Invest in human development, President's advice to Bihar, Jharkhand

He said aspirations of the people in Bihar and Jharkhand are much higher than before

President Pranab Mukherjee advised Bihar and Jharkhand to invest hugely in human development. For this, he asked the states to consider investing in heavily education sector.

Addressing an international conference, 'Bihar and Jharkhand: Shared History to Shared Vision', Mukherjee also said not all current development problems lend themselves easily to techno-managerial solutions.

"In most of the developing nations, which attained their independence in the middle of the previous century, the institution of state is considered to be very pervading with very limited space for non-state actors," he said.

The President said international development experience shows in the absence of such non-state institutions, often called civil society organisations, the efficiency of the state-led development process is bound to be limited.

He said international experience shows that for specially disadvantaged regions, human development could indeed be alternative development strategy.

Speaking at the conference organised by the Asian Development Research Institute, he said it must be realised that for "seriously disadvantaged" regions development strategy requires to unleash the productive forces of the economy and not just "unquestionably" follow the path of industrialisation as was done by countries or regions which had developed earlier.

Mukherjee also advised them to consider Bangladesh as an example of development for eastern states of Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. "It is possible for disadvantaged regions to change their comparative advantage from low-skill, labour-intensive goods and service to more skill intensive goods and services provider through deliberate human development," the President said.

He also said aspirations of the people in Bihar and Jharkhand are much higher than before as political mobilisation has brought the new section of people into power who were politically marginalised till recently.