Unravelling Bihar's 'Growth Miracle'

• Published in: Economic and political weekly Vol. 45; no. 52; pp. 50 - 62
• Main Author: GUPTA, CHIRASHREE DAS
• Format: Journal Article Magazine Article
• Language: English
• Published: Mumbai Sameeksha Trust 25-12-2010; Athena Information Solutions Pvt. Ltd
• Subjects: Business expansion; Crop economics; Crop production; Crops; Economic fluctuations; Economic growth; Economic growth rate; Expenditures; Forest growth; GDP; Gross Domestic Product; Growth models; Low income groups; Perceptions; Political alliances; Political economy; Politics; Public investments; SPECIAL ARTICLES; State government; India
• ISSN: 0012-9976; 2349-8846

It has now become almost conventional wisdom that Bihar under the National Democratic Alliance government has moved onto a new and higher growth path. An examination of the Central Statistical Organisation data for the decade since 1999-2000, however, reveals a cyclical move towards a higher growth continuum rather than any structural break under the NDA government. The recent growth path represents the resumption of a long, fluctuating and volatile movement towards a trade-led higher growth continuum that had started in 1994-95 but was interrupted by the impact of bifurcation of Bihar in 2001. A preliminary proposition is that the process of movement to a higher growth continuum since 1994-95 in Bihar follows from the diversified patterns of accumulation through the agency of new entrants to accumulation as an outcome of the social justice movement in Bihar. The evidence presented here belies the propositions around a "growth miracle" under the NDA government and indicates a politically fractious movement of Bihar's economy since bifurcation to a volatile higher growth continuum that is lopsided in three dimensions — regional, sectoral and social.