There are more startups in Bihar than Punjab and Andhra.
Bihar Election: Today, on November 6, voting is taking place on 121 seats in 18 districts in the first phase of Bihar Assembly elections. The biggest issue this time in this election has been migration. Almost every party has promised that if it comes to power, the youth of Bihar will not have to leave their homes for work. Someone is talking about giving government jobs, while someone is vowing to destroy the image of the labor factory.
But amidst the noise of these political promises and allegations, there is also a news which shows the changing picture of Bihar. This news is based on statistics, which shows that Bihar, which till now was known only for the migration of workers, is now quietly moving ahead in the race of becoming a startup hub.
After all, why is migration the biggest election issue?
This truth is not hidden from anyone that Bihar has been struggling with the problem of unemployment and migration for years. According to the 2011 census data, there were more than 45 crore people across the country who had migrated from their homes and were living somewhere else. Of these, 74.54 lakh migrants were residents of Bihar. According to census data, 13.36 lakh people of Bihar lived in Jharkhand. Apart from this, 11.07 lakh Bihari migrants were living in Delhi, 11.04 lakh in West Bengal, 10.73 lakh in Uttar Pradesh and 5.69 lakh in Maharashtra. The International Labor Organization (ILO) report of 2024 even says that about 39% of the migrants from Bihar are forced to leave the state in search of work. This is the reason why in this election too, every party, be it the ruling party or the opposition, or Prashant Kishor, who has entered electoral politics for the first time, is trying to end all ‘migration’.
Bihar beats many states in the race for startups
While on one hand this is a serious picture of migration, on the other hand a new story is also being born. When the Central Government started the ‘Startup India Initiative’ in January 2016, perhaps no one would have imagined that Bihar would participate in this race like this. But government figures are telling a different reality.
According to the data, from January 2016 to January 31, 2025, a total of 3,286 new startups have been recognized in Bihar. The interesting and surprising thing is that in this matter Bihar has left behind states like Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and its neighboring Jharkhand.
- Bihar: 3,286 startups
- Andhra Pradesh: 2,639 startups
- Chhattisgarh: 1,776 startups
- Punjab: 1,775 startups
- Jharkhand: 1,515 startups
- Assam: 1,514 startups
Bihar has now reached 13th position in the country in terms of total number of startups, which is far behind the top states like Maharashtra (28,511) and Karnataka (16,954), but this increase is a significant achievement compared to many established states.
How is the air of Bihar changing?
This change did not happen overnight, but its pace has increased rapidly in the last 5 years. If we look at the data in depth, we find that out of the total 3,185 (till 2024) startups in Bihar, almost 90 percent i.e. 2,835 have been opened between 2020 and 2024. This shows that a new entrepreneurship environment is being created in the state.
These figures can be considered a step in the direction that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised to make Bihar a startup hub. These startups have also created job opportunities. According to the data till January 31, 2025, 30,610 people got employment in these startups. In this also, more than 87% jobs have been created in the last 5 years only.
There are still many challenges
However, this picture is not as bright as it looks. Bihar may be moving ahead in the number of startups, but many challenges still remain. Patna remains the main hub with more than 650 startups, but districts like Muzaffarpur (69) and East Champaran (64) are still far behind.
Startup Bihar’s website itself admits that many startups are still at a very small scale. The annual revenue of 667 startups is less than Rs 1 lakh. On the other hand, the unemployment rate in Bihar has come down from 31% in 2018-19 to around 10% in 2023-24, which is an improvement but is still a big challenge.