Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was awarded the Economic Times Business Reformer of the Year for 2009 at the award function held yesterday.

Bihar, always considered backward, benighted and hopeless, saw Lady Luck smiling on it when Janata Dal (United)-BJP alliance headed by Mr. Kumar came to power in 2005. Ever since donning the thorny crown, Mr. Kumar started systematically revamping and rebuilding the state, ably supported by a set of sincere officers.

At the time of election, Mr. Kumar was hailed as the last hope for Bihar, ravaged by the 15-year long rule of Lalu Prasad Yadav. Lawlessness was the biggest issue in those days. Mr. Kumar has managed to achieve the impossible – turning around law and order of the state and thereby its economy.

Bihar’s economic growth for the last five years came a close second to Gujarat, touted as India’s economic wonderland. The consistency of growth displayed by the state makes it nothing short of a miracle.

Mr. Kumar has embarked on the right path to bring the state back to its glorious old days. He started with infrastructure – almost 7,000kms of road repaired, above 1,500 bridges (259 major ones) built in four years. This has shortened the traveling time by almost half.

Another coup for Mr. Kumar is the containment of kidnapping ‘industry’ by putting the state’s notorious dons behind bars. The number of reported kidnapping has come down dramatically.

Bihar is attaining an atmosphere of normalcy with more banks, malls, mobile service providers and private educational institutions opening shop. Automobile sales surged at an amazing rate of 45%.

However, despite the astounding growth rate, the social indicators have remained pathetic and unchanged. Four years is too short a period for this to happen. When the basics are set right and strengthened, let us hope that the rest will eventually follow.

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