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The Rejuvenation of BIMARU

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DQW Bureau
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Noted demographer Ashish Bose coined the acronym BIMARU (referring to the states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) in a paper submitted to the then PM Rajiv Gandhi in the mid 80s to group together states which were lagging behind in both economic and social indices and thereby retarding India's overall development. The name (meaning 'sick' in Hindi) stuck and virtually the entire Hindi heartland of India came to represent whatever was ailing the country and proving to be a roadblock to its march into becoming the next global superpower.

After more than two decades and eight PMs, the process of resuscitation has finally started. The old concept of BIMARU no longer holds true, said Planning Commission Deputy Chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia as he tabled the commission's analysis of growth data for the states in the recent National Development Council meeting. The data shows that 25 percent of the poorest Indian states (read, largely the BIMARU group) recorded a growth rate of 6.3 percent between 2002 and 2008, compared to less than 4.9 percent in 1987 and 2002.

So, what they achieved in a six-year time frame was more than what they did during the previous 15 years. Bihar, perennially derided as the Achilles Heel for the country's development, should be singled out as the state with the fastest growth rate in recent years. On the other hand, the speed of growth in richer states like Punjab has slowed down. Add to that, another report this week concluded that Bihar is one of the highest collective income tax paying states now in the country.

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The gradual return to health of the BIMARU states is also reflected in the performance of the IT markets. Savor these statistics in FY10, the Bihar IT market grew by 20 percent, MP by 24 percent, UP by 22 percent and Rajasthan by 18 percent. Contrast these with some of the more developed states like Karnataka and Punjab where the growth rate was lower. The performances of partners like Graphine, Astric or Digital Equipment in Patna, Fortune Infonet or Advance Computers of Jaipur, Computer House, Uptec or Docket Care of Lucknow, Computer Gallery and Business Automation of Indore is ample testimony to the growing clout of the channel community in the BIMARU states.

Further testimonial to the growing importance of these 'BIMARU' markets comes from the fact that national distributors like Ingram Micro, Redington and Rashi are aggressively looking at expanding into cities in these states. In fact, the growing penetration of the vendors into tier-2 and 3 (and maybe even 4 and 5) has been largely driven by these channel partners. The so-called transformation of IT from India to Bharat has been driven mostly by these local partners in smaller cities. And a significant portion of this has been contributed by those partners in the BIMARU states only. Especially since none of the metro markets are in these states and the growth rate is anyway slower in the metros.

The IT market map in India (read the cluster of channel partner hubs) till now revealed a highly skewed profile. For many vendors, the channel world started and ended with Nehru Place and Lamington Road or at most GC Avenue and Ritchie Street. The progress of the BIMARU states has rationalized the skew extensively, and enabled better penetration of IT into the real India. And that is gradually translating into their upward movement in various development indices. Ahluwalia and the Planning Commission should note that better.

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(rajneeshd@cybermedia.co.in)

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