IGC conference: Governor calls for 'distributive justice'

Patna: The importance of economic growth which is inclusive, sustainable and equitable was discussed on the inaugural day of Bihar Growth Conference with governor Ram Nath Kovind maintaining that in developing nations, the main problem is not the scarcity of resources, but the misallocation and concentration of it in few hands and that "there can be no social justice minus distributive justice".
"Bihar is one of the fastest growing states in India, but 34% of its population is still poor. That is a very large number of people. There is also inequality of wealth possession and also of livelihood opportunities. However, the investment potential of the state has increased," Kovind said while inaugurating the sixth annual Bihar Growth Conference organised by International Growth Centre (IGC) here on Saturday.
Kovind said it was heartening to witness that such events were happening in Bihar where experts from around the world converged to offer insight into ways that would lead to growth and give proper direction to government policies.
"Agriculture being the mainstay of Bihar's economy, its potential should be exploited in the sector of food processing and improving farm productivities," the governor said while listing sectors offering growth possibilities.
Speaking on the occasion, Bihar education minister Ashok Choudhary said the state was on the path of development and the conference was a celebration of this fact. He said the focus of his department was the development of human capital and the fact that Bihar had recorded one of the highest enrolment rates by girls at the primary level among the states was an encouraging indicator.
Earlier, welcoming guests and speakers, IGC India-Bihar's country co-director Shaibal Gupta, said because of its tremendous growth potential, Bihar had got the only province-specific IGC centre. All other IGC centres are country-specific, he added. IGC country director Prof Anjan Mukherji said IGC gave on-demand policy advice to governments of developing countries. Vote of thanks was proposed by ADRI director Prabhat P Ghosh.
Two technical sessions and special lectures were held during the day. In one such session on 'Effective public services delivery', IIM-Bangalore's Shabana Mitra's paper titled 'Wheels of power: Long-term effect of targeting girls with in-kind transfers', said that girls who got cycles under Mukhyamantri Balika Cycle Yojana had 27% more chances of completing Class X than those who did not have one. "These girls (with cycles) were more likely to delay marriage, at least by a year, which also had a positive effect on fertility rate," she said.
The second session was on "Political economy of development" while the special lectures were on "Recasting culture to undo gender: An ethnographic analysis of the Jeevika Livelihoods project" and "Market access and structural transformation: Evidence from rural roads in India".