Bihar – A Preferred Destination

• Positive changes taking place in Bihar have created a favourable environment for private companies, investors, entrepreneurs, tourists, etc.
• Bihar is fast becoming a preferred destination. Earlier people used to hesitate in visiting Bihar but now a large number of private institutions, companies and investors are looking towards Bihar.
• In a joint World Bank-International Finance Corporation report Bihar was considered to be a better place, much ahead of the commercial capital, Mumbai, to start commerce and business activities.
• 125 companies from across the country participated in the third state level employment and counselling fair organised by the State Government.
• The State Investment Promotion Board has received hundreds of investment proposals. 209 proposals have been sanctioned. 12 proposals have been implemented while 74 proposals are in advanced stages of implementation. These 96 proposals involve an investment of Rs 1,033 crore.
• 1.22 crore domestic tourists and 3.56 lakh foreign tourists visited Bihar in 2008. The Sonepur fair and Ganga River Cruise attracted foreign tourists in large numbers.
• Patna has seen a quantum jump in new shops of branded commodities, brand restaurants, four wheeler dealerships, etc. Large number of private companies have opened their regional headquarters in Patna.
• Various personalities of national and international fame visited Patna, e.g., Nobel Laureate Dr Amartya Sen, Olympic Gold Medallist Abhinav Bindra, DFID Minister of UK, Country heads of WHO India and UNDP India, Director of World Bank Institute. The world’s foremost IT personality and philanthropist, Bill Gates, interacted with CM, Bihar, through a video conference. A team from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation also visited Bihar.
• Patna was chosen to host various national level events such as the Platinum Jubilee session of the Indian Road Congress, IT Conference “Infocom 2009″, Assocham’s Invest Mart Bihar 2009, Local Chapter of “London School of Economics”, etc.
• Patna and Gaya airports witnessed a substantial increase in regular and chartered flights with 4 flights between Patna- Kolkata (3 new), 2 new flights between Patna and Mumbai, 6 flights between Patna and New Delhi (3 new) and 1 new flight between Patna and Hyderabad.

Sectoral Report