TIDCO to set up 6 thematic parks in Tamil Nadu to boost MSMEs: Report

Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation Limited (TIDCO), the industrial development agency of the Tamil Nadu government, plans to create six thematic industrial parks to promote micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the state.

B Krishnamoorthy, Additional Secretary and Project Director, TIDCO, discussed these initiatives at an Aerospace and Defense Manufacturing Technologies conference hosted by the Tamil Nadu Technology Development and Promotion Center of the CII on December 16, according to a report by The Hindu.

The state government plans to develop six parks: two in Chennai, three in Coimbatore, and one space park at Kulasekarapattinam in Thoothukudi, the report said.

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“The creation of the thematic industrial parks will provide a plug-and-play ecosystem to the companies planning to expand or set up new facilities related to aerospace and defence manufacturing,” said Krishnamoorthy. 

He added that to build the industrial parks, the state government, through the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu Limited (SIPCOT), presently has about 35,000 acres of land and was considering acquiring another 10,000 acres over the next five years.

During the conference, M Ponnuswami, Chairman of MSME and Ease of Doing Business Sub-Committee, CII-Southern Region, said, “With the Atmanirbhar Bharat Mission, Tamil Nadu has been ranked number three in the country in the ease of doing business. The possibility of the state is ranked first in the coming years is higher as it supports the micro, small and medium enterprises in the aerospace and defence sector.”

Talking about the number of Indian startups in the defence sector, Rajinder Singh Bhatia, Conference Chairman and Chairman of Kalyani Strategic Systems Ltd, and President, Defence, Bharat Forge Ltd, said that five years ago, no startup was operating in the defence sector, but last year, 900 startups were in the defence sector.

"This surge in the startups is due to The Innovations For Defence Excellence (iDEX) programme that changed the very landscape of this sector,” he added. 

Navneet Kaushik, Director, Startups and Outreach, Technology Development Board, Department of Science and Technology, talked about the funding opportunities in the space. “We have funded Rs 7.5 lakh to even Rs 250 crore. We also fund 50% of the capital cost at an attractive 5% simple interest,” he said.