Tamil Nadu has a better growth trend in agricultural, industrial and service perspective in studies compared to that of India, according to Dr Subir Gokarn, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India. He made this observation while speaking at the seminar 'Vision Tamil Nadu, Building Sustainable Tomorrow-The Banking Perspective', organised by ASSOCHAM in Chennai, Mr Gokarn based his observation on a comparative study that covered FY1990-91 to FY2011-12. Dr Gokarn also released a strategy paper titled 'Achieving Higher Growth in Tamil Nadu' on the occasion along with Mr Rajkumar Dhoot, President of ASSOCHAM , and Mr Ravi Sanna Reddy, Chairman of ASSOCHAM (South).

In his address, Mr Dhoot pointed out that Tamil Nadu had attracted Rs 9.2 lakh crore worth of investments in 1,637 projects as on June 2012, an increase of 15 % compared to the previous year. Of this, Rs 3.5 lakh crore was invested in the Power sector, followed by Services, Manufacturing, and Real Estate sectors. He also drew attention to the fact that Tamil Nadu attracted 8.5% of the total investments made by both government and private sectors in India as on June 2012.

The industry body called upon the Tamil Nadu government to revive State level development finance institutes like the erstwhile State Industrial Development Corporations to boost the MSME sector. Assocham also urged the State government to focus on cluster development to bring down costs, increase efficiency and speed up production in small and medium enterprises.

Those who spoke on the occasion included Mr Ravi Sanna Reddy , Mr. Sharad Sharma, Deputy Managing Director, SBI, Mr. Anand, MD, Frost & Sullivan, Mr M Narendra, Chairman and Managing Director, Indian Overseas Bank, and Mr Tushar Pandey, Country Head of Yes Bank, India.