Take take a look at what happens when the Bihar story actually sustains itself. New Bihar through the eyes of the few entrepreneurs who have returned to their homeland to be a part of this striking change. This report showcases few individuals who have decides to start unique ventures in Bihar to generate employment opportunities.

Investment climate in Bihar has been improving over the last few years and more and more investors are showing keen interest in exploring the diverse investment and development opportunities in Bihar. In the last few days few big investors like Reliance, Tata, Bharti and other private and public bodies are exploring diverse options of investment.

Reliance Industries, Tata Chemicals, Bharti Enterprises’ Fieldfresh and Indian Oil are among several large companies that have evinced interest in leasing closed sugar mills that the Bihar government is offering, mainly to exploit opportunities to make ethanol to meet mandatory petrol blending norms that were introduced this year.

Last month, the Bihar government decided to offer 15 closed mills belonging to the Bihar State Sugar Corporation on a long-term lease of 60 years, extendable by 30 years, on the recommendation of SBI Capital Markets.

Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum, Renuka Sugars, Upper Ganges Sugar, Dhampur Sugar and India Glycols, which have acquired the Request for Qualification (RFQ) forms from the Bihar government.

A delegation of Manitoba, the western province of Canada, led by its deputy premier-cum-minister of agriculture, food and rural initiatives, Rosann Wowchuk, called on the chief minister, Nitish Kumar.The Canadian delegate showed its willingness to enter into collaboration with Bihar and expressed interest in reviving agriculture and marketing activities here.

The team comprises top-level executives from Candian agro-based organizations, including the International Grains Institute, Wheat Board, and the researchers of Manitoba University. The chief minister appreciated and promised full cooperation to the delegation.

Bihar’s CM Nitish Kumar also laid the foundation stone of a medical college at Bettiah, the headquarters of West Champaran, thereby fulfilling the dream of the last queen of Bettiah Raj, Maharani Janaki Kunwar. He laid the foundation stone of the first of the four medical colleges promised by his government at the Maharaja Harendra Kishore stadium, Bettiah, amidst great rejoicing. He said the construction work on the badly-needed college would start at the earliest possible, adding a polytechnic institute would also be established here.

Bihar’s economic growth has picked up tempo and this is evident if one considers the rise in tax collection in the state. This clearly demonstrate that new economic activities and investment in the state has increased as the corporate tax collections figures from Bihar has totted up the highest growth in the first half at 265%.

World bank report indicates that the initiatives which have taken place over the year has finally started to show some positive returns. The Bank prepared a report titled Bihar: Towards a Development Strategy in June 2005 which formed the basis of the development partnership between the Bank and the state government.

In another developement the largest idol of Lord Vishnu in North India has been spotted at Samas village in Sheikhpura district.

The idol is made of black granite and measures 7.5 feet in length and 3.5 feet in width. It belongs to the Gupta period and was recovered during the excavation of an old village tank in 1992. Its four arms carry a "sankh (conch)", a "chakra (discus)", a "gada (club)" and a "padma (lotus)".

The idol has been installed in a makeshift temple on a sprawling 15-bigha campus of the tank. Samas village is located five km from Barbigha subdivision town and 25 km from Biharsharif. This village appears to be a great centre of iconography because a large number of idols have been recovered from here and its neighbouring regions in the recent years.

There are two figures — one masculine and another feminine — below the left and right arms of the idol. An idol of Goddess Laxmi was also recovered during the excavation but it was stolen about 40 years back.

The investment climate in Bihar is continously improving and last few days has some multiple new projects being planned in Bihar.

These investment measures will surely bring new opportunities of employment and improve Bihar's overall economy.

In last one year, with the change of government in Bihar, a lot of hope and aspiration has come to surface in the life of Bihar and Biharis. Apart from the efforts of the government, a select group of passionate Bihari intelligentsia scattered around the globe is making the concept of a flat world a reality and working toward bringing back the past glory of Bihar as a land of wisdom, wealth, opportunity, abundance, governance, and cultural heritage. And it has already started making some small but meaningful impact.

But with the hope there is a concern too. From the interaction I had had with numerous Biharis at various stages of their life and career, it seems that a large number of them, particularly young and well educated, are either not interested in Bihar or show utter pessimism about Bihar's future. Some typical responses are 'There is nothing in Bihar', 'it’s too late', 'development in Bihar is next to impossible', etc. This reasoning is devoid of logic. It smacks of ignorance, stereotyping, and a lack of will and conviction.

These young people educated in top colleges of India often attribute 'criminalization of politics and serious law and order problem' as the root cause of all problems of Bihar. Nothing can be more wrong and preposterous. These children of economically liberated India, devoid of knowledge of the post-independence developmental economic policies of Indian government, believe an effect to be a cause. They believe that fortunes of Bihar tumbled in the last 20 years when the truth is that the script of this tragedy was written by the learned economic planners of India in 50s, 60s, and 70s through unjust allocation of developmental resources. Take an example: In 1955, the total national outlay for irrigation was Rs.29106 lakhs. Of this, Punjab got 38% while Bihar got just 4.5% even though Bihar was 3.5 times larger than Punjab. The result: Almost 76% of Punjab’s land is under irrigation while just 41% of Bihar’s land is irrigated. Or, take the Freight Equalization Scheme that applied to Steel and Coal and remained in vogue till 1991. This policy of consumers paying the same freight whether the coal was transported from Jharia to Dhanbad or Jharia to Vishakhapatnam broke the back of industry development in Bihar. Many of us are blissfully ignorant of numerous historical injustices of this kind meted out to Bihar by the economic planners.

They talk of lack of opportunities in Bihar and assert that opportunities should first be created before they can exploit them. This is passive mentality. If Bihar has to progress then opportunities will have to be created and tapped by Biharis themselves. If one can't help oneself, no body can. Others can help, they can support, but they cannot set your house in order. This is something all Biharis need to understand. I am reminded of the old story of two shoe salesmen who went to a place where aboriginals existed. The first sales man saw that no one wore shoes and reasoned that there was no market for shoes while the second one saw a huge market because no one wore shoes! We have to create our own opportunities. Whining and complaining will not help but action orientation will and this is what is expected from the younger generation of well educated, smart, and suave Biharis. They should feel proud of their Bihari roots and act with courage and conviction.

Another issue is entrepreneurship development. In Bihar, people view entrepreneurship as something that smart, educated people don’t do. This has to change and entrepreneurship has to be accorded its due status. With the pool of well educated and technically qualified young Biharis, there is no reason why entrepreneurship development can't take place in Bihar. The opportunities are immense though they might not be so obvious. An entrepreneurial wave can turn Bihar into the vegetable capital of India. Similar big opportunities are in agriculture, horticulture, fisheries, fruits, agro-processing sectors. The need of the hour is not large scale entrepreneurial ventures but small grassroots level ventures that ensure wealth generation along with economic and social development of the local community. We don’t need 10 investments of Rs.100 crores each; but 100 investments of Rs.10 crores each. Spread of investment is key not the quantum.

Ultimately, what Bihar and Biharis need is the Nike philosophy – Just Do It! And may I modify it a bit – JUST DO IT WITH PRIDE AND CONVICTION!

By Mayank Krishna

The Indian Tobacco Company (ITC) chairman Y. C. Deveshwar, on the second day of the Global Bihar Meet in Patna on Saturday, announced the company's decision to invest Rs. 300 crore in various schemes, including primary education and health care in Munger district.

On the second day of the conclave, guests from nearly ten countries put forth their views on "Overview of Challenges, Opportunities, and Development Strategy of Bihar".

"We are adopting Munger for developmental purpose and we encourage others to take similar steps for their own home town or village. If we all adopted a town or a village, there is no reason why we could not turn Bihar into a highly developed state within a short period of time," Deveshwar said adding he had long relationship with Munger and therefore his interest in the district.

In another development Chairman of the Special Task Force on Bihar, S C Jha, on Sunday gave a clarion call to the people to transform Bihar into a granary of India. Addressing a session on "Main Conclusions of the Meet" on the concluding day of the three-day "Global Meet for a Resurgent Bihar", Jha said, "Transform Bihar into India's granary, a tourist hub, a leading producer of fruits and vegetables, a major centre for IT and a regional coordinator and supply line for adjoining areas." It is time for "real action", he said.

In a year or two, more roads will be built in the larger interest of the institutions, he added.Noted film-maker Prakash Jha told visiting NRIs, "We do not need charity. We need entrepreneurship. Think of Bihar as a land of opportunities". Eminent panelists agreed that the global meet this time was different from similar meets organised here in the past. "There was no blame game about the past and there was a positive vibration on what could be done," remarked eminent economists and director of the Institute of Studies in Industrial Development, New Delhi, T S Papola.