A few weeks ago, Chennai played host to a quiet but strategically significant development amid the din of election rallies. Francois Provost, chief executive of the 58 billion euro French auto major Renault Group, spent nearly a week in India—much of it in Chennai—signalling the city's growing importance in the global ambitions of Europe's third-largest carmaker.The visit is one of Provost's major international engagements after unveiling Renault's four-pillar ‘futuREady 2030' strategy in Paris in mid-March. Notably, India featured prominently in the blueprint—the country is no longer viewed merely as a sales market, but as a critical hub for engineering, manufacturing…