Independent British agents and those representing East India Company channelled cotton textiles to Europe from Chennai. Their Indian counterparts ie, the Indian merchants like Thambu Chetty and Lingi Chetty, are still remembered with streets and roads named after them in the George Town area in Chennai.
Information technology outsourcing is only the modern form of exports from India. Starting with spices, cotton textiles and plantation goods way back in the 17th Century, this grew into supplies of automobiles in the 1940s to support the war efforts of the Allied forces against Japan during World War II.
Muthiah recollects companies like Simpson & Co and Addison in Chennai were active in importing vehicle chassis during the World War II period to convert them into ambulances and armoured vehicles for the British and American forces.
Manufacturing took a more advanced and sophisticated spin with the establishment of Ashok Leyland (then Ashok Motors) in 1948 in Chennai to assemble Austin cars.
The company in 1955 went into truck manufacturing. Major component suppliers like the Rane Group and the TVS Group learned their ropes in the business by starting as suppliers for Ashok Leyland.
"In that sense, Ashok Leyland is the mother and father of automobile industry in the south," says Muthiah. Today, the Indian automobile industry churns out over 10 million vehicles a year ranging from two-wheelers and cars to heavy trucks and tractors and is fast emerging as a hub for small cars in the world.
Image: Chief Operating Officer of Ashok Leyland Vinod K. Dasari poses with a 4921 TT Truck | Photograph: Manpreet Romana/AFP/Getty Images
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