Economy of Tamil Nadu It produces the 70 percent of the total salt production in the state and 30 percent in the country. Chennai is nicknamed as "The Detroit of Asia". Chennai is home to large number of auto component industries. Over 11.2% of the "S&P CNX 500" conglomerates have corporate offices in Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu has manufacturing facilities from automobiles, railway coaches, battle-tanks, tractors, motorbikes and heavy vehicles to ships. Alstom has a manufacturing facility in Coimbatore which manufactures rail transportation products. MRF the local tyre manufacturer is located in Chennai and Perambalur. TI cycles of Murugappa group have their units in
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