Patna: It is high time for Bihar to start branding “some unique” agricultural products of the state to put its industrialization on fast track, assistant professor at South Asian University (SAU) Debdatta Saha said on Sunday. While presenting the preliminary results of her theme paper on the concluding day of the two-day sixth annual conference of International Growth Centre (IGC) here under the aegis of Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI), Saha said the forthcoming industrial incentive policy of the state would have policy implications on the state’s industrialization and, accordingly, suggested that the state government had to be generous in giving subsidies, which actually was the expectation of the prospective investors in the light of the previous two industrial incentive policies of the state.
Saha, who had conducted the study, ‘Food Processing Initiative in Bihar: Prospects and Challenges’, jointly with Barna Ganguli of ADRI, said the state commands immense branding possibilities in some unique products like ‘makhana’, ‘sattu’, local popular sweets and maize, among others. It would put the industrialization of the state on fast track, she added.
Stating that Bihar is in competition with itself due to expectations raised by the last two industrial incentive policies — 2006-11 and 2011-16 — Saha said other states like Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal had framed similar policies to attract investors.
Dwelling on the need for branding to fast-track state’s industrialization, Saha said Bihar is the second largest producer of vegetables, sixth largest producer of fruits and eighth largest producer of foodgrains in the country. “As the first mover of incentive policy, Bihar has natural advantage of attracting investment in food processing units,” she added.
In Bihar, dairy sector has scope of creating livelihood, while the state has monopoly in production of Rabi maize and makhana (accounting for 90% of production), she said, adding that Muzaffarpur litchi has become a distinct brand and is also an ingredient for the best honey available in the market, all of which provide Bihar an immense potential for food processing industries to grow and thrive.
She also stressed on clear exit policy so that production units sitting idle for long could be eased out, freeing the precious land. Saha pointed out that the state government ought to remove the poor perception of the state on account of poor law and order situation, poor quality power marked by low voltage and frequent fluctuations, and land scarcity.
Former state chief secretary Anup Mukherjee and ADRI director PP Ghosh chaired the two separate sessions at the conference.
Among the other speakers on the occasion, Aaditya Dar from George Washington University elucidated on the relation of political background, politicians and economic development. Classifying the politicians under ‘types’ and ‘background’, Dar put the type group under heads of dynasty, business, royal family, inducted and hereditary. The ‘background’ included ‘parachuter’ and ‘climbers’ categories. Parachuters included hereditary, zamindar, business, inducted and strongman’s relative. Similarly, climber’s category had strongman, party worker, student politics, union leader and Naxalite. Dar said experience showed that parachuters were associated with lower development.
The other speakers included Abhinav Alakshandra from Florida University, Arka Roy from Indian Standard Institute (ISI), Delhi, and Dillip Mukherjee from Boston University.