Tamil Nadu one of India's largest electrical equipment manufacturing companies, has manufacturing plants at Tiruchirapalli and Ranipet. India's leading steel producer, the state-owned Steel Authority of India has a steel plant in Salem. Sterlite Industries has a copper smelter at Tuticorin and an aluminium plant in Mettur. The Chennai Petroleum Corporation is a state-owned oil and gas corporation headquartered in Chennai, and owns refineries at Manali and Panangudi. The state government owns the Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers, in Karur. Jointly with the Tata Group, the state owns the world's sixth largest manufacturer of watches, under the brand name of Titan, at
History of Tamil Nadu in the Indian Union, Tamil Nadu was the seventh largest economy in 2005 among the states of India. The growing demands for skilled labour has caused increased number of educational institutions in Tamil Nadu. The widespread application of caste based affirmative action caused the state to have 69% of all educational and employment vacancies to be reserved to the backward castes. Such caste-based reservations have huge public support in Tamil Nadu, with no popular protests organised against its implementation. The politics of Tamil Nadu have gone through three distinct phases since independence. The domination of the Congress Party after 1947