The two men — then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Deputy Prime Minister Vallabhbhai Patel — who planned and executed the diplomatic euphemism of Police Action.
| Photo Credit: Undated archival image before 1950

Before Chennai became a city of multinational firms, Global Capability Centres, semiconductor ambitions, aerospace and defence majors, automobile giants, footwear factories, startups and home grown firms, it was Madras — a city whose business story was already taking shape several centuries ago. From a colonial trading centre to a manufacturing hub and now a diversified global business destination, the city has repeatedly reinvented itself.

Business really mattered to Madras. The industrial development of the Madras Presidency was a matter of serious concern and in 1899, a whole time officer (later Sir) Alfred Chatterton who was then with the College of Engineering, Guindy, was appointed to stimulate industrial technical education in the region, according to details documented in a coffee table book titled Championing Enterprise – 175 years of the Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The government decided to create a department to survey existing industries and investigate the possibility of creating new ones, it said.

“Trade came first. From Fort St. George in 1639, Madras shipped rather than made — cotton piece goods, indigo, hides. The artificial harbour of the 1880s turned an open roadstead into a working port, and that decision still explains where our industry sits. Then factories. Binny’s Buckingham Mill in 1876 and the Carnatic Mill in 1881 employed tens of thousands at Perambur. Parry moved from trading into sugar and chemicals. Simpson began coach building in 1840,” said Deepak Jacob, Managing Director and CEO of Guidance the nodal agency instrumental in bringing investments into Tamil Nadu.

“Trade built the port. The port brought the mills. The mills and the PSUs built the engineering base. That base brought the automakers, and the automakers brought electronics. What we build now is not for the investor in front of us. It is for the one who arrives in 2045,” he added.

Long before Chennai became known as the Detroit of India, Madras was already laying the foundations for the automotive sector. The first car to arrive in Madras was in the early 1900s. Simpson’s, the city’s famed coach builders then, played a role in this. In 1948, Madras had become home to automotive pioneers such as Standard Motor Products of India and Ashok Leyland (Ashok Motors), while Enfield India began two-wheeler manufacturing in 1956. Today, Chennai is home to several leading automobile companies, including TVS Motor Company.

Chennai has also embraced the electric-vehicle revolution, with several companies entering the EV space and adding a new dimension to the city’s automotive story.

Tractors and Farm Equipment Ltd (TAFE), headquartered in Chennai, is another interesting chapter in the city’s business story. India’s second largest tractor manufacturer, TAFE is led by Mallika Srinivasan, one of the few prominent women business leaders in the city, who has significantly expanded the company through strategic acquisitions and expansions across geographies.

The Madras Rubber Factory, known as MRF, began its journey in Madras as a small toy-balloon manufacturer and went on to become one of India’s largest tyre makers. Business conglomerates such as Murugappa Group, Sanmar Group, India Cements were all headquartered in Madras and expanding their businesses. Banks, too, joined the race. Indian Bank began its journey in Madras in 1907, followed by Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) in 1937. “Madras built its banks before its factory base, which was part of why services took root here so easily later,” Mr. Jacob said.

In 1958, Madras opened the Guindy Industrial Estate, one of India’s first industrial estates alongside Delhi’s Okhla. And the first phase was inaugurated by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Then came the IT revolution and the multinationals. “While much of the growth was led by home-grown companies, the participation of multinationals was largely through joint ventures and other forms of partnerships. It was only in the post liberalisation era that multinationals made a beeline for Chennai,” Ramkumar Ramamoorthy, Partner, Catalincs and former CMD, Cognizant India.

“Some of the biggest names in global business such as Ford, Cognizant, St. Gobain, and Hyundai made Chennai their home. This was followed by a flurry of investments by companies from across the globe. Examples include Caterpillar, Standard Chartered, Grundfos, Danfoss, Yamaha, Renault-Nissan, IBM, Accenture, BMW, World Bank, and Cap Gemini,” he added.

In the last two decades, Chennai has added a new chapter to its business story — startups. Once known primarily for factories, automobiles, and manufacturing, the city is now know as the SaaS (Software as a Service) hub. Chennai now has 5,134 startups, according to StartupTN. The IIT-Madras ecosystem has created a new generation of entrepreneurs, while the IIT-Madras Research Park has become a hotbed for innovation, deep tech and ideas moving from the lab to the market.

IIT-Madras Incubation Cell (IITMIC) began in 2013, at a time when “deep tech” was not a popular word, its Chief Executive Officer Tamaswati Ghosh said. She narrated that in the early days they were questioned how startups were staying with them. The answer came in the form of companies such as Ather Energy, which, despite eventually moving to Karnataka, became one of the early poster boys of Chennai’s startup ecosystem. Uniphore showed that founders need not be from Chennai to build here; its founders adopted the city and built the company from here, she pointed out.

Then came Agnikul, putting Chennai on the map for space tech innovation. In the past decade, Chennai has attracted several Global Capability Centers (GCCs). According to estimates, the city has over 300 GCCs. Logistics firms like Hapag Lloyd and United Parcel Service have chosen Chennai.

The least discussed of the new sectors is animation, VFX, and gaming. Phantom FX, Basilic Fly, Knack Studios, and BOT VFX are already here, hiring on a diploma rather than a doctorate. The AVGC-XR Policy 2026 targets two lakh jobs by 2030.

Chennai in 2030

“With Chennai having emerged as the data science hub of India with prominent pure-play analytics companies such as Latentview, Tiger, Tredence, Fractal, Crayon Data, and MathCo establishing their operations in the city, I expect significant AI innovation to happen from the city at the intersection of multiple domains and data analytics,” Mr. Ramamoorthy said.

He then added that while existing industries will continue to grow and thrive, the biggest drivers of growth and employment will come from GCCs, NBFCs, electronics, defence manufacturing, renewable energy, tourism (including medical tourism), and from MSMEs and new-age startups in areas such as fintech, healthtech, deeptech, spacetech, among others. “We will see companies in these new age sectors make significant investments in R&D and intellectual property, which should augur well for the state in improving its per capita income,” he noted.

“The base stays. In 2030 Chennai is still an automotive, electronics, and services city, and GCCs remain its highest-wage employer. What changes is where Chennai sits in the value chain. Today the design decision, the IP and the margin often sit elsewhere while we do the making. Closing that gap is the work,” Mr. Jacob added. Madras laid the foundation and Chennai is building what comes next.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, in his Republic Day address at Dibrugarh today, once again raised the issue of BR Ambedkar, claiming India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, kept him out of the Constituent Assembly that drafted the Constitution. Mr Sarma claimed this while emphasizing on the challenges Dr Ambedkar faced while drafting the Constitution.

“Babasaheb Ambedkar is the founder of our Constitution. His inclusion in the constituency assembly had many challenges. His name was not there in the first list of members of Constituent assembly who were to draft the constitution,” the Chief Minister said. 

A Dalit leader from East Bengal, Jogendranath Mondal, proposed Dr Ambedkar’s name in his place and only after that he had the opportunity to be part of the historic work, he said. 

“Today I remember a statement of Pandit Nehru about the inclusion of Ambedkar. Nehru had claimed that Ambedkar was a trouble-maker and wanted to keep him outside the constituent assembly,” he said.

The Chief Minister further claimed that Ambedkar was included because Mahatma Gandhi recognised the merit in him and trusted his ability and took a stand against the position Nehru had taken.

“This decision of Gandhi was proved to be fruitful by the constituent assembly led by Ambedkar who gave us a constitution based on equality and brotherhood,” he added. 

The Chief Minister’s statement has drawn sharp reactions from the Congress.

Leader of Opposition in Assam assembly Debabrata Saikia condemned the remarks and alleged it was an attempt to defame Babasaheb Ambedkar and Jawaharlal Nehru by distorting the truth.

“Initially Ambedkar was elected to constituency assembly from Bengal. But after partition his constituency went to Pakistan and he has to vacate his seat. It was Pandit Nehru and Sardar Patel who went to Gandhi-ji to discuss this. After this Ambedkar was offered a seat in the constituent assembly by vacating a seat from Pune,” Mr Saikia told reporters.

London:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been written about fondly by former British PM Boris Johnson in his memoir ‘Unleashed’ which will be available in bookstores in the UK in a few days.

The book, which journeys through Mr Johnson’s very eventful, noteworthy and lively political career mentions about his meetings with Prime Minister Modi, calling him the “change-maker” we need. Writing about his very first meeting with the prime minister, Mr Johnson recalls “a curious astral energy” he had felt.

The former British prime minister has written an entire chapter dedicated to India and described ties between the two nations as “a relationship as good as it has ever been.”

Calling Prime Minister Modi “exactly the partner of friend” he needed, Mr Johnson credited himself and PM Modi for laying the foundation for a free-trade pact between India and the UK.

The significance of India-UK ties could be seen in the former prime minister’s book as he repeatedly mentions the “friendship” shared between the two countries, especially in the context of the Indo-Pacific region and its vision.

“For some reason, we went down to stand in the dark in the plaza by Tower Bridge, in front of a crowd of his supporters,” Mr Johnson writes in the chapter titled ‘Britain and India’, referencing his first meeting with PM Modi during a visit to his City Hall office by the river Thames when he was Mayor of London.

“He raised my arm and chanted something or other in Hindi, and though I couldn’t follow it I felt his curious astral energy. I have enjoyed his company ever since – because I reckon he is the change-maker our relationship needs. With Modi, I felt sure, we could not only do a great free-trade deal but also build a long-term partnership, as friends and equals,” he writes.

Mr Johnson reveals how a “distinctly sniffy” UK Foreign Office had dissuaded him from meeting Mr Modi during an earlier mayoral trade delegation to India in 2012, a problem, he writes, which was “soon dropped” to pave the way for a relationship that “hit an all-time high”.

In the book he also mentions how much he loves India, calling himself a “veteran” of many Indian weddings because his children with Sikh heritage ex-wife Marina Wheeler trace their roots to India.

While he writes with pride of a similar “Anglo-Indian syncretism” in politics with his diverse Cabinet as PM including many British Indians such as Rishi Sunak and Priti Patel, Mr Johnson laments the slow-paced growth of bilateral trade due to unnecessary trade barriers that leave UK visitors “clinking in with duty-free booze” for Indians starved of Scotch whisky at decent prices.

The “tremendous success” of his visit to India as PM in January 2022 he recalls as a much-needed “morale boost” and “balm for the soul” away from an increasingly belligerent domestic politics that would eventually end in his unceremonious exit from 10 Downing Street just a few months later.

He claims he had also wanted to use the visit to make a “gentle point to Narendra” on the issue of relations with Russia at a “global inflection point” with its conflict with Ukraine.

He writes: “I knew all the history and the sensitivities, the reasons for India’s post-war non-alignment with the West, the seemingly unbreakable relationship with Moscow. I understand the Indian dependence – like China’s – on Russian hydrocarbons.”

“But I wondered if it was not time for a modulation, a rethink… As I was to put it to the Indians, Russian missiles were turning out to be less accurate, statistically, than my first serve at tennis. Did they really want to keep Russia as their main supplier of military hardware?” It is in this context that in another section of the book, where he showers the late Queen Elizabeth II with effusive praise for her deep personal knowledge of history and history-makers, he references his efforts to get India to take a “tougher line” with Russians.

“She remembered something the former Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had told her in the 1950s. ‘He told me that India will always side with Russia and that some things will never change. They just are.’ I cite that as an illustration of her amazing ability to reassure and to contextualise,” he shares, with reference to his customary weekly audiences with the late monarch as prime minister.

Mr Johnson goes on to credit himself with injecting a broader vision for the India-UK partnership to go beyond trade and climate change and educational partnerships and embark on a whole programme of military and technological collaboration.

“Overcoming the qualms of the MoD (Ministry of Defence), who are always worried about India’s closeness to Russia, we agreed to work together on all kinds of military technology, from submarines to helicopters to marine propulsion units,” he proudly declares.

With ‘Unleashed’, Mr Johnson seems to be keen to stress a lack of bitterness over his undignified removal as PM in the wake of the partygate scandal of Covid law-breaking parties but is clear that it was Rishi Sunak, his eventual successor at 10 Downing Street, who precipitated the problems by resigning as chancellor from his Cabinet in June 2022.

“It was worse than a crime, I thought, it was a mistake – both for Rishi and for the party, never mind the country. So it proved,” he writes, alluding to the recent disastrous general election result for the Tories.

“I don’t blame Rishi for prematurely wanting to be PM; in fact I don’t blame any of them, really, for trying to turf me out. It’s just what Tory MPs do…It goes without saying that if we had all stuck together I have no doubt that we would have gone on to win in 2024, and a lot more of my friends would now have their seats,” he claims.

(Inputs from PTI)
 

London:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been written about fondly by former British PM Boris Johnson in his memoir ‘Unleashed’ which will be available in bookstores in the UK in a few days.

The book, which journeys through Mr Johnson’s very eventful, noteworthy and lively political career mentions about his meetings with Prime Minister Modi, calling him the “change-maker” we need. Writing about his very first meeting with the prime minister, Mr Johnson recalls “a curious astral energy” he had felt.

The former British prime minister has written an entire chapter dedicated to India and described ties between the two nations as “a relationship as good as it has ever been.”

Calling Prime Minister Modi “exactly the partner of friend” he needed, Mr Johnson credited himself and PM Modi for laying the foundation for a free-trade pact between India and the UK.

The significance of India-UK ties could be seen in the former prime minister’s book as he repeatedly mentions the “friendship” shared between the two countries, especially in the context of the Indo-Pacific region and its vision.

“For some reason, we went down to stand in the dark in the plaza by Tower Bridge, in front of a crowd of his supporters,” Mr Johnson writes in the chapter titled ‘Britain and India’, referencing his first meeting with PM Modi during a visit to his City Hall office by the river Thames when he was Mayor of London.

“He raised my arm and chanted something or other in Hindi, and though I couldn’t follow it I felt his curious astral energy. I have enjoyed his company ever since – because I reckon he is the change-maker our relationship needs. With Modi, I felt sure, we could not only do a great free-trade deal but also build a long-term partnership, as friends and equals,” he writes.

Mr Johnson reveals how a “distinctly sniffy” UK Foreign Office had dissuaded him from meeting Mr Modi during an earlier mayoral trade delegation to India in 2012, a problem, he writes, which was “soon dropped” to pave the way for a relationship that “hit an all-time high”.

In the book he also mentions how much he loves India, calling himself a “veteran” of many Indian weddings because his children with Sikh heritage ex-wife Marina Wheeler trace their roots to India.

While he writes with pride of a similar “Anglo-Indian syncretism” in politics with his diverse Cabinet as PM including many British Indians such as Rishi Sunak and Priti Patel, Mr Johnson laments the slow-paced growth of bilateral trade due to unnecessary trade barriers that leave UK visitors “clinking in with duty-free booze” for Indians starved of Scotch whisky at decent prices.

The “tremendous success” of his visit to India as PM in January 2022 he recalls as a much-needed “morale boost” and “balm for the soul” away from an increasingly belligerent domestic politics that would eventually end in his unceremonious exit from 10 Downing Street just a few months later.

He claims he had also wanted to use the visit to make a “gentle point to Narendra” on the issue of relations with Russia at a “global inflection point” with its conflict with Ukraine.

He writes: “I knew all the history and the sensitivities, the reasons for India’s post-war non-alignment with the West, the seemingly unbreakable relationship with Moscow. I understand the Indian dependence – like China’s – on Russian hydrocarbons.”

“But I wondered if it was not time for a modulation, a rethink… As I was to put it to the Indians, Russian missiles were turning out to be less accurate, statistically, than my first serve at tennis. Did they really want to keep Russia as their main supplier of military hardware?” It is in this context that in another section of the book, where he showers the late Queen Elizabeth II with effusive praise for her deep personal knowledge of history and history-makers, he references his efforts to get India to take a “tougher line” with Russians.

“She remembered something the former Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had told her in the 1950s. ‘He told me that India will always side with Russia and that some things will never change. They just are.’ I cite that as an illustration of her amazing ability to reassure and to contextualise,” he shares, with reference to his customary weekly audiences with the late monarch as prime minister.

Mr Johnson goes on to credit himself with injecting a broader vision for the India-UK partnership to go beyond trade and climate change and educational partnerships and embark on a whole programme of military and technological collaboration.

“Overcoming the qualms of the MoD (Ministry of Defence), who are always worried about India’s closeness to Russia, we agreed to work together on all kinds of military technology, from submarines to helicopters to marine propulsion units,” he proudly declares.

With ‘Unleashed’, Mr Johnson seems to be keen to stress a lack of bitterness over his undignified removal as PM in the wake of the partygate scandal of Covid law-breaking parties but is clear that it was Rishi Sunak, his eventual successor at 10 Downing Street, who precipitated the problems by resigning as chancellor from his Cabinet in June 2022.

“It was worse than a crime, I thought, it was a mistake – both for Rishi and for the party, never mind the country. So it proved,” he writes, alluding to the recent disastrous general election result for the Tories.

“I don’t blame Rishi for prematurely wanting to be PM; in fact I don’t blame any of them, really, for trying to turf me out. It’s just what Tory MPs do…It goes without saying that if we had all stuck together I have no doubt that we would have gone on to win in 2024, and a lot more of my friends would now have their seats,” he claims.

(Inputs from PTI)
 

Kurukshetra:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi lashed out at the Congress on Saturday, alleging that the “royal family” of the opposition party wants to do away with the reservation for Dalits and asserting that as long as he is there, he will not allow a fraction of the quota given by B R Ambedkar to be looted or removed. The prime minister said this while addressing his first rally in Haryana in the run-up to the October 5 state Assembly polls.

Addressing the rally in Kurukshetra district, PM Modi recalled certain incidents that took place when the Congress was in power in the state and asked the gathering, “Who knows the anti-Dalit face of the Congress better than Haryana?”

He accused the Gandhi family of being the “biggest anti-Dalit, anti-OBC and anti-tribal” force in the country.

“They have now said if they come to power, they will end the reservation for Dalits and the downtrodden. This is the truth of this family,” PM Modi said.

The Gandhi family always “hated” BR Ambedkar and was strongly opposed to reservation, he alleged.

The family had “insulted” Dalits, Other Backward Classes (OBC) and tribals, the prime minister alleged further.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been attacking the Congress, saying Rahul Gandhi is against reservation for the Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes and OBC, and his prejudice against the provision came out in the open during his recent interaction with the students of Georgetown University in the United States.

The BJP’s accusation came after Mr Gandhi told the students at the prestigious university that the Congress would think of scrapping reservations when “India is a fair place”, which he said is not the case right now.

Taking on the country’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, PM Modi claimed that he too had opposed reservation.

“He had written to the chief ministers of the states in this regard. There is proof of this. Nehruji had said if people get jobs due to reservation, the quality of government service will drop. These were the words of Nehruji,” he said.

Jawaharlal Nehru put the Kakasaheb Kalekar Commission’s report on the OBC reservation on the back burner, he claimed, adding that Jawaharlal Nehru’s daughter, former prime minister Indira Gandhi, had also stalled the OBC reservation.

The Mandal Commission was formed under the Janata Party government but when the Congress returned to power, it put the commission’s report on the back burner, he claimed.

“Rajivji (former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi) also did not let the OBC get reservation,” he said.

Then Mandal Commission report was implemented during the V P Singh government, which was supported by the BJP, PM Modi said.

“As the opposition leader in Parliament, Rajiv Gandhi had opposed the reservation. In an interview, he had dubbed those who got reservations as ‘buddhu’,” he claimed.

There could not be a bigger insult to the SC, ST and OBC communities than this, the prime minister said.

“Now, the royal family of the Congress is again insisting on doing away with reservation. But the Congress should listen to me carefully. As long as PM Modi is here, I will not allow a fraction of the reservation given by Baba Saheb Ambedkar to be looted or removed.

“The SC, ST and OBC reservations will stay. This is Modi’s guarantee and we will fight for it,” he said.

No one knows the anti-Dalit face of the Congress better than the people of Haryana, the prime minister said, adding that whenever the grand old party formed its government in the state, it became difficult for Dalits to live.

Referring to a 2005 incident in Gohana, he said, “Can any Dalit family forget it? In 2010, there was the Mirchpur incident. In 2012, the Bhagana incident and in 2014, what happened to daughters of Dalits? The soul shivers when someone recalls that shameful incident.” The then chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the “royal family” of the Congress kept mum at that time, PM Modi said.

The Dalit community needs to remain alert of the Congress, he added.

In the Gohana incident, a few Dalit houses were set ablaze by some people after a man from the community was suspected of being involved in the killing of an upper-caste person.

In the Mirchpur incident, on April 21, 2010, a group of villagers belonging to an upper caste allegedly torched more than a dozen Dalit houses, killing a teenage girl and her aged father.

PM Modi asked the Congress to take care of its “androoni Mahabharat” (infighting).

“The way the Congress is doing its politics in Haryana by putting one family forward, the entire Dalit Samaj is watching it,” he said, apparently referring to the Hooda family this time.

The prime minister asserted that the BJP government is committed towards the development of Haryana.

“During the previous Congress regime, corruption had become a ritual in Haryana,” he alleged.

Youngsters suffered because of this as they could not get jobs without “kharchi-parchi (favouritism, corruption)”, PM Modi said.

He said the BJP government ended this “game of kharchi-parchi”.

The government gave 1.5 lakh jobs in a transparent manner, PM Modi said.

He said Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini is going to give 25,000 jobs to youngsters but the Congress “Bharti roko gang” is creating impediments to it.

The BJP forming its government in Haryana for a third straight time means “sabka vikas, tez vikas (fast development for all)”, the prime minister said.

The 90-member Haryana Assembly is scheduled to go to polls on October 5 and the counting of votes will be taken up on October 8.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi cited a media report today to assert that new facts reveal that the Congress had “callously” given away the Katchatheevu island to Sri Lanka.

“Eye-opening and startling! New facts reveal how Congress callously gave away Katchatheevu. This has angered every Indian and reaffirmed in people’s minds – we can’t ever trust Congress,” he said on X, sharing the report.

“Weakening India’s unity, integrity and interests has been Congress’ way of working for 75 years and counting,” he said.

BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi claimed that the decision of the then Congress government at the Centre is why Tamil Nadu fishermen are captured and imprisoned by Lankans as they wander to the island, just 25 km off the state’s coast.

The island was with India till 1975, he said. Tamil Nadu’s fishermen would go there earlier but India’s agreement with Lanka barred them from doing so, he added.

Unfortunately, neither the DMK nor the Congress is raising the issue but PM Modi because he is committed to the country and its people, he said.

The BJP is hopeful that the issue will help the party gain political traction in the Dravidian territory ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, more so as it involves neighbouring Sri Lanka whose treatment of its Tamil people has long been a charged political issue in the state.

The report is based on an RTI reply Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai received on the decision of Indira Gandhi’s government in 1974 to hand over the territory in the Palk Strait to the island country.

The report also cited first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s saying that he would have no hesitation in giving up claims to the island. The issue has been a source of dispute between India and Lanka.

In a dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Mr Trivedi asked why he is silent on the issue and said he should tell people that his party and his family are responsible for this.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)