‘Corruption keeps FDI away from Tamil Nadu’
CORRUPTION is one of the main reasons which keep foreign direct investment (FDI) away from Tamil Nadu, according to Dr G Viswanathan, Chancellor of Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore. Though the labour relations are good in Tamil Nadu, corruption has made many foreign investors hesitate to set up industries in Tamil Nadu. Instead, they have diverted their investments to neighbouring states such as Andhra Pradesh and Telangana where the climate was conducive to setting up industries, he said.
Dr Viswanathan was presiding over the function where P S Dasarathy, Executive Director of Turbo Energy Ltd. delivered the 17th annual T.S. Santhanam Memorial Lecture in honour of late T.S. Santhanam, industrialist and one of the sons of late T.v.sundaram Iyengar, the doyen of the automobile industry in India, at the VIT campus here.
The VIT Chancellor said that India was high on the corruption index among the 16 Asians countries, according to a research report. He called upon the present and future generations of youth to eschew corruption and find ways of increasing production. “Though India occupied the 10th place among the 93 countries having the largest number of industries, it had to import petrol, gold, machinery, chemical fertilizers and paper, leading to a large outgo of foreign exchange. Under these circumstances, the Make In India initiative has resulted in starting of many new production ventures”, he said. Dr Viswanathan added that nearly three lakh industries have become sick in the last 45 to 50 years owing to many changes in the industrial sector. It is the duty of the future generation to revive the industries.
Delivering the 17th Annual T.S. Santhanam Memorial Lecture, Dasarathy stressed the need to increase the productivity of automobile vehicles commensurate to the increasing need for the vehicles in India. The responsibility of finding the right technologies for producing cheaper and durable vehicles lies with the engineering fraternity. The universities, professors, and students of engineering also have an important role to play in this effort, he said.
Dr Anand A Samuel, Vice-chancellor and Dr. S. Narayanan, Pro-vice-chancellor of VIT and Professor S Gokul Kumar participated. Dr Arivazhagan, Dean, School of Mechanical and Building Sciences, VIT welcomed the gathering. Professor R Vasudevan, Director, Centre for Manufacturing, Innovation, and Research, VIT proposed a vote of thanks.