Dr S Narayana, IAS(Retd), Member, TN Chief Minister’s Economic Advisory Council speaks about what Tamil Nadu should focus for growth in the future years at the Turbocharged Tamil Nadu seminar organised by Industrial Economist.
Tamil Nadu is doing extremely well. I have a few thoughts to make really Tamil Nadu the best of all states. Somewhere in the last ten years, we have slipped. The slippage is evident in IT because, the best jobs in IT are moving to Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune and increasingly to Indore. There are two reasons to this. One, it is very difficult to hire a CEO from a different state to come and work here. The IT skill levels in are not really matching the requirements of the industry.
Skill gap in IT
A NASCOM recent study says there will be 2.4 – 2.5 million skill gap of top level talent in IT before 2024 of which nearly 50,000 – 60,000 vacancies will arise in Tamil Nadu. Compared to last year we have lost high paying jobs in the state. There is a very very much deep demand to improve the skill levels of the younger generation in order to meetup the requirements of the growing IT industry. This is not just true for IT alone. This also applies to skill levels in manufacturing. If we get more and more manufacturing that is automated, then to that extent we are loosing employment opportunities. We need higher skilled employment for higher skilled technological manufacture. At the same time we need mass employment opportunities.
The second reason is people don’t like the culture here. They feel that it is not a cosmopolitan city. It is still considered a conservative city with no life for youngsters. This is a social stigma attached to Chennai but Coimbatore is not like that. It is considered a happening place. Hosur is becoming an happening place because of the proximity to Bangalore.
Dispersement of development
So there is a need to look beyond Chennai and we have great advantage there. 55 per cent of the state is urbanised and it will be 70 per cent in next 5 years. We have 14 cities which are covered by National Highways. All educational institutions are spread out. These are the places to grow. We are putting to the Government the thought on dispersement of growth. I am happy to see that it is coming out as different statements and commitments from them.
Thoothukudi furniture park is one such effort. Every month, about 28,000 tonnes of timbre comes from Malaysia and Indonesia, goes to all the way upto Gujarat, gets converted into furniture and is shipped back. Today in any small town, one can see a furniture shop. Everyone is buying these because of the urbanization. So why can’t we bring that Myanmar wood down to our port and do it here? This is how Thoothukudi Furniture Park came up. Again there is a point here as to whom this should be allotted to. Should it be given to Ikea like giant players or to our own MSME sector? This is the kind of thought process that is going on.
Skills not put to use
After the covid we felt that children have lost out on education. So the thought we put was, why don’t you bridge that gap through some kind of home education. So the TN Chief Minister named it as “Illam Thedi Kalvi”. In this scheme, selected volunteers from each locality would re-teach children of classes 0 -4, so that when they go to school they are much more aware of the subject. Close to 1.5 lakh volunteers have been selected out of 5 lakh applications. The minimum eligibility criteria was class 12th pass but most of the applications received were graduates or more. These were graduates in villages who have time to spare for these voluntary activities. This shows that much of skill and capability is not being used and missed out in enhanced in State’s GDP.
Take the job to them
Post Covid there is a mental change and people are reluctant to leave their known surrounding. You offer a job 40-50 miles away, they are not interested. This is true of Tamil Nadu today and policy must understand this and take the job to them rather than bring them to the job.
The government should look at IT skilling in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities where after 6-8 months of training in cutting edge IT Skills, the state will have a huge cohort ready for employment.
We must do our best
My short point is Tamil Nadu will grow. Even if all of us go to sleep, there is an inherent growth level that Tamil Nadu has reached and there will be no stopping. 9 – 10 per cent real GDP growth CAGR for next 8-10 years is unquestionable. But at the same time, other states are doing things differently and they will grow faster. Today if I am to look at one state that will grow very fast in next 3-4 years, it will be UP. Things are starting to happen there for many reasons but it is translating the economy of the state. We must keep an eye on what UP is doing, what Gujarat is doing, what Maharashtra is doing, what Assam is doing because they are doing unusual things.
Let us see what we can borrow and how we can better. We will do good but we must do the best.
Watch the entire video of Dr S Narayanan speak at the session here.
