Nagaraj Krishnan from Madurai in G-20 Summit

Nagaraj Krishnan from Madurai, a social entrepreneur and joint managing director of Aparajitha Corporate Services, a HR compliances services firm based out of Madurai with pan-India presence, has returned from France after making India’s voice heard in the global platform by successfully pushing a few action points on employability and the need for attitudinal change among the banks for discussion and implementation.

The 400 young entrepreneurs from across the globe narrowed down 25 policy-level action points and submitted them to the higher G-20 body. He is the only man from Madurai to attend such a thing.

Looking forward to more like this...

Economy of Tier-II and Tier-III cities to improve a lot in coming years - Madurai, Trichy, Coimbatore and Salem - Real Estate Jobs and Gold Investment

Article sponsored by OruAcre.com, Sana Placement Services and YellowHomes.in

36 cities in India had been identified as future cities. 13 cities out of 36 cities in India is incidentally from South India - Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

Out of 13 cities, 4 are from Tamil nadu and they are - Coimbatore, Madurai, Trichy and Salem.

In terms of Gold Jewellery Stores, 55 percent of the consumption is from Tier-II cities and that is said to grow into 65 per cent. Hence, gold jewellery stores are aiming to have expansion plans into Tier-II cities in the next coming years.

The same applies to the garments and clothing retail industry.

When it comes to Real Estate, there is more compelling reasons for people to buy first home or land in their home city - that is native place like Madurai, Coimbatore, Salem and Trichy. Akshaya, the chennai based realtor is already expanding to Coimbatore and their next projects are going to move towards Madurai and following that to Trichy as well.

When it comes to business expansion and companies starting their offices, it is on increase for companies to open their branches in Tier-II cities like Madurai Coimbatore Salem and Trichy.

The employees are much more loyal when compared to the peers in the metro cities. There is very less attrition rates in Tier-II cities. Cost of Operations is much lesser in Tier-II cities compared to Chennai and other metro cities.

First America and Cap Gemini are already there in Salem. Honeywell has a base in Madurai. MNCs like Ford Business and Robert Bosch are looking to expand into Coimbatore. For leading IT player, Cognizant, Coimbatore is already a big destination employing around 5,000 people. Nearly 40 per cent of recruitment for the IT industry already takes place from in and around the city.

Job market is very good in these cities and also Real Estate market is wonderful in these cities in the future to come.

Article sponsored by Sana Placement Services, YellowHomes.in and OruAcre.com

Arts, Science Degrees are given less priority - but only Engineering degrees are preferred in Madurai - Madurai Education, Colleges

Arts, Science Degrees are given less priority - but only Engineering degrees are preferred in Madurai - Madurai Education, Colleges...

Everyone who passes out of 12th standard wants to go for Engineering, irrespective of the marks acquired by the student. On those days, only the students, who have acquired high marks can opt for Engineering or Medicine. But, these days, whatever marks you get, you can get a seat in an engineering college. The reason is - lot of private colleges in Madurai for Engineering. Given money, you can get a seat whatever marks you might have got.

What will these students who complete Engineering do? Even though they are not interested or capable to study engineering, they opt for it for parents compulsion and also for earning more in their life. They usually go into Information Technology jobs (IT/Software jobs) in other cities in India or abroad. This has become very usual.

Because of this, the students opting for arts and science degrees has become drastically very less. The degrees like BA, BSc, BCom are being considered very low. They don't understand the significance of these courses.

If everyone becomes engineer (non-capable-engineers) then it is not good for the job market and ofcourse there won't be job satisfaction for these students/employees as well.

Think about it and just learn the course, what you are really interested in only.

This is not healthy at all for the Madurai economy!!

Economy of Madurai as of Jan 2010 - a reality check

Please see my previous article about people in madurai and their classification based on salaries. That should tell about the different kinds of people in Madurai.

I have written a similar article in April of 2009 for Economy of Madurai - a reality check in 2009.

At any case - let us check the status now:

One major complaint in Madurai economy is there is no major manufacturing divisions started up. Anything started up recently are retail outlets, refined grocery outlets, service outlets of different companies, shops etc., which sell things, insurance, banking etc.,

Only when there are more than 70% manufacturing companies, then only there is a significant improvement in economy of Madurai. In fact, there is reduction in number of manufacturing companies. On those days, atleast Fenner was great. But there are countable ones - Fenner, TVS companies etc.,

Every individual who works thinks of a secondary income and gets the compulsion of starting off something by himself, while he does the day job. While this happens, they always end up doing only service stuff and they don't create anything.

It is always only a share of existing money in Madurai. Only when outside companies come into Madurai and invest and give employment opportunities to Madurai people then only we get the actual productivity of Madurai and improvement in economy of Madurai.

Anyway, overall - it is good for Madurai's entrepreneurs to grow with new thinking of starting something of their own.

There has to be big companies coming in and giving employment to 100s and 1000s of people in Madurai - then there would be some difference and impact in madurai economy. In fact, any government concentration is only on north and not in southern parts of tamil nadu. If they concentrate, then there would be significant contribution from Madurai and southern districts as well.

Different Categories of Madurai People by Salaries - Economy of Madurai

I was talking to some of my friends in Madurai and corporate personnel in Madurai for the status of Madurai. Based on those discussions and interviews, here is my inference for Madurai Economy and reality check of the same.

I am not an economist, but just writing my thoughts and putting together my ideas on paper.

Let me classify working people of Madurai in different categories based on their salary.

1) Labour people, who work hard in the bottom of the society and get Rs.2500 per month or less.
2) Lower Middle class people, who earn between Rs.2500 to Rs.7000 per month. Families to feed three or more.
3) Middle class people, who earn between Rs.7000 to Rs.15000 per month.
4) Upper middle class people, who earn between Rs.15000 to Rs.25000 per month.
5) Rich people, who earn anything more than Rs.25000 per month.

The above could be one person to two person earning in a family, so it could be considered as household income. The problem is - people or families would come under my classification or vary time to time - based on the number of family members.

Say for example, a family increases by population and he stays with the same salary, then they slowly come down to a different classification of people in Madurai. Please note that this classification only applies to Madurai.

Ok, now we have classified people. Let us see what do they do -

1) Labour class does all the low level jobs like cleaning, mechanical work, very very hardworking, sweeping, house work etc.,

2) Lower middle class would be two people earning and doing the same work as above labour class. This category is also hard working and lot of manual work job.

3) Middle class is more of people working in offices, clerks and sit and do jobs, accountants etc.,

4) Upper middle class is more of banking, insurance, service, retail and education, teaching, some IT or ITeS related folks.

5) Rich people are more of corporate people, any kind of business men and women, politicians, specifically IT people and at last thugs, who live on interest (finance).

Madurai - a reality check - Madurai Economy Trend - April 2009

I was talking to some experts working in corporates in Madurai to see what is the trend going on.

Overall, it seems to be bleak in terms of economy across all the industries, due to global recession.

Since the banking and insurance are not doing well, there is obviously downward trend in Information Technology. All of the Loans and majority of the Projects comes from Banking and Insurance industry to IT - hence it seems be a dull market for now.

Industries in Madurai are scaling down. Both in terms of cost and also willing to close down industries, when the unit does not make profit.

Auto industry, Mobil retail and FMCG are all suffering.

Another new trend in Madurai is - all the corporate retail shops like Reliance Fresh, Mobile outlets etc., are renegotiating the rent with the land lords and delaying the rent payment overall with the landlords. Even they are threatening that they would not vacate, if they don't reduce the rent of the property. The retail units have promised on a rent in boom period and now they are trying to reduce it.

About unemployment - People are trying to stay in the jobs, wherever they are. Employers are cutting salaries and laying off. Even the salaries are paid delayed. No questions asked!

Companies recruiting in campus, has not sent joining letters , including corporate companies. This leads to more unemployment. My advice for these unemployed - go and do higher studies until the economy comes back.

Anyway, overall things seems to be down. Hopefully market would recover globally and we will prosper soon!

Having said all these - as always politicians, cinema executives/actors, some corporate businessmen, illegal businessmen and criminals do not have anything less!!