Bihar Development Trust

Background

Bihar development trust is an initiative by three enterprising IRMANs who passed out from Institute of Rural Management, Anand in 2006. There was a burning desire to do something for Bihar development which was not possible while working outside Bihar. After a detailed brainstorming, it was decided to start a trust for Bihar development aptly named BIHAR DEVELOPMENT TRUST which will work on various issues of development in Bihar so that people can move upward at least economically.

Vision

Every citizen of Bihar lives his/her life with dignity

Mission

To create better social, economical and political environment by providing opportunity to the people of Bihar in economic, social and political space of India

Values

Faith
Integrity
Transparency
Honesty
Discipline

Trustees

Dr Ravi Chandra, who has a unique combination of management with dental background
A graduate from Manipal Academy of Higher Education which provides arguably one of the best dental education in India with Postgraduate Diploma in Rural Management from Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) which has one of best education processes in India

Mr. Dev Kumar Dubey, who has six years of working with Employee Provident Fund (EPF) before he joined IRMA and got transformed into a social development professional with a vision to develop Bihar

Mr. Rakesh Jha, an economics graduate from Patna University and Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Management from IRMA. Currently, He is Area Manager in SKS Microfinance Limited and blazing a trail across Bihar in microfinance. He has single handedly grown SKS from one man team to over 100 member team with more than 20000 members in Bihar

Mrs. Rajkumari Devi, A housewife and mother of Dr. Ravi Chandra with no formal education but enough courage to dedicate his son for the cause of Bihar Development

Mr. Shyam Bihari Prasad, a local level grass root politician with good understanding of Bihar sociopolitical milieu.

The Advisory Committee

Following persons have been invited to join the management committee of Bihar development trust who will advice us on day to day running of operations and provide strategic directions.

Prof. Prabal Kumar Sen
Professor in economics in XLRI with previous stint in IRMA and more than 2 decades of experience of banking sectors in various senior role

Mr. Anindo Banerjee
Head, Internal Programme, PRAXIS, Institute of Participatory practices, an alumunus of IRMA and powerful speaker on governance and participatory practices

Dr. Sunil Babu
State Programme Representative, CARE, Chatishgarh, an alumnus of IRMA and an expert in the field of public health system

Mr Atul Kumar
Corporate Banking, HSBC, Mumbai, an alumnus of IRMA and desire to work for development for Bihar

Mr. Satish Chandra Godisella
Channel manager, ITC, Bhopal, a computer science engineer turned rural development professional having interest in making agriculture a growth engine for development of India

Dr Ravi Chandra- Trustee

Mr. Dev Kumar Dubey- Trustee

Area of Development Intervention

Bihar is endowed with arguably most fertile lands in India. More than 80% of population still depends on agriculture in one or other way. Bihars’ huge positive demographic dividend, fertile lands and perennial water from rivers etc can help it to grow into the biggest agri business zone of the world. It has huge non resident bihari population which is willing to help its motherland but unable to do so. The main reason we can come up is lack of honest platform and mistrust in government machinery to deliver services to the people. The other reason being law and order problems, lack of entrepreneurial activity, flight of capital and quality manpower, unemployment and high cost of capital. Thus Bihar is caught in a vicious circle of low productivity, low income and low growth. Bihar needs a solution linked with governance, agriculture and employment. So we chose to focus on following area:

Governance

Microfinance
Health care
Education

Agribusiness

Vocational training and placement

Governance

The concept of "governance" is not new. It is as old as human civilization. Simply put "governance" means: the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented (or not implemented).

Formal government structures are just one of the means by which decisions are arrived at and implemented. At the state and national level, informal decision-making structures, such as "kitchen cabinets" or informal advisors may exist. There may be rich corporate, land mafias, senior bureaucrats, and powerful families etc. which influence decision-making at local level. Such, informal decision-making is often the result of corrupt practices or leads to corrupt practices.

If Bihar has to develop, it has to weed out such corrupt systems and practices. The process of weeding out the opaque system of governance has started with Right to Information Act and decentralization of governance to local levels. At present, signification powers has been give to Panchayati Raj Institutions and urban bodies to take the decisions regarding development of their own region locally. There is need to partner with the stakeholders of local development process like bureaucrats, local politicians, local powerful families, local criminals and common people to make the process of decision making on development issues more transparent.
Bihar development trust aims to strengthen the governance system by capacity building of local elected representatives both of Panchayati Raj Institutions as well as urban bodies like Nagar Panchayat and Nagar Nigam. Working with the bottom of democracy institutions, we hope to play the role of catalyst so that all stakeholders realize the benefit of good governance to themselves.

Microfinance

Bihar is the second most populous state and unequivocally one of the poorest states of India. There is no significant microfinance activity in the state. Among the large older player are Patna based Nidan and Mujaffarpur based Kanchan . They have a membership base of around 10000-20000 and portfolio of less than a crore. Of late, efforts have been made under the Bihar State Livelihood Promotion Society under JEEVIKA project supported by World Bank but they are already late by two years. SKS Microfinance Pvt. Limited started its operation last year and has been successful in making more than 20000 members and a portfolio more than a Crore. Most of the efforts are being limited around Patna the capital city, with very little effort being made it to spread it to unreached part of Bihar. There is hardly any microfinance activity in the other parts of Bihar. It can not be said that people of Bihar do not need credit facility for growth. It is required to bring economic growth in every household.

There is a definite need for starting an MFI in Bihar as officially more than a crore people live below poverty line in Bihar. The population requiring credit services is much more than it and there is huge potential waiting to be tapped. Millions of poor people would require financial services. Bihar is on the verge of growth and development and microfinance as a tool for economic development can really play a big role. There is experience of SKS microfinance in Bihar, CASHPORE in eastern UP operating in similar socioeconomic environment suggests that it is possible to attain growth and sustainability in the Bihar.

Bihar development trust seeks to fulfill this gap by start microfinance operations in Bihar. It has decided to follow the time tested Grameen model because of proven track record of having robust processes for better financial management and economic and social development of community. The operation is starting from Bhagalpur region of Bihar and will expand to rural regions around Chapra, Aurangabad, Bhozpur, Mujaffarpur and Patna. It proposes to have one million group members in the time span of five years. Bihar Development Trust will provide Non-financial services range from literacy classes and community development, health care services, agri extension services to market-based business-development services. The reason is improved access to market opportunities stimulates - and depends on - securing credit to cover the costs (product design, transport, etc.) of taking advantage of those opportunities. Bihar development trust will run to Employment programs prepare the poor for self-employment by reskilling them with the skills that are in huge demand in market like retail floor shop workers, plumbers, electricians, carpenters data entry operators etc.

Agribusiness

Bihar Development Trust aims to facilitate communication across the agri-food chain especially to farmers so that they reap the benefit of timely information. It will promote value chain thinking and awareness as essential factors in the development of an efficient, profitable and dynamic agri-food sector.

Bihar Development Trust will enter the procurement side of the value chain of agribusiness. It will buy the crops from the farmers at competitive prices and aggregate it before selling it to agri processing industry. It will focus on commodity like mushroom, maize, and gram etc and later diversify into fruits and vegetables across various seasons. The warehousing facility and cold storage is being rented by the organization for the crop produce to add value to it. It will develop a well integrated ambient and cold chain to combat the perishability of the products and supply it to retail chains all across India. Bihar Development Trust proposes to leverage its microfinance operation for the procurement of various commodities on large scale. The producers who chose to become member with Bihar development trust will be service provider for crop insurance, weather insurance to hedge the risk of crop failure or poor rain. Later on achieving significant scale, It proposes to organize the farmers into a producer company and enable them to participate in the growing boom of food industry.

Vocational Training- Training the millions left behind

The current system of vocational training through ITIs is not able to meet demand as it has exclusion criteria like a minimum level of education. In India, majority of youth drop out after not being able to get into higher education system or not having financial resources to move to other places. The 18-30 age group youths requires jobs and all are no available with so called government and organized sectors. Studies after studies have proven that there is huge demand of skills such that TV, electrical appliance repair and service, automobile repair and service, foreign language skills such as German, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Spanish, French etc., medical and health services, nursing, and any others. For India we need millions of trained people in the area of services for agriculture, floriculture, horticulture, sericulture, fisheries, healthcare, tourism and hundreds of skills for the manufacturing sector.

Bihar Development Trust proposes to start short term vocational training courses for the youth of Bihar in 18-30 age groups. The courses chosen are in the domain of retail management, data entry operations, plumbing, carpenter, electrician and automobile repair. The course duration will range from 14 days to one month. The trainers will be locally self made entrepreneurs who are in the same trade for last 20 years with the help of young engineers in the region to so that participants are made aware of latest developments in particular trade. Bihar Development Trust proposes to open its center in Bhagalpur then move on to other areas of Bihar. All the participants of the courses will be provided placement services after successful completion of courses.

Support Us:

You can provide us consultancy assignment through which we plan to sustain our organization financially till we start getting regular grants.

Area of consultancy can be
Livelihood
Microfinance
Mother and child health care
HIV
Education
MIS
Market research
Project Management
Business/development proposals

Or

For donation, Kindly contact:

Dr Ravi Chandra
Director
B-403, Saket Vihar Apartment
Khazpura, Bailey Road, Patna
Bihar-800014
Phone- 9430964107,9334308432
E MAIL- rchandra1231@gmail.com
bihardev@gmail.com

Mr. Dev Kumar Dubey
Director
New Bank Colony, Adampur,
Bhagalpur -1
Bihar
Phone- 9431001806
Email- devkr_1975@yahoo.com
bihardev@gmail.com