Inaugurating the two-day BiharTimes Conclave in Patna on Saturday he said that after 1990 Bihar had a government but it needs to be understood that there is a difference between government and governance. The governance came only after 2005 when the NDA came to power in the state.

Claiming that a new Bihar is taking its shape he said that what is happening in the state could never have been imagined in the past.

However Modi, who also holds the finance portfolio, conceded that industrialization of Bihar is not so smooth a process as in any other states. For example, Gujarat, Maharashtra etc have a lot of arid and semi-arid land and can be given by the respective state governments to industries without any hassle. But in Bihar the land is too fertile and the farmers are not willing to give for industrialization. The investors need to adopt a different approach. He once again reiterated that the new industrial policy would soon be announced.

The deputy chief minister took a dig at a section of media for doing negative stories on growth rate of Bihar and urged them not to paint a bad picture of the state. It needs to be recalled that a section of media and experts early this year questioned the figure of over 11 per cent growth rate. Later they highlighted the sharp fall in the growth rate of Bihar from over 11 per cent till 2008-09 to 4.72 per cent in the year 2009-10.

However, Modi was in general all praise for media for cooperating with the state government in highlighting the good works it is doing.

Earlier, in his welcome address the Editor of BiharTimes.com, Ajay Kumar, elaborated the efforts made by the BiharTimes to bring Biharis living all over the world under one roof every year. He thanked the people, especially the Non-Resident Biharis, for extending their cooperation to BiharTimes in organizing the annual conclave.

Anil Kumar Sharma, Chairman, Amrapali Group, hoped that in the next five years Bihar would undergo a big change thanks to the efforts being made by the state government.

Speaking in the Energy and Environment Session Dr Bhaskar Choubey of University of Glasgow, said the hard fact is that Bihar is not going to get any new power plant in the next 10 years. In the absence the people should rely more on the environmental friendly solar energy and other alternative sources. He regretted that now houses are built in such a way that it needs more power to keep it warm in winter and cool in summer.

He said that Bihar lags behind not only in power generation, but also in transmission and consumption. With over 38 per cent transmission loss Bihar is at the top in the country, where the figure is 20 per cent. In western countries it is just around six or seven percent.

Prof Sanjay Kumar and Prof Kurosawa, both from Seikei University Japan and Prof Saito of Tsukuba, Japan also took part in this session.

Taking part in the Connecting Diaspora Session renowned Nano Technology expert from Sweden Hari Shankar Sharma and his wife Dr Aruna Sharma, expressed their willingness to open an institute in the home state. Prof Sharma made a power point presentation to explain what the people in Bihar can do in their home state what others are doing elsewhere.

While Shakeel Ahmed Kakwi, President of Indian Association of Bihar and Jharkhand, Doha-Qatar highlighted how he and his wife are running school back home in their native village of Kako in Jehanabad district, Belal Khan, Executive Advisor of the IABJ, made a power point presentation to explain the efforts being made by the Association for the expats working in the Gulf, especially for those who suffer tragedies.

Prof M J Warsi of Washington University, USA, informed how the cartoons of Pawan, a Bihari cartoonist, who contribute for BiharTimes and Dainik Hindustan, have been included in the syllabus of a university in Texas. Anurag Sinha, Public Diplomacy Strategist, Ottawa, Canada, and Manoj Kumar, the Australia-based International Business Manager, also spoke on the occasion.

The last session, Change Initiators, was presided over by Ramadhar, retired IAS, and former Chairman of the Kisan Commission.

Kaushalendra of Kaushalya Foundation, said that the need of the hour is to re-instill confidence in the farmers of Bihar, who have become totally disillusioned. “Those who get no job whatsoever do farming. This trend needs to be changed,” he added. “When I after graduating from IIM-Ahmedabad started working among vegetable-sellers in my native village in Nalanda district the villagers dubbed me mad. It was only when I bought a car about 45 days back that they started thinking that I am worth something,” he added.

J K Sinha of the Soshit Samadhan Sansthan Foundation, gave a power point presentation to show how his schools meant for Mushars have succeeded in teaching the most downtrodden and neglected children of the state.

Sudheer Singh, MD of Sudha Dairy, explained the long journey of the Milk Cooperative in Bihar, which started in 1980s and consolidated in 1990s.

Father Robert Athickal recalled how he founded Taru Mitra 22 years back. He said that the name Taru Mitra was given by a Class-IX student and explained how this organization was able to create environmental consciousness in this last so many years.

Ravi Chandra, a dental surgeon who finally got his rural management degree from IRMA, Anand, and at present Managing Trustee of Bihar Development Trust, stressed in detail the work done by some youths who left their jobs to start work in Bihar in 2007.

Priyesh Ranjan, Author of “That is the Life Baby”, who is also the final year student in Institute of Technology, BHU, also spoke on the occasion.

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