Cool Bihari: Bihar's Revival

The print media has changes its approach towards Bihar in the few months. Nothing can be more exciting as Bihar representatives and Industry spokesperson talking about revival of industries and new investments in Bihar. The positivism reflected in the views of industry representatives augurs well for our State.

MR K. P. S. KESRI, PRESIDENT, BIHAR INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION gave an interview on Bihar’r economic revival in The Hindu. Some of the important points he raised were quite an eye opener .

On change in people’s perception about Bihar

“At the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas held in Hyderabad in January, for the first time in 20 years nobody said, "Arrey, you're from Bihar" in a derogatory way. Everybody was positive and said it is good to see Bihar coming up. And the presentation by the Chief Minister, Mr Nitish Kumar, was excellent; he said, "come and see for yourself — you don't have to necessarily invest —whether Bihar is changing or not. If you want to invest, we'll give you all the facilities."

On opportunities in Bihar.

We have three sectors, agriculture is our primary sector, and in this we are at sustenance levels. Paddy, wheat, pulses, oilseeds... all sorts of things are grown. Normally this should not be done.

On IT industry in Bihar

We have requested the Chief Minister to talk to Mr N. R. Narayana Murthy and Mr Azim Premji and tell them that whatever they want we're prepared to give. But we need skill levels... . If any company can put up just 20,000 sq ft facility and take in only 200... we have a huge educated manpower and they'll get manpower very cheap and at one-third the cost in Bangalore or Chennai. And real estate is also cheap here.

On industry expectations from the new government

“Today we are behaving more as a watchdog or civil society rather than as an industrial body. So, when we met the Chief Minister recently we didn't talk of industry alone; we also talked of issues of governance such as chain of command, delivery mechanism, monitoring systems, feedback mechanisms, and consultative committees in agriculture, industry, tourism, energy and social sector.

In another development the Bihar assembly on Monday passed by voice vote a bill providing reservation for women and backward classes in panchayati raj institutions.

The Bihar Panchayati Raj Amendment Bill, 2006 under which women would enjoy 50% reservation in all the posts of the three-tier panchayati raj system, while the people belonging to extremely backward class would get 20% reservation

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