To invite the farm machinery manufacturers from Punjab to invest in Bihar, a delegation, led by Dr S Siddharth, Principal Secretary, Department of Industries, Bihar, visited Ludhiana on Thursday.
A session on ‘Opportunities in farm machinery manufacturing in Bihar’ was organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). In a meeting with the textile industry, the delegation also offered them lucrative packages to set their units in Bihar.
“Bihar is a state of opportunities,” said Dr S Siddharth during the session. He explained how Bihar was fast becoming an easier and rewarding state for setting up businesses and also did a series of one-on-one meetings with leading industrialists from farm machinery groups, such as Amar Agri, New Swan, Bhogal Sons, and BCS India.
“Bihar offers comparative cost advantages in the farm machinery sector,” said Dr Siddharth. He dwelt upon some policy reforms and how they are making doing business easier in the state.
Sachit Jain, Chairman, CII Northern Region, congratulated the Bihar Government for taking proactive initiatives to sensitise stakeholders about the opportunities in the state. “Under the leadership of Nitish Kumar, Bihar is now clocking double-digit growth rates,” Jain said.
“The New Industrial Policy Resolution offers a wide range of fiscal and policy incentives — single window system with clearly defined timelines for application filing, tracking, and approvals, deemed approval for factory registration upon self-certification — which are helping to improve the investment climate of the state,” said Jain.
“I have learnt that the Bihar Government has allocated Rs 500-crore capital venture fund budget for startups. This will be a big boost for the emerging bright business ideas. The financial aid will help the budding entrepreneurs to scale a new height of success in the state,” he said.
The delegates also interacted with the industrialists from garment and textile industry. They said the state had 2,210 acres of land available where industrial units could be set up.
Narinder Chugh, one of the exporters, said they the Bihar official have assured them every help. “They told us that about 79 acres has been marked for a textile park and the payment can be made in five years. They have asked us to come to Bihar to meet the CM. They are looking for an investment of about Rs 2,000 crores with employment opportunities for 25,000 workers,” said Chugh.
Dr Siddharth was accompanied by Arvinder Singh, Director, Horticulture-cum-Mission Director, NHM, Department of Agriculture, Bihar, and Ravindra Prasad, Director-Technical Development, Department of Industries, Bihar.
