s continued emphasis on infrastructure-led growth, with sustained public i...

Tamil Nadu realtors back infra thrust in Budget, flag affordable housing gap

 Chennai:
Tamil Nadu stands to gain from the Union Budget 2026–27’s continued emphasis on infrastructure-led growth, with sustained public investment expected to strengthen urban connectivity and open up new real estate growth corridors across the state, according to CREDAI Tamil Nadu.

The budget’s focus on highways, metro rail, logistics corridors and urban infrastructure could support planned development in Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai and a clutch of emerging cities, helping align real estate expansion with long-term economic capacity, said Habib WS, president of CREDAI Tamil Nadu.

Developers also welcomed measures aimed at improving ease of doing business, including faster approvals, streamlined regulatory processes and wider use of digital systems. These steps could reduce project delays and holding costs, improving delivery timelines and offering greater certainty to homebuyers.

However, the industry body flagged concerns over the absence of targeted support for affordable housing. Rising land and construction costs, combined with what it described as an outdated definition of affordability, are pushing the segment to the margins. Industry estimates suggest affordable housing’s share of total residential supply could decline from around 18 per cent to nearly 12 per cent.

Affordable housing, CREDAI argued, is core urban infrastructure rather than a welfare measure, warning that constrained supply would drive up rents, lengthen commutes and fuel informal housing. A review of definitions and incentives, it said, is essential to keep urban growth inclusive and sustainable.

India’s leather exports to EU could hit $6 billion by 2030 on zero-duty access

C Shivakumar @ CHENNAI:
India’s leather and footwear industry is pinning its next phase of export growth on the proposed India–EU free trade agreement, with industry leaders estimating exports to the bloc could rise to $6 billion by 2030 if zero-duty access is secured.

M Abdul Wahab, Regional Chairman (South), told The New Indian Express that the European Union currently accounts for about 43% of India’s leather exports, valued at around $2.4 billion. Export duties imposed by the EU range from 5% to 17%. “If these tariffs are reduced to zero under the FTA, exports to the EU could increase to $6 billion,” Wahab said.

However, this all depends on the ratification by EU states which is expected by the end of this year or by next year, he added.

Meanwhile, The Council for Leather Exports (CLE) has welcomed the Union Budget 2026–27 announcement extending the Import of Goods at Concessional Rate of Duty (IGCR) scheme to shoe uppers exporters, providing basic customs duty exemption for notified critical inputs.

The scheme, which already covers exporters of leather garments, footwear and leather products, has now been expanded to include shoe uppers exporters. CLE said the move would significantly benefit exporters of this value-added segment and help boost exports, which stood at $222 million in 2024–25.

The exporters’ body also welcomed the extension of the permissible export period under the IGCR scheme from six months to one year from the date of import of inputs, as notified under customs notification.
In addition, CLE thanked the government for extending the IGCR scheme’s validity till March 31, 2028, from the earlier deadline of March 31, 2026.

The council also described as positive the extension of basic customs duty exemption on imports of tags, labels, stickers, belts and similar items by bona fide exporters until March 31, 2028.

The allocation under RoDTEP scheme (Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products), a government initiative to refund embedded central, state, and local taxes/levies on exported goods to boost competitiveness, has been reduced from Rs 18233 Cr in 2025-26 to Rs 10000 Cr in 2926-27, which has raised concern amongst the exporters.

writingonblog uncensored: IIT Madras–incubated startup tests indigenous elec...

writingonblog uncensored: IIT Madras–incubated startup tests indigenous elec...:   C Shivakumar @ Chennai: In a major boost to India’s push for smarter port logistics, TuTr Hyperloop Pvt. Ltd., an Indian Institute of Te...

IIT Madras–incubated startup tests indigenous electromagnetic cargo system at Kandla port

 

C Shivakumar @ Chennai:
In a major boost to India’s push for smarter port logistics, TuTr Hyperloop Pvt. Ltd., an Indian Institute of Technology Madras-incubated startup, has successfully demonstrated a prototype cargo transportation system based on Linear Induction Motor (LIM) technology at a major port in Gujarat.

The trial was conducted at Deendayal Port Authority, one of the country’s busiest maritime gateways, giving hope of electrically powered cargo movement systems as ports in India grapple with congestion, rising cargo volumes and tightening environmental norms.

Under pressure to move freight faster while reducing emissions and improving efficiency and productivity, the LIM-based transport, where electrically powered cargo pods travel along fixed tracks using electromagnetic propulsion, has caught the attention of policy-makers and ports.

TuTr co-founder Aravind S. Bharadwaj said the indigenous propulsion system performed as expected during the Kandla tests, marking a key step in taking laboratory research into live industrial settings. Now Tutr is planning to conduct a economic feasibility study on implementing the technology.

Encouraged by the results, the port authority now plans to advance to a live demonstration of a magnetic levitation, or maglev, platform — a move that would position Kandla as a testbed for next-generation port mobility solutions.

Sushil Kumar Singh, chairman of the port authority, said the trial underscored India’s growing capability to design and deploy complex transportation technologies domestically. Supporting a maglev pilot, he added, fits with the port’s long-term vision of building smart, sustainable and globally competitive infrastructure.

LIM systems are fully electric, involve fewer moving parts and can be operated autonomously, helping cut fuel consumption, maintenance costs and emissions. Compared with conventional wheeled systems, LIM-based transport offers smoother acceleration and lower mechanical wear — features well suited to high-throughput port environments.

For TuTr Hyperloop, the deployment represents a milestone in translating academic research into scalable industrial applications. Bharadwaj said the planned linear propoulsion was successful and we are planning for a magalev trial, a natural extension of the company’s roadmap to deliver indigenous mobility solutions for ports and logistics, with scope for adoption in India and overseas.

If the proof of concept scales successfully, the Kandla project could serve as a template for similar collaborations between ports and deep-tech startups, aligning with the Centre’s Make in India and Atmanirbhar Bharat agendas to embed home-grown innovation in critical infrastructure.