Emulate Narendra Modi to attract investors, Nitish told

“No doubt, Nitish has got an unprecedented mandate. But to make industrialists put in their money in Bihar, Nitish will have to draw some lessons from Modi, develop a new work culture and fine-tune the lackadaisical bureaucracy,” national Secretary General of ASSOCHAM, D S Rawat told Deccan Herald here on Sunday.

Rawat was in Patna to congratulate Nitish on his landslide victory. To buttress his point, the apex trade body office-bearer cited the example of Narendra Modi, who invested 50 paise (sent a sms to Ratan Tata) and was successful in attracting an investment of more than Rs 1,500 crore for the Nano project at Sanand in Gujarat. “No matter how brute a majority you get, the most important thing is to change the mindset of sloth babus and develop a new work culture if you really want top honchos to invest in Bihar,” Rawat made a clean breast.

To illustrate his point, Rawat cited the example of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. “Till a few years back, MP was treated as one of the bimaru (sick) States. (Bi-ma-r-u actually refers to Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh). But when we organised Investmart in MP, MoUs worth Rs 2.53 lakh crore were signed in just two days in September 2010,” revealed Rawat.

This happened, he said, because Chouhan not only rolled out a red carpet for top industrialists, but also arranged three chartered flights for them and asked officers of Principal Secretary-level to receive them at the airport. “This way he sent a message that apart from land bank, his government was more than willing to help all those who were keen on investing in Madhya Pradesh,” said Rawat.

But as a first step to invest in Bihar, the ASSOCHAM is planning to organise an Investmart in Patna in April 2011 where MoUs worth Rs 50,000 crore will be signed. “Later MoUs worth Rs 1,25,000 crore will be signed in 2013 and Rs 1,75,000 crore in the year 2015,” said Rawat.