The latest reports of the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) in its “State Investment Potential Index” (NCAER – SIPI) places Tamil Nadu as the best state in India for the availability, competitiveness and quality of the workforce and labour climate in the state. Along with this, many other independent studies have placed Tamil Nadu as the best state in India for skilled human resources. This is the result of continuous investment in education at a policy level and the improvement of social sectors by the Government of Tamil Nadu. Today, it has been able to produce skilled human resources across important economic sectors.

Most of these skilled personnel hail from rural areas and small towns. They migrate to bigger cities for employment opportunities. But, there are also more than 30 manufacturing industrial clusters in Tamil Nadu, in multiple areas like automobiles, electronics, motor pumpsets, truck and bus body building, rice processing, sago processing, printing, etc. Almost all of these sectors are based in small towns and rural areas. Notwithstanding, people still migrate.

In contrast the services sector has seen notable growth only in Coimbatore and to an extent at Trichy, Madurai and Hosur barring Chennai. The Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu Limited (ELCOT) has set-up IT SEZs in Chennai., Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchirappalli, Salem, Tirunelveli and Hosur. ELCOT has also constructed its own IT building in most of these places with the SEZ format. But the interest in SEZ IT Parks is coming down due to the proposed sunset clause and cumbersome procedures involving entry, operation and exit.

To resolve this dilemma and bring an even spread of resources and development of the service sector across Tamil Nadu, TIDEL brings a solution. TIDEL Neo. TIDEL Neo will see the creation of ‘mini’ IT parks with an area of just 50,000 – 1 lakh square feet, based on market demand assessment at identified towns of Tamil Nadu, in a phased manner. The main goal of the project is to introduce the services sector across Tamil Nadu and boost the development of Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns. And businesses will now have access to world class spaces across the state at affordable cost, thereby making them more competitive and efficient.

The project will be a TIDEL investment, and will take the responsibility of construction and operation of the facility. TIDEL will also take the services of appropriate marketing consultants to promote the facility. TIDEL will require well-connected prime lands to the extent of 5- 10 acres to be allotted on a nominal lease or free-hold basis for this project by the Government. The facility can be of two models.

• Mini IT park
• IT/Commercial hub

The IT parks will host IT and ITES related businesses, offices and services while the Commercial hubs will double as office space and commercial space open for general public access.

TIDEL Neo has the potential of taking the benefits of IT sector growth to smaller towns and villages of the State.There by accelerating growth that is spread across the state by making the global meet the local.