Bihar Election: Only voters will loose...

Election is near in Bihar. Election commission has already announced the date of election which will start on 12^th of October and ends on 5^th of November 2015. The political parties are making all the possible promises of development which could be included in election manifesto but have we considered anytime why is Bihar lagging behind in Industrial development viz-a-viz national growth? No political party has ever tried to address this very question rather all are blaming one another for the same which is not true. The state’s industrial demography has been made from the 90s in such a way that the obstacle for establishing industrial set up is gigantic there. First of all, I could discuss about the policy paralysis of the government. I can enumerate like there is no (i) single window redressing system, (ii) Land Bank so that industry can get Land immediately without any public outrage, (iii) marketing potential of the bye/end product, (iv) mechanism for identifying industrial sickness, (v) transparency, (vi) stringent but easy RTI law, (vii) adequate basic infrastructure like transport, water and un-interrupted electricity supply and last but not least there is a few effective established industrial park. These are common deficiencies in policy of the government rather much of them are that the government has identified only nine sectors for its key thrust areas which are Food Processing, Agriculture based Industries, Tourism related Industries, Super Specialty Hospital, Higher/Technical Educational Institutions, Information Technology based Industries, Electronic Hardware Industry, Textile Industry and Energy/Non-Conventional Energy. These obviously not included heavy industry, automobiles and export intensive industry like gems & jewellery, petroleum, medicament, ship’s boats, textile yarn and organic chemicals etc.

The government has much focussed on the traditional sector which can be good and can certainly lead to much development without any bigger effort, but how? There is no clear policy which is implemented on ground level to boost agriculture as during Lalu’s rein agriculture was much sought after and it grew on an average 10% growth while industry was witnessing meager 3.5% growth. During BJP-JD(U) coalition government industry grew with an average 10% while agriculture with 3.5% which is nothing but structural change and it means NDA government has done nothing but structural change which cannot be said to be healthy steps to revive the economy rather it was an act of pouring milk from one container to another. It would have been better to keep the pace of agricultural growth on top gear; the industrial growth could be accelerated with extra effort. Now let us forget the past and coming back to policy.

Incentives on land, capital, plant and machinery, quality certification and reimbursement of VAT etc. are meager and could not attract much attention for large/mega project e.g. plant and machinery subsidy is only 20% subject to maximum of Rs. 5.00 cr. for large industrial unit and Rs. 0.75 cr. for MSME. There is no special incentive on income tax, service tax etc. which the state could have given from the devolution of the central Government receipt. Are these the only cause of slow growth? Answer is no. let us examine further.    

Law and order in Bihar has become a thing of media blind fold. Comparison from 2001 to 2011 is not so impressive. According to the Bihar Police Website, total crime reported in 2001 which includes Cognizable, Murder, Dacoity, Robbery, Burgling, Theft, Riots, Kid, K.R., Rape, R.D., RR, BD are BR are 128,487  while in 2011 it was  188,917 an increase in 47% over the year 2001. Media was much blind over the issue reason best known to them but surely NDA regime was not a golden period of Bihar rather it could be said a blot on the Bihar. General people were satisfied with glory and false report rather victims failed to get proper attention. Public can be fooled but not the think tank of large corporate. Their risk tolerance in terms of law and order is very low. In spite of these which are heart touching, the government also failed to do good deeds with the established industry. State government made little effort to expand petroleum refinery industry and revive sugar industry with a growth in technology and Sugarcane productivity.

It is matter of fact that the few sugar mills in Bihar have old technology and substitute for the same could be the same as that of establishment of new mills and hence government has no scheme for the same also. Either government can develop the project or transfer the same to strategic investors after negotiations. I in totality can say that in last 10 years, the government has not taken any step which could boost the industrial growth.