Invest in education: President's advice to Bihar, Jharkhand

Patna: President Pranab Mukherjee today advised Bihar and Jharkhand to consider investing in education sector beyond what is done in "normal circumstances" as part of their development strategy.

Addressing an international conference, 'Bihar and Jharkhand: Shared History to Shared Vision', Mukherjee also said not all current development problems lend themselves easily to techno-managerial solutions.

"In most of the developing nations, which attained their independence in the middle of the previous century, the institution of state is considered to be very pervading with very limited space for non-state actors," he said.

The President said international development experience shows in the absence of such non-state institutions, often called civil society organisations, the efficiency of the state-led development process is bound to be limited.

He said international experience shows that for specially disadvantaged regions, human development could indeed be alternative development strategy.

Speaking at the conference organised by the Asian Development Research Institute, he said it must be realised that for "seriously disadvantaged" regions development strategy requires to unleash the productive forces of the economy and not just "unquestionably" follow the path of industrialisation as was done by countries or regions which had developed earlier.

Mukherjee said aspirations of the people in Bihar and Jharkhand are much higher than before as political mobilisation has brought the new section of people into power who were politically marginalised till recently.

"At this juncture, we only need to remember one important lesson of history, viz, the burden of history, howsoever heavy, can indeed be unloaded with right social mobilisation and political initiatives," Mukherjee said.

Mukherjee also advised them to consider Bangladesh as an example of development for eastern states of Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

It is possible for disadvantaged regions to change their comparative advantage from low-skill, labour-intensive goods and service to more skill intensive goods and services provider through deliberate human development, the President said.

"A logical requirement of this alternative development strategy will be prioritising investment on education beyond what would happen under normal circumstances. One may also note here that education does not mean economic advantage for the educated persons alone," he said.

The President added that the strategy has other important advantages as well, like empowerment of people and increased participation of people in development programmes and the political process.