Tamil Nadu is the second most literate State in India. However, what makes it very interesting is the fact that exactly fifty percent of the people live in urban areas and only fifty percent live in rural areas. It is the most urbanized State of India.
It will be interesting to understand what made this happen.
Some twenty years ago, the process actually started and the momentum has been maintained by successive Governments.
The first contributor to this massive change was the formation of so many districts. Rightly or wrongly, every single town, separated by just fifty kilometers or less, is a district headquarters town, and the rapid urbanization is built around this event. For instance, Erode is one hundred kilometers from Coimbatore District, but Tirupur which is just 35 kilometers from Coimbatore, is a district headquarters town. Coimbatore is the second largest city in Tamil Nadu, and ranks among the fastest growing Tier 2 cities in India, with an International Airport, all set to become a big hub in the years to come. This stupendous growth spills over to Tirupur, which is a town well known for hoisery products, throughout the world. Exports from this town gross more then twenty thousand crores, and it has huge employment potential for thousands of North Indians, who have come here as laborers and are happy to settle down here.
Sixty odd kilometers from Tiruppur is Erode, which is a district headquarters town, with one major private sector paper manufacturer and a huge cluster of engineering colleges close by. This service sector growth has added to the urbanization, and a whole lot of teachers of schools and colleges live within the city and in the suburbs. The apartment culture is catching on in Erode, as it in the lap of the Cauvery river.
Salem is just sixty four kilometers from Erode, and is a bigger city than even Erode, with a huge number of colleges, one stainless steel plant of the Steel Authority of India Limied,SAIL, and a very large number of arts and science colleges and schools, and one of the fastest growing "rote capital" called Rasipuram, less than an hour's drive from Salem. What started as a trickle, is now spread to several schools, in this Rasipuram town, which has the dubious distinction of making children cry all the way, but produce the maximum number of "centums". It is a sad reality, but true. One can hardly blame the teachers, though. The schools specialize in organized "mugging up". That is, they prepare the children to answer the model questions, and prepare them to answer them in one very set pattern. If the student misses even one pont, he or she is gone. But the students get one hundred percent in each of the subjects of Physics, Mathematics, Chemistry and Biology, thus sending a good number to the State's Engineering colleges.
There has been a big hue and cry against these schools, but the growth has been so good. The Rasipuram model gives gainful employment to hundreds of teachers who are very well paid, and their only duty is to organize the systematic rote learning. The economic growth can be imagined.
Salem has huge villages supporting its growth, but the villages are becoming small towns adding to the urbanization. It has many small towns now classified as semi-urban areas. Each of these towns has a munipal hospital, at least two small vegetarian hotels, at least twenty smaller hotels selling a huge variety of non-vegetarian food, and are situated on the highway, adding to the growth, as the buses stop there for food for paasengers at any time of the day or night.
Tamil Nadu has the largest and best organized bus transport in the country. It is another story that the State Transport Corporation has been systematically looted by polticians, but the Corporation does ply thousands of buses on each and every long term route. The private bus operators do not normally operate buses for distances exceeding one hundred or one hundred and fifty kilometers. The bus transport increases trading of a tall order, as it is possible to buy in bulk, items at fairly cheap prices and sell them for a profit nearer their homes or in other places. For example, thousands of people buy, wholesale, hoisery products from Tiruppur and sell them for profit in Tiruchirapalli and so on.
Wherever there are huge pockets of people, with huge disposable incomes, the growth rate is really huge. This has happened in Tiruchirapalli, which is the fourth largest city of Tamil Nadu, with an International Airport. The giant BHEL plant supports a huge number of executives who draw huge take home salaries. Often their wives are also employed in banks, making it a huge income. What has happened naturally is that these executives have simply contributed in a huge way, to the growth of the apartment culture in places like Srirangam, a small town adjoining Tiruchirapalli. However, a huge NRI population has also added to this growth, as each and every family in the USA wants an apartment in their home town.
Quite apart from this growth, the growth of good hotels can also be attributed to this same BHEL growth.
In the agriculturally rich Tanjore belt, where one can see greenery everywhere, there are so many districts, once again, seperated by less than one hundred kilometers. Here, the growth is agriculture driven, but the whole picture is one of balanced growth. Since the Stae Government gives free food grains to all people with lesser sources of income, the basic food needs are met and the agricultural wages is okay to support a living. Fights over Cauvery water with Karnataka notwithstanding, the greenery and the prosperity is a thing for sure and, yes, the service sector growth is once again stupendous. Tanjore, Kumbakonam, Mayiladuthurai, Karaikal ( in Pondichery Union Terriorty but near Tanjore and Nagapattinam), Villupuram are all towns having all urban amenities. The basic facilites are all there, though the CBSE schools may not have the same standards of Chennai CBSE schools.
With so many districts, and a huge transport supporting mobility, what has happened is that the small scale businesses have also pitched their shops in different places. For example, there is a very small town called Tirumaiyam, near Karaikudi. Not many know that this town has a bottling unit, selling a famous brand called "Vincent", and this brand is what is called as "panner soda" with a superb native taste, that cannot be matched by the multinational companies.
Guess what? This drink is the sole drink in over seventy villages surrounding Karaikudi, and Pepsi and Coke cannot be anywhere near, as people only prefer this drink.
Go further down South, to Madurai, and a Harvard Business School professor could as well write a good case study on the night shop culture of this city. Come 6PM every evening, and Madurai is home to over 400 night shops that sell a huge variety of South Indian foods at very reasonable prices. Add to the foreign crowd coming to the World famous Meenakshi temple, and you have a sure winner. Note that the glass bangles sold here are so famous, that they are exported to all parts of the world, and it is a custom to buy only from here, for the "Valikappu" function, where the pregnant woman is dressed with at least two dozen glass bangles during the eighth month of pregnancy. ( only for the first chid). This is a huge function.
Hence, everything that is basically needed to drive growth is very much there. And then there are the Commercial Gods. One is called the Melmaruvaththur temple near Chennai, with a distinct commercial basis. Similar is the Golden temple near Vellore, where the sanctity is lost, thanks to the huge amouts collected as entrance fees.
So, the rich and the famous can use God's name to become richer!!!! This is Tamil Nadu. Yes, the corruption can equal or beat Bihar, but life goes on, thanks to the stupendous growth of Chennai, and a huge service sector and with so many district headquarters. With outstanding debts of over two lakh crores, the financial health is a big question, but life still goes on.