• 4.4% is Bihar’s growth in agriculture this year, the fastest in the country, reports a study by Punjab Agricultural University

• 265% is the rise in corporate tax collection in the Patna circle alone, according to Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT)

• Reliance, Tata and oil PSUs are in the queue to take over Bihar’s state-owned sugar mills to develop alternate fuel

• $225 million is the loan sanctioned by World Bank to boost economic growth in Bihar

The foundation is slowly falling into place, and if it holds together into the next new year, the state that has long been held up as a mirror to what’s wrong with the country will soon be ready for a dramatic makeover. In infrastructure, public health, tax revenue and most significantly, agriculture.

“Fifteen years into India’s economic reforms, the country’s poorest state Bihar, is finally gearing itself to catch up with rest of India. A slew of fiscal and legislative reforms implemented in the recent past stand testimony to this silent transformation taking place in a state that has, for long, been stereotyped as a failed state,” says a recent study by World Bank.

From abolishing the Agricultural Product Marketing Control (APMC) Act and checking exploitation of farmers by traders to repealing the Urban Land Ceiling Act and opening a “hassle-free” road for real estate development. From keeping aside Rs 18,000 crore for developing roads to harnessing new avenues of growth like ethanol-based fuel.

... contd.