The traffic tells a story. During the lockdown, it took 45 minutes to zip through the deserted 35-km stretch from Chennai to reach the automobile heart of Sriperumbudur-Oragadam, where the big names of the car industry - Hyundai Motor India, Renault-Nissan India, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles, Apollo Tyres, and Royal Enfield - are based.
While the tax holiday for the factory coming to an end might be a factor, many say the business model of Microsoft (which acquired Nokia's handset division last year), as well as freebies offered by the Vietnamese government, might also have played a role.
Buoyed by strong demand from the corporate and small-and-medium business (SMB) sectors in India, Dell Inc, the world's No. 2 computer maker, said on Tuesday that it would be doubling the production capacity of its lone plant in India from 4 lakh to about 1 million units per annum. In a move to achieve this, the company announced the manufacture of a wide range of laptop lines at the Sriperumbudur plant near Chennai.
Wearing the bloodstained cap and badge -- evidence in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case -- on the day of his retirement was a cocktail of emotions, says IPS officer Prateep V Phillip, who survived the ghastly attack that killed the former Prime Minister in a 1991 election rally near here.
Production of mobile phones from Motorola's manufacturing facility, coming up at a special economic zone at Sriperumbudur near Chennai, will begin in the first quarter of next year.
The govt decided to recommend to the governor, the release of Murugan, Santhan, Perarivalan, Jayakumar, Ravichandran, Robert Payas and Nalini, serving life imprisonment.
She had petitioned the court seeking a direction to the Tamil Nadu government to press the Governor to take a decision on its September 2018 recommendation for premature release of all the seven convicts serving life term in the case.
"Tributes to former PM Shri Rajiv Gandhi on his death anniversary," Modi tweeted.
Lodged in prison for over 27 years, she had originally sought a six-month leave to make arrangements for her daughter's marriage.
Fate of factory, 8,000 workers remains uncertain.
A former Central Bureau of Investigation officer, who probed the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, has claimed that a video purportedly showing the assassin Dhanu at the public meeting at Sriperumbudur on the fateful day had been suppressed by then Intelligence Bureau chief M K Narayanan, now West Bengal governor.
Last week, Nokia offered financial help to employees who wished to explore opportunities elsewhere
Following the re-entry of French car maker PSA Peugeot Citroen, the erstwhile sleepy town -- already home to Tata Motors' manufacturing plant for small car Nano -- finds itself along the country's prominent auto hubs like Pune in Maharashtra and Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu.
West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan has dismissed a former Central Bureau of Investigation officer's claim that he as the Intelligence Bureau chief had suppressed a video purportedly showing Rajiv Gandhi's assassin Dhanu at the public meeting at Sriperumbudur on the fateful day.
President Pratibha Patil has rejected the clemency petitions of three killers of Rajiv Gandhi whose death sentences were confirmed by the Supreme Court in 2000.
Nokia started operations at Sriperumbudur plant near Chennai, the second biggest facilities by any global firm, in 2006 after Korean auto major Hyundai's came up with its plant in the late 1990s.
A staunch supporter of slain LTTE supremo V Prabhakaran, he also criticised the former prime minister for sending the Indian Peacekeeping Force to Sri Lanka in the 1980s.
Nokia's Sriperumbudur factory is its largest in the world.
I Ramamohan Rao was working as the principal information officer of the government of India on the fateful night of May 21, 1991 when Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in Sriperumbudur. Rao was entrusted with the crucial task of announcing the news of Gandhi's death to the entire world in the absence of then prime minister Chandrashekhar from New Delhi. Rao recollects the happenings of that tense night.
Industries Minister P Thangamani told the assembly. He was responding to a query by A Sounderrajan of CPI-M.
Tax problems and unfavourable WTO agreements are making Tamil Nadu's electronics corridor less attractive to companies.
Centre of Indian Trade Unions district secretary Muthukumar said the workers were arrested when they tried to stage an agitation in front of the plant at Sriperumbudur.
The governor said a decision on the issue would be taken in a "just and fair manner" in accordance with the Constitution.
Perarivalan is being treated at the prison hospital, police said.
Workers had gone on strike yesterday, demanding better wage settlement terms and reinstatement of workers suspended in January this year. Nokia India Employees Progressive Union was spearheading the strike.
When Dell decided to start its operations in Tamil Nadu, the state government wanted the company to operate from a rural area.
A section of employees of auto-maker, Hyundai Motor India went on a flash strike at the company's production unit at nearby Sriperumbudur on Monday, demanding reinstating over 60 employees dismissed last year on grounds of ''unruly practices.''
H S Lheem, president and chief executive officer of Hyundai WIA, part of the Hyundai Motor Group, announced commencement of the company's first plant in India near Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu, in which it's injecting a investment of $4 million.
Plan is to sell flats, of sizes 385-500 sq ft, at prices ranging from Rs. 7 lakh to Rs. 10 lakh.
The Nokia India Employees Progressive Union held discussions with the management on Monday. "The wage settlement offered by company is quite low. We are not happy with that," said Union sources.
The two partners have said they'd produce 150,000 vehicles as part of the phase-I plan from their existing facilities in the state, till the new factory goes on stream.
Given the security dilemma prevailing between India and China, India should curb the operation of Chinese telecom companies in India, asserts Dr Rup Narayan Das.
The facility is considered to be one of the largest manufacturing units of the handset major.
The Nokia India facility in Chennai, one of the largest manufacturing facilities of the company globally employs 8,000 people, of that 50 per cent are women.
The Madras High Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea of Nalini, a life convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, seeking premature release under the general amnesty scheme.
The strike, however, had no impact on production of auto majors Maruti Suzuki India, Hero MotoCorp, Honda Cars India, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors and Hyundai Motors India as their plants in various parts of the country functioned normally.
The government on Wednesday approved a Rs 7,350-crore scheme to boost production of laptops, tablets, all-in-one PCs and servers in the country, as it sought to woo global and domestic players to take advantage of India's manufacturing prowess. Production worth Rs 3.26 lakh crore and exports of Rs 2.45 lakh crore are estimated over the next four years under the new scheme, which is expected to create 1.80 lakh jobs. Briefing reporters after a meeting of the Cabinet, Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme has been approved for IT hardware products that would cover laptops, tablets, all-in-one PCs and servers.
Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development, Sriperumbudur announces two-year Master's Degree Programmes in youth welfare.
