RBI data show rosy picture of poll-bound Tamil Nadu, reveal Karnataka’s gaps

Tamil Nadu has emerged a clear winner among the five southern states across several people-facing parameters that influence the livelihood and quality of life, such as factories, jobs and tourist footfall.

The latest Reserve Bank of India statistics on Indian states have triggered social media discussions with experts, industry leaders and other citizens pointing to the speed with which TN is racing ahead.

The data come as a boost to TN’s ruling DMK as the state is preparing for assembly polls in a few months.


In foreign tourist arrivals, both Tamil Nadu and Kerala were ahead in 2024. In exports, at $52 billion, TN was ahead of Karnataka by almost $22 billion in 2024-25. In 2023-24, there were 2.4 million workers in TN as against under 1 million in Karnataka.

In a post on X, Aarin Capital chairman Mohandas Pai said Karnataka will have to invest more in capital expenditure and attract more industry, and urged chief minister Siddaramaiah to focus on investments and industry, away from the “freebies” programme. “Huge corruption in Karnataka is turning off industry, hurting us,” he said.

TN’s industrial breadth, powered by auto, electronics, heavy engineering and diversification, is visibly outpacing Karnataka’s tech-concentration, a user on X said, noting: “How tables have changed from two years ago.”

TN chief minister MK Stalin, according to a comment on X by Prasanna Viswanathan, has delivered manufacturing-powered growth to his state in the last two years which has widened the output gap considerably. In 2024-25, TN emerged as the knockout performer by clocking the fastest 16% GSDP growth, as against Karnataka’s 12.8%.

Karnataka’s former finance secretary LK Atheeq acknowledged TN’s progress with a comment on X suggesting that his state must do better in terms of manufacturing, creating jobs and diversifying growth to more regions (something that TN does well). He was also surprised to find Karnataka at the fifth place in gross enrolment rate in secondary schooling (9th to 12th class) in 2024-25, behind Kerala, TN and Telangana.

	Tourist (domestic, mn, 2024)	Foreign tourists (lakhs, 2024)	Exports (2024-25) (in bn $)	No of factories (2023-24)	No of workers (2023-24)
AP	290	2.62	20.78	16,011	635844
Karnataka	305	4.85	30.48	14,984	968922
Kerala	22	7.38	4.77	7528	282993
TN	307	11.61	52.07	40121	2475675
Telangana	88	1.55	19.12	13446	772749

(Source: RBI handbook of statistics on Indian States, 2024-25)