The city has a concentration of varied industry sectors such as automobile, textile, renewable energy, electronics, and technology.
Chennai has emerged as the second-largest manufacturing hub of electronics hardware in India. The city accounts for 16% of the production in the country. The city along with its surrounding locations including Oragadam, Sriperumbudur and Mahindra World City has more than 20 electronic hardware technology parks.
The top three commodities exported by Chennai in 2017-18 were electronic instruments, components, and telecom instruments.
Besides being the automobile and electronics components manufacturing hub of Asia, Chennai is rapidly turning into a SaaS hub, by being home to some of the most successful B2B SaaS product companies.
Chennai also has emerged as one of the largest exporters of IT/ITeS software in the country. To promote the IT sector, the Tamil Nadu government has taken several initiatives. Chennai’s first IT park, Tidel Park, was developed by the government. OMR was announced the IT corridor of the city. The government announced a separate IT policy in 2008 and revised it in 2018. This policy offers several fiscal incentives to corporates who want to establish their campuses in Tamil Nadu.
The emergence of startups has given rise to several coworking spaces in the prime business hubs of the city.