Who does the credit go to – M Karunanidhi, Ms J Jayalalithaa or P Chidambaram? To be honest, it doesn’t go to any particular political persona. If at all, the credit goes to the Chola pride, the rise of a neo-Tamil nationalism and strong Dravidian zeal.

All Tamil political leaders, including the late Murasoli Maran, his son Dayanidhi, T R Balu, currently disgraced Andimuthu Raja and Karunanidhi’s son M K Stalin, have contributed to uphold and foster the Tamil pride across party lines. And, they have been ably supported by a strong, committed and development-oriented bureaucracy following the old-world administrative tradition. That is: don’t get too close to your political bosses. “Democracy is all about change, a periodical political regime change. A good bureaucrat should be able to honourably survive the regime change and not be its victim, leave alone being a suspect. He or she is part of a permanent bureaucracy which can’t be wished away by changed political management,” T. Selvaraj, IAS, who served successive governments in TN in top position, once told this writer.

A forward thinking, apolitical bureaucracy has long been TN’s big asset in overcoming such physical odds as lack of mineral resources like coal (barring some poor quality lignite), iron ore, bauxite, lignite, chromite, copper, zinc, zircon, uranium and even water – surface or underground – and electricity. For many years, power-starved TN had bartered cement for electricity (hydro power) with neighbouring Kerala. Today, TN is the country’s largest producer-consumer of non-conventional energy, especially the solar and wind power, alongside nuclear, hydro and thermal power. It continues to be a big manufacturer of cement, chemicals and petro-chemicals.

A vast part of Tamil Nadu does not get summer monsoon. A free flow of Cauvery water would have been of big help as it was in the long past. But, the river water flow is controlled by Karnataka, another neighbouring state. The source of the giant Kaveri is at Marcara in the Coorg district of Karnataka. The decades old dispute between the two states over the river water sharing is yet to find an easy and mutually acceptable solution. The survival instinct has taught TN the best water management regimen. The judicial use of natural lake water, the widely followed rain water harvesting, creation of artificial dams, lakes and ponds and close control over the use of ground water have proved to be very effective.

TN of 2011 seems to have conquered all physical odds to march ahead to become the country’s No. 1 state in terms of industrial development, infrastructure creation, power generation, education, healthcare, poverty alleviation programmes, unemployment management and overall economic growth. Official growth statistics are truly impressive. “With only six per cent of the country’s population, the state of Tamil Nadu has emerged as the fifth largest contributor to India’s GDP. TN’s SDP grew by 9 per cent in 2009-10 and 10 per cent in 2010-11. It accounts for 11 per cent of India’s industrial production,” proclaims proudly a top government official pleading anonymity. The per capita income in TN, according to him, is Rs. 69,000, making it the second highest after Punjab. The official data shows TN stood third in term of foreign direct investment (FDI) approvals, next only to Maharashtra and NCR Delhi and accounted for 9.12 per cent of the total FDI inflow to India, till date.

If Ms Jayalalithaa was primarily responsible for making TN India’s Chicago in terms of automotive production, Dayanidhi Maran helped made the state a telecom hub of South Asia. It was during Jayalalithaa’s previous regime as chief minister when global automotive giants such as Hyundai, Ford, BMW, Mitsubishi, Komatsu, Nissan-Renault, Daimler-Benz and Michelin decided to set up plants in Tamil Nadu as she offered very attractive incentives. These MNCs alongside some of India’s leading names, including Mahindra & Mahindra, Ashok Leyland, TAFE, TVS, Enfield India, MRF and T I Cycles, supported by a large and modern auto ancillary base, have been serving as TN’s most important engine of Industrial growth. The automobile industry is the single largest employer in the state, creating jobs for millions. Her successor M Karunanidhi continued with her policy instead of dumping it as a sale-out to industry.

Similarly, thanks to Dayanidhi Maran’s manoeuvre with multinational telecom companies, during his term as the country’s telecommunications minister, nearly a dozen global telecom giants were obliged to set up corporate office in Chennai. Several of them have put up assembly and manufacturing facilities in TN. They include such global players as Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, Motorola, Flextronics, Foxconn Electronics, Samsung, Cisco and Dell. None of them feels threatened because of the recent political regime change. The telecom sector acts as another engine of economic growth in TN, employing thousands directly and many more indirectly. Balu’s contribution to the making of Tuticorin as TN’s most versatile sea port was enormous.

The industrial park concept has worked extremely well in TN as against the same in other states because of the government’s active involvement to ensure its success. Land acquisition for industry has never been a big political issue in TN, which boasts some 110 large and medium-sized industrial parks. Even left parties, which have traditionally good presence in the state’s industrial hubs, and ultra-left elements, did not engineer any agitation against vast stretches of land acquisition for industry across the state. The numerous state-promoted industry centres include information technology (IT) park, rubber park, apparel park, floriculture park and agri-products export zones. Coimbatore, Erode and Tiruppur are the centres of the country’s largest garment manufacturing and export activities. The garment and hosiery business provide jobs to millions. The state is also a leader in printing and packaging industry. The business is booming around these industrial parks and textile manufacturing centres.

The best thing about TN is that it is constantly thinking big and highly innovative in its planning. The latest talk in the state is to set up an aviation university in Madurai. If the grand idea is properly translated, one day the state may put India in the global aviation industry map. The little known district of Theni is already in the world map of wind power generation. Theni has as many as 325 units of wind power generation. The administration is now working on doubling the wind energy capacity. Large areas of land at Andipatti, Bodi, Chinnamanur and other blocks are being grabbed to erect wind turbines to generate highly profitable electric power by domestic as well as foreign companies.

The encouraging thing about TN politics, which has no place for caste Hindus, is that it has always been constructive towards the state’s economic growth and prosperity. The state’s huge tribal population had never stood in the way of forest and fallow land acquisition for industrial use as it is being witnessed in other parts of the country. There is no controversy surrounding development. “We are proud of our atomic power plants at Kalpakkam and welcome any number of new nuclear power projects to energize our state,” says Kavitha Ramasamy, a young physics student of Annamalai University. Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa may be sworn political foes, but they are united on the issue of TN’s economic growth and development. This deterred the divisive forces from challenging the authority of the government – DMK or ADMK – on development issues. In the end, the materialist Dravida mindset is fast changing the life and lifestyle of the state’s eight-crore population. (IPA Service)