Tamil Nadu may be a manufacturing powerhouse, even accounting for the most number of factories in India, according to a recent RBI study. But if there's a sector that is slowly seeing its equity rise, it's the market for Global Capability Centres (GCCs), which are offshore units of global multinational companies.

Share Market Live

NSE

Two weeks ago, global energy major, Hitachi Energy, inaugurated its largest global technology centre in Chennai. Earlier, it was logistics giant UPS that set up shop not too far away as it inaugurated its first global technology centre in India. Incidentally, UPS is doubling down on its newfound presence in the country, promising to invest between $15 million and $20 million, in India.

With just 3 month to go for the Global Investor Summit, #TamilNadu government looks to woo more investors to setup Global Capability Centres in the state. @JudeSannith24 gets this special report#investment #Chennai pic.twitter.com/xjnk5N5skS

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18News) October 20, 2023

A significant portion of that investment, is likely to be in Chennai, even as the company finalises its recruitment blueprint. "We are on track to hire over 300 people by the end of this year," said Bala Subramanian, Chief Digital and Technology Officer, UPS.

"As I committed back in March, we will still be hiring about 1,000 people by 2025," he added, "As we start growing the business, I'm sure we will look at options to expand beyond that."

Hitachi Energy's global technology and innovation centre is part of a larger strategic play for the company, as far as its India business is concerned. The facility will see nearly 2,500 engineers and tech specialists work on over 1,000 projects for implementation in 40 countries around the world.

"There is no doubt that we see India as playing a key role and eventually also a leading role to help the entire energy transition in terms of supply chain — not only in engineering but also technology, manufacturing, production and services," said Claudio Facchin, CEO at Hitachi Energy.

A recent EY report projected India's GCC market to more than double from $45 billion today, to $110 billion by 2030. In Tamil Nadu, this growth could see greater thrust owing to the ready availability of industries and talent in the vicinity.

Just weeks ago, French glassmaker Saint Gobain gave Tamil Nadu its biggest investment this year. The company pledged to invest ₹3,400 crore across its various businesses in the state. This takes Saint Gobain's total investment in Tamil Nadu to nearly ₹8,000 crore. The investment comes on the back of similar deals between the state and names like Foxconn, Godrej and concrete machinery maker Schwing Stetter.

"We thought we should be building more facility assembly plants, fabrication plants to meet our own internal requirements for the increasing number of machineries," said VG Sakthikumar, Chairman and Managing Director, Schwing Stetter India, "We will be investing for two sheds with machinery — we will be requiring at least ₹300 crore."

The Tamil Nadu government estimates that its manufacturing sector has attracted investment proposals worth ₹2.97 lakh crore in the past two years alone. However, given that the state is attracting investments in core manufacturing as well as GCCs, there's every indication that come January, at the Tamil Nadu Global Investors' Meet, both sectors will see investments go hand-in-hand.

(Edited by : Anand Singha)

First Published:Oct 25, 2023 8:37 PM IST