Nepal Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai (top) and deputy chairperson of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia

Patna, Feb. 15: The state government is ready to showcase the changing face of Bihar before a global audience and chart the path of its future progress through brainstorming sessions at the “Global Summit on Changing Bihar” from Friday.

Nepal Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai would inaugurate the event at SK Memorial Hall in the presence of chief minister Nitish Kumar. A special plenary session would be held on the inaugural day on “Strategies for mainstreaming less-developed regions in the inclusive growth process” with a special reference to Bihar. London School of Economics professor Nicholas Stern would be its moderator. RBI governor D. Subba Rao and Planning Commission deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia would be among the key speakers.

Sharing the details of the summit with the reporters, deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, also the patron of the event, said a similar programme titled “Global Meet for a Resurgent Bihar” was organised in 2007 to infuse a kind of energy and enthusiasm among all sections of the society. “But the state has witnessed a lot of changes during the NDA regime. So the title of this year’s summit has been changed,” Modi said, adding that the state’s development would be showcased before 1,000 delegates, including Bihari diaspora and experts from various fields from 24 countries.

Bihar Foundation, Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI) and Institute for Human Development (IHD), New Delhi, will organise the summit under the aegis of the state government. Bihar Foundation CEO Dipak Kumar Singh, ADRI’s Saibal Gupta and IHD’s Alakh Narayan Sharma were present with Modi besides industries department principal secretary C.K. Mishra.

Clarifying that it was not an investment summit, Modi said: “It will give a platform to the economists, intellectuals, traders, industrialists, academicians and policymakers to give suggestions.”

Modi refused to give details about the budget of the event but an official told The Telegraph Rs 2 crore had been earmarked for it.