Chennai, formerly called Madras, is the capital of Tamil Nadu. Chennai is the fifth largest city in terms of population with 8.2 million people in the urban agglomeration. Chennai is considered as the pass-through to reach the southern portion of India.
Industry
Doing business in Chennai: It is said to be the Detroit of India as it contains 30% of the country’s automotive industry. In addition, 60% of India’s auto exports come from Chennai. Some of the automobile companies that call this city home include Hyundai, Ford, BMW, Nissan and Caterpillar.
Chennai is emerging as the country’s largest automotive and auto components manufacturing hub in terms of investment. Over $3 billion is invested in Chennai by global car manufacturers as of 2010, higher than Gurgaon in the Delhi NCR area and higher than Pune, 100 miles from Mumbai. Every third car produced in India is from in and around Chennai.
Automobile tires , military vehicles and railway coaches are also manufactured in Chennai. The city exports 50% of the country’s leather products. It has a major telecommunication industry. Furthermore, some of giant pharmaceutical/chemical companies such as Pfizer and Dow have their facilities here.
Companies which have their engineering design, R & D and product development centers around Chennai include: Visteon, Caterpillar, Mahindra & Mahindra, Nissan-Renault, Ashok Leyland, Defiance Technologies (both part of Hinduja group), Vestas, Kone, FL Smidth, Nokia, Ericsson, Flextronics, Alcatel, Tessolve, Sanmina-SCI corporation.
Information Technology
There are several software companies in Chennai such as IBM, TCS, and Polaris Software Lab. These hi-tech corporations contribute to 14% of all the software exports in India. Financial Institutions.
There are several top financial corporations housed in Chennai including World Bank, Citibank, and Standard Chartered Bank. The three largest national banks also have their headquarters here. There are also numbers of insurance companies located in this city.
Transportation
There is an international airport located here, and the ports in Chennai are among the busiest container centers in India. These ports export automotive and industrial products as well as mineral rock. There is also a sophisticated road and rail system to connect Chennai to other major cities in India. There is a bus system for local commuters. A subway and El train is being built to facilitate the growing community.
39% of the Tamil Nadu state’s GDP comes from Chennai and the surrounding metropolitan area. By the year 2025 Chennai is predicted to grow to a $100 billion economy.
