Economy
With more than 25,000 small, medium and large industries, the city's primary industries are engineering and textiles. Coimbatore is called the "Manchester of South India" due to its extensive textile industry, fed by the surrounding cotton fields. The district also houses the country's largest amount of hosiery and poultry industries. The city has two special economic zones (SEZ), the Coimbatore Hi-Tech Infrastructure (CHIL) SEZ and the Coimbatore TIDEL park, and at least five more SEZs are in the pipeline. As of 2005, when Tirupur was a part of Coimbatore district, Coimbatore was the highest revenue earning district in Tamil Nadu. In 2010, Coimbatore ranked 15th in the list of most competitive (by business environment) Indian cities.
An insignificant little town prone to droughts and earthquakes till the early years of the 20th century, Coimbatore experienced a textile boom in the 1920s and 1930s. Though, Robert Stanes had established Coimbatore's first textile mills as early as the late 19th century, it was during this period that Coimbatore emerged as a prominent industrial centre. Narayanaswamy Naidu's Dhandayuthapani Foundry, D. Balasundaram Naidu's Textool, the Lakshmi Machine Works, the Kalleeswara Mills and the Somasundra Mills are some of the important textile and machine units which emerged during the early 1900s.
Coimbatore has trade associations like CODISSIA, COINDIA, SITRA and COJEWEL representing industries in the city. Coimbatore also has a 160,000 square feet (15,000 m2) trade fair ground, built in 1999. It was named COINTEC due to its hosting of INTEC (Small Industries Exhibition). The Trade Fair complex, one of the country's largest, was built in six months, and is owned by CODISSIA (Coimbatore District Small Industries Association). It is also the country's largest pillar-free hall, according to the Limca Book of Records.
Coimbatore houses a large number of small and medium textile mills. It also has central textile research institutes like the Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR)- Southern Regional station and the Sardar Vallabhai Patel International School of Textiles and Management. The South Indian Textiles Research Association (SITRA) is also based in Coimbatore. The city also houses two of the Centers Of Excellences (COE) for technical textiles proposed by Government of India, namely Meditech, a medical textile research centre based at SITRA, and InduTech based in PSG College of Engineering and Technology. The neighbouring city of Tirupur is home to some of Asia’s largest garment manufacturing companies, exporting hosiery clothes worth more than 50,000 million.
The city is the second largest software producer in Tamil Nadu, next only to Chennai. IT and BPO industry in the city has grown greatly with the launch of TIDEL park and other planned IT parks in and around the city. It is ranked at 17th among the global outsourcing cities. Companies like Tata Consultancy Services, Cognizant Technology Solutions, IBM, Robert Bosch GmbH, Cameron International Corporation, Tata Elxsi, Dell, Aditi Technologies, CSS Corp and KGISL having a presence in the city. Coimbatore is already the second largest hub in India for Cognizant Technology Solutions as it employs around 5000 people in its Coimbatore centre and is planning to double its capacity here. Software exports stood at 710.66 Crores (7.1 billion) for the financial year 2009-10 up 90% from the previous year.
Coimbatore has a large and a diversified manufacturing sector facilitated by the presence of research institutes like Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, SITRA and large number of engineering colleges producing about 50,000 engineers. Some of the prominent industries in Coimbatore include L&T, BOSCH, PSG, Sakthi group, Lakshmi Machine Works (LMW), Premier Instruments & Control Limited (PRICOL), Premier Evolvics, Janatics, LGB, Revathi Equipment Ltd, ELGI Equipments, Craftsman Automation Pvt Ltd, Shanthi Gears, Roots Industries. Wind Energy major Suzlon has set up a foundry & machine shop in Coimbatore. Along with it Hansen Transmission, a Belgian Company which manufactures gearboxes for windmills is setting up a plant here with an investment of 940 cr.
Manufacturing of automotive components is also important to Coimbatore's economy. Maruti Udyog and Tata Motors source up to 30% of their automotive components from Coimbatore. Some of the auto component makers in Coimbatore include Robert Bosch GmbH, PRICOL and Roots Industries. Coimbatore has more than 700 wet grinder manufacturers with a monthly output As of March 2005 of 75,000 units and is home to a common facility for the manufacturers of wet grinders. Coimbatore motor and pump manufacturing industry supplies over 40% of India’s requirements.
Coimbatore is one of the major gold jewellery manufacturing hubs in India, renowned for making cast jewellery and machine made jewellery is also a major diamond cutting centre in South India. . The city is home to about 3000 jewellery manufacturing companies and to over 40,000 goldsmiths. The city is home to about 3000 jewellery manufacturing companies and to over 40,000 goldsmiths and have an active association called Coimbatore Jewellery Manufacturers' Association, and Coimbatore Gem and Jewellery Industries Private Limited (Cojewel), which is a common facility with niche goldsmith machinery to be used by the members of the association. Kirtilal's of Coimbatore have their manufacturing base in Coimbatore. Owing to the presence of a large number of jewellery manufacturers and the strong engineering base, the city is home to a number of companies manufacturing jewellery making machinery.
Coimbatore has some of the oldest flour mills in India. The large scale flour mills, which cater to all the southern states, have a combined grinding capacity of more than 50,000 MT per month. In the recent years, the city has seen growth in the hospitality industry with more upscale hotels being set up like Vivanta by Taj (Old Surya International), Hilton Garden Inn and Le Meridien, four star hotels like Aloft, Park Plaza and many three star hotels .
Coimbatore is the first largest non-metro city for e-commerce in South India
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Famous quotes containing the word economy:
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—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)