Chennai Nokia Plant & its woes

Even as a meeting between Nokia India management and Union leaders of the company’s Chennai factory on March 19, 2014 failed to yield any clarity about the future of the plant, union heads alleged that work was being diverted to Vietnam and China and production here was falling. They further apprehended that the work force would get reduced in the coming days. The Supreme Court had last week dismissed Nokia’s appeal implying that the factory can hardly be transferred to Microsoft till the tax dispute is resolved. Microsoft had acquired the phone business of Nokia in September last year. It is a pity that a major investment made in Chennai some years back with a lot of expectation and promises to the local area and population is backing out and the management is readying to wind up its operations after the transfer to another company. The workers numbering about 8000 including 300 couples would find it hard to get placements soon. The state government should have taken steps to avoid such a situation before it raises its ugly head. This sort of a development would bring bad name to the country, state and discourage other investments from multinationals. Who would bother about this in any department of the state government? ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++