Chennai (formerly known as Madras), is the capital of the state of Tamil Nadu. It is the fourth largest metropolis in India. Modern Chennai grew out of a small fishing village called Madraspatnam, when the East India Company chose the location for a new settlement way back in 1639.

Area: 174 sq km
Population: 7 mn
Altitude: Sea Level
Language: Tamil,Telugu, Malayalam,Hindi, English

ECONOMY

Chennai has a diversified economic base driven primarily by the automotive, IT hardware, software and services industries. Chennai is a major manufacturing centre in India. Other important industries include petrochemicals, textiles and apparels. The Chennai Port and Ennore Port contribute greatly to its economic importance. The city's stock exchange is called the Madras Stock Exchange.

Since the late 1990s, software development and business process outsourcing have emerged as major areas in the city's economy. The IT Corridor, on Old Mahabalipuram Road, and currently being turned into a six-lane expressway in the southeast of the city houses several technology parks. The largest of these is Tidel Park, built by TIDCO. The Mahindra World City, a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) with one of the world's largest information technology parks, is currently under construction in the outskirts of Chennai. Nokia, among other multinational corporations, is setting up a Rs 675-crore facility at an SEZ in the satellite town of Sriperumbudur. The city has two main biotechnology parks, TICEL bio-tech park and Golden Jubilee bio-tech park at Siruseri that house bio technology companies and laboratories.

Chennai is the base for over forty percent of India's automotive industry. A large number of the automotive companies in India are based in Chennai, mainly in the Ambattur-Padi industrial zone. Several global automotive companies such as Hyundai, Ford, Mitsubishi, TVS, Ashok Leyland, Caterpillar, Royal Enfield, TI Cycles, TAFE, and MRF have manufacturing plants in and around Chennai while BMW is soon to set up a plant. The city is a major centre in the auto ancillary industry.

The Heavy Vehicles Factory, Avadi produces military vehicles, including India's main battle tank: Arjun. The Railway Coach building factory of the Indian Railways, the Integral Coach Factory[1] manufactures railway coaches and locomotives.

Chennai is an important centre for banking and finance. At present it is home to three large national level commercial banks and many state level co-operative banks. Several large financial companies and insurance companies are headquartered in Chennai. Many Indian banks, multi-national banks and the World Bank have located their back office operations in the city. The city serves as a major back up centre for operations of many banks and financial companies in India.

Other major manufacturing facilities range from small scale manufacturing to large scale heavy industrial manufacturing, pertochemicals and auto ancillary plants. Chennai is a textile industry hub with a large number of apparel industries located in the Ambattur-Padi industrial zone in the northern suburbs of the city. The city also has a large leather apparel and accessory industry. SEZ's for apparel manufacture and footwear are under construction in the southern suburbs of the city.

The city is home to the Tamil entertainment (motion pictures, television, and recorded music) industry which is the largest of the four South Indian entertainment industries.

 

Best Buys

The Kanchipuram Silk Saree is hand-woven, interleaved designs made with 'Jari' - a Silk thread twisted with a thin Silver wire and then gilded with pure Gold.

SIGHT-SEEING

Marina Beach

Welcome to the second longest beach of world , Marina Beach, comprising of golden sand, good surf and a shimmering clean blue sea. Its 12-km long stretch was made beautiful by the wonderful facelift given by Governor Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff in the early 1880's, and is Chennai's major tourist attraction today.

Valluvar Kottam

Opened in 1976 in memory of the poet-saint Thiruvalluvar, Valluvar Kottam is a massive auditorium, constructed on reclaimed land from an unused lake filled with the city's garbage and debris. The auditorium can seat up to 4000 people.All 1330 verses of the poet's epic - the Thirukkural, are inscribed on the granite pillars that surround the auditorium. The auditorium itself is not supported by any pillars!There is a 101-feet high temple chariot structure with a life-size image of the poet in it. The base of the chariot shows in bas-relief the 133 chapters of the Thirukkural.Over 3000 blocks of stone were used to create this memorial to Tamil culture.