Address At The Bihar Chamber Of Commerce, Patna

BCC: Partners in Bihar Development

I am indeed delighted to address and interact with the members of the Bihar Chamber of Commerce in this beautiful city of Patna. My greetings to the organizers, all the members of Bihar Chamber of Commerce, industry captains and the distinguished invitees.

I have visited all States of the country and nearly all Union Territories and met people from all walks of life. Particularly I have met over one million students upto the age of 17. When I interacted with them, I have shared their dreams and pains. I visited Bihar number of times and it has always been a source of happiness for me to meet Bihar youth and Bihar farmers. Bihar indeed, has a great capital of knowledge, capital of skills and above all capital of hardwork. This capital has spread in many parts of the country and also many countries in our planet. Time has come for Bihar to get transformed into a developed state before 2015. We need all the best minds to be the partners in this great journey.

Just now I have addressed the Joint Session of the Bihar Legislature and I have suggested ten missions to be undertaken for transforming Bihar into a developed State by 2015. My lecture is in my website, you may like to refer. But I will summarize, because I would like to discuss with you since you are the partners in the development of Bihar. The missions and the outcome of the missions are given below.

1. Agriculture and Agro Food processing: Increasing the agriculture production, activating the sugar industries, dairy development, food processing and horticulture leading to empowering and enrichment of 27 million farmers. It involves production of 57 million tonnes of food grains, fruits and vegetables by the State. Also it will lead to a business of Rs. 100,000 crores for processed food items in a decade.

2. Education and entrepreneurship: 75% literacy by 2010 and 100% by 2015. Integrated education and entrepreneurship from the secondary to higher education segment. Bihar should also aim at IIT, IISc-RE. All the university examination will be conducted regularly in time. Higher education should lead to employment generators for the state instead of employment seekers.

3. Global Human resource cadre: Will lead to productive and high value employment for 10 million youth in Bihar. Prepare 2 million youth for high value employment in IT, ITES and BPO sector and allied sector before 2010.

4. Renaissance - Nalanda International University: University with international partnership with an outlay of Rs. 500 crores ($100 million). The focus of the university is the evolution of world of peace and prosperity, devoid of crime, terrorism and war.

5. Healthcare Mission: Quality health care for all 82 million people through mobile clinics, tele-medicine, corporate hospitals and health benefit schemes.

6. Flood and Water management: Apart from revival of ponds and desilting of river beds, creation of waterways in southern Bihar to manage the flood will increase irrigated land for about 5 million hectares, generates 1000 MW of power and provide employment for 9 Million people.

7. Infrastructure Development (PURA): Convert 35,500 km length of rural roads to all weather roads and improve the maintenance of national and state highways to international standards. This is essential for all the missions discussed. Creation of 500 PURAs for the rural economic prosperity with at least two agro, food and fruit processing rural enterprises in each PURA. One nuclear Power Plant of 1000 MW capacity is suggested, apart from the large scale use of solar power and modernization of thermal power stations and creation of super critical thermal station of 1980 MW capacity.

8. Tourist destination of the world: Increase international tourist arrival to 1 lakh to 1 million and domestic tourist to 7 million to 30 million. It will generate minimum of 4 million jobs with reference to international tourist arrival alone. It will lead to $10 million additional revenue to the state.

9. Exclusive economic zones: Creation of 10 exclusive economic zones will give a mission to industries such as leather, silk, sports goods, sugar and IT, ITES and BPO and special tourist products. It can provide large scale employment for each region and it should aim at a turn over of at least Rs. 5,000 crores per year based on our experience in the country.

10. E-Governance for Bihar: For carrying out all the 9 missions the most important driving force is implementation of e-governance coupled with administrative reforms and mission mode management is the necessary requirement. This will accelerate the process of socio economic development.

In the missions stated above, Bihar Chamber of Commerce can definitely play a very important role in agro-processing, global human resource development, infrastructure development, tourism, the creation and operation of exclusive economic zones.

Agriculture and Agro-Food Processing

The agro-food processing envisages a business volume of over Rs. 100,000 Cr. within the next ten years. The first task will be to revive the sugar industry by creating at least ten sugar mills through co-operative-industry-government partnership. This is essential to ensure the full utilization of over 100 lakh tonnes of sugar being now sent to sugar factories in other States and make Bihar as a major sugar producer of the nation. The second area is creation of food processing industry for fruits and vegetables. Here the industry can participate in creation of large cold storage chains for enabling Bihar�s farmers to store the high value fruits and vegetables and market it at a competitive rate determined by demand and supply conditions. The richness of Bihar in fruits and vegetables should result in the creation of large number of food and fruit processing industry based on the district wise core-competence of Bihar. I have suggested creation of 500 PURAs (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) in Bihar. In my estimate I would consider establishment of at least one each food/fruit processing enterprise in each of the PURA clusters. This task has to be taken up by the Bihar Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the young entrepreneurs of that region supported by the banking and university system. Bihar Chamber of Commerce can provide an overall linkage and the marketing set up for this big mission. Here I would like to mention that Bihar Chamber of Commerce may like to get themselves transformed as Bihar Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Global Human Resource

In the coming years I visualize larger participation of Bihar in the IT, ITES and BPOs sector. As per NASSCOM McKinsey Report-2005, the requirement of knowledge manpower in the IT sector by 2010 is expected to be over 9 million and in the support sector such as transportation, construction and retailing will be around 6.5 million. I visualize at least 1 million direct jobs on IT, ITES and BPO sector and another 1 million jobs in construction, retail and transportation being occupied by Bihar youth. For this, there is a need to carry out state-of-the-art, skill oriented sectoral training of the youth who have the necessary aptitude for such tasks. This is an important mission to be carried out by the Bihar Chamber of Commerce in participation with NASSCOM and leading BPO companies located in Bangalore, Gurgaon and Hyderabad.

Infrastructure Development

The major infrastructure development required in Bihar is the development of physical connectivity. To improve the connectivity to the 45,000 villages in Bihar there is a need to urgently upgrade the 35,500 kms of seasonal road to all weather roads to provide all weather, business and commercial movements to all district and villages of Bihar. In addition there is a need to upgrade all the national and state highways to international standards so that the tourists can be attracted to Bihar. The next area of development will be the modernization of existing power plants, creation of mega power plants and establishment of number of solar power plants at the village level. All these areas will need the active participation of Bihar Chamber of Commerce

Tourism

Bihar with its rich Civilizational heritage is a very important tourist destination. Here, I would like to narrate the gist of the discussion which I had with the President of Maldives during his visit to India. We discussed particularly about Maldives tourism. The tourism in Maldives accounts for over 19% of their GDP, a fifth of total employment, approximately 30% of revenues and 70% of foreign exchange earnings. Tourism, the dominant sector of the country�s economy, is very dependent on choices made by external consumers. The Maldives attracts tourists with its beautiful island resorts in the form of aesthetically crafted thatched cottages and bungalows.

In 2004, Maldives had attracted tourists, twice its population. On analysis, I found the reasons for the growth as, that the Government of Maldives gives the Islands for development as tourists spot on lease to private enterprises. The private enterprises invest and develop the whole Island with self-contained resorts including roads, power system, communication, drainage and waste management system, water, shopping malls, entertainment areas and banking system. Simultaneously, there is a need to create certain number of small airports where 50-seater aircraft can land as a part of tourism development plan of the State. There is no Government investment needed for the project. Can the members of Bihar Chamber of Commerce take up such a mission in Bihar and develop total tourism package for Bihar as a Build, Operate and Transfer Scheme. This will definitely be a new challenge for the Bihar entrepreneurs.

Creation and Operation of Exclusive Economic Zones

I have suggested creation of an exclusive economic zones in the whole State of Bihar with a turn over of at least Rs. 5000 Cr. per year in each of these zones. There is a need to collect the industry in the individual economic zone based on the core competence of the region. For example, Muzaffarpur is famous for carpets. Can we inject technology design skills and state-of-the-art packaging and preservation to make this product an international market success. Similarly, as you all aware Bihar has the best of hides and skins in the country. Whereas the hides and skins are being bought without value addition by Chennai and Kolkata. Bihar entrepreneur can definitely consider creation of state-of-the-art leather industry in Bihar for adding value to the hides and skins for marketing globally. Similar is the case with Bhagalpur sarees, Madhubani paintings and several other core competence areas of Bihar. I also understand that there is a possibility of finding oil and gas in Bihar in addition to granite stones. This can definitely become a vibrant industry of Bihar. I am sure the entrepreneurs assembled here will participate in all these missions and transform Bihar into a state rich in manufacturing and the services sector apart from its core competence in agriculture.

Economic development and prosperity

Now I would like to talk to you about the growth of the economic development and prosperity. - Nations Economic development is powered by competitiveness.

- The competitiveness is powered by knowledge power.

- The knowledge power is powered by Technology and innovation.

- The Technology and innovation is powered by resource investment.

- The Resource investment is powered by revenue and return on Investment.

- The Revenue is powered by Volume and repeat sales through customer loyalty.

- The customer loyalty is powered by Quality and value of products.

- Quality and value of products is powered by Employee Productivity and innovation.

- The Employee Productivity is powered by Employee Loyalty, employee satisfaction and working environment.

- The Working Environment is powered by management stewardship.

- Management stewardship is powered by Creative leadership.

Conclusion: Creative Leadership

For success in all projects we need creative leaders. Creative leadership means exercising the vision to change the traditional role from the commander to the coach, manager to mentor, from director to delegator and from one who demands respect to one who facilitates self respect. For a prosperous and developed Bihar, the important thrust will be on the growth in the number of creative leaders and innovative organizations who can create wealth through dedicated entrepreneurship.

My best wishes to all the members of Bihar Chamber of Commerce and captains of industries in their mission of making Bihar one of the top States in all sectors of the economy.

May God bless you.