Look beyond the basics; quality education, jobs critical for ‘Atmanirbhar Bihar’

Bihar Development Forum ‘Atmanirbhar Bihar’ report

Nitish Kumar has been at the helm of power in Bihar since 2005. During his first term he did wonderful work in fixing the law and order problems. In his second and third terms he has focused on improving the basic infrastructure. There have been good works in the development of roads and power. These are the basics. No doubt, good progress has been achieved in fixing the basics in the past 15 years. The government now need to look beyond the basics. There is need to focus on quality education and investments to create jobs and take economic growth and development to the next level.

Bihar Development Forum organised by BiharConnect delved on the issues and challenges facing the state of Bihar and the ways forward to take the economic growth and development to the next level.

The day-long conference themed as ‘Atmanirbhar Bihar’ was organised on the eve of the assembly election in the state, which is to be completed by 10th November. Stakeholders from different fields including senior politicians, bureaucrats, academia, corporate leaders and public policy professionals deliberated on the ways and means to make Bihar self-reliant in the areas of education, healthcare and livelihoods.

List of key speakers:

• Dr. Sanjay Paswan, Former Union Minister

• Mr. Jyoti Kalash, Additional Chief Secretary and Principal Resident Commissioner, Government of Nagaland

• Dr. Alakh N. Sharma, Professor & Director, Institute for Human Development, New Delhi

• Dr. Vivekanand Shukla, Former Registrar, B.R.A. Bihar University, Muzaffarpur

• Dr. Praveen K Singh, Chief Editor, BiharConnect

• Mr. Gyanendra Kumar Keshri, Editor & CEO, BiharConnect

• Dr. Akhilesh K. Sharma, Assistant Professor, Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID)

• Mr. Atul K Thakur, Public Policy Professional, Columnist & Author

• Dr. Vikash Kumar, Assistant Professor, Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID)

• Mr. Faiz Askari, Founder, CEO & Editor, SME Street

• Mr. Shesh Sarangdhar, CEO, Seclabs & Systems

• Mr. Santosh Singh, Author & Senior Journalist, The Indian Express

• Dr. Ratnesh Choudhary, Sr. Physiotherapist and Yog In-charge, IGIMS, Patna

• Mr. Mukesh Chandra, Digital Marketing Specialist

• Mr. Anshu Singh, Managing Director, Om India

Bihar Connect is a think-tank spearheaded by Domain Experts, Academicians, Thought Leaders and Professionals from Bihar. The organisation has been studying and documenting the policy interventions and their progress at the grassroots level for the past several years. The endeavour has been to highlight the felt-needs of the common people and bring that in the focus of policymaking discourse.

While grassroots level understanding and documentation of the issues are important, it will not make a difference at the ground unless the felt-needs and the ideas are connected to the policy. Bihar Development Forum seeks to fill the gaps between felt-needs and policymaking. It is a non-political and non-partisan platform that engages with wide range of stakeholders, including the policymakers, bureaucrats, academia and industry leaders.

The conference was divided in three parts – Inaugural Session : Atmanirbhar Bihar for Atmanirbhar Bharat; Plenary Session-I : National Educational Policy and Atmanirbhar Bihar; and Plenary Session-II : Ease of Doing Business and Atmanirbhar Bihar.

Full video of Bihar Development Forum ‘Atmanirbhar Bihar’ conference.

Dr. Sanjay Paswan, Former Union Minister and Member of Bihar Legislative Council, speaks at the Bihar Development Forum ‘Atmanirbhar Bihar’ conference

Mr. Jyoti Kalash, Additional Chief Secretary and Principal Resident Commissioner, Government of Nagaland, speaks at the Bihar Development Forum ‘Atmanirbhar Bihar’ conference.

Dr. Alakh N. Sharma, Professor & Director, Institute for Human Development, New Delhi, speaks at the Bihar Development Forum ‘Atmanirbhar Bihar’ conference.