ET Business Growth Summit Chennai: Innovation and R&D key to unlocking MSME potential

The ET Business Growth Summit in Chennai showcased the entrepreneurial spirit, innovative thinking, and growth ambitions of businesses, especially micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Tamil Nadu. The summit, held in the city on Friday, attracted a full house of industry leaders, government officials, entrepreneurs, associations, and MSMEs. They engaged in discussion regarding the challenges and opportunities ahead for these businesses as they look to expand globally.

The summit started with a keynote address by Sanket Balwant Waghe, IAS, Executive Director, Tamilnadu Industrial Development Corporation Ltd. In his address, he pointed out that Tamil Nadu’s advantage is not only its industrial scale but also the diversity and depth of the ecosystem it has built over the years. “Tamil Nadu’s manufacturing strength is expanding from traditional industries to electric mobility, semiconductors, aerospace and defence, life sciences and advanced manufacturing,” he said.

Next up was a special address by K.V. Reshma, Additional Director, Department of Industries & Commerce, Tamil Nadu Government. She said that MSMEs are the bedrock of Tamil Nadu’s industrialisation, transforming job seekers into job creators. “Tamil Nadu’s MSMEs are evolving from labour-intensive units into high-skill, technology-enabled employment engines for all.”

This was followed by an insightful session with Kumar Neel Lohit, Executive Director, IDBI Bank, who outlined various initiatives by the bank aimed at driving the next wave of MSME growth.

After this session, there was an engaging panel discussion focused on how Chennai can build the next generation of global MSME champions. “Chennai's business ecosystem has depth, but awareness remains a key gap, particularly for MSMEs looking to scale up and compete in global markets,” Sridevi Arunachalam, Founder, Indo-UAE Economic Chamber of Commerce, said as she explored the limitations impacting MSMEs in the state from leveraging their full potential.

Affirming her views, K.E. Raghunathan, National Chairman, Association of Indian Entrepreneurs, said that India needs to move from a start-up mission to a scale-up mission. “Scaling is one of the biggest challenges facing businesses today,” he highlighted. Raghunathan also said that India’s R&D spending is among the lowest in the world, and it is an area that needs to be looked at more seriously.

Regarding deep tech and innovation, Srimathy Kesan, Founder & CEO, Space Kidz India, highlighted the importance of including more women to further drive the sector’s growth. “Women remain significantly underrepresented in aerospace leadership globally and surely need greater inclusion. In the aerospace industry globally, only 13% of CEOs are women,” she revealed.

The panel was followed by a fireside chat with M. Vara Prasad, Regional Manager-Chennai Regional Office, The New India Assurance Co. Ltd, elucidating the strategic role of insurance in India's SME growth story and why it is important for SMEs to include insurance as part of their core portfolios.

The final session of the day featured a business success story, with Aditya Ganesh, Executive Director, Rane (Madras) Ltd, sharing his journey through the company’s growth, innovation, and leadership over the years. “Multi-generational businesses need to be custodians of both defence and growth. There are phases of defence and phases of attack, but there has to be a balance,” he said.

Ganesh added that investing in people and professionalisation early on can help ease the day-to-day burden of a family business and give promoters time to focus on the bigger picture.

This concluded the ET Business Growth Summit in Chennai, with industry leaders emphasising stronger collaboration among businesses, policymakers, and institutions to realise the region’s true potential. The event was sponsored by IDBI Bank as the Banking & Lending Partner and The New India Assurance Co. Ltd (NIA) as the General (Non-Life) Insurance Partner.

The summit now heads to Mumbai for another round of conversations, discussions, and learning on October 9, 2026, in the ET Business Growth Summit series.