Back on the map

With its rich legal heritage and eclectic mix of sole practitioners, young partnerships and regional outposts of adventurous national firms, Chennai is regaining lost ground as a legal hub for southern India

Rebecca Abraham reports

In 2006 the World Bank opened one of its largest offices outside Washington in the southern Indian city of Chennai (formerly called Madras). The 120,000 square foot facility, which was built on land leased from the Tamil Nadu government, houses many of the bank’s support services. Three years later, signalling its confidence in the city, the World Bank moved to buy the 3.5 acre plot on which its office stands.

Wooing a prestigious multilateral institution like the World Bank is never easy. But coups such as this have become almost routine in Tamil Nadu. In recent years the state has succeeded in reeling in a string of prominent investors, including Hyundai, Renault and Nokia.

As a result, long-term observers such as A Balasubramanian, a senior director of project finance at Infrastructure Development Finance Company in Chennai, predict that the city and the state are “poised for a quantum leap”.