Nitish Kumar invites India Inc to Bihar

Visiting Mumbai after settling of a controversy stoked by MNS leader Raj Thackeray, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar invited India Inc to invest in his state, touting the industrial policy announced by his government last year.

"The Chief Minister urged the industry captains to come and invest in Bihar as it offers a industry-friendly climate," sources said after Kumar's hour-long meeting with corporate honchos in Mumbai on Sunday.


"The state offers tremendous business opportunities in sectors such as solar energy, education, healthcare etc," Nitish Kumar told the industrialists.

The meeting was attended by Vedanta Group Chairman Anil Agarwal, Bharat Forge Group Chief Baba Kalyanai, ICICI Bank's CMD Chanda Kochhar and Axis Bank's chief Shikha Sharma among others.

A war of words had erupted betwen Thackeray and Kumar after MNS threatened to disrupt Bihar's centenary celebrations to be attended by the chief minister in Mumbai.

Reacting sharply to MNS' stand, Kumar had said no one could stop him from attending the event and he did not require a "visa" to travel to Mumbai.

Howveer, in a climbdown Thackeray later said he has no objection to the celebrations following an assurance from Kumar that the event has no political agenda.

Bihar government had last year announced a new industrial policy which focused on areas like power, food processing, agro-based industries, tourism, super speciality hospitals, IT, technical and higher education, electronics, hardware and non-conventional sources of energy.

The policy provides for a subsidy grant of 50 per cent for setting up captive power plants and 60 per cent in case of non-conventional sources of energy.

The Industrial Policy 2011-2016 also provides a capital subsidy of about Rs 5 crore to those making less than Rs 500 crore of investments whereas Rs 30 crore would be given as capital subsidy to industrial units that invest Rs 500 crore or above.