Tamil Nadu has set a good example for other states by showing that diversification in industries is the best way to manage risk in sluggish economic situations, said RBI deputy governor Dr Subir Gokarn.
The pat from one of India's key economists comes at a time when the country's industrial sector is going through a rough patch.
“The state's diversified industrial base, competitiveness in both labour intensive and capital intensive sectors due to rich human capital, right set of policy measures and comfortable linkages between banks and businesses have been the drivers for this growth,” he said while addressing an Assocham seminar titled “Vision Tamil Nadu Building Sustainable Tomorrow” in Chennai.
He noted that the state reported 12.5 per cent growth in 2011-12 as compared to 6.5 per cent of total GDP growth of the country. “It is important to place strategic thinking for industrial development. Tamil Nadu is a relatively well performing state, especially in the last 2-3 years”, he added.
Driven by both industry and services sector, the state has attracted global and domestic investment proposals to the tune of `9.2 lakh crore in about 1,637 projects as of June 2012, which has shown an annual increase of about 15 per cent, said an Assocham strategy paper titled 'Achieving Higher Growth in Tamil Nadu'.
TN accounts for 8.5 per cent of total investments made by government sources across India,” it said.
and about 5.2 per cent of total investments made by all private sources, it said.
"Considering that about 48 per cent of investment projects attracted by the state are under implementation, over 42 per cent are at the MoU stages and over nine per cent of projects have either been stalled or there is no information about the same, the state requires to do a lot more to facilitate these projects," said Assocham chief.