Seeking to establish that it means business on its promises of industrialising Bihar and accelerating the pace of urbanisation, the newly elected NDA government led by Nitish Kumar, in its first Cabinet meeting on 25 November 2025, approved a string of decisions aimed at giving both processes an impetus.
These proposals, once they take coherent and concrete shape, are expected to go a long way in pitchforking Bihar into a tech hub in eastern India and introducing it to a new-age economy.
Simultaneously, the Cabinet decided to address a longstanding demand of farmers to reopen nine sugar mills that have remained dormant for decades, and also set up 25 new sugar mills across the state.
The upshot of these pathbreaking decisions is the creation of new jobs and the evolution of Bihar into a modern, self-reliant, and confident state. “Bihari” will no longer be a pejorative term; rather, people will take pride in calling themselves Biharis — provided these proposals reach their logical conclusion.
But an industrialised, modern state should, as a corollary, have robust infrastructure to accommodate the demands of a young, aspirational society. The Cabinet, in the same meeting, also approved the development of 11 satellite townships across each of the nine divisional headquarters, as well as in Sonepur — just across the Ganga from Patna — and in Sitamarhi, home to the grand Ma Janki Temple coming up at Punauradham on the town’s outskirts. Each township is envisaged as a planned centre equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure.
The roadmap for Bihar’s metamorphosis into an industrialised, forward-looking, and confident society rooted in its cultural ethos is laid out in the Sankalp Patra, the manifesto drafted and unveiled by all NDA partners on 31 October, just days before the first phase of polling. It contains a blueprint to take Bihar on a higher plane of development and put it on the world map.
Over the past twenty years, Bihar has connected every panchayat to its district centre, electrified every home, and — through over 10 lakh JEEViKA self-help groups — built a micro-enterprise base that has helped low-income women to become truly Atmanirbhar. The question now is: what next? The answer, the document argues, is just as simple and clear, from district centres to global markets: panchayat se district, aur district se duniya.
As far as industrialisation is concerned, the NDA’s Sankalp Patra rests on three pillars: building supportive infrastructure and a business-friendly environment; scaling Bihar’s strengths in textiles and food processing; and opening doors to future-facing industries in technology and semiconductors. Together, these pieces aim to turn thousands of small aspirations into one identity — Made in Bihar, For the World.
Cheapest, fastest logistics
The manifesto aims to establish Bihar as a fast, low-cost logistics hub. It proposes a Ganga–Gandak Economic Belt connecting industrial clusters—from Champaran’s sugar to Begusarai’s petrochemicals and Bhagalpur’s silk—along roughly 700 km of inland waterways to Haldia Port and beyond to global shipping markets. Waterway transport, at about Rs 1.06 per tonne-km, costs roughly half of road transport and is cheaper than rail. This could cut logistics expenses by crores for businesses and small farmers.
The document also proposes five Airport Economic Zones with cargo units for perishables and agricultural produce, enabling shipments to reach Dubai or London in under 48 hours, thereby lifting farm-gate prices. The Airport Economic Zones would also lay the groundwork for fast logistics for high-value manufactured products such as semiconductors and pharmaceuticals.
Gateway to the East and Northeast
Leveraging Bihar’s location, the document highlights seven proposed expressways designed to make the state the quickest corridor to Nepal, the Northeast, and the Haldia Sea Port. In the coming years, these expressways would connect SEZs and manufacturing clusters with international borders.
These routes pass through rich agriculture, meat, and poultry belts, strengthening Bihar’s fresh-food supply chains. The manifesto also calls for industrial clusters along these 3,600 km of expressways to streamline the movement of processed food and manufactured goods to the Northeast and international markets, a proven model used by many leading states.
Scaling what Bihar is good at
Biharis already produce what the world wants, whether it’s food, clothing, or simple electronics, but the hurdle has been producing these goods within Bihar itself. For this, the document envisions making Bihar the textile hub of South Asia, replacing Bangladesh. It proposes a Silk Textile Park in Bhagalpur and the Mithila Design & Textile Park in Madhubani, blending Bhagalpur silk with Mithila designs for global buyers.
As a second jobs engine, the document proposes five-mega food parks to process fruits, vegetables, fish, poultry, and meat for global shelves within five years. Together, the textile and food-processing push would generate large-scale employment for one of India’s youngest workforces — Jahān mehnat, vahin rozgar, as envisaged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
With 534 One Block, One Product items already identified, the Sankalp Patra promises 50,000 cottage industries. This means rural areas can have small units that make products unique to their region. To boost grassroots MSMEs, the manifesto also proposes 100 sub-divisional MSME Parks focused on food processing, textiles, and leather. Honouring traditional skills, the manifesto pledges support of up to Rs 10 lakh and the establishment of Vishwakarma Parks for EBC/SC traders — from fishers to weavers — Hunar ko izzat, vyāpār ko raftār.
To ensure Made in Bihar products reach global buyers, the document promises to set up Bihar export offices abroad to secure steady orders for small and micro firms. Bihar would be the first one to successfully work around this concept.
New-age economy
Biharis form a strong tech and services workforce across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, and Delhi-NCR. Many also work on factory floors assembling reliable electronics and machinery. Yet industries and large investments have not come to Bihar, despite being powered by the Biharis. A big reason behind this is the quality-of-life gaps and limited, ready-to-use industrial infrastructure.
The document says it will fix this by creating a FinTech City and Mega Tech Cities in Patna, integrated with New Patna city. It also promises Rs 10,000 crore to provide free office space and common services for anchor tech and AI investors, a model that has attracted big names like Google in other states. The plan is to set up Global Capability Centres (GCCs) in areas where Bihar has strengths: legal services, health-tech, and agri-tech. To support homegrown tech, it proposes a Rs 5,000 crore startup fund.
Bihar already has an EV assembly line. To strengthen the industry, the manifesto proposes EV manufacturing hubs for mass production. For a new-age economy, it also speaks of a defence corridor and an aircraft MRO hub to build an aviation supply chain in the state.
With India already building semiconductor capacity, Bihar won’t be left behind. In five years, when people walk the streets of Patna, they’ll say: ‘We make semiconductors—Made in Bihar, for the World.’
NDA Sankalp Patra 2025, a three-pillar plan, is not just about creating jobs or attracting investment. It is a blueprint to make Bihar a symbol of ambition fulfilled. With the right leadership and clarity of purpose, the world won’t just know Made in Bihar, it will demand it. This is Bihar’s moment, to not just catch up, but to lead.
Devesh Kumar is Member of Legislative Council (MLC) in Bihar, and Prabhari of Mizoram BJP. He tweets @deveshkumarbjp. Views are personal.
(Edited by Prashant Dixit)