Tamil Nadu is India’s No.1 state in terms of economic complexity, measured by the diversity of its gross
domestic product (GDP) and employment profile.
About
About 45.3% of TN’s farm Gross Value Added (GVA) comes from the livestock subsector, the highest for
any state and way above the 30.2% all-India average.
TN is home to India’s largest private dairy company (Hatsun Agro Product), broiler enterprise (Suguna
Foods), egg processor (SKM Group) and also “egg capital” (Namakkal).
Features of the TN’s Industrialisation Model
Development of Clusters: TN’s economic transformation has been brought about not by so-called Big
Capital as much as medium-scale businesses with turnover range from Rs 100 crore to Rs 5,000 crore.
• Its industrialisation has also been more spread out and decentralised, via the development of clusters. Many
cluster towns are hubs for multiple industries.
• Employment Generation: Most of these clusters have come up in small urban/peri-urban centres, providing
employment to people from surrounding villages who may otherwise have migrated to big cities for work.
• They have, moreover, created diversification options outside of agriculture, reducing the proportion of TN’s
workforce dependent on farming.
• Entrepreneurship: TN’s early industrialists were mainly Nattukottai Chettiars and Brahmins.
• The disruptions from World War II and the Burmese nationalist movement led many to redirect their
investments back home.
• The remarkable thing about TN’s entrepreneurial culture is its percolation among diverse communities and
in a range of industries.
• The drivers of TN’s more recent decentralised industrialisation have been entrepreneurs from more ordinary
peasant stock and provincial mercantile castes.
Development of Clusters: TN’s economic transformation has been brought about not by so-called Big Capital as much by medium-scale businesses with turnover ranging from Rs 100 crore to Rs 5,000 crore.
Its industrialization has also been more spread out and decentralized, via the development of clusters. Many cluster towns are hubs for multiple industries.
Employment Generation: Most of these clusters have come up in small urban/peri-urban centers, employing people from surrounding villages who may otherwise have migrated to big cities for work.
They have, moreover, created diversification options outside of agriculture, reducing the proportion of TN’s workforce dependent on farming.
Entrepreneurship: TN’s early industrialists were mainly Nattukottai Chettiars and Brahmins.
The disruptions from World War II and the Burmese nationalist movement led many to redirect their investments back home.
The remarkable thing about TN’s entrepreneurial culture is its percolation among diverse communities and in a range of industries.
The drivers of TN’s more recent decentralized industrialization have been entrepreneurs from more ordinary peasant stock and provincial mercantile castes.
Conclusion
The entrepreneurship from below combined with its high social progress indices from public health and education investments explains Tamil Nadu’s relative success in achieving industrializationa and diversification beyond agriculture.
