by iain marlow ganesh nagarajan and archana chaudhary its quiet as ruchak khanter walks across his factory in chennai stacked piles of unsold stainless steel plates trays and bowls cover the floor industrial stamping machines lay idle and most of his workers have been sent home theres literally no work khanter said citing the new nationwide goods and services tax and the decline in his states competitiveness as others regions lure investment hes considering moving to ahmedabad in gujarat a lot of industries have already shifted nicknamed the detroit of india for its auto industry chennai the capital of tamil nadu is at risk of taking on another characteristic of the american city the demise of a manufacturing powerhouse for india as a whole though the ascent of less developed states could spell a future of more balanced sustainable growth where regional rivalries fuel productivity gains much as they have in the other giant economies of the us and china for a host of reasons parts of south india developed more rapidly than the northern states postindependence said shailesh kumar senior asia analyst at eurasia group a political risk firm this trend may now be changing on account of the governments push to have states compete for business and investments with the goal that in the end all of india will benefit andhra pradesh and the newlyformed state of telangana are among the fiercest competitors for new industry with huge tracts of rural land available they can bid aggressively for new industry said venu srinivasan chennaibased chairman of sundaram clayton majority owner of tvs motor co ltd the growth in andhra and telangana is amazing srinivasan said chief minister chandrababu naidu is tapping into andhra pradeshs tech prowess to try and make their builtfromscratch capital amaravati a singaporestyle fintech center of india this is our strength said ja chowdary the states special chief secretary states particularly andhra pradesh and telangana are engaged in a very healthy sort of competition in terms of governance in general in terms of attracting investment in terms of building infrastructure said viswanathan raghunathan a business professor and author based in hyderabad for prime minister narendra modi more balanced growth across the nation of 13 billion would help fulfill his 2014 campaign promise to bring economic development to all indians a pledge now under pressure from a lack of job creation but as a former chief minister himself modi knows competition between states can lead to new investments and job creation and he has tried to level the playing field by implementing national policies such as gst diminishing power thats little comfort to businesses in tamil nadu indias most industrialized state and long a destination for global manufacturers political shifts and policies such as the gst have dented the regions momentum while a drop in remittances from workers in the gulf has been most notable here the south was a powerhouse for industry said nk ranganath managing director of grundfos pumps india pvt ltd