Chandragupt Institute of Management Patna director V. Mukunda Das would highlight strategies behind the state’s growth to students and teachers of Stockholm School of Business at a lecture session.

The B-school under the Stockholm University would also be able to learn management techniques used to script the growth of Bihar’s rural market and the state’s model of development.

The director of Chandragupt Institute of Management Patna (CIMP) left for Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, on Sunday. His visit assumes importance as the two business schools are planning to go in for an academic tie-up.

Two years ago, some students and teachers from the Swedish B-school had visited Patna as part of a student and faculty exchange programme. Das would be at the institute from September 24 to 30.

Sources said that Das is the first person from the management field in Bihar to visit any foreign university and speak on “Development Management: Bihar model”.

Das told The Telegraph on Sunday: “Development in Bihar took place at a pace faster than many other states because of our development management model, which evolved in the past six to seven years. The Bihar development model also assumes importance, as the state had to come up from a lower threshold in economic, social and infrastructure indicators.”

Das added that the Bihar development model had many steps and was based on assessment of socially relevant needs and their prioritisation. Proper planning, timely implementation and regular monitoring were built into the new management model.

Apart from Bihar management development model, the CIMP director would also speak on “Bihar rural market: The emerging realities”. Das said the growth of rural market of India and Bihar was a matter of special interest for marketing researchers across the world.

He said: “Bihar, with around 85 per cent of population in rural areas, is showing a paradigm shift in rural consumption with increased accessibility to rural areas. Marketers are finding it easy to reach out to rural areas of the state through their products.”

The CIMP director said in the past few years, the purchasing power of the people in rural areas of Bihar has increased because of various development activities in those areas.

“As people’s purchasing power has increased, people are buying branded clothes, cosmetics and even electronic goods. Companies have opened showrooms in rural areas to cater to needs of the people in the rural belts,” he said.

Das added: “Research on rural Bihar consumers has shown that first generation customers of urban products are increasing. In the state, more than 60 per cent of the rural people are first generation consumers of urban products, which is a positive sign highlighting the changing consumption pattern in the rural areas.”

Sources said many corporate bodies are slowly entering the rural space in Bihar to tap the first mover advantage.