Bihar woos Ludhiana businessmen, offers incentives for investments
After Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, now it was the turn of Bihar to woo industrialists in Punjab, especially Ludhiana, while offering them a slew of incentives for attracting investments in another BJP-coalition-led eastern state, bordering Nepal.
A team of top officials from Bihar, led by their Industries Secretary Bandana Preyasi, reached the city on Wednesday to meet industry honchos in the business and financial capital of Punjab.
Bihar’s Department of Industries organised the Bihar Business Connect-2024, an investors’ meet in Ludhiana. The event was part of the Bihar Business Connect-2024 — Global Investors’ Summit. The summit aimed at showcasing Bihar’s potential across various sectors, including textiles, food processing, and general manufacturing. It was conducted under a business-to-government (B2G) approach.
Besides Bandana Preyasi, Bihar Industries Director Alok Ranjan Ghosh, Director of Food Processing Ravi Prakash and other senior officials met the business leaders.
They interacted with the potential investors and discussed benefits of investing in Bihar, emphasising the continuous efforts by the state government to transform Bihar into an industrial powerhouse.
The summit highlighted the improved connectivity and development-friendly policies.
Industrialists Kamal Oswal and Rishabh Oswal from Nahar Group, Bharat Goel from Hero Cycles, Prem Lal Saini from APEC, Ajay Kumar from AK Knitwear, and Swastik Jain from Arihant Knit Fashion were prominent among those who attended the summit.
Speaking on the occasion, the Industries Secretary reaffirmed Bihar’s commitment to development and emphasised their investor-friendly approach.
“Our priority is to simplify the investment process in Bihar. We have made significant progress in industrial policy reforms, land acquisition and infrastructure development,” she said.
Bandana shared that the summit in Ludhiana highlighted these initiatives and demonstrated how Bihar was poised to become the next major industrial hub. “Additionally, we are organising a “Bihar Business Connect” in December, attracting several foreign investors,” she said.
Discussing the Bihar Investment Promotion Policy-2016, the Industries Secretary mentioned that the focus areas included food processing, textiles and leather. These sectors fall under the Bihar Investment Promotion Policy-2016, with specific policies for each area. The policies offer employment generation subsidy, freight reimbursement subsidy, patent registration, tax incentives, skill development subsidy and 100 per cent exemption on staff registration fees and land conversion fees. Under the export promotion policy, export subsidies were provided for seven years along with performance-based incentives.
She said many investors had shown interest in Bihar in recent years. “The first “Bihar Business Connect” was held last year and received encouraging responses, resulting in the signing of 278 MoUs worth Rs 50,000 crore,” Bandana said while stating that within 10 months of last December’s event, MoUs worth Rs 28,000 crore were converted into physical investments.
She said Bihar had created an entire ecosystem, from ease of doing business to single-window clearance systems, to support these investments.
Bandana also noted that Bihar’s law-and-order situation had become stable and encouraging for manufacturing. “Additionally, the MSME sector is robust, fostering supply chain networks through large manufacturers. Small enterprises are being integrated into this ecosystem through the government’s start-up policy, which has supported 700 start-ups so far, contributing to the development of an innovative ecosystem,” she added.
The Bihar Skill Development Mission (BSDM), under the Ministry of Labour, provided various on-the-job training programmes. The expenses incurred by investors for training were reimbursed by the government. Skilled labour was abundant in Bihar, with efforts underway to further enhance their skills. The state introduced an online single-window clearance system, ensuring applications were processed promptly, typically within a week. Regular weekly meetings address any issues, ensuring speedy resolutions.
The Bihar officials apprised the local industrialists that support was also provided for GST applications, and land allotment in industrial areas is entirely online. These regular weekly meetings ensured that completed applications were cleared swiftly, typically within a week. The timeline for mandatory financial approvals was set at 21 to 30 days, ensuring quick and efficient processing.
The event saw the presence of key industry leaders, who were seen taking keen interest in learning about Bihar’s incentives.
Visit Mega Food Park
Later, the Bihar officials visited the Mega Food Park here.
During the visit, they observed how the park was bringing together local farmers, entrepreneurs and industries to promote agro-based industries.
They also reviewed operational units and facilities provided by the Punjab Government.
Developed by the Punjab Agro Industries Corporation, the park was a major hub for food processing entrepreneurs, offering facilities such as plotted areas, MSME sheds and core processing infrastructure. The main objective of the visit was to promote investment opportunities in Bihar and understand how the food park model can be successfully implemented in that state.
