Saturday, February 11, 2012

Bihar needs better business condition for investors


Today, Mr. R. K. Singh, the CEO of SPR Group asked a question on Facebook: "Long awaited meeting of SIPB was scheduled for 14th Feb and postponded at last moment where over 113 applications are pending for approval. Investors are running behind industry department for the same since Aug 2011 as last meeting was held on 28thSep11 in which applications till July were taken up. Bihar is developing and became investors friendely?"

Truely frustrating!

Being an aspiring entrepreneur and small investor in IT Sector, I believe that Bihar can become important outsourcing destination in no time as you can get a resource for as low as 5000-10000 a month. However I can see some loose end which I faced personally and that need to be fixed. Unlike from big investors, small/medium investors are least tolerant and less equipped to handle adverse conditions, negligence, exploitations. This is loss for Bihar.

Let us see how the Global Summit on Changing Bihar 2012 is going to affect Bihar. Bihar spends lot of money every year for branding but private investment is not hapening as expected. At least let us hope for some results now. Otheriwse this year too prominent person invited on tax payers money will deliver their message and go back. The real investors who will attend the summit on their personal cost will continue to be in dilemma!

Another point is that trying to attract big investers is good thing. Big projects will have bigger time line of setup and prodcution and cuase greater growth for Bihar in long run. Additionally, focus should be on small investors as well.

Thousands of small investors residing out of Bihar have ideas, small seed funds and keen interest to invest in Bihar. They can significantly contribute in real growth of Bihar and they can start real quick. For that is required encouraging business conditions absolutely free of sarkari babu attitude.

Additionally, some views from my previous blog "Why companies will come to Bihar": "State Investment Promotion Board (SIPB) Bihar serves as the Single Window Agency for project approvals. Try googling about it, you will not find much meaningful information like contact, address, how, what, functions, procedures, clarification etc. A dedicated website would be required backed by powerful workflow system. So that investment proposals can made online and tracked till closure. A dedicated call center with online chat will help and attract startup investors as well."