The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : “Tamil Nadu will provide world class infrastructure for industries”

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 18, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

“Tamil Nadu will provide world class infrastructure for industries”

Special Correspondent

Huge investments required, says Karunanidhi

CHENNAI: The State Government is committed to providing world class infrastructure to support the growth of industries, Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi said on Monday.

In his special address at the seventh edition of Connect 2007, India’s premier ICT event organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), he said, “To sustain the momentum, huge investments are required to strengthen the physical infrastructure. Our Government is committed to providing world class infrastructure to support the growth of industry in general and the Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) industry in particular.”

The Chief Minister said he was also aware of the fact that the human resource base in the State had to be strengthened further. In this context he pointed out that the Indian Institute of Information Technology for Design and Manufacturing near Chennai was being set up by the Centre on his initiative.

He called upon the CII to create a model of inclusive development where access to jobs would not be the preserve of a few privileged institutions or those belonging to elite groups but would be open to all. “The CII can play a leading role in setting up training institutes in different parts of the State in collaboration with large industrial houses, which will benefit the students as well as the industries,” he said.

Mr. Karunanidhi used this opportunity to recall his address at Connect 2006, in which he said that his ambition was to make Tamil Nadu the ICT hub of South Asia by creating knowledge-driven ecosystem, leveraging entrepreneurship and promoting socially inclusive growth to achieve 25 per cent production share of the Indian ICT industry by 2011. The State was in the process of setting up IT-ITES Special Economic Zones in Coimbatore, Tiruchi, Salem, Hosur and Tirunelveli. “The facts speak for themselves. Large IT complexes are coming up all over the state. They are expanding their operations not only in Chennai but in other parts of the State…but we are not content to rest on our laurels. Our journey continues and we have indeed miles to go.”

Massive outlay

Launching the CII-City Connect programme, Mr. Stalin said a massive outlay of Rs. 45,000 crore would be utilised in Chennai to augment water supply, provide sewerage system, road connectivity and housing facilities for poor people in a span of seven years under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewable Mission scheme.

CII vice-chairman Lakshmi Narayanan said, “Innovation is the only forward for the Indian IT industry, if it is to sustain and accelerate its growth indices.

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