Most of the times Bihar is in the news for the wrong reasons. Its an irony that a state with such a glorious past is now one of the poorest state of India!


Bad governance has played its part very much leading to scams, poverty, corruption, illiteracy, crime and what not.


But something has changed in past 3-4 years. What is it? In past year Bihar was the 2nd best state in terms of development with 11% growth rate ! Gujarat leads the race but just by a margin.

Highlights-

- Despite three years of floods followed by a year of drought, backward and benighted Bihar reports a miraculous figure: 11% GDP growth.

- More than 6,800 km of roads have been relaid and 1,600 bridges and culverts constructed in the last four years.

- Automobile sales in the state grew 45% in 2009, at a time when sales had dipped 20-25 % in several other states during the economic slowdown.

- The kidnapping industry has clearly fallen on hard times. One indication of this is that doctors no longer refuse to go to patients homes on emergency calls. Today you can see boards at clinics saying we go on calls, says Dr Amulya Kumar Singh.

- Most of Bihars infamous dons are behind bars. That includes Mohd Shahabuddin, the former RJD MP who had once gone live on TV, daring the state police chief to arrest him.

- Speedy trials have ensured a total of 38,824 convictions between 2006 and September 2009.The convicts included dons and their henchmen. Gun-toting strongmen are no longer a common sight on the streets of Bihar. Policemen patrol them now.

- Malls, shops and private educational institutions are coming up. So are mobile service providers and banking firms. Its boom time for real estate with apartment buildings coming up all around.

- The flip side is that much of this growth does not get reflected in social indicators which remain abysmal. But, as Gupta says, it would be unrealistic for anyone to expect the moon at this stage.

- Right now the fundamentals are getting corrected and therefore you can find mostly infrastructural indicators of growth; one will have to wait for social indicators to become visible, he says. While contractors and realtors stand to gain, more than half the states 8.2 crore people 1.25 crore families still live below the poverty line. For these families to prosper, Bihar desperately needs huge investments and more growth.

Full page article HERE

Less than 5 year of rule and the change is enormous emphasizing the fact that good governance can do wonders even in less time.