Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Chennai to inaugurate the Defence Expo is an event of great importance.
Over 500 Indian companies, and more than 150 foreign companies and with a vibrant mix of large, medium and small units participated in the expo. For the first time top brass of the Defence sector and leading manufacturers discussed in detail defence production and procurement policies. The ambitious target set to take production to around Rs 170,000 crore with the potential for employing close to three million should be welcome especially for Tamil Nadu that has not received investments in large scale in recent years.
There was the additional welcome feature: setting up a defence corridor through Tamil Nadu that would leverage the robust defence productin infrastructure in the south at Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai and Trichy. The rich cluster of automobile and auto component units in Tamil Nadu should help in a big way the region manufacturing sophisticated engineering products. Look at the complementarity of precision components and parts for armoured vehicles, ships and other naval products, parts… with the manufacture of heavy commercial vehicles and other automobiles concentrated in the state. The major seaports and airports around Chennai are also major advantages.
Towards balanced development…
For long IE has been pointing to the lopsided attention paid to Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata in the development of infrastructure. The dedicated freight corridors costing several thousand crores would massively aid growth of states and regions across the Delhi – Mumbai, and Delhi – Kolkata corridors. Similar are the massive investments on the high-speed train corridor linking Ahmedabad with Mumbai, the elevated suburban rail tracks in Mumbai and expressways announced for the western and northern regions. The announcement of the defence corridor, would, some extent help redress the imbalance in investments.
Sadly, political parties in opposition and dozens of other fringe outfits failed to appreciate the importance of the Defence Expo. It indeed was not in good taste to fly balloons and through other protests asking the Prime Minister to go back. There is the need to appreciate such development initative as also to show respect to the office of the Prime Minister.
Years of neglect of the cauvery issue…
The Cauvery dispute has remained unresolved since 1974. All major political parties of the state had their share of blame for the problem prolonged for decades. For 25 long years from 1989, the Centre was under the rule of governments without a majority for a single party. For good part, the DMK and other regional parties from Tamil Nadu had enormous clout with the Centre, especially from 1999 to 2014. In fact, the survival of the government at the Centre through those years was dependant on the DMK. It did precious little to demand a quick resolution through notifying the judgment and constituting the Cauvery Management Board.
Look at desalination
Tamil Nadu has a 1000 km long coast. It should be possible to set up dozens of desalination plants along the coast. With Tamil Nadu slated to become a ‘nuclear power state’ accounting for 31 per cent of total nuclear power capacity, a good portion of the energy generated at Kalpakkam and Kudankulam could be committed for these desalination plants. With vast improvements in the power position, such a vision for the future would help. Simultaneously, efforts are also needed to go extensively for drip irrigation, move out water-intensive crops and effectively store and conserve water received during the monsoon.
There is a lesson or two we can learn from Gujarat: the focus on constructing check dams over the last couple of decades and the effective harnessing of water from the Sardar Sarovar Dam have enormously improved water availability in the state. Gujarat has also been focusing on crops that demand much less water like cotton and groundnut. In the production of both, the state is the leader. Tamil Nadu can adopt these proven practices.
