Bihar in focus as PM unveils ₹62k-cr plans

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched a ₹62,000-crore bouquet of youth and education initiatives—many focused squarely on Bihar—while cautioning that “some people” were trying to “steal” the Jan Nayak title bestowed on socialist icon Karpoori Thakur by the people of the state.

- Arun Kumar and Sanjeev K Jha

The outreach comes days before the Election Commission is expected to announce poll dates for Bihar, where assembly elections are due in the coming months. Saturday's was the latest in a spree of over a dozen initiatives and schemes announced for the state by the ruling NDA.

“Karpoori Thakur wasn't made Jan Nayak by social media trolls. He was made Jan Nayak by the people of Bihar, after observing his life,” Modi said during the Kaushal Deekshant Samaroh at Delhi's Vigyan Bhawan, in remarks seen as targeting the Congress for calling Rahul Gandhi 'Jan Nayak' during the Vote Adhikaar Yatra in Bihar. “Nowadays, some people are trying to steal even this title... The people of Bihar need to remain vigilant so that this honour is not stolen.”

The remark set the tone for a daylong event showcasing the government's push to modernise skill training and higher education in a state with one of India's youngest populations, high unemployment rates, and elections on the horizon. Chief minister Nitish Kumar attended the function in Patna with his cabinet colleagues via video link.

At the heart of the announcement was the Pradhan Mantri Skilling and Employability Transformation through Upgraded ITIS (PM-SETU)-a ₹60,000-crore centrally sponsored scheme co-financed by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to modernise 1,000 government-run Industrial Training Institutes across the country.

The scheme follows a hub-andspoke model with 200 ITIS serving as hubs and 800 as spokes.

Each cluster will feature upgraded infrastructure, digital learning systems, and incubation centres. Pilot hubs will begin in Patna and Darbhanga, underscoring Bihar's priority in the rollout.