On the back of the consolidation process that started in June last year, when Bilimoria inducted US-based Molson Coors Brewing Company as partner in both his Indian and global ventures, Cobra will also whet one's appetite in the national capital and Mumbai soon.

"We are upgrading and expanding our brewery in Bihar. We are increasing the capacity to 4 million cases by February from 2 million now. By the same time next year the capacity will more than triple to 7 million cases," Bilimoria said.

"We went into Bihar when everyone told me that we were mad to go into the state. But now look at the kind of progress it has made in the last six years -- Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has done wonders," Indian-born Bilimoria told IANS in an interview.

"The crime rates have gone down. The state's economy is growing faster than India's. The business environment is very very positive. The market is huge. We now feel Bihar is now a natural foundation, a base for us. It will be our hub for other states as well."

According to the first-generation entrepreneur and London-educated chartered accountant by training, beer consumption in Bihar has risen 10 times in the past seven years to 700,000 cases annually. "I can cater to the entire state from next year!"

Bilimoria's Cobra entered into a joint venture with Molson Coors in June 2011 to jointly brew and market the beer in India and overseas. In the global venture, the US company has a 50.1 percent stake, and the rest with Bilimoria, and in India it is a 51:49 venture.

The group also has a contract brewery in Andhra Pradesh with 1 million-case capacity.

A member of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's high-profile Global Advisory Council, the London-based Bilimoria also has strong views on the slow pace of reforms in India -- which he considers another home and visits "very often, as often as I can".

"India backtracked on retail. This is such a shame. It was going to be a hot potato. But there are many examples to show the small retailer, or the kirana store, can survive and benefit just like they did in Britain and elsewhere," he said.

"In India, the kirana store will be here decades from now, even after big retailers come in because they will be required for sheer convenience," he said, adding that another policy matter he was disappointed with was on lack of reforms in higher education.

"The higher education bill has also not gone through. This again is disappointing. There are so many foreign universities waiting in the wings which could have created such huge capacity for quality, higher education. This has not happened."

Bilimoria is currently in India on a packed agenda. He speaks at Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Jaipur and meets with the prime minister and other members of the Global Advisory Council there Sunday, and then rushes to Patna for the board meeting.

He is back again next month for Bihar government's diaspora conclave in Patna Feb 17-19.

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