History of Chennai he funded new Indian enterprises and broke into the previously closed ranks of the British financial system. The bank still has its corporate headquarters in the city. During World War I, Madras (Chennai) was shelled by the German light cruiser SMS "Emden", resulting in 5 civilian deaths and 26 wounded. The crew of a merchant ship also destroyed by the Germans that night. After India became independent in 1947, the city became the administrative and legislative capital of Madras State which was renamed as Tamil Nadu in 1968. During the reorganisation of states in India on linguistic lines, in 1953,
Tamil Nadu state has 17,000 hectares of land under oil palm cultivation, the second highest in India. Dr M.S. Swaminathan, known as the "father of the Indian Green Revolution" was from Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu Agricultural University with its seven colleges and thirty two research stations spread over the entire state contributes to evolving new crop varieties and technologies and disseminating through various extension agencies. Among states in India, Tamil Nadu is one of the leaders in livestock, poultry and fisheries production. Tamil Nadu had the second largest number of poultry amongst all the states and accounted for 17.7 per cent of