Vidya Sethuraman
India Post News Service
The Federation of Tamil Sangams in North America (FeTNA), and the FeTNA International Tamil Entrepreneurs Network (FiTEN) in association with StartupTN organized the Global Tamil Startup Investors Summit at The Leela Palace, Chennai on Jan 9, 2023. The event, regularly conducted as part of FeTNA’s annual conventions in the US, is making its Chennai debut. The event was attended by Chief Minister MK Stalin, Finance minister PTR Palanivel Thiagaraja, IT Minister Mano Thangaraj, MSME minister Anbarasan, MP Tamiachi Thangapandian, NRI Tamils welfare chair Karthikeya Sivasenapathi, IIT Director V Kamakoti, Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu and many dignitaries, entrepreneurs and about 100 NRI investors.
The Tamil Nadu government made a remarkable turnaround in image as an ideal global investment destination, leading to an increase in foreign direct investment (FDI) by 41.5 percent, and steps would be taken to attract more investments in the State by organizing a global investors meet (GIM) by 2024.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin launched Global Tamil Angels (www.tamilangels.fund), an exclusive platform for investors from the global Tamil diaspora to invest in Tamil Nadu-based startups. I assure that all coordination services for this will be provided by Tanzim. CM Stalin welcomed all the investors, entrepreneurs and attendees of the daylongevent, which had several panel discussions and addresses by eminent Tamil entrepreneurs, academicians and investors. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all the members of the Council of North American Tamil Associations (FeTNA) Dr. Bala Swaminathan, Secretary Kingsley Samuel, former President Caldwell Velnambi, conference coordinators John Brito, Ganapathi Murugesh, Janaki Kowtha, said CM Stalin.
Tamil Nadu Chief minister MK Stalin has set an ambitious target for the state to become a USD 1-trillion economy by 2030. Since taking charge, our government has been implementing various new projects with the aim of creating a good environment for the industries in our state. Tamil Nadu has been placed under ‘Leader – category A’, grouped with eight other states.
It ranks third in the five categories of start-ups in 2021. Tamil Nadu eyes a spot in the ‘Best Performer’ category in the next two years. The state received an unprecedented investment of around 1.5 billion US dollars last year. This is a 70 percent increase compared to 2021. This shows that investors have a lot of faith in Tamil Nadu even in such a sluggish economic environment, said CM Stalin. We have improved Tamil Nadu from thirteenth place to third place in terms of ease of doing business, added CM. Regional Industrial Centers have been created in Madurai, Tirunelveli and Erode Districts for widespread development in the field of innovation and innovation across the state.
Currently 132 online services are available on the Tamil Nadu Single Window Portal, and we expect to add another 100 by the end of this year. Tamil Nadu is strong in sectors such as automobiles, electronics, textiles, leather, and footwear, IT & ITeS. In addition to maintaining strength in these sectors, the state focuses on 11 sunrise sectors such as PV, Renewable Energy, Green Hydrogen, EVs, and so forth. The state has consistently ranked first in human capital among major states in the India Innovation Index.
We aim to improve the availability of digital content and e-products, automate government processes and inter-agency connectivity, bridge the gap between industry and academia and enhance the commercialization of research and development, added CM Stalin.
As the first phase of this initiative to be launched today, investment of 16 crore rupees has been announced for start-up companies in Tamil Nadu through an organization started by American Tamils called “American Tamil Fund”. I am sure that the news of this event will spread among powerful Tamils living in different countries and urge others to invest in their motherland, said CM.
The start-up ecosystem in Tamil Nadu is looking good with 1,767 registered ones this year, witnessing around a 35 percent jump. Most are tech companies with a focus on software as a service (SaaS), agri tech, and health tech among other areas.
Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America (http://www.fetna.org), an umbrella organization of more than 50 Tamil associations across North America will be hosting its 36th FETNA convention and 25th anniversary of Sacramento Tamil mandram from June 30 until July 2nd, 2023 at the SAFE Credit Union performing Arts center at Sacramento, California. FeTNA’s signature event is the three-day premier event “FeTNA Convention” referred to as “Peravai” that is held annually for the last 35 years and includes a wide variety of cultural, literary and infotainment programs. Registrations are open at https://fetna-convention.org/
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