The Tamil Nadu government has set a 21-day deadline for industrial clearances, with applications not processed within that period to be treated as deemed approved and penalties for officials who fail to comply, according to an official press release issued on Saturday.

Source: The Hindu BusinessLine

The decisions were taken at the first meeting of the Tamil Nadu Investment Promotion Commission (TNIPC), chaired by Chief Secretary M Saikumar at the Secretariat in Chennai. The 20-member commission was constituted earlier this month under Section 16-A of the Tamil Nadu Business Facilitation (Amendment) Act, 2026 — its formation was reported when the government set it up to fast-track large projects — and this meeting was where it issued its first binding directions to departments.

Source: Daily Kiran

The commission includes the secretaries of key departments — Finance, Information Technology, MSME, Energy, Revenue and Labour among them — and senior representatives of three industry bodies: the Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI), the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). It will review investment projects involving more than ₹200 crore or generating over 5,000 jobs.

Reviewing the state's industrial progress, the Chief Secretary noted that Tamil Nadu has signed 112 Memoranda of Understanding worth over ₹1.14 lakh crore since May 2026, expected to generate employment for 1,42,271 people, and that 83 of those projects have reached the land-allotment stage or progressed beyond it. Of 21,753 applications received through Guidance Tamil Nadu's single-window portal, 19,323 have been resolved, the release said.

The state has introduced more than 25 ease-of-doing-business reforms across 11 departments since May 2026, the release said, ranging from waiving No Objection Certificates from the Agriculture Department and District Collectors for converting dry and wet lands for industrial use, to extending municipal trade licence validity from three to 10 years and allotting industrial plots to MSMEs within 30 days. Under its incentive package, the state has disbursed subsidies worth ₹2,000 crore over the past six months and sought an additional ₹1,600 crore for new projects.

Among its other directives, the commission asked the Tamil Nadu Power Distribution Corporation Ltd (TNPDCL) to let industries execute High Tension and Extra High Tension power connections on their own and procure equipment independently for large projects. It directed SIPCOT, TIDCO and ELCOT to identify and allot unused land parcels to investors and to assess the power and water requirements of proposed projects for the next 10 years.

The commission also reviewed upcoming projects including TN Knowledge City, Arivagam AI City, the Coimbatore Digital Fintech Hub, the Tiruchirappalli Multimodal Logistics Hub, TIDEL Neo parks and a proposed Global Capability Centre corridor, and discussed the New Industrial Policy 2027. Tourism projects will be brought on a par with industrial ventures under the single-window system, and district-level export conclaves will be organised as the state aims to raise merchandise exports from $59 billion to $72 billion, the release added.

Source: South Politics