|
Nitish
Kumar, the engineer chief minister of the bottom
position holder state, Bihar completed one year
in office. In last week, I came across two of
his interviews that appeared in ‘The Indian
Express’ and ‘The Hindu Businessline’.
Except for some claims on investment proposals
for sugar factories, there is nothing
exhilarating but for a very genuine hope about
the state’s future. ‘Bihar has to become a
developed state by 2015 to be in tune with the
President’s Vision 2020.’ However, Nitish though
engineer by qualification never came out, what
he and his government will do in less than four
years to make the people of the state feel
confident to look for better Bihar by 2020.
I shall like to only remind engineer in Nitish
Kumar that today with technologies available
there are hardly any projects that can’t be
completed in 3-4 years. You require only a
steely will power. Chief Minister’s putting10-12
hours at work can only set example, but for the
implementation of the projects taken in hand, he
will have to select his executing team,
delegate, and monitor the completion within the
timeframe.
Nitish Kumar will have to prioritize, decide on
some10 major projects, and see that they get
completed. As otherwise, the remarks ‘There are
so many things to do; we are fighting on many
fronts’ and then ‘After all, the mineral-rich
districts of the erstwhile Bihar State have gone
to Jharkhand,’ reflect indecisiveness and
perhaps frustration. Again, Nitish Kumar must be
innovative on his offerings to the investors to
attract them towards Bihar, as all the states of
India are competing in providing more and more
allurements to industrialists.
As it appears, Engineer Nitish Kumar has given
up easily on the state owned and private
industrial complexes including one at
Dalmianagar. He could have appointed at least
some reputed consultants such as Mc Kinsey or
Booz, Allen, and Hamilton, or Boston Consulting
for helping Bihar in preparing a roadmap for
prospective industrial revival of Bihar. It
would have been an expenditure made with a
purpose. The chief minister must aggressively
attempt for fast-track development instead of
just giving up apparent when he says, ‘I don't
think we can do anything about its revival right
now.’
His idea of a land bank with a corpus of Rs 200
crore is an excellent approach direction of land
acquisition for industrial units of interest.
And I wish Nitish Kumar could get the 61
proposals (for setting up various industrial
units totaling an investment of Rs 26,000 crore
that his government has cleared) get completed
in 3-4 years as promised.
Bihar has many strengths of its own. Its huge
tourism potentials for Hindus (Gaya), Buddhists
(Buddha Gaya), Jains (Vaishali), Sikhs (Patna
Sahib), and Muslims (Phulwarisharif) itself can
boost the state’s economy tremendously, if it is
exploited with a businesslike approach. Nalanda
International University can bring in $1 billion
or more if one works seriously and a permanent
prestige for the state. Unique traditional
textile related products from Madhubani and
Bhagalpur are other prospective employment
providing strengths of Bihar. In food processing
industry based on cereals, vegetables, and
fruits, Bihar can always compete with any other
state. Bihar has manufacturing potentials in
leather goods and pharmaceuticals with plenty of
raw materials available in the state.
But the biggest asset of Bihar is its manpower.
Why should they be considered only for menial
work of the nation? Let the state invest in
establishing trade schools, and other
professional educational facilities by
encouraging established educational trusts and
philanthropist business houses. It hardly
matters if the young men after education migrate
to other cities in India or to Middle east. It
will help state in long run as it has happened
in Southern states. If Premji Foundation can
assist Rajasthan, if Intel, Microsoft, and IBM
can help other states, why can’t they be allured
to help Bihar in education? Can’t every district
headquarter of Bihar have DPS or Kothari
International or other reputed educational
academies? Why should the chief minister be so
dependent on the center for secondary education?
It is unfortunate that neither the journalists
raised question nor the CM mentioned anything
about the potential of knowledge sector, BPO
when a huge lot of technocrats from Bihar are
serving the sector. The sector is not very
capital intensive also. Bihar produces students
in abundance with excellent academic records.
Bihar can have BPO in legal, medical, and
education areas. The CM is to get his
engineering colleges in top gear and encourage
bringing in some finishing institutes for
fluency in English.
I shall agree to Nitish Kumar’s remark, ‘Others,
preferably independent people should rate me.’ I
wish the journalists such as Shekhar Gupta, who
are familiar with Bihar, would have made some
independent research on the progress made in
Bihar in last one year and published their
findings instead of these interviews.
Finally, I found the fire missing in the CM in
these interviews that is a must for the
development of the state that was made to sleep
for three decades.
|
Comments: |
Although I have not visited Bihar in
last four years, nevertheless would
like to add following comments. May
be in intellectual terms, Bihar has
not achieved what other elite people
had 'dreamed of' but recently here
are some of the good things what a
'lay man' like me can perceive. When
I used to make a call to my father,
he happily used to remark that he is
getting his salary in time, and in
fact last year he got a significant
raise in his salary, much beyond
what he expected earlier. My younger
sister can now go to 'Science
College' by herself taking an auto
or can drive there by herself on her
Scooty and not getting chased by
someone. Here, non-Bihari Indians
sometime say that at least like our
Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh
(although I am not a great admirer
of him or his work as a prime
minister), Chief Minister of Bihar
is also an educated person with a
professional degree. It's definitely
a better remark than what I used to
get before when my colleague would
tell me to mimic 'Bihari language'.
Recently my mother got some medical
treatment in PMCH by a Physician in
his 'physical presence'. I saw some
photographs recently taken of the
roads in Patna and was delighted to
see the 'road signs'. The things may
not be apparent but when we are
dealing with an ICEBERG, it is
difficult to realize that 90% of it
will remain under water till the
rainbow shine on its surface. I
appreciate Mr. Indra's great input
and suggestion but I wanted to
emphasize that one year is probably
is too less time to see even the
benefits of proper health care when
we are commenting on long term
effect of medical
treatment/intervention on a
disease/pathology.
Probably the topic of
discussion/suggestion should be
Bihari's Bihar or 'Our Bihar' rather
than 'Nitish Kumar' Bihar'. -
Niraj, MD, Detroit, MI - Dec. 12,
2006
Very relevant, nicely written
article by Indra. It is very normal
for a proud Bihari like Indra to
hope that Nitish will revive the
state at the speed and the way it
should be, but there are limitations
of every person and I don't think
every concerned Bihari should be so
much dependent on one person only. I
think with the world is becoming
flatter day by day. We can also
contribute collectively in some
constructive way to participate in
the development of Bihar. - Anand
Lakhmani, Mumbai - Dec. 12, 2006
I think the writer is in a hurry. He
should not only look for a
glittering thing. One year is very
short time for something great for a
state. Even a person cannot develop
himself in a year.
For heavy investment, lots of money
is needed by the state govt. Also,
India has potential but there are
many states where investors can
invest money. And investor can be
sure so easily that old kind of
politics cannot come again. If state
can invest money then investor can
also do something. But for now state
cannot expend lot of money on any
particular project.
It is better for the state to use
its energy on law and order, state
routine job etc. so that people of
Bihar can be confident of the
development. It will be the start of
development work, then only other
people can see Bihar in good light.
Anyway small development in whole
state will be useful for people of
Bihar for now. It will spread
greater prosperity in Bihar than 2-4
big development for now. - Satya
Prakash - Dec. 12, 2006
Indra ji, please slow down a little
bit. It seems you are fast losing
your patience with the Nitish
government.
Bihar's situation is unique; not
everything can be solved by methods
outlined in business management
books prescribed by the Harvards and
the IIMs of the world. Give Nitish
Kumar a break, some breathing room.
Pouring him with advices will only
confuse things and make you
frustrated. Believe it or not, you
are not alone in giving him advices.
Also, after reading numerous article
by you on PatnaDaily, I cannot help
but wonder if a man of your
experience in planning and
management has actually thought of
approaching Nitish or Modi in person
or are you content with writing
articles on PD. - Raj Saxena, USA
- Dec. 12, 2006
After a friend suggested, I send my
write-ups, if it contains
suggestions to the e-mail addresses
of CM and deputy CM. I have never
tried to meet them. I only hoped
that one day I receive a note from
one of them asking me to see them.
Then only a person of my age can
take the trouble to go up to Patna
and meet them.
I am not in hurry, but as I was all
the time with people at work, I can
find out what is happening. -
Indra - Dec. 12, 2006
I agree one year is not enough to
give a judgmental comment on the
performance of a state government in
a democracy. But it is definitely a
significant period to do some
introspection on the success and
failure made. It will be also wise
to make a critical assessment of the
planned action if at all there
exists one.
So far we have not seen any progress
made on any front except loud talks.
We can take some of the example, law
and order – pathetic, roads – worst,
electricity – worst ever situation,
Investment – zero, new industrial
units – none. So, what is the
achievement?
Ok, we will give him benefit of
doubt because in our opinion one
year is not enough to make ground
level progress.
But where is the plan? Is there any
concrete road map? Have we ever
heard about any significant policy
matter? We are not asking for moon,
we are asking for a noticeable
change in the whole scenario. -
Anjum Parwej - Dec. 19, 2006 |
|
Discussion on this topic is now
closed. |
Return to previous Page |
