Nitish Kumar must know why investors give Bihar a miss

On November 24 the Nitish Kumar Government will have completed two years in office and the Chief Minister has by all standards tried very hard to get things back on track in a Bihar that is mired deep in corruption and administrative inefficiency.

During these two years several seminars and meets have been organised involving NRIs, industrialists, CEOs, economists and experts in a bid to find ways to attract investment to the State. However, success has not been forthcoming and it is this failure that the Government must mull over and find ways to get around the shortcomings if Bihar is to be put on the path to development.

A few instances might help illustrate the point after all development was the main plank on which Kumar and his allies rode to power.In the first year, the new Chief Minister succeeded in sending out a message that he meant business and would not tolerate any nonsense as far as development in the State was concerned.

But it did not last very long and in the months that followed the people?s faith started eroding.

How their faith was shaken is well illustrated by two examples. Recently, a seminar was organised by the State Government and the Asian Development Research Institute(ADRI) to explore ways to improve the State?s next economic survey. The meet was attended by senior economists, including the Union Government?s chief economic advisor Arvind Virmani, and some NRIs from Bihar and the Chief Minister.

After the opening speeches, seminar moderator Arunish Chawla invited those present to share their experiences with those present. Sashi Shekhar, an NRI, was narrating his experiences of attempting to do business in the State.While recounting the many hurdles that he faced Shekhar shared his experience of dealing with the State?s bureaucrats.He made the point that while the State Government was keen on setting up sugar mills and boosting production of sugarcane, the officers at the top were unaware of ethanol and how it was connected to sugarcane. What aggravated the situation, Shekhar claimed, was that their attitude was neither cooperative or encouraging and this served as a dampener for someone with plans to invest in the State.

Barely had these words been uttered when Manoj Srivastava, a bureaucrat heading the State disaster management department, interrupted him and asked Shekhar to sit down.

The stunned NRI did precisely that. Later, in a face-to-face encounter Srivastava and Shekhar were involved in an unpleasant exchange of words.

In another incident,on September 24 to be precise, a non-resident Bihari N Sharma settled in the United States wrote to Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi and a media portal that he wished to invest in the State. He also listed the ?bureaucratic hurdles? that prevented him from doing so. Sharma, had in fact, participated in the much hyped global meet organized in Patna earlier this year where assurances were given of single window c l e a r a n c e s a m o n g o t hers.?Where is this single window located? I found that the so called single window may have 64 doors?, wrote Sharma in his letter.

Sharma had proposed a $3 million healthcare facility in Hajipur in collaboration with a large US-based company but in the face of ?bureaucratic hurdles? he shifted his project to Himachal Pradesh.?We did not even receive the first quarterly progress report on the global meet that was announced during the meet by Modi ji?, he rued in his letter.

The Bihar Chief Minister must take note of such incidents if he wants to put the State back on the path of progress and development.?The sooner he stems the rot the better it will be for Bihar.There is no lack of interest in his vision but as CEO of the State he must monitor his team and should not shy away from taking bold decisions?, believed an NRI who too had similar unpleasant experiences to share.