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 Tamil political parties. They exerted pressure on the Indian government to intercede with the Sri Lankan government on behalf of the Sri Lankan Tamilians. However, LTTE lost much of its support from Tamil Nadu following the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi on 21 May 1991 by an operative from Sri Lanka for the former prime minister's role in sending Indian peacekeepers to Sri Lanka to disarm the LTTE. The east coast of Tamil Nadu was one of the areas affected by the Indian Ocean earthquake of 2004, during which almost 8000 people died in the disaster. The sixth most populous state