Grave governance challenges await Bihar's new coalition government

Committed expenditures of the state, which has the lowest per capita income, exceed its own revenue by 47% in FY23

As allegations fly thick and fast in Bihar after the Janata Dal (United) decided to break its coalition with the Bharatiya Janata Party and tie-up with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and its allies instead, it is governance that appears to be crying for attention.

Various indicators make it amply clear that there are grave challenges facing the new government of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. 

Bihar, the third most populous state in the country, is also the poorest, according to the NITI Aayog’s multidimensional poverty index (MPI). On this metric, every second person was poor in the state in 2015-16 against