Monday, March 13, 2006

Bihar on road to recovery, CM tells industry

Our Political Bureau / New Delhi March 13, 2006

Too proud to beg for investment but determined to sell Bihar as a state where return on investment would be assured, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar told the Associated Chamber of Commerce (Assocham) that Bihar was on its way to recovery and law and order was his government?s top priority.

?I recognise that you will not put your money in Bihar simply because you like my face. You should invest in the state because you will eventually make money here. But whether you invest or not, law and order will be restored in Bihar. It will become a bank-able state. I am not here to lament about the way Bihar has slipped into the red on all fronts. I am here to tell you how I'm going to bring it back in the black" he said at an Assocham session on Bihar, the first by a chamber of commerce.

At the meeting was also unveiled the first-ever World Bank report on Bihar by Mandakini Kaul, who said the state?s few successes stood out like beacons amid the depressingly poor human resource indices.

These were the astonishing achievements of the farmers of Paliganj, who had formed a cooperative for irrigation, and the Sudha Dairy venture launched by the state government to band together 2.5 lakh households in a fully functional cooperative which could, without difficulty, be replicated in areas like food and fruit and vegetables, he said. Bihar accounts for 8 to 10 per cent of national production of fruit and vegetables.

Kumar explained how hard the government had been working during the last three months it had been in power. The Fiscal Responsibility and Management Act and an outcome-oriented Budget with reallocation of expenditure for priority areas had been passed, he said.

Procurement and financial management systems were being put in place and a new industrial policy, incorporating all the demands of the private sector, had been passed, Kumar said, adding that power reforms, too, were under way.

By the end of May, panchayati raj elections would instal credible panchayats, leading to scrutiny of expenditure and matching of outlays with outcomes, he said. Kumar said, ?My philosophy is simple. The law and order system must be autonomous, brooking no political interference and every person in the government must do the job that he is supposed to do."

He said Bihar's tax collection system was being improved and he had communicated to the Centre that Bihar would, using it's own resources, supplement the current 38 districts covered by the Employment Guarantee Act by making it mandatory for the state to provide employment in the remaining 15.

Former Planning Commission member NK Singh said Bihar had many positives which industry was yet to discover. Member of the Bihar task force, Satish Jha, said the state was on the roll.

3 comments:

Ajit Chouhan said...

great news bhai

Animesh Kr. Jha said...

This is the will go and get it attitude bihar should have adopted long ago. Nitish Kumar is right when he says it straight into their face "I recognise that you will not put your money in Bihar simply because you like my face." We should pick ourselves up from the dust and redeem ourselves to such an extent that people clamour to invest in our state.
But better late than never.. Let us hope the new govt carries out what its leader says..
Go Mr Chief Minister, go get it.. We on our part shall try to spread this very attitude amongst the lethargic and apparently hopeless among us..

Anonymous said...

I am Major Arun Kumar Jha, a 36-yr-old serving Officer of the Indian Army originally from a village in Madhubani district in Bihar. My father migrated to work in the Kaivalyadhama Yoga Research institute in Lonavla in Pune district of Maharashtra state in India, and I was born and brought up there. I studied in Don Bosco, Lonavla and in Fergusson College, Pune before going for my Military training. I want to do my bit for improving the situation in Bihar, and I am contacting you in that connection.
These thoughts were triggered after I did the Basic Course of the Art of Living in 2002. The idea is to start an enterprise that will provide the infrastructure for Packaging and Marketing of Processed Food Products in the plains of (rural) North Bihar.
The Packaging could be carried out in (many) Food (Packaging) Parks in rural Bihar, and the Marketing could be done from Pune city in Maharashtra. I will raise the first such food park in the identified (flood free) location in Madhubani district. The systems of a food park will be on the lines of a Brigade HQ of the Indian Army; suitably modified. Qualified Volunteers of the ‘Art of Living’ (males below 40 yrs) could officer the Food Parks, staying in the accommodation prepared for them in the food park. Communication with the Marketing Department and the HQ in Pune could be done from over the Internet.
The Food Parks could have a number of vehicles, which will collect the products of the local Food Processing Units (FPUs), and will also supply the produce (along with the necessary security) to the destinations given by the Marketing department in Pune. After gaining experience, the food parks could start the Packaging and Marketing of all sorts of products (like Ayurvedic Medicines, Masalas, etc.)
I am planning to seek Venture Capital funding of $ 50 Million (Rs 200 Crore) from May 2010 to May 2013; and $ 300 Million to $ 350 Million (Rs 1200- 1400 Crore) for this purpose from originally Indian companies. Even Foreign Venture Capitalists will be acceptable. I have become a member of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs- web address www.tie.org) for this purpose.
If was wondering if you could be of assistance to me in this endeavour. I will send the detailed Presentation of the plans to you if you are interested.