TN, CHENNAI MOST PREFERRED IT DESTINATIONS

Chennai
The Economic TimesTamil Nadu in general and Chennai in particular was turning out to be the most preferred global industrial destinations, thanks to the aggressive marketing by its officials, a top IT official said here on Thursday.

Asit K Barma, Vice President, Marketing and Alliances Manufacturing and Automotive, Satyam Computers Limited, told PTI on the sidelines of a launch of certificate programmes in Computers at the Women's Christian College here that the state had some of the best officials.

"The way they sell Tier-II and Tier-III cities of the state is no less than any salesman working for a multinational corporation," he said.

In fact, branding of Tamil Nadu, especially Chennai, in the automotive industry would soon help it achieve its ambitions of becoming the automotive hub of Asia, Barma said.

"The state's concept of inclusive or equitable growth has led to distribution of growth across the state. The expansion of IT industry to cities like Coimbatore and Madurai is an example in this regard," he said.

"The tier-II and Tier-III cities have a great talent pool though they lack in soft skills which is now being addressed by the educational institutions," Barma said adding IT firms also had programmes to develop soft skills of such candidates.

To a query on the ongoing power shortage in the state, he said the situation was "much better" in Tamil Nadu and said the citizens, as well the industry have accepted the government's measures to handle the shortage.

Powercuts for houses and industrial units and staggered holidays for the latter has come into force since July 21. The IT industry was not facing any shortage since it managed with backup power and managed consumption, he said.