Vellore: Corruption is one of the main reasons which keeps foreign direct investment (FDI) away from Tamilnadu, according to VIT University Chancellor G Viswanathan.
Though the labour relations are good in Tamilnadu, corruption has made many foreign investors hesitate to set up industries in the State. Instead, they have diverted their investments to neighbouring States such as Andhra Pradesh and Telengana where the climate was conducive to set up industries, he said.
Viswanathan was presiding over the function where Turbo Energy Ltd executive director P S Dasarathy, delivered the 17th annual T S Santhanam Memorial Lecture in honour of industrialist T S Santhanam, at the VIT campus here on Friday.
The VIT Chancellor said that India was high on the corruption index among the 16 Asians countries, according to a research report. He called upon the present and future generations of youth to eschew corruption and find ways of increasing production.
“Though India occupied the 10th place among the 93 countries having the largest number of industries, it had to import petrol, gold, machinery, chemical fertilizers and paper, leading to a large outgo of foreign exchange. Under these circumstances, the Make In India initiative launched by the Central government has resulted in the starting of many new production ventures,” he said.
Delivering the memorial lecture, Dasarathy stressed the need to increase the productivity of automobile vehicles commensurate to the increasing need for the vehicles in India. The responsibility of finding the right technologies for producing cheaper and durable vehicles lies with the engineering fraternity. The universities, professors and students of engineering also have an important role to play in this effort, he said.
VIT University Vice-Chancellor Anand A Samuel, Pro Vice-Chancellor S Narayanan, Prof S Gokul Kumar, School of Mechanical and Building Sciences dean Arivazhagan, Centre for Manufacturing, Innovation and Research director R Vasudevan are among those participated.