This past week, locomotives manufacturing units at Marhowra and Madhepura have cleared an milestone on path to becoming a reality soon.  These would constitute first major industrialization initiative for Bihar.  Still, these constitute only a very tentative steps in starting industrialization of Bihar.  Hopefully, some other long pending railway units like at Dalmiyanagar, Sonepur, Garkha and upgradation of Jamalpur in a full-fledged manufacturing unit will also show progress soon.  Coupled with revival of Bharat Wagon Units at Muzaffapur and Mokama, Bihar would be able to take its first baby first step on industrialization.  This progress will become a bit more pronounced if Barauni fertilizer is also gets revived along with expansion of Barauni refinery and setting up of Petrochemical unit. So far so good.

However, these initial forays not be strengthened with visionary though process and meticulous planning.   For example, what other things need to be done to convert Barauni into a Petroleum Chemical and Petrochemical Investment region. Addition of Drug and Pharmaceutical Units, Plastic Product Manufacturing Units, Bio Fuel Units and Units for manufacturing Organic Chemicals and Toiletries can be further logical addition to this region. Given that lot of them can come up as downstream medium and small industry, state government’s role becomes important.

Another important step could be to develop Marhowra as Farm Equipment, Construction and MiningEquipment hub. Government should move on to set up a land bank in the vicinity for the purpose.  Similarly, an electrical and power equipment manufacturing region should be developed around Madhepura. In fact  a proactive  government action would  be to move fast to  facilitate setting up of a GE Town and  Alstom Town,  presuming that they would go on to win the  railway project.

One area which Bihar should grab the initiative right away is in becoming a manufacturing region for solar and renewable energy equipment.  State need to come up with enabling polices to promote the same at the earliest. Food and agro processing equipment, especially the ones which can find use in setting up home based food processing units,  could be other area to focus on.Hybrid solar powered farm equipment, irrigation units, food and agro processing equipment, refrigeration units, communication equipmentand medical equipment can revolutionize rural economy.A composite design to harness wind power, natural river water flow power and solar power for water navigation systems (boats and steamers) could be another area where the renewable power technology needs to be adapted. 

It is gladdening to see the baby steps taken by union minister for communication and information technology to start electronic manufacturing clusters in and around Patna.  Setting up of Medical Electronics incubation hub at IIT Patna is a smart hub.   Continuous monitoring wearable health equipment and mobile electronic diagnostic equipment are also a promising and sunshine industry. Consumer electronics could be another area of imminent interest, especially the wearable segments, so would be the manufacturing of electronic control systems for various segments.   If GE were to set up its unit at Marhowra, they may as well be amenable to have a manufacturing unit on health care in the vicinity.

Thus, a serious effort in industrializing Bihar calls for some innovative thinking and proactive approach. Analysis of industrial segment in which GE and Alstom are involved would present an interesting opportunity where state government can step in to engage more. Services of union minister for communication and information technology, union minister of skill development and union minister of petroleum would be very useful if such a concerted effort were to be launched.