CHENNAI: As Tamil Nadu steps into 2026, the state’s industries department is projecting 2025 as a year in which policy intent translated decisively into outcomes. Reviewing the year, Industries Minister T R B Rajaa said Tamil Nadu had emerged as one of the country’s most active investment destinations, with momentum driven by both scale and structural depth.
In a social media post, Rajaa said that in 2025 alone, the state signed more than 270 memoranda of understanding, committing investments worth Rs 2.07 lakh crore and creating over 4 lakh employment opportunities. However, he said the defining feature of the year’s investment cycle was not merely the quantum of commitments but their geographic spread.
Industrial and IT investments increasingly moved beyond Chennai, with employment generation extending to newer districts. The government announced its first SIPCOT industrial parks in districts such as Tenkasi, Madurai and Tiruvarur, while a series of TIDEL Neo parks aimed to take IT infrastructure closer to tier-2 and tier-3 cities. At the other end of the spectrum, the state unveiled plans for a 2,000-acre TIDCO Global City near Chennai.
Aerospace and defence manufacturing expanded through projects involving private launch vehicle firms and component makers. Railway, maritime and heavy engineering manufacturing saw fresh capacity additions, largely linked to export-oriented demand.
During the year, the state rolled out a maritime transport manufacturing policy and a space industrial policy aimed at building capabilities across payloads, platforms, launch systems and analytics under the TNSpaceBays initiative. A dedicated toy manufacturing policy sought to formalise and scale MSME-led production, while Tamil Nadu became the first state in India to introduce a standalone electronics component manufacturing scheme.
Rajaa said these measures helped attract investors seeking ecosystem depth rather than incentives alone. Tamil Nadu added more than 50 global capability centres in 2025, absorbed close to 10 million sq ft of office space, and expanded industry-linked research through global university partnerships. The state also announced a semiconductor mission and an inch-fab facility.
The state was named a top achiever under the Business Reforms Action Plan and ranked first in ease of doing business by The Economist, while also topping industrial energy efficiency rankings with a State Energy Efficiency Index score of 55.3%.
“Industrial growth in TN is set to break new ground,” Rajaa said, renewing the state’s pitch to global investors.