During my recent visit to India on a 2 weeks holiday, I took 2 days off to attend this 3 day summit which was jointly organised by Bihar government, Asian Development Research Institute, Patna, Institute of Human Development, New Delhi and Bihar Foundation, Patna. Here is a summary on my participation in the summit which I found eventful, energising and educative.

Lunch with Shri Nitish Kumar 
My Air India flight from Delhi was delayed by 3 hours which meant losing almost half a day of my already shortened attendance. However, upon reaching Hotel Maurya which was the venue on the 2nd day, I was greeted very warmly by Satyajit N Singh, the PR Manager of Bihar Foundation, who ushered me into a conference hall where an animated workshop titled "building industrial capabilities: infrastructure, finance, skills and entrepreunerships" was in progress. Satyajit also handed me over  a card which was an invitation for lunch with Shri Nitish Kumar.
The chief minister of Bihar Shri Nitish Kumar had invited all the delegates in the spacious lawn of his residence at 1, Anne Marg for a lunch which consisted of a sumptuous range of food which also included well-cooked Bihari dishes such as Litti, Saag, Bajka, Tilori etc. Many prominent personalities such as Javed Akhtar participated in this lunch and Nitish Kumar personally greeted everyone. I, too had the fortune of meeting him along with representatives from Australia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi and Bangalore. Nitish wore his inimitable charming smile and was gracious in welcoming everyone with great hospitality. 

Panel Discussion on Cultural Renaissance in Bihar Through Cinema & Television
The Panel consisted of Jawed Akhtar, Tripurari Sharan, the newly appointed chairman of Doordarshan, Uday Shankar, CEO of Star India, Shekhar Suman, Prakash Jha, Piyush Jha, Priyanka Sinha, Editor Of Screen, Abhimanyu Singh, an upcoming Bollywood actor and Neetu Chandra. This star studded discussion with a lively Q&A session obviously attracted everyone and the huge hall constructed on the lawn of Hotel Maurya with a capacity of 800 persons was fully packed. Jawed Akhtar being the moderator of the panel, regaled the audience with a witty and effective presentation of the changing culture. He summed up the changes in the culture with a humorous explanation of the change in the the persona of the Bollywood villains which according to him was a ruthless Zamindar in the 40s, a mill owner in the 50s, an urban gangster in the changing India in 60s, a politician or a policeman, in 70s and 80s and a terrorist in the 90s. He humorously added that in the decade after 2000, Bollywood movies had no villain, as a result the true heroes were also missing. He lamented the fact that Bollywood producers are no longer interested in producing movies for the small towns or the rural India and as long as they were receiving big revenues from the highly priced tickets in the cineplexes, they were contented. Shatrughan Sinha was also a part of this panel but he could not turn up due to his engegaement in UP election campaign. Shekhar Suman was at his brilliant best in summarising his thoughts through a very well written text which he prepared while listening to all other panelists. Piyush Jha with whom I spoke during the lunch next day was articulate too. Incidentally, Piyush Jha is a Bollywood director and has directed movies such as Chalo America, Sikandar and Bollywood Ka Hero. Neetu Chandra, a Bollywood actress introduced herself in Bhojpuri and sounded passionate about reviving the Bhojpuri film industry and emphasised the fact that the industry and the Bhojpuri speaking people needed to support production of these movies in Bihar. She lamented on the fact that her venture in producing the Bhojpuri film 'Deswa' which was fully shot in Bihar and included a number of artists from Bihar did not elicit enough response from the fellow Biharis.


Meeting with Sushil Kumar Modi on 19Feb12:
This was by far our best  moments in the summit. The Deputy CM along with U.K Sinha, chairman SEBI and head of Mumbai chapter of Bihar Foundation, K C Mishra, Industries Secretary and Deepak Kumar Singh, CEO, Bihar Foundation took time to meet the NRBs and asked the representatives of different countries and cities to share their activities and plans. On behalf of BIJHAR I spoke about our objective of spreading awareness about the culture, heritage and festivals of Bihar, rendering support to NGOs in both Singapore and India ( with a focus on Bihar and Jharkhand) and working with institutions like Bihar Foundation in the pursuit of all-round development of the state. I took liberty in urging the highly placed NRBs to set an example by contributing at least ten percent of their time and income on selfless and charitable acts aimed towards the welfare of the underprivileged sections of the society. "Do not ask what Bihar can do for you, ask what you can do for Bihar" - this was stated by Shakeel Kakvi, chairman Bihar Foundation - Qatar chapter and I underscored this point which was applauded by the audience. I also proposed that various international chapters should meet once in a year or two with an objective to share and synergize their efforts.


Plenary Session On "Accelerating The Growth Of Industry and Services in Bihar" 
This session was moderated by Shri Abhijit Sen, Member, Planning Commission and included K.V Kamath, Chairman, ICICI bank, U.K Sinha, Chairman, SEBI, Lord Karan Billimoria, Founder & Chairman, Cobra Beer UK and Professor Deepak Mazumdar from University of Toronto. The participants spoke eloquently about various aspects in the growth of industrial and services sector in Bihar. Both K V Kamath and Lord Billimoria  sounded extremely optimistic about Bihar's future, and highlighted the fact that the young and energetic population of Bihar was poised for a rapid and accelerated growth. Kamath spoke about his visits to the 27 branches of his bank across Bihar and remarked that he had not seen the kind of exuberance and enthusiasm in his young staff anywhere else in India, and added that he would like to give a score of 10 out of 10 for the zeal, commitment and optimism to his staff in Bihar.


Vision for Bihar's Development and Emerging Agenda for Action
This plenary session was moderated by Shri M.J Akbar, Managing Editor, India Today. Other participants included Professor Dev Nathan from Institute Of Human Development, Naveen Kumar, Chief Secretary, Government of Bihar, Dr. S.C Mishra, Head, Strategic Asia, Djakarta, Professor Sudipto Mundle from NIPFP and Dr. Gerry Rogers, Former Director, International Institute of Labour Studies, Geneva.
Here is an excerpt from a paper by Sudipto Mundle which is an apt summary on the current situation of Bihar. "Bihar is one of the top performers among Indian states in terms of the pace of change in various development indicators. Yet it remains the poorest and one of the least developed states in India. What accounts for this paradox? The answer is that Bihar's robust performance is a relatively recent phenomenon. It will require many more years of such performance before Bihar can overcome its abysmally poor development legacy of several decades."
Valedictory Session
Nitish Kumar mesmerized the audience in his valedictory speech which he spoke in simple but commanding Hindi. His speech was so well balanced that Gopal Krishna Gandhi, the chief guest for the session and ex-governor West Bengal and a grandson of Mahatma Gandhi commented that after listening to Nitish Kumar he felt absolutely short of words for his speech. However, he went on to deliver an emotional and affective set of his views which was in the form of a posthumous letter which he wrote to one of the architects of the post-independence India Shri Jaiprakash Narayan, one of the key figures in the post Independence India who also championed the cause of democracy during the 1975 emergency era.
Meeting with Jonathan Tow 
I bumped into Jonathan Tow, the deputy high Commissioner of Singapore in India, who was warm and friendly and sounded very positive about Bihar. It was a pleasure to help him buy a few Madhubani paintings and also help interpret some of the Hindi speeches.
OIFC (Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre)
I met some delegates from OIFC and collected their brochures. They are likely to visit Singapore shortly. Some of you from BIJHAR had asked me to find out the avenues for investing in Bihar. I would suggest you to get in touch with OIFC personnel. Their website address is www.oifc.in.
Heard During The Summit (As gathered from the local newspapers) 
Bihar requires large industries and shortage of electricity is a big deterrent. - Lord Meghnad Desai - Noted economist. 
Indian culture is about fostering and nurturing family ties. The difference between Mauritius and Bihar is that in Bihar, now women are being accorded equal treatment whereas this has been in prevalence for a long time in Mauritius - Devika Chunni - Wife of art and culture minister, Mauritius, Mukteshwhar Chunni.
Human resources and capital management are key to development as evidenced by the economic model of Japan and Singapore. - Rajeshwar Mishra, Melton Holdings, Beijing. 
Along with cuisines of their native countries, we have also arranged Bihari dishes for our guests such as Kele ki bhujiya, Amrud ka juice, Hing ki kachauri, Dhabe ki daal, Alu-til ki chatani, backha, tilori, pitha, perakiya etc. - BD Singh, General Manager, Maurya Hotel.
Bihar ke bhojan aur sanskriti ka koi jor nahin hai. -Ankuj Kumar, NRB from Chicago originally from Madhubani. 
In January, more than two lakh foreign tourists arrived in Bihar to attend Kalchakra festival which is a record in itself. Bihar has been able to develop trust with the global community as a result a great potential for tourism industry has become a possibility - Anil Kumar Sharma - Chairman - Amrapuli Group of Companies.
We are expediting our plan and looking for suitable land. It will be finalized very soon. - Kumar Manglam Birla - Chairman, Aditya Birla Group, about his plans to invest Rs. 500 Crore in Bihar.
The state would hardly benefit from such a meet as speakers are only confined to hotel rooms with little knowledge of ground realities. Construction of a few apartments doesn't mean the state is changing. - Lalu Prasad, RJD Supremo.
Bihar has a great future as it has a great Chief Minister to meet the challenges in the way of development - Robert Zagha, World Bank's Country Director.
Agriculture is the primary engine for economic development of the state and the state government has taken initiative for sustainable agriculture development and initiated measures to intensify productivity. There has been rapid growth in Paddy cultivation by small land holders. - Prabhu Pingali - Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations' deputy director (agricultural development).
 
To conclude, I have added a few of my thoughts which kept reeling into my mind in the last few days.
1. Bihar is certainly changing. Better roads (Nitish's plans that Patna can be reached within 6 hours from anywhere in Bihar), impressive GDP growth (11 percent in 2011), better law and order situation, increase in number of tourists from 70000 per year to 6 lakhs, emergence of top-notch Bihari industrialists (Anil Agarwal of Vedanta Resources 60000 crores turnover 31000 employees and Anil Kumar Sharma of Amrapali Group), opening of premier educational and research institutions ( IIT, IIM, NIT, BIT Mesra, National Law School, Nalanda International University etc.), talk of impressive projects such as Thermal Power Stations at Barh, Nabinagar, additional road bridges on Ganga, chain of luxury hotels and hospitals such as Holiday Inn, Max etc.), 50% reservation for women in local political bodies etc. are ample proof of this phenomenon.
2. "Bihari" is definitely a less pejorative term now. People appear to be getting increasingly aware about the success of Biharis in every field both in India and abroad. While the earlier Bihari diaspora has thrown personalities as eminent as Navinchandra Ramgoolam, Prime Minister of Mauritius and Kamla Persad Bissesar, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, the new generation has the likes of Sanjay Jha, head of Motorola who is one of the highest paid executives in the world.
3) The successful organization of the global summit on changing Bihar on such a scale and the one which was attended by top bureaucrats, industrialists, social thinkers, media persons such as Baburam Battarai, MJ Akbar, Gopal Krishna Gandhi, Kumar Manglam Birla, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Jawed Akhtar itself shows that Bihar is on the radar of the movers and shakers.
4) However, one hopes that changing Bihar will not mean compromising on Bihar's heritage, values, ethos and culture. Amidst all the poverty and economic backwardness, the beauty of Bihar emerges when we see Bihari children continuing to touch their elders' feet or when the family members from all corners assemble at their native homes to celebrate the most wonderful festivals such as "chhath" and "teej". Also majority of marriages in Bihar are still arranged by parents and very rarely one hears about the children packing off their parents to old age homes. It is also a credit to the Bihari farmers who persevere amidst all odds and do not commit suicides unlike their brethren in some of the Indian states.
5) We will do well to bring economic prosperity with caution and lessons learnt from other economic models and not hurt the environment or the heritage. Bihar, the land of Buddha, Mahavir, Sufi Saints, the birthplace of Guru Gobind Singh has no dearth of wisdom. What is required is action. GDP growth is wonderful but it can be misleading. We should say no to a growth which results in the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer. 
6) When we talk of Bihar, who could be a better source of wisdom than Buddha and hence, let us end this article with some of his famous quotes.
 "However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do if you do not act upon them."
"Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we did not learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we did not learn a little, at least we did not get sick, and if we got sick, at least we did not die, so let us all be thankful."
And finally, what Buddha himself learnt when he decided to break his fast after listening to these words from the village women singing folk songs. 
"Veena ki taar ko itna mat kaso, ki toot hi na jaya, aur itna dhila bhi mat chhoro, ki sur hin na nikale." (Do not tighten the string of your musical instrument so tight that it snaps and do not leave it so loose that there is no musical note.)