ECONOMIC SURVEY 2021-22

Press Release

This time the state government is presenting the sixteenth Economic Survey (2021-22). The
Survey has thirteen chapters — Bihar Economy : An Overview, State Finance, Agriculture and
Allied Sectors, Enterprises Sector, Labour, Employment and Skill, Infrastructure and
Communication, Energy Sector, Rural Development, Urban Development, Banking and Allied
Sectors, Human Development , Child Development and finally Environment, Climate Change and
Disaster Management. The chapter-wise highlights are as follows:

The Gross State Domestic Product of Bihar had grown by only 2.5 percent in 2020-21, because of
the impact of lockdown. But this performance in better than the national average, as Indian
economy indeed shrank by 7.5 percent in 2020-21. At current prices, the Per Capita Income in
Bihar was Rs. 50,555 in 2020-21, compared to Rs. 86,659 for India. During the last five years
(2016-17 to 2020-21), the primary sector in Bihar had grown at 2.3 percent, the secondary sector
at 4.8 percent, and finally, the tertiary sector had grown at the highest rate of 8.5 percent.

As regards state finances, the year 2020-21 was a difficult year, because of Covid-19 pandemic.
The State Government responded to the challenge with the best possible utilisation of its fiscal
resources. The total expenditure by the State Government in 2020-21 increased by 13.4 percent
over the previous year to reach Rs. 1,65,696 crore, out of which Rs. 26,203 crore was the capital
expenditure and Rs. 1,39,493 crore was revenue expenditure. In 2020-21, the expenditure by the
State Government on general services, social services and economic services increased by 11.1
percent, 10.4 percent and 10.8 percent, respectively, over the previous year. The revenue and
capital receipts of the State Government were Rs. 1,28,168 crore and Rs. 36,735 crore,
respectively, in 2020-21. The revenue of the State Government from its own tax and non-tax
sources increased from Rs. 33,858 crore in 2019-20 to Rs. 36,543 crore in 2020-21.

Agriculture occupies a very crucial space in Bihar’s economy. The growth in agriculture and allied
sectors has been steady in Bihar. The Gross Cropped Area was 72.97 lakh hectares in 2019-20,
with a cropping intensity of 144 percent. During the last five years, agriculture and allied sector
grew at a pace of 2.1 percent. Among the sub-sectors, livestock and fisheries have grown at a pace
of 10 percent and 7 percent, respectively. As of 2020-21, the total foodgrain production was
estimated at a record of 17.95 lakh tonnes. The state has attained almost self-sufficiency in fish
production with a record production of 6.83 lakh tonnes in 2020-21. Bihar's total milk output stood
at 115.01 lakh tonnes in 2020-21. Towards further growth of agricultural sector, 'Bihan', a new
mobile App has been launched by the Department of Agriculture to integrate various ongoing
digital applications of agriculture on a single platform.

The industrial development in Bihar has been promising in the recent years. The State Government
has adopted various policy measures and established dedicated institutions to attract industrial
investment in Bihar. Due to these initiatives, Bihar has received 1918 proposals for investment
worth Rs 54,761 crore during 2017 to 2021. Three most attractive industries are — ethanol, food
processing, and renewable energy. Till December, 2021, the ethanol sector received first stage
clearance for 159 units, with an investment worth Rs 32,454 crore. To incentivise ethanol
production, the State Government has formulated Ethanol Production Promotion Policy 2021. The
State Government has also adopted the Oxygen Production Promotion Policy 2021 to accelerate
the production of oxygen for medical purposes in Bihar.

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Given the large working-age population and majority of them being engaged in the informal sector,
including agriculture, the State Government has launched different schemes to create employment
opportunities in leading sectors of the economy and to ensure social security of the workers. The
beneficiaries of such schemes are migrant workers, child labour, and construction workers. For
instance, under the Bihar Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment
and Condition of Service) Rule 2015, 14.28 lakh workers are registered cumulatively from
2016-17 to 2020-21. In 2020-21, the State Government has provided financial help to 11.10 lakh
construction workers, worth Rs 538 crore. Apart from that, through different commissions, the
State Government has also created employment opportunities in public sectors. In 2020-21, the
Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) had advertised 4586 vacancies, which was the
maximum during the last four years.

The Transport Department had taken several initiatives in recent years to improve citizen-friendly
services, road safety, etc. and earned five national awards during the last three years 2018-20.
Bihar recorded the highest growth in the country (14.4 percent) in transport, storage and
communication sector during the last decade (2011-20). It is an outcome of high public investment
in roads and bridges in last 15 years. Bihar ranked third in the country in terms of road density of
3086 kms. per 1000 sq. km area, after Kerala (6617 kms.) and West Bengal (3708 kms). The rural
roads network has expanded from 57,388 kms. in 2015 to 1,02,306 kms. in 2021. The budget of
the Building Construction Department increased over 20 times from Rs. 260 crore (2008-09) to
Rs. 5321 crore (2020-21) for constructing state-of-the-art buildings. Further, the state economy
has been strengthened through rapid development of the Information and Communication
Technology infrastructure.

Yet another sector where Bihar has achieved substantial progress is the energy sector. The Per
Capita Consumption of energy in the state has risen from 203 kwh in 2014-15 to 350 kwh in
2020-21, implying a growth of 72.4 percent in six years. The peak demand met again had a growth
of around 109.5 percent to reach 5932 MW during 2020-21, from 2831 MW in 2014-15. The
aggregate consumption of electricity in the state during 2016-17 was 21.6 thousand MU, which
increased to 31.4 thousand MU in 2020-21. It implies a growth of over 45 percent in four years.
The available power generation capacity in the state was 6073 MW in 2019-20, which increased
to 6422 MW in 2020-21, implying a growth of 5.7 percent. To meet the increased demand for
power, the State Government has already planned for additional capacity of 6607 MW from
different sources in a phased manner by 2023-24.

The State Government implements a number of programms to address the development needs of
the rural population. JEEViKA is one of them, which addresses the livelihood needs of rural
people. Presently, more than 12.72 lakh SHGs are credit-linked with the banks and, till date,
Rs. 16,537 crore transactions have been made. Under financial inclusion scheme, JEEViKA has
facilitated the linkage of more than 11 lakh SHG members to low-cost insurance coverage. For
employment generation, MNREGA is implemented effectively to enhance the income of rural
households. The number of households provided with employment has increased from 22.9 lakh
in 2016-17 to 51.0 lakh in 2020-21, an increase of 132.2 percent. An ambitious programme
‘Swachh Gaon, Sammriddh Gaon’, which aims to install solar lights in all villages is being
implemented, which will cost around Rs. 2000 crore. Another welfare programme to help the rural
population is the Public Distribution System, which ensures food security, with special attention
on ultra-poor households. In 2020-21, the total allotment was 54139.2 thousand tonnes, and the
amount lifted was 51725.2 thousand tonnes, (95.6 percent of allotment).

In the 2011 census, the level of urbanisation in Bihar was very low, only 11.3 percent. But, after
the State Government has decided to redefine an urban centre, the present level of urbanisation in
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Bihar is 15.3 percent, which indicates an appreciable expansion. The expenditure on urban
development of the State Government was Rs. 1648 crore in 2015-16, which increased by 68
percent in five years to reach Rs. 2766 crore in 2019-20. Similarly, the expenditure for housing
was Rs. 1486 crore in 2015-16, which increased to Rs. 5658 crore in 2019-20, nearly four times
during the same period.

The banking infrastructure plays a crucial for the expansion of economic activities in a state. The
Public Sector Banks largely dominate the banking sector in Bihar, but there has been a gradual
increase in the number of branches of the private sector banks in recent years. In 2020-21, 270
new bank branches were opened in the state. The most significant number of new branches were
opened by SBI (115), followed by the private sector banks (92). Other nationalised banks opened
52 new branches. The Credit to Deposit (CD) ratio in Bihar increased from 36.1 percent in
2019-20 to 41.2 percent in 2020-21, whereas it declined from 76.5 to 71.7 percent at all India
levels. The Annual Credit Plan (ACP) target of the banks in Bihar increased by 6.6 percent, from
Rs. 1,45,000 crore in 2019-20 to Rs. 1,54,500 crore in 2020-21. The banks issued 2.51 lakh new
Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) in Bihar during 2020-21, 51.0 percent higher than the previous year.
Among the total new cards in 2020-21, the commercial banks alone issued 2.24 lakh KCCs. The
Non-Performing Assets (NPA) of all banks combined in Bihar came down to 11.8 percent of total
advances in March 2021, from 14.9 percent in March 2020.

The overall impact of development efforts of the State Government is best judged when one takes
in account the level of human development. The State Government’s share of expenditure on social
services in total expenditure has increased from 34.4 percent in 2015-16 to 44.0 percent in
2020-21, indicating a growth of 16.6 percent, compared to 13.8 percent at all-India level. Health
and education are the two principal beneficiaries of this expenditure. Looking at the outcomes, it
is seen that the IMR in Bihar is 29 deaths per 1000 live births, which is lower than the national
figure of 30. Till December 2021, more than 10.00 crore persons were vaccinated in the state. The
total enrolment at primary level in 2019-20 was 139.47 lakh, of which girls were 68.13 lakh and
boys 71.34 lakh. Between 2012-13 and 2019-20, the dropout rate in the primary stage decreased
by 9.0 percentage points and in upper primary level, it decreased by 7.9 percentage points.

No human development is possible, unless it starts from child development. There has been a
steady increase in expenditure on child development in Bihar, during the last seven years. During
2013-14 to 2019-20, the overall expenditure on children increased at an annual rate of 22.7 percent.
Within educational infrastructure, the coverage of functional drinking water facility and toilets in
all types of schools is presently more than 90 percent in Bihar. A total of 1.12 lakh out-of-school
children (OOSC) in the age group of 6-13 years have been mainstreamed through different
interventions in 2020-21. Of these, 0.58 lakh were boys and 0.54 lakh were girls. It is seen that the
number of OOSC decreased from 1.44 lakh in 2019-20 to 1.12 lakh in 2020-21.

The Covid-19 crisis has further brought into focus the linkages of growth with environmental
concerns. Towards promoting environmental sustainability, various programmes have been
undertaken by the State Government. Under the Jal-Jeevan-Hariyali Mission, nearly 3.92 crore
saplings were planted in 2020-21 and about 4436 hectares of forest area were treated under soil
and moisture conservation work. The total expenditure of the Department of Environment, Forest
and Climate Change stood at Rs. 694 crore in 2020-21. Bihar received a total of 1385 mms. of
rainfall during 2020, which was about 37 percent higher than the long-run average rainfall. A
mobile App, called as ‘Indravajra’, has been developed to provide warning to the community at
least 40 minutes before the occurrence of lightning within an area of 20 kms.
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