Over the last two decades that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been at the helm of Bihar, the state has been widely known as India’s most impoverished, lagging behind on almost all socio-economic indicators.

Despite Bihar’s laggard status, the JD(U) supremo has developed a reputation for good governance, earning Nitish the moniker of ‘ sushasan babu ’. On the eve of elections that are being considered his last, an analysis of socio-economic indicators, from the start of his first term as CM in 2005 to now, shows how far Bihar has come under Nitish.

On a range of indicators in the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), from 2005-06 to 2019-21 (the latest available data), Bihar improved at a faster rate than the national average under Nitish, drawing the state much closer to pan-Indian li

See Full Page