New Delhi, May 18,2024:  While people in some southern states have built beautiful homes, they have not made enough self-sustaining economic activity, said Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu on Saturday.

“The Chettinad region in Tamil Nadu gave rise to people who built so much wealth. Yet productive investment by the people hailing from this region happened elsewhere — including a lot in Chennai,” Sridhar said in a post on X.com, in reply to a user who said that the region now remains “deserted.”

The user noted that while “tourism is slowly” giving hope to the place, it is only filled “during the marriage” season, which takes place in “ancestral homes.”

Sridhar noted that his company has “an office in the beautiful Chettinad palace near Karaikudi.”

He added that the region has “not seen much economic development. A lot of the palaces are empty” as people have migrated to other places.

“Kerala and more recently Andhra Pradesh” have also suffered similar migration problems, said the CEO of the global software-as-a-service (SaaS) company.

“Migrants from these places got rich elsewhere and have built beautiful homes in their native regions but haven’t invested in enough self-sustaining economic activity. It is important to understand this factor,” he said.