Patna, 17 January. “India's fundamental challenge is going to be creation of jobs as there is a large population of young people in the country. Without jobs, you cannot invest in basic necessities of life. Small and medium-sized industries form an important component of these jobs.” Professor Johannes Urpelainen (Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies) said this while delivering a seminar entitled “Powering Growth in India's Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises”, organized by ADRI and International Growth Centre (IGC) at ADRI today.

Prof. Urpelainen added that “affordable, abundant, and reliable supply of energy is an essential precondition for economic growth. India's growth story is unusual as it has grown without any large contribution from the industrial sector.  In India, household electrification has progressed rapidly, but productive use of energy remains constrained.”

Analyzing Bihar's MSMEs, Prof. Urpelainen said that “most of these firms use a large chunk of their power consumption on lighting, fans, etc. An exception that he came across in Bihar was flour mills. Only 17 percent of the GDP of Bihar comes from the industrial sector as compared to all India average of 23 percent. Government intervention is required to move to larger, electric pumps in Bihar for tapping groundwater as the overwhelming majority of pumps use diesel. In his talk he also explained the energy constraints that small and medium-sized enterprises in rural and urban India face. He also argued for a strategy that focuses on improving energy supply in towns that are otherwise ready for rapid economic expansion.”

Shree Shyam Rajak, Hon’ble Minister of Industries, Government of Bihar, pointed out the difficulties that MSMEs of Bihar face in marketing their products. He said that efforts are being made to solve these problems.  There are a number of village-based industrial clusters in Bihar. These include cluster for leather works, rice mills, flour mills, etc.

While introducing the speaker, Dr. Shaibal Gupta, Bihar Lead of IGC India and Member Secretary of ADRI said the Professor has been conducting research in Bihar for several years now on topics like how to improve energy supply. Kumar Das, Programme Policy Manager, IGC India proposed the vote of thanks on the occasion.