Tamil Nadu’s startup growth a reflection of its potential, says Atul Anand at T.N. Startup Summit 2025-OxBig News Network

Atul Anand, Addtional Chief Secretary, MSME Department, Tamil Nadu, addressing SRM and The Hindu’s Tamil Nadu Startup Summit 2025, being held at Taj Coromandel, Nungambakkam, in Chennai on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam

Tamil Nadu is among the top 10 regions in Asia in terms of talent pool. NITI Aayog has described the State as a model for the innovation ecosystem, a reflection of its strong potential. This also gives a fillip to the goals the State had fixed, said Atul Anand, Additional Chief Secretary, MSME Department.

The State has grown over the last four years from just 2,000 startups to over 10,000, indicating that its startup ecosystem is robust. Inaugurating the Tamil Nadu Startup Summit 2025 in Chennai on Thursday (April 24, 2025), he lauded The Hindu’s efforts in organising the event, which is being jointly presented by SRM Institute of Science and Technology and co-sponsored by StartupTN in association with Sify.    

Tamil Nadu’s startup growth “speaks a lot about the potential of the State,” Mr. Atul said at the event, adding: “We are on the path to optimising and converting into reality our potential.”

The journey has been multifaceted, with Chennai known as the software services capital, with a buoyant medical tourism sector, and agriculture startups using drones, alongside others working on AI and deep tech, he said.

‘Multisectoral approach’

Mr. Atul told the audience that the State government had, in its recent Budget, allocated ₹10 crore to develop startups in the space sector. The Global Startup Report 2024 had ranked Chennai in the 18^th position. Apart from conventional sectors, startups were also diversifying into other areas, including the heritage sector, he said. “One of the reasons [for the State’s success] is our multisectoral approach. It is a rich mix that will make Tamil Nadu the hub of the startup ecosystem,” he said. 

The government extended support to acquire IPR by funding as much as 50% of the total expenditure for the purpose, he added. The government also had 42 incubators that were established in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. It was focusing on pre-incubation centres in colleges and universities too, Mr. Atul said, with the aim of catching entrepreneurs young.  

‘Many initiatives supporting startups’

A.R. Unnikrishnan, chairman, Confederation of Indian Industry, Tamil Nadu State Council, and managing director, Glass Group, Saint-Gobain, Tamil Nadu, said the State has a wide spectrum of economy, with around 30% coming from manufacturing and the rest from a broad sector of services.

“A lot of initiatives are supporting the startup ecosystem across the State. The choice of Tamil Nadu as a place for the summit is laudable,” he said. CII’s industrial experience could help create many platforms that could solve problems of MSMEs, Mr. Unnikrishnan said. 

CII-T.N. also has a panel on startups with three objectives: the infant mortality for startups is very high as many become large but do not learn the practices of governance while growing. Another issue is that Chennai lacks the venture capital ecosystem, and CII aims to address this gap. The CII also offered help in filing patents with the MSME department supporting the venture.  

Training factulty on AI

Vice-Chancellor of SRMIST C. Muthamizhchelvan called on academia, industry, startup ventures, and investors to come together to create a good ecosystem for startups. 

The institute operated on five areas: AI for education; need-based research; fostering entrepreneurship and innovation through mentorship; training programme for faculty; and encouraging students to visit villages and find problems they need solutions for.

The institute planned to train 1,000 faculty on AI by December this year. This would lead to a lot of changes, he said. Around 600 faculty have been trained, who support students in their entrepreneurial efforts, the V-C said. The institute had 475 patents and about 10% of them were at the TRL6.

“Unless we get input from the industry we will not be able to proceed,” he said, and for this purpose, the institute had started an industrial research and innovation summit where experts from the industry are invited and patents are showcased. This has helped some patents to move to the next level of tech transfer and some others to the level of product development. “Present-day students are not going to rural areas. We insist that students go to villages and identify challenges and come up with tangible solutions.”

To encourage such students, open elective courses with credits are offered. “These help our students to think differently and encourage them to become entrepreneurs,” he explained. 

So far, the institute had incubated 45 companies, of which 11 had graduated from the campus and were doing well, according to him. The institute’s pre-incubation centre was open to all, the V-C said. 

L.V. Navneeth, chief executive officer of The Hindu, welcomed the gathering.