Bihar put makhana and sattu on the BRICS table. The bigger question is why it still struggles to put enough jobs on the table at home.
At the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi, as leaders from major emerging economies gather to discuss trade, investment, technology, resilience and inclusive growth, Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary took to social media to celebrate a peculiar achievement.
Sattu and makhana from Bihar had found a place in the welcome kits distributed to journalists and delegates. He called them “emblems of our taste, tradition, and entrepreneurship,” thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for realising the “Local to Global” resolve, and declared this the “new identity of a new Bihar.”
The post is polished, patriotic and carefully framed. It is also striking in its priorities.
While other Indian states use high-profile international platforms to project industrial corridors, semiconductor ambitions, renewable energy hubs, logistics networks or skilled manpower, Bihar’s elected leadership appears content to highlight roasted gram flour and fox nuts packaged as snacks.
The symbolism is hard to miss. In a room where capital, technology and markets are being courted, Bihar’s most visible contribution is something to nibble on.
Makhana and Sattu Deserve a Global Market
There is nothing inherently wrong with promoting makhana and sattu.
Bihar produces the overwhelming majority of India’s makhana, and the crop carries a Geographical Indication tag. Packaged and flavoured versions represent genuine attempts at value addition in food processing.
Sattu, meanwhile, is a traditional and nutritious staple with considerable potential in domestic and international markets.
Giving these products a global showcase can help farmers, processors and small entrepreneurs. No serious critic should dismiss local agricultural products or cultural pride.
The problem is not the makhana.
The problem is what this moment reveals about the hierarchy of ambition among Bihar’s political class.
When the world’s attention is focused on investment, technology transfer and industrial partnerships, the Chief Minister’s public enthusiasm centres on the welcome kit rather than on any concrete pitch for factories, research and development centres, logistics parks or large-scale employment generators in the state.
The optics of “Bihar’s flavours now before the world” sit uncomfortably alongside the state’s stubborn structural realities.
Bihar’s Real Economic Challenge Is Jobs
Multidimensional poverty in Bihar remains among the highest in India.
Official data continue to show roughly one-third of the population living in multidimensional poverty. The figure has improved from earlier decades, but it still represents millions of people facing gaps in education, health, nutrition and basic amenities.
Per capita income has risen, yet it remains far below the national average.
Labour force participation, particularly among young people, remains a major concern. Youth unemployment and underemployment continue to affect household incomes and aspirations. Regular wage or salaried employment accounts for only a small share of total employment.
Agriculture still absorbs a large part of the workforce even as landholdings shrink and productivity remains under pressure.
These are not problems that can be solved through branding alone.
Migration Is the Hardest Measure of Failure
The most visible symptom of Bihar’s economic weakness is migration.
Millions of Biharis work outside the state. Young men and women leave for construction sites, factories, hospitality jobs and informal employment in Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana, Punjab and southern cities because local opportunities remain scarce or poorly paid.
Villages lose working-age adults while remittances help keep households afloat.
Migration itself is not necessarily a failure. People move when better opportunities exist elsewhere. The deeper problem is when migration becomes an economic necessity because comparable opportunities do not exist at home.
For Bihar, this has become a structural feature of the economy that successive governments have struggled to reverse at scale.
From Political Symbolism to Economic Ambition
Against this backdrop, celebrating the inclusion of snacks in a summit gift bag as a defining moment of a “new identity” appears, at best, tone-deaf and, at worst, revealing of a deeper incapacity.
Leadership that repeatedly mistakes symbolic gestures for substantive progress has been a recurring feature of Bihar’s politics.
Decades of caste arithmetic, welfare politics and administrative underperformance have left the state with weak industrial foundations, limited private investment and an education system that often produces more aspirants for government jobs than skilled workers for a modern economy.
The challenge is not to abandon welfare or cultural identity.
It is to build an economy in which welfare dependence gradually gives way to productive employment and entrepreneurship.
What Other States Are Selling
High-profile international platforms are opportunities to sell more than products. They are opportunities to sell a state's economic potential.
At a summit focused on trade, investment, technology and global partnerships, the pitch should include industrial land, power availability, logistics, skilled manpower, investment incentives, sector-specific clusters and clear opportunities for companies.
Bihar needs to make that pitch aggressively.
Food processing around makhana can certainly be part of it. But makhana cannot substitute for manufacturing, modern services, infrastructure, technology and human capital.
The state needs an economic ecosystem capable of retaining talent rather than exporting it.
What “Local to Global” Should Really Mean
A genuine “Local to Global” strategy for Bihar would mean turning the state’s agricultural strengths into organised, large-scale value chains capable of employing tens of thousands of people.
It would mean building industrial clusters that attract national and foreign capital.
It would mean improving land acquisition and industrial approval processes, strengthening infrastructure and making investment decisions faster and more predictable.
It would mean ensuring that education and skill programmes actually match market demand.
And most importantly, it would mean measuring success not by whether a Bihar product appears in a media kit, but by whether fewer young people feel compelled to leave their villages for distant construction sites and low-paid informal work.
Bihar Needs Jobs, Not Just Branding
The BRICS platform offered Bihar an opportunity to speak the language of investment, technology and employment.
Instead, its Chief Minister chose to celebrate the language of snacks and tradition.
Pride in local products is legitimate. Makhana and sattu can become successful global products and create real economic value.
But treating their inclusion in a welcome kit as the proudest statement of a “new Bihar” while poverty, joblessness and out-migration remain defining features of daily life risks confusing visibility with progress.
Bihar’s people deserve more than flavoured makhana on the global stage.
They deserve a state that produces jobs worth staying for.
At the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi, as leaders from major emerging economies gather to discuss trade, investment, technology, resilience and inclusive growth, Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary took to social media to celebrate a peculiar achievement.
Sattu and makhana from Bihar had found a place in the welcome kits distributed to journalists and delegates. He called them “emblems of our taste, tradition, and entrepreneurship,” thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for realising the “Local to Global” resolve, and declared this the “new identity of a new Bihar.”
The post is polished, patriotic and carefully framed. It is also striking in its priorities.
While other Indian states use high-profile international platforms to project industrial corridors, semiconductor ambitions, renewable energy hubs, logistics networks or skilled manpower, Bihar’s elected leadership appears content to highlight roasted gram flour and fox nuts packaged as snacks.
The symbolism is hard to miss. In a room where capital, technology and markets are being courted, Bihar’s most visible contribution is something to nibble on.
Makhana and Sattu Deserve a Global Market
There is nothing inherently wrong with promoting makhana and sattu.
Bihar produces the overwhelming majority of India’s makhana, and the crop carries a Geographical Indication tag. Packaged and flavoured versions represent genuine attempts at value addition in food processing.
Sattu, meanwhile, is a traditional and nutritious staple with considerable potential in domestic and international markets.
Giving these products a global showcase can help farmers, processors and small entrepreneurs. No serious critic should dismiss local agricultural products or cultural pride.
The problem is not the makhana.
The problem is what this moment reveals about the hierarchy of ambition among Bihar’s political class.
When the world’s attention is focused on investment, technology transfer and industrial partnerships, the Chief Minister’s public enthusiasm centres on the welcome kit rather than on any concrete pitch for factories, research and development centres, logistics parks or large-scale employment generators in the state.
The optics of “Bihar’s flavours now before the world” sit uncomfortably alongside the state’s stubborn structural realities.
Bihar’s Real Economic Challenge Is Jobs
Multidimensional poverty in Bihar remains among the highest in India.
Official data continue to show roughly one-third of the population living in multidimensional poverty. The figure has improved from earlier decades, but it still represents millions of people facing gaps in education, health, nutrition and basic amenities.
Per capita income has risen, yet it remains far below the national average.
Labour force participation, particularly among young people, remains a major concern. Youth unemployment and underemployment continue to affect household incomes and aspirations. Regular wage or salaried employment accounts for only a small share of total employment.
Agriculture still absorbs a large part of the workforce even as landholdings shrink and productivity remains under pressure.
These are not problems that can be solved through branding alone.
Migration Is the Hardest Measure of Failure
The most visible symptom of Bihar’s economic weakness is migration.
Millions of Biharis work outside the state. Young men and women leave for construction sites, factories, hospitality jobs and informal employment in Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana, Punjab and southern cities because local opportunities remain scarce or poorly paid.
Villages lose working-age adults while remittances help keep households afloat.
Migration itself is not necessarily a failure. People move when better opportunities exist elsewhere. The deeper problem is when migration becomes an economic necessity because comparable opportunities do not exist at home.
For Bihar, this has become a structural feature of the economy that successive governments have struggled to reverse at scale.
From Political Symbolism to Economic Ambition
Against this backdrop, celebrating the inclusion of snacks in a summit gift bag as a defining moment of a “new identity” appears, at best, tone-deaf and, at worst, revealing of a deeper incapacity.
Leadership that repeatedly mistakes symbolic gestures for substantive progress has been a recurring feature of Bihar’s politics.
Decades of caste arithmetic, welfare politics and administrative underperformance have left the state with weak industrial foundations, limited private investment and an education system that often produces more aspirants for government jobs than skilled workers for a modern economy.
The challenge is not to abandon welfare or cultural identity.
It is to build an economy in which welfare dependence gradually gives way to productive employment and entrepreneurship.
What Other States Are Selling
High-profile international platforms are opportunities to sell more than products. They are opportunities to sell a state's economic potential.
At a summit focused on trade, investment, technology and global partnerships, the pitch should include industrial land, power availability, logistics, skilled manpower, investment incentives, sector-specific clusters and clear opportunities for companies.
Bihar needs to make that pitch aggressively.
Food processing around makhana can certainly be part of it. But makhana cannot substitute for manufacturing, modern services, infrastructure, technology and human capital.
The state needs an economic ecosystem capable of retaining talent rather than exporting it.
What “Local to Global” Should Really Mean
A genuine “Local to Global” strategy for Bihar would mean turning the state’s agricultural strengths into organised, large-scale value chains capable of employing tens of thousands of people.
It would mean building industrial clusters that attract national and foreign capital.
It would mean improving land acquisition and industrial approval processes, strengthening infrastructure and making investment decisions faster and more predictable.
It would mean ensuring that education and skill programmes actually match market demand.
And most importantly, it would mean measuring success not by whether a Bihar product appears in a media kit, but by whether fewer young people feel compelled to leave their villages for distant construction sites and low-paid informal work.
Bihar Needs Jobs, Not Just Branding
The BRICS platform offered Bihar an opportunity to speak the language of investment, technology and employment.
Instead, its Chief Minister chose to celebrate the language of snacks and tradition.
Pride in local products is legitimate. Makhana and sattu can become successful global products and create real economic value.
But treating their inclusion in a welcome kit as the proudest statement of a “new Bihar” while poverty, joblessness and out-migration remain defining features of daily life risks confusing visibility with progress.
Bihar’s people deserve more than flavoured makhana on the global stage.
They deserve a state that produces jobs worth staying for.
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