How long does it take by train to Delhi, the driver is asked as the car bumps along a rough-paved road in Patna, the scrappy capital of Bihar. “Good time: 15 hours,” he answers in hesitant English. “Late: unlimited.”
The gulf between the splendid architecture and lofty ambitions of India’s capital and the rough reality of Bihar, the country’s poorest state, does indeed appear limitless. While India as a whole has a per-capita income of more than $1,500, Bihar’s is a lowly $436, below that of Eritrea. The state’s own education minister describes the school system as “very dismal”. Its head of police took over what he calls “a land of anarchy and chaos”. These are the words of Bihar’s cheerleaders in chief.
But Bihar is turning. Delhi was yesterday digesting the news that economic growth nationally slowed to just 6.1 per cent in the final quarter of 2011, a far cry from the double digits the government is targeting. Bihar almost certainly did much better than that. Last year, it expanded by 14.5 per cent.