Madurai: Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) director general (product coordination & services interaction) Dr Chandrika Kaushik on Thursday said that Tamil Nadu contributes around 33% of the country’s total electronics exports, and the state’s proactive efforts have made it a global electronics manufacturing hub.

She was addressing ‘Connect Madurai 2024 - Connecting the Technology Ecosystem,’ organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Madurai. She said that Tamil Nadu has built a strong industrial foundation, positioning itself as the most attractive alternative destination when the world sought options for the China plus one strategy.

“In FY 2023-2024, the state posted a remarkable 78% rise in electronics exports from $5.3 billion to $9.5 billion, surpassing its own $9 billion target,” said Dr Chandrika. She urged CII to come up with a road map for transforming Madurai into an IT & ITES-enabled electronics hub with short-term and long-term goals. “Tamil Nadu’s success in electronics can be seamlessly integrated into the defence ecosystems. The industries here are ideally placed to contribute to the manufacturing of critical components such as advanced semiconductors, communication systems, and sensor tech, which are essential for modern defence systems,” she said. DRDO’s journey towards self-reliance has led to the development of a broad spectrum of systems, but at the component and subsystem levels, there is still some dependency that needs to be overcome, she said.

IT & digital services minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan said that better-fitting talent is needed for the market, for which special skilling and training programmes schemes are functioning in the state.

“We are trying to improve infrastructure. The Tamil Nadu FibreNet project would likely be completed by the end of this year, which will provide 100mbps fibre connectivity to all 12,650 villages. We are also working on setting up a quantum centre of excellence. We want to be able to do more than basic services,” he added. The minister said there is a tremendous window of opportunity for Tamil Nadu due to the current exponential shift away from China, despite competition from other countries.

Kumar Jayant, additional chief secretary to govt, IT & digital services, office-bearers of CII Madurai zone, other business professionals and college students were also present.

  

Media: The Times of India