Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa has advocated large scale public and private partnerships (PPP) and investments in biotechnology in the state. Inaugurating the twin conference on Investment Meet and Infrastructure Development organized by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), she said Tamil Nadu offers excellent opportunities for broad basing investments in IT and Biotechnology in all its metropolitan towns like Coimbatore, Tiruchi, Madurai, Tirunelveli, Salem and Erode.

These towns are linked by an extensive network of nearly 5,000 km of optical fiber cables that to the international gateway located in Chennai. Visualizing PPP as a winning model, the Tamil Nadu government will harness this strength to encourage foreign investment in the state to make it the hub of the knowledge industry in South Asia.

Biotechnology is another area where the state hopes to get good investment from all over the world. The TIDCO Center for Life Sciences (TICEL), a Biotechnology Incubator Park in collaboration with Cornell University will be set up this year to enhance investment in this segment. "This will be a nucleus for entrepreneurs and research laboratories to incubate their ideas and convert them into profitable business ventures."