GIM '24 vs GIM '19: 72% MoUs of DMK govt on stream; 64% by AIADMK govt failed
Political malice, misinterpreted numbers, and half-truths are the building blocks of Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami's column ('Govt's failure to move beyond MoUs has left industrial engine sputtering, TOI, June 30).
The article showcases an inability to comprehend industry and investments by scrutinising MoUs signed at the Global Investors Meet in January 2024 using data from the financial year 2023-2024.
Let's start with data that demolishes the foundation of his argument: Tamil Nadu had 5,091 high-tension industrial electricity connections at the end of the 2006-2011 DMK govt. After a decade of the AIADMK govt, by 2020-21, that number grew to 6,777, an average of 168 connections a year.
In comparison, in just the past four years of Chief Minister M K Stalin's tenure, the number jumped to 8,039 connections, an average of 315 connections per year, nearly double what the AIADMK could do in a decade.
This is direct proof of industrial development.
For argument's sake, let's take at face value the point that a quarter of our ₹6.64 lakh crore worth MoUs signed at GIM 2024 were realised within 2023-24. Anyone who understands how investments work would call that an extraordinary achievement.
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For nearly 25% of those MoUs to show up in the state's realised investment data within two months shows the execution speed Tamil Nadu has never seen before.
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Neither DPIIT nor RBI has a mechanism to independently track actual private investment flow into a specific state. Of the ₹6.64 lakh crore investments committed across 631 MoUs, more than 72% have reached the stage of seeking approvals, and 391 projects — more than 62% — have begun construction.
More MoUs will be converted by the end of this year. The conversion of massive MoUs such as those with VinFast and Tata JLR are testimony to the speed at which the Dravidian model govt works.
Let's look at the AIADMK govt's performance. During his visit to the US as chief minister, Edappadi Palaniswami signed MoUs worth ₹5,087 crore. And 80.4% of those investors dropped out soon, since most of them were only photo ops. In the UAE, he signed five MoUs worth ₹3,750 crore, three of which are dead and only one started production while one more has started partial production after all our intervention.
At GIM 2019, 304 MoUs were signed and even after our intervention to salvage and convert as many as possible, the investment today stands at 36%, a failure rate of about 64%.
In the last financial year, Tamil Nadu grew at the rate of 9.69%, the highest in the country. Tamil Nadu's Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF), a strong proxy for actual capital investment, grew from ₹34,000 crore in 2020-2021 to ₹60,630 crore in 2022-2023.
Tamil Nadu today accounts for nearly 10% of India's total GFCF.
Merchandise exports nearly doubled from $26.15 billion in FY 2020-2021 to $52.07 billion in 2024-2025. When it comes to electronics exports, Tamil Nadu broke every record, rising from just $1.66 billion in 2020-2021 to $14.65 billion in 2024-2025 – a nine-fold increase in just four years.
Chennai has also emerged as India's fastest-growing hub for global capability centres.
From 150 centres in 2021, we now have 305. In the past year, 60 GCCs were added — more than any other Indian city did. Between FY 2018-2019 and FY 2023-2024, Chennai added 94,000 new CCC jobs, the highest in the country. Office space occupied by GCCs has gone up threefold, from 3.7 million sqft in 2017-2019 to 10.5 million sqft in 2022-2024.
We've taken a distributed growth approach to develop cities such as Coimbatore, Madurai, Trichy, Thanjavur, Vellore, Salem, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, and Hosur as industrial and services centres.
There is now overwhelming demand for Sipcot land in Krishnagiri, Shoolagiri (Phase 1), Bargur, and Future Mobility Park, all of which are above 90% capacity. Land is being acquired to meet this demand. Sipcot now has a land bank of more than 50,000 acres.
Between 2011 and 2016, only six or seven Sipcot parks were established; the DMK govt set up 30 parks, and more are in the pipeline.
The Chennai-Kanyakumari Industrial Corridor, which was stuck, now has 572 km of its 582 km completed.
Of the 16 packages, seven are open, and the rest have crossed 90% progress. On the Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor, though land constraints prevented SPV-based development at Ponneri, we've gone ahead with infrastructure investments including the Parandur airport, Knowledge City, Panapakkam Industrial Park in Ranipet (with Tata-JLR and Hong Fu), and the EV park at Manallur.
On defence and logistics too, the DMK govt has carried projects forward despite minimal support from the Centre.
While the Centre allocated just ₹137 crore under the Defence Testing Infrastructure Scheme, Tamil Nadu attracted more than ₹20,000 crore in commitments for the Tamil Nadu Defence Industrial Corridor. We're building the Defence Component Park at Varapatti and an Aerospace Park at Sulur. For the proposed Multimodal Logistics Park in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu has done its part through land acquisition, while the Union's agencies are still figuring out institutional arrangements.
When I travel abroad or speak at major business forums, I always say this with pride: "Tamil Nadu offers policy continuity. No matter which party is in power, we protect investments. We honour commitments, and we give confidence to global investors that Tamil Nadu works across political lines when it comes to economic development. That's the Tamil way — the Dravidian model. And that's how we've built our reputation as India's most trusted industrial destination.
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(The writer is State Minister for Industries, Investment Promotion and Commerce)
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