CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu’s Industries, Investment Promotion and Commerce Department was allocated Rs 4,414 crore in the state’s revised budget estimates, as the newly-elected government of Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay set out its first industrial agenda, with plans for new deep sea ports, an ‘AI city’, and a dedicated space-industry zone anchored by the Kulasekarapattinam spaceport.
Presenting the budget on Wednesday, Finance Minister N Marie Wilson said the government aimed to lift Tamil Nadu’s Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) to $1.5tn by 2036, and pointed to seven memoranda of understanding worth Rs 35,062 crore signed since it took office, projected to generate 14,790 direct and indirect jobs.
The budget earmarked Rs 5 crore for a feasibility study into ‘Arivagam’, billed as India’s first dedicated AI and innovation city, which the government said would eventually house an AI university, an international skill-development centre, a semiconductor hardware testing lab and multiple innovation incubators.
The budget’s centrepiece is a new Tamil Nadu Industrial Policy intended to sharpen the state’s competitiveness through what the government described as innovation-led and export-oriented growth. Alongside it, authorities will build a Tamil Nadu Industrial Capability Directory, a digital registry of manufacturing and supply-chain capacity meant to help investors gauge the depth of the local ecosystem.
The state will roll out Guidance 3.0, an AI-powered investment service system, alongside an upgraded Tamil Nadu Single Window Portal 3.0, which the government said would consolidate statutory approvals, clearances and no-objection certificates onto a single interface for companies establishing operations in the state.
Wilson also announced a Non-Resident Tamil Investment Facilitation Desk within Guidance Tamil Nadu, the state’s investment promotion body, to court capital and expertise from the Tamil diaspora.
To address regional imbalances in industrialisation, the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (SIPCOT) will develop new industrial parks in less-developed districts, calibrated to each district’s sectoral strengths, at an estimated cost of Rs 3,200 crore over five years.
In the south, Thoothukudi and Tirunelveli districts will be designated a “Space Industrial Investment Zone”, built around the strategic significance of the Kulasekarapattinam spaceport.
The state said it would work with IN-SPACe, India’s space regulator, to establish a Space Vehicle Common Technical Facility to support private space enterprises, startups and research institutions in the zone.
The government also said it would explore new port development in the state and expand multi-modal logistics parks and dry ports, alongside petrochemical and ancillary industrial clusters, as part of its broader investment push.