WELCOME TO BIHAR INC.

THE STATE IS TURNING A CORNER WITH A NEW, CONCERTED PUSH FOR INDUSTRIALISATION THAT HAS ATTRACTED Rs 12,000-CRORE WORTH OF INVESTMENT PROPOSALS IN THE PAST TWO YEARS

- Amitabh Srivastava

HE PICKS UP ONE OF THE PHONES ON THE DESK AT FIRST BEEP, AS THOUGH HE HAD BEEN expecting it. "Dekhiye, DM Saab," he says, voice brisk with purpose. "Let's get this done quickly. Ultratech Cement has submitted a Rs 1,000 crore proposal. Their team is ready to roll. They need to start setting up the unit before year-end. We must lock down the location. Let's get the land sorted, and we'll talk again day after tomorrow."

Who speaks and acts with such clarity in the Bihar government? Yes, the name is...Nitish. You guessed right, but only by mistake. Or coincidence. The speaker here is not Nitish Kumar, the chief minister, but his industries minister-Nitish Mishra. The echoes don't stop at the name. The air of keen transformative intent that fills the large office in Vikas Bhawan is reminiscent of Nitish Kumar's early days in office. The space, as big as the carpet area of a middle-class flat, bustles with bureaucrats, investors, aides brandishing smartphones-a microcosm of the business class being newly drawn to Bihar. For, beyond the walls of this office, a certain energy is radiating across Bihar's economic landscape. Consider, for example, the luxurious 124-room Taj City Centre in Patna, inaugurated by the Indian Hotels Company just this July. That they were willing to spend Rs 500 crore on the project shows that enough action is expected. That, at long last, a certain momentum is building up.

For further evidence, move into the countryside. At Bihta, near Patna, a new 20-acre Britannia Industries plant is churning out 170 tonnes of biscuits daily in three shifts. Inaugurated by the CM in December 2023, this Rs 250-crore facility is the company's second manufacturing unit in Bihar. In fact, it's quite a roll-call. In Begusarai, a Rs 600-crore PepsiCo bottling plant-one of the largest in India-has been clinking glass since April 2022. A twin unit, at the same cost, is coming up in Buxar.