Bihar plans unified industrial policy to accelerate growth

Bihar's government plans a unified industrial policy to streamline processes, boost investment, and enhance ease of doing business, targeting ₹5 lakh crore in investments.

The Bihar government is working on a unified industrial policy framework that will replace multiple sector-specific policies, industries minister Shreyasi Singh said while outlining measures to accelerate industrial growth and improve ease of doing business in the state.

Bihar sports and industry minister Shreyasi Singh being honoured during Samwad programme at Bihar Industries Association hall in Patna (SANTOSH KUMAR/HT)

In an interaction with industrialists and entrepreneurs, Singh said her department began work on the policy from the first day she assumed charge. The move aims at ensuring “one state, one industrial policy” to streamline incentives and reduce procedural complexities for investors.

The department is working on a single clearance portal, which will use AI-based systems, to reduce human intervention and eliminate the need for entrepreneurs to approach separate departments for clearances related to fire services, forests, roads, drainage and utilities.

She said the state would introduce a timeline-based clearance mechanism for investment proposals under Bihar Industrial Investment Promotion Policy once all departments were integrated into the system. The approval window could range between 30 and 60 days.

To strengthen industry outreach at the grassroots level, the industries department also directed district magistrates to resume and institutionalise monthly “udyog vartas” (industry interactions) with chambers of commerce, industrial bodies and local entrepreneurs in every district.

Highlighting land availability as Bihar’s biggest industrial edge, Singh said the state had doubled its land bank in last three years and was working to acquire over 500 acres in each district for development of industrial zones and areas under Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority.

Referring to Bihar’s industrial ambitions, the minister said the state had targeted investments worth ₹5 lakh crore over five years under the 2025 industrial policy. She claimed that investment proposals worth over ₹1.14 lakh crore had already been recorded by the industries department.

Singh further said the government’s focus was to transform Bihar from a “consumer-based economy” into a “production-based economy” by providing industries with a safe and secure business environment and faster implementation support.

The minister, who took charge of the office on May 8, also said the Bihar government was preparing a new pharmaceutical policy, adding the state’s startup policy had already supported more than 1,800 startups over the past year.