Tamil Nadu sets its sights on fintech and aerospace

The Tamil Nadu government has initiated the process of establishing a Fintech city in Chennai and bringing in more investments into the aerospace hub and the Defence Corridor.

A consultant would be soon selected for design-cum-project management for establishing Fintech City at Nandambakkam, according to an official of the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) Limited, the nodal agency.

With a dedicated fintech policy to accelerate investments, the government, driven by its investor-friendly policies, is confident of nurturing, fostering and developing of the fintech eco-system, the official told The Hindu.

For Fintech City, the TIDCO has earmarked 112 acres. It will be a state-of-the-art centre as the government wants to develop Chennai as a hub of financial services and related activities, largely driven by next-generation technologies.

A Fintech Tower with a minimum built-up area of five lakh square feet in a single phase, as part of Fintech City, would be constructed to accommodate fintech companies. A Startup Hub with a minimum built-up area of 1 lakh square feet would also be set up to house startups.

The Fintech City would comprise entities that over time would connect with the proposed regional fintech hubs in the State. “The objective is to increase the share of Chennai in the fintech industry in the coming years from its current level of 5%,” the official said.

The TIDCO is selecting a marketing consultant for investment promotion of the Defence Industrial Corridor in the State.

Apart from supporting the existing aerospace units technically, the plan is to attract more aerospace and defence companies towards creating an integrated ecosystem for the aerospace industry development, covering design, engineering, manufacturing, servicing and maintenance of aircraft for the civil and defence sectors in Tamil Nadu, officials said.

A separate policy for the development of the aerospace industry was released (in 2019) with a vision to achieve more than 30% share of the Indian aerospace industry output. As a part of the plan to make the State move up the value chain, it has set up an Aerospace Components Manufacturing Park at Sriperumbudur near Chennai in an area of around 260 acres. The area will be expanded to 600 acres.

As of now around 20 companies are setting up facilities and the government expects at least 50 companies to start operations here as there are 170 acres more available, an official said. The Aerospace Park is expected to attract an investment of ₹5,000 crore.

The government is also setting up such aerospace and defence parks in all the nodes of the Defence Corridor. The construction of an Advanced Computing & Design Engineering Centre (AeroHub), which would host the engineering and design centres of the aerospace and defence companies at Sriperumbudur, was nearing completion, according to officials.

The government would be setting up a few centres of excellence in PPP mode to support the growth of the sector and establish a few common facilities and testing centres for the benefit of the companies.

The State has around 60 educational institutes, including IIT-M and MIT, offering aeronautical engineering courses which would bring in the required human resources, officials point out.

The TIDCO has formulated a strategy for the implementation of the corridor. “The marketing consultant is being engaged to promote investments in the corridor. The plan is to generate investment of about ₹10,000 crore from defence manufacturing industries and provide employment opportunities to 10,000 persons within the next five years,” an official said.