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| Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla speaks at the global summit in Patna on Saturday and (below) Lord Meghnad Desai at the workshop. Pictures by PTI and Nagendra Kumar Singh |
Patna, Feb. 18: But. That one word threatens to sour the story of changing Bihar with industry experts today saying the state had posted a good rate of growth, but without development in the power sector and other thrust areas, the numbers don’t count for much.
Speaker after speaker — industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, economist Lord Meghnad Desai, former Union minister Y.K. Alagh and Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen — were all praise for Bihar’s growth story on the second day of the global summit. All of them, however, uttered the “b” word.
Birla, the chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, said Bihar has now come out from the “age of backwardness to an era of change”, but the time had come to turn challenges into opportunities.
“Heavy industry captains cannot come forward for investment here without proper electricity supply. This is the reason why investments for heavy industries in Bihar are not coming forward,” he said.
Bihar still lagged behind the national average of per capita power consumption of 700 unit, Birla said, adding that it should work for securing supply of natural gas through the HPJ gas pipeline through KG Basin area to cater to the state’s energy requirements.
“Bihar has to take steps for increasing the contributions of the manufacturing units,” he said. “Power is the basic building block for growth. The state government should work in tandem with private entrepreneurs to strengthen the power sector,” he added.
Birla said his group would be making an investment of Rs 500 crore to set up a cement grinding plant (of Ultra Tech) at Fatuha. This plant would start production in the next six months. The cabinet had on February 14 given its approval to the venture.
Lord Desai, emeritus professor at London School of Economics, said the government’s efforts had rekindled hopes among the people of Bihar for a better future. “Growth means better quality of life and certainly not object (assets) creation alone. The real growth lies when people start thinking of a better future and this is what has started in the state,” he said.
The economist emphasised that women’s welfare was key to growth. “Women’s education is a key to development. I am yet to see a woman who does not do hard work,” he said.
Planning Commission member Sen too had a word of praise for the government but added a warning that growth had failed to reduce poverty in Bihar. “No doubt that Bihar has achieved a good growth rate in the past few years but it is lagging behind several states in many respects. It would have to do a lot to catch up with these states. The state’s growth story has completely failed to eradicate poverty,” he said.
Sen prescribed four thrust areas where the state government needs to work to facilitate growth — law and order, corruption, fiscal responsibility and power.
Prof. Alagh, former Union minister and chairman of the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), expressed concern over the low rate of urbanisation in the state. According to the 2011 census, Bihar’s total percentage of urbanisation stood at 10.5 per cent, which, he said, was a problem.
Alagh said about 15 lakh people are moving towards smaller township areas which must be provided with facilities like drinking water and sanitation besides market access.
“Bihar needs to make a quantum jump with a view to achieve phenomenal increase in per capita income. This would be possible only by giving emphasis to the agriculture sector with better quality seeds, irrigation etc,” he said.
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