After a long time, it seems a purposeful administration is in place in Bihar. The political leadership, led by Chief Minister and ably supported by Dy. Chief Minister, shows immense promise and looks like capable of handling multiple ills which has been plaguing the state for a longtime. To cap it all Bihar has also got some capable ministers now, who seem quite promising in manning important ministries. In fact, this enthusiastic bunch of ministers is making the other ministers who are relics of past also strive harder.
While Chief Minister has brought in a fresh whiff of efficiency in the administration making it appear all inclusive, and at times populist also (like in case of Pension to participants in 1975 anti emergency agitation and likes), the Dy CM seems to be quite erudite and reinforces the administrative efficiency further (as observed in initial management of flood, handling of financial matters including CD ratio and the latest fiat on movement of files among other actions) through his no nonsense approach. Two of them seem to gel in very well, and are able to manage a fine balance to the great advantage for governance in Bihar.
State seems to be doing well on Law & Order, Road Development, Water, Electricity, Education, Health and Urban Development. A vision seems to be underlying all the actions related to these thrust areas of the government (partly assisted by centers mission approach, off course). With the resolute implementation, state will definitely score well in these sectors. Still a lot more action is desired in these sectors. For example under Road Development, TN has got sanction for over 3100 KM NHDP roads for 4-laning even when it is in one corner of the country. In stark contrast, Bihar, though being at the national cross road, has only 1608 KM of such Roads approved for 4 laning. A similar situation can be seen in case of urban development where only two cities from Bihar has been declared mission city under JNNURM. Though based on population and also taking into account need for urbanization of Bihar, state should ideally have five cities in the list. Here too Bodhgaya does not include Gaya while one would have expected that at least Gaya, Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur and Darbhanga will figure in this list of mission cities. In educational sector, Bihar is still waiting for the bare minimum of higher education institutions not to mention its fair share. So far state has to make do with mere public pronouncements of certain central ministers in this regard. Nothing is there on the ground to show anything till now. In health sector state is awaiting the setting up of AIIMS which was announced over five year back. As for power sector, it is still awaiting some concrete action on power generation beyond the mere signing of MOU. Plan for a Nuclear Power Plant at Rajauli has got no mention anywhere after the visit of a team of certain officials from center. Nobody knows whether it is on or off. Most promising yet unrealized action relates to water resources department in form of integrated river management. DPR preparation on interlinking of river has been carried out, yet no realizable plan seems to be in place for other related activities like inland water transport, high dams in Nepal (for checking floods and for creating all weather irrigation potential and generating hydro electricity).
Major areas of concern continue to be industrial & services sector. Industrial revival along with services sector growth is necessary to take load off the agro sector. Though a sizable ground work has already been done and there is a clear understanding of what ought to be done. Yet state needs to cover a lot of distance in this regard. For example, state administration has started in right earnest by getting a resources mapping done for the entire state and has followed it up with a good plan to boot. State Industry department has rightly identified the traditional strengths of the state economy with elaborate plans for Mega Food Processing Zone, Mega Agro Processing Zone, Leather Park, Textile Park, Handloom Park, Aqua Culture Park, Dairy Industry and also Jute Park at carefully selected places. On services side also there is a talk of reviving tourism sector. However, a lot still seems to be amiss as can be seen in the subsequent paragraphs.
Road map for reviving services like Education, Hospitality (Travel & Tourism), Retail, Health, Financial Services and Entertainment seems at best sketchy. Aryabhatt Technical & Professional University Bill with potential to unleash tremendous growth in education sector is yet to get the cabinet approval. As for hospitality, clarity seems to be clearly lacking though state is endowed with a great potential from wellness tourism to spiritual tourism. In addition it is a gateway also to North East and Nepal. As for health sector, despite a sizable number of doctors from the state overall present allover the country and beyond, states health services continues to languish. There is no plan to position state as healthcare hub as such. Similar is the situation in entertainment sector. Here too, Mumbai continue to be the choicest city even now. As far as financial sector is concerned, it would be one of the most promising yet far too difficult to germinate in a place like Bihar. A much more concerted effort built around the high caliber professionals coupled with focused state governments’ policy would be required for the same. Setting up of a "Center of Excellence in Financial Education & Skill Development", churning out over 5000 professionals of various calibers, can be a move in right direction. Though developing financial sector will be the most challenging of all the sectors, yet, it is highly desirable for ensuring easy access of capital to local entrepreneurs. Industry cannot thrive without a good financial industry presence locally. State can also do well to focus on human resources development for logistic managements and retail industry as this is likely to be one of the most rapidly growing sector. IT & BPO industry could be considered a lost case for Bihar. State would do better by focusing on the industry which IT sector will serve, and in the due course driven by the local necessities; this sector can also take some rudimentary shape in Bihar.
On the industrial front a lot more is desirable. Till now, there is no talk about having a growth center for emerging technologies like Biotechnology and Nanotechnology. There is neither any institutional infrastructure nor any anchoring industry to tap into these sunrise segments. S&T department has done a fine job to come out with policies on these two sectors (though yet to be approved by the state cabinet), and hopefully we will have right resources and technology in due course through their effort. State needs to move a lot faster in this matter to establish itself as the leader. As for Communication & Information Technology effort seems to be simply missing and with emerging industry in south it may very well be heading towards national saturation. Bihar seems to have lost out because of lack of human resources, institutional infrastructure and anchoring industry. This segment does not figure in any of the industrial policy statement of the state till now (though there was a electronics park set up in Hajipur in past). Bihar seems to have good case of PCPIR (including Drugs and pharmaceutical industry) at Barauni. However there is no appreciable movement with exception of routine feeble demands. No concerted move has been made by the state administration roping in central ministers from the state. The result is central administration turning a deaf ear to CM’s request. It is being denied on the ground of not being the preferable place based on the Techno- Economic feasibility. This is a clear cut case of discrimination against Bihar, reminiscent of freight equalization policy of the past. Same alibi has not been offered in case of Kakinada refinery, Dabhol Plant (which central PSU's are forced to run after politician from state got away be enriching themselves) and even Sethusamundarm and Ennore power project (with Domestic Coal). There are numerous such industries being set up in country whose choice of location can not be justified as the best on techno-economic analysis. Going by this criterion, there is no justification of having refineries and power projects in and around Delhi, Haryana and Punjab. It is plain politics aimed at furthering regional agenda of the people at helm of affairs cleverly cloaked in techno-economic talks.
Make the matter even worse; state is yet to come out with plan for development of electrical and mechanical hardware industry apart from civil and metal industry. Clearly Gaya toward Sasaram through Aurangabad, and also, towards Nawada would have justified setting up of heavy industries. This regional has the potential to be developed as the industrial belt of Bihar. Yet no clear cut pattern is visible in distribution of all such industries planned at the moment. A more detailed industrial vision would underline the case for developing Gaya as Civil Engineering location by locating all prefab civil work, granite works, stone quarry industry etc there. Aurangabad could have been developed as a hub of metal industry with integrated steel plants, forgings and foundries, along with power generation, cement factory and likes. Sasaram perhaps would do well as center of heavy industries like power plant equipments, heavy earth movers, heavy machine tools etc. Also government seems to be going nowhere with the mechanical hardware/ automotive industry for which conventional wisdom would suggest the ideal choice as Munger. However, if we see the distribution of such industry some are planned at Biharsharief and Chhapra, and yet others are in Fatuha and similar other places. Thus state is loosing out on the benefit of clustering impact. To compound the growth prospect of mechanical hardware/ automotive industry even further is the delay in setting up of various railway factories announced by the present railway minister as well as the previous railway ministers. These are getting delayed where as capacity at pre-existing units elsewhere in the country is getting jacked up substantially loosing limiting the scale of operation for these factories. As for electrical industry there seems no clear cut choice of place as of now, however, electrical hardware industry, should be developed in Koshi region (around Madhepura-Katihar-Purnia). With the planned electrical locomotive factory and a number of power plants in the vicinity (Kahalgaon, Farakka, Pirpainti, Barauni, Katihar and also hydropower projects in and around and also the northeast ), it would eventually emerge as an ideal choice.
Overall the coming year seems to be a year of hope and promises. State administration is slowly but surely gaining confidence and also the developmental momentum. Already state has got a head start in policy reforms related matters. Efforts on infrastructure will also start showing result possibly towards the end of this year. Overall Road, Water, Electricity, Internet, Education and Health seem to be on track with a complementing Law and Order Machinery. One critical infrastructure which ahs been a glaring omission so far and has not even been talked about has been Gas Grid. Lot of Activity is already happening in this sector across the country. Also City Gas Distribution Plan (if any) will also be dependent on this. Also on Urban Infrastructure a lot needs to be done be it basic sanitary, sewerage, drinking water, traffic related issues or much sophisticated issues like Mass Rapid Transport System, or Civil Aviation Infrastructure.
On institutional infrastructure side, much will have to depend on central government which has earmarked 19% of plan outlay for education up from 11% in previous plan. On larger plan size, this segment will see a major jump in over all outlay. State will have to carefully count its gain in this regard. Off course, state will also have to invest its resources where it can be assured of the best returns, that is, the human resources development sector. Year has definitely ended on a positive note in this regard with various developments related to revamping of polytechnics & ITIs, announcement of setting up of Chandragupta Management Institute, starting up of five new engineering colleges as well as setting up of three new medical colleges.
Also of interest would be to watch the way privatization of sugar mills and distilleries goes. State will have to show up something concrete on the various thermal power plants like Kanti, Barauni expansion, Nabinagar 1980 mw, Pirpainti (2000 or is it 4000, I keep on reading various figures on it) and also Katihar as well.
State’s economic revival will get a necessary boost from the much publicized railway factories like Diesel Loco at Chhapra, Wheel factory at Marhaura, Rail Coach Repair Factory at Barh, Jamalpur Workshop renovation work, Wagon coupling and axle plant at Dalmiyanagar and Madhepura Electrical Locomotive Factory. Also keenly watched would be Chemical & Fertilizer Ministers effort at reviving fertilizer plant at Barauni, IDPL at Muzaffarpur and Phosphate Factory at Rohtas. In his role as Steel Minister he has already announced setting up of steel processing factory at Betia and Hajipur. Hopefully, minister will pitch in for a PCPIR (as head of the administrative ministry) at Barauni as well and will also pick up the CM’s gauntlet to announce an Integrated Steel factory for Bihar. He would have to take up the challenge of getting these two proposals pushed through the union cabinet using troika of strong cabinet ministers from Bihar in union cabinet (comprising of himself, railway minister, and rural development minister along with not so strong minister of Social Justice & Empowerment). State can pin its hope on MOS for HRD and MOS for Water Resources as well. However there is not much hope from other ministers from Bihar at center like MOS for Communication & IT and MOS for Heavy Industries. Latter ones have got nothing to show as their contribution to home state and in fact not taken any initiative what so ever.
There is a strong case for developing Katihar as a regional trade and commerce hub by connecting to Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China through Sikkim, North East and beyond that is Myanmar. A strong vision with a complementing action plan would be needed for the same.
While Chief Minister has brought in a fresh whiff of efficiency in the administration making it appear all inclusive, and at times populist also (like in case of Pension to participants in 1975 anti emergency agitation and likes), the Dy CM seems to be quite erudite and reinforces the administrative efficiency further (as observed in initial management of flood, handling of financial matters including CD ratio and the latest fiat on movement of files among other actions) through his no nonsense approach. Two of them seem to gel in very well, and are able to manage a fine balance to the great advantage for governance in Bihar.
State seems to be doing well on Law & Order, Road Development, Water, Electricity, Education, Health and Urban Development. A vision seems to be underlying all the actions related to these thrust areas of the government (partly assisted by centers mission approach, off course). With the resolute implementation, state will definitely score well in these sectors. Still a lot more action is desired in these sectors. For example under Road Development, TN has got sanction for over 3100 KM NHDP roads for 4-laning even when it is in one corner of the country. In stark contrast, Bihar, though being at the national cross road, has only 1608 KM of such Roads approved for 4 laning. A similar situation can be seen in case of urban development where only two cities from Bihar has been declared mission city under JNNURM. Though based on population and also taking into account need for urbanization of Bihar, state should ideally have five cities in the list. Here too Bodhgaya does not include Gaya while one would have expected that at least Gaya, Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur and Darbhanga will figure in this list of mission cities. In educational sector, Bihar is still waiting for the bare minimum of higher education institutions not to mention its fair share. So far state has to make do with mere public pronouncements of certain central ministers in this regard. Nothing is there on the ground to show anything till now. In health sector state is awaiting the setting up of AIIMS which was announced over five year back. As for power sector, it is still awaiting some concrete action on power generation beyond the mere signing of MOU. Plan for a Nuclear Power Plant at Rajauli has got no mention anywhere after the visit of a team of certain officials from center. Nobody knows whether it is on or off. Most promising yet unrealized action relates to water resources department in form of integrated river management. DPR preparation on interlinking of river has been carried out, yet no realizable plan seems to be in place for other related activities like inland water transport, high dams in Nepal (for checking floods and for creating all weather irrigation potential and generating hydro electricity).
Major areas of concern continue to be industrial & services sector. Industrial revival along with services sector growth is necessary to take load off the agro sector. Though a sizable ground work has already been done and there is a clear understanding of what ought to be done. Yet state needs to cover a lot of distance in this regard. For example, state administration has started in right earnest by getting a resources mapping done for the entire state and has followed it up with a good plan to boot. State Industry department has rightly identified the traditional strengths of the state economy with elaborate plans for Mega Food Processing Zone, Mega Agro Processing Zone, Leather Park, Textile Park, Handloom Park, Aqua Culture Park, Dairy Industry and also Jute Park at carefully selected places. On services side also there is a talk of reviving tourism sector. However, a lot still seems to be amiss as can be seen in the subsequent paragraphs.
Road map for reviving services like Education, Hospitality (Travel & Tourism), Retail, Health, Financial Services and Entertainment seems at best sketchy. Aryabhatt Technical & Professional University Bill with potential to unleash tremendous growth in education sector is yet to get the cabinet approval. As for hospitality, clarity seems to be clearly lacking though state is endowed with a great potential from wellness tourism to spiritual tourism. In addition it is a gateway also to North East and Nepal. As for health sector, despite a sizable number of doctors from the state overall present allover the country and beyond, states health services continues to languish. There is no plan to position state as healthcare hub as such. Similar is the situation in entertainment sector. Here too, Mumbai continue to be the choicest city even now. As far as financial sector is concerned, it would be one of the most promising yet far too difficult to germinate in a place like Bihar. A much more concerted effort built around the high caliber professionals coupled with focused state governments’ policy would be required for the same. Setting up of a "Center of Excellence in Financial Education & Skill Development", churning out over 5000 professionals of various calibers, can be a move in right direction. Though developing financial sector will be the most challenging of all the sectors, yet, it is highly desirable for ensuring easy access of capital to local entrepreneurs. Industry cannot thrive without a good financial industry presence locally. State can also do well to focus on human resources development for logistic managements and retail industry as this is likely to be one of the most rapidly growing sector. IT & BPO industry could be considered a lost case for Bihar. State would do better by focusing on the industry which IT sector will serve, and in the due course driven by the local necessities; this sector can also take some rudimentary shape in Bihar.
On the industrial front a lot more is desirable. Till now, there is no talk about having a growth center for emerging technologies like Biotechnology and Nanotechnology. There is neither any institutional infrastructure nor any anchoring industry to tap into these sunrise segments. S&T department has done a fine job to come out with policies on these two sectors (though yet to be approved by the state cabinet), and hopefully we will have right resources and technology in due course through their effort. State needs to move a lot faster in this matter to establish itself as the leader. As for Communication & Information Technology effort seems to be simply missing and with emerging industry in south it may very well be heading towards national saturation. Bihar seems to have lost out because of lack of human resources, institutional infrastructure and anchoring industry. This segment does not figure in any of the industrial policy statement of the state till now (though there was a electronics park set up in Hajipur in past). Bihar seems to have good case of PCPIR (including Drugs and pharmaceutical industry) at Barauni. However there is no appreciable movement with exception of routine feeble demands. No concerted move has been made by the state administration roping in central ministers from the state. The result is central administration turning a deaf ear to CM’s request. It is being denied on the ground of not being the preferable place based on the Techno- Economic feasibility. This is a clear cut case of discrimination against Bihar, reminiscent of freight equalization policy of the past. Same alibi has not been offered in case of Kakinada refinery, Dabhol Plant (which central PSU's are forced to run after politician from state got away be enriching themselves) and even Sethusamundarm and Ennore power project (with Domestic Coal). There are numerous such industries being set up in country whose choice of location can not be justified as the best on techno-economic analysis. Going by this criterion, there is no justification of having refineries and power projects in and around Delhi, Haryana and Punjab. It is plain politics aimed at furthering regional agenda of the people at helm of affairs cleverly cloaked in techno-economic talks.
Make the matter even worse; state is yet to come out with plan for development of electrical and mechanical hardware industry apart from civil and metal industry. Clearly Gaya toward Sasaram through Aurangabad, and also, towards Nawada would have justified setting up of heavy industries. This regional has the potential to be developed as the industrial belt of Bihar. Yet no clear cut pattern is visible in distribution of all such industries planned at the moment. A more detailed industrial vision would underline the case for developing Gaya as Civil Engineering location by locating all prefab civil work, granite works, stone quarry industry etc there. Aurangabad could have been developed as a hub of metal industry with integrated steel plants, forgings and foundries, along with power generation, cement factory and likes. Sasaram perhaps would do well as center of heavy industries like power plant equipments, heavy earth movers, heavy machine tools etc. Also government seems to be going nowhere with the mechanical hardware/ automotive industry for which conventional wisdom would suggest the ideal choice as Munger. However, if we see the distribution of such industry some are planned at Biharsharief and Chhapra, and yet others are in Fatuha and similar other places. Thus state is loosing out on the benefit of clustering impact. To compound the growth prospect of mechanical hardware/ automotive industry even further is the delay in setting up of various railway factories announced by the present railway minister as well as the previous railway ministers. These are getting delayed where as capacity at pre-existing units elsewhere in the country is getting jacked up substantially loosing limiting the scale of operation for these factories. As for electrical industry there seems no clear cut choice of place as of now, however, electrical hardware industry, should be developed in Koshi region (around Madhepura-Katihar-Purnia). With the planned electrical locomotive factory and a number of power plants in the vicinity (Kahalgaon, Farakka, Pirpainti, Barauni, Katihar and also hydropower projects in and around and also the northeast ), it would eventually emerge as an ideal choice.
Overall the coming year seems to be a year of hope and promises. State administration is slowly but surely gaining confidence and also the developmental momentum. Already state has got a head start in policy reforms related matters. Efforts on infrastructure will also start showing result possibly towards the end of this year. Overall Road, Water, Electricity, Internet, Education and Health seem to be on track with a complementing Law and Order Machinery. One critical infrastructure which ahs been a glaring omission so far and has not even been talked about has been Gas Grid. Lot of Activity is already happening in this sector across the country. Also City Gas Distribution Plan (if any) will also be dependent on this. Also on Urban Infrastructure a lot needs to be done be it basic sanitary, sewerage, drinking water, traffic related issues or much sophisticated issues like Mass Rapid Transport System, or Civil Aviation Infrastructure.
On institutional infrastructure side, much will have to depend on central government which has earmarked 19% of plan outlay for education up from 11% in previous plan. On larger plan size, this segment will see a major jump in over all outlay. State will have to carefully count its gain in this regard. Off course, state will also have to invest its resources where it can be assured of the best returns, that is, the human resources development sector. Year has definitely ended on a positive note in this regard with various developments related to revamping of polytechnics & ITIs, announcement of setting up of Chandragupta Management Institute, starting up of five new engineering colleges as well as setting up of three new medical colleges.
Also of interest would be to watch the way privatization of sugar mills and distilleries goes. State will have to show up something concrete on the various thermal power plants like Kanti, Barauni expansion, Nabinagar 1980 mw, Pirpainti (2000 or is it 4000, I keep on reading various figures on it) and also Katihar as well.
State’s economic revival will get a necessary boost from the much publicized railway factories like Diesel Loco at Chhapra, Wheel factory at Marhaura, Rail Coach Repair Factory at Barh, Jamalpur Workshop renovation work, Wagon coupling and axle plant at Dalmiyanagar and Madhepura Electrical Locomotive Factory. Also keenly watched would be Chemical & Fertilizer Ministers effort at reviving fertilizer plant at Barauni, IDPL at Muzaffarpur and Phosphate Factory at Rohtas. In his role as Steel Minister he has already announced setting up of steel processing factory at Betia and Hajipur. Hopefully, minister will pitch in for a PCPIR (as head of the administrative ministry) at Barauni as well and will also pick up the CM’s gauntlet to announce an Integrated Steel factory for Bihar. He would have to take up the challenge of getting these two proposals pushed through the union cabinet using troika of strong cabinet ministers from Bihar in union cabinet (comprising of himself, railway minister, and rural development minister along with not so strong minister of Social Justice & Empowerment). State can pin its hope on MOS for HRD and MOS for Water Resources as well. However there is not much hope from other ministers from Bihar at center like MOS for Communication & IT and MOS for Heavy Industries. Latter ones have got nothing to show as their contribution to home state and in fact not taken any initiative what so ever.
There is a strong case for developing Katihar as a regional trade and commerce hub by connecting to Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China through Sikkim, North East and beyond that is Myanmar. A strong vision with a complementing action plan would be needed for the same.
