Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on July 23 announced several schemes for Bihar in her Budget 2024 speech. The schemes are a part of a larger plan titled “Purvodaya”, which covers the all-round development of eastern States including Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, and Andhra Pradesh.

The government will support the development of an industrial node in Gaya, Bihar, on the Amritsar-Kolkata industrial corridor, Ms. Sitharaman announced. “The industrial node at Gaya will also be a good model for developing our ancient centres of cultural importance into future centres of modern economy…this model will showcase ‘vikas bhi, virasat bhi’ [development as well as culture],” she added.