6 member European Union Delegation visited Bihar

6 European union members have shown some interest in Bihar by visiting Bihar and learning about the Bihar growth story and the social and economic trends at the ADRI (Asian Development Research Institute). I am happy that other countries are taking interest in Bihar. I hope this translates into some growth opportunity for Bihar.

The list of six people are

1. Joao Cravinho - Ambassador of the European Union and this was his 2nd visit in less than 3 months.
2. Piere Vaesen - Ambassador, Embassy of Belgium
3. Jorge Roza de Oliveira - Ambassador, Embassy of Portugal
4. Janos Terenyi - Ambassador, Embassy of Hungary
5. Darja Bavdaz Kuret, Ambassador, Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia
6. Anne Marchal -First counsellor, head of section, political affairs

More details in the Times of India article European Union team discusses Bihar's broad trends

38% increase in automobile sales over last year (Indication of a good foundation)

With major development news from Bihar has almost stopped coming, there was one piece of news that brought some good feeling. The news was that the automobile sales in Patna was about 38% more than last year. This reflects a growing set of people with money to spend on automobiles (including 2 wheelers) but more importantly people feeling secure enough to spend money on cars without fears of someone snatching it from them.

At least the foundation built by Nitish and the NDA team is strong. I hope Nitish can refocus on development and Bihar's growth as he did during his first tenure as the CM. What is required is more focus, more focus and focus only on Bihar's growth and development.

More details about the vehicle sales in the Times of India article Vehicles' sale in fast lane this Diwali

What is happening to our CM, Mr. Nitish Kumar?

I sit here day in and day out reading about Bihar and all the news from Bihar. However, from the past many months, I really don't see any substantial development news coming out of Bihar. Forget substantial, I don't even see much news at all of any kind of development. I want to write about the developments but there is nothing to write about... No Industries, no resolution/reduction of the Maoist problem, no agricultural evolution, no speeding of power projects, etc , nothing which will make me sit-up ,watch and write.

What has happened to Mr. Chief Minister. In his efforts to consolidate his position in the political scenario in Bihar, he seems to have lost his way and drifted away from the very path that made him successful... Development and Bihar's Growth. With all the political maneuvering that is going on, Nitish Kumar is not able to focus on any development at all.

It is only development that will keep Nitish at the helm... All news of developments have stopped coming from the last 2 years... There is still time for Nitish to realize that his existence and success were only due to the focus on development that he had. Only focusing on Development is something which is going to come to his aid in future. If he wants to remain in power and continue to develop Bihar (which everyone had come to expect of him,) then Nitish has to again leave the other activities aside and focus on development. He has to put all his energy towards development over the next few months and beyond. Only then will he continue to have the support of the people of Bihar.

Nitish Kumar ji - It is time to rethink. Please focus back on development. Leave the other distractions and focus on Bihar's growth.

The breakup of NDA in Bihar

It has been a high drama time for sometime where the rift between JD(U) and BJP (at national level) continued to grow. The JD(U) and BJP at the state level continued to work together but yesterday, the two parties parted ways. I think it was a sad day for Bihar because both the parties together had given us hope. Anyway, this is done now and we have to look forward to how things shape up in Bihar.

For me, it is still Bihar's development that is top priority and I am hoping the following will happen:

1. Nitish appoints good people as ministers to fill the vacancies created by such good ministers like Sushil Modi.
2. No hooligans/criminals are made ministers just in the name of politics
3. Nitish and team surely and purely focusss completely on development and getting industries into Bihar.
4. The pace of development in Bihar picks up
5. Large industries and industrial houses start coming to Bihar
6. The education system and quality continues to see improvement and 
7. The law and order does not get disturbed in Bihar; if anything, it should only improve.

At this point, we are all watching and will continue to support Nitish if he focuses on Bihar's development and makes constant strides towards a developed Bihar. 

But Nitish, please take note: We, as a Bihari diaspora, are only interested in Bihar's development and have supported you in the last over 7 years because of the good work you have done. We will continue to support you if we see continued development. However, if we see vote bank politics without an adequate development, we will not hesitate to vote for someone else who we think will bring that development to Bihar.

We all are only interested in the development of Bihar.

Happy Holi

Holi Ka Gulal Ho, 
Rango Ki Bahar Ho, 
Gujhia Ki Mithas Ho, 
Ek Baat Khas Ho, 
Sab Ke Dil Main Pyar Ho, 
Yahi Apna Tyohaar Ho, 
Wish you all a Very Happy Holi!

Top 15 states as per %age per capita income growth 2011-12

Bihar again continues to rank #1 in per capita income percentage growth; the per capita income for Bihar grew at 11.75% in the fiscal 2011-12. This is good news again for Bihar and all Biharis. However, Bihar will have to grow much faster to improve the current per capita income of Rs. 25,653 and bring it to the national average of Rs. 68,747.  Bihar's per capita income is 37% of India's per capita income average and thus there is a lot of ground to cover.

Hence Special Category status is required to accelerate the growth rate of 10-15% in the 11th plan to 20-25% or more. Therefore I support the demand for Special Category Status for Bihar.

I have posted a chart of the Top 15 performing states in the per capita income percentage growth in fiscal year 2011-12 courtesy LiveMint.

35% reservation for Women in police recruitment

Just read an article that Nitish Kumar has announced 35% reservation for women in police recruitments. Happy to read this as it is another step in the right direction of empowering woman in Bihar and improving the status of woman in Bihar. A good step in my view.

43,000 new vacancies will be filled up in the Police department over the next 5 years. That's about 8500 recruitments every year. This would mean that 15,000 women will join the police department in the next five years. Kudos on the right step to empower women.

On another note, Bihar today has got just 69 cops per one lakh people against the national average of 143. A lot still needs to be done. I hope the 43,000 recruitments happen in time and help further improve the law and order situation in Bihar, not only in the large cities but also in the smallest pockets of Bihar.

More details can be found in the NDTV article "35% reservation for women in police recruitment in Bihar:Nitish Kumar"

Another big reason Why Bihar needs Special Category Status

I was reading an article in India Today. This article was published in the beginning on March (4th of March) and talks about how a political party in Maharashtra once again mistreated the people from UP and Bihar while they were trying to get admissions for their children into a Sainik School at Satara.

I did not know that Sainik Schools are for particular states only and that people from other states could not get admission there. But here the problem was not even that. The people who were trying to get admission had a domicile certificate from Maharashtra and hence were entitled to try and get admission there. However, this political party targeted these people just because they belonged to the states of UP & Bihar.

Hence, apart from all the other very important reasons for getting special category status for Bihar, I feel that just to stop other Indians from mistreating Biharis, Bihar needs special status category. Special status category will create the necessary avenues for Industrial and other developments in Bihar. This development will empower people, reduce their backwardness, reduce poverty and increase the education levels of the generations to come. So special category status will help get Bihar reach this level where others stop mistreating and misbehaving with the people of Bihar.

And therefore, I support Bihar's demand for Special Category Status.

More details about what happened in Satara can be found in the India Today article here.

Why Biharis should support the Adhikar Rally in Delhi today

Nitish Kumar and a lot of his cabinet colleagues, MLAs, MLCs and other politicians are gathering today for what is being called as Adhikar Rally. This rally has been organized for demanding special category status for Bihar. However people are debating whether special category status should be provided to Bihar or not.

Now consider this: 26% of the poor of India stay in Bihar and form 42% of Bihar's population. Is any other information really required to provide special category status to Bihar. If providing assistance, tax breaks, and more benefits to Bihar can result in the upliftment of so many poor people in India, then does anyone even need to think twice or even debate whether special category status should be given to Bihar.

People are saying that this is Nitish Kumar's show of strength to arrive at national political arena. However,
If special category status and the benefits associated with it are for the upliftment of the people, then I have no doubt that Special category status should be accorded to Bihar and therefore we all should support the Adhikar rally in Delhi today.

Hence everyone who is in Delhi today should try and be part of the rally. The support is very much required for the upliftment of Bihar.

I support the upliftment of Bihar.

Bihar Tableaux at Republic Day Parade

This year Bihar tableau will be one of the 15 tableaux from different states that get selected for the Republic day parade. The tableau are selected by a committee in New Delhi based on the creativity of the tableau idea.

What will be on display during the Republic day parade would be Sikki craft which most of us will see and correlate as most of us have seen dauras. The preview of the Bihar's exhibit is as below.

Ten artists from Bihar would be actually making the sikki grass crafts as the tableau passes through the Rajpath while a 2 min music specially composed for the tableau will be played continuously.

More details can be found in the Times of India article Bihar to showcase Sikki craft at Republic Day in Delhi and the image is courtesy India Forums

Starting Year 2013

The key news that I read about Bihar today was that the government was going to convert most routes reaching Patna from any direction (Patna to be connected by four-lane roads), would be widened to 4 lane roads. This is indeed good as we are far behind a lot of states where the state capitals are connected by 4 lane or even 6 lane roads from various directions which has been a vehicle for those states prosperity.

However, I had a very basic question as we step through day 2 of year 2013 : How long can we sustain the gdp growth and the growth of the people of Bihar just relying on the road constructions?

We need more longer term avenues through which people can by themselves generate money to sustain their growth. Road construction is just an artificial way of supplementing people's growth but can only be done for sometime. What we really need are other areas and avenues of development which can become a self sustaining and self propelling growth instrument. For this we need the following:

1. Power - Dedication and focus in getting Bihar the 5000MWs of power by 2015 that the minister has promised. Looking more granularly, there should be no delays in getting 500MWs of power added to Bihar every 6 months from the beginning of 2013. If anything this should only grow to 1000 MWs or more every 6 months by the end of 2013. (Read Bihar to become power surplus by 2016: Minister)
2. Industry - Try as much, we have not seen any real industrial grow in Bihar. The State government has to accord priority and make it attractive for industries and industrial houses to set foot in Bihar. Till now this seems to be lacking. Couple this with the problems of power, it looks like Bihar is going to remain devoid of industries until 2016. Without industries any major growth will be inhibited and the industrial policy has to be made so attractive that the industrial houses are forced to set shop in Bihar even with the problems of power being faced today.
3. Tourism - Like I keep mentioning, tourism is the mainstay of immediate growth of Bihar, outside of agriculture and a key focus has to be put to implement all the projects within defined time frames which seems to be not happening at this time. A lot of projects are being announced, but I don't hear any thing on the completion of these projects. Either they are not be announced or they are not getting completed in time. (Example - Tutla waterfalls about which I have written in my article Apathy in taking up Tourism projects)
4. Agriculture - Identify ways by which the farmers can be empowered to produce more out of their lands and prosper. Maybe its just spreading education on the advances in the art of farming. Today farmers are the people, who suffer the most in our country and make the least amount of money even though they feed the billion plus people of India.
5. Diversification outside of agriculture - Can we look at diversifying into other related areas like honey making, etc which can be done on not so much productive land? I don't know but thats a thought to ponder upon and there would be experts who could answer this question.

There is a lot to be done and miles to go before we can sleep. A strong, focused and motivated bureaucracy and state machinery including the state government is required in order to fulfill the dreams of Biharis. Are we all upto it?