President’s address to the joint session of the Bihar Legislature
Following is the
text of the President, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s address to the joint session
of the Bihar legislature, in Patna today:
Missions
for Bihar's Prosperity
"When you are inspired by
some great purpose...
Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive."
“I am delighted to
be once again in Patna and to have the opportunity to address the Hon'ble
Members of the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council of Bihar. You are
all members of a great institution that gives vision to the state and evolves
the legal framework, the policies and programmes of the State. You oversee the
financial resources and implementation of major tasks. You have a proud
history, the first President of India Dr. Rajendra Prasadji had addressed you
and Bihar is his home land. Your mission is to make the aspirations and dreams
of people of this state become a reality. My greetings to all of you.
Bihar and me
Dear friends, when I am
in Bihar, I would like to narrate three incidents which are important to us.
The first one relates to my visit to Mauritius this month. There I met the
President of Mauritius Mr. Anerood Jugnauth and the Prime Minister Dr. Naveen
Chandra Ramgoolam, both of their ancestors came from Bihar. Also during my
trip, I have met at least six cabinet ministers and was delighted to learn that
five of these Ministers' and ancestors came from Bihar. Among the 1.2 million
people of Mauritius, the forefathers of a large number of those who are
presently citizens of Mauritius hailed from Bihar. This is an important
connectivity for the people of Bihar and Mauritius. The people of Mauritius are
very proud of their origin. Hindi and Bhojpuri are very much alive with the
people there. The people of Bihar indeed are enterprising; wherever they go
they enriched the land; that means you have an inherent capability to nurture
and blossom. People of Bihar have the potential to take up the challenges and
succeed. Bihar Legislative Assembly and the Council need to empower the people
to realize the missions.
As soon as I took
over as the President of India, from the old records I saw a study report from
Dr. Paul H. Appleby of University of California. Dr. Appleby was a US based
public administration scholar who presented to the then Prime Minister
Jawaharlal Nehru in 1952, a document on administration of Indian States. Dr.
Appleby's study using various criteria and interviews with hundreds of
specialists from across the country concluded that the Bihar was the best
administrated state in the country at that time. This is the second interesting
anecdote that came to my mind when I was preparing my talk to the Hon'ble
Members of the Bihar Legislature.
The third one
relates to a recent visit of Dr. Bum Il Kim, President of the World Canaan
Farmers Movement Corporation in South Korea to Rashtrapati Bhavan a month ago.
He knocked at my door and told me that he has a great attachment towards Bihar
and would like to develop agriculture and create related industries there. When
I met him, he had a roadmap for the development of agriculture in Bihar. He had
detailed maps of cultivable land and water resources. His plans to enhance
agriculture productivity in the State to a maximum and his commitment to the
same gave me the confidence that the day when Bihar will be the rice bowl of
India is not far off.
I am meeting
hundreds of important people from India and abroad month after month. No one so
far has taken the cause of development of Bihar with such a great passion and
clarity. Here is a scientist, here is a professor who is willing with full of
enthusiasm and he suggested that his institution in Seoul is open for Bihar,
and he will bring many partners from Korea to assist in the development
process. I immediately called the Chief Minister and he agreed for a meeting in
February itself. I would like to quote an interesting sentence from the e-mail
which I received from Dr. Kim: High-profile academicians of South Korea,
especially from Yonsei University and Kangwon National University, are
preparing presentations on 'Developmental strategies, momentums, policies and
major decisions in South Korea to develop Bihar'.
I was impressed
that in a week's time, Dr. Bum Il Kim met me, met the Chief Minister and
visited the A.K. Sinha Institute of Social Studies. He then went back to Korea
and discussed with the specialists there and brought the plan of action for
development. I am still trying to see what in Bihar motivated and inspired this
Professor. The holiness that gets attached to this land of Buddha can be a
great magnet to attract many more Dr. Kims. He reminded me of the late Prof
S.K. Sinha who had worked closely with me at Technology Information Forecasting
and Assessment Council (TIFAC) to develop the Agriculture Vision 2020 and
actually take it to Bihar and show successful results. These efforts had bonded
me with Bihar. It is important that the Legislators, who are present here, make
the environment conducive to receive such ideas and contribute to the
development of Bihar.
Now friends, with
these three messages, definitely we should move forward with determination
irrespective of challenges to make Bihar an economically prosperous State. This
is what I am going to talk to you today. Bihar is an important state in the
Indian Union. For India's development, Bihar's development is crucial and very
critical. I would like to share a few thoughts with the Hon'ble Members of
Bihar Legislative Assembly and Council on: "Missions for Bihar's
Prosperity".
Our National Mission – Challenges
Our nation
is going through a major challenge of uplifting of 260 million people who are
below the poverty line. They need habitat, they need food, they need health
care, and they need education and employment finally resulting in a good life.
Our GDP is growing at nearly 8% per annum. Whereas, the economists suggest that
to uplift the people from below the poverty line, our economy has to grow at
the rate of an additional minimum of 3% per annum consistently, for over a
decade.
Integrated Action for Development
Our mission of
transforming India into a Developed Nation, is to meet the needs of one billion
people. We have identified five areas where India has core competencies for
integrated action: (1) Agriculture and food processing (2) Infrastructure for
all parts of the country such as reliable and quality electric power and surface
and air transport (3) Education and Healthcare (4) Information and
Communication Technology (5) Self-reliance in Strategic sectors. These five
areas are closely inter-related and when effectively addressed, would lead to
food, economic, energy and national security and lead to sustainable
prosperity.
Engines for Growth
Emphasis should be
on full utilization of natural and human resources of the region to meet the
demands of modern society. We should also remember that about 50% of our
population consists of young people, with aspirations for a better life. Value
addition to Agriculture, Manufacturing and Service sectors of the economy,
building on the regions' core competencies and technologies, will lead to
higher incomes and employment opportunities and therefore higher growth rates.
The engines for growth will be launching of the five national missions viz.
water, energy, education and skills, infrastructure and employment generation.
Developed states result in developed India.
One of the questions
that the members may ask is how can we generate the funds required for all the
schemes which I would like to share. I would say that the Government has the
Bharat Nirman Programme with an outlay of Rs. 1,74,000 Crore, Jawaharlal Nehru
National Urban Renewal Mission covering 63 cities with an investment of Rs.
17000 crores, Employment guarantee scheme for 23 out of 38 Districts of Bihar
and increase of the bank credit for agriculture to Rs. 1,75,000 Crore. during
the year 2006-07. There is a definite share of these funds available for the
development of Bihar. The members of the Bihar Assembly, the bureaucratic and
the administrative system have to ensure that funds are sought in time and they
are fully utilized for the purpose for which they have been allotted. If that
takes place I can assure you that there will be no shortage of funds for the
development of Bihar.
Now, I would like
to discuss about the core competence of Bihar.
Core competence of Bihar
Bihar is the ninth
largest state in terms of area in the Indian Union. The total area of the state
is 1,73,877 sq. km. The state is completely landlocked. The Ganga river cuts
the state into two unequal halves, flowing from West to East. The southern half
is almost double in size of the northern part.
Chhotanagpur
plateau is full of highlands, hills and valleys. This region is also noted for
waterfalls on some rivers like Suvarnarekha (Hundru falls). In northern Bihar
there are rivers like Ganga, Kosi, Gandak, Sone, whereas the rivers in the south
Bihar are Punpun, Phalgu, Sakri, Kiul, Damodar, Baraker, Suvarnarekha, Koel
etc. Most of the rivers merge with the Ganga. The monsoon reigns supreme here
and carries great weight in the overall human occupancy pattern and economic
development. The average rainfall varies from about 100 cm in the non
Chhotanagpur region to 150 cm in the Chhotanagpur region. You are blessed with
abundance of water. What is needed is water management through connectivity.
Developed Bihar leads to Developed
India
What can be the
missions for the development of Bihar? Since the number of people living below
poverty line in Bihar is about 42% against the national average of 26%, the
first mission is to elevate all of them and bring income into their hands and
smiles on their faces. This can be done by having focused development leading
to higher per capita income and better quality of life. Your state can
definitely transform into an economically developed model state. At this stage,
let me share with you the Development Radar brought out by the Planning
Commission.
The
boundary of octagon projected in the Development Radar indicates the maximum
achievements of various indicators of development. The smaller octagon
represents the national average. While we appreciate you for your achievements
in safe water provisioning, you need to achieve higher results in the area of
pucca houses, literacy, formal education, life expectancy, infant mortality
rate, per captia expenditure and poverty alleviation. The Hon'ble Members need
to realize that Bihar has the potential to achieve all these aspects better
than other states in the country, if only all of you decide to work in
synchronization for the development of the state as the prime focus of your two
legislatures. It is essential to realize that the development of Bihar is
bigger than us individual and even these great Legislatures. The thought of
developing Bihar should not be hindered by artificial barriers of politics,
religion, region and caste.
Focus Bihar
I am happy to
learn that the Government of Bihar is already on the path of evolving a road
map for its full fledged development. My presentation to this Joint Session
will focus on how the per capita income of Bihar can be increased from the
existing Rs. 6,300 (2005-2006) to Rs. 35,000 by 2010 and also to create an
investment friendly climate leading to employment avenues. As per the
employment exchange report from Bihar as on 31st December 2005, the total
registered candidates are 14.7 lakhs. This is pertinent mainly to the urban
areas and that too mostly to those who have passed Board exams or beyond. But,
90% of the people live in rural areas and many youth who in the cities who do
not pass the Board exams are called dropouts. Hence in our estimates there are
at least Ten million unemployed or underemployed persons in the whole of the
state. Bihar should aim at realizing the goal of 100% literacy and employment
by the year 2015.
The Human
Development Index ranking of Bihar within Indian states is fifteen, which
should be improved considerably to be in tune with the heritage, past glory and
the present aspirations. When your present meets your past and creates the
future, Bihar will be transformed into a dream developed state.
Missions for Bihar
Let us study what
are the missions which Bihar can undertake based on the core competence of the
state. The following are some of the important missions for Bihar's
prosperity:-
1. Agriculture and Related Missions
Agriculture is the
core competence of Bihar. It has very good soil; abundant supply of irrigation
water and very hard working people, in spite of this agriculture has been
performing poorly in the last decade leading to low per capita output. This
need not discourage us from making a bold attempt to face the challenge and
improve the situation. There have been excellent success stories in Bihar
itself, which I would like to, narrate. An experiment has been carried out by
the TIFAC team in Bihar, in the RP Channel 5 and Majholi distributory and later
extended to Paliganj and other 5 distributaries on the request of farmers. The
productivity of paddy has increased in these villages from 2 tons per hectare
to 5.8 tons per hectare and in respect of wheat productivity; it has increased
from 0.9 ton per hectare to 2.6 tons per hectare. Presently, paddy and wheat
crops are spread in an area greater than 2500 hectares involving 3000 farmers.
This project has
been carried out by the TIFAC, in collaboration with a farmer's co-operative
society, Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) and the agricultural
university in Pusa, Bihar. Using scientific method of farming involving soil
characterization, matching the right seed to soil, seeding in time, fertilizer
and pesticide selection, water management, pre and post harvesting methodology
productivity has been more than doubled. Our efforts should be to adopt this
system oriented approach in all 38 districts of Bihar which will enable Bihar
to triple its output of paddy and wheat crops. The aim should be to increase
rice production from 5.5 million tonnes to 15 million tonnes and wheat
production from 4 million tonnes to 12 million tonnes in four years time. That
will make Bihar a Grand Granary of India. In order to achieve this target, the
factors which needs to be addressed are: State wide implementation of flood
control measures by creating water ways between rivers flowing within the state
from South to North and also reducing water-logging in some areas, improvement
in infrastructure particularly good motorable roads, assured availability of
power to the farmer - through solar power; storage systems in large metric
tonnes capacities; food processing plants; input and output quality assurance
centers for seeds and food grains; and marketing centers. Moving up the value
chain in agriculture through food processing is essential in the state of Bihar
to increase the contribution of the agriculture work force to GDP. This will
result at a minimum in doubling the earning capacity of the nearly 25 million
farm workers of Bihar. Bihar should become the theatre of action for India's
Second Green Revolution. A partnership is essential with ICAR, International
Rice Research Institute, Manila and motivated specialist likes Dr. Bum Il Kim.
Sugar Mission: The North
of Bihar is agro-climatically very suitable for producing good quality
sugarcane with minimum inputs as compared to other states. This should be used
to the best advantage of the state. Sugar Cane Research Institute, Pusa or
other Sugar Institutions have to work together to develop new varieties of
sugar cane to meet the climatic and soil requirements of Bihar. Their research
and development must enable the increase the productivity of the sugar cane.
A large number of
existing sugar mills under the state run, Bihar Sugar Corporation have to be
closed down due to old and obsolete equipment and inadequate skills, as
modernization of the existing plant and equipment and re-training of personnel
had not been undertaken by these sugar mills. Capacity of the existing
remaining sugar mills is also very low compared to national average. I
understand that the State Government has announced investment scheme for
expansion of capacity of existing sugar industries, to setup new sugar industry
and distilleries. This should make a favourable impact on the growth of the
Sugar industry in Bihar and the scheme should be implemented in a time bound
manner. What we need is to look at the total industry requirement and provision
of incentives in the form of rebate in electricity duty / cess preferential
tariff for co-generation of power, encouragement for manufacture of ethanol
from molasses, waivers on administrative charges on the molasses consumption on
distilleries and streamlining the procedure for getting allotment / permits for
sale of alcohol in Bihar. This revival of the sugarcane and sugar industry can
definitely become a wealth and employment generator for Bihar. The present
sugar cane production of the state is around 126,000 metric tonnes, out of
which 100,000 metric tonnes is being sent to other states. I would recommend
the creation of sugar co-operatives on the lines of the sugar co-operatives
presently available in Maharashtra who can establish at least 10 sugar mills
which can fully use the existing production of sugarcane for conversion of
sugar. There also is a need to enhance the productivity of sugar to at least
the level of national average of 70 MT per hectare. This will enable generation
of increased income for 2.3 lakh sugarcane farmers. In the second phase we can
also consider doubling the area under sugarcane progressively to 4.6 lakh
hectares. This system will enable a coherent integration of sugarcane producers
in the State and sugar mills leading to higher revenue for farmers. The funding
for the new co-operative can come partially as Government grant, equity funds
of co-operative members and bank credit through NABARD. In addition, there is a
need to create an institution like Vasantdada Sugar Institute, Pune for
carrying out continuous research for improving sugarcane productivity and
improving the quality and quantity of sugar yield from sugar mills.
Dairy Development:
Bihar has a successful model of Dairy development through Bihar State
Co-operative Milk Producers Federation. Presently, the Federation is procuring
milk to an extent of 5,75,000 liters per day. However, I find that the
programme covers only 26 out of 38 Districts of Bihar and spread only in 16% of
the villages. The number of families benefiting from this scheme is just
2,61,000. Dairy has a great potential in Bihar. We should attempt to improve
the dairy development programme by inducting high quality animals followed by
artificial insemination and vaccination programmes. The aim should be to spread
the programme to all the districts of Bihar and also increase the participation
of villages to at least 50% in the first phase of the enhancement. It is also
essential to provide an additional 30 tonnes milk powder processing plants in
certain key locations. This action will enable the provision of additional productive
self-employment to over 7,50,000 families in rural areas within the next three
to four years. Bihar can take the help of BAIF (Bharathiya Agro Industries
Foundation) in enlarging the scope of Dairy industries with high quality milk
yielding animals.
Horticulture: The
present yield (2003-2004) of fruits such as Litchi, mangos, guava, papaya,
banana etc is around 3.0 million tonnes and vegetables such as tomato, potato,
onion, brinjal, makhana etc are 7.5 million tonnes. Bihar is famous for its
mangoes and litchies but it has not been fully capitalized. Our aim should be
to produce 10 million tonnes of fruits and 20 million tonnes of vegetables. The
technological inputs needed to attain this target by farmers include improved
seeds having tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress, enriching the soil with
organic manure, harvesting, and preservation and processing technologies.
Certain districts in Bihar are suitable for cultivation of variety of vegetable
crops having high productivity during seasons. With improved hybrid seeds,
vegetable yield can be increased to 3 to 4 times in comparison to traditional
seeds and conventional technology. Application of bio-technology will lead to
pest free crops. I would suggest that Bihar should invite agricultural scientists
from active NGOs and Agricultural Universities of Bihar and other parts of
India and also interact with the World Canaan Farmers Movement Corporation from
Korea who is very keen to work with Bihar farmers. Fruits and Vegetables can
become a great wealth generator for the state, if value addition is done and
sold in the national and international market. This will benefit approximately
8 lakhs small farmers of the State to increase their earning capacity.
Another
important wealth generator for Bihar is the multiplication of seeds of cash
crops and commercial crops. Large quantities of these seeds are being imported
in the country. Emphasis is to be given on hybrid seed production. Farmers who
are producing the seeds are getting very remunerative prices in national and
international markets. Hence, I consider that there is substantial scope for
production of these seeds by many farmers in the state. Hybrid seed production
of horticultural crops can be taken up on a mission mode by the Bihar Government.
Agro Food
processing: There can be a focus on setting up food processing plants
including marketing chains for variety of value added food products from rice,
wheat, fruits and vegetables in 500 locations of village clusters (PURA
Clusters) in 38 districts as public-private joint ventures to be established
with in 4 years in a new win-win cooperative model. Each one of them is
estimated to cost around Rs. 10 crores to start with as a part of the PURA
enterprise. This will result in the generation of 500 agro processing units
each for vegetables processing and fruits processing in each of the 500 PURAs
with annual turn over of around Rs.100 crores resulting in the total business
volume in the state of Rs. 100,000 crores. The Central Food Technology Research
Institute (CFTRI) and Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL), Mysore can
provide you technological support in this mission.
Cold Storage: To ensure
prevention of wastage during transit and balance the demand and supply of
fruits and vegetables for enabling the farmers to get reasonable revenues for
their produce it is essential to build cold storage capacity for both
vegetables and fruits to the extent of one million tonnes of vegetables, one
million tonnes of fruits against the proposed target. There do exist cold
storages as in Bihar Sharif. But many of them are not functioning well. They
ought to be set right urgently.
2. Education and Entrepreneurship
As per 2001
Census, the literacy rate of the State of Bihar is 47.5% with female literacy
being only 33.5%. This situation needs urgent remedial action. Firstly, there
is a need to bring down dropouts from primary and secondary schools.
Primary Education: Our aim
is to develop human resources with value system and entrepreneurial skills.
There is an urgent need to arrest the tendency of school dropouts and the
generation of happy enlightened citizens. Here, I would like to discuss an
educational model which I have come across at Peddamiram, Beemavaram District,
Andhra Pradesh. This service is being provided by Prof M.R. Raju who is a
nuclear physicist specialised in radiation oncology from Los Almos Laboratory
in USA.
In a decade Prof
Raju and his team supported by volunteers from various institutions from India
and abroad, have brought great change to the people in this village.
Particularly he targeted character building and uplift of children in the age
group of 3 to 5 years. This has totally transformed the village atmosphere and
the drop out rate of children in schools has come down from 70% to less than
30%. They are receiving creative learning in a harmonious atmosphere. A
confident young population is emerging in the village. I am sure some of the
NGOs in Bihar should apply this technique in all the districts of Bihar. This
is definitely a great societal mission. It is essential to ensure the proper
attendance of teachers in primary schools and also to provide proper
infrastructure facilities to schools.
Secondary
Education: Another model for secondary education which I would like to
suggest is the incorporation of accelerated learning through computers which
has been used in many of the Government schools in Karnataka in partnership
with Azim Premji Foundation. In this model reduction in dropouts is being
realized through active participation of parents, teachers and a social
organization in the region. This technique can be adopted in all the districts
of Bihar, so that early drop out of children at middle and secondary school
level does not take place. Bihar may consider special training programmes for
all the teachers so that they can impart employable skills among children.
These programmes can be carried out both as direct contact programmes and as
virtual learning programmes to enable availability of teachers in the class
without difficulty. To remove adult illiteracy a mission has to be taken by all
children in the higher classes namely 9th, 10th and colleges to teach at least
three persons every year who cannot read and write. Such multi-pronged strategy
will enable Bihar to achieve at least 75% literacy by 2010 and 100% literacy by
2015.
Higher Education: During my
visit to Bihar on 30th December 2005, I had a discussion with the Vice
Chancellors of all the Universities in the state in the presence of the Chief
Minister and the Governor. One of the key problems faced by the students of
Bihar arises due to the delay in conduct of final examinations leading to loss
of opportunity for the students in getting employment within the state or
outside the state or getting admission for higher education in different
institutions outside the State. Why should the students of Bihar be deprived of
these opportunities?. All the Vice Chancellors assured me that they will work
out and implement a scheme of conducting the examination in such a way that by
the end of 2007 there will be no backlog in the conduct of examinations in any
University in the state. This will bring back the examination schedule on par
with all the other Indian and international universities.
The
country has demonstrated the potential of satellite based tele-education at
different levels particularly for remote inaccessible areas. This competence
may be fully utilized by Bihar for primary, secondary, higher education, adult
literacy, vocational training and teacher training.
Institutions of
Advanced Learning in Bihar: The Human Resource Development Ministry may consider
the creation of an Indian Institute of Technology in Bihar for promoting high
quality technical education, Indian Institute of Science for Education and Research
in Bihar and ten state-of-the art skilled development technical institutes. The
All India Institute of Medical Sciences for Patna has already been approved by
the Government. There is a need to establish high quality medical education and
research institute very fast. In addition, all the Universities and their
affiliated colleges in Bihar must progressively get themselves ISO certified.
The Bihar Government may also consider the establishment of a few private
sector advanced institutions at four or five key locations so that they can
become a bench mark and competitor for Government institutions.
Entrepreneurship:
The academic institutions in Bihar generate about 2.5 lakh graduates per
year and the 10th class and 10+2 students will be around 7.5 lakh. All of them
will seek employment either within Bihar, outside the state or abroad. The
school syllabus and university have to be integrated with entrepreneurship
courses in Bihar. The students at the end of the course should get a
certificate or a diploma. This will enable students qualified in Bihar schools
and colleges, to have the confidence that they can start small enterprises in
agriculture, manufacturing or the service sectors based on the core competence
of the particular region. Banks have to be entrepreneur friendly and should
give them venture capital and support these young entrepreneurs and their
creative ideas. This system will change the situation in Bihar by generating
employment providers rather than employment seekers.
3. Global Human Resource
As Members are
aware, there is a need for quality human resource in the country in all sectors
of the economy namely agriculture, manufacturing and services. Since there is a
mismatch between the availability and the requirement of human resource, the
cost of hiring is going up, which is not sustainable in the long run. We have
to face this challenge and the higher education system and the technical skill
education system have to gear up to generate manpower with employable skills in
quantity and quality at all levels. The education system has to be relevant to
present day manpower needs and be sensitive to global changes that are taking
place in every sector of the economy.
At present India
has five hundred and forty million youth under the age of 25 which will
continuously grow till 2050. In Bihar alone, we will have around 45 million
youth. Keeping this resource in mind, Universities and educational systems in
Bihar should create two cadres of personnel: (1) a global cadre of skilled youth
with specific knowledge of special skills and (2) another global cadre of youth
with higher education to take up research and leadership roles. These two
cadres will be required not only for powering all sectors of our economy but
also to be a reservoir of knowledge for the rest of the world. We would have
then made the world truly flat. Thus, the universities, colleges and training
institutions will have to work towards increasing the through put of the higher
education system from the existing 6% to 20% by 2015, 30% by 2020 and 50% by
2040. Other youth who are not covered by the higher education system should all
have world class skill sets with quality workmanship in areas such as
construction, carpentry, electrical systems, repair of mechanical systems,
fashion design, para-legal, para-medical, accountancy, sales and marketing,
software and hardware maintenance and service, software quality assurance etc.
No youth from Bihar should be without either a world class higher education or
without world class skill sets. This is the mission and it must be undertaken
by universities and colleges in Bihar. This will enable provision of productive
and high value employment to all 10 million youth who are either under employed
or unemployed at present. At the Government level all efforts should be made to
remove shackles in the growth of educational institutions by giving greater
autonomy and removing controls.
As per the recent
NASSCOM - McKinsey Report 2005, India has the largest talent supply for
offshore IT and BPO. The IT and BPO industry will be creating over 9 million
jobs by 2010 exceeding the planned employment creation across all special
programmes of state and central government. It will also creates 6.5 million
indirect and induced jobs to support the offshore IT and BPO industries in
2010. This will include employment in several sectors such as construction,
retail and transport. Somehow, strangely the IT revolution seems to have
bypassed Bihar which was once acclaimed to be the cradle of knowledge. The
education system of Bihar has to align itself to restore Bihar's past glory and
rewrite the knowledge map of the world giving a prominent place to Bihar. It
should capture at least one million direct jobs and another one million
indirect jobs by creating the capacities and skills among educated youth
through specially organized programmes in collaboration with NASSCOM, CII and
other social organizations in a mission mode. A well thought out collaborative
scheme is required for capacity building with national and international
partnership.
4. Renaissance: Nalanda
International University
The place where
Bihar is located today had been the location for creating much of the great
Civilizational heritage of India earlier then 500 BC. It was the seat of great
learning, scholarship, philosophy and statecraft. Bodhgaya and Nalanda are very
important spiritual centres. Buddhists from around the world and many Indians
confluence in Bodhgaya to draw inspiration from the Great Teacher, Buddha.
Remains in Nalanda still remind us of the great glory of universal scholarship
that Nalanda witnessed for many centuries. Science, arts, literature,
philosophy and linguistics flourished there in addition to several achievements
of Buddhist studies. Nalanda study center attracted scholars from 93 countries.
That is how Chinese traveler Hiuen Tsang during 630-645 AD visited India and
saw the glory of Nalanda University teaching at that time and stayed there for
doing research in theology, philosophy and religion. The traveler was first a
student and later became a teacher. His 12 years of travelling in India has
been highlighted in the book form giving the political, social and educational
system of the country at that time.
To recapture the
past glory in the modern context, in keeping with Buddha's teaching for seeking
knowledge in a holistic way by understanding the interconnectedness of things
in life and the Universe, it has been proposed to establish a Bodhgaya Nalanda
Indo-Asian Institute of Learning in partnership with select Asian countries.
When I was on State visit to the Asian countries recently, the keen interest of
Singapore to partner with India emerged. We have followed it up with a
proposal. The Institute which will have the status of University will be shaped
to be unique in the world. In addition to teaching and research in traditional
areas of sciences, engineering, medicine, technology, humanities, social
sciences, linguistics, management studies, a strong component of Buddhist
studies will be introduced not merely as a separate department but also a part
of the work for all faculties. In addition, a number of multi-disciplinary
studies on conflict resolution, peace, sustainability and eco-systems will also
be a part of this Institute's agenda.
The Institute is
proposed to be located in about 200 acres of land with modern facilities to
service Indian, Asian and other foreign scholars. In due course, facilities for
landing smaller aircraft would also be added. The initial tentative estimates
for the facilities would be about Rs. 500 Crore. It is proposed to make a
beginning by India and Singapore with Government support but managed totally
independently by a group of professionals from India and Singapore and with a
provision to add other countries like Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka, Myanmar,
Thailand and others when their partnerships are firmed up. This university can
be a place for meeting of minds from the national and international arena to do
research on unity of minds with focus on philosophy linking science,
technologies, economy and spirituality with reference to ancient and modern
thinking. The focus of this university can be the evolution of world, free from
crime, terrorism and war. Above all this institute will engage in research in
the role of human values and ethics for universal development and peace. This
university should work for creation of enlightened citizens. Enlightened
citizenship has three components which are: (1) Value Based Education, (2)
Religion transforming into spirituality & (3) Economic development for
societal equality. It is a great opportunity for Bihar to house a major
Universal Institute of Learning that can be a beacon of light for the modern
world. I look forward to scholars from all countries of the world coming here
to create knowledge, share knowledge and make Earth, a conflict free peaceful
place.
5. Healthcare Mission
Bihar has 553
Primary Health Centers (PHC), 1100 additional Primary Health Centers and 7000 sub Centers just like many part of the
country, most of the PHC's are not fully functional. It is essential to make
these centers fully functional so that citizens of rural areas can benefit.
These PHC's, District hospitals can be equipped with mobile clinics, which can
reach remote areas. I would like to share an experience. On 19th October 2002,
I participated in the launching of a Mobile Clinic and Research Centre in
Uttaranchal. This effort was piloted by the TIFAC, the Government of
Uttaranchal, the Birla Institute of Scientific Research and many other agencies.
After 40 months of its operation, I found this mobile clinic has been used in
six districts of Uttaranchal and had treated nearly 43,000 patients during this
period. Among the patients treated, 48% belong to the Below Poverty Line (BPL)
category. They have taken 9,600 ultra sound, 5,500 X-rays, 1700 ECGs and nearly
20,000 lab tests. The mobile clinic has documented the disease profile of
patients in the region (six districts) which falls into the following
categories: acute peptic ulcer, anemia, anti-natal, chronic obstructive
pulmonary diseases, hyper tension, pelvic inflammation, renal calculi, upper
respiratory tract infection and worm infection. This type of analysis has been
possible because of a computerized system of clinic management introduced right
in the beginning. Also, the mobile clinic has been used in regions which are
normally inaccessible and where organized medical facility is not available.
This, I consider as the best form of reaching healthcare to the neediest people
in the country. This is a low cost solution with committed healthcare personnel
and institutions. Each district of Bihar can have at least one mobile unit to
begin with. The clinical data provided by this model will be applicable for
many areas. Mobile clinics will also provide research input for certain
diseases prevalent in certain areas such as pulmonary edema and sickle cell.
The Government of Bihar can consider providing one mobile
diagnostic-cum-treatment centre in all 38 districts of the state. This will
become an important step towards reaching healthcare to the people located in
remote parts of the state. In addition Bihar can make use of tele-medicine
connectivity being extensively used by institutions likes Apollo, Narayana
Hridyalaya, CARE Hospital and other corporate hospitals for treating remote
patients.
There is also a
need to create speciality and super speciality hospitals near Tier-3 cities of
the State as public-private partnership. These hospitals can be connected to
block level hospitals and mobile diagnostic units and through tele-medicine
connectivities for making state-of-the-art medical advice available
particularly to people living in rural areas.
I suggest a unique
insurance model for Bihar, where health care will be available within a short
distance for each citizen. For providing comprehensive quality healthcare, we
suggest citizens make a contribution of about Rs. 3/- per month and a matching
Government contribution of about Rs. 3/-, which will lead to a Consolidated
Health Fund of Rs. 576 crore per annum for the people of Bihar. The Government
contribution will be only Rs. 288 crore which will be double the present
allocation made during 2005-06. I would also recommend Bihar to invite
corporate hospitals to set up their super speciality hospitals supported by
tele-medicine and mobile clinics so that, they can not only provide quality
healthcare but also promote world class medical tourism. The State Government
can consider providing suitable grants and concessions to corporate hospitals
for running the health insurance scheme successfully and also ensure provision
of quality Medicare for all ailments to all the citizens of the State.
6. Flood and water management
I have observed
certain unique features in the river system of Bihar though Ganga. This main
river is flowing from West to East, there are two types of flows coming into
the Ganga. The northern rivers emanating from the Himalayas and another from
the southern rivers coming from the Chhotanagpur plateau and Hazaribagh
plateau. The major rivers coming from North-South are Ghaghara, Gandak,
Bagmati, Karcha and Kosi. The rivers coming from the South are Son, Punpun,
Phalgu, Dhadhar and Badua. Because of the flow from both the directions no
water is saved and everything goes to the Sea. Also, the main flood bearing
river the Kosi when it comes into Bihar is already in the plains and we have to
find innovative flood management techniques with intensive international
co-operation. However, to mitigate Bihar from the fury of the floods it will be
essential to undertake the following short term measures.
Recover the all the water bodies
from encroachments using satellite maps.
(b) All the village ponds be immediately de-silted along with clearance of
inlet and outlet and revived in the Gangetic basin.
(c) Carry out the dredging of the rivers from the center so that the riverbed
is below the adjoining land area.
(d) Raise the protection wall for
the wells slightly above the normal flood water level so that the debris does
not fill the wells during floods and drinking water is available immediately
after the floods.
(e) Create check dams so that
water can be retained in the drought prone southern Bihar.
(f) To protect the cities create channelization, embankment and diversion
channels up-streams.
(g) Encourage fishing in the ponds so that it can generate revenue for the
farmers. This activity can be linked to a mission of Bihar of doubling fish
production through introduction of modern production technologies, developing
innovative strategies and approaches and taking effective conservation
measures.
Here, I would like to
give an example to the Members from the experience which DRDO had in the
Nalanda project. Few years back, a project has been taken up for commissioning
of an Ordnance Factory in an area of approximately 3000 acres. While taking
over the land we found that lot of water logging used to be there in the whole
area during the monsoon season. During the last four years by reviving number
of ponds in the area and using the soil in the ponds for increasing height of
the adjoining land and planting a number of trees around the ponds, flooding in
the area has been completely controlled. Hence, I consider this model can
definitely be replicated in the whole of Bihar for preventing devastation and
disruption due to floods.
In addition an
expert group has suggested creation of a 500 kms long waterway in South Bihar
by connecting the South to North flowing rivers of Bihar, which will act as an
additional reservoir for the state. It is essential to build the intermediate
dams in the cross section of the rivers and the waterways, which creates the
balancing waterways. This will provide irrigation facility to over 5 million
acres enable generation of 1000 MWs of power and provide employment for 9
million people. These measures could also reduce the severity of floods by fast
disposal of flood water and also ensure storage of surplus water for future
use.
7. Infrastructure Development
Physical
Connectivity: Apart from over 3600 kms of National Highways, Bihar has a
network of approximately 78,000 kms of road network which includes 63,000 kms
of village road. The main point to note is only 27,500 kms of village roads are
all weather roads. As a part of Bharat Nirman programme, around 10,000 villages
are being connected through all weather roads. This point needs attention to
ensure that the mobility of people and commodities do not get affected during
the monsoon months. I understand that a planned drive is taking place in Bihar
to improve the over all road conditions in the State within the next two years.
Incidentally it will also enhance employment opportunities. Simultaneously
there is an effort to bring the number of kilometers of road per square
kilometer area to exceed the national average in Bihar within the same period.
This will definitely provide the needed mobility for economic development of
the rural sector in Bihar. There is a need for close co-ordination between the
road network organization and the Bihar Water Ways so that both the systems can
become complementary to each other for transportation of people and commodities
within the State. Also there is a need to partner with Private sector and
involve the local community for planning and monitoring the progress. The Water
Ways System may become an added attraction to the tourists visiting Bihar. In
addition to the improvement of State road sector, there is need for fast
completion of the Golden Quadrilateral and the East-West Express Way where
major holdup appears to be in the completion of few bridges coming on the
route. Early action is required by both Central and State Governments to make
these roads operational fast so that they can contribute to the faster economic
growth of the State.
Establishment of
PURA for Rural prosperity: When a state's growth is driven by fast changing
technologies, one must be cautious about ensuring the participation of every
citizen and region of the state with out causing any technology or digital or
economic divide. One of the solutions for ensuring the homogenous and
integrated development is PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas).
Bihar has around
45,000 villages spread over thirty eight Districts and it in the Gangetic plain
and totally landlocked. Over 75 million people live in rural Bihar. Hence I
would recommend creation of approximately five hundred plain PURAs for the
entire Bihar. Big water ways one side and PURAs on the other side will make
Bihar the best connected State, thus leading all the people to benefit from
global competition.
Essential
Connectivities of PURA: The integrated methods, which will bring prosperity
to rural India are - the physical connectivity of the village clusters having
the population of around one lakh, through quality roads and transport;
electronic connectivity through tele-communication with high bandwidth fiber
optic cables reaching the rural areas from urban cities and through internet
kiosks; knowledge connectivity through education, vocational training for
farmers, artisans and craftsmen and entrepreneurship programmes; these three
connectives leading to economic connectivity through starting of enterprises
with the help of banks, micro credits and marketing the products.
After initial
short-term employment during construction etc., we may have to plan for
initiating actions for providing regular employment opportunities for 10,000
people. If the industrial parks are marketed well, they can generate employment
opportunities in service and support sector for about 30000 people. We need to
promote entrepreneurship in the rural area. Each PURA should be supported by
one or more food processing enterprises and artisanal enterprises based on the
local core competence such as Madhubani paintings, Mithila paintings and
Mithila embroidery. What is needed is application of technology for quantity,
quality and variety production of these products for servicing in the national
and international markets. Each village clusters depending upon the region will
cost between Rs.80-100 crores. The convergence of funding for PURA will come
from the Bharat Nirman Programme and other rural development programmes of the
central and state government schemes for bringing sustainable rural
development.
JNNURM:
(Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission) In this
mission, only Patna is included in category B cities out of 28 cities in the
country and Bodhgaya is included in the category C cities out of 28 cities. The
population criteria for B cities are between 1 to 4 million, and for C it is
less than 1 million. The development is assured to rebuild the city with the
hygienic, water supply, road connectivity, sanitation, drainage management.
Bihar should utilize this programme. The funding comes from 50% from Central
government, 20% from state, 30% through loans for category B cities. For the C
category, 80% central government, 10% state and 10% from loan. You should
develop these cities with proper planning and try to develop the other cities
on the same lines. You may have the possibility of state funding for additional
cities or in collaboration with the central government.
Power: I
understand that the State Government is in the process of carrying out the
electricity reforms which will enable reduction of large scale transmission and
distribution losses in the State. This is a welcome move. The emphasis should
be on quality power with zero interruption. In addition to the above, there is
a need to augment power generating capacity through the establishment of one
nuclear power plant, large number of solar photovoltaic and solar thermal power
plants, mini-hydel power plants as part of Bihar water ways and power plants
based on bio-gas and using solid municipal waste. If right enabling conditions
are given Private sector can play a major role in generation and distribution.
A coordinated strategy is needed for creating additional generating capacity to
meet the demands of electricity in the rural areas for improving their quality
of life and also provide uninterrupted quality power for the PURA based rural
enterprises. The Ministry of Power has launched a super thermal power station
with a capacity of 1980 Megawatts. Also action is in hand to take over
Muzaffarpur thermal power station for modernizing and improving its power
generation capacity. They are also enhancing the capacity of Kahalgaon plant of
840 MW, by another 1500 MW. These projects will definitely be able to provide
uninterrupted quality power for all the development tasks of Bihar Government.
As a part of Bharat Nirman, 19224 un-electrified villages are planned to be
electrified.
8. Tourist destination of the
world
Let us look at
India with the billion people, with the vast Civilizational heritage of the
country, from the Himalayas to Kanyakumari. It will be very clear that we have
to do a lot to attract the tourists. Bihar, like many other states has had a
long tradition of religious and spiritual tourism. Any tourist can see the
continuity of the only enriched civilization of billion people of the largest
democracy with multiple religions, multiple languages and multiple cultures.
But it is important to make the travel, stay and the ambience of the tourist
enjoyable. Bihar has a very important spiritual circuit especially because many
religions have had their deep connections with Bihar. Bihar has high potential
for international tourism. I would like to bring to the notice of the members,
my experience in Myanmar. The Chairman State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC) of Myanmar Senior General Than Shwe and Madame Daw Kyaing Kyaing
mentioned to me that both of them had visited Bodhgaya twice before and they
are keen to visit the same place at least once more. Buddhists believe that
they have to visit Bodh Gaya at least thrice during their life time. It is
essential to recognize that there are many Buddhist nations in the east for
spiritual tourism. In this connection, I would like to suggest the Grand Asian
Road from Singapore to Myanmar can be connected to Bodh Gaya through North
Eastern state's east west highway. It is time to work out a strategy through
which new tourist circuits of interest to the pilgrims and tourist are evolved
in Bihar, and they are made tourist friendly in all respects, so that they can
attract many of them and create an urge in them to visit more often. In the
process there will be considerable income generation at the grass root levels.
How do we achieve this?
Two experiences: when I
visited Dubai, I met the Ruler of Dubai. He said that Dubai is planning to
increase the tourist arrival by five times. Once this decision was taken, I
found, that the aviation minister was planning for a new airport and also new
types of aircraft needed for attracting the tourists. The surface transport
minister was planning a number of additional road lanes required in the
highways. The works ministry was planning for increase in the hotel
accommodation for accommodating the tourists without disappointment. The health
ministry had a road map for waste management and a plan for providing the
additional clean water needed. This was the type of integrated response that I
found in the whole government to fulfill the national objective. We have to
take the message coming out of this experience and plan for the multiple
requirements simultaneously for promoting tourism in our country.
The
next event, I would like to narrate is when the President of Maldives visited
India, I had a discussion with him particularly on 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. There is no Government investment needed for the project.
Can we embark on such a mission in Bihar with the innovative public private
partnership? This will need a change of thinking, mindset and action by the
Ministry of Tourism, and Bihar Government with the active collaboration of
private enterprises. Tourism development mission can be achieved only by the
multi-nodal ministry participation with the single aim of making tourists have
an enjoyable and safe stay. Spiritual Tourist circuit covering the pilgrimage
places in Bihar has to be covered with air connectivity with 50 seater
aircrafts to enable the foreign and national tourist to get maximum coverage in
minimum time. Also train the people to convert the tourism into income
generation such as skilling the youth with conversational foreign languages at
nominal cost by the State through NGOs. This also brings an important point.
Bihar has to give special attention, perhaps though Public-Private partnership
to increase air connection to Patna and a few other places. Air travel has
become competitive. Many airlines are operating. Bihar government should
initiate discussion and attract one or two airlines to make Patna their hub.
These actions will enhance the arrival of foreign tourists from the existing 1
lakh to over a million and also the domestic tourists from 7 million to over 30
million. Each tourist particularly the foreign tourist will create 4 jobs in
the transportation sector, hospitality sector and other services. The
vocational training institutes in Bihar have to create youth capacity, so that
they can provide accurate information and value added people friendly tourism
services to the national and international tourists. The vocational training
institutes can also create a pool of manpower particularly for courteous taxi
drivers, tourist guide and catering service providers who would be able to
render safe world class services that are dependable and reminiscent of the
Indian hospitality and heritage. Tourism is multi-organizational mission that
means Bihar government has to initiate an empowered tourism mission. Tourism
has the potential to convert the unorganized service sectors such as taxi and
catering to professional organized level and lift their living standard.
While I was
preparing for the presentation to Bihar Assembly I had a discussion with the
Minister of Tourism and Culture Smt. Ambika Soni. Ministry of Tourism and
Culture has already sanctioned 11 schemes costing over Rs. 23 crores for the
development of Bodhgaya, Nalanda and other Buddhist circuits. They are also
providing a major impetus for the Bodhgaya, Nalanda and Rajgir with a master
plan with an outlay of up to Rs. 50 crores. She mentioned that Ministry of
Tourism is looking for support of the Government of Bihar in implementing the
master plan for Bodhgaya, improvement in physical connectivity, removal of
encroachment in Buddhist sites, increasing the quality and quantity of hotel
accommodation and starting of international convention center in Bodhgaya as a
public-private partnership. Ministry of Tourism has also informed me that they
would be happy to provide the viability gap support under its large revenue
generating schemes up to a maximum of Rs. 50 Crore. All these investments will
be the seed money for the development of Tourists circuits in this region, but
what is needed is a mission mode operation involving the public-private
partnership providing total services to the tourist in an integrated way with
the multiple ministry coordination.
9. Exclusive Economic Zones
Both Central and
State budgets normally will have a core task of GDP growth of the state and
also the employment generation. This core task will fructify only by investing
the budgeted fund in agriculture and food processing, investment in industries
including small scale industries and service sector particularly the production
of knowledge products. A method is required to be found, how investment can be
attracted in the state for the faster development of Bihar in all the three
sectors of the economy. How it can be done? May I share with you a few
suggestions? Bihar Legislative Assembly may consider forming 10 Exclusive
Economic Zones in the state depending upon the core competence of the districts
in the three sectors particularly in knowledge products production in Information
Technology and Bio Technology, Precision manufacturing, Sugar, Yarn, Silk,
Leather, Sports goods and Agro Food processing industries. In order to build
infrastructure and attract investment in these zones, the Bihar Government may
consider the following actions.
(a) Fast single window clearance for attracting the investment. (A
multi-ministry organization)
(b) Invite Bihar origin industrialists and entrepreneurs who are within the
country and abroad for a meeting and leading to the decision of taking up the
task of building and operating the Exclusive Economic zone in all the three
sectors of the economy.
C) To provide land, power, water,
physical and electronic connectivity to the identified zones.
(d) Members of the Bihar legislative assembly irrespective of their party
affiliation will give an assurance for enacting proactive policies for ensuring
uninterrupted work culture in the economic zone.
(e) Employees have to be partners
in these enterprises and confidence building measures on law and order may be
put in place to attract investors.
These exclusive economic
zones will be used for creating rural IT hub, BPOs and call centres, special
manufactured goods and value added agricultural products. Each economic zone
can select a few niche products for production in its cluster of villages. This
will ensure that the quality assurance certification and branding can be done
and even possibly shift/outsource service sector from urban cities to rural
area-it is almost like the IT service jobs are getting outsourced from the USA
to India. The State Legislature can invite entrepreneurs from IT, BT, telecom,
petro products and manufacturing industries to invest in these exclusive
economic zones. The aim of the economic zone should be to qualify the skill
sets of the workforce to the standards prescribed by National Manufacturing
Competitiveness Council. The possible locations of special economic zones based
on our study are Darbhanga (herbal products), Kishanganj, Gaya, Paschim
Champaran(leather), Bhagalpur (sarees), Madhubani (paintings), Purnia, Nalanda,
Muzaffarpur(carpets) and Siwan. The final choice can be made by an expert
group. Every Exclusive Economic zone can aim at one single product based on the
core competence of that region. The institutions must converge, and the zone
will have design, development, production and marketing capability. One of the
zones may be allotted for the development of a science city.
10. e-Governance for Bihar State
Good governance is
being recognized as an important goal by many countries across the world. Of
course Bihar had the tradition (1952). They have taken up specific initiatives
for transparent government. Freedom of information is being redefined and
supported by detailed guidelines. The internet revolution has proved to be a
powerful tool for good governance initiatives. An important dimension of the
internet potential is the possibility of providing services any time anywhere.
Along with this there is a conscious effort to put the citizen as the center of
focus of the governance. Citizens are being perceived as customers and clients.
e-governance has to be citizen friendly. Delivery of services to citizens is
considered as a primary function of the government. Particularly in a
democratic nation of a billion people like India, e-Governance should enable
seamless access to information and seamless flow of information across the
state and central government in the federal setup.
In summary, I
visualize e-Governance as defined below:
"A transparent smart
e-governance with seamless access, secure and authentic flow of information
crossing the inter-departmental barrier and providing a fair and unbiased
service to the citizen."
Bihar needs an e-Governance based accelerated management system to administer
finance and monitor and interface with center and the world institutions. I
would like to propose a system which should encompass seamless G2G, G2C and G2B
connectivity.
Now, let me share
with you my personal experience in setting up and operating a typical
e-Governance Portal established at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Rashtrapati Bhavan has
introduced connectivity with our citizens, institutions, universities,
government departments and multi-lateral agencies during the last three years.
I receive over 500
e-mails and 500 letters on an average from various people from all over the
country and abroad. I also receive 100's of questions from the students and
children every day. We have built in an e-Governance system to study all the
correspondence, letters and petitions on a day to day basis, analyze,
prioritize, verify and determine the action requirements to be taken by
Rashtrapati Bhavan and other agencies of government and the relevant
institutions both public and private. We have now established almost paperless,
dynamic and secured workflow messaging system for the file movements within the
department and inter-departmental communications. We have established within
Rashtrapati Bhavan facilities for G2G and G2C connectivity and we are in the
process of establishing the high bandwidth broadband VPN connectivity with
Central and State Governments and other relevant institutions for seamless flow
of information within the existing systems and procedures of Governmental
functioning. This will soon become the part of the e-Governance GRID. We will
be very happy to share this experience and customize a system needed for the
introduction of a comprehensive system for Bihar e-Governance (G2G and G2C).
Conclusion
The ten missions
suggested for Bihar may please be discussed in the Bihar Legislative Assembly
and Council for transforming Bihar as a developed state before 2015. Each of
the mission discussed has the potential to make Bihar economically prosperous
with tremendous effort coming from political system, administration and the
collective leadership of State and the Centre. The outcome from each of the
missions will be:
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. Also it will lead to a
business of Rs. 100,000 crores for processed food items in a decade.
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.
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.
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.
Healthcare Mission: Quality
health care for all 82 million people through mobile clinics, tele-medicine,
corporate hospitals and health benefit schemes.
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.
Infrastructure Development (PURA): Convert
35,000 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 rural enterprises in each PURA. One
nuclear Power Plant of 1000 MW capacity is suggested, apart from the large
scale use of solar power.
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.
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.
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.
Enhancing the
prosperity of Bihar consistent with our civilizational heritage has to be the
mission of the members of the Bihar Legislative Assembly and Legislative
Council. You have all the potential for planning and accomplishing all the
missions.
Friends, in
conclusion I would like to quote Maharishi Patanjali of 500 BC, the saint who
had lived in this land. It is ringing in my ear and it has to ring in the ears
and minds of all policy makers of Bihar:
"When you are inspired by
some great purpose, some extraordinary task, all your thoughts break their
bounds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every
direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant
forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a
greater person by far than you ever dreamt yourself to be".
Dear honorable
members, I have put forth in front of you, 10 missions for the prosperity of
Bihar. You may ask questions, give suggestions, I would like to respond. I will
be very happy to correspond with you on Bihar related development. Let me
finally give a suggestion for your consideration. This suggestion was given to
me by my great teacher Prof. Satish Dhawan. He asked me to write half a page,
"What I will be remembered for?" If each one of you asks yourself
"What I will be remembered for?" What can be your response? The
response of course, as you are nurtured in the cradle of Bihar, definitely your
heart and mind will say I will work for in my life time, to be a partner in
making Bihar "an economically prosperous, happy and safe state". I
believe that the 10 missions, what we have discussed in today's meeting can be
the foundation for the mission of Bihar's prosperity leading to make Bihar a great
state, where great spiritual saints like Lord Buddha and Bhagvan Mahavir, great
scientist like Aryabhatta, great political leaders like Babu Rajendra Prasad
and Lok Nayak Jaiprakash Narayan walked and nurtured.
My best wishes to all the Hon'ble Members of Bihar
Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council and through them to the
citizens of Bihar success in their mission of transforming Bihar into a
developed State by 2015.
May God
bless you.”
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(Release ID :16846)