Dy CM talks business at state growth meet

PATNA: “The mandate is not only for development but also for inclusive development,” said Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi about the results of just-concluded assembly elections in which the five-year-old NDA government, which boasted of providing `sushasan’ or good governance, scored a landslide win.
Addressing the Bihar Growth Conference, organized by International Growth Centre (IGC) India-Bihar here on Friday, Modi said a high growth rate of 11%-plus would not have been possible had the economic engineering not been based on societal needs.“The biggest issue is to ensure the reach of government projects to every section of the society so that no one is left out,” Modi, also the state’s finance minister, said.
Enumerating the challenges, he said a high growth rate cannot be sustained only through public expenditure. “Private expenditure is a must,” he said.
Bihar has great potential for small investments as well. “We would like to concentrate on micro and medium enterprises as well as food-processing industries,” he said and added that improvement of public delivery systems would be the government’s priority.
Agriculture has emerged as a major growth propeller as illustrated by China’s example. It can play a decisive role in poverty alleviation. “Our aim is to double the farm output through scientific interventions,” Modi said.
Another major area that warrants government attention, Modi agreed, is energy production. “We are on the job, looking for coal linkages and power purchase agreements,” he said and added one such agreement is through for a 450-MW power plant to start generation by 2014.
Roads have been constructed, but their maintenance is another challenge facing the government. Vocational education and skill development for generating quality human resource are also on the government’s radar, the deputy CM said and stressed the need to check migration of Biharis to Gulf countries.
Modi had a plea to the Centre. “Bihar ki jeet se Bharat ki jeet hogi,” he said as he urged the Centre not to politically motivated in matters of resource allocation.
According to him, Bihar has set a good example before the country by flawlessly disbursing a whopping Rs 1,500 crore to young boys and girls for purchase of 27 lakh bicycles. “We did not receive even a single complaint,” he said.
Earlier Arunish Chawla, secretary to Planing Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, predicted that Bihar would be a developed state by 2015. “The Central government has accelerated the development expenditure for Bihar,” he said but cautioned that the quality of expenditure is equally important to sustain a double-digit growth. Central allocations have been increasing as the Planning Commission also realizes that Bihar is growing very fast, the Bihar-cadre IAS official said.
JNU’s economics teacher Satish Jain pleaded for increased private investments in education sector and stress on skill enhancement if Bihar has to grow. The charitable contributions towards education have almost dried up and too much emphasis is being put on award of degrees than attainment of knowledge and skill,” the professor pointed out.
IGC India-Bihar’s Anjan Mukherji said their two major areas of research have been structural transformation and resource mobilization. “We will provide all logistical and research support needed by policy makers and other stake holders for the state’s growth,” IGC’s advisory board chairman Shaibal Gupta said as he advocated for result-oriented governance for the simple reason that people have very high expectations from the government.
“For the first time after independence, a positive mood has gripped people of the state. Maybe because development has been on the government’s agenda throughout its earlier term and even now,” Gupta, who runs Asian Development Research Institute, said in his opening address at the two-day meet.