Overview
Tamil Nadu is the southernmost mainland state of India, a land of about 130,058 sq km that runs from the Eastern Ghats and the Bay of Bengal in the north-east to the Western Ghats and the tip of the peninsula at Kanniyakumari in the south. It is the tenth-largest state by area and, at 72,147,030 people in Census 2011, the sixth-largest by population. Its neighbours are Andhra Pradesh to the north, Karnataka to the north-west and Kerala to the west; the Bay of Bengal lies to the east and the Indian Ocean to the south. The 1,076 km coastline is the second longest after Gujarat. Chennai, on the Coromandel Coast, is the capital. Tamil is the main language and the official language of the state.
The area is the old Tamilakam, home of the Cheras, Cholas and Pandyas of the Sangam age and of the Pallavas after them. Later it came under Vijayanagara governors, the Nayaks, and then, through the Carnatic Wars, the East India Company, whose base at Madras (1639) headed the Madras Presidency. Madras State was formed on 26 January 1950, lost its Telugu-speaking north to Andhra State on 1 October 1953, was redrawn in 1956 and was renamed Tamil Nadu on 14 January 1969.
Three features stand out for an exam. Geographically the state has both the Western and the Eastern Ghats, which meet in the Nilgiris, and it gets about 48 per cent of its rain from the north-east monsoon (reported). Demographically it is among the most urbanised large states, with 48.4 per cent of people in towns in 2011, and its sex ratio is 996. Politically it is the home of the Dravidian movement, organised from 1916 and in government from 1967.
This part covers history, geography, administration and demography. It does not name sitting office-holders; for the current Governor, Chief Minister and others, see Current Affairs. District counts carry an as-on date of October 2026; population figures are from Census 2011, still the latest census.
For exam preparation
- Tamil Nadu has an area of 130,058 sq km and is the tenth-largest state; its Census 2011 population is 72,147,030, the sixth-largest.
- Its coastline of 1,076 km is the second longest in India after Gujarat.
- Madras State was formed on 26 January 1950 and renamed Tamil Nadu on 14 January 1969, the day of the Pongal festival.
- Andhra State was separated from Madras State on 1 October 1953, with Kurnool as its capital.
- Doddabetta in the Nilgiris, at 2,637 m, is the highest point in Tamil Nadu.
- As on October 2026, reference sources list 38 districts; the newest is Mayiladuthurai (December 2020).
History
Tamil Nadu has one of the longest unbroken literary and political histories in India. A Tamil-speaking world is visible in the Sangam poems of the last centuries BCE, three royal houses ruled it for over a thousand years, and later powers from the north and from Europe arrived by turns. The sections below follow the main periods; the political movements of the twentieth century are covered at the end.
Prehistory and the Sangam age
Human habitation in the region goes back many thousands of years. At Adichanallur in Thoothukudi district, megalithic urn burials with early Tamil-Brahmi writing have been dated by some scholars to about 1800 BCE, though the dating of this and related sites is still debated. The best-known recent excavation is Keezhadi in Sivaganga district, about 12 km south-east of Madurai on the Vaigai. Digging began in 2015, and the finds include brick structures, ring wells, Black-and-Red ware and potsherds with Tamil-Brahmi letters. Carbon dates put occupation from about the sixth century BCE to the first century CE, but the link between the dated layers and the inscribed pieces is contested, and in 2025 the report on the excavation became the subject of a dispute between the Archaeological Survey of India and the state.
The Sangam age is usually placed between about 300 BCE and 300 CE. Tamil tradition speaks of three academies (sangams) at Madurai and Kapatapuram; modern scholars regard this as legend. The surviving corpus is the Tolkappiyam, the oldest Tamil grammar, the eight anthologies (Ettuttokai) and the ten idylls (Pattuppattu), 2,381 poems by 473 poets in all. Poems are either akam (inner, love poetry) or puram (outer, war and kingship). The epics Silappatikaram and Manimekalai belong to the period just after. The texts were printed in the late 1800s by scholars such as U.V. Swaminatha Aiyar.
Three royal houses are named in the poems. The Cheras held the west, with Vanchi (often identified with Karur) as a capital. The Cholas held the Kaveri valley, with Uraiyur and the port of Puhar. The Pandyas held the south, from Korkai on the Thamirabarani to Madurai; Megasthenes, the Greek envoy to the Mauryas, mentions them, and their fish emblem appears on coins.
Kalabhras, Pallavas and the Pandya revival
Between about the third and sixth centuries the Kalabhras ruled much of the Tamil country. Little is known about them; later Hindu texts call it a dark age, a label historians contest. Pallava king Simhavishnu (about 575) and Pandya king Kadungon (about 560-590) ended the Kalabhra rule.
The Pallavas (about 275 to 897, with their main strength from the sixth century) ruled from Kanchipuram. Mahendravarman I (600-630) pioneered rock-cut temples. His son Narasimhavarman I (630-668), called Mamalla, defeated the Chalukya king Pulakeshin II, and the port Mamallapuram takes his name. The Shore Temple at Mamallapuram and the Kailasanathar temple at Kanchipuram are their best-known works, and the Chinese traveller Xuanzang described Kanchipuram in this age. The Pallava script influenced Tamil, Grantha and several scripts of South-East Asia. The dynasty ended when the Chola king Aditya I defeated it about 897.
The Pandya revival under Kadungon led to two empires. The second reached its height in the thirteenth century under Jatavarman Sundara Pandya I and Maravarman Kulasekara Pandya I, with lands extending into the Telugu country and northern Sri Lanka. Raids by Malik Kafur in 1310-11 weakened the dynasty, and the Madurai Sultanate was set up in 1334.
The Cholas
The imperial Cholas rose from the Kaveri delta from about 848 under Vijayalaya and made Thanjavur their capital. Rajaraja I (985-1014) expanded the kingdom and had the Brihadisvara temple at Thanjavur built, and his son Rajendra I (1014-1044) took the Chola arms to the Ganga and built a new capital at Gangaikonda Cholapuram. Between 1025 and 1070 Chola fleets raided Srivijaya in South-East Asia and took parts of Sri Lanka, the Maldives and the Malay region. Kulottunga I (1070-1120) began the later Chola period. The last ruler, Rajendra III (1246-1279), was absorbed by the Pandyas. Thanjavur, Gangaikonda Cholapuram and Darasuram together form the Great Living Chola Temples, a World Heritage Site (Thanjavur added in 1987, the other two in 2004). The Kallanai (Grand Anicut) across the Kaveri dates to about the second century CE.
Vijayanagara, the Nayaks and the Marathas
The Vijayanagara Empire, founded in 1336 by Harihara I and Bukka I, defeated the Madurai Sultanate about 1371 and brought the Tamil country under a Telugu-and-Kannada-speaking empire. Its governors, the Nayaks, became practically independent after the defeat at Talikota in 1565. The Madurai Nayaks (1529-1736) began with Viswanatha Nayak, appointed by Krishnadevaraya in 1529. They divided their land into 72 palayams under chieftains (palayakkarar or poligars) who raised revenue and troops. Tirumala Nayaka (1623-1659) built the palace at Madurai (1636), and Rani Mangammal ruled as regent from 1689 to 1704. The dynasty ended in 1736 when Chanda Sahib took control. The Nayaks of Thanjavur were another major house. Shivaji took forts in the region in 1676, and Maratha rule at Thanjavur lasted until 1855.
Europeans and the Carnatic Wars
The Dutch built trading posts on the Coromandel Coast in 1605. In 1639 Francis Day of the East India Company secured the site of Madraspatnam, where Fort St George rose. The rivalry of the English and French companies, and local claimants to the Arcot nawabship, produced the Carnatic Wars:
| War | Years | Main points |
|---|---|---|
| First | 1746-1748 | The French took Madras in 1746; it was returned to Britain by treaty in 1748 |
| Second | 1749-1754 | Succession quarrels in Arcot and Hyderabad; Robert Clive held Arcot against a siege in 1751 |
| Third | 1757-1763 | British victory at Wandiwash in 1760 under Eyre Coote; Pondicherry captured in 1761; Treaty of Paris 1763 left France with trading posts only |
By 1801 the Carnatic was under company rule, and Pitt's India Act of 1785 had placed Madras under the Governor-General.
Revolts against the Company
The company's attempts to collect tax and to disarm the poligars brought resistance. Veerapandiya Kattabomman of Panchalankurichi refused payment, took to the forests, was captured on 1 October 1799 and was hanged at Kayathar on 16 October 1799. The Vellore Mutiny broke out on 10 July 1806 in Vellore Fort, about fifty years before 1857. New uniform rules had banned caste marks for Hindu soldiers, ordered Muslim soldiers to shave beards, and replaced the turban with a round hat with a leather cockade. Sepoys killed fourteen British officers and 115 men of the 69th Regiment at about 2 a.m. Captain Robert Rollo Gillespie rode from Arcot and the revolt was put down within hours; about 350 rebels were killed and about 100 shot. The orders were withdrawn, the three battalions involved were disbanded, and Tipu Sultan's family, held in the fort, was moved to Calcutta.
Freedom movement
In 1906 V.O. Chidambaram Pillai founded the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company, which ran India's first indigenous steamship service between Tuticorin (Thoothukudi) and Colombo. He was arrested on 12 March 1908 with Subramania Siva; riots followed in Tirunelveli, and he was sentenced to two life terms, later reduced, and released in 1912. The Congress ministry that took office in 1937 under C. Rajagopalachari ran into protest over Hindi teaching, which became the first of the anti-Hindi agitations.
The Dravidian movement and the road to statehood
The Justice Party was founded in Madras on 20 November 1916 by C. Natesa Mudaliar, T.M. Nair and P. Theagaraya Chetty, against the dominance of Brahmins (about 3.2 per cent of the Presidency's people) in government jobs. It dominated the elections under dyarchy (1920-1937). E.V. Ramasamy, known as Periyar, began the Self-Respect Movement in 1925; in 1938 he merged it with the Justice Party, which was renamed Dravidar Kazhagam in 1944. In 1949 C.N. Annadurai broke away to form the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in order to contest elections. K. Kamaraj of the Congress was Chief Minister from 1954 to 1963 and widened school access; the DMK won the 1967 election and formed the first non-Congress government in the state. Elections are covered in Part B.
Madras State and the new name. On 26 January 1950 the Madras Province became Madras State, with Madras as capital. Telugu speakers in the north demanded a state of their own. Potti Sriramulu began a fast on 19 October 1952 and died on 15 December 1952 after 58 days; riots followed, and Andhra State was announced on 19 December 1952 and came into being on 1 October 1953. The States Reorganisation Act of 1956 then moved Malabar to Kerala, South Kanara to Mysore (now Karnataka), and brought the Kanyakumari region from Travancore-Cochin into Madras State; area fell to about 130,060 sq km. Sankaralinganar, a Gandhian, fasted from 27 July 1956 for 76 days demanding the name Tamil Nadu and died on 13 October 1956. The Assembly passed a resolution moved by the Chief Minister on 23 July 1967. Parliament passed the Madras State (Alteration of Name) Act, 1968 (Lok Sabha on 22 November, Rajya Sabha on 5 December, assent on 20 December 1968), and it came into force on 14 January 1969, the Pongal festival day. The city of Madras was renamed Chennai in 1996.
For exam preparation
- The Sangam corpus comprises 2,381 poems by 473 poets; the Tolkappiyam is the oldest Tamil grammar.
- Keezhadi in Sivaganga district lies on the Vaigai; its dating is contested.
- Simhavishnu (about 575) and Kadungon ended Kalabhra rule; Mahendravarman I and Narasimhavarman I were the great Pallava kings.
- Rajaraja I (985-1014) built the Thanjavur temple; Rajendra I (1014-1044) built Gangaikonda Cholapuram.
- Viswanatha Nayak founded the Madurai Nayak line in 1529; it ended in 1736.
- The Vellore Mutiny took place on 10 July 1806; Kattabomman was hanged on 16 October 1799.
- Justice Party 1916, Self-Respect Movement 1925, Dravidar Kazhagam 1944, DMK 1949.
- Potti Sriramulu died on 15 December 1952; Andhra State was formed on 1 October 1953.
- The state was renamed Tamil Nadu on 14 January 1969; Sankaralinganar died on 13 October 1956 during a fast for the name.
Geography
Tamil Nadu lies at the south-eastern end of the peninsula. Kerala is on the west across the Western Ghats, Karnataka on the north-west, Andhra Pradesh on the north, the Bay of Bengal on the east and the Indian Ocean at Kanniyakumari, the southern tip of the mainland. The land rises from the coastal plain to hills in the west, and the highest point is Doddabetta (2,637 m) in the Nilgiris. The overall area is 130,058 sq km, tenth among states.
Physiography
The state has three broad belts. The eastern coastal plain is wide and fertile, fed by the Kaveri delta in the middle and by smaller river deltas to the north and south. The central plateau is drier and more arid, the rain shadow of the Western Ghats. The western hills carry dense forest, tea, coffee and spice estates. Tamil Nadu is unusual in having both mountain chains: the Western and Eastern Ghats meet in the Nilgiris, in the Moyar valley.
In the Western Ghats the main ranges within the state are the Nilgiris, Anamalai, Palani, Cardamom hills and Agasthyamalai. Two gaps break the chain: the Palakkad Gap, between the Nilgiris and the Anamalai, and the Shencottah Gap in the far south. The highest point of the whole range, Anamudi (2,695 m), is in Kerala; Doddabetta is the highest peak in Tamil Nadu. The Eastern Ghats here are lower and broken into separate hill groups, among them the Javadi, Shevaroy, Kalrayan, Kolli and Pachaimalai hills. UNESCO inscribed the Western Ghats as a World Heritage Site in 2012; one report says five of the listed components are in Tamil Nadu.
Regions
Tamil Nadu is not formally divided, but history and culture give five regions, used in news and exams.
| Region | Where | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Thondai Nadu | North, around Chennai and Kanchipuram | Historic region of the Pallavas, between the Arni and Kotallaiyar rivers in the north and the Palar-Cheyyar-Vegavati rivers in the south |
| Chola Nadu | Kaveri delta: Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Mayiladuthurai, Tiruchirappalli, Ariyalur, Perambalur, Pudukkottai | Rice bowl; the Chola heartland |
| Kongu Nadu | West and north-west: Coimbatore, Erode, Salem, Namakkal, Tiruppur, Karur, the Nilgiris, Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri and others | Textile and engineering hub; Chera-era region |
| Pandya Nadu | South: Madurai, Theni, Sivaganga, Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar, Tirunelveli, Tenkasi, Thoothukudi | Madurai was the Pandya capital |
| Nanjil Nadu | Far south, in Kanniyakumari district (Thovalai and Agastheeswaram) | Name means land of the plough; rice-growing; part of Travancore until 1956 |
District lists for these regions differ between sources; treat the boundaries as cultural, not official.
Rivers
No river in Tamil Nadu is large except the Kaveri, and most are rain-fed and seasonal. The Thamirabarani is the only perennial river wholly in the state. Water sharing, especially of the Kaveri, is a recurring dispute.
| River | Key facts |
|---|---|
| Kaveri (Cauvery) | Rises at Talakaveri in the Brahmagiri range, Kodagu (Karnataka), at about 1,341 m; about 800 km in all, of which about 416 km is in Tamil Nadu; basin 81,155 sq km; right-bank tributaries include the Bhavani, Noyyal and Amaravati; Mettur Dam completed 1934 (Stanley Reservoir); the Kallanai on its delta goes back to about the second century CE; enters the Bay of Bengal near Poompuhar |
| Vaigai | About 295 km, rises in the Varusanadu hills; flows through Theni, Dindigul, Madurai, Sivaganga and Ramanathapuram; Vaigai Dam is in Theni district; water from the Mullaperiyar Dam in Kerala (built 1895) is diverted into its basin; semi-perennial; reaches Palk Bay near Alagankulam |
| Thamirabarani | About 128 km; rises at Agastyarkoodam in the Pothigai hills; flows through Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi to the Gulf of Mannar; the only perennial river of Tamil Nadu; the Srivaikuntam anicut dates from 1869 |
| Palar | About 348 km in all (Karnataka 93 km, Andhra Pradesh 33 km, Tamil Nadu 222 km); rises in the Nandi Hills; passes Vellore, Ranipet, Kanchipuram and Chengalpattu; enters the sea at Vayalur about 75 km south of Chennai; largely dry outside the monsoon; main tributary the Cheyyar |
| Pennaiyar (Ponnaiyar, South Pennar) | About 500 km (reported), rises in the Nandi Hills; Krishnagiri and Sathanur dams; reaches the sea at Cuddalore; dry for most of the year; not the Penner of Andhra Pradesh |
The Kaveri water dispute is relevant to the state's agriculture. The Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal's 2007 award gave Tamil Nadu 419 tmc ft; in 2018 the Supreme Court changed the shares to 404.25 tmc ft for Tamil Nadu and 284.75 tmc ft for Karnataka and the Cauvery Water Management Authority was set up. Ground-water and tank (eri) irrigation, not canals, supply much of the state's water.
Coast and climate
The coastline of 1,076 km runs from Pulicat in the north to Kanniyakumari, where the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea meet, and then up the Gulf of Mannar to Rameswaram and the Palk Strait. The east coast is called the Coromandel Coast. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami killed about 7,793 people in the state (reported).
The climate is tropical and rainfall averages about 945 mm a year (reported). Tamil Nadu is unusual among Indian states because the north-east (retreating) monsoon, from October to December, brings about 48 per cent of the annual rain; the south-west monsoon of June to September gives much less in most districts, as the Western Ghats shield the interior from it. A failure of either monsoon causes drought and water scarcity. The coast is open to cyclones in October to December. Summer is hot and humid on the plains, and the hills of the Nilgiris and Kodaikanal are much cooler.
Soils
The main soil types are red soils, black soils, alluvial soils in the river deltas and coastal belts, and laterite soils on high ground; alluvium in the Kaveri delta supports rice. This summary is general and not tied to a survey figure.
Forests and protected areas
Forest cover is reported at 22,643 sq km, or about 17.4 per cent of the state, in one reference; check the latest India State of Forest Report, because the figure changes. Protected areas cover about 3,305 sq km (2.54 per cent of the state). The state has 5 national parks, 18 wildlife sanctuaries, 17 bird sanctuaries, 5 tiger reserves, 5 elephant reserves and 3 biosphere reserves.
| Area | Type | Key facts |
|---|---|---|
| Guindy | National park | 2.82 sq km, inside Chennai; one of the smallest in India |
| Gulf of Mannar Marine | National park | 6.23 sq km; core of the biosphere reserve |
| Indira Gandhi (Anamalai) | National park | 117.1 sq km; Anamalai tiger reserve |
| Mudumalai | National park | 103.24 sq km; tiger reserve in the Nilgiris |
| Mukurthi | National park | 78.46 sq km; Nilgiri tahr habitat |
| Nilgiri | Biosphere reserve | 5,520 sq km; set up 1986 |
| Gulf of Mannar | Biosphere reserve | 10,500 sq km; set up 1989 |
| Agasthyamalai | Biosphere reserve | 3,500.36 sq km; set up 2001 |
The tiger reserves are Anamalai, Mudumalai, Kalakkad-Mundanthurai, Sathyamangalam and Srivilliputhur-Megamalai.
For exam preparation
- Tamil Nadu has a 1,076 km coastline, second to Gujarat, and an area of 130,058 sq km.
- Doddabetta (2,637 m) is the highest point in the state; the two Ghats meet in the Nilgiris.
- The Kaveri is about 416 km long within Tamil Nadu; Mettur Dam was completed in 1934.
- The Thamirabarani, about 128 km long, is the only perennial river in the state.
- The Vaigai rises in the Varusanadu hills; the Palar rises in the Nandi Hills and meets the sea at Vayalur.
- The north-east monsoon gives about 48 per cent of annual rainfall.
- There are 5 national parks, 3 biosphere reserves (Nilgiri 1986, Gulf of Mannar 1989, Agasthyamalai 2001) and 5 tiger reserves.
- Guindy National Park lies inside Chennai city.
Administration and districts
The state is governed through districts, each under a Collector, grouped for revenue work into revenue divisions and taluks, and for rural development into panchayat unions. As on October 2026, reference sources list 38 districts; the latest, Mayiladuthurai, was formed in December 2020. Tamil Nadu has no tier of divisional commissioners between the state and the district, and "revenue division" in Tamil Nadu means something smaller than a district, which is why counts of "divisions" vary between sources.
Revenue administration
In the revenue system a district is divided into revenue divisions, each under a Sub-Collector or Revenue Divisional Officer, which are divided into taluks under tahsildars, then into firkas (revenue blocks) and revenue villages. The Statistical Hand Book of Tamil Nadu 2022-23 (Commissioner of Revenue Administration) gives 38 districts, 94 revenue divisions, 314 taluks, 1,195 firkas and 16,743 revenue villages. Other pages quote 87 divisions and 17,680 villages; these probably predate the 2019-20 district reorganisation. Where this guide says "revenue divisions" it uses the district-level sense and the 94 figure.
How the number of districts grew
One reference says three districts were formed between 1960 and 1980, five in the late 1980s and ten in the 1990s, bringing the count to 30, and three more in the 2000s. A major change came in November-December 2019 and 2020 when six districts were created:
| District | Date formed | Carved from |
|---|---|---|
| Tenkasi | 22 November 2019 | Tirunelveli |
| Kallakurichi | 26 November 2019 | Viluppuram |
| Tirupathur | 29 November 2019 | Vellore |
| Ranipet | 29 November 2019 | Vellore |
| Chengalpattu | 30 November 2019 | Kancheepuram |
| Mayiladuthurai | 28 December 2020 | Nagapattinam |
Earlier additions include Krishnagiri (2004, from Dharmapuri), Ariyalur (2007) and Tiruppur (2009). The founding dates of other districts vary in the sources and are not given here.
The 38 districts
The table gives the headquarters and the number of revenue divisions and taluks in the 2022-23 Hand Book. The headquarters are the district town in every case unless noted.
| District | Headquarters | Revenue divisions | Taluks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ariyalur | Ariyalur | 2 | 4 |
| Chengalpattu | Chengalpattu | 3 | 8 |
| Chennai | Chennai (state capital) | 3 | 16 |
| Coimbatore | Coimbatore | 3 | 11 |
| Cuddalore | Cuddalore | 3 | 10 |
| Dharmapuri | Dharmapuri | 2 | 7 |
| Dindigul | Dindigul | 3 | 10 |
| Erode | Erode | 2 | 10 |
| Kallakurichi | Kallakurichi | 2 | 6 |
| Kancheepuram | Kancheepuram | 2 | 5 |
| Kanniyakumari | Nagercoil | 2 | 6 |
| Karur | Karur | 2 | 7 |
| Krishnagiri | Krishnagiri | 2 | 8 |
| Madurai | Madurai | 4 | 11 |
| Mayiladuthurai | Mayiladuthurai | 2 | 4 |
| Nagapattinam | Nagapattinam | 2 | 4 |
| Namakkal | Namakkal | 2 | 8 |
| The Nilgiris | Udhagamandalam (Ooty) | 3 | 6 |
| Perambalur | Perambalur | 1 | 4 |
| Pudukkottai | Pudukkottai | 3 | 12 |
| Ramanathapuram | Ramanathapuram | 2 | 9 |
| Ranipet | Ranipet | 2 | 6 |
| Salem | Salem | 4 | 14 |
| Sivaganga | Sivaganga | 2 | 9 |
| Tenkasi | Tenkasi | 2 | 8 |
| Thanjavur | Thanjavur | 3 | 9 |
| Theni | Theni | 2 | 5 |
| Thoothukudi | Thoothukudi | 3 | 10 |
| Tiruchirappalli | Tiruchirappalli | 4 | 11 |
| Tirunelveli | Tirunelveli | 2 | 8 |
| Tirupathur | Tirupathur | 2 | 4 |
| Tiruppur | Tiruppur | 3 | 9 |
| Tiruvallur | Tiruvallur | 3 | 9 |
| Tiruvannamalai | Tiruvannamalai | 3 | 12 |
| Tiruvarur | Tiruvarur | 2 | 9 |
| Vellore | Vellore | 2 | 6 |
| Viluppuram | Viluppuram | 2 | 9 |
| Virudhunagar | Virudhunagar | 3 | 10 |
Spellings vary; the Hand Book uses Kancheepuram, Thoothukkudi and Tirupathur, while many sources write Kanchipuram, Thoothukudi and Tirupattur. Perambalur is the only district with a single revenue division.
Local bodies
Rural. The system has three tiers: the village panchayat, the panchayat union (block) and the district panchayat. The Hand Book for 2022-23 lists 37 development districts (all except Chennai), 388 panchayat unions, 12,525 village panchayats and 79,395 habitations in villages.
Urban. The same Hand Book records 158 municipal bodies, made up of 20 corporations (excluding Chennai), 16 special-grade, 29 selection-grade, 31 first-grade and 62 second-grade municipalities, besides the Greater Chennai Corporation, and 528 town panchayats. The Greater Chennai Corporation traces its origin to 1688. These numbers change as towns are upgraded; check the latest government order.
Scheduled areas. Scheduled Tribes are only about 1.1 per cent of the population, and this guide does not describe any Fifth or Sixth Schedule area in the state.
For exam preparation
- As on October 2026, reference sources list 38 districts; Mayiladuthurai was formed on 28 December 2020.
- Five districts were created in November 2019: Tenkasi, Kallakurichi, Tirupathur, Ranipet and Chengalpattu.
- The 2022-23 Hand Book gives 94 revenue divisions, 314 taluks, 1,195 firkas and 16,743 revenue villages.
- Revenue divisions are headed by a Sub-Collector (RDO) and taluks by a tahsildar.
- Rural local government has three tiers: village panchayat, panchayat union and district panchayat.
- The Nilgiris district has Udhagamandalam (Ooty) as its headquarters, and Kanniyakumari district has Nagercoil.
Demography
Census 2011 counted 72,147,030 people in Tamil Nadu, about 6 per cent of India, with a density of 555 per sq km and nearly equal numbers of men and women. The state is among the most urbanised large states and has high literacy and a low fertility rate. Census 2011 is still the latest census, and every number below is from it unless another source is named.
Census 2011 at a glance
| Indicator | Figure |
|---|---|
| Population | 72,147,030 (men 36,137,975; women 36,009,055) |
| Decadal growth, 2001-2011 | 15.61 per cent |
| Density | 555 per sq km |
| Sex ratio | 996 females per 1,000 males |
| Child sex ratio (0-6) | 943 (one source; check Census) |
| Rural population | 37,229,590 (51.6 per cent) |
| Urban population | 34,917,440 (48.4 per cent) |
| Literacy | 80.09 per cent (men 86.77; women 73.14, as in the state Hand Book) |
| Literacy, rural / urban | 73.54 / 87.04 per cent |
| Scheduled Castes | 14,438,445 (20.01 per cent) |
| Scheduled Tribes | 794,697 (1.10 per cent) |
Within the 32 districts of 2011, the largest district by population was Chennai (4,646,732), followed by Kancheepuram (3,998,252) and Vellore (3,936,331); these are 2011 boundaries, before the splits of 2019-20. The Chennai city figure of 6,748,026 for the expanded Chennai corporation is a different measure. Kanniyakumari was the most literate district (91.75 per cent), followed by Chennai (90.18) and Thoothukkudi (86.16); Dharmapuri was the lowest (68.54). From the Hand Book table, the Nilgiris had the highest sex ratio (about 1,042, calculated) and Dharmapuri the lowest (about 946, calculated).
Languages and religion
Tamil is the first language of 63,743,847 people, 88.35 per cent. The next largest are Telugu (4,234,216; 5.87 per cent), Urdu (1,264,412; 1.75 per cent), Kannada (1,141,976; 1.58 per cent) and Malayalam (718,977; 1.00 per cent). Telugu speakers are concentrated in the north and in parts of the Kongu region, and Kannada speakers in the border districts of the north-west. Hinduism is the religion of 87.58 per cent, Christianity 6.12 per cent and Islam 5.86 per cent; Jains are 0.12 per cent.
Urbanisation, health and development
With 48.4 per cent urban people in 2011, Tamil Nadu is among the most urbanised of the larger states. Urban literacy was 87.04 per cent against 73.54 per cent in rural areas. The National Family Health Survey 2019-21 (NFHS-5) put the total fertility rate at 1.76 children per woman, the infant mortality rate at about 19 per 1,000 live births and the under-five mortality rate at about 22; the use of contraception among married women rose from 53.2 per cent in NFHS-4 to 68.6 per cent. A figure for the state's Human Development Index could not be confirmed here and is not given.
For exam preparation
- Census 2011 population is 72,147,030; the sex ratio is 996 and literacy is 80.09 per cent.
- 48.4 per cent of the population is urban.
- Tamil is spoken by 88.35 per cent; Telugu 5.87, Urdu 1.75, Kannada 1.58, Malayalam 1.00 per cent.
- Scheduled Castes are 20.01 per cent and Scheduled Tribes 1.10 per cent of the population.
- Kanniyakumari had the highest district literacy in 2011 (91.75 per cent); Dharmapuri the lowest (68.54).
- NFHS-5 (2019-21) recorded a fertility rate of 1.76 for the state.
How the state is governed
Tamil Nadu has a parliamentary system under the Constitution of India: a Governor as constitutional head, a Chief Minister who leads an elected government, and a single-chamber Assembly of 234 members. This section describes structure, which stays the same from one government to the next. Names of sitting office-holders change, so this guide does not list them. For the current Governor, Chief Minister, ministers, Chief Secretary, DGP and Chief Justice, use the official state portal and our current affairs pages. Past office-holders whose tenures have ended are listed later in this part. The capital is Chennai, and the government works from the Secretariat at Fort St. George, which also houses the Assembly (Wikipedia). The state was called Madras State until it was renamed Tamil Nadu in January 1969 (the date is covered under political history below).
The executive
| Office | Role | How filled |
|---|---|---|
| Governor | Constitutional head; summons, prorogues and dissolves the Assembly, gives assent to bills, appoints the Chief Minister; Role in state universities as state law provides | Appointed by the President for five years, serving at the President's pleasure (Articles 153 to 156) |
| Chief Minister | Head of the government; leads the council of ministers | Leader of the party or alliance that commands a majority in the Assembly, appointed by the Governor (Article 164) |
| Council of ministers | Runs the departments; collectively responsible to the Assembly | Capped at 15 per cent of the House under Article 164(1A), which works out at 35 for 234 seats (our calculation: 35.1) |
| Chief Secretary | Head of the civil service and the secretariat | Senior IAS officer chosen by the government |
| Director General of Police | Head of the state police | IPS officer, selected under the Supreme Court's Prakash Singh guidelines |
| Advocate General | Chief legal adviser to the government | Appointed by the Governor under Article 165 |
Before 1950 the heads of government of British Indian provinces were called Premiers or Prime Ministers; we did not confirm the exact title used in the Madras Presidency in each period. The title Chief Minister came into use when the Constitution came into force on 26 January 1950.
Departments and bodies
The government runs through departments under ministers and secretaries. The main constitutional and statutory bodies are:
- the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC, Articles 315 to 323), which recruits for state civil services;
- the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission (Article 243K), headed by a State Election Commissioner appointed by the Governor, which conducts panchayat and urban local body elections;
- the State Finance Commission, the State Information Commission and the State Human Rights Commission; and
- the Lok Ayukta, covered in the next section.
The Chief Electoral Officer, a senior officer appointed with the approval of the Election Commission of India, runs Assembly and Parliament elections.
The Legislative Council was abolished with effect from 1 November 1986 (Wikipedia). The state has also had spells of President's Rule under Article 356, covered below.
For exam preparation
- The Governor is appointed by the President; the Chief Minister is appointed by the Governor.
- The council of ministers is capped at 15 per cent of the House under Article 164(1A), inserted by the 91st Amendment (2003).
- The Advocate General is covered by Article 165; the Governor's powers by Articles 153 to 167.
- TNPSC is a constitutional body under Articles 315 to 323; the State Election Commission comes under Article 243K.
- The Tamil Nadu Legislative Council was abolished on 1 November 1986; the state is unicameral.
- Madras State became Tamil Nadu in 1969; the capital is Chennai.
Legislature, Parliament and judiciary
Tamil Nadu has a single-chamber legislature, the Vidhan Sabha (Legislative Assembly), of 234 members. There is no Legislative Council. The state sends 18 members to the Rajya Sabha and 39 to the Lok Sabha. The 17th Assembly was elected in April to May 2026: polling was on 23 April 2026 and counting on 4 May 2026 (Wikipedia, Scroll).
Vidhan Sabha
The Assembly has a five-year term unless dissolved earlier. Its roots lie in the Madras Legislative Council of 1861, which was an advisory body with no elected members; direct elections began in 1919 and the first election under the Government of India Act, 1935 was held in 1937 with 215 seats (Wikipedia). After Independence the first election under universal adult franchise was in 1952, with 375 members because Madras State then included Telugu-speaking areas that later went to Andhra. The strength fell to 205 in 1957 and 206 in 1962 and has been 234 since 1967 (Wikipedia and its Elections in Tamil Nadu table). The majority mark is 118. Of the 234 seats, 43 are reserved for Scheduled Castes and 2 for Scheduled Tribes (reported in a search summary; we did not confirm from the Delimitation Commission order). The present boundaries come from the 2008 delimitation and were first used in 2011.
Strength changes through by-elections, resignations and defections, so we give the 2026 election result, not the live position. Wikipedia noted by-elections to seven seats scheduled for October 2026, and one Wikipedia page lists the largest party at 107 while its election page lists 108; we use the election result.
| Party | Seats won, 2026 election |
|---|---|
| Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) | 108 |
| Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) | 59 |
| All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) | 47 |
| Indian National Congress (INC) | 5 |
| Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) | 1 |
| Other allies of the DMK-led and AIADMK-led alliances | 14 (see Elections) |
| Total | 234 |
The "other allies" line is the remainder, made up of small-party wins in the two alliances; the Elections section explains why we give no firm split.
Speakers and officers
The Speaker presides over the House and is elected by members at the first sitting of a new Assembly. The first Speaker of the Madras Legislative Assembly was Bulusu Sambamurti (1937 to 1942, Wikipedia). Past Speakers are listed later in this part. The incumbent Speaker and Deputy Speaker are not named here.
Rajya Sabha
Tamil Nadu elects 18 members, who serve six-year terms and are chosen by MLAs through the single transferable vote. Terms are staggered, so seats fall due in batches. We have not listed members.
Lok Sabha
The state has 39 constituencies. Seven are reserved for Scheduled Castes and none for Scheduled Tribes (Wikipedia's 2019 election page); Thiruvallur and Kancheepuram are among the SC seats. We did not confirm the full list of the seven. Puducherry, which lies partly within Tamil Nadu, is a separate Union Territory with its own Lok Sabha seat, and the Madras High Court has jurisdiction over it.
High Court
The Madras High Court sits at Chennai and has jurisdiction over Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry (Wikipedia). It was established on 26 June 1862 by Letters Patent, as one of the three original chartered High Courts with Calcutta and Bombay. Its main building, in the Indo-Saracenic style, was built between 1888 and 1892 and inaugurated on 12 July 1892 (Wikipedia). A bench at Madurai was set up on 24 July 2004. The sanctioned strength is 75 judges including the Chief Justice (Wikipedia; the Centre can revise the figure). The court publishes the Madras Law Journal, which began in 1891 and is described as the oldest law journal in India. Below the High Court are district and sessions courts in each district, family courts and special courts. Chief Justices with completed tenures are listed later in this part.
Lok Ayukta, Election Commission and other bodies
The Tamil Nadu Lok Ayukta is the state's anti-corruption ombudsman. The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 (in force from 16 January 2014) required every state to have one. We did not confirm the exact name and year of the current state law, so we do not cite one. The State Election Commission, set up under Article 243K, conducts panchayat and urban local body polls. The State Election Commissioner can be removed only in the way a High Court judge can be.
For exam preparation
- The Assembly has 234 seats and a majority mark of 118; there is no Legislative Council (abolished 1 November 1986).
- Tamil Nadu has 39 Lok Sabha seats and 18 Rajya Sabha seats.
- The Assembly strength was 375 in 1952, 205 in 1957, 206 in 1962 and 234 from 1967.
- The Madras High Court was established on 26 June 1862; the Madurai bench dates from 24 July 2004.
- The High Court's jurisdiction covers Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
- The Madras Legislative Council began in 1861; direct elections began in 1919.
Elections
Tamil Nadu has held 16 Assembly elections between 1952 and 2021, and a 17th in 2026. The Congress won the first three (1952, 1957, 1962). The DMK won in 1967, which ended Congress rule, and again in 1971, 1989, 1996, 2006 and 2021. The AIADMK, founded in 1972, won in 1977, 1980, 1984, 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2016. Between 1967 and 2021 the largest party at every election was either the DMK or the AIADMK. In 2026 the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), a new party, won the most seats (108), short of the majority mark of 118, and a coalition government took office with support from other parties (see below). Our reading of the tables is that this is the first time since 1967 that a party other than the DMK or the AIADMK finished as the largest. Turnout of 85.1 per cent in 2026 was reported as the highest in the state's history.
Vidhan Sabha elections, 1952 to 2026
Party names are those used at the time. Seat counts are from Wikipedia's election pages and its Elections in Tamil Nadu table. "Share" is the winning party's own vote share; "n/c" means not confirmed.
| Year | Seats | Largest party (seats, vote share) | Runner-up (seats) | Government after the election | Turnout |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1952 | 375 | INC 152 (34.88%) | CPI 62 | INC | n/c |
| 1957 | 205 | INC 151 (45.34%) | Independents 48 | INC | n/c |
| 1962 | 206 | INC 139 (46.14%) | DMK 50 | INC | n/c |
| 1967 | 234 | DMK 137 (40.69%) | INC 51 | DMK | n/c |
| 1971 | 234 | DMK 184 (48.58%) | INC(O) 15 | DMK | n/c |
| 1977 | 234 | AIADMK 130 (30.36%) | DMK 48 | AIADMK | 61.58% |
| 1980 | 234 | AIADMK 129 (38.75%) | DMK 37 | AIADMK | n/c |
| 1984 | 234 | AIADMK 132 (37.03%) | INC 61 | AIADMK | n/c |
| 1989 | 234 | DMK 150 (33.18%) | AIADMK (two factions) 29 | DMK | 69.69% |
| 1991 | 234 | AIADMK 164 (44.39%) | INC 60 | AIADMK | 63.84% |
| 1996 | 234 | DMK 173 (42.07%) | TMC(M) 39 | DMK-led alliance | 66.95% |
| 2001 | 234 | AIADMK 132 (31.44%) | DMK 31 | AIADMK | 59.07% |
| 2006 | 234 | DMK 96 (26.46%) | AIADMK 61 | DMK, minority government | 70.82% |
| 2011 | 234 | AIADMK 150 (38.40%) | DMDK 29 | AIADMK | 78.01% |
| 2016 | 234 | AIADMK 136 (40.88%) | DMK 89 | AIADMK | 74.24% |
| 2021 | 234 | DMK 133 (37.70%) | AIADMK 66 | DMK-led alliance | 72.73% |
| 2026 | 234 | TVK 108 (34.92%) | DMK 59 | TVK-led coalition | 85.1% |
Notes on the table:
- 1952 was held for Madras State as it then was, with 375 seats including Telugu-speaking areas.
- 1989: the AIADMK had split into two factions after its founder's death in December 1987; the Election Commission froze the symbol. The faction led by J. Jayalalithaa won 27 seats and the Congress 26 (Wikipedia). The 29 combines the factions as the Elections in Tamil Nadu page lists them.
- 1991: polling, due on 26 May, was postponed to 15 June after Rajiv Gandhi's assassination at Sriperumbudur on 21 May 1991. The AIADMK-Congress alliance won 225 seats; the DMK won 2.
- 1996: the DMK-led alliance won 221 seats with 53.77 per cent of votes; the AIADMK won 4. The Tamil Maanila Congress is given as 39 in one table and 40 on another page; we use 39. Modakurichi was polled on 1 June, the other 233 seats on 2 May.
- 2001: the AIADMK was sworn in on 14 May; the Supreme Court ruled on 21 September 2001 that the appointment was invalid because of a prior conviction, and another AIADMK leader served until March 2002 (Wikipedia; we did not read the judgment).
- 2006: described on Wikipedia as the first hung Assembly in the state; the DMK governed as a minority government. The DMDK made its debut.
- 2016: Thanjavur and Aravakurichi were polled on 26 October 2016. The DMK won 89 seats and its alliance 98.
- 2021: polling was on 6 April. The DMK-led alliance won 159 seats (45.38 per cent); the AIADMK-led NDA won 75 (39.71 per cent). It was the first election after the deaths of the two most prominent Dravidian leaders (2016 and 2018).
The 2026 election
Polling was held on 23 April 2026 and counting on 4 May 2026. Turnout was 85.1 per cent, an increase of about 11.5 points over 2021 (Wikipedia). The number of registered electors was reported as 5,73,43,291, a fall of 8.9 per cent from 2021, which Wikipedia recorded without explaining; we did not confirm the reason and treat the figure as reported. The majority mark was 118 of 234.
| Party or alliance | Seats | Vote share |
|---|---|---|
| TVK (contested without a pre-poll alliance) | 108 | 34.92% (35.02% in the alliance row) |
| DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) | 73 | 31.40% |
| of which DMK | 59 | 24.19% |
| of which INC | 5 | n/c |
| AIADMK-led alliance (NDA) | 53 | 27.21% |
| of which AIADMK | 47 | 21.21% |
| of which BJP | 1 | n/c |
| of which PMK | 4 | n/c |
TVK polled about 17.2 million votes, the DMK about 11.9 million and the AIADMK about 10.5 million (Wikipedia). The two TVK vote-share figures (34.92 and 35.02 per cent) appear on the same page for the party and for its alliance row; we did not confirm why they differ.
Allied parties of the SPA won 9 seats between them (the Left parties CPI and CPI(M), the VCK and the IUML). Wikipedia's page and Scroll's report disagree on the split: Scroll reported VCK 2 and CPI(M) 2 and did not list the others, while Wikipedia lists VCK 4, CPI(M) 2, CPI 2 and IUML 1. We use the alliance totals, which agree across sources, and do not give a firm split. On the other side, Scroll and a news search summary give the PMK 4 seats, while one Wikipedia fetch showed the PMK with none; we treat the PMK figure as reported. Together with AIADMK 47 and BJP 1 it leaves one seat of the AIADMK-led alliance's 53 that our sources did not identify.
No party reached 118, so the result left the Assembly without a majority party. Reporting says the Congress left the SPA after the result and joined the TVK-led arrangement, that some other SPA parties gave external support, and that the TVK-led government was sworn in on 10 May 2026 and passed a floor test on 13 May (Wikipedia). We describe the outcome by party and do not name the persons. The Speaker and the Chief Minister of this government are shown as "Incumbent" elsewhere on the page. Reports said that the DMK lost the most seats to the TVK candidates, 57, and the AIADMK lost 25, the Congress 10 and the BJP 4 (The South First). Exit polls had mostly forecast that the DMK would retain power (Scroll, The South First).
Lok Sabha results by party, 1999 to 2024
| Year | Main results (seats) | Alliance result | Turnout |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | DMK 12, AIADMK 10, PMK 5, BJP 4, MDMK 4, INC 2 | DMK-led NDA 26; AIADMK-Congress 13 | 57.98% |
| 2004 | DMK 16, INC 10, PMK 5, MDMK 4, CPI 2, CPI(M) 2 | DMK-led alliance 39 of 39; AIADMK 0 | 60.81% |
| 2009 | DMK 18, AIADMK 9, INC 8 | DMK-led UPA 27; Third Front 12 | 73.03% |
| 2014 | AIADMK 37, BJP 1, PMK 1, DMK 0 | AIADMK contested alone | 73.74% |
| 2019 | DMK 24, INC 8, CPI 2, CPI(M) 2, AIADMK 1 | DMK-led alliance 38; NDA 1 | 72.44% |
| 2024 | DMK 22, INC 9, CPI(M) 2 and smaller allies | DMK-led INDIA alliance 39 of 39 | 69.72% |
Wikipedia reports DMK vote shares of 23.13 per cent (1999), 24.60 (2004), 25.09 (2009), 33.52 (2019) and 26.93 (2024); the AIADMK's 44.92 per cent in 2014; and DMK-led alliance shares of 53.15 per cent in 2019 and 46.97 in 2024.
- 2004 and 2024 were sweeps by the DMK-led front (39 of 39); in 2019 it won 38, the AIADMK's single win being at Theni (Vellore was polled later, on 5 August 2019).
- 2014 was a sweep by one party: the AIADMK won 37 of 39 contesting alone.
- In 2024 the AIADMK and the BJP contested in separate fronts and won no seats.
The 2024 election was held in a single phase on 19 April 2024, with counting on 4 June 2024.
By-elections
Tamil Nadu has had many by-elections after deaths, resignations and disqualifications. Three are worth knowing.
- 2016: the postponed Thanjavur and Aravakurichi polls were held on 26 October 2016 (Wikipedia).
- 2019: 22 Assembly seats were polled in April and May 2019, and the DMK won 13 and the AIADMK 9 (Wikipedia list of by-elections).
- 2021 to 2026: the 16th Assembly saw by-elections at Erode East (2023, Congress retained), Vilavancode and Vikravandi (2024, Congress and DMK retained) and Erode East again (2025, seat shifted to the DMK). Wikipedia lists by-elections to seven seats as scheduled for October 2026.
Local body elections
Rural, December 2019. Polls were held in two phases, on 27 and 30 December 2019, in 27 districts, the first in the rural bodies since 2011, with counting finishing on 2 January 2020 (Wikipedia). The DMK-led alliance won 2,111 panchayat union ward seats against the AIADMK's 1,797, and 243 district panchayat wards against 214. The AIADMK later won 13 district panchayat chairs against the DMK's 12 in the indirect election (Wikipedia, reported; we did not open the state election commission's data). The remaining districts were polled separately later (not confirmed in our sources).
Urban, 19 February 2022. The first urban local body elections in about a decade (the previous ones were in 2011) were held on 19 February 2022 for 1,373 corporation, 3,842 municipality and 7,604 town panchayat seats, 12,819 in all (Wikipedia). The DMK-led alliance won very large margins: in the Greater Chennai Corporation the DMK won 153 of 200 wards, with allies adding 25 more; in Coimbatore it won 76 of 100 and in Salem 48 of 60. Across all bodies the DMK won 2,360 seats and the AIADMK 638 (Wikipedia). The elected councillors choose the heads of the urban bodies from among themselves.
Reservation, delimitation and electors
Assembly seats: 43 for SC and 2 for ST (reported); Lok Sabha: 7 for SC. The constituencies were redrawn in 2007-08 on the 2001 Census and first used for the Assembly in 2011 (Wikipedia). Electors were about 6.29 crore in 2021 and a reported 5.73 crore in 2026. We did not confirm the sex ratio of electors, EPIC coverage or the state's percentage of seats reserved for women in local bodies.
Reservation in jobs and education: the 69 per cent quota
Tamil Nadu's reservation in education and state jobs is 69 per cent. The breakdown, as Wikipedia gives it, is 30 per cent for Backward Classes (26.5 plus 3.5 reserved for Backward Class Muslims), 20 per cent for Most Backward Classes and Denotified Communities, 18 per cent for Scheduled Castes (15 plus 3 for Arunthathiyars) and 1 per cent for Scheduled Tribes. The history is long:
- 1921 and 1927: early Communal Government Orders of the Madras Presidency (Wikipedia gives the 1927 form: 44 per cent of posts to non-Brahmin Hindus and fixed shares to others).
- 1971: the DMK government raised Backward Class reservation to 31 per cent (Wikipedia).
- 1980: the quota for backward classes rose to 50 per cent (Wikipedia). We did not confirm how the total reached 69 per cent in 1989 (the 3 per cent sub-quota for Arunthathiyars within the SC share came later), so we do not give those steps.
- 1992: the Supreme Court's Indra Sawhney ruling capped reservation at 50 per cent in general.
- 1993 and 1994: the state passed Tamil Nadu Act 45 of 1994 to keep 69 per cent, and the Constitution (Seventy-sixth Amendment) Act, 1994, passed by Parliament on 24 August 1994 in the Rajya Sabha, placed that Act in the Ninth Schedule as Entry 257-A (search summary of the amendment text).
The Supreme Court later held that laws placed in the Ninth Schedule after 24 April 1973 can be reviewed on the basis of the basic structure (I. R. Coelho case, 2007; our knowledge, not re-opened here). The 69 per cent law has been challenged in the courts, and we did not confirm the current status of that litigation.
Notable firsts and records
- Lok Sabha sweeps: the DMK-led front won 39 of 39 in 2004 and 2024; the AIADMK alone won 37 of 39 in 2014.
- The DMK's 184 seats in 1971 are the highest tally by any party in the 234-seat Assembly; the AIADMK's 164 in 1991 are its best.
- In 1996 the AIADMK was reduced to 4 seats and its leader lost her own seat; Wikipedia calls her the first sitting Chief Minister since 1967 to lose an election.
- The 2026 turnout of 85.1 per cent is reported as the highest in the state's history.
For exam preparation
- Congress won 1952, 1957 and 1962; the DMK first won in 1967 with 137 seats, and the DMK also won in 1971 (184 seats).
- The AIADMK won in 1977 (130 seats), 1980, 1984, 1991 (164 seats), 2001, 2011 and 2016.
- In the 2006 election the DMK won 96 seats and formed a minority government; the DMDK made its debut.
- In 2021 the DMK won 133 seats and the DMK-led alliance 159.
- In 2026 the TVK won 108 seats (34.92 per cent), the DMK 59 and the AIADMK 47; the majority mark was 118; turnout was 85.1 per cent.
- Lok Sabha sweeps: DMK-led front 39 of 39 in 2004 and 2024; AIADMK 37 of 39 in 2014; DMK-led alliance 38 of 39 in 2019.
- The 69 per cent reservation is protected by the 76th Amendment (1994), Ninth Schedule, Entry 257-A (Tamil Nadu Act 45 of 1994).
- Urban local body polls were held on 19 February 2022; rural polls in 27 districts on 27 and 30 December 2019.
Past Chief Ministers, Governors and office-holders
This section lists only people whose tenures have ended. The incumbent in each office is shown as "Incumbent" and not named; see current affairs. Dates are from Wikipedia's lists. Some tenures were interrupted by President's Rule or by acting appointments, which we mention only where our sources did.
Chief Ministers
| Name | Party | Tenure | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| C. Rajagopalachari | INC | 10 April 1952 to 13 April 1954 | Earlier Premier of Madras Presidency, 1937 to 1939 |
| K. Kamaraj | INC | 13 April 1954 to 2 October 1963 | About 9 years 172 days; the longest continuous tenure of the Madras State period; resigned under the Kamaraj Plan (reported) |
| M. Bhaktavatsalam | INC | 2 October 1963 to 6 March 1967 | Last Congress Chief Minister |
| C. N. Annadurai | DMK | 6 March 1967 to 3 February 1969 | First non-Congress Chief Minister; died in office |
| M. Karunanidhi | DMK | Five terms: 1969 to 1971, 1971 to 1976, 1989 to 1991, 1996 to 2001, 2006 to 2011 | Longest total tenure, about 18 years 360 days (Wikipedia) |
| M. G. Ramachandran | AIADMK | 1977 to 1987 (two spells, interrupted in 1980) | About 10 years 65 days; died in office in December 1987 |
| V. N. Janaki | AIADMK faction | 1988 (23 days) | First woman Chief Minister |
| J. Jayalalithaa | AIADMK | 1991 to 1996; May to September 2001; 2002 to 2006; 2011 to 2014; 2015 to 2016 | About 14 years 124 days; died in office in December 2016; youngest at 43 on first taking office (Wikipedia) |
| O. Panneerselvam | AIADMK | Three interim spells: 2001 to 2002, 2014 to 2015, and 2016 to 2017 | Held office when the incumbent was disqualified or died (reported; dates not re-checked) |
| Edappadi K. Palaniswami | AIADMK | 2017 to 2021 | About 4 years 79 days (Wikipedia) |
| M. K. Stalin | DMK | 7 May 2021 to May 2026 | Full five-year term |
| Incumbent | TVK-led coalition | Since May 2026 | Not named |
Earlier heads of government of the Madras Presidency (1920 to 1950) included A. Subbarayalu Reddiar, Panaganti Ramarayaningar, P. Subbarayan, B. Munuswamy Naidu, Ramakrishna Ranga Rao, P. T. Rajan, Kurma Venkata Reddy Naidu, C. Rajagopalachari, T. Prakasam, O. P. Ramaswamy Reddiyar and P. S. Kumaraswamy Raja (Wikipedia). The Madras State to Tamil Nadu renaming took effect on 14 January 1969 (our knowledge; we did not re-open the Act).
Points to note:
- Longest tenures: M. Karunanidhi, J. Jayalalithaa, M. G. Ramachandran and K. Kamaraj, in that order by total days (Wikipedia).
- Full five-year Assembly terms completed by a single Chief Minister are rare because of the changes of government and deaths in office. The 2006 to 2011 term (Karunanidhi) and the 2021 to 2026 term are examples. The 2011 to 2016 term (AIADMK) was split between two Chief Ministers because of a disqualification in 2014 and the Chief Minister's death in 2016, and the Assembly continued under a third spell of the interim Chief Minister until February 2017.
- President's Rule has been imposed in Tamil Nadu in January 1976 (DMK dismissed, a period of Emergency), in February 1980, in January 1988 (after the founder's death and the split in the AIADMK) and in January 1991 (DMK dismissed). Dates are as reported on the Wikipedia election pages; we did not open the Presidential proclamations.
Governors since 1990 (earlier holders, 1966 to 1990, include Ujjal Singh, K. K. Shah, M. L. Sukhadia, P. Patwari, Sadiq Ali, S. L. Khurana and P. C. Alexander)
| Name | Tenure |
|---|---|
| Surjit Singh Barnala | 24 May 1990 to 14 February 1991; 3 November 2004 to 30 August 2011 |
| Bhishma Narain Singh | 15 February 1991 to 30 May 1993 |
| Marri Chenna Reddy | 31 May 1993 to 2 December 1996 |
| M. Fathima Beevi | 25 January 1997 to 3 July 2001 |
| P. S. Ramamohan Rao | 18 January 2002 to 2 November 2004 |
| Konijeti Rosaiah | 31 August 2011 to 1 September 2016 |
| Banwarilal Purohit | 6 October 2017 to 17 September 2021 |
| R. N. Ravi | 2021 to 2026 (Wikipedia; exact dates not confirmed) |
Gaps between rows were filled by additional charge or acting appointments that our source did not list. Archibald Nye (15 August 1947 to 6 September 1948) was the first Governor after Independence. One Wikipedia summary states that an additional-charge Governor took over in March 2026, so Incumbent is shown for the present holder without a name.
Speakers of the Assembly since 1989
Earlier Speakers include Bulusu Sambamurti (1937 to 1942, the first of the Madras Legislative Assembly), J. Shivashanmugam Pillai, Pulavar K. Govindan (1969 to 1971 and 1973 to 1977, the first Speaker after the renaming) and Munu Adhi (1977 to 1980).
| Name | Tenure |
|---|---|
| M. Tamilkudimagan | 8 February 1989 to 30 June 1991 |
| Sedapatti R. Muthiah | 3 July 1991 to 21 May 1996 |
| P. T. R. Palanivel Rajan | 23 May 1996 to 21 May 2001 |
| K. Kalimuthu | 24 May 2001 to 1 February 2006 |
| R. Avudaiappan | 19 May 2006 to 15 May 2011 |
| D. Jayakumar | 27 May 2011 to 29 September 2012 |
| P. Dhanapal | 10 October 2012 to 3 May 2021 (longest tenure, over 8 years) |
| M. Appavu | 12 May 2021 to 10 May 2026 |
| Incumbent | Since 12 May 2026 |
The Legislative Council had Chairmen until it was abolished; the last was M. P. Sivagnanam (1976 to 1986, Wikipedia).
Chief Justices of the Madras High Court
The list below starts from 2001; the earlier list runs back to 1862 (Wikipedia). Chief Justices from 1989 to 2000 included Adarsh Anand, Kanta Kumari, K. Annadanayya Swamy, Manmohan Singh and K. G. Balakrishnan. P. V. Rajamannar served from 20 April 1948 to 9 May 1961, the first Chief Justice after Independence. Kanta Kumari, from 15 June 1992 to 14 November 1992, was the first woman to head the court by Wikipedia's list.
| Chief Justice | Tenure |
|---|---|
| Kanta Kumari | 15 June 1992 to 14 November 1992 |
| B. Subhashan Reddy | 12 September 2001 to 20 November 2004 |
| Markandey Katju | 28 November 2004 to 10 October 2005 |
| Ajit Shah | 12 November 2005 to 9 May 2008 |
| Ashok Ganguly | 19 May 2008 to 15 December 2008 |
| Hemant Gokhale | 9 March 2009 to 28 April 2010 |
| M. Y. Iqbal | 11 June 2010 to 23 December 2012 |
| Rajesh Agrawal | 24 October 2013 to 16 February 2014 |
| Sanjay Kaul | 26 July 2014 to 16 February 2017 |
| Indira Banerjee | 5 April 2017 to 6 August 2018 |
| V. K. Tahilramani | 12 August 2018 to 6 September 2019 |
| Amreshwar Sahi | 11 November 2019 to 31 December 2020 |
| Sanjib Banerjee | 4 January 2021 to 16 November 2021 |
| M. N. Bhandari | 14 February 2022 to 12 September 2022 |
| Sanjay Gangapurwala | 28 May 2023 to 23 May 2024 |
| K. R. Shriram | 27 September 2024 to 20 July 2025 |
| M. M. Shrivastava | 21 July 2025 to 5 March 2026 |
| Incumbent | Since 6 March 2026 |
Gaps between rows were filled by acting Chief Justices, who are not listed here.
For exam preparation
- C. N. Annadurai (DMK) was the first non-Congress Chief Minister; he took office in March 1967 and died in office in February 1969.
- M. Karunanidhi had the longest total tenure (five terms, about 18 years 360 days); J. Jayalalithaa is second (about 14 years 124 days).
- M. G. Ramachandran, the founder of the AIADMK, was Chief Minister from 1977 until his death in December 1987.
- V. N. Janaki was the first woman Chief Minister (1988, 23 days).
- K. Kamaraj's tenure of about 9 years 172 days (1954 to 1963) was the longest of the Madras State period.
- P. Dhanapal had the longest Speaker tenure (October 2012 to May 2021, over 8 years).
- The Madras High Court's first Chief Justice after Independence was P. V. Rajamannar; the first woman Chief Justice was Kanta Kumari (1992).
Political history and movements
Tamil Nadu's politics is unusual for two reasons: a social-justice and language movement that began in the early twentieth century and became the base of two regional parties, and an almost unbroken run of DMK or AIADMK governments from 1967 to 2021. In 2026 a new party became the largest in the Assembly.
The Justice Party and the Dravidian movement
The Dravidian movement began with the Justice Party, formally the South Indian Liberal Federation, which was founded in Madras on 20 November 1916 after a series of non-Brahmin conferences (Wikipedia). It grew from the view that Brahmins, who were about 3.2 per cent of the Madras Presidency's population, dominated government jobs and urban professions; Wikipedia cites a 1912 table in which Brahmins held 77 of 107 deputy collector posts. The Justice Party formed the government after the first elections under the 1919 reforms, in 1920, and issued the early orders that reserved government posts by community (the Communal Government Orders). Scholars describe three phases in the movement's history: anti-Brahmin and rationalist ideas (1916 to 1944), anti-caste ideology and Tamil nationalism (1944 to 1967), and electoral welfare politics (1967 onwards) (Wikipedia). We report this as a summary of one source, not a settled view.
The Self-Respect Movement and Periyar
E. V. Ramasamy, known as Periyar, left the Congress and started the Self-Respect Movement in 1925 (our knowledge; the date was not re-checked in our sources). It campaigned against caste hierarchy, superstition and the dominance of priests, and for women's rights, including the right to choose marriage partners and remarriage of widows. Periyar led the opposition to compulsory Hindi in the late 1930s and took over the Justice Party; in 1944 it was renamed the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK), a non-electoral body (reported; dates not re-checked).
The anti-Hindi agitations
1937 to 1940. The Congress government under C. Rajagopalachari made the teaching of Hindi compulsory in secondary schools on 11 August 1937. The decision was opposed by Periyar and the Justice Party, with fasts, marches and picketing of schools. Two protesters, Natarajan and Thalamuthu, died during the agitation. After the Congress ministry resigned in October 1939, the compulsory requirement was withdrawn in February 1940 (Wikipedia).
1965. The Constitution had set 26 January 1965, fifteen years after it came into force, as the date when English would stop being an official language of the Union. As that date neared, students led protests. A clash in Madurai on 25 January 1965 set off statewide violence, with arson, police firing and lathi charges. Official casualty counts were around 70 deaths, with some reports giving more (Wikipedia). Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri then gave an assurance that English would continue as an associate official language. The DMK, which had championed the opposition, won the 1967 election, which Wikipedia describes as the start of the Congress party's lasting decline in the state. We did not open sources on the later two-language policy, so we do not give its details.
From Congress to the DMK
The Congress governed Madras State from the first elections of 1952 until 1967 (Rajaji, Kamaraj, Bhaktavatsalam). The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) was founded by C. N. Annadurai and others who left the DK, in 1949 (our knowledge; the year was not re-checked). It first contested elections in 1957 and 1962, winning 50 seats in 1962. In the 1967 election it won 137 seats and formed the government on the back of the anti-Hindi movement, food-price concerns and an alliance of opposition parties (the last is our reading; reported). The state was renamed Tamil Nadu in January 1969, shortly before Annadurai's death on 3 February 1969.
The split and the rise of the AIADMK
The DMK won the 1971 election with 184 seats. In 1972 the film star M. G. Ramachandran, who had been expelled from the DMK after criticising its leadership, founded the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, later the AIADMK (Wikipedia). The DMK government was dismissed on 31 January 1976 during the Emergency, and the AIADMK won the June 1977 election with 130 seats, the first of three wins in a row. The government was dismissed in February 1980 and returned in the June 1980 election; the founder remained Chief Minister until his death in December 1987.
After his death the AIADMK split into two factions, led by his widow and by J. Jayalalithaa, and the symbol was frozen by the Election Commission (Wikipedia). The DMK won the January 1989 election and was dismissed on 30 or 31 January 1991 (sources differ by a day) under Article 356. The 1991 election was held after Rajiv Gandhi's assassination at Sriperumbudur; the AIADMK-Congress alliance won 225 seats. The DMK won in 1996 with 173 seats, the AIADMK was nearly wiped out (4 seats), and the election saw the Tamil Maanila Congress, a breakaway from the Congress, win 39 or 40 seats (sources differ).
Alternation, alliances and new parties
From 1989 to 2016 power alternated between the DMK and the AIADMK at every election, until the AIADMK was re-elected in 2016. Alliances with smaller parties such as the PMK, MDMK, DMDK, VCK, the Left and the Congress became central. In Lok Sabha polls the DMK was in the NDA in 1999, led the sweep of 2004, and the AIADMK won 37 seats alone in 2014. The 2006 election produced a minority DMK government with outside support.
The 2026 outcome
In 2026 the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, a new party, won 108 seats in its first Assembly election, ahead of the DMK (59) and the AIADMK (47). It was 10 short of a majority and a coalition government was formed with the Congress, which had been in the DMK-led alliance, and external support from other parties (Wikipedia). The result ended the period in which the DMK or the AIADMK was the largest party in every Assembly election since 1967, by our reading of the tables. We record the outcome and do not assess it.
For exam preparation
- The Justice Party (South Indian Liberal Federation) was founded on 20 November 1916; it formed the first government under the 1919 reforms in 1920.
- Periyar started the Self-Respect Movement in 1925; the DK was formed in 1944.
- Hindi was made compulsory in schools by the Rajagopalachari government on 11 August 1937; it was withdrawn in February 1940.
- The 1965 anti-Hindi agitation began around 25 to 26 January 1965; about 70 official deaths were recorded.
- The DMK was founded in 1949 and first won an Assembly election in 1967.
- Madras State was renamed Tamil Nadu in January 1969.
- The AIADMK was founded in 1972 by M. G. Ramachandran.
- In 2026 a new party, the TVK, emerged as the largest in the Assembly with 108 seats.
Budget and governance
Tamil Nadu presented an interim budget and then, after the 2026 election, a revised budget for 2026-27. This is as on 4 October 2026; budget numbers change at revision, so check the latest. According to PRS Legislative Research and the news reports we opened, the government that took office after the 2026 election presented its first budget, described as a revised budget for 2026-27, on 5 August 2026. An interim budget with a vote on account for 2026-27 had been presented earlier, on 17 February 2026, before the election (search summaries; the Assembly's own papers were not opened).
Revised budget estimates, 2026-27
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Total expenditure (excluding debt repayment) | Rs 4,72,585 crore (PRS); Rs 4,72,864 crore (The South First) |
| Total receipts (excluding borrowing) | Rs 3,50,766 crore (PRS) |
| Revenue deficit | Rs 55,775 crore, 1.4% of GSDP |
| Fiscal deficit | Rs 1,21,819 crore, 3.0% of GSDP |
| Outstanding liabilities | 27% of GSDP at the end of 2026-27 (PRS); Rs 10.98 lakh crore (reported) |
| Own tax revenue | Rs 2,26,740 crore (about 5.6% of GSDP) |
| Central transfers | Rs 95,452 crore, about 27% of receipts |
| State GST | Rs 85,200 crore, the largest own tax source |
| GSDP assumed | Rs 40,67,312 crore, growth of 14% projected |
The two expenditure figures differ by a small amount; we give both and attribute them. The South First reported that the revised total was 1.35 per cent above the interim budget's figure, that the revenue deficit rose from Rs 48,697 crore in the interim estimates to Rs 55,775 crore, and that the primary deficit, fiscal deficit and debt were almost unchanged. It also reported that Rs 18,386 crore of extra spending on new welfare schemes was financed by trimming salary and pension, education, capital outlay and public-sector support lines. The earlier interim budget put the debt at about Rs 10.71 lakh crore (a news headline, not checked against the budget papers), so the 10.98 lakh crore figure is a revised estimate; we treat both as reported.
Headline allocations
PRS lists (Rs crore): education, sports and culture 56,267; social welfare 42,939; agriculture 29,129; transport 29,169; health 22,002. It also reports Rs 2,000 crore for laptops for college students and an AI skilling programme aiming at five lakh youth by 2031. The Finance Minister's speech said interest and committed liabilities take a rising share of revenue, leaving limited room for new schemes, and that debt had roughly doubled in five years to about Rs 10 lakh crore (ETV Bharat). We do not name the Finance Minister, and we leave out the rural-employment allocation because two sources gave different figures (Rs 12,642 crore and Rs 7,586 crore).
Fiscal indicators and governance
- The revised estimates keep the fiscal deficit at 3 per cent of GSDP and put the revenue deficit at 1.4 per cent. We did not confirm the state's current FRBM targets.
- Own tax revenue was revised down by Rs 2,839 crore from the interim figure, and Union grants were revised up by Rs 8,160 crore, a change the South First says depends on expected arrears from the Centre (reported).
- The state's e-governance and administrative reforms are covered in Part C and on the state portal; we did not verify any reform claims for this part.
For exam preparation
- The 2026-27 interim budget with a vote on account was presented on 17 February 2026, and a revised budget on 5 August 2026 by the new government (as on October 2026).
- Revised 2026-27: fiscal deficit 3.0 per cent of GSDP (Rs 1,21,819 crore), revenue deficit 1.4 per cent (Rs 55,775 crore), expenditure about Rs 4.73 lakh crore.
- State GST is the largest own tax source; central transfers are about 27 per cent of receipts (PRS).
- Outstanding liabilities were projected at 27 per cent of GSDP at the end of 2026-27.
Economy
Tamil Nadu has one of the two or three largest state economies in India and is among its most industrialised, with a larger share of manufacturing in its output than most big states. Chennai and its neighbouring belt build cars, electronics and engineering goods; Coimbatore and Tiruppur in the west make textiles, pumps and garments; the Cauvery delta and the southern districts still run on farming; and the state's cities carry a large services and IT sector. As on October 2026, the state's own Economic Survey summary for 2024-25, as reported in the press, puts nominal gross state domestic product (GSDP, the value of goods and services produced inside the state in a year) at ₹31.19 lakh crore, with real growth of 11.19% in that year, described as the highest among the major states.
Size, growth and income
| Indicator | Value | Source / note |
|---|---|---|
| GSDP, current prices, 2024-25 | ₹31.19 lakh crore | Economic Survey 2024-25, as reported |
| Real GSDP growth, 2024-25 | 11.19% (national figure given as 6.5%) | Same report |
| GSDP, 2025-26 (budget estimate) | ₹35,67,818 crore, up 15% on the revised 2024-25 estimate | PRS analysis of the 2025-26 budget |
| GSDP, 2026-27 (budget projection) | ₹40.67 lakh crore, up 14% | PRS summary of the 2026-27 budget |
| Per capita income, 2024-25 | ₹3.62 lakh, about 1.77 times the national average | Economic Survey summary, as reported |
| Per capita GSDP, 2023-24 | ₹3,53,483, up 13% (India: ₹2,15,935) | PRS |
| Share of national GDP | About 9.4% in 2024-25, with about 4% of India's area and 6% of its people | Reported; single source |
"Current prices" means the value in that year's rupees, so part of every rise is inflation. "Per capita income" divides total income by population; it is an average and does not show how evenly income is spread. Per capita GSDP and per capita income are slightly different measures, so the 2023-24 and 2024-25 rows are not strictly comparable. Reports differ on the state's rank: one summary calls it the third highest among large states by per capita income, while another places it fourth. We treat the rank as "among the top four" and leave out an exact number.
Services contribute roughly 54% of value added, manufacturing and industry about 33%, and agriculture about 13%, according to the 2024-25 summary. The same summary reports average manufacturing growth of 9.38% a year between 2021-22 and 2024-25, the highest among states, and more than 40,000 registered factories, the most in India. It also reports about 39 lakh MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) registered on the Udyam portal. These figures are as reported in the press; we did not open the Economic Survey itself.
Sectors that drive the state
- Automobiles and engineering. The Chennai-Sriperumbudur-Oragadam-Hosur corridor is one of India's biggest vehicle and component clusters, and Chennai is often called the "Detroit of Asia" (a nickname, not an official title). The cluster covers cars, trucks, tractors, railway coaches and defence vehicles. Coimbatore is reported to supply about half of India's motors and pumps, and the Coimbatore area is also known for engineering workshops and textile machinery.
- Electronics. According to a state press release reported by news outlets, Tamil Nadu exported electronics worth US$14.65 billion in 2024-25 (about 41% of India's electronics exports), up from US$9.56 billion in 2023-24, and was first among states ahead of Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. Mobile phone assembly at Sriperumbudur is a major part of this. Treat the share as reported, not audited.
- Textiles and garments. Tiruppur is India's best-known knitwear town. Industry figures reported in 2025 put garment exports from Tiruppur and Coimbatore at about ₹45,000 crore (US$5.39 billion) in 2024-25, of which Tiruppur contributed about ₹40,000 crore, and say the pair account for about 68% of India's knitted-garment exports. Coimbatore itself grew on cotton spinning mills; Erode, Karur (home textiles) and Salem add to the cluster. The industry figures come from trade reporting and are estimates.
- Leather. The leather belt of Vellore, Ranipet, Ambur and Vaniyambadi, together with Chennai, is reported to hold about 60% of India's tanning capacity and about half of its leather exports (reported at about US$3.3 billion). We did not trace this to an official release, so it is reported.
- IT and services. Chennai (OMR and the older IT corridors) and Coimbatore host large software, business-services and global capability centre operations. Reference pages report that the state contributed about US$28 billion to India's software exports in FY 2024 and employs over 20% of the country's IT workforce; we mark both as reported.
Public finances
The 2026-27 budget was the first presented by the government that took office in May 2026, on 5 August 2026. The figures below are from PRS Legislative Research's summary of that budget unless stated.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Fiscal deficit target, 2026-27 | 3% of GSDP (about ₹1.21 lakh crore) |
| Revenue deficit estimate, 2026-27 | 1.4% of GSDP, against 1.9% in the previous year |
| Committed expenditure | About 61% of revenue receipts |
| Education | ₹56,267 crore (schools and colleges) |
| Agriculture | ₹29,129 crore, including ₹7,338 crore for farm electricity subsidy |
| Social welfare | ₹42,939 crore, including ₹14,414 crore for women's cash transfers |
| Rural development | ₹25,918 crore (a 158% rise, mainly for a new central rural employment scheme) |
For 2024-25 actuals, a report on the Comptroller and Auditor General's audit gives a fiscal deficit of ₹1,01,344 crore (3.25% of GSDP) and a revenue deficit of ₹45,840 crore (1.47%), slightly above the 3% ceiling in the state's fiscal responsibility law (FRBM). "Fiscal deficit" is the gap between total spending and income excluding borrowing.
Labour and poverty
A press summary of the Economic Survey reports an unemployment rate of 3.5% and a labour force participation rate of 72.1% for 2023-24, and notes that only 23.4% of married women aged 20 to 29 are employed, against 32.8% nationally. We have not verified the survey source behind these numbers. We have not confirmed the state's latest NITI Aayog multidimensional poverty figure, so it is not stated here.
For exam preparation
- Tamil Nadu's nominal GSDP for 2024-25 is reported at ₹31.19 lakh crore, with real growth of 11.19%.
- The state's per capita income is reported at about ₹3.62 lakh, around 1.77 times the national average.
- Tiruppur is the leading knitwear export centre; Coimbatore is the pump and motor hub.
- Tamil Nadu is reported as the top state for electronics exports in 2024-25 (US$14.65 billion).
- Sriperumbudur is the main electronics and mobile phone assembly centre; Chennai is called the "Detroit of Asia".
- The 2026-27 budget was presented on 5 August 2026 with a 3% fiscal deficit target.
Agriculture, forests, minerals, industry and energy
Farming employs far more people than its 13% share of value added suggests, and it is concentrated in the Cauvery delta, the Vaigai and Tamirabarani basins and the western black-soil districts. Because the state gets most of its rain from the north-east monsoon (October to December) and depends on the Cauvery, tanks and borewells, water is the central issue of Tamil Nadu agriculture. Beyond farming, the state has lignite, beach-sand minerals, a long wind-power history and India's largest nuclear station under construction at Kudankulam.
Crops and rankings
Rice is the main food crop, grown in the delta and in Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam and Mayiladuthurai districts, which are called the "rice bowl" of the state. A reference page states that Tamil Nadu is the fourth-largest rice producer in India after West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, but rankings shift year to year and we mark this as reported. Other major crops are sugarcane, groundnut, cotton, pulses, millets (ragi, sorghum, pearl millet), bananas, coconut, tea, coffee and spices.
A press summary of the 2024-25 Economic Survey reports Tamil Nadu as first in ragi and sugarcane, second in oilseeds and third in groundnut, without saying whether the ranking is for production or yield. Reference pages describe the state as a leading producer of bananas, coconut, drumstick and cloves; we did not find a reliable official ranking for bananas and omit one. Tea is grown in the Nilgiris and Coimbatore hills, coffee in the Shevaroys, Kolli, Anamalai and Palani hills, and cardamom and pepper in the southern hill ranges.
The Cauvery delta and Mettur
The Cauvery (Kaveri) enters Tamil Nadu near Hogenakkal and flows through Salem, Erode, Karur, Tiruchirappalli and the delta before reaching the Bay of Bengal. The Mettur Dam in Salem district, built across the river between 1925 and 1934, holds the Stanley Reservoir and feeds the delta canals; a reference page gives its gross capacity as 93.4 thousand million cubic feet (TMC, the unit used in the state) and says it irrigates and supplies drinking water to more than 12 districts. The dam's water is traditionally released on 12 June for the Kuruvai crop when storage allows. Downstream, the Grand Anicut (Kallanai) on the Cauvery near Tiruchirappalli is an ancient regulator attributed to Karikala Chola, and it is still in use.
Delta farming has three rice seasons: kuruvai (June-July sowing, short duration), samba (August-September, the main crop) and thaladi (post-samba, in some areas). The Mettur Surplus Water Scheme, inaugurated in February 2021, diverts flood water to about 100 dry tanks in the nearby districts. Sharing of Cauvery water with Karnataka has been disputed since the 1990s and has gone through a tribunal and the Supreme Court; we do not describe the allocation figures here because we did not open the tribunal's final orders.
Forests, wildlife and protected areas
A reference page reports that forests cover about 17.4% of the state (22,643 sq km), which is below the national average. The state has five national parks, 18 wildlife sanctuaries, 17 bird sanctuaries, five tiger reserves (Anamalai, Kalakkad-Mundanthurai, Mudumalai, Sathyamangalam and Megamalai) and three biosphere reserves (the Nilgiri, Gulf of Mannar and Agasthyamalai). The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve was the first in India. Counts of sanctuaries and parks change with new notifications, so these are as reported and not checked against the Forest Department. Tamil Nadu also has the most Ramsar sites (wetlands of international importance) of any state: 20 as of February 2025 (the number reached 96 in India by December 2025), and a July 2026 press item reports two more, which we did not verify.
Minerals
Tamil Nadu's best-known mineral is lignite, mined at Neyveli in Cuddalore district, which feeds power stations and fertiliser units. The coastal belt from Thoothukudi to Kanyakumari holds beach-sand minerals such as ilmenite, garnet, rutile and zircon, and the Salem area has magnesite and bauxite from the Shevaroy hills. Limestone, granite, quartz and clay are widely quarried. We did not verify mineral reserve shares, so no percentages are quoted.
Industry
The industrial clusters are described in the Economy section. The state's industrial promotion bodies are the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (SIPCOT), which develops industrial parks such as Sriperumbudur, Oragadam, Hosur and Gummidipoondi, and the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO). Handloom weaving (Kancheepuram, Arani, Salem, Madurai), coir, matchbox and fireworks units at Sivakasi, and sugar and cotton mills round out the picture.
Energy
- Wind power. Tamil Nadu led India's wind installations for decades, and its Muppandal belt in Kanyakumari district is one of the world's largest onshore wind areas (reported at about 1,500 MW). A Wikipedia table of ministry data shows Gujarat overtaking it in mid-2023; as on 28 February 2026, Gujarat is reported at 15,197 MW and Tamil Nadu second at 12,103 MW (about 22% of India's wind capacity).
- Nuclear. The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tirunelveli district on the Gulf of Mannar coast has two Russian-designed VVER-1000 units of 1,000 MW each, started in October 2013 and October 2016. Four more units are under construction (units 3 and 4 from 2017, units 5 and 6 from 2021), with unit 3 reported as expected in 2026. Once all six are running it will be India's largest nuclear station at 6,000 MW.
- Thermal and hydro. Coal-fired stations at Ennore, Thoothukudi and Mettur, the Neyveli lignite plants and hydel stations on the Pykara, Kundah and Mettur systems form the base. Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC India) is a central public-sector company.
- Solar. The Kamuthi solar park in Ramanathapuram district, about 648 MW when commissioned in 2016, is among the large single-site solar plants; the figure is reported, not verified here.
For exam preparation
- Kuruvai, samba and thaladi are the delta rice seasons; the delta is the "rice bowl" of Tamil Nadu.
- Mettur Dam (built 1934, Salem district) is on the Cauvery.
- Neyveli in Cuddalore is the lignite centre.
- Kudankulam has two operating 1,000 MW Russian reactors and four under construction.
- The state is second to Gujarat in wind capacity (as on February 2026) after leading for decades; Muppandal is in Kanyakumari district.
- Tamil Nadu has 20 Ramsar sites (as on February 2025), the most in India.
- The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve was India's first.
Transport and infrastructure
Tamil Nadu has a dense road and rail network, three major ports and several commercial airports, and Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchirappalli and Salem act as regional hubs. Chennai is the headquarters of Southern Railway and the only city in the state with a running metro. Rail, road and port facts below are from public reference pages and are as on October 2026.
Rail
Southern Railway, headquartered in Chennai, is the railway zone for most of the state. The first railway line in the Madras Presidency opened in 1856 from Royapuram (Chennai) to Wallajah Road. Chennai Central, opened in 1873, is the state's main terminus, and Chennai Egmore, Tiruchirappalli, Madurai and Coimbatore are other major stations. Hill railways include the Nilgiri Mountain Railway between Mettupalayam and Udhagamandalam (Ooty), which is a rack-and-pinion line and a World Heritage Site. At Rameswaram, the original Pamban rail bridge opened in February 1914 as India's first sea bridge and stopped carrying trains in December 2022 on safety grounds. The New Pamban Bridge, with a vertical lift span, was opened for traffic in April 2025.
Roads
National Highways meet at Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai, and Chennai is one corner of the Golden Quadrilateral highway ring. We did not verify the total length of national or state highways, so no figure is stated here. The Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporations run one of India's largest public bus networks, with town and long-distance services reaching almost every village.
Ports
| Port | Operator | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Chennai Port | Central (Major Port Authority) | Artificial harbour, established 1881; reported at 136 million tonnes in FY 2022-23; about 1.91 million TEUs in FY 2025-26 as reported |
| Kamarajar Port (Ennore) | Central (company form) | Created in 2001 as Ennore Port; reported at 91 million tonnes in FY 2022-23; serves power, coal and automobiles |
| V.O. Chidambaranar Port (Thoothukudi) | Central (Major Port Authority) | Opened as a major port in 1974 (earlier Tuticorin); reported at about 111 million tonnes in FY 2022-23; about 0.8 million TEUs in FY 2025-26 as reported |
A TEU is a twenty-foot-equivalent container unit. The cargo figures come from a reference page and have not been checked against the Ministry of Ports; use them as indicative. Kattupalli (a private port north of Chennai) and a ship-building and logistics cluster near Thoothukudi add capacity. An ISRO launch complex for small satellites is being built at Kulasekarapattinam near Thoothukudi, reported as under development; we did not verify its status.
Metro and airports
Chennai Metro opened its first stretch (Alandur to Koyambedu, Blue and Green lines) on 29 June 2015. As on December 2025, a reference page reports two operational lines covering 54.1 km with 41 stations, and about 125 million passengers in 2025. Phase 2 has three lines (Purple, Yellow and Red) totalling 118.9 km under construction.
Chennai International Airport was commissioned in 1930. It has three operational terminals and, as reported, handled over 22 million passengers in 2024-25, making it the fifth-busiest in India. A proposed greenfield airport at Parandur was selected as a site in August 2022, and a reference page reports the project was cancelled in June 2026; this rests on one source and should be checked. Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchirappalli, Salem and Thoothukudi also have commercial airports.
Power, water and urban services
State-owned companies generate and distribute power; the corporate structure has been reorganised in recent years and we did not verify it. Chennai's drinking water comes from rain-fed reservoirs, groundwater and desalination plants at Minjur and Nemmeli, which are widely reported but were not verified here.
For exam preparation
- The first railway in the Madras Presidency opened in 1856 (Royapuram to Wallajah Road).
- The Nilgiri Mountain Railway runs from Mettupalayam to Ooty and is a UNESCO site.
- The New Pamban Bridge opened for traffic in April 2025.
- Chennai Metro's first stretch opened on 29 June 2015.
- The state's three major ports are Chennai, Kamarajar (Ennore) and V.O. Chidambaranar (Thoothukudi).
- Southern Railway has its headquarters in Chennai.
Culture, tribes and heritage
Tamil Nadu has one of the oldest continuous literary and cultural traditions in India. The Tamil language was the first to be declared a classical language by the Government of India, in 2004. The state's temple architecture, classical dance, classical music, folk arts, handloom and bronze traditions are so rooted in the land that "Tamil culture" is a recognisable category in itself. The state was known as Madras State until 14 January 1969, when it was renamed Tamil Nadu ("land of the Tamils"); the city of Madras was renamed Chennai in 1996.
Language and literature
Tamil literature is traditionally divided into the Sangam age, the post-Sangam and epic age, the bhakti age and the modern age.
- Sangam literature. The corpus is the Ettuthokai (eight anthologies) and the Pattuppattu (ten long poems), usually dated by scholars to roughly the third century BCE to the third century CE, though dating is debated. The Tolkappiyam, a grammar and poetics text, is among the oldest surviving works. Sangam poetry divides landscapes into five tinai (hill, forest, farmland, seashore, desert) and poems into akam (inner, love) and puram (outer, war and public life).
- Thirukkural. Written by Thiruvalluvar, it has 1,330 couplets in 133 chapters, divided into three parts: aram (virtue), porul (wealth and polity) and inbam (love). It is among the most translated Tamil works and is sometimes called the "universal veda" of Tamil. The date of Thiruvalluvar is uncertain.
- Epics. Silappathikaram (by Ilango Adigal) and Manimekalai (by Sittalai Sattanar) are two of the five great epics in the Tamil tradition. Kamban's Tamil Ramayana of the twelfth century belongs to the Chola period.
- Bhakti. The Shaiva Nayanmars (hymns collected as the Tevaram) and the Vaishnava Alvars (the Divya Prabandham) shaped temple worship. Modern Tamil poetry is associated with Subramania Bharati.
- Language movements. Anti-Hindi agitations in 1937-40 and 1965 are major political landmarks in Tamil Nadu's history and are often asked about in exams.
Tribes
Scheduled Tribes form a small share of Tamil Nadu's population (about 1.1% in Census 2011; we did not re-verify the exact figure). Better-known groups are listed below.
| Community | Region | Known for |
|---|---|---|
| Toda | Nilgiris | Barrel-roofed huts, buffalo-based religion, distinctive embroidery (a GI product); a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) |
| Irula | Nilgiri foothills, northern districts | Snake-catching, forest knowledge, a PVTG |
| Kota | Nilgiris | Artisans and musicians, a PVTG |
| Kurumba | Nilgiris | Forest honey and medicinal knowledge, a PVTG |
| Paniyan | Nilgiris and Wayanad border | Traditional agricultural labour, a PVTG |
| Kattunayakan | Nilgiris | Honey and forest-product gatherers, a PVTG |
| Malayali | Kolli, Shevaroy, Javadi hills | Hill farming; the largest ST group by population (reported) |
| Kani (Kanikaran) | Kanyakumari and Tirunelveli hills | Medicinal plant knowledge |
The six PVTG listing above is as commonly reported; we did not open the Ministry of Tribal Affairs list to confirm it. We also did not verify the "largest ST group" claim for the Malayali.
Dance, music and theatre
- Bharatanatyam. The classical dance of Tamil Nadu grew out of sadir or dasi attam, performed in temples by devadasis, and was reshaped in the nineteenth century by the Thanjavur court musicians known as the Thanjavur Quartet. In the early twentieth century reformers brought it to the stage and into mainstream respectability; Rukmini Devi Arundale founded Kalakshetra in Chennai in 1936. It uses nritta (pure dance), nritya (expressive dance) and natya (dramatic).
- Carnatic music. The south Indian classical system, usually traced through the Trinity of Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Syama Sastri, all born in Tiruvarur. Chennai's annual December-January music season (the Margazhi season) draws thousands of performances. The Madras Music Academy, founded in 1928, is a landmark institution. M. S. Subbulakshmi is a legacy name associated with the form.
- Folk arts. Karagattam (pot-balancing dance), kavadi attam (a devotional dance in honour of Murugan), oyilattam, mayilattam (peacock dance), poikkal kudhirai (dummy horse dance), kummi and kolattam (women's group dances), thappattam, parai drumming, therukoothu (street theatre) and villu pattu (bow song) are the main forms.
- Cinema. Chennai's Kodambakkam locality grew into one of India's biggest film centres.
Festivals
| Festival | Month | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Pongal | January | Four-day harvest festival (Bhogi, Thai Pongal, Mattu Pongal, Kaanum Pongal), the main festival of the state |
| Jallikattu | January | Bull-taming sport held around Mattu Pongal in Madurai district (Avaniyapuram, Palamedu, Alanganallur) |
| Puthandu | April | Tamil New Year |
| Chithirai Festival | April-May | Madurai, celebrating the wedding of Meenakshi and Sundareswarar |
| Karthigai Deepam | November-December | Lighting of the beacon at Tiruvannamalai |
| Thaipusam | January-February | Murugan festival, observed at Palani and other temples |
| Aadi Perukku | July-August | River worship, mainly along the Cauvery |
| Mamallapuram Dance Festival | December-January | Dance festival at the Shore Temple precinct |
Jallikattu has a legal history: the Supreme Court banned it in 2014 on animal cruelty grounds, large protests on Chennai's Marina Beach in January 2017 led to a state amendment to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, and a Supreme Court Constitution Bench upheld the amendment in May 2023. Dates of the temple festivals above follow the Tamil calendar, so check an almanac for exact days.
Cuisine
Staples are rice, idli, dosa, sambar and rasam, often served on banana leaf. Regional styles include Chettinad (spicy meat dishes and aromatic spice mixes from Karaikudi), Madurai (kari dosai, parotta and jigarthanda), the delta's vegetarian meals and Kongunadu food from the western districts. Filter coffee is widely taken as the state's signature drink.
Handicrafts, GI tags and painting
Tamil Nadu has many Geographical Indication (GI) tags, one of the largest lists in India, though we did not verify the exact count.
- Kancheepuram silk. The sari is woven from mulberry silk with zari (gold-thread) borders, and is among the earliest products to receive a GI tag in India (registered in the mid-2000s; we did not confirm the exact year).
- Thanjavur painting. A temple-style painting with gold foil, glass beads and gems on a wooden base, developed in the Nayak and Maratha courts of Thanjavur. It holds a GI tag (the registration year was not confirmed here).
- Others. Swamimalai bronzes, Arani and Salem silk, Madurai Sungudi, Pattamadai mats, Kovai Cora cotton, Mahabalipuram stone sculpture and Toda embroidery.
Architecture
Tamil temple architecture is a major strand of the Dravidian style. The Pallavas (sixth to ninth centuries) carved rock-cut caves and monolithic shrines at Mahabalipuram and built the structural Shore Temple. The Cholas (ninth to thirteenth centuries) raised the great tall-towered vimana temples, the Pandyas and Vijayanagara and Nayak rulers added towering gateways (gopurams) and huge pillared halls, as seen at Madurai and Srirangam. The Chola period is also famous for lost-wax bronzes such as the dancing Shiva (Nataraja). In Chennai, the Indo-Saracenic style of the colonial era produced buildings such as the High Court and the Ripon Building.
Madurai is an ancient city and the traditional seat of the Pandyas and the Tamil Sangams; its night life gave it the name "the city that never sleeps". Chennai grew around Fort St George, founded by the English East India Company in 1639-40, and is a centre of music, theatre, film and publishing.
For exam preparation
- Tamil was declared a classical language in 2004, the first Indian language so declared.
- The Thirukkural has 1,330 couplets in 133 chapters in three parts.
- The Sangam corpus includes the Ettuthokai and the Pattuppattu; the Tolkappiyam is a grammar text.
- Bharatanatyam evolved from sadir; Kalakshetra was founded in 1936.
- The Carnatic music Trinity were all born in Tiruvarur.
- Pongal is a four-day harvest festival; the Supreme Court upheld the Jallikattu amendment in May 2023.
- Kancheepuram silk and Thanjavur painting both hold GI tags.
- Madras State was renamed Tamil Nadu on 14 January 1969.
Tourism and places of interest
Tamil Nadu receives more domestic tourist visits than most other states, and a reference page reports it was first among states in tourist footfalls in 2021. The pull is temples, hill stations, beaches and wildlife; religious tourism dominates. Details below are from public sources and are as on October 2026.
Key sites
| Place | District / city | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Meenakshi Amman Temple | Madurai | Dravidian temple complex in the Pandya capital, with tall gopurams and a thousand-pillared hall; most of the present complex dates from the Nayak period (sixteenth to seventeenth centuries) |
| Brihadeeswara Temple | Thanjavur | Raja Raja Chola I's temple, built 1003-1010 CE; its granite vimana is one of the tallest in South India |
| Ramanathaswamy Temple and Dhanushkodi | Rameswaram | A pilgrimage centre among the twelve Jyotirlingas and the Char Dham; the island is linked to the mainland by the Pamban bridge |
| Kanyakumari | Kanyakumari | Southern tip of the mainland, where the Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean meet; has the Vivekananda Rock Memorial and the 133-foot Thiruvalluvar statue |
| Ooty (Udhagamandalam) | Nilgiris | The hill station of the old Madras Presidency, with tea gardens, a botanical garden and the Nilgiri Mountain Railway |
| Kodaikanal | Dindigul | Hill station in the Palani hills with a lake and a solar observatory |
| Mahabalipuram | Chengalpattu | Pallava rock-cut caves, Pancha Rathas, Arjuna's Penance and the Shore Temple |
| Chidambaram | Cuddalore | Nataraja temple, associated with the cosmic dance of Shiva |
| Srirangam | Tiruchirappalli | Large Vaishnava temple island on the Cauvery |
| Kancheepuram | Kancheepuram | Temple town and silk centre |
| Hogenakkal | Dharmapuri | Falls and coracle rides on the Cauvery |
| Pichavaram | Cuddalore | Mangrove forest, one of the largest in India (about 45 sq km as reported) |
| Mudumalai, Anamalai, Mukurthi, Kalakkad-Mundanthurai | Nilgiris, Coimbatore, Tirunelveli | Tiger reserves and national parks in the Western Ghats |
| Gulf of Mannar | Ramanathapuram, Thoothukudi | A marine national park and biosphere reserve with coral reefs and dugongs |
| Marina Beach | Chennai | One of the longest urban beaches in India |
UNESCO World Heritage Sites
UNESCO's list for India includes four Tamil Nadu entries.
- Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram (inscribed 1984).
- Great Living Chola Temples (Brihadeeswara at Thanjavur, inscribed 1987; the Brihadeeswara at Gangaikonda Cholapuram, built by Rajendra Chola I and completed about 1035, and the Airavatesvara at Darasuram, built by Rajaraja II and completed about 1166, added in 2004).
- Mountain Railways of India (1999, 2005 and 2008), which includes the Nilgiri Mountain Railway (added 2005).
- Western Ghats (2012), a serial natural property across several states that includes Tamil Nadu's Agasthyamalai and Nilgiri areas.
A reference summary of the UNESCO page also listed the Sun Temple at Konark under Tamil Nadu; that is an error, since Konark is in Odisha, and we have left it out.
Nature and wetlands
Tamil Nadu has the highest number of Ramsar sites in India (20 as of February 2025), including Vedanthangal and Point Calimere, the Gulf of Mannar and many tank wetlands. Mudumalai is described as South India's first modern wildlife sanctuary (1940). The state has five national parks (about 308 sq km in all), 18 wildlife sanctuaries and three biosphere reserves, as reported.
Pilgrim circuits
Murugan's six abodes (Arupadai Veedu), including Thiruchendur, Palani and Thiruparankundram; the Navagraha temples around Kumbakonam; the Pancha Bhoota Shiva temples; the Velankanni basilica and the Nagore dargah are some of the circuits that exam questions mention. We did not verify temple counts for each circuit beyond the widely cited list.
For exam preparation
- Tamil Nadu has four UNESCO World Heritage entries: Mahabalipuram, the Great Living Chola Temples, the Nilgiri Mountain Railway (part of Mountain Railways of India) and the Western Ghats.
- The Brihadeeswara Temple at Thanjavur was built by Raja Raja Chola I (1003-1010).
- Kanyakumari is where three water bodies meet; the Thiruvalluvar statue is 133 feet.
- Meenakshi Temple is at Madurai; Ramanathaswamy Temple is at Rameswaram.
- Mudumalai is South India's first modern sanctuary; Pichavaram is a major mangrove.
Education, health, sports and personalities
Tamil Nadu has a large and old higher-education system, a medical education network that is among the biggest in India, and a strong record in chess, cricket, squash and hockey. Its literacy is above the national average: Census 2011 puts it at about 80%, and a reference page gives 85.5% for 2024 (a survey estimate, not census data). All figures below are as on October 2026.
Universities and institutes
| Institution | Place | Note |
|---|---|---|
| University of Madras | Chennai | Founded on 5 September 1857, one of India's oldest universities |
| IIT Madras | Chennai | Established 1959; an Institute of National Importance |
| Anna University | Chennai | State technical university, 1978 |
| NIT Tiruchirappalli | Tiruchirappalli | Founded 1964 |
| IIM Tiruchirappalli | Tiruchirappalli | Established 4 January 2011 |
| Madurai Kamaraj University | Madurai | 1966 |
| Central University of Tamil Nadu | Thiruvarur | Established 2009 |
| Indian Maritime University | Chennai (headquarters) | A central university, 2008 |
| Dr. M.G.R. Medical University | Chennai | State medical university |
A reference page lists more than 20 state universities, 30 or more deemed universities and nine state private universities set up since 2021. Madras Medical College (1835) and the Christian Medical College, Vellore (founded 1900 by Ida Scudder, as commonly reported) are historic medical institutions. IIT Madras has also set up a research park and is among the top-ranked engineering institutes in national rankings; we did not recheck the latest NIRF position.
Medical education and AIIMS Madurai
Counts of medical colleges differ by source. A reference page lists 35 government medical colleges under Dr. M.G.R. Medical University, while a 2025 admissions summary gives 38 government colleges with about 5,225-5,275 MBBS seats, 71 colleges in total and about 11,650 MBBS seats. We treat "close to 40 government colleges and roughly 70 colleges overall" as the safe description and recommend checking the National Medical Commission list.
AIIMS Madurai (at Thoppur) was approved in 2018 and its foundation stone was laid in January 2019. As reported in 2025-26, MBBS classes of 50 students have run in a temporary campus at the Government Medical College in Ramanathapuram since 2022. Reports quote a cost of about ₹2,021.51 crore under a Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) loan, roughly half the work done at the time, a completion target of October 2026 as told to Parliament, and an operational hospital expected by 2027. Reports also point to a heavy faculty shortage (136 of 183 posts vacant). Whether the permanent campus is complete as of today is not confirmed; check the AIIMS Madurai website.
Health
We did not open NFHS-5 tables for Tamil Nadu, so no health indicator figures (infant mortality, institutional births, sex ratio at birth) are quoted. The state is known for a long-established public health system, the Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation (which procures drugs centrally) and a state health insurance scheme; details are not verified here.
Sports
- Chess. Chennai is called India's chess capital. Viswanathan Anand, from Chennai, became India's first grandmaster in 1988 and a five-time world champion. D. Gukesh from Chennai won the World Championship in December 2024 as the youngest champion in the title's history. The 44th Chess Olympiad was held at Mahabalipuram in July-August 2022, the first Olympiad in India. R. Praggnanandhaa and R. Vaishali are other leading players from the state.
- Cricket. The M. A. Chidambaram Stadium at Chepauk, Chennai, staged its first Test in 1934 and the second tied Test in history, in 1986 between India and Australia. It is the home ground of Chennai Super Kings in the IPL.
- Hockey. Chennai has a long hockey tradition in India. The Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium hosted the men's Asian Champions Trophy in August 2023, which India won; this is reported and not verified against the federation record.
- Squash and others. Chennai has produced leading squash players such as Dipika Pallikal and Joshna Chinappa. Silambam, a staff martial art, is the state's traditional combat sport.
Notable people (legacy)
| Person | Known for |
|---|---|
| Thiruvalluvar | Author of the Thirukkural |
| Raja Raja Chola I and Rajendra Chola I | Chola emperors; builders of the Thanjavur and Gangaikonda Cholapuram temples |
| Srinivasa Ramanujan | Mathematician, born in Erode (1887) |
| C. V. Raman | Physicist, Nobel Prize 1930 |
| Subramania Bharati | Poet and freedom fighter |
| C. Rajagopalachari | Statesman, last Governor-General of independent India |
| K. Kamaraj | Former Chief Minister; the Kamaraj Plan; midday meal pioneer |
| M. S. Subbulakshmi | Carnatic vocalist, Bharat Ratna |
| A. P. J. Abdul Kalam | Missile scientist and President of India, born at Rameswaram |
| Muthulakshmi Reddi | Doctor and social reformer; first woman legislator in India (reported) |
| Periyar E. V. Ramasamy | Social reformer, founder of the Self-Respect Movement |
| Rukmini Devi Arundale | Dancer, founder of Kalakshetra |
Other Nobel-linked names from the state include Venkatraman Ramakrishnan (born in Chidambaram, Chemistry 2009, as reported). Individual politicians are named only where their tenure has ended and where they are central to the history; for the present government see current affairs.
For exam preparation
- The University of Madras was founded in 1857; IIT Madras in 1959; Anna University in 1978.
- IIM Tiruchirappalli was set up in 2011; NIT Tiruchirappalli in 1964.
- AIIMS Madurai is at Thoppur; classes run from a temporary campus at Ramanathapuram.
- Viswanathan Anand was India's first grandmaster; the 44th Chess Olympiad was held at Mahabalipuram in 2022.
- Chepauk staged the tied Test of 1986.
- Kalakshetra was founded in 1936; Madras Music Academy in 1928.
Government schemes
Tamil Nadu's welfare model is well known: universal public distribution, midday meals (provided since 1956 as reported), cash transfers to women and school-nutrition programmes. A new government took office in May 2026, and some schemes have been renamed or restructured, so each row below says what is confirmed as of October 2026 and what is pending. Amounts and eligibility can change by government order; check the latest notification before relying on any entry.
| Scheme | What it does | Status as reported |
|---|---|---|
| Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thogai | Monthly cash assistance of ₹1,000 to the woman head of an eligible family, paid by direct benefit transfer; launched in September 2023 | Reported to reach over one crore women. After the May 2026 change of government, instalments continued at ₹1,000; the new government has pledged ₹2,500 but, as of mid-2026 reports, the hike was still being worked out. The 2026-27 budget earmarks ₹14,414 crore for women's cash transfers (PRS) |
| Pudhumai Penn | ₹1,000 a month to girls from government schools; described by one source as for Classes 6-12, and in other accounts as for girls continuing to higher education | Launched under the earlier government (2022); current status and eligibility under the new government were not confirmed |
| School breakfast scheme | Free breakfast in government schools; began as a pilot in May 2022 and spread to all government primary schools in 2023 | Renamed in July 2026 as the Perunthalaivar Kamarajar Breakfast scheme; extended to Classes 6-8 for about 15.14 lakh students in 15,414 schools, at ₹710 crore, from 17 September 2026 as announced |
| Midday meal | Cooked lunch in government schools | Provided since 1956 and continued; students now get both breakfast and lunch |
| Rural employment scheme (new central law) | Guarantee of rural wage work | The 2026-27 budget raises rural development outlay to ₹25,918 crore, mainly for this scheme, as reported |
| Wedding and newborn gold coin scheme | A new initiative announced in the 2026-27 budget | Reported in the PRS summary; details not verified |
| AI Industry Development Programme | Youth skilling in artificial intelligence | Announced in the 2026-27 budget; details not verified |
A few central schemes (the PM-KISAN income support for farmers, Ayushman Bharat health cover and the Public Distribution System) apply here as in other states; we did not check Tamil Nadu-specific top-ups or enrolment counts.
How to read scheme information
Budget announcements are statements of intent, and the order that follows sets the amount, eligibility and who may apply. Renaming of a scheme does not always mean the entitlement changes. For exams, the usual questions ask the launch year, the target group and the department, so note those three items for each entry.
For exam preparation
- Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thogai pays ₹1,000 a month to women heads of families and began in September 2023.
- The school breakfast scheme started as a pilot in 2022; it was renamed in July 2026 and extended to Class 8.
- Tamil Nadu has provided midday meals in schools since 1956 (K. Kamaraj's period).
- Pudhumai Penn is a monthly assistance scheme for girl students.
Government exams in Tamil Nadu
Most state government jobs in Tamil Nadu come through three recruiting bodies. The Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) fills officer, clerical and technical posts through its Group I, II, IIA and IV exams. The Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board (TNUSRB) selects police constables, jail warders, firemen and Sub-Inspectors. The Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB) handles teachers, lecturers and the Tamil Nadu Teacher Eligibility Test (TNTET). The Madras High Court runs its own Centralised Recruitment Cell for judicial and court staff posts. Nearly every exam includes a Tamil paper or section that candidates must pass before the rest is marked. Notification dates, vacancy counts, fees and age limits change with every advertisement, so treat figures below as pointers and read the latest notice. Facts were checked on 4 October 2026. Where a figure comes from an exam-prep or news site rather than an official document, we write "reported".
For live openings, see Tamil Nadu government jobs. Practise on our online test series.
Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC)
TNPSC is a constitutional body under Articles 315 to 323, with its headquarters in Chennai. Wikipedia says it began in 1929 as the Madras Service Commission and took its present name in 1970, and gives its strength as 15 members including the chairman, all appointed by the Governor; we did not confirm this with the commission. We do not name any chairman or member; see current affairs. Its 2023 and 2024 notification list also shows Group I-B and I-C, Group VA, Combined Technical, Engineering, Library and Accounts Services, Civil Judge, Assistant Public Prosecutor and Assistant Jailor exams. Registration is through a One Time Registration (OTR) account costing Rs 150, valid five years; the Group IV 2024 exam fee was Rs 100.
Group I (Combined Civil Services Examination-I)
Group I is the top state civil service exam. Notification 04/2025 (dated 1 April 2025, prelims on 15 June 2025) offered 70 posts: Deputy Collector (28), Deputy Superintendent of Police (7), Assistant Commissioner (Commercial Taxes) (19), Assistant Director of Rural Development (7), District Employment Officer (3) and Assistant Commissioner of Labour (6). The qualification is a degree and the minimum age is 21; the maximum age depends on the post and category, so read the age table.
| Stage | Pattern (official 2025 notification) |
|---|---|
| Prelims | One paper, 200 objective questions, 300 marks, 3 hours: General Studies (degree standard, 175 questions) and Aptitude and Mental Ability (SSLC standard, 25). Screening only; marks do not count for the final list. Minimum 90 for SC, SC(A), ST, MBC/DC, BC and BCM candidates; 120 for others. |
| Mains | Four descriptive papers of 3 hours each. Paper I, Tamil Eligibility Test (SSLC standard, 100 marks), is qualifying at 40. Papers II, III and IV are General Studies I to III, 250 marks each. |
| Interview | 100 marks, no minimum. Final merit is Papers II to IV plus interview, 850 marks in all. |
Twenty times the posts go to the Mains. Some prep sites count the Tamil paper inside a Mains total of 750; the official notice does not.
Group II and IIA (Combined Civil Services Examination-II)
Group II covers posts such as Sub Registrar Grade II, Assistant Inspector of Labour, Junior Employment Officer, Assistant Section Officer, Special Branch Assistant, Probation Officer and Forester. Group IIA covers non-interview posts such as Audit Inspector, Executive Officer Grade III and various Assistants. Notification 11/2025 (15 July 2025; prelims on 28 September 2025) listed 645 posts, 50 in Group II and 595 in Group IIA, and says the number is tentative.
- Prelims (common): one paper, 200 objective questions, 300 marks, 3 hours: language (General Tamil or General English, SSLC standard) 100 questions, General Studies (degree) 75, Aptitude and Mental Ability (SSLC) 25. Minimum 90 for all communities. It only screens candidates; ten times the posts go to the Mains.
- Group II Mains: Paper I, Tamil Eligibility Test (descriptive, 100 marks, minimum 40), and Paper II, General Studies (descriptive, degree standard, 300 marks, minimum 90).
- Group IIA Mains: Paper I is the same Tamil test; Paper II is a computer-based objective paper of 200 questions (General Studies 150, General Intelligence and Reasoning 50), 300 marks, minimum 90.
- Ranking: only Paper II marks decide rank. Forester adds an endurance test (a 25 km walk for men, 16 km for women and third-gender candidates, in four hours).
Eligibility in this notice: a degree for most posts (Forester needs a science or engineering degree in listed subjects); minimum age 18 for most posts (20 for Sub Registrar, 21 for Forester); upper age 32 for general-category candidates for most posts, and no maximum (read as not above 60) for SC, SC(A), ST, MBC/DC, BC and BCM candidates for most posts. Forester has its own limits.
Group IV (Combined Civil Services Examination-IV)
Group IV is the largest recruitment and the usual entry point for school-leavers. Notification 01/2024 (30 January 2024) listed 6,244 vacancies in 31 post lines, among them Village Administrative Officer, Junior Assistant, Typist, Steno-Typist Grade III, Bill Collector, Forest Guard and Forest Watcher. Most posts need the minimum general educational qualification (SSLC level); some need a degree or typing and shorthand grades.
| Part | Content | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| A | Tamil Eligibility-cum-Scoring Test (SSLC standard), 100 questions, set in Tamil only | 150 |
| B | General Studies (75 questions) and Aptitude and Mental Ability (25), set in Tamil and English | 150 |
It is one OMR paper of 200 questions and 300 marks in 3 hours. Part B is checked only if the candidate scores at least 40% (60 marks) in Part A, and the overall minimum is 90 marks for all communities. Marks from both parts together decide rank, so Tamil also earns marks here, unlike Groups I and II. Age: 18 to 32 on 1 July 2024 for most posts and 21 to 32 for Village Administrative Officer and the forest posts, with post-wise relaxations in the notice. Forest posts add physical standards and an endurance test. Differently abled candidates who studied only English can take General English instead of the Tamil test.
Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board (TNUSRB)
TNUSRB, in Chennai, recruits for the police, prison and fire services. Its homepage on 4 October 2026 listed two 2025 recruitments: Notification 2/2025 for Grade II Police Constable, Grade II Jail Warder and Fireman, and Notification 1/2025 for Sub-Inspector of Police (Taluk and Armed Reserve). Both use a qualifying Tamil test, a main written exam and physical tests.
Grade II Constable, Jail Warder and Fireman
Notification 2/2025 (21 August 2025; exam on 9 November 2025) listed 3,644 vacancies, plus 21 shortfall vacancies for Scheduled Tribe candidates in the constable cadre. By cadre, the table shows 2,833 constables, 180 jail warders and 631 firemen. Pay is Rs 18,200 to 67,100 and the qualification is an SSLC pass. Ages on 1 July 2025: 18 to 26 for general candidates, 28 for BC, BC(Muslim) and MBC/DNC, 31 for SC, SC(A), ST and transgender candidates, 37 for destitute widows, below 47 for ex-servicemen. The written exam has two parts:
- Tamil Language Eligibility Test: 80 questions, 80 marks, 80 minutes, qualifying at 32 marks (40%).
- Main written exam: 70 questions, 70 marks, 80 minutes, qualifying at 25 marks (35%).
Then come certificate verification, a physical measurement test, an endurance test and a physical efficiency test. The notice also sets quotas for wards of police personnel (10%), sports persons, ex-servicemen (5%), destitute widows (3% for constables and jail warders) and Persons Studied in Tamil Medium (20%).
Sub-Inspector of Police (Taluk and AR)
Notification 1/2025 (4 April 2025) listed 1,299 vacancies (Taluk 933 and AR 366, of which 390 were for women), plus 53 shortfall vacancies. Pay is Rs 36,900 to 1,16,600. A bachelor's degree is required. Age on 1 July 2025: 20 to 30 for general candidates, 32 for BC, BC(Muslim) and MBC/DNC, 35 for SC, SC(A), ST and transgender candidates, 37 for destitute widows, below 47 for ex-servicemen. There is a 20% departmental quota for serving police personnel.
| Stage | Open-quota pattern |
|---|---|
| Tamil Language Eligibility Test | 100 questions, 100 marks, 100 minutes; qualifying at 40%; marks not counted for ranking |
| Main written exam | 70 marks: Part A General Knowledge (80 questions, 40 marks), Part B reasoning, numerical, psychology and communication (60 questions, 30 marks); half a mark each, 2.5 hours; minimum 25 |
| Physical tests | Measurement (men at least 170 cm for the general group and 167 cm for SC, SC(A) and ST; women 159 cm and 157 cm) and endurance are qualifying; physical efficiency test 15 marks |
| Viva-voce and special marks | 10 marks and 5 marks (NCC, NSS, sports) |
Candidates equal to five times the vacancies go to certificate verification and physical tests, and twice the vacancies to the viva. The board's homepage on 4 October 2026 carried a note that later steps for SI 2025 would be announced later; we could not read all of it, so check the site.
Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB) and TNTET
The TRB's own page says it recruits teachers (Secondary Grade, BT, PG and special teachers, instructors, block education officers), SCERT lecturers, and Assistant Professors and lecturers in government colleges. It has conducted TNTET since 2012. On 4 October 2026 its homepage showed the TNTET 2025 certificate download link and, for July 2026, a separate TNTET for working teachers, with a tentative answer key released on 15 July 2026.
Reported pattern (Physics Wallah): TNTET has Paper I (Classes 1 to 5) and Paper II (Classes 6 to 8), each with 150 questions, 150 marks and 3 hours, with no negative marking. Both have 30-question blocks (Paper II's last block is 60 questions of mathematics and science or social science). The same source reports qualifying marks of 60% for general and 55% for reserved candidates, and a TNTET held on 1 and 2 November 2025. Reported qualification: Paper I, higher secondary plus D.El.Ed or B.El.Ed; Paper II, a degree plus B.Ed or D.El.Ed. Passing TNTET makes you eligible; it is not a job.
Forest and judicial recruitment
The Tamil Nadu Forest Uniformed Services Recruitment Committee ran separate forest recruitment in earlier years (reported). In the documents we read, forest posts now sit inside TNPSC exams: Forest Guard and Forest Watcher in the 2024 Group IV notice and Forester in the 2025 Group II notice. The Madras High Court portal says its Centralised Recruitment Cell recruits District Judges, Civil Judges, subordinate court staff and High Court staff. On 4 October 2026 it listed an Assistant Programmer notification (171/2025, written test on 6 September 2026) and Office Assistant, Chobdar and similar posts. We did not open a notice, so no pattern or counts are given. TNPSC's 2023 list also has a Civil Judge notification (12/2023), so check which body runs the current round. We did not research health, power, cooperative or transport boards.
For exam preparation
- TNPSC Group I mains has four descriptive papers; the Tamil Eligibility Test is qualifying, and only General Studies I to III and the interview are ranked.
- In Groups II and IIA the Tamil Eligibility Test is also qualifying (minimum 40), and only Paper II decides rank.
- In Group IV the Tamil test (Part A, 150 marks) counts for ranking, and you need 40% in it for Part B to be checked.
- TNUSRB police exams use a 40% qualifying Tamil test; the main exam has a 35% pass mark in the constable notice.
- Forest Guard, Forest Watcher and Forester are now TNPSC posts in the notices we read.
- TNTET is a separate eligibility test from teacher recruitment.
Domicile, reservation and recruitment rules
Tamil Nadu does not close its recruitment to outsiders, but it ties its reservations to its own communities and its own certificates, and it requires adequate knowledge of Tamil. In the TNPSC notices, only persons who belong to Tamil Nadu and to a listed community are treated as SC, ST, BC, MBC/DC or BC(Muslim); persons of those castes from other states are treated as general category. Only a Tamil Nadu community certificate counts, and one that names the spouse is not accepted.
Communal reservation (the 69% rule)
The TNPSC and TNUSRB notices use the same split: 69% reserved and 31% open.
| Category | Share of vacancies |
|---|---|
| Open Competition (OC) | 31% |
| Backward Class (BC), excluding Muslims | 26.5% |
| Backward Class (Muslim) | 3.5% |
| Most Backward Class / Denotified Communities (MBC/DNC) | 20% |
| Scheduled Caste (SC) | 15% |
| Scheduled Caste (Arunthathiyar), SC(A) | 3% |
| Scheduled Tribe (ST) | 1% |
The SC total is 18% (15% plus 3%). Wikipedia and a search summary report that the 69% rests on Tamil Nadu Act 45 of 1994, placed in the Ninth Schedule by the 76th Amendment, and that Arunthathiyars got a 3% share inside the SC quota in 2009. In March 2022 the Supreme Court struck down the 10.5% internal reservation for the Vanniyar community within the MBC quota (Tamil Nadu Act 8 of 2021); the 20% MBC/DNC share is unchanged. Posts are allotted on a 200-point roster under the Tamil Nadu Government Servants (Conditions of Service) Act, 2016. BC, MBC and DC candidates who convert to a religion other than Christianity are treated as general category; SC converts are too, except to Sikhism or Buddhism.
Special categories
- Women: at least 30% of all vacancies, set apart horizontally within each communal category and the open category. Women may also compete for the other 70%.
- Persons with benchmark disability: 4% in the 2024 notice (1% each for the first three disability groups and 1% for the last two together). Fee exempt, and up to ten years of age concession.
- Ex-servicemen: 5% in each communal category for the listed posts.
- Destitute widows: 10% of the women's vacancies, as the Group IV notice states; a destitute widow's income must not exceed Rs 4,000 a month. Full fee exemption.
- Sports and police quotas: TNPSC notices reserve posts for meritorious sportspersons; the SI 2025 notice sets 7% plus 3% for sports, 20% departmental and 10% wards-cum-dependent.
Persons Studied in Tamil Medium (PSTM)
PSTM preference is a Tamil Nadu feature. The TNUSRB 2025 notices set aside 20% of vacancies on a preferential basis, at every stage, for open, sports-quota and wards-quota candidates who studied in Tamil medium. The TNPSC Group IV notice defines the term: a person who studied through Tamil medium from the first standard up to the qualification the post requires, evidenced by school or university records or by a head-of-institution certificate for each qualification. Studying part of a course in Tamil, or only writing an exam in Tamil, does not count. News reports say a 2020 amendment set a 20% share in direct recruitment, and that a 2026 amendment won assent in late August 2026, excluding serving government employees and applying to future recruitment only. We read only the reports, not the text, so check the notification. The departmental quota does not carry PSTM preference.
Knowledge of Tamil
TNPSC treats a candidate as having adequate Tamil if he or she passed SSLC, HSC or a degree with Tamil as a language, studied in Tamil medium, or passed TNPSC's Second Class Language Test (Full Test). A selected candidate without proof must pass that test within two years of appointment or be discharged.
Age relaxation and other conditions
Relaxations are post-specific, so use the notice's own table. Group IV 2024 principles: persons with benchmark disability get up to ten years; ex-servicemen below 50 (general) or 55 (reserved) are eligible; for posts needing less than a degree there is no upper limit for SC, SC(A), ST, BC, BCM, MBC/DC candidates and destitute widows who hold a higher general qualification, and those with only the minimum get five years (SC, SC(A), ST, widows) or two (BC, BCM, MBC/DC). Non-reserved candidates with five or more years of government service cannot apply.
Fees, stages and cycles
SC, SC(A) and ST candidates have full fee exemption; BC, BCM and MBC/DC candidates three free chances; ex-servicemen two; persons with benchmark disability and destitute widows are fully exempt. TNPSC exams end with onscreen certificate verification and counselling in rank order; Group I adds an interview. Vacancy numbers in notices are tentative. We did not open a current Annual Planner and give no dates.
For exam preparation
- Tamil Nadu reserves 69% of seats, with the 31% open category.
- SC is 18% in total (15% plus 3% Arunthathiyar); ST is 1%; BC 26.5%, BC(Muslim) 3.5%, MBC/DNC 20%.
- Women get a 30% horizontal quota; persons with benchmark disability 4% (2024 notice).
- PSTM preference means study in Tamil medium throughout, from the first standard up to the required qualification.
- Tamil proficiency is compulsory; the Second Class Language Test is the fallback.
- Community certificates must come from Tamil Nadu.
How to use this guide for exam preparation
Tamil Nadu exams reward steady work on two things: the Tamil paper and State GK. This guide covers the second. For Tamil, use the SSLC Tamil textbook and previous TNPSC question papers on the commission's site.
High-yield sections for GK
For Group IV and Group II prelims, the sections on Government and politics, Economy, Culture, Tourism and Government schemes are the quickest to revise. For Group I mains, History, Geography, Economy and Schemes carry more weight.
A 4-week revision plan
| Week | Focus |
|---|---|
| 1 | Read Overview, History and Geography; add the Tamil test (grammar, literature, authors) for 30 minutes a day |
| 2 | Government and politics, Elections and Budget; reservation and recruitment rules from this section |
| 3 | Economy, Agriculture, Transport, Culture and Tourism; start timed quizzes |
| 4 | Schemes, Education and Personalities; revise the rapid-fire table; take two full mock tests |
Start the Tamil practice from week 1, because in most Tamil Nadu exams the Tamil test decides whether the rest of your paper is evaluated.
Common traps
- Mixing up the Group IV Tamil rule (Part B checked only at 40% in Part A, and Part A counts for rank) with Groups I and II (the Tamil paper only qualifies).
- Treating the SC share as 15%: the SC total is 18% with the 3% Arunthathiyar share.
- Treating PSTM as "wrote the exam in Tamil"; it means study in Tamil medium throughout.
- Quoting old notice figures. Marks, ages and posts differ by year; always give the year.
For more states, compare the neighbouring guides: Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Practice with the online test series.
Rapid-fire facts
Facts are as on 4 October 2026 and come from the sources listed at the end. Items marked "reported" come from exam-prep or news sites.
| Fact | Answer |
|---|---|
| Madras State formed | 1 November 1956 |
| Renamed Tamil Nadu | 14 January 1969 |
| State capital | Chennai |
| Largest city | Chennai |
| Area | 130,058 sq km |
| Census 2011 population | 72,147,030 |
| Sex ratio, Census 2011 | 996 females per 1,000 males |
| Districts (Wikipedia, as on October 2026) | 38 |
| Official language | Tamil |
| Highest peak | Doddabetta, 2,637 m |
| Longest river within the state | Kaveri |
| Coastline | 1,076 km |
| State bird | Emerald dove |
| State animal | Nilgiri tahr |
| State song | Tamil Thai Vazhthu |
| Assembly seats | 234 |
| First Assembly (1952) strength | 375 members (reported) |
| Legislative Council abolished | 1 November 1986 |
| Assembly seat | Fort St George, Chennai |
| Madras High Court established | 26 June 1862 (Letters Patent) |
| Madurai Bench established | 24 July 2004 |
| High Court jurisdiction | Tamil Nadu and Puducherry |
| High Court sanctioned strength | 75 including the Chief Justice (Wikipedia) |
| Articles on Public Service Commissions | Articles 315 to 323 |
| TNPSC origin | 1929, as Madras Service Commission (Wikipedia) |
| TNPSC headquarters | Chennai |
| TNPSC OTR fee and validity | Rs 150, five years |
| Group IV exam fee (2024 notice) | Rs 100 |
| Group I posts, 2025 notice | 70 |
| Group I prelims, 2025 | 15 June 2025 |
| Group I prelims | 200 questions, 300 marks |
| Group I prelims split | 175 General Studies and 25 aptitude |
| Group I prelims minimum (reserved) | 90 |
| Group I prelims minimum (others) | 120 |
| Group I minimum age | 21 |
| Group I Mains papers | Four, with Paper I qualifying |
| Group I Mains Paper I | Tamil Eligibility Test, 100 marks |
| Tamil Eligibility Test minimum | 40 marks |
| Group I GS Mains papers | Three of 250 marks each |
| Group I interview | 100 marks |
| Group I final merit total | 850 marks |
| Deputy Collector posts in 2025 notice | 28 |
| Group II/IIA notification (11/2025) date | 15 July 2025 |
| Group II/IIA total posts, 2025 | 645 (50 plus 595) |
| Group II/IIA prelims, 2025 | 28 September 2025 |
| Group II/IIA prelims | 200 questions, 300 marks, minimum 90 |
| Group II Mains Paper II | General Studies, 300 marks, minimum 90 |
| Group IIA Mains Paper II | 200 questions, 300 marks, computer-based |
| Group II Forester endurance test | 25 km walk (men), 16 km (women), four hours |
| Group IV notification (01/2024) date | 30 January 2024 |
| Group IV vacancies in that notice | 6,244 |
| Group IV questions | 200 in 3 hours, 300 marks |
| Group IV Part A | Tamil Eligibility-cum-Scoring, 100 questions, 150 marks |
| Group IV Part B | GS 75 plus aptitude 25, 150 marks |
| Group IV Part A qualifying | 40% (60 marks) |
| Group IV overall minimum | 90 marks |
| Group IV age, VAO and forest posts | 21 to 32 (on 1 July 2024) |
| Women's reservation | 30% horizontal |
| Persons with benchmark disability, 2024 notice | 4% |
| Ex-servicemen reservation | 5% |
| Destitute widows | 10% of women's vacancies |
| Destitute widow income ceiling | Rs 4,000 a month |
| Total reservation | 69% |
| Open category | 31% |
| BC reservation | 26.5% |
| BC (Muslim) reservation | 3.5% |
| MBC/DNC reservation | 20% |
| SC reservation | 15% plus 3% SC(A) |
| ST reservation | 1% |
| Act placed in Ninth Schedule | Tamil Nadu Act 45 of 1994 (reported) |
| Vanniyar 10.5% quota struck down | 31 March 2022, Supreme Court |
| PSTM preference | 20% (TNUSRB notices) |
| TNUSRB 2025 constable notice | 2/2025, 21 August 2025 |
| Constable, jail warder, fireman vacancies | 3,644 |
| TNUSRB constable written exam | 9 November 2025 |
| TNUSRB constable Tamil test | 80 marks, 40% qualifying |
| TNUSRB constable main exam | 70 marks, 35% qualifying |
| Constable age, general | 18 to 26 (on 1 July 2025) |
| Constable qualification | SSLC pass |
| SI notification (1/2025) date | 4 April 2025 |
| SI vacancies | 1,299 plus 53 shortfall |
| SI age, general | 20 to 30 (on 1 July 2025) |
| SI Tamil test | 100 marks, 40% qualifying |
| SI main written exam | 70 marks, minimum 25 |
| SI physical efficiency test | 15 marks |
| SI viva-voce | 10 marks |
| SI men's endurance | 1,500 m in 7 minutes |
| SI women's endurance | 400 m in 2 minutes 30 seconds |
| TNTET Paper I | Classes 1 to 5, 150 marks (reported) |
| TNTET Paper II | Classes 6 to 8, 150 marks (reported) |
| TNTET qualifying marks | 60% general, 55% reserved (reported) |
Frequently asked questions
Who conducts government exams in Tamil Nadu?
TNPSC conducts Group I, II, IIA and IV and technical exams; TNUSRB conducts police, jail warder, fireman and Sub-Inspector exams; the TRB conducts TNTET and teacher exams; the Madras High Court conducts its own court-staff and judicial recruitment.
Is the Tamil exam compulsory for TNPSC?
Yes in the notices we read. Groups I, II and IIA have a Tamil Eligibility Test with a minimum of 40 marks, and Group IV has a Tamil Eligibility-cum-Scoring Test as Part A. Differently abled candidates can claim an exemption in some exams.
Do Tamil marks count in Group IV?
Yes. Part A is 150 marks and counts toward rank. You must score 40% (60 marks) in Part A for Part B to be evaluated.
What is the TNPSC Group IV pattern?
One paper of 200 questions, 300 marks, 3 hours: 100 Tamil questions and 100 questions of General Studies and aptitude, at SSLC standard. Overall minimum is 90 marks.
What is the age limit for Group IV?
In the 2024 notice, 18 to 32 on 1 July 2024 for most posts, and 21 to 32 for Village Administrative Officer and forest posts, with relaxations by category.
How many posts did Group I have in 2025?
70 in notification 04/2025, including 28 Deputy Collector and 7 Deputy Superintendent of Police posts. The count is tentative in each notice.
What is the 69% reservation in Tamil Nadu?
It is the total of BC 26.5%, BC(Muslim) 3.5%, MBC/DNC 20%, SC 15%, SC(Arunthathiyar) 3% and ST 1%. The remaining 31% is open.
Do outsiders get reservation in Tamil Nadu?
No. Only persons belonging to Tamil Nadu and to a listed community get the SC, ST, BC, MBC/DC or BC(Muslim) benefit; others are treated as general category.
What does PSTM mean?
Persons Studied in Tamil Medium: those who studied in Tamil from the first standard up to the qualification the post needs. TNUSRB notices set aside 20% of vacancies for the group on a preferential basis.
Is there a 30% reservation for women?
Yes. At least 30% of vacancies are set aside for women within each category. Women can also compete for the remaining 70%.
What is the TNUSRB constable exam pattern?
A Tamil Language Eligibility Test of 80 marks (40% to qualify) and a main exam of 70 marks (35% to qualify), followed by physical tests. Check the latest notice.
What is the SI exam pattern?
A 100-mark qualifying Tamil test, a 70-mark main exam, physical tests (physical efficiency test carries 15 marks), a 10-mark viva-voce and 5 special marks, in the 2025 notice.
What is TNTET?
The Tamil Nadu Teacher Eligibility Test, conducted by the TRB. Paper I is for classes 1 to 5 and Paper II for classes 6 to 8; passing makes you eligible but is not a job.
Who recruits Forest Guard and Forester now?
In the notices we read, TNPSC: Forest Guard and Forest Watcher through Group IV (2024) and Forester through Group II (2025). The older TNFUSRC route is not in a current notice we found.
Where can I find the latest Tamil Nadu notices?
On the TNPSC, TNUSRB, TRB and Madras High Court sites, and on our Tamil Nadu government jobs page. Practise on our online test series.
Sources and verification
Time-sensitive facts (budget, exam rules, the 2026 election result, the Persons Studied in Tamil Medium quota) were checked on 4 October 2026. Where sources disagreed or a figure came from a single secondary source, the text says so. Election figures are Wikipedia reproductions of Election Commission data, with the 2026 result cross-checked against several news reports and the 2026-27 budget from PRS Legislative Research; cross-check Election Commission results before quoting a number in an answer. Census 2011 is the latest published census.
Facts verified on 4 October 2026. The official documents below were read in the parts that matter; homepages were read for notice headings. Items from exam-prep and news sites are marked "reported".
- TNPSC official site (tnpsc.gov.in), homepage and notification list, 4 October 2026.
- TNPSC Notification 01/2024, Combined Civil Services Examination-IV (Group IV), including Annexure II.
- TNPSC Group IV revised scheme of examination (27 January 2022).
- TNPSC Notification 04/2025, Combined Civil Services Examination-I (Group I).
- TNPSC Notification 11/2025, Combined Civil Services Examination-II (Group II and IIA).
- TNUSRB official site (tnusrb.tn.gov.in), homepage, 4 October 2026.
- TNUSRB Notification 1/2025 (Sub-Inspector) and the Sub-Inspector advertisement of 2022 (for the 2022 pattern and the reference to Tamil Nadu Act 8 of 2021).
- TNUSRB Notification 2/2025 (Constable, Jail Warder, Fireman), in Tamil; text extracted imperfectly, so only numbers were used.
- Teachers Recruitment Board homepage (trb.tn.gov.in), 4 October 2026.
- Madras High Court recruitment portal (mhc.tn.gov.in/recruitment), 4 October 2026.
- Wikipedia, as a cross-check only: Tamil Nadu, Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission, Reservation in Tamil Nadu, Madras High Court, Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly.
- Physics Wallah, TNTET page (pattern, eligibility; reported).
- News reports on PSTM (The News Minute, 2020; IANS and DT Next, August 2026) and on the Supreme Court Vanniyar judgment (DT Next, 31 March 2022).
- Search-result summaries (not full pages): TNTET qualifying marks, TNFUSRC history, Act 45 of 1994 and the Ninth Schedule, the 2009 SC(A) quota.