BIHAR CHRONICLE - A New Begining

1st Patna Marathon 2012 PRESS RELEASE

2012-01-08T03:31:00.000-08:00

Patna, Jan 7 2012 The organizing team of , 1st Patna Marathon announced few major developments over last few weeks. We had many meetings with Partners, Sponsors, Govt Departments and the global teams regarding successful conduct of this event. In a series of meetings held with Honorable Deputy CM of Bihar at his residence and office till late evening, Shree Sushil Modi jee earnestly requested representatives of Team Patna Marathon (CEO, Atul Kumar, VP, Anandi Singh, Chief People Officer, Piyush Kishore and other members to change the date from 19th Feb 2012 to a later date like 26th Feb 2012. Reason being the logistical challenge of hosting two Global Events in Patna at the same time. The original date of 19th Feb, was suggested by Principal Secy, HRD, Bihar Govt, to coincide with "Global Summit" events on 18th-19th Feb, 2012 where people from many countries including few heads of state from neighboring countries like Nepal, Bhutan are also expected and they also get a chance to participate in Bihar’s 1st Global Scale sports event where elite runners from Africa, other countries, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, UP, neighboring states and rest of India are expected to participate.

Many govt departments including 1) HRD ( Education) 2) Art, Youth & Culture, 3) Health, 4)Tourism, 5) Rural Development, 6) Police had expressed solidarity & support to the event. However City Administration expressed concerns about their ability to host a major conference (Global Summit) and Global Sport, Health, Youth & Fun events at same time. Since, organizers are keen to ensure world class hospitality & participation, they have agreed to change the date by 1 week. HRD Principal Secy had already sent a formal letter to all relevant govt departments expressing support and requesting support. Director, Higher Education also sent a letter to all Universities to participate and volunteer for the event. Tourism Minister, Sunil Pinto jee expressed his support and world class hospitality for attendees, Minister of Youth,Art & Culture Sukhda Pandey jee has assured support and Principal Secretary C Lalsota issued directives to Director, Sports to ensure full support.

There is a tremendous excitement in the Armed Forces, Police Forces also regarding participation in this event. Various educational institutions of Bihar including schools, colleges, NIT, Patna, BIT Patna,NIFT have also been extending full support.

As a preparation for event, the organizers have also started operating out of a Camp office at Shaligram Complex on Ashok Rajpath which is in close proximity to Gandhi Maidan (start point and finish point) and various educational institutions. Our Camp Office at Shaligram Complex, will be formally inaugurated after Makar Sankranti via a Pooja and press conference.

Dr Ajay Kumar, a renowned Doctor and former President of the Indian Medical Association has agreed to become, The Medical Director and will oversee the medical/health related preparations which is most critical part of a Marathon. Route Manager, Sukesh Ranjan of Chanakya Law University had meetings with DGP Abhayanand and DIG Ravindran Shankaran regarding the routes and is co-ordinating the Route Plan and will be co-ordinating the 42km Route, 10km, 5km and other routes with Traffic SP and other city officials. In a meeting with Patna Commissioner, Ramaiah , he also expressed his support and “relief” about change of date from logistics perspective. Since change of date will have a major impact for runners, attendees, the organizers have been assured full support by Dy CM, HRD Minister as various govt institutions.

What is unique about this event is that a global team which connected and emerged via social media has been visiting and/or camping in Patna for last few months. Santosh Pandey, President, Patna Marathon organizing team, spent few weeks in Patna, Chhapra, Delhi, Mumbai, Neeraj Sinha, VP Sponsorship and Shikha Sinha have been camping in Patna for 1 week every month. Ravi Kumar,Director, Media & Outreach is also visiting Patna, Hazipur, Samastipur and area. Our young CIO, Ankit Prakash based in Bengaluru is managing all technical operations. One of our earliest believers and donors, Sandeep Rajarshi, spent time with Patna team during his India trip. While this event is being hosted by BEN, it is being supported and supported by many individuals, organizations (SANTOBA, NOBA) and many other with love for the city, state and the idea of “healthy body, healthy mind”.

We also had positive developments on sponsorship front with relentless efforts of members like Richa Rai from Delhi, Firoz Ansari from Baroda, Atul Gupta (camping in Patna). Few global, many national corporations and fewlocal orgs have confirmed their support to the event as “sponsors” and “partners”, and details will be shared by Neeraj Sinha during the coming weeks. Our team represented by CEO, Atul Kumar, is also participating in Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas in Jaipur. Priyanka, CEO of our charity fund raising partner organisation, Wishberry”, will be re-presenting Patna Marathon at Wharton India Economic Conference at Mumbai.

We are also enhancing our leadership team and executive team. Prof Prabhat Ranjan has agreed to be a Chief Mentor. Nupur Nishith as GM-Creativity and Rajeev Kamal as Head - Design & Creativity have been working on some amazing posters, fliers, calendars and they will be made available via retail stores and online very shortly. In case you are still not excited about the amazing spring / Basant Panchami or National Youth Week then in coming few weeks especially after “Sakrat”, world will start visiting Patna and join the “run”. Our very own, PALTAN, (Ganga Dolphin) will also like to wselcome you to Patn.

So start running/jogging wherever you are since 26th of Feb, 2012 (Sunday), we all will be running for progress. Running for health, Running for different causes.

Different Causes, Different People, ONE Marathon.

Contact:
contact@patnamarathon.com
Aditya Homes Flat No. 101, Anandpuri , West Boring Canal Road, Patna, 800 001
www.patnamarathon.com
http://facebook.com/patnamarathon

PATNA MARATHON - PRESS RELEASE (Press Conference Saturday 2pm (15-Oct)

2011-10-29T17:45:00.000-07:00

Patna, Oct 15 2011 2pm / BEN, Bihar Society & Karma Society / --

BEN, Bihar Society, Karma Society and associated orgs are pleased to announce the first Patna Marathon to be held on Sunday the 19th of Feb, 2012. The theme of this Marathon is "Patna runs for Progress" and aims to showcase the resurgent and resilient Patna and Bihar.We will also celebrate the Centenary year of Bihar with organizing of Patna Marathon.
After discussions with Anjani Kumar Singh, Pincipal Secy, HRD, Bihar Govt, and his suggestion, the date has been selected to coincide with "Pravasi Bihari Diwas" being organized by the Government of Bihar on 18th-19th Feb, 2012 where more than 500 people from across 25 countries are also expected to participate.
People of Patna & Bihar take great pride in being the capital of ancient India for approximately a millennium. Patna (ancient name Patliputra) is also one of the most important historical cities in the World. Much before any of the great Indian cities came into being, Patna, as the capital of some of the greatest empires the world (i.e., Mauryas and Guptas), was the abode of great learning.

Patna, the greatest political center of its time, which introduced Buddhism to the World, nourished ancient international learning centers like Nalanda and Vikramshila and united almost the entire population of India in one thread more than two millenniums ago, the city was gradually lost in the oblivion of history.
We have been through a very rough patch for the last couple of centuries especially, in the last few decades. Through all of those hardships and difficulties , the most important city on the coast of the holy river Ganges is rising again to lead a resurgent Bihar as the “heart, mind & soul” of India and Asia. On the occasion of Bihar's hundredth anniversary of becoming a state in our beautiful and ancient country India, the city of Patna invites the World to participate in the first ever Patna Marathon.

Now Bihar is bouncing back and Patna is ready to join the league of great cities of this world like New York, London, Paris and many others in Asia like Sanghai, Tokyot. This sporting event will give a much needed impetus to this long awaited renaissance of this ancient city.
A healthy body and mind are a good place to start change and we aim at accelerating that process through this event. Our main goal is to bring Bihar into the eyes of everyone, help the world realize that, yes, Bihar too is a city which is important to the histories of this world, and she is in agony, waiting for the time she too will become a state people can be proud to say as their home. Please take the time to think about your home. Do you truly feel your state is at peace? Do you truly feel this state does not need to be developed? If you answered no to either of those questions, take a few minutes out of your day to help spread awareness. Some of the proposed themes of this event are as follows:-

1. Run for Development
2. Run for Health
3. Run for Fun

What is unique about this event will be that a glocal team has connected and emerged via social media for the event. This event is being supported by existing legal organizations for legal, financial and technical purposes, and we have also set up a Trust for organizing Marathon and other arts, culture and sporting activities. Those who are interested in becoming involved members of this event and participate in helping make this dream a reality please contact us.

We have received assurance of support from few of the largest financial institutions in India and are in discussions with many healthcare, telecom, infrastructure, transportation, education, travel & tourism, media companies & institutions at a Global Level, India Level, Bihar & local level for sponsorship and partner opportunities with this global event.
We will also do our best to promote small and medium local business in Patna and Bihar via various promotional opportunities during the event. On that day, the route of 42km will be full of banners, booths, stalls, balloons. Opportunities include live coverage in TV & Radio and ongoing coverage during the months prior to the event.
Various departments of Govt. of Bihar and India will also use this opportunity to promote tourism, investment and also showcase their work done so far.

Those business houses and entrepreneurs planning to invest in Bihar especially from other parts of India and the world who have been just watching the Bihar story unfold from the sidelines will use this as an opportunity to join the "party". It will be an opportunity to connect with BIHAR, a market of 10 crore consumers, 3 crore students which is one of the youngest in world. On a standalone basis Bihar would be the 11th largest country in the world in population. In size, the market of Bihar is bigger than all of UK or Germany or Egypt and is like a "blue ocean" or "virgin" uncontetest market. Those who want to explore Bihar from close hands and beyond meetings in A/C Rooms, will be able to see "Bihar" in action on the streets of Patna. Others might join the "party" next year and will catch-up
Contact:
contact@patnamarathon.com
Aditya Homes Flat No. 101, Anandpuri , West Boring Canal Road, Patna, 800 001
www.patnamarathon.com

Media & PR
Arunima Singh arurocks08@gmail.com
Atul Kumar +1203.987.4452 a@atultech.org

Website & Social Media
Ankit Prakash

Patna Team
N.K. Singh ( +91 943 187 7896)
Abhay Kumar (+919431200929 ) patnamarathon@gmail.com
Ashutosh Srivastava, Sukesh Ranjan, Sohum,

Sponsorship Team
Ajit Kumar ( Ranchi)
Amritesh (Ahmedabad)
Atul Kumar ( New York)
Dinesh Kumar ( Mumbai)
Neeraj Sinha ( Delhi NCR)
RajivSoni ( Kolkatta)
Ravi Kumar (Delhi)
Santosh Pandey (Europe)

Website www.patnamarathon.com (beta)
Group
Event Page
Twitter: www.twitter.com/patnamarathon
Cause

BENCON2011 in Hindustan times

2011-05-21T23:21:00.000-07:00

BEN Conference ib the Business Line-Bihar Society to meet at Bodh Gaya

2011-05-20T04:39:00.001-07:00

Bihar Society, the US-registered NGO focused on Bihar's economic, social and cultural revival, is holding Bencon 2011 (Bihar Entrepreneurs Network Conference 2011) at Bodh Gaya on May 21 and 22 to highlight the potential of the State as the destination for investments, according to a press release.

Bihar Entrepreneurs Network (BEN), which has been founded with the help of a group of successful entrepreneurs, corporate executives and senior professionals with stakes in Bihar, aims to “create an eco-system and a vibrant platform for entrepreneurs with active participation of global Biharis.” Bencon 2011 will have panel discussions on real estate, education, energy, healthcare, tourism and e-governance. There will be workshops on business plan basics and a business plan competition for students.

Prominent speakers will include, among others, Mr Nitish Mishra: Minister, Rural Development Department, Government of Bihar, Mr Vijoy Prakash ,Principal Secretary, Planning & Development, Mr S M Raju , Commissioner, Tirhut, Mr Madhukar Shukla, Professor, XLRI, Mr U S Pandey , an expert in the field of renewable energy.

Bihar Entrepreneur Summit 2011 in Prabhat Khabar बिहार को दुनिया से जोड़ने की मुहिम

2011-05-19T22:28:00.000-07:00

अतुल रहते तो अमेरिका की जर्सी सिटी में हैं, लेकिन दिल बिहार में बसता है. वह दुनिया को बिहार से और बिहार को दुनिया से जोड़ने की मुहिम में जुटे हैं. बिहार के युवा उद्यमियों की पहल बिहार इंटरप्रेन्योर नेटवर्क (बेन) के कॉन्फ्रेंस में भाग लेने वह इन दिनों बिहार में जमे हैं. यह कॉन्फ्रेंस बोधगया में 21 व 22 मई को होनेवाली है. अपने प्रदेश के बारे में अतुल की समझ स्पष्ट है - बिहार को दया नहीं चाहिए. यहां आत्मविश्वास जगाने की जरूरत है.

- बिहार सोसाइटी का गठन -

आइआइएम, अहमदाबाद से प्रबंधन की पढ़ाई करनेवाले सारण जिले के निवासी अतुल पिछलेपांच वर्षो से अमेरिका में हैं. उन्होंने अपने मित्रों (संतोष पांडेय वगैरह) के साथ मिल कर बिहार सोसाइटी का गठन किया है. सोसाइटी ने हाल में वेब पत्रिका द बिहार शुरू की है. इसके जरिये बिहार के गौरवशाली अतीत, संस्कृति, बिहार में आये बदलाव और उद्यमियों की सफ़लता की कहानी को दुनिया के सामने लाने की योजना है. यह संस्था पटना में मैराथन दौड़ करायेगी.

अतुल अमेरिका में रहनेवाले बिहारियों की मदद से बिहार के युवा उद्यमियों को हर तरह की सहायता पहुंचाने की योजना पर भी काम कर रहे हैं. अभी हाल में लोकपाल विधेयक के लिए अन्ना हजारे ने दिल्ली में अनशन शुरू किया, तो इसकी आवाज अमेरिका में गूंजी. इसके लिए अतुल ने बिहारियों को जुटा कर न्यूयॉर्क में सभा की.
अतुल का कहना है कि नालंदा विश्वविद्यालय के नष्ट होने के साथ ही बिहार की पतन शुरुआत हुई थी. लेकिन, अब लगता है कि इसका स्वर्णिम काल फ़िर से शुरू हो रहा है. इसमें सिविल सोसाइटी की अहम भूमिका होगी. कई नये क्षेत्र उभर रहे हैं, जिनमें यहां के उद्यमी काम कर सकते हैं.

अतुल ने खुद एक बड़ी मल्टीनेशनल कंपनी से इस्तीफ़ा देकर नन प्रॉफ़िट सेक्टर में काम शुरू किया है. उन्होंने एनएफ़पी फ़ोकस (कंपनी) ज्वाइन किया है. यह कंपनी अस्पतालों, विश्वविद्यालयों जैसे नन प्रॉफ़िट सेक्टर में बतौर सलाहकार यह बतायेगी कि खर्च को कहां-कहां और कैसे नियंत्रित किया जा सकता है.

- बिहार के गौरवशाली अतीत को सामने लाने की योजना

21व 22 मई को बोधगया में कॉन्फ्रेंस

Prabhat Khabar's coverage on BEN-बंजर जमीन में बायो डीजल की खेती

2011-05-19T13:21:00.000-07:00

दुनिया में जहां कहीं भी ओर्थक समृद्धि आयी है, उसकी जमीन स्थानीय उद्यमियों ने तैयार की. बिहार में माहौल बदला, तो कई युवाओं ने मोटी तनख्वाह का ऑफर ठुकरा कर उद्यमिता की राह पकड़ी है. ऐसे युवा उद्यमी बोधगया में बिहार इंटरप्रेन्योर नेटवर्क के बेन-2011 कॉन्फ्रेंस में 21 व 22 मई को जुटेंगे. बिहार में सामाजिक उद्यमिता के प्रति उभरी आकांक्षा को केंद्रित कर आज से विशेष श्रंखला शुरू की जा रही है.

पटना : सरसरी तौर पर आपको यह सचमुच विसंगतियों से भरा मामला दिखेगा. 20 साल की उम्र में कंपनी का गठन एक्सएलआरआइ से एमबीए के बाद गांव व खेती में जुटना. निश्चित भविष्य की गारंटी वाली नौकरी का ऑफर ठुकरा कर बिहार में बदलाव लाने की पथरीली डगर का चयन. जिस बंजर जमीन पर खेती भी मुश्किल हो, वहां डीजल पैदा करने की जिद. डीजल भी उस पेड़ से निकालने की योजना, जिसे बिहार में फालतू पेड़ माना जाता है.
जी हां, करंज से.गया के युवा उद्यमी कुमार अंकित ने अपने लिए राह चुन ली है. वह बिहार की एक लाख एकड़ बंजर जमीन पर करंज के पौधे उगा कर इससे बायो डीजल, ग्लिसरीन, बिजली और बायो कीटनाशक पैदा करने की परियोजना पर काम कर रहे हैं. इसके लिए उन्होंने अपने दो युवा सहयोगियों मनीष दयाल और कुमार राहुल के साथ मिल कर ग्रीन लीफ एनर्जी प्राइवेट लिमिटेड नामक कंपनी बनायी है.
बकौल अंकित, उनकी योजना करंज के बीज से 10 करोड़ लीटर बायो डीजल और 20 मेगावाट बिजली उत्पादन की है. इससे हजारों किसानों को अगले 50 वर्षो तक आमदनी का जरिया उपलब्ध हो जायेगा.सामाजिक उद्यमिताअंकित ने गया के डीएवी से स्कूली पढ़ाई की. फिर जबलपुर से इंजीनियरिंग.
बाद में उन्होंने एक्सएलआरआइ, जमशेदपुर में एमबीए में दाखिला लिया. इंजीनियरिंग की पढ़ाई के दौरान दूसरे राज्यों के दोस्त उन्हें बिहारी कह कर चिढ़ाते थे. तभी उन्होंने तय किया था कि वह बिहार की छवि को न केवल बदलने में जुटेंगे, बल्कि उदाहरण भी पेश करेंगे. एक्सएलआरआइ में पढ़ाई के दौरान अपने शिक्षक मधुकर शुक्ला और प्रबल सेन से उन्होंने सामाजिक उद्यमिता का अर्थ जाना. इंडियन इंस्टीच्यूट ऑफ साइंस, बेंगलुरु के उदीपी श्रीनिवास के करंज के पौधे से बायो डीजल उत्पादन पर शोध के बारे में जानकारी मिली. फिर तो अंकित ने अपनी राह चुन ली.नर्सरी में सवा लाख पौधे सितंबर, 2009 में अंकित ने डोभी के कोठवारा गांव में करंज के सवा लाख पौधों की नर्सरी लगायी.
तत्कालीन औद्योगिक विकास आयुक्त ए विजय राघवन और ग्रामीण विकास सचिव विजय प्रकाश से मिल कर पूरी परियोजना की जानकारी दी. अंकित ने मनरेगा के तहत बंजर जमीन पर करंज के पौधे लगाने का प्रस्ताव सरकार को दिया, जो न केवल स्वीकृत हुआ, बल्कि 23 जून, 2010 को सरकार ने इसकी नीति भी बना दी. अंकित की योजना गया, नवादा, औरंगाबाद, जमुई, बांका और कैमूर जिले की एक लाख एकड़ बंजर जमीन पर करंज का पौधा लगाने की है. इसके लिए सरकार प्रति एकड़ 26704 रुपये अनुदान देगी. इससे किसानों को पौधों की देखभाल के लिए13 हजार 200 रुपये प्रति एकड़ मिलेंगे.
अंकित ने गया जिले के शेरघाटी, डोभी, बाराचट्टी जैसे पिछड़े इलाकों में करंज के 13 लाख पौधों की नर्सरी लगायी है. फिलहाल उन्होंने 500 एकड़ में करंज के पौधे लगाये हैं. ग्रीन लीफ एनर्जी प्राइवेट लिमिटेड का जल्द ही एचपीसीएल और आइओसी से करार होने वाला है, जो करंज के बीज से निकला तेल खरीदेगी.
अंकित की योजना बिहार के अपने प्रयोग को उत्तराखंड में आइएफडीसी के साथ मिल कर जमीन पर उतारने की भी है.
करंज से फायदे अनेक
-बंजर जमीन भी होगा हरा भरा
-यह हवा से नाइट्रोजन लेता है
-जमीन की उर्वरता बरकरार
-एक एकड़ में 200 पेड़
- पेड़ों के साथ खेती की भी गुंजाइशऐसे बनेगा बायो डीजल
- नर्सरी में चार-पांच माह में पौधा तैयार
- चौथे वर्ष में 4-5 किलो फल आने लगेंगे
- आठवें वर्ष में प्रति पेड़ 25 किलो फल
- फल की खरीदारी कंपनी तय रेट पर करेगी
- एक पेड़ 50 वर्ष तक फल देगा
- तीन किलो बीज से एक लीटर तेल
- तेल से बायो डीजल, ग्लिसरीन व कीटनाशक बनेगाकई राज्यों में सफल है प्रयोग
- कर्नाटक में सरकारी बसों में बायो डीजल का उपयोग
- छतीसगढ़ व आंध्र प्रदेश में प्लांट स्थापित
- 35 रुपये प्रति लीटर बिकता है बायो डीजल.

Prof. Piyush Sinha on BEN in Prabhat Khabar -लो कॉस्ट नहीं, गुड वैल्यू पर सोचिए

2011-05-19T13:19:00.000-07:00

बिहार में आये बदलाव के बाद दूसरे राज्यों की तरह यहां भी उद्यमिता के प्रति रुझान बढ़ा है. अच्‍छे संस्थानों से पढ़े-लिखे युवकों में यह प्रवृत्ति विकसित हुई है कि वे खुद के लिए क्यों नहीं मेहनत करें. कहीं और जाकर नौकरी के बजाय अपने लिए काम क्यों नहीं करें. यदि आपके पास बेहतर आइडिया हो, तो लोग मदद को तैयार हैं. बिहार इंटरप्रेन्योर नेटवर्क (बेन) के बैनर तले युवा उद्यमियों के जुटान को मैं इसी कड़ी में देखता हूं.
सोशल नेटवर्क का सपोर्ट जरूरी
जो लोग सामाजिक उद्यमिता के क्षेत्र में आ रहे हैं, वे एक भावना के साथ आ रहे हैं. यहीं पर एक खास ध्यान देने वाली बात है. उद्यमिता की शुरुआत भावना से हो और संघर्ष की क्षमता नहीं हो, तो फ़िर वह हवा हो जायेगा. बिहार में इको सिस्टम बनाने की जरूरत है. इससे मेरा मतलब वातावरण के निर्माण, आधारभूत संरचना के स्तर पर सहयोग और सरकारी मशीनरी में त्वरित फ़ैसला से है. दीपक तभी तक उजाला देगा, जब तक कि उसमें तेल हो. इसके बाद कुछ देर तक दीपक जलेगा जरूर, लेकिन तब उसकी बाती जलेगी. दूसरे राज्यों में आज जो विकास देख रहे हैं, वह एकाएक नहीं आया है. 10-15 वर्ष पहले इसकी शुरुआत हो चुकी थी. बिहार में अब जाकर यात्रा शुरू हुई है, इसलिए सबसे पहले तो सोशल नेटवर्क का सपोर्ट जरूरी है. केवल सरकार के स्तर पर नहीं, बल्कि सामाजिक स्तर पर भी उद्यमियों को सहयोग और पॉजिटिव रेस्पांस मिलना चाहिए. यदि किसी प्रोजेक्ट की स्वीकृति में देर होगी, तो जाहिर है कि उसकी लागत बढ़ जायेगी. उत्पादन लागत बढ़ेगी, तो बाजार में परेशानी खड़ी होगी. फ़िर बाजार की प्रतिस्पर्धा में टिके रहना मुश्किल होगा.
लघु उद्योग को मिले बढ़ावा
बिहार के संदर्भ में एक और जरूरी चीज है - घिसे-पिटे पुराने ढर्रे के सोच को बदलना होगा. नये एप्रोच व नये आइडिया के साथ आगे बढ़ना होगा. फ्रांस, जर्मनी जैसे कई देशों ने लघु उद्योगों की बदौलत आर्थिक तरक्‍की की है. कोई जरूरी नहीं कि आप बड़ा बिजनेस या इंडस्ट्री शुरू करें. छोटे स्तर पर प्रयास किया जा सकता है. मेरी राय है कि बिहार में कम लागत (लो कॉस्ट) के बजाय बेहतर गुणवत्ता (गुड वैल्यू) पर ध्यान देने की जरूरत है. यहां उपजाऊ जमीन बहुत है. बेहतर मानव संसाधन है. इसका इस्तेमाल करना चाहिए. कृषि में कुछ करना है, तो क्यों नहीं इसी में ऊंची गुणवत्ता पर सोचें. गन्ना में उत्पादकता कम है, तो सिर्फ़ शुगर इंडस्ट्री तक क्यों, इसके बाइ प्रोडक्ट पर सोचें. मेरे कहने का मतलब है कि बिहार को नयी सोच की जरूरत है.
बेन एक बेहतर प्रयास
बिहार में सरकार ने कोशिश शुरू की है. यदि आप लंबी सोच लेकर चले हैं, तो इंटरमीडियट रिजल्ट देना जरूरी होता है. परियोजनाओं को संपूर्ण रूप से जमीन पर उतरने में वक्त लगेगा. इस बीच कैपिसिटी बिल्डअप करते जाना होगा. यह सतत विकास के लिए जरूरी है. उपलब्धि हासिल होती रहे, तो लोगों में उम्मीद बनी रहती है. बिहार इंटरप्रेन्योर नेटवर्क (बेन) को मैं उद्यमिता के लिए बेहतर प्रयास मानता हूं. बेन जैसे पचासों और प्लेटफ़ॉर्म की जरूरत है, जो पढ़े-लिखे ही नहीं, साधारण उद्यमियों को भी राह दिखा सकें. अब वक्त आ गया है कि केवल सरकार ही नियोजक की भूमिका में न रहे, बल्कि उद्यमीगण दूसरे को नौकरी दे सकें.
- प्रो पीयूष कुमार सिन्हा -
(पटना निवासी पीयूष कुमार सिन्हा, आइआइएम, अहमदाबाद में मार्केटिंग के प्रोफ़ेसर और सेंटर फ़ॉर रिटेलिंग के चेयरपर्सन हैं. लंबे समय तक एक्‍सआइएम, भुवनेश्वर और आइआइएम, बेंगलुरु में भी पढ़ाया. यह आलेख रजनीश उपाध्याय से बातचीत पर आधारित है.)

Bihar Entrepreneur Summit 2011.

2011-05-09T22:09:00.000-07:00

Bihar Entrepreneur Summit 2011.

2011-05-09T10:25:00.000-07:00

Bihar Entrepreneur Summit 2011.

2011-05-05T14:43:00.000-07:00

Bihar Entrepreneur Summit 2011. Program Details

2011-05-05T13:34:00.000-07:00

BEN Prgram Details 05.05.11

Madhu the first Bihari Twitter Bird-inspired by the world famous Madhubani Art from Bihar

2011-05-04T12:01:00.000-07:00

On the occasion of Bihar Entrepreneur Network's Networking and entrepreneurship conference We are launching worlds first Bihari Twitter Bird "MADHU". Madhu has been conceptualized by Manish Sinha and designed by by Yogi Kumar

Manish is Chief Strategy Officer - Digitas India, an Entrepreneur and founder of Once Upon A Time - A Story-telling & Brand 2.0 Consultancy. He is also founder of Cinnamon Stays a Hospitality company.

Bihar Entrepreneur Summit 2011.

2011-05-03T15:03:00.000-07:00

BEN Conference

2011-04-30T14:09:00.000-07:00

Bihar Society is an organization which aims at updating the story of Bihar to the rest of world. It is a story which is still evolving and waiting to unfold and be told. We aim at being a very significant force in the intellectual, cultural and economic renaissance of Bihar. We have been working with the goal of promoting Bihar’s interests globally.

To promote entrepreneurship in Bihar, and to represent the aspirations and needs of entrepreneurs and investors, Bihar Society with the help of a group of successful Entrepreneurs, Corporate Executives, and Senior Professionals with stakes in Bihar has founded The Bihar Entrepreneurs Network (BEN).

We are going to launch our inaugural annual event "BEN Conference" in the historical city of Bodh Gaya, Bihar India, which will be the largest professional and networking conference for entrepreneurs in Bihar.

To mark 2600 years of enlightenment of Lord Buddha and revival of Bihar, we are organising this event on 21st May 21.

We invite your presence and participation to the inaugural conference of Bihar Entrepreneur Network (BEN) being held on May 21, 2011 & May 22, 2011 at Hotel Royal Residency, Bodh Gaya.

For more details mail to

1) Santosh at Santoshpandeyca@gmail.com
2) Atul at atultech@gmail.com
3) Ranjan Varma at ranjanvarma@gmail.com
4) Tanvi at nalin.tanvi@gmail.com

Bihar Entrepreneur Netwrork - BENcon

2011-04-26T12:31:00.000-07:00

Bihar Society has been working with the sole motto of promoting Bihar in all fields. To promote entrepreneurship in Bihar, and to represent the aspirations and needs of entrepreneurs and investors, Bihar Society with the help of a group of successful Bihari Entrepreneurs , Corporate Executives, and Senior Professionals with roots in the Indian State of Bihar has successfully founded The Bihar Entrepreneurs Network (BEN).

Bihar Society is going to launch its inaugural annual event "BEN Conference" in the historical city of Bodh Gaya, Bihar India, which will be the largest professional and networking conference for entrepreneurs in Bihar. To mark 2600 years of enlightenment of Lord Buddha and revival of Bihar, we are organising this event on 21st and 22nd of May, 2011.

Some positive stories from Bihar-News Digest

2011-04-21T15:08:00.000-07:00

Bihar to set up dolphin conservation task force

Bihar has decided to set up a task force for conservation of the endangered Gangetic river dolphins, an official said Thursday.
Mithilesh Kumar, member secretary of the state wildlife board, said a task force headed by wild life expert R.K. Sinha would be constituted soon.‘The state government is serious about the conservation of Gangetic dolphins. A task force is a move in this direction,’ Kumar told IANS here. Sinha is an expert on the species and also chairman of the working group for dolphin conservation set up by the central government.The Gangetic dolphin is India’s national aquatic animal, but frequently falls prey to poachers in the state. Their carcasses are found regularly on the banks of the river. Ganges river dolphins are being killed at an alarming rate in Bihar. Wildlife officials say poachers kill them for flesh and oils. read more here

Bihar has also pipped UP and the rest of India on the asset declaration front.

Interestingly, apart from most other developmental parameters, Bihar has also pipped UP and the rest of India on the asset declaration front.

The state leads the country in putting asset declarations of all bureaucrats and ministers, including that of chief minister Nitish Kumar, in the public domain. Read more here

Transparency International (TI) has hailed Bihar government for ensuring time-bound service to citizens.

TI vice-chairman S K Aggarwal said, "Delhi CM promised to have service-level agreements long ago, but no officer has been fined under it yet because the law has not been notified. In UP, the governor has just signed it. Bihar has the best system since it is linked to information technology, which helps in monitoring appeals. There are also provisions like online RTI and seizure of property of errant officials. MP has an appellate authority." Read More here

AAI keen on expansion of Patna airport

Buoyed by unprecedented growth in air traffic at the city's Jaya Prakash Narayan International airport (JPNI) in the last couple of years, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) is working out strategies to better tap the growing flying capacity of people from Bihar. Read More here

Bihar babu who put his dept back on track gets PM award

No wonder, then, that though he is the only winner in the individual achievement category this year, Pratyaya is quick to say, “It (the award) is a recognition for the work that is happening in Bihar today, and it will send a positive message to many people, especially to those investors who are interested but are still not too sure about the state....” He adds: “It is about the 500 employees of the Bihar Pul Raj Nirman Nigam (BRPNN) coming together and working to make it a success, cutting across caste lines.” Read more here..

Some positive stories from Bihar

2011-04-20T13:23:00.000-07:00

NOW SIBAL PRAISES NITISH

Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal on Tuesday praised Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for the progress the state had made in recent years.

Speaking at a function at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Patna, in which the Bihar CM was also present, Sibal turned to Nitish Kumar and said: “Aapki shali aesi hai ki aapko Supreme Court ka lawyer hona chahiye (You have a style good enough to make you a Supreme Court lawyer”. Read more

Polythene ban to be banned in Bihar

Deputy Chief Minister S K Modi today said the state government would soon ban polythene bags in Bihar on the pattern of Delhi, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. Read more

Bihar for jointly development coal mining for thermal plants

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi has said he will discuss with Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda the issue of coal mining along with setting up of thermal power units in both the states.
Modi said he would approach Munda to ensure that mining in coal blocks of Urma Pahadi Tola and Maurya, jointly alloted to Bihar State Mineral Development Corporation (BSMDC) and Jharkhand State Electricity Board (JSEB), are carried out speedily. Read more..

Bihar boys bring laurels to state read more...

Car rally showcases development work in Bihar

The Lion's Club organized a car rally in Patna on Sunday to showcase the development taking place in the region, and to generate funds for improving the lot of the underprivileged people. Read more..

‘Buddh International Circuit’ Is The Name For Indian GP Venue

2011-04-12T09:42:00.000-07:00

India's first F1 track has been officially named ‘Buddh International Circuit’. The new F1 track is located about 40 kilometres from the Nation Capital. The huge track can easily accommodate 125,000 spectators, as well as 25,000 fans at the chief grandstand.

Sameer Gaur, Managing Director and Chief Executive of Jaypee Sports International supported the naming of the track as Buddha is a synonym for calmness The Buddh International Circuit is designed by the world-renowned F1 circuit designer Hermann Tilke, at a cost of around 400 million dollars. The length of the track is 5.14 kilometre and should be completed by August 30. In order for the race to take place on October 30, the track will be subjected to “homologation” – the inspection and approval from the Federation Internationale d’Automobile (FIA) that the track meets all predetermined requirements.

The whole new idea of the F1 taking place here in India is more than exciting. After the ICC Cricket World Cup which India co-hosted, the F1 GP will be the next best thing to look out for.

We are now on Facebook as well----Like us there

2011-04-12T09:19:00.000-07:00

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Join Anna Hazare's Fast To Bring the Jan Lokpal Bill

2011-04-06T14:23:00.000-07:00

Anna Hazare will commence a fast unto death from April 5 2011 in support of the Jan Lokpal Bill. You can join the fight against corruption! Join Anna, and fast with him for a day, or as long as you can. Click here to see your city

Our Anti corruption system needs a change

Why is it that no one goes to jail in our country despite indulging in corruption? This is because we have completely rotten anti-corruption laws and anti-corruption agencies that it is almost impossible for the corrupt to be penalized.
Jan Lokpal Bill is the solution

Justice Santosh Hegde (former Supreme Court Judge and present Lokayukta of Karnataka), Prashant Bhushan (Supreme Court Lawyer) and Arvind Kejriwal (activist) have together drafted a strong anti-corruption law called Jan Lokpal Bill which requires that investigations into any case should be completed within a year and the trial should get over in the next one year so that a corrupt person goes to jail within two years of complaint and his ill gotten wealth is confiscated.

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A letter to the Prime Minister

Mr. Chief Public Servant,
Manmohan Singh

We have suffered enough due to corruption. We are deeply hurt and disappointed with any lack of a real and meaningful solution from you and your government.

We want change, and we want accountability and we cannot wait any longer to have this! We will not vote for you if an effective anti-corruption bill is not enacted. Not the farce Lokpal Bill proposed by your government, but the peoples “Jan Lokpal Bill”. We want strict and effective punishment for the corrupt. They MUST go to jail! Or you Mr. PM, along with your party, will fall from the people’s grace. We assure you, stand by us, and we will stand by you. The opposite will also hold true.

Your government has appointed a GoM to draft the Lokpal Bill. This GoM includes -
Sharad Pawar,Veerapa Moily and Kapil Sibal. Mr. Pawar and Mr. Moily have a past of corruption and mis-deeds that the entire country if aware of. Mr. Sibal does not feel there was corruption in the 2G scam. Having these people draft the anti-corruption law – is it not an insult to the people of India? How can the corrupt be asked to draft an anti-corruption bill? We urge you to consider the choice put forth by the people – credible names such as Justice Santosh Hegde, Prashant Bhushan, Shanti Bushan and others, to be part of the committee to draft the Lokpal Bill.

Shri Anna Hazare, one of the Greatest Social Reformers India has ever seen has announced a Fast Unto Death beginning April 5th. His demands are extremely beneficial for the future of India. We urge you to immediately accept the demands of the people of India represented by the demands of Shri Anna Hazare lest the discontent among the people grows out of control.

The sentiments against rampant corruption in this country are quickly becoming as strong as those that led to the uprising in Tahrir Square. The honest and hardworking people of this country refuse to be innocent bystanders in the wholesale public looting that is taking place as you read this letter. We request your immediate and strong response to this concern of the people as corruption should be the top priority of your government. If the challenge is not met effectively and promptly, it has the potential of undermining every valuable effort made by upright citizens of this country over the last century - including you. It also has the potential of leaving your government with a legacy of shame.

Tahrir square can yet be a reality in India.

We trust you will take immediate steps to give us our solution, and not force us to take the above steps!

Citizen of India

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Lokpal vs. Jan Lokpal Bill

2011-04-06T14:01:00.000-07:00

Lokpal vs. Jan Lokpal Bill

The basic idea of the Lok Pal is borrowed from the office of ombudsman (Sweden), which has played an effective role in checking corruption and wrong-doing in Scandinavian and other nations. In early 1960s, mounting corruption in public administration set the winds blowing in favour of an Ombudsman in India too. The Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) set up in 1966 recommended the constitution of a two-tier machinery - of a Lokpal at the Centre, and Lokayukt(a)s in the states.

The first Lokpal Bill was passed in the 4th Lok Sabha in 1969 but could not get through in Rajya Sabha. However, while it was pending in the Rajya Sabha, the Lok Sabha was dissolved, resulting the first death of the bill. Subsequently, Lokpal bills were introduced in 1971, 1977, 1985, 1989, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2005 and in 2008, yet they were never passed and it’s pending. Each time, after the bill was introduced to the house, it was referred to some committee for improvements - a joint committee of parliament, or a departmental standing committee of the Home Ministry - and before the government could take a final stand on the issue the house was dissolved.

The Jan Lokpal Bill instead of government has been drafted by Shanti Bhushan (Supreme Court Lawyer), former IPS Kiran Bedi, Justice N. Santosh Hegde (former Supreme Court Judge and present Lokayukta of Karnataka), renowned advocate Prashant Bhushan, former chief election commissioner J. M. Lyngdoh in consultation with the leaders of the India Against Corruption movement and the civil society. This bill is much more independent and powerful as compared to the one proposed by Government committees.

Appointments

According to Govt. proposed Lok Pal Bill:

The Chairman of the Lokpal shall be from among past or present chief justices of Supreme Court. But the other two members of the Lokpal may also be from those qualified to be judges of the Supreme Court. The loose end left here makes countless many from India’s entire judiciary eligible for the post including those who are also senior party politicians with legal background.

The Chairperson and members of Lokpal shall be appointed on the recommendations of a committee consisting of the Vice President as its Chairman, Prime Minister, Lok Sabha Speaker, Home and Law Ministers and Leaders of Opposition in both Houses of Parliament.
The Leader of the House, other than the House in which the Prime Minister is a Member of Parliament, will also be a member.

No sitting judge of the Supreme Court or Chief Justice of a High Court shall be appointed without consultation with the Chief Justice of India.

The Chairperson and members will ineligible to hold other offices like an MP or MLA, office of trust or profit. They shall also severe their connection with any political party or conduct and management of business. They should also cease to practice any profession.
The Chairman and members will office for a period of three years or till they attain the age of 70 and shall be appointed by the President of India.

They can be removed by the President on the grounds of misbehavior or incapacity proved by an inquiry made by a committee consisting of the Chief Justice of India and two other judges of the apex court next to the CJI in seniority.The Chairman or the members have to be informed of the charges against him and given a reasonable opportunity of being heard in respect of those charges.

According to Civil Society’s proposed Jan Lokpal Bill:

The Lokpal to be instituted as a ten member body along with its officers and the employees. The bill provides for appointment of the Chairperson and members of the Lokpal within six months of enacting the bill. Predictable vacancies in Lokpal are to be filled in advance at least before three months of such vacancy. Unpredictable vacancies are to be filled within one month of such vacancy. The draft bill provides that at least four members of the Lokpal must have legal background. In order to assure people of integrity are appointed as members of the Lokpal, the bill bars appointment of any person who has been charge-sheeted under Prevention of Corruption Act or under Indian Penal Code.

Selection committee:

1) The Chairpersons of both Houses of Parliament
2) Two senior most judges of Supreme Court
3) Two senior most Chief Justices of High Courts.
4) All Nobel Laureates of Indian Origin
5) Chairperson of National Human Rights Commission
6) Last two Magsaysay Award winners of Indian origin
7) Comptroller and Auditor General of India
8) Chief Election Commissioner
9) Bharat Ratna Award winners

After the first set of selection process, the outgoing members and Chairperson of Lokpal.
The senior most Justice of Supreme Court shall act as chairperson of the selection committee.

Selection Procedure:

Recommendations shall be invited through open advertisements in prescribed format.
Each person recommending shall be expected to justify the selection of his candidate giving examples from the past achievements of the candidate.
The list of candidates along with their recommendations received in the format mentioned above shall be displayed on a website.Each member of the selection committee, on the basis of the above material, shall recommend such number of names as there are vacancies.
A priority list shall be prepared with the candidate receiving recommendations from maximum number of members of selection committee at the top. The candidates recommended by same number of members shall be treated at par.

This priority list shall be displayed on the website.Around three times the names as there are vacancies shall be shortlisted from the top.Public feedback shall be invited on the shortlisted names by putting these names on the website.

The selection committee may decide to use any means to collect more information about the background and past achievements of the shortlisted candidates.
Selection committee shall invite shortlisted candidates for discussions, video recordings of which shall be made public.

All the material obtained so far about the candidates shall be made available to each member of the selection committee in advance. The members shall make their own assessment of each candidate.

The selection committee shall meet and discuss the material so received about each candidate. The final selections for the Chairperson and members shall be made preferably through consensus. Provided that if three or more members, for reasons to be recorded in writing, object to the selection of any member, he shall not be selected.

All meetings of selection committee shall be video recorded and shall be made public
The Prime Minister shall recommend the names finalized by the selection committee to the President immediately, who shall order such appointments within a month of receipt of the same.

Loopholes in Govt. proposed LOK PAL BILL:

Prime Minister or a House of Parliament — to whom a Lokpal sends its report holds that the allegations of corruption made in a complaint against the Prime Minister, or a Minister or MP (present or past) have not been proved, "notwithstanding anything contained in any other law", "no prosecution shall lie on any complaint, report, information or otherwise and no court shall take consciousness of any offence on the basis of the same or substantially the same allegations.

Further it says that once a complaint is made to the Lokpal nobody can take up the same complaint or any thing close to it in any court of law through a PIL or otherwise. In such a case there is also a ban on referring it for inquiry under the Commissions of Inquiry Act 1952.
Imagine a situation once the Bill comes into effect, someone (who is paid by the accused) approaches the Lokpal with a case, and then this could bring to a halt all pending investigations against the accused. It could well be the case that the charge of a crime might absolve the criminal of all investigations into his crimes!

The Lokpal is empowered to give directions for deferring or suspending any ongoing police investigations in matters covered by the complaints made to it.
Every complainant has to pay a fees and take full responsibility for leveling charges and in case the complaint is found to be baseless serious action extending to two years in jail and Rs.50,000 in fine will be imposed on the complainant.

Charges of corruption in the Indian legal system are not necessarily covered only under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 but also under many other Acts, but the Lokpal restricts its ambit to the cases under this Act.

Another notable point is that the Lokpal has no powers to punish the ‘guilty’. After finding someone guilty Lokpal can only report its findings to the Prime Minister or a House of Parliament. The current bill provides for inquiry against Prime Minister but it has to be routed through the Speaker of the Lok Sabha and the Lokpal can hear it only if it is cleared by the Speaker.

Salient features of Civil Society’s proposed Jan Lokpal Bill

Cases against corrupt people will not linger on for years anymore: Investigations in any case will have to be completed in one year. Trial should be completed in next one year so that the corrupt politician, officer or judge is sent to jail within two years.
The loss that a corrupt person caused to the government will be recovered at the time of conviction.

How will it help a common citizen: If any work of any citizen is not done in prescribed time in any government office, Lokpal will impose financial penalty on guilty officers, which will be given as compensation to the complainant.

You can approach Lokpal if your ration card or passport or voter card is not being made or if police is not registering your case or any other work is not being done in prescribed time. Lokpal will have to get it done in a month’s time. You could also report any case of corruption to Lokpal like ration being siphoned off, poor quality roads been constructed or panchayat funds being siphoned off. Lokpal will have to complete its investigations in a year, trial will be over in next one year and the guilty will go to jail within two years.

But won’t the government appoint corrupt and weak people as Lokpal members? That won’t be possible because its members will be selected by judges, citizens and constitutional authorities and not by politicians, through a completely transparent and participatory process.
What if some officer in Lokpal becomes corrupt? The entire functioning of Lokpal/ Lokayukta will be completely transparent. Any complaint against any officer of Lokpal shall be investigated and the officer dismissed within two months.

What will happen to existing anti-corruption agencies? CVC, departmental vigilance and anti-corruption branch of CBI will be merged into Lokpal. Lokpal will have complete powers and machinery to independently investigate and prosecute any officer, judge or politician.
It will be the duty of the Lokpal to provide protection to those who are being victimized for raising their voice against corruption.

Comparison of Government’s Lokpal Bill with Civil Society’s Jan Lokpal Bill

1. Govt. proposal: Lokpal will not have any power to either initiate action suo motu in any case or even receive complaints of corruption from general public. The general public will make complaints to the speaker of Lok Sabha or chairperson of Rajya Sabha. Only those complaints forwarded by Speaker of Lok Sabha/ Chairperson of Rajya Sabha to Lokpal would be investigated by Lokpal. This not only severely restricts the functioning of Lokpal; it also provides a tool in the hands of the ruling party to have only those cases referred to Lokpal which pertain to political opponents (since speaker is always from the ruling party). It will also provide a tool in the hands of the ruling party to protect its own politicians.

Civil Society’s proposal: Lokpal will have powers to initiate investigations suo moto in any case and also to directly entertain complaints from the public. It will not need reference or permission from anyone to initiate investigation into any case.

2. Govt. proposal: Lokpal has been proposed to be an advisory body. Lokpal, after enquiry in any case, will forward its report to the competent authority. The competent authority will have final powers to decide whether to take action on Lokpal’s report or not. In the case of cabinet ministers, the competent authority is Prime Minister. In the case of PM and MPs the competent authority is Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha, as the case may be. In the coalition era when the government of the day depends upon the support of its political partners, it will be impossible for the PM to act against any of his cabinet ministers on the basis of Lokpal’s report. For instance, if there were such a Lokpal today and if Lokpal made a recommendation to the PM to prosecute A. Raja, obviously the PM will not have the political courage to initiate prosecution against A. Raja. Likewise, if Lokpal made a report against the PM or any MP of the ruling party, will the house ever pass a resolution to prosecute the PM or the ruling party MP? Obviously, they will never do that.

Civil Society’s proposal: Lokpal is not an advisory body. It will have the powers to initiate prosecution against any one after completion of investigations in any case. It will also have powers to order disciplinary proceedings against any government servant.

3. Govt. proposal: The bill is legally unsound. Lokpal has not been given police powers. Therefore Lokpal cannot register an FIR. Therefore all the enquiries conducted by Lokpal will tantamount to “preliminary enquiries”. Even if the report of Lokpal is accepted, who will file the charge sheet in the court? Who will initiate prosecution? Who will appoint the prosecution lawyer? The entire bill is silent on that.

Civil Society’s proposal: Lokpal would have police powers. It will be able to register FIR, proceed with criminal investigations and launch prosecution.

4. Govt. proposal: The bill does not say what will be the role of CBI after this bill. Can CBI and Lokpal investigate the same case or CBI will lose its powers to investigate politicians? If the latter is true, then this bill is meant to completely insulate politicians from any investigations whatsoever which are possible today through CBI.

Civil Society’s proposal: That part of CBI, which deals with cases of corruption, will be merged into Lokpal so that there is just one effective and independent body to take action against corruption.

5. Govt. proposal: There is a strong punishment for “frivolous” complaints. If any complaint is found to be false and frivolous, Lokpal will have the power to send the complainant to jail through summary trial but if the complaint were found to be true, the Lokpal will not have the power to send the corrupt politicians to jail! So the bill appears to be meant to browbeat, threaten and discourage those fighting against corruption.

Civil Society’s proposal: Deterrence has been provided against frivolous complaints in the form of financial penalties against the complainant, however, Lokayukta is empowered to prosecute the corrupt and take disciplinary action against them.

6. Govt. proposal: Lokpal will have jurisdiction only on MPs, ministers and PM. It will not have jurisdiction over officers. The officers and politicians do not indulge in corruption separately. In any case of corruption, there is always an involvement of both of them. So according to government’s proposal, every case would need to be investigated by both CVC and Lokpal. So now, in each case, CVC will look into the role of bureaucrats while Lokpal will look into the role of politicians. Obviously the case records will be with one agency and the way government functions it will not share its records with the other agency. It is also possible that in the same case the two agencies arrive at completely opposite conclusions. Therefore it appears to be a sure way of killing any case.

Civil Society’s proposal: Lokpal will have jurisdiction over politicians, officials and judges. CVC and the entire vigilance machinery of government will be merged into Lokpal.

7. Govt. proposal: Lokpal will consist of three members, all of them being retired judges. There is no reason why the choice should be restricted to judiciary. By creating so many post retirement posts for judges, the government will make the retiring judges vulnerable to government influences just before retirement as is already happening in the case of retiring bureaucrats. The retiring judges, in the hope of getting post retirement employment would do the bidding of the government in their last few years.

Civil Society’s proposal: Lokpal would have ten members and one Chairperson. Out of them four need to have legal background (they need not be judges). Others could be from any background.

8. Govt. proposal: The selection committee consists of Vice President, PM, Leaders of both houses, Leaders of opposition in houses, Law Minister and Home minister. Barring Vice President, all of them are politicians whose corruption Lokpal is supposed to investigate. So there is a direct conflict of interest. Also selection committee is heavily loaded in favor of the ruling party. Effectively ruling party will make the final selections. And obviously ruling party will never appoint strong and effective Lokpal.

Civil Society’s proposal: Selection committee consists of members from judicial background, Chief Election Commissioner, Comptroller and Auditor General of India and international awardees (like Nobel prize winners and Magsaysay awardees of Indian origin). A detailed transparent and participatory selection process has been prescribed.

9. Govt. proposal: Lokpal will not have powers to investigate any case against PM, which deals with foreign affairs, security and defense. This means that corruption in defense deals will be out of any scrutiny whatsoever. It will become impossible to investigate into any Bofors in future.

Civil Society’s proposal: There is no such bar on Lokpal’s powers.

10. Govt. proposal: Whereas a time limit of six months to one year has been prescribed for Lokpal to enquire, however, subsequently, there is no time limit prescribed for completion of trial.

Civil Society’s proposal: Investigations should be completed within one year. Trial should get over within the next one year.

11. Govt. proposal: It does not deal with corruption of Bureaucrats. Corrupt bureaucrats continue in their job without any actions against them.

Civil Society’s proposal: Lokpal will have power to direct disciplinary action, including dismissal of a corrupt officer from job.

12. Govt. proposal: It does not talk of investigation of complaints against judges

Civil Society’s proposal: Lokpal will have powers to initiate investigations on complaints of corruption against judges.

13. Govt. proposal: Speaker would decide which complaints shall be enquired into by Lokpal.

Civil Society’s proposal: Speaker would decide which complaints shall be enquired into by Lokpal.

14. Govt. proposal: Our entire governance system suffers from inadequate public grievance redressal systems, which force people to pay bribes. Lokpal bill does not address this issue.

Civil Society’s proposal: Lokpal will have the powers to orders redressal in a time bound manner. It will have powers to impose financial penalties on guilty officers, which would be paid to complainant as compensation.

15. Govt. proposal: large numbers of people raising their voice against political corruption are being murdered. Lokpal does not have any powers to provide protection to them.

Civil Society’s proposal: Lokpal will have powers to provide protection against physical and professional victimization of whistleblowers.

16. Govt. proposal: Nothing has been provided in law to recover ill gotten wealth. A corrupt person can come out of jail and enjoy that money.

Civil Society’s proposal: Loss caused to the government due to corruption will be recovered from all accused.

17. Govt. proposal: Under the present law, there is Small punishment for corruption- Punishment for corruption is minimum 6 months and maximum 7 years.

Civil Society’s proposal: Enhanced punishment - The punishment would be minimum 5 years and maximum of life imprisonment

A New Bihar

2011-04-01T15:14:00.000-07:00

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has got another feather in his cap from none other than President Pratibha Patil, the latter obviously impressed by the efforts towards empowering women and the overall development of the state under the stewardship of Nitish Kumar. Ever since coming to power (he has been re-elected for a second term) by defeating Laloo Prasad Yadav, the quiet and efficient Chief Minister of Bihar has gone about doing his job earning both admiration and respect from even his opposition. Under him Bihar has changed for the better. The image of Bihar as a land of crime, corruption, cattle, backwardness and poverty is now a thing of the past. Today there are visible signs of peace and development. This is indeed refreshing. Today Bihar would undoubtedly be the most improved State in the country. It’s indeed a great leap forward and due credit to the leadership of Nitish Kumar. When people talk about the new Bihar, they usually refer to the transformation—the State was in complete chaos when Nitish Kumar first assumed office in 2005. Bihar was more popular for its rampant kidnapping and killing, the disorder, poverty and caste politics. Things have changed and there is hope and optimism among the people. Not only within but the image of Bihar as perceived by the outsider is positive. This is very important for the future prospect of the State. With order, political stability and strong progressive leadership, investors will have confidence to enter Bihar and this will do a world of good to the local economy.

Source

The other aspect about the leadership quality of Nitish Kumar, which merits attention and applause, is the reformist zeal that he has demonstrated during his tenure as Chief Minister. This is rare for a politician because the more power you get to wield, the more entrenched your vested interest becomes. In the case of Nitish, he has challenged the status-quo on many occasions.

Take the case of the MLA Local Area Development (MLALAD) Fund, which the Nitish Kumar government has scrapped. In a unique approach, the failed LADF has been replaced by the CM Area Development Programme (CMADP). Under the plan, which will be at the district-level (as against the Assembly segment level), while the minister-in-charge, MLAs and MLCs concerned will only select schemes every year, its implementation will rest with a body of engineers headed by Engineer-in-Chief. Also, while chief/executive engineers will sign cheques, district magistrates can only monitor implementation of schemes so they meet deadlines.

As against arbitrary selection of contractors under the MLALAD Fund, there will be open tendering in which a CAG representative would be present. Bihar has therefore become the first state in the country to scrap the LADF because of the rampant corruption within the existing system. Nitish Kumar is not your usual run in the mill politician who clings on to power. He has an agenda and vision for the peaceful development of Bihar and its people. And he wants to deliver this vision through real performance and not just publicity stunts. Politicians in India and even Nagaland can learn from Nitish Kumar. He has been able to move away from the old ways of doing politics i.e. based on the status-quo. And in a way this is welcome development not only for Bihar but also for the politics of the country

We are hiring

2011-03-22T14:42:00.000-07:00

Please write to us by Email

Bihar’s rising power demand

2011-03-20T14:41:00.000-07:00

A very well articulated article by GURUDEO SINHA in Financial Express.

Bihar has low electricity consumption but it might see a big jump in its power demand soon, with rural electrification programme in the state progressing at a brisk pace. The state should deal with the emerging challenge through a strategy involving both supply and demand side measures.
Bihar has achieved very high growth rate in the past five years. Sustenance of this growth rate requires huge jump in electricity demand. Bihar’s per capita annual consumption of electricity of around 100 kWh against the national average of around 700 kWh is due to very poor state owned generation (only one unit of 110 MW is in operation with 38% plant load factor) and low allocation from CPSU (around 1,600 MW). Rural electrification which currently stands at around 10% is expected to grow to around 100% in the next two years thanks to RGGVY.

The finances of Bihar State Electricity Board are in poor shape. The Government provided the Board with revenue subsidy and grant of R720 crore in the financial year 2008-09. It is essential for the state to adopt a multi-pronged strategy so that in a short time frame availability of power can be increased, T&D losses can be reduced, wasteful consumption is controlled, demand side management used to reduce peak power demand and Distributed Generation used to provide security of supply in rural sector.

An option of arranging for electricity in a short time lies in procurement of electricity through; bidding process from generation which is neither fuel nor location specific. This is especially important as it normally takes around four years to set up and commission a thermal power plant. In addition, new plants can get bogged down by issues of land acquisition, environmental clearances, coal linkages and financial closure; the State can actively engage with Nepal to set up Hydel based generation in the Himalayan Rivers. Although time consuming, this is one source which is perennial in nature, is carbon neutral and will assist in flood management of North Bihar. Engaging corporate entities to participate in unique and sustainable initiatives by the government can be another source. The Public-Private-Partnership model will enhance the promotion of alternate energy source schemes already available. TERI’s ‘Lighting a Billion Lives (LaBL)’ campaign has succeeded in illuminating the lives of over 1.5 lakh people, spread over 600 villages across 16 states in India, since its inception. The campaign receives support from corporates and PSUs among its various partners, who believe that corporate responsibilities go beyond the financials.

Bihar is essentially an agrarian state and various renewable means of generating electricity can be effectively employed. Distributed Generation using biomass such as rice husk, corn cobs/other

renewable sources has the potential to enhance security of supply and provide employment in rural areas. Co-generation in sugar mills should also be promoted.
Loss reduction strategies and load management programmes are required to be implemented by ensuring metering up to distribution transformer level linked to remote computer so that power flows can be monitored on line and segment of high losses identified and corrective actions taken swiftly. Consumer indexing is essential for loss reduction as the difference between energy sent out from each transformer and the energy billed and collected for consumers linked to each transformer provides the real picture of transformer wise T&D loss and AT&C loss. Load flow studies should be used for upgradation , strengthening and expansion of distribution network. This shall also help in loss reduction and improve security of supply.

Re-organisation of the electricity board into transmission, generation and distribution needs to be carried outas it provides operational, managerial and functional autonomy to successor utilities to operate along commercial lines. It also transfers past losses to a holding company thus paving the way for financial turnaround of the sector. An independent SLDC for real time operations and control of state grid, scheduling and dispatch, energy accounting is necessary for efficient and secure functioning of the power sector. Special Electricity Courts as per the Electricity Act, 2003 need to be established to address issues related to illegal abstraction of electricity and help in loss reduction drives. Voltage wise energy audit and energy accounting is necessary to be carried out so that technical and commercial losses can be segregated and suitable targeted interventions identified and implemented.

Demand Side management (DSM) based on ESCO model (Energy Service Companies) being promoted by BEE for replacing inefficient agricultural pump sets provides an opportunity to change them with
no cost to the farmer or the Government or the distribution utility and help in reducing demand as well reducing electricity consumption. Bachhat Lamp Yojna being promoted by BEE can be used to promote efficient lighting. These initiatives also help in reducing carbon footprint.
Fast tracking of electricity reforms, IT interventions both for on line monitoring through Supervisory Data Acquisition and Control Systems (SCADA) and Management Information System are necessary for achieving security of supply with a low carbon pathway.

Assured and affordable availability of electricity shall provide the base for all round development and industrial growth of Bihar. It holds the key to fulfilling aspirations of people in Bihar.

(The author is senior energy expert, TERI)

You can read the article also on Financial Express here

Happy Holi

2011-03-20T02:05:00.000-07:00

Bihar Society as Co-Sponsor of 7th Annual India Business Conference organised by Columbia Business School.

2011-03-20T01:18:00.000-07:00

Bihar Society as Co-Sponsor of 7th Annual India Business Conference organised by Columbia Business School. Have a look here and

7th Annual India Business Conference vF Reduced Size v2

Bihar Entrepreneur Network: An Idea Whose Time Has Come

2011-03-19T16:11:00.000-07:00

Friends,

For last few weeks we have been dicussion several ideas with some of you and we also had several conference calls on Skype, the outcome is following:

1) To establish a BIHAR ENTREPRENEUR NETWORK or BEN (something like TIE http://www.tie.org/)
BEN’s mission is to foster entrepreneurship among BIHARI community through mentoring, networking, and education. Dedicated to the virtuous cycle of wealth creation and giving back to the community, BEN’s focus is on generating and nurturing our current and next generation of entrepreneurs.

2) To Conduct an ENTREPRENUER conference in Bodh Gaya in April to foster entrepreneurship, share learnings with first generation entrepreneurs and promote Bihar as Brand for Business, this will be under joint sponsorship of Bihar Society Govt. of Bihar ( confirmation awaited). The original IDEA to have this conference is of Naveen jee (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=650349891) and Ankit (http://www.facebook.com/ankit.gle).

This conference will also be the Launch pad for the BEN.

3) To have a BEN-NASSCOM event in PATNA in 2011- This event will be considered after successsful completion of BEN conference and formal launch of BEN.( Abhishek Kumar Singh is owning these job fair project and more details will be shared later)

4) TO organise an online Job Fair and a physical job fair at Patna ( Abhishek Kumar Singh is owning these job fair project and more details will be shared later).

4) To Establish a Venture Capital Fund which will be called BIHAR ANGEL NETWORK (BAN) to promote, finance for excpansion or to finance seed capital to current and future BIHARI enteprenuers.

Atul (http://www.facebook.com/atultech) and I have agreed to take a lead and any one of you can join in this initiative. BAN will be promoted as a company and any one willing to contribute towards the Fund will be a shareholder. Corporate and other structure will be shared with the interested members on one to one basis. Since we are very particulat about success of the BAN, we would be very selective in choosing our shareholders…a committment and passion for doing something good for Bihar should be Paramount.

TO start with we have committed following amounts and I am listing it below: If any one of you would like to chip in as shareholder in the Venture Fund ( BAN) then please feel free to add your name and the seed capital you would like to put.

1) Atul Kumar – USD 5000
2) Santosh Pandey – USD 5000

The Idea is to start with a seed capital of USD 100K and grow from there. We are also in touch with some Angel Investor and might get some big or moderate funding to start with.

If you want any more details on any of the above matters please feel free to get in touch with :

1) Ankit
2) Atul
3) Naveen

Santosh Pandey

Bihar Society

2011-03-19T16:03:00.001-07:00

The Himalayan Times : Bihar´s economic boom and its Impact on Nepal

2011-03-16T15:24:00.001-07:00

Until the mid-twentieth century, Nepal had a closed economy. The cottage and small industries owned by the private sector, particularly the households of Newars, Gurungs, Rais and Sherpas, were confined to the production of handloom cloths to meet the demands of the local people. Import was rare/limited from India in order to meet the demand of refined cloth and other luxurious goods for the elites. People in general were confined to using home-produced goods. Almost all the goods used in every day life were produced and consumed locally. However, with the changing times, the requirements of the people are being met through imported goods from India as well as China.

There are, however, a few industries that have been established in the Terai belt of Nepal to produce sophisticated goods with a view to chase the growing demands of the people of Nepal. The goods produced by these industries have a wide market, even covering the North-East part of India along with the entire market of Nepal. In the past, tt had been because of the presence of depressing environment to establish industries in Bihar, a northern most populous state of India. This had also encouraged Indian entrepreneurs to invest their capital in the development of industrial sector of Nepal with a view to catering goods and services required by the people of both Bihar and Nepal. As a result, industrial establishments were mushrooming in the Tarai earlier. But, today things are entirely different. Bihar is converting into a lovely place, with greater optimism. Indian entrepreneurs have started to invest in Bihar. Parallel industrial enterprises have begun to operate in recent years with greater capability. The result has been that the Nepalese industries are in for dire straits.

It may be worthwhile to refer to a relevant THT article (March 2, 2011) that had analyzed the adverse impact of high economic growth rate of Bihar on the employment and production in the Nepalese industrial sector. It has reported that some of the industries located in Sunsari-Morang industrial corridor (SMIC) have been facing a shortage of industrial labor as their workers prefer to work across the border.

In my earlier article some time back, I had dwelt on the rapid economic development of Bihar. The article had highlighted the miraculous development of Bihar which has been achieved in a short span of time, but not associated with the implications of Bihar’s economic boom on the Nepalese economy.

The southern Terai plain, adjoining Bihar, is the place where almost all industrial enterprises are concentrated. Since the past few years, Bihar has been posting a high economic growth rate. It facilitates all the economic sectors to grow and develop. This has significant implications on the production and employment in the Nepalese economy.

The products of Nepal would be of lower quality in comparison with the goods produced in Bihar. Similar is the case of per unit cost of production. There is a significant difference between the earnings of laborers in Nepal and Bihar with those in the latter earning significantly more than in the former. That is to say, the wages of industrial labor within a distance of less than 100 kilometer from Nepal differ significantly. The probable impact of this on the industrial output will be extraordinary by all means.

The production of selected five industries has been declining as a result of labor shortage. It is obvious that they are not operating to full capacity because of human resources crunch. It has been reported that the said industries are facing a shortage on an average of above 60 persons per day as the laborers are migrating to Bihar. That does not augur well for the industries in the country. The average daily production has declined from more than 24 tonnes in 2007/08 to 13 tonnes in 2010/11. According to Morang Industry Association data, SMIC has 50,000 working there, but it requires further 30,000 additional workers to be able to run to full capacity. The 450 industries in operation, are seeing their production drop to half of what it was a few years back.

Actually, this pushes us towards more dependence in terms of products we are consuming, and employment. It is not a new thing for us as we are witness to around a thousand Nepali people going abroad in search of employment—most of them are destined to be workers in foreign countries. Moreover, most of what we consume are also imported.

The historical trend of the labor movement and goods consumed has the same story. It is because the livelihood of the Nepalese has been dependent on employment in India. Only a small segment of our labor force earns its livelihood from industrial activities at home. The recent trend indicates that this segment of our labor force has also started to move towards Bihar because of better opportunity cost. If this trend continues, the industries which are still operating in the Terai might be compelled to suspend their activities.

In such a situation, the government needs to check migration of industrial workers to Bihar, by offering attractive plans and programs.

Source: http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/

Chankaya Addressing at Convocation Ceremony

2011-03-13T13:56:00.000-07:00

Chankaya Addressing at Convocation Ceremony

chankya speech at kaikayraj - Brilliant speech, A message to Teachers remind their duty toward nation

2011-03-13T13:50:00.000-07:00

Brilliant speech, A message to Teachers remind their duty toward nation....a must watch of all.

We have none to blame but ourselves- Chankya ( a must watch)

2011-03-13T13:48:00.000-07:00

Chanakya explains how we have none to blame but ourselves for the loss of our culture, heritage, wealth. Even today it applies to all Indians and specially to Hindus. It's time to show why our Indian culture and values are great by following it. UTHISTA BHARATA!

Chanakya against Alexander

2011-03-13T13:38:00.000-07:00

Chandragupta Maurya's Speech- Worth a watch for all Indians

2011-03-13T13:22:00.000-07:00

Virtual University

2011-03-10T22:52:00.000-08:00

Hi all, here is link for Virtual University in Facebook page form. We are 6 likes, we need to reach 25, if you could click like button on Virtual University page, it would help post lecture links and bring fellow like minded people together http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_191268684237596¬if_t=group_activity#!/pages/VirtualUniversity11/196452637040719?sk=wall

What is virtual University

Woring with some of the firends to create a world class virtual university. The Idea is to bring quality education not only to students but also to upskill the teachers in thier own subjects by upgrading thier knowledge base to enable them to render quality education back to the students.

Its a dream project and will write more about it in coming days as time permits. If you would like to join this initiative please jpoin a facebook group on this cause here http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_191268684237596&ap=1

If you have some more ideas on how to realise this dream and if you are a dreamer too..lets connect to execute this dream.

You can send your messg to virtualuniversity11@groups.facebook.com

Inviting Volunteer writers to contribute in THE BIHAR WEBZINE

2011-03-07T13:58:00.000-08:00

We are currently seeking articles on the following topics:

 Economic condition in Bihar
 Entrepreunial opportunities and challenges in Bihar
 Infrastructure sector and the need of development
 Bihari culture
 Art and literature of Bihar
 Bihar Tourism
 Current affairs
 Corruption
 Youth and Youth engagement in developmental process in Bihar
 Any other topic related to Bihar which you would love to write on.

When submitting your article, you are agreeing to the following:

 The content is original.
 You, as the author, have permission to use the included photo within the article and
adhere to The BIHAR modifying the size and publishing the photo.
 Editors of The BIHAR reserve the right to edit the article for length and verbiage.

Please include the following with your submission: article title, author’s name, email address, and author’s blog and twitter/facebook/LinkedIn page handle (if applicable).

Please note that not every article will be published. The BIHAR reserves the right to refuse any article not deemed suitable for the current audience. Advertisements will be accepted subject to discretion of the Editor.

We look forward to hearing from you!
Editorial boards

We are hiring

2011-03-04T13:05:00.000-08:00

Please contact us if you feel you can change the world.

Database of willing blood donors in case of emergency

2011-02-26T03:12:00.000-08:00

THE BIHAR

2011-02-21T03:23:00.001-08:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

I would like to invite you to the much awaited quarterly webzine of BIHAR GROUP and BIHAR SOCIETY.

This Webzine will be a quarterly feature. Articles , features, advertisement etc are welcome from all members.

www.facebook.com/groups/bihar

Bihar Society:

PDF format:
https://sites.google.com/site/biharsociety/BiharSociety.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1

PPT format:
https://sites.google.com/site/biharsociety/BiharSociety.pptx?attredirects=0&d=1

Social Entrepreneurship Jobs
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aOhsgnIyHTUTBWXN0GBikmX5ny-LciDScAeWjzCvzD0/edit?hl=en#

THE BIHAR

View more documents from Santosh Pandey.

Hit on this blog during Jan 2011

2011-01-22T15:26:00.000-08:00

My message to William Dalrymple

2011-01-22T11:32:00.001-08:00

Dear Mr. Dalrymple,

First of all I would like to introduce myself. I am a born Bihari (Indian). Today I got very offended after reading your interview in WSJ wherein you quoted " that few would’ve turned up had the festival taken place in Patna". As a Bihari and also a resident of Patna, I would like to ask you on what basis you are spreading such a negative image of Patna?

Bihar & Patna is already suffering from a negative image due to biased Indian media and on the top of that such statement from a Historian and writer of your repute does no good to this image but having an incremental impact on the bad perception.

Few year back ( in 2007) also you had given similar statement in Financial Times London regarding Bihar wherein you has given a statement which was about an election in Bihar at a time when there was no election in Bihar. It was extremely negative right from the word go, associating certain reprehensible practices which are culturally far more likely to happen in other states than Bihar.

Some of our fellows Biharis had communicated their apprehensions to you at that time also and you had assured that you will not try to propagate a negative and biased opinion about Bihar any further.

But alas, you did it again this time, and that too without any solid reason. Did you try ever to organise any such thing in PATNA in Bihar? then on what basis such an opinion?

Let me invite you to come to Bihar to get a first hand feel of Bihar/Bihari and our hospitality, culture and warmth. I guarantee that you will be surprised and bowled over.

We are planning to Organize several big festival ( Mahotsava as it is called in HINDI) for example Rajgir Mahotsava, Gaya Mahotsava, Dasrath Manjhi Love Mahotsava, Nalanda Mahotsava, Vikramshila Mahotsava, Patliputra Mahotsava and many more).

The reason for sending this message are not only to communicate to you that we as Biharis are hurt by your irresponsibly statement in international media but also to invite you to have a first hand experience of Bihar so that you can form a more objective and correct opinion about Bihar.

Would also like to invite you to our Facebook Bihar Page and our Volunteer NGO effort for betterment of Bihar. Please see the link below:

a) http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_153744714660549&ap=1
b)http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_188103284536849&ap=1

I also read your clarification that you Love Bihar and hence this invitation to the cause of Bihar. Hope you will reply back or help Bihar rather than only curse and criticize.

regards,

Santosh
Santosh Pandey

Launch of Daily Pilgrimage Service to The Footsteps of Buddha

2011-01-16T15:22:00.000-08:00

Date:16-Jan-2011
Press Release: Launch of Daily Pilgrimage Service to The Footsteps of Buddha.

Need for such a service:
Bodhgaya is an international Tourist place and there is a big need to have a safe and comfortable pilgrimage to the footsteps of Buddha – primarily the places in Rajgir and Nalanda. Pilgrims have always looked for a complete solution, which takes care of all their needs. It is a welcome service started by Bodhgaya Temple Management Committee (BTMC) to commemorate 2600th years of Buddha’s enlightenment and it is non-profit in nature.

Main Features
Pilgrimage to various places in Rajgir and Nalanda (details below)
Includes Breakfast, traditional lunch and evening snacks and tea.
Includes Ticket charges of Ropeway, Venuvan, Nalanda Ruins, Xuan Xang Memorial and Nalanda and Bodhgaya Multimedia Museum.
Includes Guide Services
Travel in Air Conditioned Bus
Screening of historical films about History of Rajgir and Nalanda during the journey
Safe and Hassle Free Trip
Relevant books on History of Rajgir and Bodhgaya would be available on the bus (for purchase)

Initial Launch Offer – Rs 750/pax.
Early Bird Advantage Offer – Rs 499/pax (5 rear seats earmarked for this)
Children below the age of 10 – Rs 499/child
Infants up to age 3 – Free
Pilgrims from countries other than Saarc and Bimstec countries would be charged Rs 200 more due to differential entry fees at Nalanda ruins, Xuan Xang Memorial and Venu Van.

Booking Contact Number: 9234876571
Ticket Counter at: Bodhgaya Multimedia Museum
Booking will also be available thru BTMC website – www.mahabodhi.com

Prachin Bharat Tourism Technologies has been engaged as a solution provider

Pilgrimage Itinerary

7AM – Departure from Bodhgaya from the parking lot opposite BTMC.

7AM to 12:30PM
Packed Breakfast will be served onboard.
Places covered: Cylopean Wall, Chariot Wheel Marks, Ropeway ground level, Shanti Stupa, Gridhkuta , Ropeway Ground level back,
Jeevak Mango Grove – Drive thru,Bimbissar Jail, Son Bhandar, Jarasandh Ka Akhara (will get added soon)
Arrive at Nalanda Multimedia Museum for lunch – 12.30 pm

Lunch – 12:30PM - 1.00 PM

1:00PM to 5:00PM
Places covered: Watch Multimedia Show,Xuang Xang Memorial, Nalanda Ruins, Shopping

Depart Nalanda 4.00 PM

Arrive Venuvan 4.30 PM

Departure from Venuvan at 5.00PM and arrive at Bodhgaya at 7:30PM.
Tea/Coffee Snacks

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World Class University and Research Centre in Bihar

2011-01-15T16:16:00.001-08:00

Nalanda had a tougher admission process than what Harvard or MIT have today. But it was destroyed and thus began the decline of Bihar,India,Asia and world. The Wheel or History takes a turn, come join the movement and make the future or become history. We don't need to revive Nalanda but the whole atmosphere. Just like Delhi as an Institutional Area which houses, IIT-Delhi, IIFT, ISI,IIFT,Fore etc. We need many ....,

Bihar is the heart, mind and soul of India and Asia. Yoga,Kamasutra, Surgery, Buddha, Mahavira, Guru Gobind Singh were sons of Bihar and Nalanda University is world's greatest and oldest institutions (destroyed and needs reconstruction). Please help Bihar in the quest to reclaim the position as a seat of learning, research and Asian renaissance.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

JOB OPPORNITIES

2011-01-15T16:14:00.000-08:00

All Entrepreneurs and job givers, please share a link of your job (just a one liner description and URL, company ka nam, job ke sector aur specialization bhi )

Green Leaf Energy Private Limited
(Email ID: ankit.gle@gmail.com, kumar.ankit@astra.xlri.ac)

In Location will be rural villages in Gaya, Nawada, Aurangabad & nearby places. a) Profile offered: District Co-ordinator b) Profile offered: Nursery Manager, Irrigation Manager, Plantation Manager (Ankit please post a URL for detailed job description)

Bihar Society -

a) Hiring members at most cities of Bihar and India and world (Europe,Japan,Middle-East,UK,USA in multiple functions and roles). No cash salary for short term but will get preference for paid positions in future. Great start-up experience in building a world class organization that we will be proud of. http://www.facebook.com/bihasociety for more details or contact by mail to biharsociety@gmail.com or skype at biharsociety

Affiliate of Bihar Society :

Freelance Volunteer opportunities for people with expertise in Social Media, Website, database admin, project management, event management, project management, fund raising. Projects and roles will be shared between Bihar Society and a NYC based partner organization with global organization. No visa sponsorship and cash payment
Karma Society - a) Hiring volunteers at Patna and in cities/villages of Bihar. Expertise in areas of Cause Marketing, Social Media, Education, Health, Civic Society, Employability Training et b)Advisor to Secy (mix of advisory and administrative roles c) Driver and Operations Manager for Patna HQ of Karma Society (can also work for Bihar Society if bandwidth allows), c) Operations Manager for Karma Society. Contact at +91 612 257 0811. Positions are voluntary but can be paid in few specific situations

Balbhadra Smriti Seva Sansthan -

Computer Trainer based at Bangaon (near Saharsa) for short term assignment (timing flexible per availability and need). Will be paid stipend and fair and reasonable costs. Food , Housing will be arranged as well. Great chance to work at grassroot level. Contact Retd Engineer SriNarayan Khan at sntikkan@gmail.com or +916478232121. Address: Retd Engineer Srinarayan khan. At +PO: Bangaon (west), Dist: Saharsa 852212, Bihar, India

Atul's Friend -

Hiring for a stealth mode start-up based in US with operations, sourcing, supply chain management in the travel, print-supplies domains. Manager to VP level jobs available. Visa sponsorship can be tried but difficult so US based candidates will be preferred. Salary and roles are attractive and negotiable

Bihar Development Trust :

All locations are based at Daudnagar in Aurangabad District. We need an agri graduate to provide extension services to the farmer club members in Daudnagar, Haspura, Obra, Goh etc blocks of Aurangabad District. Its a team leader profile with a team of 10 persons working with farmers in instiution building, sales, marketing and procurement. Besides, we need field officer with good hindi writing ability and decent english reading persons with either matric or intermediate as academic calculation. We need 5 persons to begin with. The requirements are immediate.

IIM Alumni Society:

Need volunteers for a dream project which is in hibernation because of work,family and Bihar project taking up bandwidth. Contact him at atultechatfacebookdotcom. Chance to network with global leaders (IIM Alumni and Friends of IIM). If you are IIM Alumni then great for others will have a limited but meaningful role crafted for your. Requirements are same as (2) above for Bihar Society

Bihar News Dossier 15-Jan 2011

2011-01-15T09:44:00.000-08:00

Bihar News Dosier 15-Jan-2011

Publish at Calaméo or browse others.

World Class University and Research Centre in Bihar

2011-01-09T06:53:00.001-08:00

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Bihar's Mr Fix-it - Hindustan Times

2010-11-18T23:55:00.000-08:00

Bihar's Mr Fix-it - Hindustan Times

Bihar’s Waterman

2010-02-08T13:16:00.000-08:00

It took seven years and back-breaking work for Kamaleshwari Singh to dig a pond that would supply water to his village, reports

When water bodies in most villages in southern Bihar are shrinking and drying and villagers have to increasingly seek help from the state government, the story of a frail 63-year-old man has attracted attention from far and wide — mostly, however, from the people and nearly none so far from the Nitish Kumar government.

Kamaleshwari Singh, a semi-literate farmer of Manikpur village in Barh block of Patna district, surprised everyone who came to know of his feat. Over seven years, this man has dug a 60-ft-by-60-ft pond that is 25 ft deep, all by himself, using only a trowel and a bucket. He had to use a trowel, he says, because he could not manage to lift a spade.

Manikpur village, some 100km from the Bihar capital, is a back-of-the-beyond village that, like most villages in the state, has seen no development over the past two decades. Even bicycle tracks are non-existent here, let alone electricity and irrigation facilities in this village that has a population of 2,000 people. But Kamaleshwari’s achievement suddenly pitchforked Manikpur into the list of famous villages in Bihar. The pond he dug out of his farmland has been compared with the achievement of the late Dashrath Manjhi of Gaya district’s Gahlaur village, who carved a wide road from a hill. Manikpur village had no pond before Kamaleshwari decided to get one dug, thereby making a permanent source of water available to the residents of Manikpur.

What makes Kamaleshwari’s achievement more significant is that his initial inspiration for the job and his continued determination to keep digging for seven years came from his frustration with what he calls “nasty village politics”. He was not a participant in village politics. A simple farmer who owned 12 bighas of land 15 years ago and now has only five bighas, he got entangled in the regular tide of crime in his village and surrounding villages. His elder son, who kept fighting pitched battles for supremacy with gangsters in the nearby villages, was killed. Kamaleshwari had to sell seven bighas of his land to fight court cases. Thoroughly disgusted, he once decided not to fight any court cases and to rather concentrate on “something constructive”.

“I always wanted my village Manikpur to have a pond of its own. For years, when I was young, I tried to persuade villagers and even local politicians to help set up a pond in the village. But nobody paid attention to what I said. As I kept witnessing the people of my village finding it difficult to take proper baths and irrigate their farms close to their homes, something kept burning inside me as I was unable to do anything myself. I found myself getting falsely implicated in cases like violent crimes and even a murder in all those years. After losing my 26-year-old elder son, Siyaram, to gang war, I decided to forget all bitterness and start doing something constructive,” Kamaleshwari told TEHELKA. As he started digging for the pond on a field close to his house in the summer of 1996, the sun scorching his bare back and sweat lining his body, the entire village started laughing at him. “Children and elders alike kept looking at me and laughing. They even ridiculed me by calling me ‘Talabi Baba’. My own family tried to restrain me from this work, but I kept ignoring everything and got the pond ready in seven years,” said Kamaleshwari, who studied only up to Class VIII.

The 60-ft-by-60-ft pond has enough water even in summer for the villagers to bathe, wash clothes and feed their cattle. At the height of summer, the water level in the pond remains at over 10 ft, say villagers. “It is a boon that our village has now got a pond. We have only about five hand pumps in the village, so most villagers face difficulty in bathing, washing clothes and preparing cattle-feed. Kamaleshwaribaba’s work has made a big difference to our lives,” said Dinesh Singh, a farmer. In fact, the village, inhabited by people from various upper and lower castes like Rajputs and the Yadavs, has deep and complex caste divisions that disallow people from using one another’s resources. “But there is no caste division in the use of this pond,” says Rakesh Kumar Gupta, a villager. Although a river, the Dagrain, flows just 4km from Manikpur village, its water fails to reach the fields due to the absence of irrigation facilities. So several villagers find this pond a dependable source of water for irrigating their farmland close to it.

Kamaleshwari would start digging from 6 in the morning till about 7 in the evening everyday. “It was never easy to dig a pond with a trowel. I would dig some earth, fill it in the bucket and throw it away. I wanted to dig in the evening, but there was no electricity. There is still no electricity,” laughed Kamaleshwari. His wife, Draupadi Devi, said Kamaleshwari kept toiling at the field even when his family had to face grave financial constraints. “We had run out of nearly all our wealth after getting our three daughters married off. Then the murder of Siyaram and the false cases against my husband made us poorer. Jairam, the younger son, had got no work. But my husband ignored everything,” she said.

Kamaleshwari now lives with his wife, his murdered son’s two widows and three grandchildren. His scarce resources make it difficult for him to make both ends meet. “I want to do fish farming in this pond with the help of villagers so that we get fish to eat and make some money, too. But there has been no offer of help from the government so far despite our requests,” he said. With his love for gardening, he has planted fruit trees around the pond and there are now nearly 40 trees of mangoes, jackfruit and blackberries and some teak trees. The pond site often gets visitors from far and near. Kamaleshwari still works at the pond, trying to prevent it from silting. He still uses his worn-out trowel and bucket to dig earth and deepen the pond.

Even as stories about the pond and the old man’s feat keep being proudly narrated in various meetings of politicians and officials in Patna, local officials and elected leaders have hardly visited the pond. Neither the sarpanch nor the mukhiya have come calling, let alone the MLAs and ministers. There was some talk about recommending his name for felicitation by the government, but nothing has happened so far. “I want some development in this village. We need wires on the electricity poles, good roads and fish in this pond. I want to meet the chief minister at his Janata Ka Durbar in Patna soon,” said Kamaleshwari.

‘I Don’t Have A Switch That I Can Press And Make Things Happen’

2010-02-08T13:11:00.001-08:00

It is election year for Bihar and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is feeling comfortable. The big pitch for him is the work ethic he brings to Bihar and its effect. Here, he explains how Bihar is going about the big three – investment, education and hunger – and why he thinks the Centre may not be too helpful.
image

Hunger in Bihar is too basic an issue to be kept aside. We saw a family cooking and eating the skin of a goat. How long will you take to reach this Bihar?
There is great poverty in Bihar. More people live below the poverty line here than what the Central government claims. We have made our assessment and it shows 1.4 crore destitute in Bihar. The Centre says there are 65 lakh people below the poverty line in Bihar. If we have to reach the hungry, the biggest thing is to have clarity on poverty.

So, how long before the starving get food?

Let me explain how it works. Our teams go by names in the list of families below the poverty line. We say 1.4 crore names must be on the list. The Centre says there are 65 lakh people. How can I reach these people when we cannot agree on how many destitute there are? The states don’t run the PDS. It all depends on the Central government. If the poor are to get subsidised food so they don’t eat animal skin, we must agree on who to reach. We are the sufferers. I wrote to the Centre on a food security law.

I told them to identify the BPL families if they are not satisfied with our surveys. But, it cannot be that the Centre takes the credit for a food security law and we get the abuses because people say their names are not on the list of BPL families.

Fresh investment can infuse life into an underdeveloped economy. Bihar is making a serious pitch but the big investors don’t seem to be coming. Why is this so?
Big investors are interested in two areas in Bihar: thermal power and ethanol. Thermal power plants cannot come up without coal. Coal needs water and water is a state issue. But now, they have started a new system of seeking clearance from the central water resources ministry. This ministry has said that the Ganga basin water will not be available for coal. In Bihar, there is only the Ganga basin. What else is there?

If they object to water for thermal plants, how can investments come? Likewise, the proposal to make ethanol from sugarcane is pending with the Centre since 2007. Things are not moving because of the Centre.

Investors say land is a problem in Bihar. They also say you are too cautious a chief minister to help.

Why should I acquire land for them? We are acquiring land for roads, railways and bridges. We are offering heavy compensation for that. We are acquiring far more land now than in the past for public purposes. As far as private investors are concerned, we ask them to negotiate on their own. If we get into the picture, there will be two issues. One, the land cost will be more because we acquire after paying a hefty compensation. Therefore, our land will include the charges we pay for acquiring and the development cost. Secondly, we can only offer land on lease. If the private investors negotiate on their own, they can get the land title on their name. Besides, [West] Bengal is next door. Haven’t Nandigram and Singur happened there? You may have met the window shoppers, who are not really interested. They look for alibis. No real investor has asked us to acquire land. Only the non-serious investors are complaining.

Education is another primary issue. You grew up as a child in Bihar. How is it different for children now?
The biggest change is that we are sending children to school. There were 25 lakh children out of school when we came to power. Now, that figure has come down to less than eight lakh. The second change is that we are trying to offer them quality education once they are in school so that attendance improves. We must have good midday meals and good teachers to improve attendance. So, we are focusing on teacher training and management of midday meals. We have just begun training 40,000 teachers with the help of IGNOU. You must remember that I don’t have a switch that I can press and make things happen. We can only tackle things one by one.

Things are better than in the past, but we have to do far more. We have been successful in getting girls into schools by giving them school dresses and money. We began giving bicycles to high school students, boys and girls. All students between Classes 3 and 5 are given Rs 500 a year, whichever community they come from, for school uniform.

Once in school, the intelligence levels of children become a factor. There appears to be a lack of intellectual capacity in Bihar today.
This is not a Bihar-centric problem. You will find it elsewhere also. The whole country lacks intellectual depth. But, the children of Bihar are ahead of others in learning languages and math. I’d like to remind you that we have only now begun to work in Bihar. People had lost the habit of working. Now, they are starting to work again. So, don’t look for solutions everywhere. You can’t do third and fourth stage evaluation now.

Our priority was to see that no children stay out of school. We have opened 15,000 new schools and recruited two lakh teachers. Yet, there are eight lakh children still out of school. We found that five lakh are either from Maha Dalit families or from the Muslim community. They need special care.

We have opened centres where we keep these children and prepare them for school. All this requires constant effort. There was no effort all these years. It has only begun now.

The branding of Bihar appears to be getting stronger outside India. Are you opening up Bihar to Mauritius? Is this a new trend for Bihar, tying up with a foreign country?
We are doing a lot with Mauritius. They will have a consulate here. We are willing to provide land and they are willing to open an office. Close to half the people in Mauritius are of Bihari origin. I have told the central government all this. The External Affairs Ministry now has to take the initiative with protocol.

How will it play out?
People from Mauritius want to trace their roots. We are ready to help them. The Mauritius Prime Minister came here and opened schools and hospitals.

Family plays a disproportionate role in Indian politics. The way you deal with family is different from many other politicians. How does it work with you?

Everyone has their way of looking at family and politics. I am also a perfect family man but what has that got to do with anything? When you get into politics, you must treat everyone as a family member. There isn’t a human being on earth without a family. But how does that matter? We have to be faithful to the duty and the opportunity we have got. I think many people have a sense of insecurity. They feel they will be secure only if their family gets empowered. I have no insecurity. I know death is imminent in everybody’s life. Why get insecure?
From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 7, Issue 05, Dated February 06, 2010

BIHAR - Try Me Now Society

2010-02-08T13:04:00.000-08:00

EVERYONE IS CALLING NITISH KUMAR THE DECADE’S BIGGEST TRANSFORMER. VIJAY SIMHA AND PHOTOGRAPHER VIJAY PANDEY MOTOR ACROSS THE RUGGED STATE TO SNIFF AT THE WINDS OF CHANGE

BY THE time Omer Hejazeen walked into the secretariat at Patna, he was already cursing the day he agreed to return to Bihar. Months ago, he met Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who was by then searching for people of Bihari origin to help him save Bihar. As Omer recalled, Nitish Kumar was kind during the meeting and asked him to have a look at Bihar. Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi too was in the room. Something about the manner in which they spoke and looked at him made Omer agree to the trip. From Dubai he took his 122nd flight for the year, and reached Patna.

The first sight of Patna can hit hard. The city is about 2,500 years old and had nurtured human thought and progress for several centuries. It was called Pataliputra then. Now, there are far too many people on the roads, and too much jostling and yelling. There are cycle-rickshaws everywhere, with people bent low as they pull the load in a mighty effort. There is a musty smell. There’s a sense that the city is straining. Too much has been taken from them. Too little given back. Good lord, thought Omer, nothing has changed. He had left Patna 22 years ago and it was still the same.

He stepped into the secretariat in deep blue trousers and jacket, shining black shoes, white shirt and red tie. He was surprised when he was stopped and asked for the purpose of his visit. “Wow, I thought. They were controlling the crowds. It was the first sign of professionalism for me. I looked around and saw no white or khadi,” says Omer. He walked into the chief minister’s chambers. “I told him I didn’t find any change in Bihar. Nitish Kumar looked at me and said he had not told the people of Bihar anything. But, he said, he had made a commitment to himself. He would change Bihar. It was the second time Nitish Kumar impressed me. I thought the man had guts,” says Omer.

NITISH KUMAR asked Omer what he could do for Bihar. The chief minister said there were thousands of Bihari workers in the Gulf. “He asked me to think about what I could offer. He told me to pick a sector and invest,” recalls Omer. A day later, Omer had a plan. There are about 10,000 Biharis who work as unskilled labour in the Gulf region after having completed school education. Omer thought he could provide vocational training to such people; offer degrees in technical courses, so they could earn more and live better.
LALU WAS A MAN OF THE PEOPLE, A PR DREAM. HE RULED BY INSTINCT. NITISH IS A BUREAUCRAT’S DREAM. HE RULES BY REASON

Having a plan in Bihar may mean little. For it to be acted upon, you need land. And land in Bihar is a tale. In 1786, Lord Cornwallis was appointed the Governor-General of India and Commander- in-Chief of Bengal. He set about changing the judicial and revenue systems in India. Bihar, as part of eastern India, was among the first areas Cornwallis looked at. He introduced the Permanent Settlement system, essentially retaining the then existing ownership of land. He gave the owners, or zamindars, the right to collect tax from the tenants on the land and pass it on to the East India Company.

The amount of tax was fixed. For instance, a zamindar may have paid Rs 1 lakh for an agreed number of villages or districts, for decades. This resulted in a permanent settlement between the zamindars and the East India Company. Over time, the land a zamindar owned was divided between his children and so it carried on for generations. The state barely intervened.

Nitish Kumar tends to stay off land as well. So, the state of Bihar does not acquire land for private investors. If Omer had to set up a technical education hub, he needed to buy land. “Nitish Kumar had suggested I take over an ITI (Industrial Training Institute) and run it profitably. We went to Darbhanga (north-central Bihar) and found that the teachers were not paid for months. The machines were expensive and unused. It looked like there would be plenty of hiccups in running an ITI. So we thought, why don’t we set up something on our own? We registered a family trust and began to buy land in Darbhanga,” says Omer.

Land holdings are not huge in this part of Bihar. Thus, an entrepreneur may need to engage with several owners. It is a tiresome process and can easily go wrong. “One of the farmers wanted Rs 3 lakh more. He said he had to pay his daughter’s dowry. This came after we paid him the agreed amount for his land. It was holding us up. Finally, we gave him the money,” says Omer. Eventually, Omer says, his trust bought 32 acres at Rs 15 lakh an acre. This, in turn, created complications.
imageDIPANKAR BHATTACHARYA, CPI-ML General Secretary
LALU’S 15 YEARS WERE SYNONYMOUS WITH STAGNATION. NOW THERE IS A DECLINE IN BIG CRIME’

“Things are exaggerated in small towns. There were two immediate effects of our buying the land. First, people thought I have a money tree. My parents warned that I was now a prime kidnapping target. At first, we hired local security guards. But this caused me discomfort. I hated the culture of walking around with gun-toting guards. I have seen people do this in Africa and Sri Lanka. I never liked it. I also had no privacy. The guards heard everything I discussed. I got rid of them and applied for a licence to carry a gun. The second effect was an increase in land price. Soon after we bought land, the price went up to Rs 18 lakh an acre,” says Omer.

Darbhanga is a desperately poor town. The lanes are filthy, the drains overflow, the roads are rickety, the universities are the size of small government offices and the jobs are few. To reach his proposed college of technical education, Omer needed roads. It is one thing to make people enrol in a college. To make them get there is another thing altogether. Omer has used his 22 years outside India well. He does production in films, television and radio. He does public relations. He deals in arms. In Darbhanga, he got into construction.

“If I have to come here, I have to feel comfortable. The roads in Darbhanga are very bad. So we registered a company again and started working on roads and buildings.” Okpet Construction & Services Pvt. Ltd., the new company, is laying 21 km of road in a part of Darbhanga with extremely poor access. It will cost Omer Rs 12 crore. He hopes to make a profit of Rs 2 crore from this road.

Portions of Darbhanga are buzzing with activity, of which Omer’s company is only a part. The State is building bridges and laying roads inside Darbhanga, the Centre is laying national highways, and the poor have something to do. Finally, it appears, at least a portion of Bihar is awake. Omer has got so much at ease that he is also getting into food processing. He is even comfortable with having to pay what are variously called bribes or office expenses. “It works out to 1.25 per cent of my expenses. If it facilitates my billing and my work, I don’t mind. In the UAE, I have to pay a huge testing fee for the roads. Here, an engineer comes even at night and does the testing. It is only fair that he gets something,” says Omer. In all, he says he has invested Rs 32 crore over three years. In time, he hopes to get it all back and some.

This is new Bihar, where the chief minister talks to a businessman and things get started. Clearing proposals faster is one part of Nitish Kumar’s reform. The other big impact is on law and order. The roads in Patna are noisy and crowded till at least 8.30pm most days. Many ignore the traffic policeman or policewoman. Men tend to drink at roadside shops and kiosks, at times even during the day. People gather in groups to gossip and discuss. The roads have become a place to just be. This enrages drivers who have to squeeze through narrower paths, honking their way through. For the moment though, they are not complaining. They are just happy to be there. The locals say the roads used to empty at sunset in the past. Anyone out after that was fair game for looting, snatching and kidnapping. They say people returning to Patna by train or bus would spend the night at the railway station or bus station if they arrived after 10pm and reach home the next morning.

NOW, THERE is a sense of relief. Some families even catch the 9pm movie show. Mona Cinema, considered the best theatre in Bihar at the moment, draws about a hundred people for the late night show even on some weekdays. Some of them are families. The film world is, therefore, happy. Prakash Jha, filmmaker and entrepreneur, is making big moves. Jha has established his credentials with films like Damul, Gangaajal and Apaharan. He is putting together what he says is Bihar’s first multiplex mall, the P&M Mall, in the heart of Patna’s Pataliputra industrial estate. The mall is coming up where sick units lay earlier. It is expected to be ready by March this year, well in time the premiere of Jha’s new film Rajneeti.

THE MALL has five floors with 59 shops. It will have four cinemas, each seating about a thousand. When operational, the multiplex mall could have 1,200 people going home from the movies every midnight. It should be quite a sight on the roads of Patna. At the moment, 250 labourers work here a day. When ready, the mall could employ many more and trigger a buzz in Patna. In size, the P&M Mall is roughly the same as the parking lot in south Delhi’s Select Citywalk Mall. But for Patna, it is big.

Says Jha: “It has taken four and a half years to reverse the regression of several years. Now, we are getting a better environment for investment. But, private industry will not happen overnight when you have better opportunities in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat or Tamil Nadu.

“The mindset must change. If Biharis don’t buy back into Bihar, why will others? My idea of politics is linked strongly with the economy. Wealth generation is the only thing that can iron out caste and class. I am doing my bit. Apart from the mall, I am starting Bihar’s first fully indigenous television channel, Maurya TV, with production entirely in Patna.”

The filmmaker comes from Bettiah, the headquarters of West Champaran district near the border with Nepal. Bettiah was notorious as the kidnapping capital of Bihar. “Now,” he says, “kidnapping is gone; finished. The law is getting after the big culprits. Nitish has done a great clean-up job.”

Bhojpuri filmstars Ravi Kishan and Manoj Tiwari are happy as well. Kishan, who has acted in 114 films, many in Hindi, is working on the cult classic Devdas in Bhojpuri, set in Patna. He is also lobbying for a film city close to Patna. “We couldn’t travel for shooting at night in the past in Bihar. It used to scare people. Now, the state is breathing. It was choked for a long time. You can see couples at the movies after 8pm. There is a positive energy now. Earlier, Biharis were seen as criminals and duffers. Now, it is our turn. The investors are coming. Local actors from Patna and elsewhere are booked with me in Bhojpuri films every year. We used to operate from Mumbai but now I can assure the state of business if they give us a film city. A hundred Bhojpuri films will be made a year,” says Kishan.

Tiwari, who also sings, says the Bihar government did not respect artistes in the past. “I used to get calls from ministers in the previous government to perform. They would terrorise us. Criminals associated with political parties and the government also used to call. I was afraid of getting hurt. So, I used to perform for them. Now, if the secretariat calls, they ask us for our fee and requirements. Also, location is now granted on priority for shooting and the police provide security,” says Tiwari.

Nitish Kumar is too canny to miss the signs. He senses that the mood could be in his favour and it is beginning to show in his walk and talk. He is Mr Bihar now and he loves it. He calls a cabinet meeting on board a ship in the Ganga, and the local media laps it up. He holds camps in various parts of the state, during which time he also chairs a cabinet meeting on site, and the people applaud. He believes he is heading the biggest reconstruction story in India. He also believes he is right. He is beginning to acquire the same self-righteousness that Lalu Prasad Yadav once had. It led Lalu into a world of his own where he did no wrong. Bihar went into the dark ages but Lalu saw the reverse in his mind.

Everyone in Bihar has an opinion on everything. They are assertive and difficult to dislodge from the positions they hold. It is a curious trait of Bihar, possibly India’s most politically conscious state. Yet, when it comes to governance, Bihar tends to idolise a man at the top and make him think he is above the crowd. Lalu was king once. Nitish is now. Lalu was a man of the people, a PR man’s dream. He could connect. He ruled by instinct. He knew the value of gesture. Nitish is a bureaucrat’s dream. He can perform. He rules by reason. He knows the value of delivery.

IT IS not all hunky dory, however. Most of the buzz is being generated from a 30km belt around Patna. Beyond that, life can be cruel. Niranjan Paswan is the Gaya district secretary of the CPI-ML (Liberation), a Left party that once operated as a guerrilla unit. Gaya is Bihar’s second biggest town after Patna. It also has an airport, which largely caters to the tourists who flock to Bodh Gaya, where the Buddha is believed to have attained enlightenment. Paswan sits in an office covered by asbestos sheets. A television set sits on bricks. Wooden poles support the entire structure. Paswan’s wife and son also work in the same office for the party. He deals mostly with the rural poor, arguably the worst off in Bihar. Working among the deprived, Paswan sees little change in Bihar. “It is a routine with us. We hear of people dying of hunger, we visit them, we make a noise, and the administration says they died of disease. Please tell me where the change is,” he says.

Gajichak village in Gaya’s Dobhi block seems to be a century behind Patna. It is about noon on a Sunday and a boy is stuffing what appears to be the hind portion of a dead goat. Only the skin remains, with the hind legs dangling. There is no flesh. The boy carefully stuffs the carcass with hay. He then gets a fire going. He is joined by a few other children. “He will cook it now,” says Paswan. Apparently, the fire will burn the hair on the goat skin and roast it from the outside. The hay inside, used for the stuffing, will catch fire and cook the skin from the inside. This will be the Sunday meal. Anywhere else, the skin would be chucked as waste. Here, it is a delicacy.

IT IS NOON IN GAYA. A BOY STUFFS A DEAD GOAT WITH HAY AND BURNS IT. THERE IS ONLY SKIN, NO FLESH. YET FOR HIM, IT’S A DELICACY

Kunwa Devi, who lives in the same village, has four children: three girls and a boy. She says she is 35 years old. Her husband used to work in a nearby farm. In May 2009 he died, apparently of hunger. Kunwa Devi says her husband developed a fever, which the local quack said was malaria. There was no money for medicines, so some of the village folk pooled money for the medicines. They ran out of the medicine eventually. Also, there was very little food in the house when her husband couldn’t work because he was ill. She says her husband stopped eating so that the children could eat. “We used to get grass from the jungle to feed him. It was not enough,” she says.

Paswan says Kunwa Devi’s husband died of hunger. The administration says he died of illness. The family lives in a hutment with three small rooms. There are just the walls and a few vessels. There is a small bag of coarse rice, which she says she gets as daily wages when she works in a farm. She gets no money, she says. She has just fed the children with the rice and the gruel that formed while the rice was cooked. She cannot see with her left eye. She says a branch pierced her eye. No one in her family uses footwear. The children’s hair is matted. They haven’t had a bath for days.

Paswan’s boss, Dipankar Bhattacharya, General Secretary of the CPIML (Liberation), is in his Patna office. Most political parties in Bihar have their headquarters on the same road, Vir Chand Patel Path, and the CPI-ML is a neighbour of the Bharatiya Janata Party. There is a maze of wires hanging from a plug point, a laptop waits on the table and there is a bonfire going. There is a sudden sharp drizzle before Bhattacharya comes. His wife and daughter are in London, and he spends his life fighting for betterment in the lives of the rural poor and the most economically backward of Bihar. He has been general secretary for 11 years. His party has five members in the legislative assembly.

“It will be wrong to say there has been no change in five years. Lalu’s 15-year reign was synonymous with absolute stagnation. There is a decline in big crime. Some sort of a nationalisation of crime has taken place. The big criminals are earning as much through transport. If you have the state’s coffers open to you, why would you loot and kidnap? Also, the discourse has changed. It has moved from social justice and dignity to good governance and growth,” says Bhattacharya.
IF GUJARAT HAD STARTED FROM THE SAME BASE AS BIHAR, IT WOULD HAVE 40 PER CENT GROWTH. BUT NOW, THERE IS OPTIMISM

“But, there is a big problem. Feudal Bihar is a stubborn survivor. The government will pretend to do land reform but will sit on actual reform. Socially, there is very little progress. Change is not free. You have to pay a big price. For a small change, there has to be a big fight.”

SCHOLARS AND academics find the hype over Bihar’s growth baffling. NK Chaudhary, Professor in Patna University’s Department of Economics, is grappling with a sudden teacher’s strike in the university. “Can you imagine a strike anywhere whose sole demand is payment of salaries on time?” he says. Like many in Bihar, Chaudhary is perplexed at the 11.3 per cent growth figure for Bihar released by the Central Statistical Organisation in New Delhi early January. The figures made people look at Bihar anew and generated a big buzz. People began to compare Bihar with Gujarat, which Chaudhary says is ingenious.

“The growth may not be real because Bihar is not a miracle economy. The basis of the figures is also weakened after Pronab Sen, Chief Statistician of India, said it was wrong to attribute the figures to the CSO. Much of the hype created by Nitish then falls flat. It is too good to believe. All of a sudden you tell a beggar you are a rich man. If your base is low, even a little forward movement will be big,” says Chaudhary.

Chaudhary says Bihar may be shining for a few, but for the rest, Bihar is sinking. He lists the improvements: in health, law and order, and roads. He lists the non-improvements: a bureaucracy that has supreme power in a democracy, no rule of law, no land reform, no water resource management, no proper faculty in higher education, increase in scale of corruption because of more funds flow, no action against bureaucrats for graft, and distress migration.

BIHAR HAS not found panacea. If Gujarat were to start from the same base as Bihar, it would probably register 40 per cent growth. It is difficult to spot a functioning state in Bihar over the past 60 years. Not a single new area has been developed from the pre-Independence period in Bihar. There is no history of entrepreneurship for at least three generations. There is no renaissance in Bihar, now or in the past. There is no Jnanpith Award winner in Bihar. There is virtually no corporate presence. The extent of inequity is high. And yet, there is a sense of optimism. It raises the possibility that Bihar may attempt the long haul honestly this time.

Shaibal Gupta, Member-Secretary of the Asian Development Research Institute, a leading think-tank in Patna, thinks there is significance in recent events. “Why is Nitish Kumar important? He is the first chief minister of Bihar to take cognisance of the absence of the state in the state. He has succeeded marginally in the mammoth task of building state structures. He was the first to set up an Administrative Reforms Commission. He was the first to set up a Land Reforms Commission. He is starting from scratch. He is creating an atmosphere where the Prakash Jhas can flourish,” says Gupta. He says what happens in Bihar now is critical because in two years, “Each of the 600 districts in India will have a Bihari District Magistrate or Superintendent of Police”. “Bihar has moved from a ‘touch-me-not’ society to a ‘try-me-now’ society. This is a benchmark for a resistant state.”

Brand Bihar is also getting noticed because of the Bihar Foundation. Operating under the state government, the Foundation works on a simple brief of ‘bonding and branding’. It bonds by creating chapters in various cities in India and outside. The newest chapter is in Bengaluru and there are chapters in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata, and in Dubai, Doha and South Korea outside India. The chapters think about what affects Biharis in their areas, and helps non-resident Biharis trace their roots and do something for where they came from.
BRAND BIHAR IS GETTING NOTICED BECAUSE OF THE BIHAR FOUNDATION. IT BONDS THROUGH CHAPTERS IN INDIA AND OUTSIDE

The theory of roots is a powerful concept. It can make strong men and women yearn for memories as children. Often, this yearning can take the shape of catharsis. Mookhesswur Choonee is Mauritius’ High Commissioner to India. He gets astonishingly sentimental when it comes to Bihar. He describes Mauritius as an “extended leg of Bihar”. He says he is proud to see how Bihar has progressed. “People often ask me are you the high commissioner of Bihar,” he says. Choonee says the prime minister of Mauritius “belongs to Bihar” and that “people from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are running Mauritius”.

Anil Kumar Bachoo, Mauritius’ Minister of Public Infrastructure, Land Transport, and Shipping, can get touchier about Bihar. “In the 1970s, I was a student in Delhi. My seniors told me not to interact with anyone from Bihar because they are backward and cannot rise in life. Well, a few weeks ago, my prime minister told me to go and get some Biharis to Mauritius. We have retained in Mauritius what they have lost in Bihar. Mauritius is a little Bihar. When they catch cold in Bihar, we sneeze in Mauritius. We are proud of our roots. Bihar was the fount of civilisation. It is the torchbearer of India in future,” says Bachoo.

That may take some doing, but there are nuggets that suggest that respect for honesty and hard work may yet save Bihar. Rakesh Sharma is a businessman who rents out a community centre in downtown Patna for marriages and runs a cooking gas agency. The community centre can host a maximum of a thousand guests in comfort. “In November- December 2009, we used 20 litres diesel for the generator during power cuts. In 2008, we needed 200 litres.”

These are the parts of the whole that Nitish Kumar hopes to build of a new Bihar. For too long, the state of Bihar has not delivered. This is rock bottom. It’s a good place to start.

Bihar: 2009 - a year of promises and prejudices

2010-01-10T09:57:00.000-08:00

2009 was a year of hope and despair, of promises and prejudices, of shocks and surprises and of course a roller-coaster on political front, as Bihar once again revolved around personalities.

Bihar stepped into the year 2009 by watching Chief Minister Nitish Kumar stepping out of Patna's concrete cocoon and discovering Bihar, as he travelled across the state- backwaters on his much-publicised Vikas Yatra.

As the year drew to a conclusion, Nitish Kumar was once again out of capital chaos to spend the year's last week in the serene surroundings of historical Rajgir where he held the last Cabinet meeting of the year atop the Ratnagiri hills at the height of 1,300 feet on December 29.

While the intent and the purpose are visible in whatever the chief minister said or did throughout the year, Nitish Kumar's attempts to reach out to people were dripped with symbolism. Perhaps therefore, whatever Nitish did was seen through a political prism.

While Kumar had launched his Vikas Yatra just before the Lok Sabha polls, his Rajgir Yatra at the end of 2009 is said to have timed with an eye on the 2010 Assembly polls.

Under the shadow of Vishwa Shanti Stupa, the last cabinet meeting of the year 2009 embossed and approved the revised pay package for government employees on the pattern of the sixth pay commission report. This almost confirmed the subtle political meanings of the Nitish's initiative.

The state exchequer would bear an additional financial burden of over Rs 3,500 crore due to revised salaries and pension component.

Of all things, General Elections 2009 was surely the biggest event of the year. Though the results further strengthened the political pecking order at the national level-with the United Progressive Alliance augmenting its lead over the BJP led National Democratic Alliance in New Delhi-Bihar adhered to a reverse order. Contrary to the national trend, the JD(U)-BJP combine swept Bihar by winning 32 of the total 40 Lok Sabha seats.

The NDA that suffered heavy losses across the country raced to the top in the two states of Bihar and Jharkhand by bagging as many as 40 seats.

In fact, the Congress party that staged an impressive comeback in New Delhi could gather only three out of the 54 Lok Sabha seats in the two states.

People in the two states clearly demonstrated a different political assessment of the political scenario.

Analysts could read various nuanced messages in the voting trends in Bihar, which clearly suggested that the two states were still largely influenced by micro issues and factors that overshadowed national issues. In short, the two states voted in the Lok Sabha polls the way they would have had voted in assembly elections.

The Lok Sabha elections in the two States also shattered many myths. For instance, RJD chief Lalu Prasad's much-vaunted political arithmetic that went horribly wrong is still billed as the biggest electoral shock of the year.

One of the high points of the General election for Bihar was electoral ineligibility of Bahubalis like Shahabuddin, Pappu Yadav, Anand Mohan and Surajbhan-who could not contest polls because of their respective convictions.

These men once ensured Bihar's drift from criminalisation of politics to politicisation of crime. But, Lok Sabha elections 2009 also decisively rejected their dummy candidates - read wife and mother.

Lalu Prasad lost Lok Sabha election to his one time friend Ranjan Prasad Yadav from Pataliputra, though he won from Saran while LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan lost his home turf, Hajipur, to his long-time rival Ram Sunder Das of JD(U).

Although temporarily, Nitish Kumar emerged as the man with the Midas touch-a man who with his shrewd calculations coupled with a new social engineering ensured electoral meltdown of biggies like Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan in the summer of 2009.

This, however, was short-lived. Three months later in September, when Bihar witnessed by-elections for 18 assembly seats, the "discredited duo" successfully turned the tables on Nitish Kumar by winning nine seats. Clearly, Lalu and Paswan clawed back to political centre stage.

The emergence of Congress as an independent political force in Bihar is also one of the major political development of the year 2009. The Congress broke electoral ties with Lalu and Paswan on the eve of the Lok Sabha polls when the two left only three seats for the grand old party.

The Congress fought alone. And since then, subsequent elections have confirmed the party's ascendance to a status of being a political force in many constituencies of Bihar with considerable rise in vote share.

In the education sector Bihar remained a viable centre for quality learning, as the already functional branches of Indian Institute of Technology, Chanakya Law University and Chandragupta Institute of Management-which were established during the earlier years- continued to draw top talents.

Besides, a panel led by Nobel laureate Amartya Sena is also in the process of setting up an international university at Nalanda. Process is underway to accord the status of central university to Rajendra Agriculture University.

The Universities in Bihar remained pockmarked with controversies with State HRD department all through 2009 kept shooting orders-including one when Vice-Chancellors and some senior officials were made to refund their salaries, as they were disallowed to use internal resources to this effect.

Many thought this actually undermined the autonomy of the education centres. University teachers in Bihar, ironically however, are still awaiting the implementation of the revised UGC pay scales.

In the year 2009, the Nitish Government in Bihar also remained involved in a series of spats with the Centre over packages for floods and drought. Nitish Kumar kept demanding special status for Bihar, a comprehensive relief package for Kosi flood and assistance for drought hit districts of the state.

Though, Bihar's lists of demands were not without merit, Nitish Kumar's insistence on blaming Centre for everything that was wrong with Bihar failed to impress anyone.

In 2009, Bihar also had the misfortune of suffering two natural disasters-flood and drought-simultaneously. In fact, at a time when 26 districts of the state were declared "calamity- hit" following scanty rainfall and drought conditions, over 10 lakh people in a different corner of the state remained grappling with flood waters.

The dichotomy was all the more pronounced with one group of farmers left with too little water while the other with too much of it. A group of relief officials trying recuing the flood hit population while the other group praying for rain, as the spectre of famine loomed large on the state.

The year 2009 also recorded some improvement in the law and order situation with conviction of over 10,000 criminals serving as a deterrent. The crime graph, however, left a lot to be desired, as in the first ninth months of the year alone the state witnessed 2438 murders, 505 dacoity, 1253 robbery, 62 kidnapping for ransom and 720 robbery incidents.

Maoists also continued their stray attacks in which over two dozen cops were killed. The police, however, succeeded in targeting the extremists and arrested several top Naxalite leaders and seized huge quantity of arms and ammunition from various places including state capital.

Highs

* Bihar initiative of reserving 50 % seats for women in Panchayat Raj Institutions and local bodies was adopted by the country
* A large number of companies and private institutions reached Bihar
* Bihar registered a quantum leap in tourism sector. Bihar Administrative Reforms Mission Society Constituted.
* The medium term growth rate of NSDP at constant prices, during the period 1999-00 to 2008-09, is estimated to be 5.57 per cent. Although this growth rate is lower than the national gowth rate of about 6-7 per cent, it indicates an improved growth performance compared to the recent past when the state economy managed to grow at barely 3-4 per cent. The per capita NSDP of Bihar has grown at 3.61 per cent. The growth rate for NSDP at constant prices has been very good for at least three sectors - Construction (21.53 per cent), Communications (16.01 per cent) and Trade, Hotels and Restaurants (12.08 per cent).
* Bihar's per centage per capita growth of 12.07 per cent is not much behind the all India per capita growth rate of 12.73 per cent.
* According to Bihar economic survey for 2008-09, State has registered impressive growth trends in three sectors in the state - construction (21.53%), communications (16.01%) and trade, hotels and restaurants (12.03%).
* Among all States and union territories, Bihar with a crime rate of 118 stood at 28th position in the country. There has been a decline in major crimes including murder (-3.2 per cent), dacoity (-10.10 per cent), robbery (-4.99 per cent), kidnapping for ransom (-23 per cent), bank robbery (-15.03 per cent), etc. during the period 2001-08. There has been a sharp decline of around 50 per cent or more in the cases of dacoity, kidnapping, road dacoity and bank robbery in 2008 over 2001.

Lows

* Bihar still mans the bottom space for having the lowest per capita income in the entire country.
* The poor form 41.5 per cent of its population; it has a poverty and hunger average of 2.7 per cent against a national average of 1.9 per cent; 58.4 per cent of its children under the age of three are underweight and only one-fourth of its population has access to public health and toilets.

Patna: P For Progress

2010-01-10T09:49:00.000-08:00

Patna today is seen as a source of hope emerging at the grassroots, as individuals and organisations, including the government make efforts at creating a city with new commitments to bring in new vistas of opportunities, creating employment, adding colour, vision and value to every neighbourhood, business centres and the pathways that dot Bihar's capital city.

There is indeed some good news to begin with. The World Bank's Doing Business in India 2009 report has adjudged Bihar's capital city, Patna ahead of Mumbai and second only to New Delhi when it comes to launching a new business initiative.

In fact, Patna's rating is above Chennai, Kochi and Kolkata in the overall ranking for facilitating smooth business, says the World Bank Report.
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Kargil Chauk, Patna

In short, Patna appears promising. And even though the city still has promises to keep Patna today - the capital city of Bihar- means prosperity.

As we move towards 2010, Patna, located on the banks of Ganga, appears flooded with opportunities. The city is at the threshold of an economic renaissance, which has pushed up the paying capacity of the residents. Slowly but surely, Patna is emerging as a growth centre.

According to ASSOCHAM's study of the employment scenario in India between April and October 2009-10, Patna registered a growth of 20.52 percent in job creation.

Among the Tier II cities, Patna is placed behind Vishakapatnam (115.21 per cent), Indore (60.00 per cent), Bhubaneswar (49.49 per cent), and Jaipur (28.74 per cent) and is registering major growth in job creation during April to October 2009-10 as compare to the same period in 2008-09.

The ranking assumes special significance since cities like Bhopal, Amritsar, Gwalior and Ludhiana have witnesses a decline in job creation by 26.68 per cent, 9.60 per cent, 6.27 per cent and 3.94 per cent, respectively.

Prosperity indeed is writ large on Patna roads. The rise in number of vehicles plying on Patna roads is a huge indicator to this effect.

In the last one year, there has been a growth of 39 percent in private vehicles and 67 percent rise in the commercial vehicles plying across Patna.

In 2008-09, a total of 21,594 vehicles were registered. The number shot up to 30,229 by October 2009. 3,008 passenger vehicles were registered in 2008-09, which shot up to 5,025 till October.

In fact, Patna -- where the number of vehicles in 2007 was 1.75 lakh -- today is bustling with 2.93 lakh vehicles till October 2009 -- a rise by 67 percent in just two years.

The general perception suggests that a big thrust on development has given Bihar the forward momentum, besides increasing the money volume in the market, which has resulted in a corresponding rise in the purchasing power.

Things are looking up in Patna. The last few years have seen families having late dinner at restaurants. The shopping outlets in downtown Patna are chock-a-block, and the real estate business is booming while commanding a never before price tag in the city.

This is, however, just part of the story. Patna needs to expand, as the existing city just does not have a matching infrastructure ready to accommodate everything that the city currently has.

Patna is struggling in terms of infrastructure strength, which is inadequate to cater to the growing population. It desperately needs more flyovers, better roads and end of water-logging to join the big league of developed cities.

Several foreign financial institutions like World Bank and Asian Development Bank have offered to help Bihar towards infrastructure development under the urban development ministry.

In fact, the existing infrastructure in terms of roads and space is so grimly inadequate that the Patna High Court recently asked the Government of Bihar to speed up the decision-making process on the proposed master plan for the State Capital.

While hearing a PIL on illegal apartments, the HC also suggested the Urban development Department to take steps for developing areas adjoining Patna to ease pressure on the State capital.

The good news is that the Urban Development Department has plans to develop Maner and Fatuha as satellite towns and also improves Hajipur and Sonepur in order to shift the population pressure coming to Patna urban area.

The Patna Regional Development Authority (PRDA) has charted out a plan to this effect, although the pace of its implementation has left a lot to be desired.

In fact, if the authorities including the city planners succeed in developing Patna in accordance with the requirements of time, the capital of Bihar will surely be a place to watch in the coming future.

The Patna Urban Agglomeration Area had a population of 16.98 lakhs as per the 2001 Census while the municipal corporation area of Patna had a population of 13.66 lakh (2001 Census).

The population of the Urban Agglomeration Area is expected to be 22.50 lakhs in the year 2011 and 28.01 lakhs in the year 2021. In addition the floating population who commute from districts to the Patna Urban Agglomeration Area each day is expected to be 3.00 lakhs by 2021 against around 2.00 lakhs at present.

In the years to come the existing planned residential area of 8938 hectares would go up to 14,609.57 hectares in another decade. At present, the planned residential area in Patna is 641 hectares while for apartments it is 242 hectares.

By 2021, the face of the city will change dramatically. There are plans of expanding the residential area to 8014.70 hectares. Correspondingly, the commercial space will go up to 514.9 hectares whereas 1073.91 hectares of space is to be earmarked for community space.

In addition to this, over 3000 hectares of green land, 1709.44 hectares of internal roads and 88.74 hectares of infrastructure area are to be created.

The authorities have planned to increase the areas for clubs, cinema halls, theatres, parks and playgrounds to 990 hectares from the existing 224 hectares.

Similarly in a decade to come, efforts would be made to reduce the existing land occupied by administrative offices of the government, educational and medical institutions, religious, archaeological and historical sites and graveyards and cremation ghats -- which is currently over 691 hectares There will be 800 hectares of 30 and 20-metre wide roads.

The area for clubs, cinema halls, theatres, parks and playgrounds is to be increased from 224 to over 990 hectares. There is a proposal for 60 metre-wide roads in Patna occupying a space of over 681.98 hectares,

All this, however, is yet to happen. But, the plan surely gives an idea that a focussed development and expansion of Patna is on the cards.

Being surrounded by three rivers, Patna also has a constraint of growth on the northern side due to River Ganga, southern side due to River Punpun and eastern due to Sone.

Moreover the topography of Patna is like a saucer due to the surrounding three rivers and thus drainage of the city poses as a major problem and pumping of water our seems to be the only solution at present. The city is also prone to flooding.

The Human Development Index (HDI) in Patna, however, needs some focussed thrust. The HDI is the more widely used means of measuring well being, which takes into account additional indicators like per capita income, along with life expectancy and literacy rate of a society.

Life expectancy in Bihar is 61 years, almost on par with the national life expectancy of 62.7 years. Patna's capita gross district domestic product of Rs 31,441. Patna also has the highest per capita saving in the state at Rs 675, highest per-capita fuel consumption and the highest per capita income at Rs 6,958.

Across the state, the city also has highest per capita spending share on health and education (in 2006-07) at Rs 674 and Rs 5,633. The literacy rate of Patna Urban Agglomeration area is 68.9%, which is higher than the literacy rate of the State i.e. 47.53%.

The state government also appears to making some concentrated efforts by increased expenditure on social services to improve the HDI (Human Development Indices). There are attempts at providing better access to basic education, health services, safe drinking water, sanitation, housing etc.

In Bihar, the total expenditure on social services in 2008 has gone up to Rs 10666 crore (35 percent salary component), which is up from 4197 crore of 2003-04.

It includes health and family welfare, water supply, sanitation, housing and urban development, education, sports, arts & culture and other social services.

In fact, in 2007-08, the total expenditure on social services was more than one third of the total expenditure and 48 percent of the total development expenditure.

These efforts may positively impact the ground situation, as Bihar has been at the lowest position among the major states in India in 1981, 1991 and 2001. The same pattern is replete in its ranking with respect to Per Capita Income.

The spin offs of the prosperity is also visible across the board with Patna people expressing a pronounced consumer behaviour with larger disposable income.

The megatrend of consumerism is revamping Patna's economic structure, besides fuelling business growth in the city. Similarly, the retail industry here is also developing fast with improving business environment and rising income levels.

No wonder, Patna has also caught the attention of real estate developers, and a number of projects in both the segments of commercial and residential are underway.

However, the demands for space have come from sectors like banking, insurance, finance, telecom, coaching and educational institutes etc. According to an estimate, more than 10 million sq ft structure is being created to meet the demand.

Patna has also witnessed a huge influx of business organisations coming to the city, while the existing ones have been on an expansion mode thus generating hundreds of jobs in the private sector.

Advantage of cost is one big factor that makes Patna a preferred destination for business and real estate activities. At times when capital values at metros go as high as Rs 30,000 per sq ft, prices here are seemingly moderate.

In terms of retail business, although many big names are yet to set up shops in Patna but huge departmental stores like Vishal Mega Mart, Patliputra Shoppers Plaza, and Khetan Super Market have already emerged successful in drawing huge number of consumers.

Quite a few mall-cum-multiplexes are also likely to come up in a year time at Patna. These malls will have exclusive shops, showrooms and offices, besides silver screens with excellent acoustics, coffee house, and food court, with escalators and capsule lift.

From a production Market focussed on rest of the country, Patna is turning into an equally good consumption market much more focussed on selling to itself.

Clearly, what's happening in Patna is by far the most important development in Bihar. The policy makers want to develop Patna for rest of the state to follow. Patna has begun its journey.

SWOT Analysis

Strength: Advantage of large labour force. Well developed service sector. In fact, the Economy is witnessing a shift towards services, much before industrialisation, mostly driven by a buoyant urban economy

Weakness: Unavailability of land

Opportunity: Huge potential for tourism, as the city has a large variety of historical monuments (Like Golghar) from Maurya to Gupta age and down to the Colonial British Rule. It is the gateway to the Buddhist & Jain pilgrim centres of Vaishali, Rajgir, Nalanda, Bodhgaya and Pawapuri.

Patna can also develop as a major education centre. New centres of Indian Institute of Technology and National Institute of Fashion Technology are already here, besides an extension centre of BIT Mesra and a good business school, Chandragupta Institute of Management.

Threat: Poor infrastructure, poor HDI in addition to a negative sex ratio 873 female against 1000 males.

The Biggest Brand: There are many in Patna. But all debates over being the biggest brand in Patna stands settled with Hotel Maurya, which stands heads and shoulders above others.

Set up in 1978, Hotel Maurya, Patna, is a pioneering project of Bihar Hotels Limited (BHL) that has generated foreign exchange for the state of over Rs. 34 million. Located on a two and a half acre plot in the prime commercial area of Patna, the Maurya hasl almost everything -- food outlets, four conference, banquet facilities, swimming pool, gym -- to make it a complete experience.

Nitish’s A-team: Bihari babus show their mettle

2010-01-10T05:00:00.001-08:00

Many in Bihar say Pratyay Amrit’s name should be entered into Guinness World Records for helming a sick corporation which built the highest

number of road bridges in a year. As Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam's CMD, this 1991-batch IAS officer oversaw completion of 259 major bridge projects in three years since 2006. In view of its success, the nigam has now been given responsibilities like road and hospital construction, among other things. “Now we are out of debt, making handsome profits and are also spending crores on philanthropy as part of our CSR (corporate social responsibility),” a nigam official says.

Pratyay delivered. So have others in chief minister Nitish Kumar’s A-team, who were chosen for their competence. Earlier as principal secretary (finance) and now as development commissioner, Navin Kumar has been the chief strategist in financial matters. Known for his sobriety, the 1975-batch IAS officer is the man behind the state’s budget drafts and also the all-important memorandum to the finance commission. He also heads the State Investment Planning Board, formed by the Nitish government to attract investment. The board mobilized proposals worth Rs 96,000 crore in just three years.

R K Singh was the builder during the initial years of the Nitish regime. Currently secretary (defence production) at
the Centre, the 1975-batch officer was the architect of the development of the state’s road network as principal secretary, road construction.

Madan Mohan Jha was specially brought in from central deputation. As HRD boss, he initiated the move to recruit over two lakh teachers on contract. He also conceptualized several other projects. After his untimely death in 2007, Anjani Kumar Singh has been brought in as HRD principal secretary to complete his unfinished work.
While Deepak Kumar managed the key health department for the first three years, Afzal Amanullah's three-year tenure as home secretary is still remembered for the bold initiative to rein in criminals, including politicians of Nitish’s JD(U). The 1979-batch officer now looks after urban development.

Anup Mukherjee, as rural development department head, supervised implementation of poverty alleviation schemes, including NREGA, and won accolades for the state even from the Centre. The 1974-batch officer, who believes in working quietly, is the state’s chief secretary today.

Bureaucrat-turned-MP N K Singh is also an important player in Nitish's team. Not only does he give ideas to the CM, but he is also credited with successfully showcasing Bihar in the country and abroad.

BACKROOM BOYS : During the Lalu-Rabri regime, a single bureaucrat called the shots at the CM’s office. The change of guard brought a tech-savvy team to manage the affairs. Ram Chandra Prasad Singh, 52, the CM’s principal secretary, has been associated with Nitish Kumar since 1998 when the latter was railway minister. Both Nitish and RCP, a 1984-batch IAS officer of UP cadre, are from Nalanda and belong to the same caste. Insiders say Nitish treats RCP like a family member.

Nitish also banks heavily on S Siddharth (1991 batch) and Chanchal Kumar (1992 batch). As secretaries to the CM, they coordinate with principal secretaries of various departments and oversee implementation of welfare and development programmes. Siddharth, from Tamil Nadu, is a BTech and has attended advanced courses at IIM-Ahmedabad. Chanchal, an MTech, has also studied micro-finance in the US.

There’s a clear division of work. While Siddharth looks after infrastructure departments like road, building, urban development and energy, Chanchal has been assigned social sector departments like education, health, social welfare and disaster management.

Pride and Prejudice

2010-01-10T04:57:00.000-08:00

Who carries you on a rickshaw or an autorickshaw in Delhi? Biharis. Who drives the cars of Delhiites? Biharis. Who built the Delhi Metro? Biharis. (You may not agree with the last one.)

Who is building the new houses and the expanding suburbs of Delhi? Biharis. Who made Punjab the most prosperous state in the country? The answer again is Biharis. (Here too you may not agree.)

The credit for building the Delhi Metro or making Punjab prosperous will never go to Biharis. Does anyone ever say that blacks built America?

In colonial days, Bihar supplied the girmitiya, or indentured, labourers who built countries like Mauritius, Suriname and Fiji. A bulk of the labour employed in the Raj capital of Calcutta came from Bihar. After Independence Bihari workers flocked to places like Delhi, Punjab and Mumbai.

At the same time, Biharis excelled in other fields. Many became great political leaders, ICS and IAS officers, scientists, doctors, engineers, writers and artists. Delhi and other Indian cities attracted huge white-collar Bihari populations and Biharis formed a large part of the Indian diaspora of professionals.

But in the eyes of the rest of India, “Bihari” had come to mean a labourer, a person doing menial jobs. It had become a term of scorn and contempt. In their anglicized lingo, places like Delhi University turned the word into “Harry”, but the pejorative tone remained unmistakable.

Heaping scorn on the working classes is a universal phenomenon. That is how words like Negro, Paki (used for Pakistanis and Indians in Britain) and some of the words denoting dalit castes in India earned contemptuous connotations.

In fact, while Biharis were getting their hands dirty on Punjab’s farms, Punjabis were migrating in hordes to the US, Canada, the UK and Australia. Never mind that they would take up blue-collar jobs as taxi drivers, petrol pump attendants and waiters in those faraway lands.

As the years passed, many of the Biharis who had come to Punjab or Mumbai as manual labourers started moving up the economic ladder as did the blue-collar Indian emigrants abroad. A usually unnoticed aspect of the so-called racial attacks against Indians abroad is the threat the rise of working classes poses to the entrenched social order. This accentuates the contempt they face. From this angle, the attacks on Biharis in Punjab, and Mumbai, and the attacks on Indians abroad are manifestations of the same phenomenon.

What stopped Biharis from bringing about a green revolution or building a Metro in Bihar? The answer is geography and history. Geography, because ravaged by floods, the land of Bihar was unable to feed its growing population. And history, because what was the centre of the biggest Indian empire in ancient times was reduced to an obscure provincial existence. The skewed landownership system introduced by the British rulers worsened the situation.

Things could have improved after Independence had the political leadership of Bihar been able to exert influence on the rulers in New Delhi to get enough funds for development projects and set off a process of industry in the state.
On the contrary, Bihar continued to live the same, conveniently ignored, provincial existence. A system built on casteism, nepotism, corruption and crime came to dominate the state. It spawned a neo-rich class of netas, babus, contractors and government engineers who would build palatial houses for themselves with the money meant for dams, power projects, ration for the poor or even fodder for cattle.

The money meant for roads and public amenities would go into their bank accounts. No wonder, the roads in front of those houses would be full of ditches and become the playground of pigs every monsoon.

With limited options of higher education and hardly any employment opportunities in the state, the youth of Bihar started looking out. They flooded places like Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University. They started dominating the country’s toughest competitions like the IIT-JEE and the civil services exam. With this success, Biharis started believing they had the best brains. The world began to grudgingly acknowledge their capabilities.
Academic success, however, did not do much to rid the word “Bihari” of the scorn it had gathered. People in Delhi continued to laugh at those who spoke with a Bihari accent. Those without an accent would get this compliment: “Oh, you are from Bihar? But you don’t sound like a Bihari.”

Biharis, meanwhile, were retreating into a shell, with little but the historic glory of Buddha, Mahavira, Chandragupta, Chanakya, Ashoka, Aryabhatta, Guru Gobind Singh and Sher Shah to bask in. Now comes 11% growth. The state can recover from the damage it has suffered over hundreds of years only if such a high rate of growth can be sustained for many, many years. Then Biharis would not have to till others' land or build cities and countries elsewhere.

Bihar, a growth story

2010-01-10T04:56:00.000-08:00

Roads “as smooth as Hema Malini’s cheeks” was a promise that Lalu Yadav had once given to the people of Bihar. Ironically, it is his rival Nitish

Kumar who seems to be delivering on that front. Despite three years of floods followed by a year of drought, ‘backward and benighted’ Bihar reports a miraculous figure: 11% GDP growth, second only to Gujarat. The state’s economy has never grown so fast so consistently as it has since 2004-2005. A few pointers on what’s going right in Bihar:

* Getting anywhere in Bihar has always been an exercise in endurance. But that’s changing. More than 6,800 km of roads have been relaid and 1,600 bridges and culverts constructed in the last four years. Journey time in India’s 12th largest state, sprawling over 94,163 sq km, has been cut by half today in many places. Now, most of the state’s 38 districts — from northernmost West Champaran to Kaimur on the western end — are a drive of six hours or less from Patna.

* Automobile sales in the state grew 45% in 2009, at a time when sales had dipped 20-25% in several other states during the economic slowdown. Is this buying spree an indication that a section of Biharis have more money to splurge than they did earlier? “A few people had money earlier too, but they didn’t flaunt it for fear of attracting extortionists and kidnappers,” says Ranjit Singh, director of a high-end Patna hotel. That fear may have evaporated now.

* Only 317 kidnappings for ransom were reported during the last four years as against 1,393 during the previous four. The kidnapping industry has clearly fallen on hard times. One indication of this is that doctors no longer refuse to go to patients’ homes on emergency calls. “Today you can see boards at clinics saying we go on calls,” says Dr Amulya Kumar Singh, who runs a nursing home in Patna.

* Most of Bihar’s infamous dons are behind bars. That includes Mohd Shahabuddin, the former RJD MP who had once gone live on TV, daring the state police chief to arrest him. Things are a little different now. A ruling JD(U) MLA, Sunil Pandey, attempted an encore of sorts in early 2006 when he brandished a revolver and talked murder on TV. But Pandey found himself behind bars within no time. Speedy trials have ensured a total of 38,824 convictions between 2006 and September 2009.The convicts included dons and their henchmen.

* Gun-toting strongmen are no longer a common sight on the streets of Bihar. Policemen patrol them now. And places like Siwan, where Shahabuddin once held sway, do not get deserted after dusk.

This improvement has shown results. Malls, shops and private educational institutions are coming up. So are mobile service providers and banking firms. It’s boom time for real estate with apartment buildings coming up all around. “That’s because even non-Biharis for a change want to have a foot in Bihar which has become a better place to live in,” says economist Shaibal Gupta of the Asian Development Research Institute. Adds Faizal Alam of Kalyanpur Cements, “Cement inflow to the state went up 18% to 51 lakh tonnes in 2008-09.” That’s an indicator of the construction boom.

Ironically, this economic growth has happened without any worthwhile contribution from the manufacturing sector. The state’s economy is growing because of a boom in agriculture and services sectors. “It’s government-induced growth,” admits Bihar Industries Association (BIA) president S P Sinha. According to former BIA president K P S Keshri, private investments in the manufacturing sector have been as little as Rs 1,500 crore during the last four years.

Many attribute the growth to the fact that the flow of Central funds to states has increased manifold in recent years. In the case of Bihar, it went up from Rs 37,341 crore during the five-year period 2000-2005 to Rs 55,459 crore during the next three years. But equally importantly, the funds are now getting better utilized than during the Lalu-Rabri regime when large chunks remained unspent. Also, adds Gupta, the state made concerted efforts to mobilise internal resources with its own revenue collection going up from Rs 2,919 crore in 2003-04 to Rs 5,256 crore in 2008-09.

The flip side is that much of this growth does not get reflected in social indicators which remain abysmal. But, as Gupta says, it would be unrealistic for anyone to “expect the moon” at this stage. “Right now the fundamentals are getting corrected and therefore you can find mostly infrastructural indicators of growth; one will have to wait for social indicators to become visible,” he says.

While contractors and realtors stand to gain, more than half the state’s 8.2 crore people — 1.25 crore families — still live below the poverty line. For these families to prosper, Bihar desperately needs huge investments and more growth. The State Investment Promotion Board, formed by the Nitish government, has received proposals worth Rs 96,000 crore. But most of them, especially the major ones, remain on paper as Central rules prove a stumbling block. For instance, thermal power plants cannot come up in Bihar because the Centre has so far refused to provide coal linkages to ensure regular supplies to any such new plant.

Also, Bihar has a lot of catching up to do with the rest of India. “There cannot be any comparison between Gujarat and Bihar, both of which reportedly grew by over 11%; since our base is low, even a small investment results in impressive growth in percentage,” Gupta points out. State officials admit that crucial sectors like health are still sick with meagre resources in comparison to other states.

From its bleak past, Bihar may be finally moving towards a brighter future, but the common Bihari is not patting himself just yet. Maybe he is still waiting for this high growth to translate into better food on his table and more money in his pocket.

Patna Police turns matchmakers

2009-11-29T02:22:00.000-08:00

They have always been 'criminal-catchers'. But now, Bihar's policemen are turning expert matchmakers as well.

The state's crime graph may have witnessed a sharp decline in recent times - as claimed by none other than Chief Minister Nitish Kumar - but that has not taken the load off the police.

In fact, they are often busy with another equally challenging responsibility - help lovers torn apart by family opposition get married.

On November 25, the policemen at Khajekalan in Patna solemnised the wedding of such a couple on the station premises. Alka and Akash Bharati had faced strong opposition from their families because they belonged to different castes.

Alka, a resident of Bela in Gaya district, reached Akash's home in the Lodi Katra locality of Patna on Wednesday. She had run away from home. She told Akash's family she would kill herself if anyone tried to play villain in her love story.

Sensing the threat was not an empty one, Akash's family took her to the police station. Alka told the police she and Akash had been in love for more than two years and wanted to get married.

The daughter of a railway employee, Alka was Akash's neighbour before her father was transferred to Gaya. The couple fell in love and remained in touch even after Alka left for Gaya.

When Alka repeated her suicide threat before station house officer Vinod Kumar, the police called Akash.

He supported Alka. The police then verified their certificates - to confirm their age - and advised them to go for court marriage with the consent of their families.

But probably fearing opposition outside the station premises, the couple said they wanted to get married immediately.

Their wish was granted and they were taken to a nearby temple for the ceremony.

Instead of family members, the couple sought blessings from the police for a happy future.

This is not an isolated example of police turning marriage pandits in Bihar. Recently, about eight weddings have been arranged by the men in khaki in different parts of Bihar.

On October 13, the Gardanibagh police helped a teenager, Pallavi Sinha, marry her boyfriend Prem Kumar. Once again, caste difference and financial status had turned their parents against the match. In this case, the local police didn't stop with the wedding.

They went ahead and hosted a reception at the police station.

The Malsalami police had helped Rakesh and his longtime girlfriend, Jyoti Kumari, unite on August 12, 2008.

Jyoti's family was dead against her marrying an illiterate auto- rickshaw driver, but the police obviously found such parental concerns unnecessary.

On April 8, 2008, a woman constable Vidya Devi from Agamkuan police station got 22-year-old Radha married to Ram Lalit Kotwal amid much fanfare. Radha had been abandoned by her family for falling in love with Kotwal.

Though the Bihar Police are flooded with complaints of young girls being abducted, a majority of them turn out to be cases of elopement. In 2008 alone, 214 abduction cases were found to be false.

Akshay's film based on Bihari engineer's murder

2009-11-29T01:56:00.000-08:00

Priyadarshan new comedy Khatta Meetha starring Akshay Kumar has been altered to accommodate newspaper headlines. The film is now based on the mysterious 2009 murder of Bihar PWD engineer Yogendra Pandey who was allegedly killed by the crime cartel controlling the road construction business in the state. His body was found on June 18, 2009. Akshay Kumar plays the murdered engineer’s colleague who helps to bring the culprits to book. Priyan says, “My film has now become the story of Bihar’s road mafia. Makrand Deshpande plays the murdered engineer while Akshay plays his colleague.”

Initially, the film was based on Priyan’s 1988 drama Vellanakalude Nadu. “Initially, Khatta Meetha was based on the road mafia and corruption in the construction business but at that point of time, it was entirely fictional.” It was Akshay who suggested that the film be contemporised by bringing in Pandey’s notorious death. Priyan says, “We brought in the whole story of the death of the honest road engineer in Bihar who was apparently killed by the corrupt road mafia when he threatened to expose their wrongdoings. We introduced Makrand’s character based on Yogendra Pandey and Akshay as the friend and colleague who uncovers the bloody trail.”

Priyan and Akshay have hit on a new formula to counter the charge of making mindless comedies. Khatta Meetha being shot in dusty Satara at the moment blends satire with a social message. Priyan adds, “I think I’ll be doing this kind of a mixture of social comment and satire more often. In Khatta Meetha we took up a very serious and disturbing crime situation in Bihar but treated it lightly. No one wants to watch grim films anymore. We just have to find a way of letting the audience know what’s actually going on in the world while transporting them into a make-believe world at the same time.”

Akshay Kumar went out of his way to complete this film. “We did it in 90 days at a stretch. Akshay believes we’ve been able to do something important here. The message comes through the comedy,” said Priyan.

Bihar GDP shows upward trend: ASSOCHAM

2009-11-29T01:54:00.001-08:00

Possibilities and prospects of industrial revival in Bihar seems to brightening as its Gross Domestic Produce (GDP) is expected to grow at
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a modest CAGR of 8 per cent during the next decade.

This is the finding of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM). It said, "Bihar GDP will reach Rs 2,64,781 crore from the current level of Rs 1,05,148 crore, mainly due to good governance factor."

The ASSOCHAM, which brought "Bihar Vision: 2020", stated that by 2015, the state GDP would be around Rs 1,80,205 crore. Releasing the finding, ASSOCHAM secretary general D S Rawat said since Bihar had acquired a reputation for good governance, its SGDP is projected to consistently grow at 8 per cent CAGR.

The organsiation expressed concern that manufacturing would remain a challenge for Bihar as it contributes only 0.38% to the state GDP which was lowest in the country. Manufacturing remained a neglected area in Bihar as it failed to provide security to industry which halted flow of investments, Rawat said.

The poverty level in the state is measured at 42.6% and if manufacturing is encouraged by ensuring law and order situation with suitable infrastructure, it would remove poverty from Bihar by creating bundle of employment opportunities, the report said.

Rawat said in the 2008-09 fiscal, Bihar received investment proposals worth Rs 40,000 crore but still has to raise resources through PPP to execute such investments. Agriculture contributes 35% to the SGDP against 9% of industry and 55% of services.

Bihar attracts Rs.1,032 crore investment in four years

2009-11-29T01:53:00.001-08:00

Bihar, one of the poorest states in the country, attracted private investments worth Rs.1,032 core in the last four years, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said Friday.

The Bihar State Investment Promotion Board (SIPB) has cleared 220 investment proposals in the past four years, Modi said.

'SIPB cleared 220 proposals of which 22 have already been commissioned and 74 are under various stages of the implementation process,' he said.

Modi added that the southern parts of the state remained a favourite destination of industries, while central Bihar was still struggling to attract investors.

'Keeping this in view, the government is now trying to make this area attractive for investors.'

He said big industrialists were showing keen interest in Bihar after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar initiated some measures to develop the state's infrastructure.

Most of the investments are in the food processing, power, sugar, cement and agriculture sectors.

In the past three years, four big industrialists visited Bihar to explore investment possibilities.

They were Tata group chairman Ratan Tata, Mahindra and Mahindra group vice-chairman Anand Mahindra, Bharti group chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal and Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani.

After coming to power in November 2005, the Nitish Kumar-led government had initiated several steps to build infrastructure facilities like roads, bridges and power, to attract investors.

The government has also prepared a land bank to make land available for industrial projects.

According to Industry Minister Bijrendra Prasad Yadav, there is a 'visible change in the economic environment' of the state in the past four years.

The government has started pushing major investment projects since January 2006. Once the proposed projects are implemented, it would create job opportunities for more than 100,000 people, government officials said.

An official at the chief minister's office said the government was now regularly receiving new investment proposals from industrialists.

Patna to boast of another world class museum

2009-11-29T01:52:00.001-08:00

The city will have another world class museum. The USP of the new museum would be to project the glorious past of Bihar through displays

A brain child of CM Nitish Kumar, the new museum would be located on posh Bailey Road area of the state capital. Sources said experts are already on the job to chalk out the details about the new museum.

Six spacious government bungalows (nos. 2 to 7) spread over 10 acres of land would be demolished to build the museum. Currently, these bungalows are occupied by ministers.

The state building development department has started working on this ambitious project, sources said, addingthat the proposed museum will be equipped with the latest technology in lighting, lift, doors, interior decor and foolproof security system.

The museum, according to an official, would be on the par with any other museum in the world, particularly in terms of its rich antiquities and decor.

It would be one of the major attractions for visitors, mostly foreigners. "Though the time frame has not yet been fixed, it is likely to be completed within three years," said an official.

For branding Bihar, the USP of the museum would be on "Bihar Through Ages" to project the glorious past of the state through audio-visuals and displays.

"We are preparing a tentative project to be put up before the government for its final approval," said Patna Museum additional director Umesh Chandra Dwivedi.

The existing city museum, built in 1917, does not have adequate space to display all the antiquities. Out of the total 45,000 antiquities available at the museum, barely 2,500 artefacts are on display, Dwivedi said.

"It is essential to build another museum to display all the artefacts available with the museum. The paintings and other miscellaneous items will be on display in the old museum," Dwivedi said.

Important and rare collection of the old museum are likely to be shifted to the new one.

Meanwhile, the Ahmedabad-based National Institute of Design (NID) is engaged in redesigning the Patna Museum in an effort to give it a new look.

Relics of Lord Buddha, his ashes and other related materials discovered during the excavation of a 6th century stupa at Vaishali are currently on display on the first floor of the museum. The relics of Xuanzang are not on display as well.

Bihar IITF pavilion draws huge crowds

2009-11-29T01:50:00.000-08:00

The Bihar pavilion at India International Trade Fair (IITF 09) at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, has focused on the vision of emerging Bihar
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with the slogan faith, wisdom and science.

The vision encompasses the state government's move to develop the potential of religious tourism of all the faiths to showcase the wisdom and the centre of learning at the ancient Nalanda University around which the present Nalanda International centre of learning and university is coming up, and the pursuit of scientific development, said the deputy director, industries, R C Rai.

Rai, who is camping at the Bihar pavilion site at Pragati Maidan, told TOI over the phone that the Bihar pavilion is also focusing on service industries and export on the IITF 09 theme "Exports of Services". Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority (BIADA) has already received over 55 investment proposals at the fair. It is appealing the investors to invest in service sector, including the knowledge process outsourcing in Bihar, he said.

At the outset industries principal secretary A K Sinha, agriculture production commissioner K C Saha, tourism principal secretary Rashmi Verma, Bihar resident commissioner in Delhi A V Chaturvedi and Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam chairman Bihar Atish Chandra had at the Bihar pavilion focused on Bihar as an investment destination with untapped market potential. They projected Bihar as a land of boundless opportunities in infrastructure development, food processing, sugarcane and ethanol production, textiles, healthcare and tourism, and potential for growth of tourism industry with its rich cultural heritage and abundance of waterbodies.

The Bihar pavilion displays intricately designed religious circuits of different faiths Buddhism, Jainism, Sufism and other religious circuits. The tourism stall is providing the details of tourist spots and pilgrim centres in Bihar. At its stall, BPRNN, which has raised the Bihar pavilion, displayed its success story of building 140 bridges in record time. The Sudha stall has displayed the success story of the white revolution brought in Bihar through a network of co-operative milk societies and it has put on display its milk and other products.

The jute jwellery stall is drawing huge crowds, Rai said. Bihar State Khadi Gramodyog Board has at its stall put on display and sale khadi products. The stall, showcasing rural development in Bihar, has put on display handicraft items and products of rural women entrepreneurs, he added. Besides there are stalls of Madhubani, Mithila and Godna paintings, Bhagalpuri silk and silk sari, applique bedsheets, Suzni work sari.

At the IITF food court, Bihar's specialities litti chokha, tilkut, laai, anarsa, khaza, and litchi juice are available.
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Nandan Nilekani to help Bihar improve e-governance

2009-11-29T01:49:00.001-08:00

Bihar has sought the help of Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, the chief of India's Unique Identification Database Authority, to
improve the state's e-governance system.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar disclosed at a function in Patna on Friday evening that Nilekani will visit Patna November 17 and hold talks with senior government officials to strengthen e-governance in the state.

All 37 district headquarters and 470 block headquarters in Bihar can be accessed online through the Bihar State Wide Area Network. "We have made progress in e-governance in the last few years - from Remington typewriters to online access," the Chief Minister said.

Bihar had formally adopted e-governance as a state policy in 2006 on the advice of former President APJ Abdul Kalam.

The state has constituted a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) with the objective of bringing about an Information Technology (IT) transformation in the state. The SPV was constituted as a tripartite joint venture of state-owned Beltron, Tata Consultancy Services and Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (ILFS) at an estimated cost of Rs 380 million.

The SPV is preparing a comprehensive special package for e-governance. Besides, separate e-governance packages have been created for different departments by the joint venture partners, based on specific requirements.

The state government has already equipped legislators with sophisticated laptop computers under the national e-governance plan of the central government.

The previous state government, headed by Rabri Devi had brought several departments online and launched an official web site of the state.

Her husband, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, also a former Chief Minister, has often rubbished IT as a "tool of the elite".

Bihar villagers now get green electricity

2009-11-29T01:48:00.001-08:00

A technology that converts rice husk into electricity is gaining ground in Bihar. Some 100,000 households in the state already use
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electricity produced from biomass and their number is steadily growing.

According to an estimate, 44% of India's population still live without electricity, making this biomass-based power generation technology indispensable in energy-starved states like Bihar.

Though this technology has been in use for the past 50 years in India, Husk Power Systems (HPS), a rural electrification company, has modified it to create a cost-effective operational model.

Today, HPS supplies power to 50 off-grid villages in the state. Each village has a population between 2,000 and 4,000. By 2012, HPS plans to cover 2,000 villages in the state.

Rice husk is traditionally discarded in India. However, when it is heated, it releases a gas that HPS uses to run modified diesel engines to generate electricity.

"We heat rice husk to a point at which they turn into gas and that gas runs an engine," said Chip Ransler, chief strategy officer of HPS. The power is supplied through a grid that HPS operates.

The rice husk is procured from farmers and mill owners, and each biomass gasification plant is run by trained mechanics.

"Roughly 1.5 kg of rice husk yields 1 KWh (kilowatt-hour) of electricity," Ransler said.

"Electricity is generated via an alternator and delivered in three phases at 220 volts. We set up grids that are specially suited according to the size of the villages. The setup is completely decentralised," he added.

The villages that have benefited include Tamkuha, Dhanaha, Rupahi, Madhubani, Inarawa, Sarisawa and Majhoulia. All are located in West Champaran district.

However, the company wants to keep its electricity rates confidential.

"We don't share the price. But villagers save 50 percent of what they were spending on kerosene and diesel, and they're getting much larger output from the investments in HPS," Ransler said.

Simon Desjardins, an analyst with Shell Foundation, a Britain-based NGO that provides financial and technical aid to HPS, said electricity shortages can directly impede the economic development of a village, apart from the environmental pollution caused by the use of diesel and kerosene.

"Today, Bihar represents a viable market for modern energy services. The rural communities are willing to pay for reliable electricity," he said.

Ransler said HPS initially provided electricity to 15 villages with support from the Shell Foundation. Now it has 10 biomass plants with capacity ranging from 35-100 KW. It has also created jobs opportunities for the locals.

Biomass gasification plants are eco-friendly as they replace diesel and kerosene with carbon-neutral biomass-derived electricity.

Ransler said each HPS plant offsets roughly 80-100 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year.

Study shows Bihar emerging as job hub

2009-11-29T01:46:00.000-08:00

Biharis, in general, have a reputation of flooding cities of other Indian states in search of employment. But this stigma could soon be a
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thing of the past as the state capital seems to be emerging as an employment hub. This is according to a survey by Assocham Placement Pattern Study for the first seven months (April to October) of the current fiscal (2009-10).

The good news comes close on the heels of chief minister Nitish Kumar saying that Bihar, which was once dubbed a failed state, is now a success story under his stewardship. On Tuesday, he completed four years in office as CM.

The APP report talks of different aspects of employment, including sectoral patterns and performance of different categories of cities in terms of employment generation.

Under the city classification, Patna has been placed in Tier II along with 17 other major Indian cities. The cities jointly contributed 18.82 per cent in terms of total employment generation in the country in the said period and Patna’s contribution of 0.41 per cent was higher than Indore’s (0.33 per cent), Nagpur’s (0.32 per cent), Cochin’s (0.32 per cent), Ludhiana’s (0.28 per cent), Bhubaneswar’s (0.25 per cent), Bhopal’s (0.21 per cent), Amritsar’s (0.18 per cent) and Gwalior’s (0.17 per cent).

Cities which have a greater share than Patna in this aspect, are Pune (5.46 per cent), Ahmedabad (5.01 per cent), Chandigarh (1.95 per cent), Surat (1.13 per cent), Lucknow (0.82 per cent), Gandhi Nagar (0.80 per cent), Jaipur (0.68 per cent) and Vishakapatnam (0.50 per cent).

There is yet another area in which Patna has left behind cities like Bhopal, Amritsar, Gwalior and Ludhiana. It pertains to a percentage growth in job creation during April-October 2009-10 compared to the corresponding period of the previous fiscal (2008-09).

While the state capital recorded a growth of 20.52 per cent in this period, Bhopal, Amritsar, Gwalior and Ludhiana registered a decline in job creation by 26.68 per cent, 9.60 per cent, 6.27 per cent and 3.94 per cent respectively.

Economist N K Chowdhary attributes this to an improved law and order situation. "And overall positive approach of the state government has helped promote economic activities resulting in growth in employment," he said.

Concurred Bihar Chamber of Commerce president P K Agrawal, "Employment opportunities have increased both in organized and unorganized sectors with telecom, banking, insurance and real estate sectors being the most visible contributors in terms of employment generation."

However, Asian Development Research Institute director and economist P P Ghosh opined against drawing conclusions. "The high percentage growth in employment generation may be the result of a low base where even small growth is reflected very highly in percentage terms," he cautioned.

Ghosh, nevertheless, agreed that rapid increase in development expenditure in the past four years would certainly have helped in employment generation.

"Bihar has changed," Nitish was quoted saying on Tuesday after the four-year stock-taking. He even said that Amartya Sen and Nandan Nilekani had acknowledged this.

`Sushasan' effect: Flyers' flow up

2009-11-29T01:37:00.000-08:00

Economic slowdown notwithstanding, the number of air passengers flying out of and into Bihar has been increasing constantly with Patna's
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Jayaprakash Narain International Airport receiving and seeing off as many as 56,049 air travellers in October this year as against 27,711 air travellers during the same month last year.

That's a growth of well above 100%! And this is not a one-off growth. Even in the preceding five months from May to September of the current year, the flow of passengers to and from Patna has been up.

There are some who attribute it to the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government's "sushasan" or good governance. "I think improved law and order and overall positive environment for development have attracted many people who earlier hesitated visiting the state," Airports Authority of India (AAI)'s Patna director Arvind Dubey told TOI on Saturday.

Dubey, however, added the number of flights connecting the state capital to other parts of the country has also gone up, of late. In the past five months, the number of flights to and from Patna has gone up from eight to 12. "With many of these flights being low-cost carriers, more and more people are opting for air travel," Dubey said.

Low-cost carriers like Kingfisher Red, JetLite, Jet Konnect and IndiGo fly to and from Patna. Aviation industry sources say more such flights are in the pipeline. That would, needless to say, give a fresh fillip to air travel to and from the city.

The increased flow of passengers is music to the ears of AAI authorities as the Patna airport has been a loss-making unit. "We have certainly been able to reduce the deficit and hope to do better by optimising the use of existing facilities at the airport," Dubey said, refusing, however, to divulge the deficit details.

The AAI director's hopes are not unfounded. The airport watch hours currently starts at 8 am and ends at 9.30 pm. "If we have sufficient number of flights, we can work round-the-clock

Bihar now a success story: Nitish

2009-11-29T01:33:00.002-08:00

Chief minister Nitish Kumar takes pride in Bihar's turnaround in a short period. "Bihar was a failed state but now Bihar is a success
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story," Nitish told TOI on Monday. He completes four years in office as CM on Tuesday.

Sitting under a canopy at the herbal garden on the eastern flank of his 1 Anne Marg residence amidst the aroma of a large variety of herbal plants like plectranthus amboinicus (ajwain) and sweritia chiratta (chiraita), a relaxed-looking Nitish spent hours giving interviews to the media on Monday.

"Running a state like Bihar is no joke particularly while working for every section of society," he said.

Much before Barack Obama made his famous slogan of "Yes, we can", Nitish had pledged to change the face and character of Bihar which was infamous for crime and corruption. "We did it in a brief period and today at least people are not living under terror," he said.

He said the duration hardly mattered when good work was initiated with commitment. "Sher Shah ruled the country for just over four years but he is still remembered for his good work," Nitish said, adding quickly: "No, no, I am not comparing myself with the emperor who to date is the only Bihari to have ruled the country."

"When I look back I feel astonished and think if it was really possible to do so many things in a state where nothing moved. Bihar watchers are also surprised," Nitish claimed.

He said four years was not a long time keeping in mind the state's backwardness and administrative failures, where "there was neither law nor order", but now a lot of work has been done for the development of infrastructure, human resources, besides special measures for the deprived sections.

"There is no longer any tension in society. People are feeling secure. Festivals are observed in total harmony. I treat this as a big achievement," Nitish said. He continued, "Bihar has changed. This is acknowledged by people like Amartya Sen and Nandan Nilekani."

The CM said he has received the people's mandate for five years and in the remaining one year he would continue aggressively for the state's development and welfare of its people without any discrimination.

"I will seek a second term from the people on the basis of my work and not on hollow claims. It's up to the public to decide. They fully know that Bihar has changed and will change further for the good," Nitish said.

River cruise boosts Bihar handicrafts sale

2009-11-29T01:33:00.001-08:00

A range of vibrant handicrafts to choose from, a tour of heritage hotspots and bird-watching in the sylvan thicket. All this, while
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tourists go sailing down the mighty Ganga.

Western tourists who have been taking the Kolkata-Varanasi river cruise, introduced on September 29 this year, are being feted with these incentives on board.

Till date, products (mainly silk and the famous Manjusha art) worth Rs 80,000 have been sold. Principal secretary, Bihar tourism, Rashmi Verma, said, "The famous Bhagalpuri silk, garments and Manjusha paintings were in great demand. The cruise has definitely boosted the sale of handicrafts and art products of Bihar."

A wide range of silk items, sikki and paintings were exhibited during the seven-day cruise. Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation DGM, Navin Kumar, said, "In just one week we sold products worth Rs 30,000. The cruise will be suspended next month in view of Christmas and New Year when foreign tourists would be busy with their festivities. The cruise will resume in January next year."

Encouraged by the spurt in sale, BSTDC is planning to put up more items on sale, including Tikuli art and paintings on paddy husks from January. Kumar said that crafstmen in Madhubani, Jehanabad and Patna have been identified who will supply the paintings.

Apart from ethnic shopping, the tourism department has introduced bird-watching for value addition. "Many foreigners are keen avian watchers. We have put a wildlife expert, Raj Vir Singh, on the cruise. Singh spotted dozens of species of birds on the Buxar-Patna and Simaria Ghat stretch," said Kumar.

About 500 km of the 800 km cruise covers places like Bhagalpur, Munger, Patna and Buxar. Those with a thirst for history and nature can go on a tour of these places. The Yoga Ashram and the ancient Vikramshila University in Munger will beckon many. The Dolphin Sanctuary in Bhagalpur would be fun, while ancient Nalanda, Rajgir and Bodh Gaya would be a trip down the lanes of history. BSTDC and Pandaw Cruise are jointly promoting this cruise on the Ganga.

28,000 Bihar kids to write maths Olympiad test

2009-11-29T01:32:00.001-08:00

Over 28,000 students of Bihar are expected to participate in the first phase of International Mathematics Olympiad, scheduled to be held
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on December 10.

New Delhi-based Science Olympiad Foundation's state coordinator Vishal Ranjan Daftuar said it is the largest talent hunt conducted in Asia by any organization. Around 5 lakh students from Class II to XII from various Indian schools, including those located abroad, will participate in the event, he said.

He said last year around 22,000 students from the state participated in the Mathematics Olympiad. "Of the 28,000 participants from Bihar this year, 7,000 and odd are from Patna alone," Daftuar said and added the last date for registration for participation in the event is November 30.

During the first phase, around 50 multiple-answer questions are asked from the students to test their mathematical ability and reasoning capability. On the basis of their performance in this test, Daftuar said, around 65,000 to 70,000 students are selected for the second round of the Olympiad which will be held in February next year.

Around 6,500 finalists get awards, including gold, silver and bronze medals for the first three students in each class, he said and added principals and teachers of schools are also feted for their contribution to mathematics.

Daftuar said the National Science Olympiad and National Cyber Olympiad have already been held on the same pattern. Around one million students participated in the two contests. "The performance of students from Bihar has been quite impressive in these competitions," he said.

Catch eclipse early in Surat or clearly in Patna

2009-06-29T03:57:00.000-07:00

Surat and Patna are the places to be on July 22, not Mumbai, where the solar eclipse will not be total and where the weather will obstruct the view of whatever spectacle there is. Surat is where the total eclipse will begin for India; Patna is one of the best spots for witnessing it.

Mumbai is just outside the total eclipse’s path and will witness a 96 per cent partial eclipse. Besides, NASA predicts, visibility will be poor with the mean cloud cover expected to be nearly 84 per cent and sunshine just 18 per cent. The partial eclipse will arrive in Mumbai at 6.22 am, one minute after Surat, and about 10 minutes after sunrise.

“After analysing the weather pattern of the last 20 years, it seems places like Patna and Varanasi would offer good viewing prospects. With several eclipse chasers from India and across the world eyeing this event, hotels and guesthouses in places like Patna are likely to be fully booked in advance,” said Dr Piyush Pandey, director of the Nehru Planetarium in Mumbai

Food Processing Industry Should be More Active to Ensure Agriculture A Larger Share in India's Gdp emphasizes Bihar's Industry Secretary

2009-06-29T03:55:00.000-07:00

India is one of the largest producers of vegetables and fruits in the world with an annual production more than 80 million tonnes, only next to China. However, though India's GDP has recently crossed the trillion dollar mark taking it up to the elite club of 12 top economies, agriculture still comprises a mere 20% of the country's GDP despite the fact that it is the source and means of livelihood for almost 2/3rd of the country's workforce. The Planning Commission has , however, laid down a growth target of at least 4% for this sector in the 11th Five Year Plan as against the achieved growth rate of 2% in the 10th Plan. And within India, Bihar is such a State that has got a very fertile land capable of multicropping and a set of very skilled and cheap labor, where agriculture and agro-based industries can thrive to their fullest capacity. It is fast coming up as the most sought after destination for the food processing industry in the eastern part of the nation. Concentrating on these various areas of potentiality of the food processing sector of the State of Bihar, CII, Eastern Region in partnership with the Department of Industries , Government of Bihar organized a "Road Show: Destination Bihar" in Kolkata, on 26 June, Friday, 2009.

Inaugurating the Road Show, the Chief Guest of the session, Mr. Ashok Kr. Sinha, Principal Secretary, Department of Industries, Government of Bihar emphasized in his inaugural address on three major points of potential, policy and environment which according to him makes the State of Bihar an attractive investment destination. He stated that despite the fact that Bihar is a fertile State complete with skilled and cheap labor, what is most important in today's date is the right pricing of the agricultural produce for which food processing industry needs to play a very active role. Keeping this vision in mind, he informed that the Bihar Government has formulated a very open and liberal industrial policy. And for the potential investors in the food processing industry the policy kitty has been made further more attractive taking the State forward in the league compared to other regions. According to Sinha, under this liberal industrial policy of Bihar, any potential investor in the food processing industry can avail the various facilities already in place under the Bihar Industrial Policy 2006, like 80% VAT reimbursement, 50% capital subsidy in the sphere of captive power generation etc coupled with an extra added advantages like 40% capital subsidy and an absolute no bar or objection on behalf of the State Government on any subsidy or facility what the investor wants to avail from the Central Government.

The keynote address was delivered by Mr. S. Mukherjee, Director, Bihar Electricity Board in which he provided a preview of the power scenario in Bihar. According to him, though a mere 3 to 4 years before, the power scenario of Bihar used to be really very scary, but , currently things have changed for better to a great extent. According to him, 3-4 years back, the power requirement in Bihar was something around 600-700 MW which has presently increased to more than double � something around 1800-2200 MW during the peak season. As he added that post Jharkhand formation, all the major power producing units like Patrapur Thermal Plant, Tenughat, Subarnarekha etc went away from the hands of the Bihar Government leaving behind zero producing units like that of Barauni and Muzzafarpur. But currently, Bihar Electricity Board has been able to generate on its own an average of about 160-170MW of power from these two units coupled with about 50MW of power from the various small units of Hydel power in the State, informed Mukherjee. Apart from this , Bihar also gets its allocated share of 1550 MW of electricity from the Central Sector Grid. He also informed that within the next 12-18months, about 440 MW of extra electricity will be available from the Barauni and Muzzafarpur units which are under renovation under the supervision of BHEL and NTPC for which an amount of about Rs1071 crores have been sanctioned. Apart from these, the Bihar Government is also in the process to notify a bidding process to buy about 1500 MW of electricity from various prospective bidders by 2010, thus accumulating about 3200 MW of total power which he expects is a very promising picture for prospective investors. Transmission and Distribution facilities are also undergoing major overhauling , informed Mukherjee.

While delivering his theme address, Mr. Satyajit Singh, Chairman, CII, Bihar State Council said that Bihar has changed a lot and the State has entered into a new phase of Governance where there are ample scopes for a fruitful partnership between the private investors and the Bihar Government which can ensure better returns.

Prior to that , Mr. Kurush Grant, Deputy Chairman, CII (Eastern Region) said in his welcome address that though India is a fertile country but there is an urgent need for increased productivity, post harvest technology and processing and infrastructure for the focused growth of the nation's agricultural sector. Grant said, that the Bihar Government has done with a very timely proposition in incorporating the food policy which will go a long way to help in diversification and commercialization of the sector resulting in employment generation, value addition and also export opportunities.

The august audience present at the Road Show were enlightened by a Film Show titled "Bihar Has Changed � Food Processing Policy" which uphold the pretty conducive industrial and social environment of Bihar and focused on its tremendous opportunity.

The Vote of Thanks to the Inaugural Session was delivered by Dr. Saugat Mukherjee, Regional Director, CII (ER).

JVL's new unit at Bihar's Pehleja

2009-06-29T03:53:00.000-07:00

Varanasi, June 28 Vanaspati Ghee and refined oil manufacturer JVL Agro Industries today launched its commercial production at Pehleja unit in Bihar.

Dinanath Jhunjhunwala, the Chairman of the Jhunjhunwala Vanaspati Limited (JVL) Group told PTI here that the new unit at Sasaram district, about 150 kms from here, was inaugurated by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi.

The unit set up at a cost of Rs 100 crore will have a capacity of 750 metric tonnes per day (MTPD).

Prehistoric cave art found in Bihar

2009-06-29T03:48:00.000-07:00

Patna, June 29: A young explorer says he has discovered prehistoric cave art in Bihar`s Rajgir hills that are known for their Buddhist heritage and has asked the Archaelogical Survey of India (ASI) to validate his claim.

"We have found cave art of the prehistoric age in the dense forest of Rajgir hills. The discovery is of immense importance," Deepak Anand, an explorer associated with Nav Nalanda Mahavihara, a Nalanda-based deemed university, told IANS on telephone.

"There is no doubt that the art is pre-historic. The location from where the art has been discovered was unexplored till date. The cave, its location, colour, rock structure and pattern clearly show that the art is pre-historic. Also, the art was made by rubbing hematite (iron oxide) on rock by men living in the areas that substantiates it to be prehistoric," said Anand, who is in his late 20s.

"The Archaelogical Survey of India (ASI) has been requested to visit the site and ascertain the dating of the art," he added

"Prehistoric cave art has been found at several places across the world but discovery of a pre-historic cave art at Rajgir was different from others. It is an unique one," said Anand, who has an experience of seven years in the exploration field.

Anand found the series of caves on June 19 in the Rajgir hills, about 100 km from state capital Patna, during his exploration of the archaeological site.

"After we found it, now what we want that world`s best archaeologists, who are experts on this Paleolithic art, should visit the site," Anand said.

He said Rajgir hills are waiting for explorers and archaeologists from around the world.

"Possibilities of more discoveries are good in the Rajgir hills. We strongly feel that many more discoveries will be made here which world does not know about," he said.

Anand said there was an urgent need to propagate and promote discovery of prehistoric cave art.

"Unless we propagate it on massive scale it will be unknown to the world. Till five to 10 years ago, people used to fear visiting the Rajgir hills. Nobody used to venture there. No explorer or archaelogist would go there as the hills were considered a Maoist stronghold. But now things have changed," he said.

Anand is currently working in a documentation project titled Mapping of Nalanda.

Foreign tourists' inflow jumps four times in Bihar

2009-06-27T13:35:00.000-07:00

With the Bihar government giving a fresh thrust to the tourism sector through enhanced budgetary allocation, the footfall of foreign tourists in the state has gone up by nearly four times in two years.

The number of foreign tourists visiting Bihar has shot up to over three lakhs in 2008, state's Tourism minister Rampravesh Rai told reporters on Friday.

In 2007, the state witnessed an 87.79 per cent rise in tourist inflow as compared to the previous year and last year the rise was 100.97 per cent, he said.

Realising vast potential of Bihar, home to a number of Buddhist, Jain and Sikh shrines for pilgrim tourism, the NDA government substantially increased budgetary allocations to the sector after coming to power in November 2005.

He added that while a meagre Rs three crore was earmarked for tourism for 2005-06, it was raised to Rs 30 crore in 2009-10.

Bihar Govt's performance on RIDF appreciated

2009-06-27T13:01:00.000-07:00

PATNA: Chief general manager, Nabard (Mumbai), B S Shekhawat on Wednesday appreciated the performance of the state government on rural
infrastructure development front during the past four years.

Addressing a day long workshop for the state government officials on `Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF)', he revealed that earlier Bihar figured as one of the worst performers on this count.

He said that the RIDF was in operation since 1995-96 providing term loans at a concessional rate to the state governments for financing their rural infrastructure projects. The Bihar government has been able to avail a loan facility of only Rs 3,000 crore so far, he said. He, however, pointed out that it was during the last four years that performance on this front had somewhat improved though it still needs much improvement.

Nabard Bihar regional office CGM Sandip Ghosh called upon the government officials to go for new areas where these projects could be taken up in the state. He informed that Nabard has sanctioned a large number of projects in road, bridge, irrigation and social sectors. In 2008-09, Nabard sanctioned infrastructure projects worth Rs 752 crore under RIDF whereas in 2009-10 the target is Rs 700 crore.

A presentation on new areas like seed farms, marketing infrastructure, fishery, animal husbandry and many more was made by Nabard before the state government officials.

Speaking on behalf of the state government, principal secretary, finance, Navin Kumar assured Nabard officials that it would go for infrastructure development in new areas. He appreciated Nabard's initiative in holding a day long workshop for all government departments concerned.

IIT-Patna to start PhD programmes from July

2009-06-27T12:57:00.000-07:00

PATNA: The newly set-up Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in this Bihar city will start its doctoral programmes from next month, an official said
on Friday.

"IIT-Patna will become the first among the eight new IITs set up last year to start PhD programmes," institute official Subhash Pandey said.

The IIT will have PhD programmes in computer science, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, chemistry, mathematics, physics, humanities and social sciences.

Pandey said that interviews of the applicants are underway and there are 30 vacancies.

At present, the IIT is functioning from a polytechnic building here as a temporary campus. The process of land acquisition for a permanent campus is underway.

The first director of the institute A.K. Bhowmik will also assume charge in July, the official added.

NRIs can offer 'pindadaan' online

2009-06-27T12:38:00.000-07:00

PATNA: The Bihar government has decided to introduce video-conferencing facility for NRIs to offer "pindadaan" for salvation of their ancestral
souls.

Lakhs of Hindus from across the country and abroad descend on Gaya town in the state during "Pitripaksha" (father's fortnight) every year to offer "pindadaan" for their dead ancestors as it is believed to ensure salvation of the souls. "Pitripaksha" this year begins on September 3.

The video-conferencing facility can be availed of by paying a fee through credit card. A decision in this regard was taken at a meeting presided over by deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi and attended by, among others, tourism minister Ramprawesh Rai.

Modi said a 35-room hotel of the tourism department, Vishnu Vihar, has become operational at Gaya from this year. Cottages would also be available at Gaya during the fortnight-long "Pitripaksha" fair. "Around eight lakh pilgrims are expected to arrive to offer `pindadaan'," he said.

Indian Air Taxi services from July 1 from Patna

2009-06-27T12:34:00.000-07:00

PATNA: Fliers willing to avail chartered plane services in Bihar have now an option. Private carrier Spirit Air has decided to launch charted flight
services, christened `Indian Air Taxi' from Patna from July 1.

To begin with, airlines sources said, the service would be offered to destinations having functional airports. "As it is a chartered service, destination is to be decided by the customer, but the only pre-requisite is existence of a functional airport at the destination as one has to adhere to aviation rules for landing and take off of an aircraft," said a Spirit Air official.

A Cessna-172 Sky Hawk aircraft, which would have the capacity to carry three passengers apart from the pilot, would be offered to the passengers. The aircraft can fly for seven hours non-stop. "In case someone opts for a destination which needs more than seven hours of flying, the flight would hop at a suitable place for re-fuelling," said the official.

Those opting for the services would have to pay something between Rs 18,000 to Rs 20,000 per flying hour. Rates for flying idle hours would be Rs 12,000 per hour for the first two hours and Rs 9,500 per hour for next three hours.

The private carrier had earlier announced that it would offer air taxi services to major district towns of Bihar and Jharkhand as well, but for now those willing to travel to these places by air would have to wait.

Reason being non-availability of security, fire tenders and ambulance at the airstrips in districts which the Spirit Air wants to connect with Patna and Ranchi. These three basic facilities are a must, according to the civil aviation rules, at the time of landing and take off of an aircraft from air strips, which do not fall under any airport.

Spirit Air had earlier written letters to both the state governments asking them to provide these facilities in the districts which have airstrips, but a positive reply is still awaited.

"Our team would once again meet senior officials of Bihar and Jharkhand requesting them to consider our proposal as people in districts too would like to avail the service which is first of its kind in these two states," said the Sprit Air official.

The signs of change in Bihar by Mahesh Vijapurkar

2009-05-29T11:01:00.000-07:00

About a week ago, I read a piece of very good news amid the welter of speculation about whether M Karunanidhi's [Images] family ties with the United Progressive Alliance [Images] would be retained or not. It was a despatch from Rajpura and Patiala by the Indian Express correspondent Aman Sood about the Punjab [Images] farmers.

No, it was not about another green revolution there. Sood conveyed the travails of the Punjab's farmers about not finding enough workers to work on their farms. The issue, of course, is large, for 2.8 million hectares have to be sown this season and those who raise paddy crops are beside themselves in agony. If it is going to change the pattern of farming, by forcing the landowners to use labour-saving devises like machines which sow paddy, then so be it.

There are reasons why I categorise it as 'good news'? The labour that the Punjabi farmers were looking for, as they have been for years on end, are the Bihari migrants who for the season, do their jobs and return. It is just that this year, there are not enough of them arriving by the trains and many have chosen to remain in Bihar this year as things have changed. If things have changed in Bihar, then it is very good news indeed.

Migration from Bihar has its origins in green revolution in Punjab and the spill over later into Haryana which generated an unprecedented clamour for farm labour. It started as a small trickle to a flood in a decade ending in the 80s. That was an opportunity for the north-western belt because things were abysmally poor in Bihar. But if what Indian Express said is a significant trend, then there is hope in store.

This perhaps is one good reason why Nitish Kumar won the seats he did for the National Democratic Alliance to Parliament. These migrants who are not coming out of what was a wretched state are perhaps the best testimonials for the man who is doing things and winning people's approval.

I have not been to Bihar, ever, for I felt there was no point in travelling to the dark ages where the family fiefdom of Lalu Prasad Yadav [Images] reigned and where nothing except Lalu mattered, even for the media. It was as if to the world, Lalu was a proxy for a state. Newspapers were full of the man and his wife and the unashamedly large brood they raised. There was the galazy of bahubalis, the word for the underworld lords who doubled up as politicians. Political patronage to these bahubalis was no different from the alleged state terror that reigned in Gujarat during 2002.

There are reasons to go there now. But over a period of time, I have heard, especially from Bihari girls who have come to Maharashtra, especially Pune and Mumbai [Images] to study higher and professional courses, that they had fled Bihar in the sense they would prefer not to return there. Their families had encouraged them to sprout wings and fly away to better places. The one single thing these young things said was, "Patna is not a safe place to live. Imagine how it would be in the interiors".

Some occasional items on the national television, when put together into a cogent quilt, shows us that people feel secure enough to take out their Mercedes cars which they had locked away for fear of exposing their wealth. People can hope to return home late in the night without the family waiting in dread till the doorbell rang and the person was ushered in. Streets are alive again and Bihar is crawling up from the pit.

Nitish Kumar apparently has shown that given a will, an "ungovernable state can be governed." In reality, it was never governed until a few years ago.

It is possible that there are Lalu acolytes who would trot out statistics and say that Bihar ain't changed. That would be a political lie which some clever spin doctor can get across. Neither do I have any statistics to show but have enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that Bihar is changing and can be changed. Remember what Nitish Kumar said when he received the CNN-IBN award for the best politician?

"When I went there, the chief minister's office had only a Remington typewriter. Today, Bihar is judged for being the best e-governed state!" He did not say a word more but in that short pair of sentences, indicated the distance travelled. Surely, one cannot claim that things are so good that Patna should once again be called Patliputra of the yore and its splendour but things are moving. The slowing down of out-migration is another good indicator.

However, given where Bihar was, it has a long way to go yet but the start is quite welcome. Yes, it is unbelievable that it happened but happened it did. The other point to ponder is Lalu Yadav [Images]. Why is it that a man who turned the Indian Railways around and became the cynosures of management schools across the world did not make a difference, for the better, I mean, to Bihar?

Was there a vested interest in keeping Bihar back? Please recall that on his failure to upstage Congress in his fiefdom, Lalu Yadav had to eat the crow and later announce that he would be spending the time in rural Bihar for some time to come because his "organisation had weakened there". It is from the rural Bihar that the migrants go to Punjab. And it is from Bihar that a significant section of the migrant population to other cities hails from.

Earlier, all that Lalu Yadav did when the likes of Raj Thackeray [Images] took to violence to deter the migrants from there and the rest of the Hindi belt from taking up residence in Maharashtra, was shout himself hoarse and threaten that he would hold the Chatt Puja celebrations in Mumbai. He claimed that the Biharis had their right to livelihood and Mumbai had better provide it. It did not occur to him that the same right was denied them in their own state.

So if politics drove, or good politics, I must say, drove Nitish Kumar to the issue of bijli, pani and sadak so be it for that is the least that is needed to be done before talking of other issues.

Two coaching institutes in Bihar achieve 100 percent results

2009-05-29T10:55:00.000-07:00

Patna, May 29 (ANI): Two coaching institutes giving tuitions to the aspirants of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Bihar have delivered a power pack punch as all their students have cleared the prestigious competitive exam.

'Rehmani Super', is a Patna based coaching institute, and is promoting education amongst the Muslim community. The institute had ten students and all have cleared the exam.

The institute is headed by the Additional Director General (ADG) of Police of Bihar, Abhayanand Singh.

The students of the 'Rehmani Super' credit their success to Abhayanand Singh, who is the chief administrator at the institute and Mohammad Wali Rehmani, the founder of the Rehmani foundation.

"We worked hard because of Abhayanand sir. Abhayanand sir has helped us like a father and our teacher, Mohammad Wali Rehmani. Their prayers and blessing were heard by the almighty and that's why we have been successful," said Naudesh Alam, a student.

Abhayanand Singh is thrilled with the thumping result which his institute has managed to achieve. Singh remarked that the success had been achieved after a lot of hard work and meticulous planning.

"This year, we started super 30 (group of IIT aspirants) in many places under various names. The results have been very encouraging." said Abhayanand Singh.

In the meantime, all the 30 students of 'Super 30', another coaching institute in Patna cleared the IIT exam.

The elated students mentioned that hard work, dedication and unconditional support of Anand and other teaching staff at the institute had helped them crack the entrance exam.

The students of 'Super 30' say that there mentor Anand always encouraged them even if they didn't do well in the internal tests conducted by the institute.

"The preparation was intense. For this, we should put in honest hard work.

We should obey the teacher who is teaching us because whatever the teacher tells us is out of the teacher's experience," said Namrata, student of 'Super 30'.

The jubilant students shared sweets with Anand, the director of 'Super 30' soon after the results were announced. By Ajay Kumar (ANI)

Cornered Lalu losing control over tongue: BJP

2009-04-19T03:45:00.001-07:00

PATNA/NEW DELHI: BJP leaders reacted sharply to what they called RJD chief Lalu Prasad's abusive slang against senior party leader L K Advani on
Saturday. "BJP condemns this abuse against a leader of such eminence as Advani," the party said.

"Lalu Prasad is losing ground and so he is losing his temper and his tongue. He is saying all kinds of things to provoke the state government to arrest him so that he becomes a martyr, but we will not oblige him," said party spokesperson S S Ahluwalia, who claimed that the RJD chief had used the worst kind of abusive slang against Advani.

BJP leader from Bihar and the party's spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "First his (Lalu's) wife abuses Nitish Kumar, then Lalu Prasad says he will run a road roller over Varun Gandhi and now he is not only using abusive language against a senior leader like Advaniji but has also holding Congress responsible for the Babri demolition, while being the railway minister in the Manmohan Singh government."

This shows his utter desperation as he is losing from Chhapra, Prasad told TOI from Bihar, adding, "He (Lalu) is the railway minister and he has abused Manmohan Singh's party as a conspirator in the Babri demolition. If Manmohan Singh is not a weak Prime Minister, it is his last chance to prove his mettle." Prasad, demanded that the PM should sack Lalu Prasad.

Interestingly, BJP's rival Congress whom Lalu accused of complicity in Babri demolition, also said that the RJD leader was saying irresponsible things because he feared defeat.

UPA govt unfair to Bihar, says MP

2009-04-19T02:38:00.000-07:00

PATNA: JD(U)'s Rajya Sabha member and former state planning board chairman N K Singh on Saturday said the UPA is playing "politics of money" as
part of its campaigning for the parliamentary poll but, in the process, distorting facts about Central aids to Bihar.

"Facts speak otherwise," Singh said and cited several examples of how the Centre indulged in stepmotherly treatment to the state. He said as per the Finance Commission recommendation, Bihar should get 30.5% of all divisible taxes. "But the Bihar government's share never exceeded 26%," he added.

He said the selection of three average years for expenditure outlay fixed as per the formula of 12th Finance Commission is also unfair to Bihar in that there were hardly any expenditure due to political uncertainty and President's rule in Bihar during one of the chosen three years. The UPA government turned down the state request that a different set of years be used and debt relief be not denied to it. The UPA government at the Centre also turned down the state government request to treat it as a special category state, he said.

Singh said that loans for Bihar were brought to zero and the grants remained lower than even Assam. Thus, the state suffered both on the loan and the grant components of Central assistance throughout the period from 2002-03 to 2006-07.

He charged the UPA government with favouring only its partners and ignoring others. Bengal Chemical and Fertilizers, a public sector undertaking, was bailed out through a Rs 207-crore revival package to West Bengal. The Hindustan Photo Films and Neyvelli Lignite Corporation of Tamil Nadu was also given similar treatment. But the UPA government did nothing to revive the small and medium enterprises of Bihar simply because it has an NDA government, he said.

This apart, Singh said, the Centre has also not responded to the state's request for a special package each for the floods in 2007 and 2008.

BSEB demands long-term coal linkage to Bihar

2009-04-19T02:35:00.000-07:00

Languishing for want of power, backward state of Bihar has approached the Central Electricity Authority for ensuring coal on long-term basis for its three upcoming mega power projects that could help add about 4,000 MW capacity for the state during the 12th plan period.

"We would request allocation of long-term coal linkage for the power plants being set up in Bihar on the basis of tariff-based competitive bidding and inclusion in the XIIth Plan Period (2012-17)," Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB) said in a letter to the Power Ministry.

BSEB has demanded long-term coal linkage for the 1,320 MW each Lakhisarai Thermal Power Project, Buxar Thermal Power Project and Pirpainti Thermal Power Project in the state.

It added that substantial progress has already been achieved in the project development activities and we are proceeding an a fast track manner towards implementation of the said projects.

The identification and demarcation of sites has been done, the technical studies, including topographical survey, geological investigations, detailed project reports (DPRs) are complete.

The Ministry of Environment and Forest has approved the project site and terms of reference for environment studies and adequate water linkage has also been provided to the projects.

Almost all the pre-operational activities have been completed for all the three project sites except the allocation of coal linkage, which is a pre-requisite for initiating the publication of Request for Qualification (RFQ) document as per the competitive bidding guidelines of the Power Ministry, it said.

The inter-state sale of power has also been tied-up with the states of Haryana and Assam, it said.

BSEB proposed for coal linkages for these three projects and two more projects namely Barauni and Muzaffarpur thermal power stations in a meeting with the Planning Commission, Coal Ministry and CEA last year.

The move of allocating coal linkages to these projects will move forward towards the success of the projects and contribute in the enhancement of availability and self-reliance of power in the state.

The total installed power capacity of the state of Bihar is 1,629 MW, out of which 1,532 MW comes from coal and 66MW from hydro power.

Bihar's ringtone: Nitish government works

2009-04-15T12:35:00.000-07:00

As our Indica zooms through the highway from Madhubani to Darbhanga at night, driver Sachin says, “During Lalu Prasad’s regime, I would not have brought my car on this road. It was so bad!”
The local guide, Prakash Jha, adds: “I would also not have advised you to travel on this road at this time during Lalu’s rule. You would have definitely fallen prey to dacoits.”

From rickshaw-puller Sitaram Bhagat at Patna’s Fraser Road to Harindar Rai of Banbira village in Samastipur district, from agriculturist landlords to workers at the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) office, poll-bound Bihar’s common ringtone is: Nitish Kumar’s government is working.

People across the state talk about two major changes since Kumar took charge as the chief minister on November 24, 2005, ending the 15-year rule of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) — better roads and improved law and order situation.

NK Rai, an agriculturist in Patna, echoes the same sentiment. “It is 9 pm and my wife has gone to the market. In Lalu’s regime, I wouldn’t have allowed her to step out after sunset. We don’t expect the state to change overnight. But there should be some visible efforts to change it.”

Till November 2008, 10,311 policemen were recruited in Bihar during the NDA government’s rule. Murder cases have come down from 3,519 in 2001 to 2,286 in 2008 (till September). Incidents of robbery has also come down from 1,293 to 491 during the same period. Besides, kidnapping, which earned the ill-reputation of “cottage industry” during Prasad’s regime, is down from 385 to just 42 cases in this period, according to the government’s “Report Card 2008”.

Shaibal Gupta, member -secretary of the Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI) explains the reason behind improved governance. “The number of convictions in criminal cases has increased. Nitish initially emphasised the Arms Act cases. The law says employees can be witnesses, and so there is less chance of witnesses turning hostile in courts.”

Rajkumar, another rickshaw-puller in Patna, feels the difference in his daily life. “Earlier we used to go back home by 8-9 pm. Now we can ply rickshaws till 11 in the night.”

While these initiatives have earned him goodwill, Nitish Kumar is yet to deliver on some key areas. “ The Land Reforms Commission was constituted in 2006. The report has been submitted but no action has been taken yet. Updating of land records, too, has not taken place,” says Gupta.

Riding high on this feel-good factor, the chief minister spends more time focussing on the state’s overall development, rather than attacking his political opponents. He even mooted the idea of “having the state and the Lok Sabha elections only once in five years because elections every year hamper development work.”

His detractors like Left candidates complain that only select districts are benefiting from the development, but they are unable to deny improvement. RJD supremo Lalu Prasad might attack him for helping the BJP and other issues, but he, too, says nothing about the law and order situation. The power situation, however, remains a matter of discontent. While Kumar’s ‘Report Card’ has a separate section on power and mentions the new power projects that have been cleared, most hotels in Patna switch off air-conditioners from 3 am to 6 am to “refill the generators”.

Kumar has often told his political friends how he is keeping the BJP as marginal as possible in the state, while he offers sops for minorities one after another. He has introduced free vocational training schemes for girls from minority communities. Another scheme “Talimi Markaj” has been introduced to provide primary education to poorer and low caste minorities.

Among Kumar’s other achievements are the upgrade of 2,955 km of state highways, currently in progress. This apart, upgrade of 620 km of big district roads have been completed, and construction of 701 km of national highway already done. For national highways too, the chief minister claims credit. “Why were these not done before I came? I took initiative to bring these projects,” he says.

The chief minister’s 48-page report card boasts of many more schemes of development. But several of these, according to political opponents, are yet to take off effectively.

But even in the Bheriwahi village of Madhubani district, sitting by a dilapidated stretch of road, Irfan Ahmed talks about new government job opportunities. In the campaigns, Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) harps on the recruitment of over 80,000 primary teachers as a key achievement of the government.

Labourers at NK Rai’s farm say, “beti aur vote dusri jaat mein nehin diya jaata.”(there are two things you cannot share with another caste: your daughter and your vote) But there is also Harindar Rai, a Yadav, who says, “a Yadav will not always vote for a Yadav. If a Yadav is dacoit, should I vote for him?” His companion Laddu Das adds, “We will vote for the person who has the best chance of winning. If a candidate doesn’t win, how will he be able to work for us?”

The lady with the toughest job in Bihar

2009-04-15T10:41:00.000-07:00

One of the most fascinating aspects of Elections 2009 is that it is being supervised in the districts by dashing young members of the IAS.
Young civil servants, not more than half a dozen years in the bureaucracy dare to take on the mightiest politicians in the land and ensure that the general election is conducted without fear or favour.

Archana Masih meets the lady district magistrate of Siwan, who probably has the toughest job in Bihar. Photograph: Seema Pant

Bandana Preyashi carries four cell phones these days. Taking a connection from every cellphone network available in Siwan, she has distributed all the four numbers on photocopied sheets to her staff so that they can be in constant touch during the crucial days before Siwan goes to the polls on April 16.

"Siwan has had a history of poll violence and our greatest challenge is to conduct a fair and peaceful election," says the 2003 batch IAS officer, an alumnus of St Stephen's College, Delhi [Images].

In the 2004 election, 171 electronic voting machines had been broken in the constituency. This year, of the 1,763 polling booths, 551 are marked as super sensitive. 15 companies of paramilitary forces and 5,000 personnel from the Bihar Home Guards have been deputed for poll security.

Apart from this, 10,400 government staff have been inducted into poll duties in the constituency where imprisoned Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Mohammad Shahabuddin has won four successive elections.

"We have to strike fear in the hearts of those who think they can resort to violence or break the law on polling day," Preyashi tells rediff.com in her office in Siwan.

"We have done extensive vulnerability mapping and have scanned the area. We have identified people who have been prevented from voting in the past and those who were responsible for it. The effort has helped build confidence in the voter."

One of only two lady district magistrates in Bihar, Preyashi conducted the panchayat and the 2005 assembly polls in her last jurisdiction as sub divisional officer in Barh, near Patna. Known for being a no-nonsense and bold officer, under her supervision, Barh, otherwise infamous for its gun-power, saw an incident-free panchayat election.

"In Siwan, the 2005 assembly election was a landmark. It was largely peaceful and I think it will be peaceful this time. The rule of law is visible," she says.

In an effort to encourage voters to come out to cast their vote, the administration has been playing a film in local cinema halls, at community centres and on the local cable television network, telling voters how to vote.

The district election control room has been entrusted with the task of gathering feedback from local residents in order to assess the situation near polling booths.

Preyashi has been spending hours out in the field, meeting voters, inspecting campaign vehicles herself, assessing the security at the polling booths and spreading the word that the strictest action will be taken against anyone who breaks the law on polling day.

"You have to delegate and trust. The grassroot work force has to be motivated and you have to lead by example," says the district magistrate who has built up a credible reputation in her relatively short career.

She is known to have taken on controversial Janata Dal-United legislator Anant Singh in Mokama in an earlier stint when she sealed all his food grain godowns after the state government ordered that all godowns in the state be shifted to market committees.

As the Returning Officer in Siwan, she is responsible for the conduct of the election.

Following a rigorous schedule for several weeks now -- her day ends in the wee hours of the morning and the phones begin to ring from 6 am onwards -- she is making an enormous effort to see that Siwan witnesses a fair election.

"This chair (the DM's) is asexual. It does not matter if you are a man or a woman. Everyone here calls me 'Sir'," she says with a smile when we asked her about being a woman at the helm of affairs.

The district magistrate is the most powerful government official in any district and Bandana Preyashi, who has already finished a year in Siwan, is determined to leave her mark behind.

In Bihar, a battle to become the pillar of power

2009-04-15T10:37:00.000-07:00

For all their big-bull reputation on the national political stage, the closest Biharis have ever come to claiming prime ministership has been through a Punjabi: I.K. Gujral once contested the Patna Lok Sabha seat under Lalu Prasad’s tutelage and got a famously indigenous introduction to his rustic constituents.

“Padha-likha gujjar,” Lalu Prasad would call him, keen to ease local discomfort over the intellectual-outsider. “Padhe-likhe gujjar ko Gujral kehte hain.” (An educated gujjar is called Gujral.)

Gujral’s tryst with Bihar and Bihar’s with high office were both short-lived and both rather farcical. So farcical that Lalu Prasad himself joked upon it sardonically during the trust vote last July — “Who doesn’t want to become Prime Minister? I do too, but will someone let me?”

The only thing that looks like putting a Bihari into the top job at the moment is a quirk of fate, or of arithmetic, no less. But that serves as no deterrent to the enthusiasm for power among the contenders — it’s not about being crowned king in Delhi, you see, it’s about becoming chief kingmaker of the durbar.

In a state where politics comes far easily to people than their daily meal, the reasons for the elaborate campaign fuss and filibuster are lost on few.

Dolai, a shoeshine boy not yet 18, has no illusions about what the stampeding clamour around the “netaji” arrived from Delhi on platform one of Patna railway station means. “Dekh tamasha, dekh, PM Bihar ka nahin banega, lekin Bihar ke bina bhi nahin banega, jai ho, jai hoooooooo!” (Nobody from Bihar will become Prime Minister but nobody will become Prime Minister without Bihar’s support.)

It’s tough getting wiser than Dolai on the whys and wherefores of the frenetic scurry that Bihar is — choppers churning the skies north and south of the Ganges, SUV caravans barnstorming the countryside, the air thick with dust and dirty demagoguery.

Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi have had their tongues lashed by the Election Commission for lurid lapses; Ram Vilas Paswan is littering the trail with below-the-belt barbs on how poorly chief minister Nitish Kumar has treated his family; Nitish himself is hotfooting around in angry retort.

Too intense for a battle that is unlikely to deliver any of these men the top prize at the end of it? “Not at all,” says a Nitish aide who refuses to attach his name to a quote on future prospects. “This is about who will become the pillar of power, you win Bihar and you dictate terms, you lose and you get dictated. For Nitish, winning means many open roads; for Lalu Prasad and Paswan, it is about survival in the state itself.”

He wouldn’t be drawn into speculation on Nitish jumping allies post-poll and joining either the Congress-led UPA or the Left-led third front, but he did more than hint that no options were closed. “Nitishji himself has said he is with the NDA, but who can tell the future? Need I say more?”

On paper, the Bihar chief minister is spoilt for choices at the moment — he could be part of any power combination at the Centre.

Lalu Prasad and Paswan, well aware that they have rocked (though not broken) ties with the Congress over seat-sharing, are desperate to do well enough not to allow room to Nitish to replace them in the UPA or third front scheme. Paswan, analysts say, enjoys more options, having been part of a BJP government in the past, but Lalu Prasad’s choices are really limited — it’s bust for the time being if the NDA manages to grab power in Delhi.

Conceding seats to Paswan and snatching them away from the Congress were both prompted by Lalu Prasad’s desperate need to get enough numbers in the next Lok Sabha.

His alliance with Paswan — a far cry from their bitter bickering in the Assembly polls of 2005, when both suffered — is aimed at consolidating the Yadav-Muslim-Dalit vote. The rupture with the Congress — temporary, Lalu Prasad insists — is a gamble on the party not cutting much ice with the electorate, not enough to damage Lalu Prasad’s prospects anyhow.

Spurned, the Congress reacted with spite, determining to contest all 40 seats, even welcoming such a rowdy lot of RJD rebels as Sadhu Yadav (Lalu Prasad’s stormy brother-in-law) and murder-convict Pappu Yadav.

But Lalu Prasad may yet have counted wisely on the Congress tally not going too far beyond the three in the last Lok Sabha; the man who has made most news for the party in the state is a political rookie and small-screen comedian called Shekhar Suman. Any guess on who the state Congress chief is? Anil Sharma. Google him, but don’t be too sure you’ll find him listed.

On the other side of the spectrum is a man who lived — and chafed — many years under Lalu Prasad’s long shadow but has now leapt out and cast his own over the state: the workmanlike and adroit Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal (United). Even critics and adversaries aren’t able to take grades on performance away from the chief minister who has made governance his plank.

The allegation that does stick, though, is that he is in “communal coalition” with the BJP; Lalu Prasad and Paswan have been hammering that point hard. Nitish is too hardboiled a politician not to know caste runs thicker than calibre in Bihar — the support of the BJP’s upper caste base is a critical addition to his extremely backward caste constituency.

But it is often evident Nitish is suffocating in his alliance with the BJP and is looking for a route out. He has wooed Muslims, ignoring the BJP’s displeasure and recently made it known he would not have Narendra Modi campaigning in the state.

Should the BJP sense alarm in that? And the Congress an opportunity? They probably both need to keep a keen eye. Nitish Kumar could be the difference between one Prime Minister and another. Lalu Prasad and Paswan would hope they are too.

Bharti’s cellular theory of growth

2009-04-12T00:59:00.000-07:00

States with 10% higher cellphone penetration than others have grown 1.2% faster, according to an Icrier study

Olhanpur, Bihar: Until about three years ago, Nizamuddin Ansari, 65, a retired head clerk from the Indian Railways mail service, spent most of his days on the verandah at home. The monotony of watching over his courtyard as the women of his family went about their household chores would be broken by the occasional visitor or a money order from his sons employed in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Dubai. Then, the small plot of unused land he owned next to his house got a celebrity tenant: Bharti Airtel Ltd.

The company wanted to set up a phone tower on the plot before it made a debut at Olhanpur, Ansari’s village of some 25,000 people, in Bihar’s Chapra district.
(Left)
A one-stop Airtel shop in Olhanpur.

Recharge coupons of between Rs10 and Rs50 sell the most here ;and the Airtel tower in Olhanpur (in the background). Bharti Airtel was the first telecom company to enter the village. Madhu Kapparath / MintThere was much excitement in the Muslim-dominated village, whose economy was sustained mainly by remittances from West Asia and small-scale farming. Ansari recalls the villagers were thrilled at the prospect of not having “to depend on dead fixed-line phones, phone booths or a neighbour’s landline for receiving or making calls”.

The Ansari household then had two men employed in West Asia (the number has since grown to six), who would be lucky to see their wives and children once a year. Phone conversations were the only way to stay in touch.

The land would bring a monthly rent of Rs10,000, adding to the family’s income of around Rs50,000 sent home by family members overseas and from farming.
Within a year of Bharti Airtel entering Olhanpur in 2006, Ansari gave up his landline connection provided by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, a state-owned phone services provider, and bought five mobile phones for his family of 11, mostly women.

(Left) Parashar Telecom, a distributor for Airtel in Chapra, struggles with power cuts. Outages can sometimes last around 12 hours a day here; and Khushboo Paan Bhandar at Pathera village makes a busy picture of an Airtel retail store. Here, and mobile phone coupons sell like hot cakes. Its 14-year-old proprietor, Mukesh Chaudhary (behind the counter), says he makes an additional Rs45 a day selling phone recharge coupons. All the connections were from Bharti Airtel, India’s biggest mobile phone firm, started and scaled up by Sunil Mittal, a businessman who grew up in Ludhiana, an industrial town in Punjab.

The phone firm launched its services in Bihar early in 2005, and in the four years since, has built a coverage presence in all of the state’s 38 districts. Of at least 18.67 million customers in Bihar, according to end-February data with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, or Trai, the company has 7.15 million

One out of four of Olhanpur’s residents have a phone, say Bharti Airtel executives—double the 12.6% phone penetration in the country’s villages and small towns.
Village voice

Olhanpur is the typical target market for firms such as Bharti Airtel and rivals Reliance Communications Ltd and Vodafone Essar Ltd, which have been aggressively courting customers here for the last two years. Poorly served by state-owned fixed-line phone firms and deterred by the difficulty of procuring such connections, customers in these pockets are increasingly turning to mobile phone services.

Indians are second only to the US when it comes to using phone minutes. Mobile phone customers in India record almost 500 minutes of use a month, ahead of the 423 minutes the Chinese record, according to data collated by consultancy BDA Connect Pvt. Ltd.
Such is the pace of expansion and growth in demand for phone minutes that the load on the Bharti Airtel network—and indeed other networks—keeps mounting daily. “We set up more towers...(but) the demand for fresh connections keeps rising,” says Manish Kumar, a territory manager for the firm in Chapra.
Elsewhere, his company sets up 100 towers every day, a task shared by Indus Towers Ltd, a 42%-owned unit, says Sudhir Gupta, vice-president of marketing at the tower firm.
Phone services are perhaps what comes closest to perfect competition in India. Sure, there are instances of collusive price changes, but when it comes to earning that extra rupee of profit, those in the business can be cut-throat. Almost.
So, within 12 months of Bharti Airtel building its tower at Olhanpur, Reliance Communications entered the market—it is now ranked second by customers, behind Bharti Airtel. In January, work got tougher for the likes of territory manager Kumar when two more competitors, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular Ltd, reached the village. “We haven’t seen the demand for Airtel declining but, certainly, people now have more choices,” he says.
The Ansari household has let out another piece of land to the latest two entrants to set up towers. Its income from rent has gone up to Rs30,000 a month and Naimuddin Ansari, 32, Ansari’s youngest son, has quit his accountant’s job at a New Delhi firm to return and help manage his father’s newfound occupation.
Hyper-local logistics
On days when networks fail in Olhanpur, there is much angst. “Poor connectivity is something the people here can’t stand even for 10 minutes,” says Sanjay Kumar, guard at the Bharti Airtel tower here, who doubles up as one of the two distributors in the village.
That happens often. Frequent power cuts mean that the towers rely on diesel-run generators for electricity backup—power cuts can sometimes last around 12 hours a day here. “The tanker comes every Monday, and if we run short of fuel during the week, we have to wait until Monday,” says Kumar.
The last time Bharti Airtel’s network failed for two days about eight months ago, villagers stormed the tower complex and protested till a tanker carrying diesel was called in from Chapra.

On a busy street at Pathera, a village neighbouring Olhanpur, Bharti Airtel’s distribution march—what chief executive and joint managing director Manoj Kohli calls his “matchbox strategy” to benchmark phone card availability to matchboxes in every village of India—is at work.
At a small paan (betel leaf) shop, its 14-year-old proprietor Mukesh Chaudhary makes an additional Rs45 a day selling phone recharge coupons. “Earlier, every passer-by would run into my shop asking for Airtel recharges. I figured this was also a product I could sell,” he says.
In neighbouring Khaira village, Bharti Airtel distributor Rajesh Pandey makes hundreds of photocopies of an emailed leaflet of the company’s latest tariffs to distribute in local markets. “We have no time to lose when a new offer comes. Photocopies of the schemes reach faster and are more economical,” says Pandey, who distributes Airtel coupons in six villages in Chapra, including Olhanpur. Recharge coupons of between Rs10 and Rs50 on prepaid phone connections sell the most, he adds.
Bharti Airtel also has a drive it calls FoS (feet on street) in rural areas, where distributors travel to sell prepaid phone cards, recharge coupons and related company offers to consumers.
To effectively serve rural customers and save on costs, Bharti Airtel has launched a programme called I-Serve, under which the company trains village shopkeepers to become a one-stop Bharti Airtel store—where customers can not just buy recharge cards but get their queries answered.
Azimullah Khan, who owns an electrical products store, is one such I-Serve shopkeeper. Last fortnight, a bunch of youngsters came with a question to Khan, who in his previous job drove a truck in Saudi Arabia for 16 years. They alleged the network provider was overcharging. “They had accidentally activated several alerts on their mobiles for which they were being charged. The problem is that they still do not know how to use their mobile phones,” he says.
Khan, whose shop also repairs cellphones with a locally trained hand, fixed their problem and sold them more recharge coupons. Bharti Airtel expects such on-the-ground distributors to save on customer service costs—but for Khan, the youngsters would have called up at the firm’s customer helpline using expensive call centre services.
Changing lives
As phone services spread in rural India—according to latest data from Trai, some 27.6% of India’s nearly 400 million phones (including around 38 million fixed-line phones) were in its villages and small towns—slow but potentially big changes are taking place.
In Olhanpur resident Gaffar Khan’s days in West Asia in the late 1970s, his wife Nazma Khan would travel to the district headquarters 20km away to make a phone call, or post a letter that would reach Khan weeks later. “There was not even one phone booth then in the nearest Khodaibagh market,” Khan says.
Three decades later, no household in Olhanpur faces that problem.

Local phone access can ease trauma, as Sushila Devi found out. The 32-year-old housewife’s husband, Surendra Prasad, works at a Chapra factory and visits home once a month. Cradling her newborn, Devi recalls how last month she called him as labour pains mounted. “Just after my call, he was by my side with the doctor when I delivered my child,” she says.
At a broader level, economists say the spread of mobile phone usage is cranking up economic growth through enhanced productivity.
A January study by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, or Icrier, a New Delhi-based think tank, says increased penetration of cellular technology has contributed to higher and more inclusive economic growth. States with 10% higher mobile phone penetration than others, it concludes, have grown 1.2% faster.
The economic benefits are yet to reach states such as Bihar, which has to boost its state-wide teledensity of 16% by at least half to reach the ideal benchmark—the study found benefits begin to accrue once penetration crosses 25%. “If Bihar were to enjoy the same mobile penetration rate as Punjab, then, according to our results, it would enjoy a growth rate that is about 4% higher,” the Icrier report says.
For now, new businesses are mushrooming around phone services at Olhanpur.
At Khodaibagh market, Ragini Kumari, 6, is perhaps the youngest customer at Mehta PCO, a public phone booth that uses a battery-powered inverter to charge up to five mobile phones at a time for Rs5 each. Kumari, a class I student, visits Mehta PCO at least twice a week to charge her father’s handset since the generator connection at her home runs for just 2 hours in the evening, she says, before sprinting back home.

Israel to build five artillery munitions plants in Bihar

2009-04-12T00:50:00.000-07:00

Jerusalem (PTI): Israel has signed a whopping $240 million agreement with India to build five artillery munitions factories in Bihar over a period of three years.

The munitions factories will be built by the Israeli Military Industry (IMI) on the line of its ordnance factory in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Hasharon, business daily 'Globes' reported.

The Israeli defence industry said that the contract was the result of its collaboration with Indian Government's Ordnance Factories Board (OFB).

IMI will be the chief contractor in the deal and will use Israeli and Indian firms as subcontractors.

The state-owned Israeli firm reported $660 million in sales last year, 16 per cent more than in 2007.

The firm's CEO Avi Felder said the global economic crisis would change the procurement pattern by the world's leading militaries, which would switch to upgrading existing weapons platforms on short timetables instead of massive investment in new facilities that would take a long time to develop and deliver.

Mad rush for Nano booking in Bihar, long queues for bank finance

2009-04-12T00:46:00.000-07:00

PATNA: Joining the bandwagon of millions of others across the country, thousands of car lovers in Bihar too have taken part in the mad rush for purchasing the peoples' small car Nano since the booking began yesterday.

Much before the city's main car dealer Ginni Motors' showroom's door was open for public display of all the three variants of the Tata Motor's pride car in the heart of the city both yesterday and today, thousands of car lovers queued up since morning to have a glimpse of their dream car, and, if possible, book one of them on the spot.

Realising the mood of the commoners, a number of public and private sector banks, besides some other financial institutions, have lost no time and opened their counters in some selected branches as well as in the dealer's showroom to grant instant car loan for the eager customers.

The demand for the booking of Nano is so high in Patna that car enthusiasts like Ravi Kumar could not wait any longer to book one of them with the hope that his name would figure in the lottery for the first 1,00,000 cars Tata Motors promised to deliver by July this year.

Despite other pressing demands in the family he has already applied for a bank loan for his dream car, he said today.

''We expect to have similar demand till the end of the booking schedule on April 25,'' Anil Agrawal, partner, Ginni Motors, said.

Looking at the first two days demand he also hoped that more than 25,000 cars would be booked by the city's Nano lovers before the deadline

Are winds of change sweeping through Bihar?

2009-04-11T23:56:00.000-07:00

Chapra (Bihar): It's blowing in the wind. Evident to one visiting Bihar after a few years' gap years is the change in mood that is felt more markedly in rural areas than in the bigger urban centres of the state.

The air of despondency - a feeling that nothing will or can improve is no longer there. What has changed? Villagers talk of improved roads that help them travel for work. Whether it is a Rajput, Yadav or Dalit habitation, this is the first thing villagers mention when asked how things are improving. Aap sadak hi dekh lijiye ("just take the roads, for instance"), they say.

The change began three years ago, says everyone, and CM Nitish Kumar is generally credited for this. People can tell you which schemes were introduced by the state and which by the Centre, which one they owe to Lalu Prasad and to Kumar. But for putting them on the ground, they agree, some reluctantly, that the present CM has done a better job.

People also talk of better education and health facilities achieved simply because teachers have begun teaching and doctors attend to the health centres. The old get their pensions, the widows theirs; the safe motherhood scheme is operational and anganwadis function.

Every village has persons working in another state who send money back and income from the agriculture supplements this. There is no huge problem of rural indebtedness and no suicides. Yet. For the time being, the hopes are high.

However, while there may be doctors at hospitals, medicines are not as they are sold through shops, illegally. Schools have teachers but many 'teachers' are not qualified and have been employed by panchayat mukhiyas for other reasons.

Rural electrification has not made much headway. There is little power supply to begin with. The three thermal power stations the state do not work and Bihar gets all its electricity from outside. Most of Bihar gets electricity only for a total of four hours through the day. No wonder then, Bihar is a thriving market for generator sets.
"If you promise power and provide it, you raise people's aspirations and expectations. People would complain they are getting only 18 hours of power supply and vote you out because of power cuts," said one man.

Salim Parvez may queer pitch for Lalu in Saran

2009-04-11T08:31:00.000-07:00

BSP's move to field a candidate in the Yadav-Rajput-dominated Saran Lok Saha seat may queer the pitch for RJD boss Lalu Prasad, who is locked in a cliff-hanger with BJP leader R P Rudy in the constituency where caste equations have changed after delimitation.

The erstwhile Chapra Lok Sabha seat, dominated by Yadavas, has now been renamed Saran after delimitation with the Yadavas and Rajputs accounting for about 2.7 Lakh and 2.5 Lakh voters respectively in the electorate of 12.67 Lakh.

Besides, upper caste Bhumihars have around 75,000 votes, followed by Brahmins (55,000) and Kurmis and Koeris (60,000). Muslims comprise another 1.55 Lakh votes approximately.

As development and caste equations determine the outcome of elections in Bihar, often described as caste cauldron, Lalu is engaged in a neck-to-neck fight with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati fielding a strong local Muslim leader, Salim Parvez, who is making a determined bid to make inroads into RJD's Muslim votebank.

Political analysts believe that in the event of the BSP nominee cutting into a sizeable minority and dalit votes, it may not be an easy sail for Lalu. The presence of Independent Yadava MLA Lalbabu Rai from Marhaura, who is in the fray as Independent, will further make Lalu's task of retaining the seat difficult.

Lalu's profile has undergone a metamorphosis between 2004 and 2009. In the 2004 general elections he went to voters tainted with involvement in the fodder scam and often accused of letting loose a reign of terror during his party's rule for over 15 years.

But now he is credited with turning the Railways around and posting a profit of Rs 90,000 crore during his five-year stint at the Rail Bhavan.

"He has brought a number of projects in Saran like the coach wheel factory, diesel locomotive factory, coach repair workshop, rail-cum-road overbridge and network of railway lines are among the projects worth over 25,000 crore.

"He has also upgraded Chapra railway station into a model station," his election agent and advocate Bhola Prasad Rai told PTI.

"People of the constituency will vote for development and we have support from all sections of society, including upper castes," RJD's ex-MLA Yaduvanshi Yadav, one of Lalu's campaign managers, said.

"Why will the electors favour Rudy, who did nothing when he was a minister in the erstwhile A B Vajpayee government?" asks Yamuna Rai of village Sitalpur.

"In fact, the cultivators, particularly Rajputs, are angry as Rudy failed to keep his promise to work for re-opening of the sugarmill at Marhaura," another resident of Doriganj said.

Ruling out a possibility of division of Muslim votes due to the presence of BSP candidate, Baglul Mobin, RJD's Saran district chief and a close confidante of Lalu, said, "They are aware of the BSP's plan to indirectly benefit the saffron party's nominee and thus will vote en-bloc for Laluji."

Rudy too is no less confident about achieving his long-cherished dream to defeat a leader of the stature of Lalu. He seems to be heavily banking on the development work being carried out by the NDA government led by Nitish Kumar in Bihar.

"The roads in Saran which were dilapidated and full of potholes are now pliable. New schools and community centres have come up and all-round development is seen," he asserted and ridiculed Lalu's claim of bringing several railway projects in the constituency.

"Please show me a single rail project which has become operational in Saran. Lalu has only laid foundation stones for the projects he claimed to have brought," Rudy, BJP's national spokesman said.

However, sources in the NDA, pleading anonymity, said intra-NDA squabbles may adversely affect Rudy's bid for victory following the denial of BJP ticket to Janardan Singh Sigiriwal, a Rajput leader and former member of the Nitish Kumar cabinet, for the seat.

"Please show me a single rail project which has become operational in Saran. Lalu has only laid foundation stones for the projects he claimed to have brought," Rudy, BJP's national spokesman says.

He said that the projects would take shape and concretise only when a development-oriented NDA government came to power at the Centre.

Insiders in the NDA, pleading anonymity, confide that intra-NDA squabbles may adversely affect Rudy's bid for victory following the denial of BJP ticket to Janardan Singh Sigiriwal, a Rajput leader and former member of the Nitish Kumar cabinet, for the seat.

BSP's Salim Parvez brushes aside the allegations that he is contesting the elections to benefit the saffron party and hopes that the dalits, upper castes, Muslims and extremely backward classes will support his candidature as they want installation of a Mayawati-led government for establishing an equitable society.

Rudy also apprehends large-scale riggings allegedly by RJD activists, a repeat of 2004, when the election to Chapra seat was countermanded and repoll held.

Lalu Prasad had, however, emerged victorious by a margin of 60,443 votes polling 2,28,882 votes against Rudy's 1,68,459 votes.

Lalu represented the Chapra seat thrice in 1977, 1989 and 2004. In 2004, Lalu successfully contested the elections from Madhepura and Chapra, but decided to retain the latter, now renamed Saran, comprising Marhaura, Chapra, Garkha (sc), Parsa, Sonepur and Amnaur assembly segments.

Out of these segments, ruling JD-U has its sitting MLAS from Chapra and Parsa, while BJP'S Gan Chandra Manjhi represents Garkha.

RJDd's Ramanuj Prasad reperesents Sonepur while Lalbabu Rai, who is contesting as an Independent, represents Marhaura. Amnaur is a newly constituted assembly segment.

There are altogether 12 candidates trying their luck from the seat.

Around 12.67 Lakh electors will exercise their franchise at 1270 polling stations on April 16.

Book Review: Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh

2009-04-11T08:27:00.000-07:00

Amitav Ghosh’s novels are all meticulously researched and Sea of Poppies is no exception. With the opium trade and the opium wars as a background, the book explores in detail the East India Company-run opium factory at Ghazipur, the workers whose lives depended on it and its produce. At another level, it also tracks the origins and journey of the first batch of the Indian Diaspora, the indentured laborers of the nineteenth century. This class of people, who supplied cheap labor in the British Empire after slavery was abolished, traveled under horrendous conditions to escape the poverty and deprivation in their native land. The book chronicles well, the life and ambitions of the grandiose empire builders and the effect of their actions on ordinary Indian people.

Against this background, Sea of Poppies paints a poignant picture of the human devastation caused by imperialism. The fertile farms of the Ganges plain are blooming only with poppies - beautiful, deadly, denying the peasants the crops to sustain them and indebting them to moneylenders and landowners, themselves indebted to the buccaneers of the East India Company. Skillfully and seemingly randomly, Ghosh assembles those who will set sail in his narrative of the Ibis, an old slaving ship that is taking indentured laborers to Mauritius.

The characters are many and diverse and yet richly etched. He begins in the villages of eastern Bihar with Deeti, soon to be widowed; her addicted husband, who works at the British opium factory at Ghazipur; and Kalua, a low-caste carter of colossal strength and resource. Moving downstream, we meet a bankrupt landowner, Raja Neel Rattan; an American sailor, Zachary; Paulette, a young Frenchwoman, and her Bengali foster-brother Jodu; Benjamin Burnham, an unscrupulous British merchant, and his Bengali agent, Baboo Nob Kissin; and an assortment of nautch girls and Indian sepoys and soldiers in the service of the Company.

As they sail down the Hooghly and into the sea, their old family ties are washed away, and they view themselves as jahaj-bhais (ship-brothers) who will build whole new lives for themselves in the remote islands where they are being taken.. Cut off from their roots, in transit, and looking ahead to a fresh start, the migrants are prone to invent new names and histories and innovatively try to recreate rituals surrounding marriage , funerals and other rites of passage which can no longer be performed in their original form.

The novel closes with the Ibis in mid-ocean in a storm. Serang Ali, leader of the lascars, has abandoned ship, along with the convicts and the condemned; the first mate as well as the subedar are dead; of the key figures only Deeti, Paulette, Nob Kissin and Zachary are left, watching from the deck the disappearance of the long boat and those close to them. the deliberately ambiguous ending of the novel which leaves the reader speculating about the fat of those left behind on the ship as well as those who have sailed away on the boat seems to have in its kernel the seeds of the other parts of the trilogy that Ghosh is said to be writing around the them of the opium wars.

Bihar no. 1 in terms of money earned through jail inmates

2009-04-11T08:24:00.000-07:00

PATNA: Having hogged the limelight for all wrong reasons in the past, jails in Bihar, for a change, are now making the state proud at least on one
front. This pertains to money earned by sale of products produced inside Bihar jails by the inmates.

Quoting figures provided by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D), an official of home (prisons) department said that Bihar stood first in 2008-09 in India in terms of money earned by sale of products made by jail inmates.

While Bihar jails earned Rs 10.76 crore, jails of Maharshtra and Uttar Pradesh stood second and third with corresponding figures of income of jails of these two states being Rs 10.36 crore and Rs 10.20 crore respectively.

"A major share of this income has come from the products of Buxar Central Jail as the Swiss cottage and tarpaulin, manufactured by inmates there, were supplied in good number during Vikas Yatra undertaken by CM Nitish Kumar," said a senior home (prison) department official and added that the supply was made in accordance with the Bihar Finance Rule, a clause of which stipulates that all tents for official requirement should be purchased from Buxar Central Jail.

Income generated by this jail is over Rs 9 crore which constitutes about 90 per cent of the total income of jails in Bihar. Taking a lesson from the good performance of Buxar jail, the bosses in home (prison) department have taken steps to enhance the income of other major jails of Bihar, too.

Steps have been taken to start work for producing tents and blankets using the services of inmates of Central jails in Muzaffarpur. This will be in addition to the leather items already being produced by the inmates of this jail.

A printing press has been installed in Bhagalpur Central Jail and its commercial use would start after the trial run of the press which would be conducted very soon.

A bakery has been set up in Beur Central Jail, Patna, and the product of this bakery would also be sold in the market.

"These are a few steps we have taken to sustain the income level of jails and if things move as planned, there is no doubt that Bihar jails would continue to be number one in the country in terms of money earned by sale of products produced by jail inmates," said the official.

Empty promises, as Gaya voters live in ‘lantern age’

2009-04-11T07:53:00.000-07:00

Gaya (Bihar), April 11 (IANS) For 30 long years candidates kept promising that the power situation will improve in Bihar’s Gaya town. They no longer do so, knowing the empty promise will only irritate voters.

Residents complain that electricity is a luxury in Gaya, a pilgrimage centre for Hindus and Buddhists alike and located about 100 km from Patna.

Shakeela Khatoon, who lives in the Gewal Bigha area in the more upmarket part of the town, is bitter.

“We live in the lantern age.” she said. “We have three lanterns in regular use. There is hardly a night when we don’t light the lanterns. The electricity mostly fails.”

Even in the run up to the last state assembly elections, the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) nominee in this area promised better power situation in Gaya town. But in over three years, the situation has only got worse.

“It is common here to spend hot and humid summer nights without power,” a bitter Khatoon told IANS. “If there is power at night during summer, it is considered a luxury.”

In the nearby neigbourhood of Rampur, Manisha Sinha curses her decision to force her husband to construct a new house with all their savings and settle down in Gaya.

“It was a wrong decision. We were confident the power supply would improve but nothing has changed. Most residents either use lantern or lamp. Some are using battery-operated emergency lights,” she said.

The energy department says Bihar faces a deficit of 400-500 MW of power a day and that the situation is likely to worsen with the onset of summer if additional power is not made available.

Bihar does not produce even 100 MW a day, India’s only large state to face such a predicament. The government of Nitish Kumar blames the previous Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) government for the mess.

Bihar is almost totally dependent on the central grid for power. The state needs 1,600-1,800 MW of power a day but gets 700-800 MW from the central pool.

“This should be the main issue during the election,” says bureaucrat Munna Singh, a resident of Nai Godam locality. “Instead, politicians are wooing voters on caste lines.”

Gaya goes to the polls April 16. The town is Bihar’s second largest educational hub after Patna, and the power crisis has hit hard the student community.

Dinesh Yadav, a college student in his early 20s, says: “I failed to watch cricket on TV. We pay Rs.30 per hour for surfing the Internet, three times as much as in Delhi and twice the rate in Patna, and all because the cyber cafes have to be run on generators.”

Sanjay Kumar, another resident, said people had lost hope of getting power. “Thanks to uncertain power supply, kerosene oil sells at Rs.40 per litre.”

The situation is precarious in villages. They hardly get any power even during the day.

It is not unusual to experience day-long power cuts in most of Bihar’s 38 districts. People in small towns and district headquarters are considered lucky because they have electricity for four to six hours a day.

(Imran Khan can be contacted at imran.k@ians.in)

Meet The Miracle Indian Woman Who Cries Tears of Blood

2009-04-11T07:47:00.000-07:00

Indian woman Rashida Khatoon has been dubbed a 'living miracle' because she cries tears of blood.

According to the Austrian Times, the women of Patna in Bihar has become a 'holy shrine' where people see her weep blood several times a day.

Even the doctors are stunned at Khatoon's condition.

"I do not feel any pain when it happens but it's a shock to see blood instead of water," the Daily Star quoted her as saying.

The local Hindu holy men have declared her a living miracle.

People visit her home daily to see her cry blood and have even showered her and her family with gifts as holy offerings.

Vina Sahee Joins JD(U)

2009-04-05T02:36:00.000-07:00

PATNA: Congress leader and former minister Veena Shahi on Saturday hurled accusations on the state Congress as well as High Command and said most of
the Lok Sabha seats were put on sale. "A minimum of Rs 10 lakh has been charged for giving tickets. The rate goes high depending on the paying capacity of the ticket aspirants," she alleged. Veena, who joined JD(U) on Saturday, is the daughter-in-law of veteran Congress leader and former Union minister L P Shahi.

Veena was also a ticket aspirant, but was denied one. Asked if she was also asked to pay, she shot back, "They do not have courage to ask me, but I know many people have paid." She said after March 18, when the Congress decided to contest all the parliamentary seats in Bihar, the game of selling tickets began.

She also accused the High Command of keeping its eyes shut on what is happening in the state. "The day is not far when the oldest party will cease to exist in Bihar as some so-called leaders have made politics a business," she reacted.

NDA vows to complete Patna AIIMS

2009-04-05T02:34:00.000-07:00

The then Atal Bihari Vajpayee led NDA government's move six years ago to have a unit of the prestigious All India Institute of Medical
Sciences (AIIMS) at Patna has seemingly proved to be abortive. The state BJP has decided to make it an issue during the parliamentary poll.

The state BJP thinks that the Manmohan Singh led UPA government did not resume from where the Vajpayee government had left in 2004. It, on Saturday, held both the UPA government and the Bihar ministers in the UPA's Union cabinet as largely responsible for the seeming abortion of AIIMS. Initially. the estimated cost of the poject was Rs 285 crore. It has now escalated to Rs 400 crore, which, in itself, might work as a deterrent on the Centre to pursue the project to its fruition.

State NDA convener and health minister in Nitish Kumar government Nand Kishore Yadav did not mince words on Saturday, when he said, "The UPA government felt that JPNAIIMS would be seen as an achievement of the NDA, and, therefore, it did not push the matter to its logical end. To add to it, the Bihar ministers obstructed it."

Asked why CM Nitish Kumar did not coordinate with the Union ministers from Bihar and organize an all-party delegation to Delhi if the project was so prestigious, Yadav said that he had met UPA's Union health minister A Rama Doss, and Nitish, too, had written to the Prime Minister separately.

"The JPNAIIMS has been allowed to suffer abortion under a design, but if the NDA comes to power in Delhi we will see that the project is completed," Yadav said, adding: "The Delhi under Atal Bihari Vajpayee had tried to address the health needs of the people of the state, since its critical patients, normally, had been rushing to Delhi AIIMS for treatment."

According to him, Union health minister Sushma Swaraj had initiated the official move for an AIIMS at Patna in July 2003, when she, in an official letter, asked the then CM, Rabri Devi, to allot 100 acres of land for the Patna AIIMS, pointing out that the project would be completed in two years after the land transfer. Rabri consented, and former vice-president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat laid the foundation stone on January 2 next year.

In two lots, the Rabri government transferred 72.67 acres of land by June 2005, while the Nitish government transferred the remaining 27.33 acres of land on November 28 the same year, and the Centre intimated about the possession of land on April 27, 2006. In between, nothing beyond the boundary wall and work on residential quarters has been initiated. "The UPA has been insincere in the implementattion of the project," Yadav said.

India (Bihar) born Sanjay Jha of is now USA’s top paid CEO (Motorola)

2009-04-05T02:20:00.000-07:00

As reported in Wall Street Journal, Motorola’s Sanjay Jha is currently the top paid CEO in USA. Current one year pay package of Sanjay Jha is around $104 million (Rs 510 Crore ). He did Ph.D in electronic and electrical engineering. He is working for Motorola since starting of his career.

Many people think that Ph.D is useful only for teaching career or career in research, now this is not true. Ph.D degree holder from reputed university can also grab the top management position in any company.

Sanjay K. Jha [1], born 1963, joined Motorola in 2008 and serves as co-chief executive officer of Motorola, Inc. and chief executive officer of Motorola’s Mobile Devices business. He is also a member of Motorola’s Board of Directors.

Before joining Qualcomm, Jha held lead design engineering roles with Brooktree Corporation, San Diego, and GEC Hirst Research Centre, London, England.

Dr. Jha joined Motorola in 2008 and serves as co-chief executive officer of Motorola, Inc. and chief executive officer of Motorola’s Mobile Devices business. He is also a member of Motorola’s Board of Directors.

Prior to joining Motorola, Jha served as chief operating officer of Qualcomm Incorporated where he oversaw Corporate Research and Development and Qualcomm Flarion Technologies (QFT). Jha also served as president of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies (QCT), Qualcomm’s chipset and software division.

Jha began his career at Qualcomm in 1994 as a senior engineer with the Qualcomm VLSI (very large-scale integration) group working on the Globalstar satellite phone, and later on the first 13k vocoder ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit). In 1997, Jha was promoted to vice president of engineering, where he was responsible for leading the integrated-circuit engineering group. He led and oversaw the development of five generations of modem and cell site chipsets, both digital baseband and RF (radio frequency), and system software. Jha was promoted to senior vice president of engineering in 1998.

In 2002, Jha led the formation of Qualcomm Technologies & Ventures, where he managed both the technology investment portfolio and the new technology group as senior vice president and general manager. Jha became executive vice president of Qualcomm and president of QCT in 2003. He was named COO in December 2006.

Prior to joining Qualcomm, Jha held lead design engineering roles with Brooktree Corporation in San Diego, and GEC Hirst Research Labs in London, England.

Jha holds a Ph.D. in electronic and electrical engineering from the University of Strathclyde, Scotland. He received his bachelor’s of science degree in engineering from the University of Liverpool, England.

Bihar Election Report

2009-04-04T07:53:00.000-07:00

Nitish favourite to lead Bihar again, survey shows

2009-04-04T07:49:00.001-07:00

New Delhi, April 1 (IANS) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is the most popular leader in the state and was likely to retain the post, an opinion poll said Wednesday.

'Nitish Kumar emerges as the most popular candidate to be the next chief minister in Bihar with 63 percent people in favour of him whereas Lalu Prasad Yadav trails by 25 percent,' the NDTV said in a release on the findings of the opinion poll.

A large majority believes that the Nitish Kumar government has done a good job in handling flood situation with 73 percent people saying he has done enough on development indicators like 'bijli, sadak and paani' (power, roads and water).

A majority of people in Madhya pradesh, 67 percent of the respondents, are in favour of the state's Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan being elected as the next chief minister.

Centrally Planned Inequality Punjab Bihar

2009-04-04T02:41:00.001-07:00

Centrally Planned Inequality Punjab Bihar Centrally Planned Inequality Punjab Bihar api_user_11797_viveksinha_in An article on 2 states of India. Bihar's comparision with Punjab.

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