TN climbed to 3rd place from 14th in ease of doing business: Official

CHENNAI: “Tamil Nadu’s software exports touched Rs 1.76 lakh crore this year. In terms of ranking, TN is ranked the 3rd nationally. With our continued growth, we are confident of ranking higher in the coming years,” said T Mano Thangaraj, Minister for IT and digital services, at the Advancing Tamil Nadu’s Rise Conference organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) hereon Saturday.

“The state of Tamil Nadu has worked out the sectors that needs to be targeted to make TN be a $1 trillion economy by 2030. It is not only select sectors that have the highest growth rates globally but also products that also has the highest growth rates. We also have to evaluate what are the inherent strengths that TN has and can be leveraged,” said Pooja Kulkarni, special Secretary, Industries, Investment Promotion & Commerce Department.

“I am optimistic that in the past 4 years, the $60 bn investments committed by industries in various forums and meets will witness a conversion rate of over 75% in the coming years. This is much higher when compared to other states. These investments, we are confident will help us achieve the targeted $1 trillion comfortably,” she added.

“TN moved from 14 to the third rank in Ease of Doing Business in the past few years which is an impressive feat by itself. We are confident of reaching No 1 shortly. The single window clearance portal is the biggest asset for the government. It has helped everyone tremendously. We appreciate the feedback that CII and industries share with us. It is very important for us to hear and implement what more we can do for the industry with the feedback we receive,” said V Vishnu, IAS, MD & CEO, Guidance TN.

“TN has to overcome three aspects for it to become a $1 trillion economy by 2030. The state needs to work doubly hard to attract nearly $ 200 bn of investments. These investments have to come from private and government sector and FDI. We need to attract more FDI, which is currently at $4 billion. The second aspect is the looming labour shortage of nearly 50 lakh that the manufacturing and construction industry alone will face in the coming years. The third aspect is reducing the emissions and making carbon neutrality by 2040 instead of 2070,” said B Santhanam, past chairman, CII-SR and CEO, Asia Pacific & India region & chairman, Saint Gobain India.