I wish

I wish somebody had said this: that this land, which once shaped the intellectual direction of a large part of the world, can become a leading centre of knowledge again. Bihar was the heart of the Mauryan Empire under Asoka, one of the greatest empires of the world. His principles of governance and moral responsibility were recorded on stone and carried across Asia, even reaching the Greek world. Later, the Gupta Empire, known for prosperity, mathematics, astronomy, and cultural refinement, also had its centres here. This was the region of Aryabhata, of the development of the decimal system, of the flowering of classical literature and sculpture.

More importantly, Bihar was home to Nalanda and Vikramshila—international universities that attracted scholars from China, Korea, Japan, Tibet, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. This was a knowledge network long before the modern term existed.

The same foundation exists today. Bihar has a serious culture of education. Families with minimal means sell their land so their children can study. This is not symbolic; it is a functioning social value. This is the base of a knowledge economy.

With the right policy direction, Bihar can develop universities and research clusters that work at the frontiers of robotics, machine learning, IoT, AI, and the longer-term pursuit of AGI. In the same way that universities like UCLA played a key role in the research ecosystem that eventually fed into Silicon Valley, Bihar can build academic–industry innovation corridors. The talent exists. The willingness to learn exists. What is needed is institutional architecture and long-term planning.

Agriculture, too, can be modernised through precision technologies, data-driven crop systems, and value-added processing chains. Tourism has enormous untapped potential; Bodh Gaya, Nalanda, Rajgir, Vaishali, Pawapuri and Vikramshila are among the most significant sites in the global histories of Buddhism, Jainism, and Hindu philosophy.

Yet none of this was discussed in the recent elections. The public vision remains small. A region that once shaped knowledge across continents is encouraged to dream in terms of small, low-paying jobs, not because people lack ability, but because leadership has failed to speak of what is possible.

My wish is simple: that someone would have said we can build a knowledge economy here, one that researches, invents, and leads. That Bihar can become a centre of innovation again, just as it once was.

Niraj Kumar Jha