This region also lies in the cotton growing tract and is dominated by cotton textile industry. Agriculturally prosperous hinterland, large domestic market, cheap and skilled labour supply, good climate, and cheap and regular supply of power (from Pykara, Mettur, Sivasamudram, Papanasam and Sharavati projects) have favoured the concentration of industries in this region. Chennai, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Madurai, Shivkashi, Mysore, Tiruchchirappalli, Salem, Mandya, Bhadravati and Mettur are important industrial centers of the region.
Chennai produces cotton textile, vegetable oil and leather goods. Coimbatore is an important spinning centre for cotton textile. It supplies cotton thread to Madurai and many small centers of handloom cottage industry for weaving of cloths.
Coimbatore also has coffee processing plants, oil mills, cement factories and leather goods manufacturing units. Bangalore has cotton, woolen and silk textiles together with a number of public sector industrial establishments like Hindustan Aeronautics, Hindustan Machine Tools, Indian Telephone Industry, Bharat Electronics and Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Works etc. The city has recently emerged as a great centre for electronics and information technology.
The region has witnessed industrial diversification housing industries like textiles, sugar, leather goods, chemicals, paper, engineering, electrical machinery, rubber goods, watch making and electronics etc. About 57 per cent of the industrial workers belong to cotton textile industry, followed by engineering (16%), food processing (10%) and chemicals (5%) industries. This is the only industrial region in the southern Indian which has a good prospect ahead.