MADURAI: The ancient temple city of Madurai may well emerge as a modern technology hub in a few years from now if the proposal submitted to Tamil Nadu government today by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Madurai Zone is accepted and takes shape make it a hub of Artificial Intelligence (AI) units.
Based on the present potential, future opportunities and expanding ecosystem of Information Technology in Madurai, the CII Madurai Zone has prepared a proposal to establish a ‘Centre of Excellence for AI’ in Madurai and transform it into a technological centre driven by startups, innovations and ideas that are wanted for the next stage of IT sector.
This preliminary stage proposal was submitted to Dr.Atul Anand IAS, Additional Chief Secretary-Artificial Intelligence, Information Technology & Digital Services Department of Government of Tamil Nadu by the CII team at ‘Connect Madur.ai’ conclave in Madurai today-September 25th 2026.
A WELCOME SIGN:
Acknowledging the CII Madurai Zone’s proposal, Dr.Atul Anand has said that the idea to have ‘AI Centre of Excellence’ in Madurai is a welcome sign and the State government will study the feasibility and maybe it could be done through a tie-up with TIDCO.
“I know that Madurai is getting good attention through its two IT parks. Our Chief Minister already gave a blueprint for us on AI, and we are working in that direction on how to leverage and encourage AI startups. The State government is already on the job for AI City, ethical use of AI, its guidelines, Deep Tech startups, etc. We are focused on AI-related research, services delivery to people through e-services, using of Whatsapp in a big way for Govt services, electronic cluster parks etc. Definitely we will take all the concrete proposals into consideration and action,” Dr.Atul Anand told reporters after the inaugural session of ‘CII Connect Madurai’ here today.
Mr.Rajiv S Jeyabalan, Chairman, CII Madurai Zone and Managing Director of Susee Finance & Leasing Pvt Ltd, Mr.S.M.Manikandan, Chair of CII Madurai Connect 2026 and Chief Business Officer of Aparajitha Corporate Services Pvt Ltd, Mr.B.Subburaman, Co-Chair of SII SR Taskforce on AI adoption & Responsible Adoption and also Past Chairman of CII Madurai Zone who is senior vice-president at HCL Technologies Ltd, Mr.J.Murugavel, Vice-Chairman of CII Tamil Nadu State Council and chairman of CII-TN Connect 2026 and founder cum CEO of Matromony.com Ltd and Dr.Balaji Venkataraman, vice-chairman of CII Madurai Zone and Director-CEO of TVS Sensing Solutions Private Limited, were among those who explained that AI landscape can be changed from Madurai because it has 200 IT companies with 18,000 IT employees and CII wants to see Madurai as a leading AI destination by using its IT talent.
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