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With temples, beaches and centres of historical and cultural significance, including the UNESCO Heritage Site of Mahabalipuram, Chennai remains the most visited city in India. Chennai has been the most visited Indian city since 2008, in terms of foreign tourists arrival.[187] In 2011, Chennai was ranked 41st in global top 100 city destination ranking, with 3,174,500 tourists, a 14 percent increase from 2010, up from 650,000 in 2007. In 2009, Chennai attracted the highest number of foreign tourists in the country. The city serves as the gateway to the southern part of India with tourists landing in the city and starting their trip to the rest of the region. Top foreign nationals visiting the city includes those from Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Singapore, followed by the United Kingdom, France and the United States. In 2010, the figure of foreign tourist arrival increased by 40 percent in the first half of the year.[188] About 830,620 domestic tourists arrived in Chennai in March 2011. Currently, the city has 21 luxury hotels in the five-star and five-star deluxe categories,[189] with over 4,500 rooms in the inventory. Recreation See also: Shopping in Chennai Zoo, beaches, and wildlife parks form the primary recreation areas of the city. The Arignar Anna Zoological Park, one of the largest zoological parks in the world, attracts nearly 20 lakh visitors per year.[190] The city boasts two popular beaches, the Marina and Elliot's. Guindy National Park, a protected area of Tamil Nadu, has a children's park and a snake park, which gained statutory recognition as a medium zoo from the Central Zoo Authority of India in 1995. Marina Beach Chennai Marina Beach Chennai Chennai houses several theme parks, namely MGM Dizzee World and Queens Land.[191][192] The safety of several amusement parks has been questioned after several fatal accidents occurred.[193] Elliots Beach at Besant Nagar, Chennai Other important recreation centres include Madras Boat Club, which is over 140 years old, and Gymkhana Club, which is famous for its 18-hole golf courses. Built in 1867, Madras Boat Club is the second oldest surviving Indian rowing club.[194] Chennai is home to several malls, due to its status as an IT hub.[195][196][197] Chennai houses quite a few big malls namely Express Avenue (EA), Citi Centre, Spencer Plaza, Ampa Skywalk. Phoenix Market City which was opened in January 2013 at Velachery is one of India's Biggest shopping Malls.[198] Forum Vijaya Mall developed by the Prestige group has also started functioning since 1 May at Vadapalani. Chennai houses a lot of cinema screens in the form of multiplexes. Few of the famous multiplexes are Sathyam Cinemas, Escape, Devi, Abirami complex and Mayajaal. Tamil, English, Hindi, Telugu & Malayalam movies are released regularly and have a large number of fan following. With the increase in malls, the multiplexes have also doubled recently. Chennai encourages its Theatre artist's equally. The city is under a thick of activity across the year with a number of plays staged in Tamil and English, as well as with Koothu Patrai, a form of street play in unison with songs and dance.[citation needed] Chennai is the most important gold market in India, contributing to 45 percent of the 800-tonne annual national gold offtake.[199] The World Gold Council estimates that India is the largest consumer of gold, buying one-fifth of the total annual global supply. In India, Chennai contributes 40 percent to the gold market. The city remains the Mecca for gold, the biggest market in India for sheer volumes. The city is also the base to the World Gold Council's India operations. Chennai's retail industry is concentrated chiefly in T. Nagar, which accounts for about 70 to 80 percent of the gold sold in Chennai.[199] According to the 2012 report by property consultant Cushman & Wakefield, Main Streets Across the World, Khader Nawaz Khan Road at Nungambakkam ranked 10th position in the list of 'Top 10 Global Highest Retail Rental Growth Markets 2012', with 36.7 percent jump in rents.[200] Beaches and parks Main article: Parks in Chennai Pond at the Semmozhi Poonga The old corporation limit of Chennai has a total coast length of about 19 km, which has more than doubled with the expanded corporation limits. Marina Beach runs for 6 km (3.7 mi), spanning along the shoreline of the city between the deltas of Cooum and Adyar, and is the second longest urban beach in the world.[201] Elliot's Beach lies south of the Adyar delta. Chennai is one of the few cities in the world that accommodates a national park, the Guindy National Park, within its limits.[202] The city has an estimated 4.5 percent of its area under green cover.[203] This enables Chennai residents to go birding in Chennai. The seven zones of the old corporation limits has about 260 parks, many of which suffer poor maintenance.[204] The city has a per capita park space of 0.41 sq m, which is the least among all metros in India.[204] The eight zones in the newly added areas of the city have about 265 locations that have been identified for development of new parks.[205] The largest among the parks is the 358-acre Tholkappia Poonga, developed to restore the fragile ecosystem of the Adyar estuary.[206] The horticulture department-owned Semmozhi Poonga is an 20-acre botanical garden located in the downtown.[207] Economy Main article: Economy of Chennai Hyundai's manufacturing plant at Irungattukottai in Sriperumbudur, Kanchipuram district Cognizant at Pallikaranai India Land Tech Park,Ambattur Chennai's economy has a broad industrial base in the automobile, computer, technology, hardware manufacturing and healthcare sectors. As of 2012, the city is India's second largest exporter of information technology (IT) and business process outsourcing (BPO) services.[208][209] A major part of India's automobile industry is based in and around the city thus earning it the nickname "Detroit of India".[7][48][210][211] It is known as the Cultural Capital of South India [212] and is the most visited city in India by international tourists according to Euromonitor.[213] The city also serves as the location of the Madras Stock Exchange and the secondary financial hub in India following Mumbai. Industrialisation in the city dates back to the 16th century, when textile mills manufactured goods which were exported to British during its war with France. According to Forbes magazine, Chennai is one of the fastest growing cities in the world and is rated in the "Forbes-Top 10 Fastest Growing Cities in the World".[214] It is ranked 4th in hosting the maximum number of Fortune 500 companies of India, next only to Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. It also is home to 24 Indian companies having a net worth of more than US$1 billion. As of 2012, the city has about 34,260 identified companies in its 15 zones, of which 5,196 companies have a paid-up the capital of over INR 50 lakh.[215] Chennai has a diversified economic base anchored by the automobile, software services, hardware manufacturing, health care and financial services industries.[208] According to the Confederation of Indian Industry, Chennai is estimated to grow to a US$100–billion economy, 2.5 times its present size, by the year 2025.[216] As of 2012, with INR 1 lakh crore investment in the pipeline over 5 years, the city is poised for major industrial investment.[217] Chennai is classified as a global city by GaWC, with a ranking of Beta[218] based on the extent of global reach and financial influence.[219] Workshops of the Madras Automobiles Ltd., c.a. 1904 The city is base to around 30 percent of India's automobile industry and 40 percent of auto components industry.[220] A large number of automotive companies including Hyundai, Renault, Robert Bosch, Nissan Motors, Ashok Leyland, Daimler AG, Caterpillar Inc., Komatsu Limited, Ford, BMW and Mitsubishi have manufacturing plants in Chennai.[221] The Heavy Vehicles Factory at Avadi produces military vehicles, including India's main battle tank: Arjun MBT.[222] The Integral Coach Factory manufactures railway coaches and other rolling stock for Indian Railways.[223] The Ambattur–Padi industrial zone houses many textile manufacturers, and a special economic zone (SEZ) for apparel and footwear manufacturing has been set up in the southern suburbs of the city.[224] Chennai contributes more than 50 percent of India's leather exports.[225] Many software and software services companies have development centres in Chennai, which contributed 14 percent of India's total software exports of INR 14,42,140 lakh during 2006–07, making it the second largest Indian city software exporter following Bangalore.[208] The Tidel Park in Chennai was billed as Asia's largest IT park when it was built.[226][227] Major software companies have their offices set up here, with some of them making Chennai their largest base.[209] Tidel Park Prominent financial institutions, including the World Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, ABN AMRO, Bank of America, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Goldman Sachs, Barclays, HSBC, ING Group, Allianz, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Asian Development Bank, Credit Suisse, BNP Paribas Fortis, Irevna, Deutsche Bank and Citibank have back office and development centre operations in the city.[228] Chennai is home to the national level commercial banks Indian Bank[229] and Indian Overseas Bank[230][231] and many state level co–operative banks, finance and insurance companies. Telecom and Electronics manufacturers based in and around Chennai include Nokia, Nokia Siemens, Motorola, Dell, Force10, Wipro, Zebronics, Foxconn and Siemens among others. Chennai is currently the largest electronics hardware exporter in India, accounting for 45% of the total exports in 2010–11.[232] Telecom giants Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent, pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer and chemicals giant Dow Chemicals have research and development facilities in Chennai. The TICEL bio–tech park at Taramani[233] and Golden Jubilee bio–tech park at Siruseri[234] houses biotechnology companies and laboratories. Chennai has a stock exchange called the Madras Stock Exchange.[235][236] A study conducted by the National Housing Bank on the residential price index of Indian cities showed that Chennai experienced the highest growth after the 2008–2012 global financial crisis.[237] According to a study by 99acres.com in 2011,[238] Chennai real estate saw an average price appreciation of 7 per cent with Tambaram, Chrompet and Thoraipakkam leading the way. Medical tourism is another important part of Chennai's economy with 45 percent of total medical tourists to India making to Chennai.[239] The Tamil film industry[240] and the Tamil television industry are also significant parts of Chennai's economy. The city also has a permanent exhibition complex in Nandambakkam called the Chennai Trade Centre.[241] With 385 ultra-rich living in the city, Chennai is positioned in the sixth place among Indian cities that are home to the country's super-rich.[242] An estimated 1,00,000 people in the city have assets over INR 5 crore. The city is the third largest market in India for luxury cars.[243] Photograph highlighting the financial district of the city Communication Chennai is one of the four cities in India through which the country is connected with the rest of the world through undersea fibre-optic cables, the other three being Mumbai, Kochi, and Tuticorin. The city is the landing point of major submarine telecommunication cable networks such as SMW4 (connecting India with Western Europe, Middle East and Southeast Asia), i2i (connecting India with Singapore), TIC (connecting India with Singapore), and BRICS (connecting India with Brasil, Russia, China and South Africa). The 3,175-km-long, 8-fiber-paired i2i has the world's largest design capacity of 8.4 terabits per second.[244][245][246][247] As of 2007, nine mobile phone service companies operate nine GSM networks and two CDMA networks in the city. There are four land line companies.[248][249] Commercial and domestic broadband Internet services are provided by all the four service providers and a majority of the mobile network service providers. Chennai was the first Indian city to have the Wi-Fi facility in a widespread manner.[250] As of 2010, there were 98 lakh mobile phone users in Chennai.[251] In 2010, Chennai had the fourth highest number of active Internet users in India, with 22 lakh users.[252] Power Major power plants in the city include North Chennai Thermal Power Station, GMR Vasavi Diesel Power Plant, Ennore Thermal Power Station, Basin Bridge Gas Turbine Power Station, Madras Atomic Power Station, Vallur Thermal Power Project, and North Chennai Power Company Limited. According to the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (Tangedco), as of 2013, the city consumes about 20 percent of the electricity in the state of Tamil Nadu. The peak evening demand of the city is 1,500 MW which is about 50 percent of the state's peak evening demand of 3,000 megawatt. This includes 37 percent consumption by the industrial sector, 30 percent by the domestic sector, 18 percent by the agricultural sector, and 11.5 percent by the commercial sector. The peak power consumption is for four months between May and August, with the city consuming the highest during June because it is when the summer peaks. On 20 June 2013, the city consumed the highest of 52,785 MU.[253] As of 2014, the city consumes around 3.83 crore units of power a day or 1,400 crore units annually. Hourly consumption of power in the city is about 2,000 to 3,000 MW.[254] Availability of power in the city has become a concern in recent years due to increasing demand and slow paced addition of power plants, due to which scheduled power cuts have become increasingly common. However, this situation is expected to be rectified soon by the end of 2013.[255][256] As of 2012, the total electricity consumption by the street lamps in the city is 19 MW a day, costing about INR 20,000,000 per month to run.[257] The 426 sq km of the city has over 220,000 streetlights, including 88,000 in the newly expanded areas.[258] Banking The Bank of Madras, c. 1900 The RBI ranked Chennai as fourth largest deposit centre and third largest credit centre nationwide as of June 2012. Prior to the advent of modern commercial banks, the banking services in the city were offered to the public by Nattukottai Chettiars or Nagarathars, chiefly in and around the neighbourhood of George Town, who offered loans as well as accepted money deposits from the public, in addition to offering liberal loans to the agricultural labourers. Even today, many of the banking offices are housed in heritage structures belonging to the Colonial era that are chiefly clustered around North Beach Road or Rajaji Salai in George Town.[259] Chennai is home to the first European-style banking system in India with the establishment of the 'Madras Bank' on 21 June 1683, almost a century before the establishment of the first commercial banks, such as the Bank of Hindustan and the General Bank of India, which were established in 1770 and 1786, respectively. However, the bank proved a failure.[260] Upon the recommendation of the British Finance Committee on the formation of a government bank, the Madras Bank, then known as the 'Government Bank', started functioning again from 1806. In 1843, the bank merged with the Carnatic Bank (1788), the British Bank of Madras (1795) and the Asiatic Bank (1804) and became the Bank of Madras, which was one of the three Presidency banks of India, the other two being the Bank of Bengal and the Bank of Bombay. In 1921, the three Presidency banks merged to form the Imperial Bank of India, which later became the State Bank of India in 1955.[261] Chennai is the headquarters of the Indian Bank, the Indian Overseas Bank (IOB), and the erstwhile Bharat Overseas Bank, which merged with the Indian Overseas Bank in 2007.[262] The city is home to the south zonal office of the Reserve Bank of India, the country's central bank, along with its zonal training centre and Reserve Bank Staff College, one of the two colleges of the bank.[263] The city also houses the permanent back office of the World Bank, which is one of the largest buildings owned by the bank outside its headquarters in Washington, DC.[264] The Chennai office handles corporate financial, accounting, administrative and IT services of the bank, in addition to several value-added operations of the bank that were earlier handled only in its Washington, DC office, including the bank's analytical work in bond valuation which is estimated to be US$100 billion.[265] Several foreign banks have established their branches in the city. The first Sri Lankan Bank in India was established when the Bank of Ceylon opened its branch in Madras on 31 October 1995.[266] Health care Main article: Healthcare in Chennai Government General Hospital Chennai has world-class medical facilities, including both government-run and private hospitals. The government-aided hospitals include General Hospital, Adyar Cancer Institute, TB Sanatorium, and National Institute of Siddha. The National Institute of Siddha is one of the seven apex national-level educational institutions that promote excellence in Indian system of medicine and Ayurveda.[267] Some of the popular private-run hospitals in Chennai are Apollo Hospitals, SRMC, SRM, Chettinad Health City, MIOT Hospitals, Lifeline Hospitals and Vasan Healthcare. The prime NABH-accredited hospitals includes Chennai Apollo Speciality Hospital, Sri Ramachandra Hospital, Dr Mehta Hospitals, Frontier Lifeline Hospital, Global Hospitals & Health City, Sankara Nethralaya, and Vijaya Medical & Educational Trust.[268] Chennai attracts about 45 percent of health tourists from abroad and 30 percent to 40 percent of domestic health tourists. The city has been termed India's health capital.[188][269][270] The city has more than 12,500 beds in its hospitals,[271] including about 5,000 in multi-specialty hospitals in the private sector and over 6,000 beds in the public sector.[272] This works to 2.1 beds per 1,000 population against the national average of less than 1 bed per 1,000 population and the World Health Organisation's norms of 3 beds per 1,000 persons, higher than any other city in the country. By mid-2012, with the addition of at least 3,000 beds in four leading hospitals in the city, the bed strength of the private-sector hospitals is expected to increase by nearly 25 percent. However, only half of these 12,500 beds is used by the city's population with the rest being shared by patients from other states of the country and foreigners.[271] Waste management The city generates 4,500 tonnes of garbage every day of which 429 tonnes are plastic waste.[273] The city has three dumpyards, one each at Perungudi, Kodungaiyur, and Pallikaranai. The corporation has planned to close these yards and create four new dumpyards at Malaipattu, Minjur, Vallur, and Kuthambakkam villages, ranging in size from 20 acres to 100 acres.[274][275] The civic body also spends INR 400 crore a year on solid waste management.[276] Transport Main article: Transport in Chennai The new terminal of the Chennai International Airport A railway station on the MRTS line A bus operated by the Metropolitan Transport Corporation Cloverleaf interchange at Kathipara Junction Containers at Chennai Port Air Chennai serves as a major gateway to southern India. Chennai International Airport, comprising the Anna international terminal and the Kamaraj domestic terminal with a total passenger movements of 1.29 crore[277] and aircraft movements of 120,127 in 2011–2012,[278] ranks third in Indian airport flights and the port second in tonnage.[38] Chennai handles 316 flights a day, again making it at third spot among Indian Airports. The city is connected to major hubs across Asia, Europe, and North America through more than 30 national and international carriers.[279] The existing airport is undergoing further modernisation and expansion with an addition of 1069.99 acres, while a new greenfield airport is to be constructed at an estimated cost of INR 2,000 crore in Sriperumbudur on 4,200 acres (17 km2) of land.[280] The new airport is said to be likely to handle cargo spillover traffic from the existing one.[281] Rail Chennai hosts the headquarters of the Southern Railway. The city has two main railway terminals. Chennai Central station, the city's largest, provides access to other major cities as well as many other smaller towns across India,[282] whereas Chennai Egmore provides access to destinations primarily within Tamil Nadu; however, it also handles a few inter–state trains.[283] The Chennai suburban railway network, one of the oldest in the country, facilitates transportation within the city. It consists of four broad gauge sectors terminating at two locations in the city, namely Chennai Central and Chennai Beach. While three sectors are operated on-grade, the fourth sector is majorly an elevated corridor, which links Chennai Beach to Velachery and is interlinked with the remaining rail network. Construction is underway for an underground and elevated Rapid Transit System locally known as Chennai Metro Rail.[284] There is also a proposal to construct a monorail network to augment the existing public transportation system in the city. Road Chennai is one of the cities in India that is connected by the Golden Quadrilateral system of National Highways.[285] It is connected to other Indian cities by four major National Highways (NH) that originate in the city. They are NH 4 to Mumbai (via Bengaluru, Pune), NH 5 to Kolkata (linked via NH 6) (via Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar), NH 45 to Theni (via Villupuram, Tiruchirapalli, Dindigul) and NH 205 to Madanapalle (via Tirupati). Chennai is connected to other parts of the state and the Union Territory of Puducherry by state highways.[286] Chennai-Trichy Expressway at Perambalur The government has constructed grade separators and flyovers at major intersections, and built Inner Ring Road and Outer Ring Road.[287][288] The Gemini flyover, built in 1973 crosses over the arterial road, and eases the traffic movements towards Anna Salai and towards the Kathipara Flyover.[287][288] As of 2011, according to the Transport Department, there were 25.8 lakh two–wheelers and 5.6 lakh four–wheelers in the city, and the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) bus fleet were 3,421, which was 0.1% of the total vehicular population of the city.[289] The Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus (CMBT) is one of the largest bus stations in Asia.[290] It is the main intercity bus station of Chennai,[291] administered by 7 government-owned transport corporations, which operate intercity and interstate bus services. There are many private bus companies that provide similar transport services. The MTC provides an exclusive intercity bus service, consisting of 3,421 buses on 724 routes, which provides transportation to 55.2 lakh passengers daily.[287][292] The Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation operates Volvo air-conditioned services from Chennai to nearby cities like Pondicherry, Vellore and Hosur.[293] The other means of road transport in the city include Vans, regionally known as Maxi Cabs, auto rickshaws, on-call metered taxis and tourist taxis.[294] Chennai outer ring road is 62.3 km long connecting NH 45 (GST Road) at Perungalathur, NH 4 (GWT Road) at Nazarathpet, NH 205 (CTH Road) at Nemilicherry(Thiruninravur), NH 5 (GNT Road) at Nallur and TPP road at Minjur under the process by Chennai Metropolitan Area. Sea The city is served by two major ports, Chennai Port, one of the largest artificial ports in India, and Ennore Port. The Chennai port is the largest in Bay of Bengal, with an annual cargo tonnage of 6.146 crore (2010–2011), and second largest containerise hub in India, with an annual container volume of 15.23 lakh TEUs (2010–2011). The port handles transportation of automobiles, motorcycles and general industrial cargo.[38] The Ennore Port with an annual cargo tonnage of 1.101 crore (2010–2011) handles cargo such as coal, ore and other bulk and rock mineral products.[295] The Royapuram fishing harbour is used by fishing boats and trawlers. A mega shipyard project called the Kattupalli Shipyard cum Captive Port Complex is being built by L&T Shipbuilding at Kattupalli village near Ennore and is expected to be operational in 2012.[296] Media Main article: Media in Chennai See also: List of Tamil-language television channels Newspaper publishing started in Chennai with the launch of a weekly, The Madras Courier, in 1785.[297] It was followed by the weeklies The Madras Gazzette and The Government Gazzette in 1795. The Spectator, founded in 1836, was the first English newspaper in Chennai to be owned by an Indian and became the city's first daily newspaper in 1853.[298] The first Tamil newspaper, Swadesamitran, was launched in 1899.[297] The major English dailies published in Chennai are The Hindu, The New Indian Express, The Deccan Chronicle and The Times of India. The evening dailies are, The Trinity Mirror and The News Today. As of 2004, The Hindu was the city's most read English newspaper, with a daily circulation of 267,349.[299] The major business dailies published from the city are The Economic Times, The Hindu Business Line, Business Standard, Mint and The Financial Express. The major Tamil dailies include the Dina Thanthi, Dinakaran, Dina Mani, Dina Malar, The Hindu Tamil,[300] Tamil Murasu, Makkal Kural and Malai Malar. Malayala Manorama and Mathrubhumi are the major Malayalam dailies while major Telugu dailies include Eenadu, Vaartha, Andhra Jyothi and Sakshi.[301] The one and only Hindi Newspaper published from Chennai is the Rajasthan Patrika.[302] Magazines published from Chennai include Ananda Vikatan, Kumudam, Kalki, Kungumam, Puthiya Thalaimurai,Thuglak, Frontline and Sportstar. Doordarshan runs two terrestrial television channels and two satellite television channels from its Chennai centre, which was set up in 1974. Private Tamil satellite television networks such as Sun TV, Raj TV, Zee Tamil, Star Vijay, Jaya TV, Makkal TV, Vasanth TV, Kalaignar TV, Captain TV and PuthiyaThalaimurai TV broadcast out of Chennai. The Sun Network one of India's largest broadcasting companies is based in the city. While the cable TV service is entirely controlled by the state government,[303] direct–to–home (DTH) is available via DD Direct Plus, Dish TV, Tata Sky, Videocon DTH, Sun direct DTH, Reliance Big TV and Digital TV[304][305] Chennai is the first city in India to have implemented the Conditional Access System for cable television.[306] Radio broadcasting started from the radio station at the Rippon Buildings complex, founded in 1930 and was then shifted to All India Radio in 1938.[297] The city has 4 AM and 11 FM radio stations, operated by Anna University, All India Radio and private broadcasters.[307] Education Main article: Education in Chennai See also: Schools in Chennai and Education in India Madras University Senate House Chennai ranks second for Indian metropolitan city centre literacy with a 90.33 percent literacy rate.[308] Chennai has a mix of public and private (some of which also receive financial support from the government) schools. The public school system is managed by the Chennai Corporation with an enrolment of 142,387 students in over 330 schools.[309] Tamil and English are the primary media of instruction, though several schools also use Telugu as a primary medium of instruction in their schools.Also schools with Urdu as medium of instruction are available.[309] Public schools run by the Chennai Corporation are all affiliated with the Tamil Nadu State Board, while private schools may be affiliated with either of the Tamil Nadu Board of Secondary Education or the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).[310] A few schools are affiliated with the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations,[311] the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) board or the Montessori system. Education in Chennai starts with two years of Kindergarten from age three onward and then follows the Indian 10+2+3 plan, ten years of school, two years of higher secondary education, and three years of undergraduate education.[312][313] Anna Centenary Library, one of the largest libraries in Asia English is the medium of instruction in the majority of institutions for higher education.[309] Colleges for science, arts and commerce degrees are typically affiliated with the University of Madras, which has three campuses in the city.The Loyola College which has been granted 'The College of Excellence' title by Government of India is a prestigious Arts & Science College of the nation The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras), the Anna University are two well known centres for engineering education in the city. The Indian Army's Officers Training Academy is also headquartered in the city. The Institute of Hotel Management (IHM chennai) is also located in Chennai. Chennai has a plethora of libraries, including British Council Library, American Library, Connemara Public Library, and Anna Centenary Library. The Connemara Public Library is one of four National Depository Centres in India that receive a copy of all newspapers and books published in the country.[314][315] The Anna Centenary Library is the largest library in Asia.[316][317] Chennai has two CSIR research institutions namely Central Leather Research Institute and Structural Engineering Research Centre. Chennai Book Fair, an annual book fair organised in Chennai by the Booksellers and Publishers Association of South India (BAPASI), is the largest exhibition for Tamil book publishers to display their books. The fair is typically held for about 10 days between the last week of December and the third week of January.[318] Thirty-fifth edition of the fair was held on 2012. Sports Main article: Sport in Chennai Jawaharlala Nehru Stadium Chennai Central M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, one of the premier cricket venues in India. Cricket is the popular sport in Chennai.[319] It was introduced in 1864 with the foundation of the Madras Cricket Club.[320] The M.A. Chidambaram Stadium established in 1916 is among the oldest cricket stadium in India.[321] The Chemplast Cricket Ground located at the IIT Madras campus is another important venue for cricket matches. Prominent cricketers from the city include former cricket captains S. Venkataraghavan and Kris Srikkanth.[322][323] A cricket fast bowling academy called the MRF Pace Foundation, whose coaches include T. A. Sekhar and Glenn Mcgrath, is based in Chennai.[324][325] Being home to the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket team Chennai Super Kings, the city hosted the finals of the IPL's 2011 and 2012 series.[326][327] Chennai was the venue of the 1995 South Asian Games.[328] Chennai is home to a World Series Hockey (WSH) team, the Chennai Cheetahs. The Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium is associated with hockey and was venue for the international hockey tournament the 2005 Men's Champions Trophy and the 2007 Men's Asia Cup. The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium is associated for hosting Football and athletic competitions, it also houses a multi–purpose indoor complex for competition in volleyball, basketball and table tennis. Water sports are played in the Velachery Aquatic Complex. Tennis sport is popularising among the city youths, Since 1997 Chennai has been host to the only ATP World Tour event held in India, the Chennai Open.[329] Vijay Amritraj, Ramesh Krishnan and Somdev Devvarman are tennis players from Chennai.[330] Chennai Open match at the SDAT Tennis Stadium. Madras Boat Club (founded in 1846) and the Royal Madras Yacht Club (founded by Sir Francis Spring in 1911) promote the sailing sports in Chennai, and organise national and international sailing events.[320] Automobile racing in India has been closely connected with Chennai since its beginnings shortly after independence. Motor racing events are held on a special purpose track in Irungattukottai, Sriperumbudur,[331] which has also been the venue for several international competitions.[332] Formula One drivers Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok were born in Chennai.[333][334] Horse racing is held at the Guindy Race Course, while rowing competitions are hosted at the Madras Boat Club. The city has two 18–hole golf courses, the Cosmopolitan Club and the Gymkhana Club, both established in the late nineteenth century. The city has a rugby union team called the Chennai Cheetahs.[335] Viswanathan Anand, the previous world chess champion, grew up in Chennai.[336] Other sportspersons of repute from Chennai include table tennis players Sharath Kamal and two–time world carrom champion, Maria Irudayam.[337][338] Chennai was the host of the World Chess Championship 2013 match between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen.[339][340] Chennaiyin FC is the newly formed team in Indian Super League a Association Football tournament replaced the Bangalore ISL Team and its Home ground is Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. International relations Foreign missions See also: List of diplomatic missions in Chennai The consular presence in the city dates back to 1794, when William Abbott was appointed US consular agent for South India.[341][342][343] As of 2012, there were 43 foreign representations in Chennai, including consulates general, deputy high commissions and honorary consulates.[344] The American Consulate in Chennai is one of the top adjudication posts in the world and the number one in processing employment-based visas. It was ranked among the top globally in issuing 'L' and 'H' category visas for workers and professionals and was ranked eighth globally in terms of all category of visas being issued.[345] The Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), which is the office of the field officers in charge of immigration and registration activities in the city, is located at Shastri Bhavan at Haddows Road.[346] |
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