Chennai: The textile industry is the most innovative sector in Tamil Nadu, with as much as 14.20 per cent of innovations taking place within it. The fabricated metal products industry (13.61 per cent) comes next in this and machinery and equipment manufacturing (10.06 per cent) ranking third. Other sectors such as food products and rubber/plastics products manufacturing also find a place on the ‘Most Innovative’ list.

This was revealed in a first of its kind, national report, brought out recently by the department of science and technology, benchmarking innovation potentiality of Indian firms. Nationwide, the food products sector has the highest share in innovative firms followed by the rubber and plastic products sector. The report was based on the analysis of a sample survey of 9001 firms, largely micro, small and medium enterprises, which contribute as much as 8 per cent to the country’s GDP and are spread across 26 states and five Union Territories. It was based on the 2009-2010 annual survey of industries database.


Tamil Nadu’s share in total innovative firms in the country stands at 5.28 per cent. The introduction of new machines contributes to as much as 80 per cent of innovation types, followed by innovations in the field of product quality/standardisation and new process technology. The report, however, noted, “Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu – states that are known to be innovation leaders – have poor records in accessing an institutional support system for technological knowledge and information.”

Access to knowledge or information was found to be the most important barrier cited by about 40 per cent of the innovative firms followed by the cost factor association with innovation. As far as individual innovators are concerned, the unavailability of skilled manpower is a significant problem for 88 per cent of them, followed by access to information and availability of information technology. Government regulatory requirements rank as the foremost market barrier.