Chennai, formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam, is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. Chennai being the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the fifth most populous city in India, it is also the world's 36th largest metropolitan area. It is a major cultural, economic and educational centre. Chennai is known as the "Detroit of India" for its automobile industry.

The city is ranked as a beta-level city in the Global Cities Index and was ranked the best city in India by India Today in the 2014 annual Indian city survey. Chennai has also been named in the "hottest" cities to live in for 2015 by BBC among global cities with a mixture of both modern and traditional values. National Geographic ranked Chennai as world's 2nd best food city and it was the only Indian city to feature in the list! As a growing metropolitan city in a developing country, Chennai confronts substantial pollution and other logistical and socio-economic problems. It has been selected as one of the 20 Indian cities to be developed as a smart city under PM Narendra Modi's flagshipSmart Cities Mission.