Unemployment, outmigration, and poverty have engulfed Bihar for a long time. Ahead of elections, political parties make tall promises of creating jobs. But things cool down once votes are cast. But the people of Bihar seem to have learnt to live with it — and are trying to fix things on their own.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has promised one crore jobs in the next five years, while Tejashwi Yadav has pledged jobs to every family. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed that Bihar needs more startups so that the youth do not have to migrate outside the state.
Startups boom
With over 3,700 recognised startups, Bihar is emerging as eastern India’s unexpected engine of entrepreneurship. Bihar has more recognised startups than Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, and 16 other states and Union territories, as of June 30. Comparing it with peer states in eastern India, Bihar showed the quickest growth in startups between 2016 and 2024.
Bihar tops in investments received
Bihar received the highest investment among the six eastern and central-eastern states of West Bengal, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Jharkhand. Bihar received Rs 158 crore from selected Alternative Investment Funds between January 2019 and October 2024. In comparison, West Bengal received Rs 132 crore, Chhattisgarh Rs 54 crore, Assam Rs 31 crore, Jharkhand Rs 7 crore, and Odisha Rs 6 crore, according to Parliament data.
Growth across Bihar
While startups are mushrooming in Bihar, they are not concentrated only in the capital city of Patna. In fact, one in every two startups is outside Patna. Among the funded startups, the highest share of startups outside the capital city is in Muzaffarpur, East Champaran, Vaishali, Darbhanga, Saran, Begusarai and Gaya.
Bihar launched its Startup Policy in 2022, an improvement over the Bihar Startup Policy 2017. The policy aims to ease the path to entrepreneurship and provide funding to eligible startups.
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