Bihar’s stagnant exports and weak investment pipeline will deepen jobs challenge

NDA will have an uphill battle fixing Bihar's joblessness

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar faces an uphill task in job creation as the state continues to trail far behind the country’s industrial and export engines. A Moneycontrol analysis shows that the state’s participation in both global value chains and foreign investment flows remains negligible, limiting its ability to generate jobs.

Exports stuck at 0.5% of India’s total

Bihar’s share in India’s merchandise exports has stagnated at just 0.5 percent, even as Gujarat and Tamil Nadu have cemented their positions as national export engines. The state shipped goods worth $2.04 billion in FY25, compared with more than $116 billion from Gujarat and $52 billion from Tamil Nadu. Gujarat now accounts for nearly 30 percent of India’s exports, while Tamil Nadu contributes 13.4 percent, highlighting the widening gap between Bihar and the country’s leading manufacturing hubs.

The export base is also narrow. Petroleum products made up 63 percent of Bihar’s total exports in FY25, yet the state’s share in India’s petroleum-product exports was only 2.8 percent. Meat and dairy, the second-largest category, contributed about 10 percent of Bihar’s export revenues, but their national share was just 3 percent.

Worryingly, Bihar is one of the few states where exports have fallen in value terms. Shipments in FY25 were 11 per cent lower than in FY23, underscoring a weakening and shrinking industrial footprint. In high-growth sectors such as electronics and engineering goods, which together account for 35 percent of India’s export basket, the state barely registers, with a minuscule 0.01 percent and 0.06 percent share, respectively.

Investment flows tell a similar story

The foreign investment scenario is just as bleak. Between October 2019 and June 2025, Bihar attracted just $215.9 million in FDI—barely 0.07 percent of India’s total inflows over the period. This places the state well behind not only industrial powerhouses like Maharashtra (31.2 percent), Karnataka (21 percent) and Gujarat (15.3 percent), but even small hill states such as Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, which brought in $410 million and $232.5 million, respectively.

The recent trend has been even more discouraging. Between June 2024 and June 2025, Bihar drew only $0.91 million in investment, ranking below 27 states and Union Territories—just one place above Tripura, which received $0.49 million.

A widening gap

Taken together, the export stagnation and chronic FDI shortfall explain why Bihar faces a steeper path to job creation than most other states. While others have leveraged supply-chain shifts, sectoral clusters and rising domestic consumption, Bihar’s industrial base has failed to diversify or scale.