Now, Bihar on Stanford University radar

6 Apr, 2007
__________________________________________________________________

PATNA: The famed Stanford University of the US and the Bihar government have come together to discuss the changing policy matrix of a state long known for poor development and bad governance.

Experts attending the two-day meet, named the Mirror Conference, are of the view that the deliberations would go a long way in making Bihar part of discussions in national and international academic circles.

For, the outcome of the conference here — being attended by luminaries of Stanford University namely Professor Nicholas Hope, Anjini Kochar, Ward Hanson and Jessica Wallack — will be mirrored in the next annual conference of Stanford in June next.

Inaugurating the conference here on Thursday, chief minister Nitish Kumar said during last one year Bihar has grappled with its development matrix which has helped in bringing about far-reaching policy changes in almost every segment of activity.

Nitish said in a state where the per capita income is one-third of the national average, efforts are being made to grow at an average of 8.5 per cent GDP per annum. This, he said, will be a quantum jump from past trend. "We expect public outlay of about Rs 59,000 crore and private outlay of Rs 1,08,000 crore during the 11th Plan.

This means encouraging public-private partnerships and further improving the climate for private investment," the CM said. He also took pride in telling participants that in the last year of tenth Plan and last fiscal which ended on March 31, the performance of the state showed dramatic improvement. "Against a Plan outlay of Rs 8,250 crore, our expenditure has been Rs 8,646 crore exceeding the daunting target,

" he said. Continuing in the same vein, he said: "For the first fiscal year of eleventh Plan which began on April 1, the Planning Commission approved an outlay of over Rs 10,000 crore. Going by our performance in the last financial year, there will be a need to further enhance this target.

" Earlier, Prof Nicholas Hope, eminent economist T N Srinivasan and Ramesh Yadav of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE) threw light on the importance of the Mirror Conference. Bihar chief secretary A K Choudhary referred to the major decisions taken by the state government. A power-point presentation was also made detailing the achievements and plans of the government.

State Planning Board deputy chairman N K Singh said the initiatives taken in Bihar in recent times caught the attention of Stanford University.

"Bihar lost two developmental decades and had been at the receiving end of regional disparity and divide,"

he said. ADRI member secretary Shaibal Gupta said an authentic sub-national government is here which encompasses not only subaltern but also the elite who had earlier abandoned Bihar. "The chief minister is not scripting a sanitised resurgence but a democratic-inclusive resurgence by making fundamental changes in the present structure and institutions,"

he added. Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi, several ministers and top bureaucrats were also present. Prof Hope, on his part, renewed his invitation to the chief minister to attend the June conference.