Nagercoil is the headquarters of the state owned Arasu Rubber Corporation and the regional office of the Central Rubber Board. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has a testing facility for Cryogenic and Liquid Propulsion rocket engines on the Mahendragiri hills (on the Western Ghats) off Nagercoil. Rocket scientists and engineers from all over India work at this facility, called the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), Mahendragiri.
The town is a centre for the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant reactors, being built with Russian assistance, which is situated in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu, but is the closest major town to the facility. The public sector Indian Rare Earths Limited (IRE) has a facility at Manavaalakurichy, near the town.
Aralvaimozhi, a once-impoverished village, benefited from the building of the nearby Muppandal wind farm a renewable energy source, supplying the villagers with electricity for work. The surrounding area is a major centre for windmill renewable-energy production, and one of the biggest centres in South Asia, both in terms of electricity generated and size of windmills, with thousands of wind-mill electricity generators on tall towers dotting the area. The total power generated from these wind mills is 540 MW with each windmill generating a power output of 1.65 MW. The wind mills are erected and technically-supported by multinational majors in the field of renewable energy like Vestas, Suzlon, and Micon. The Muppandal Wind Farm is situated on a mountain gap (pass) in the Western Ghats, through which the wind gushes for a major part of the year.
Fish-net manufacturing is a growing business in and around the town; nets for commercial fishing are supplied to the domestic and export markets
