Friends of Bihar and Jharkhand in Michigan

30 AUGUST 2010

The Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation (BSTDC) will soon develop two luxury hotels in the state on Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. These hotels will come up at capital city, Patna and Rajgir, an important destination on the Buddhist circuit.

According to a senior of ficial of the Corporation, while the hotel at Patna will be a five-star hotel with about 120 rooms, the one at Rajgir will be a four-star category hotel with more rooms.

“At Rajgir, we have about four acres of land and more rooms can be set up here,” added the official. He also informed that the proposal is currently before the cabinet, and once it is approved the project will be completed in a couple of years’ time.

In order to boost the quality of accommodation, the Corporation will also undertake upgradation of existing guest houses into three-star category status in a phased manner. Initially, four guest houses have been identified for upgradation by the Corporation.

These include guest houses at Muzaffarpur, Bodhgaya, Rajgir and Mohania (near Varanasi). According to the official, the upgradation process will be completed within a year. In another major development, BSTDC has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Assam Bengal Navigation Company for river cruise on Ganges from Kolkata to Patna.

The Corporation will offer logistics support for the cruise once it enters Bihar. The cruise company will organise ten tours this season starting from October to March, said the official.

Source:Bihar Foundation

Posted: 21 Aug 2010 Patna:

The Bihar government has launched an ambitious project – to resurrect the Nalanda University which was once considered one of the finest academic institutions in the world. And that dream seems to be one step closer to reality, with Parliament passing the Nalanda University Bill 2010. The world-famous university in Bihar, built in 4th century AD, stood till about 800 years ago and used to draw students and scholars from across Asia.

Bihar government has acquired about 500 acres of land for the project. The estimated cost to build the university is over Rs 1,000 crore but the Planning Commission has allocated Rs 50 crore for the project. The state government hopes to raise the rest from other state governments and private donors in other Asian countries. Also, a Nalanda Mentor Group has been constituted to which is headed by Nobel laureate Professor Amartya Sen.

Click on the Nalanda Picture to enlarge

It will act as its Interim Governing Board. The Nalanda University project is one of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s pet projects. He has in fact linked the resurrection of the ancient university to the building of ‘Brand Bihar’ and ‘Revival of Bihari Pride’. “There are so many places in Bihar. The Nalanda University was the earliest university in the world.

The story of Bihar is not only about today, it is about the history of mankind, a story of the evolution of culture. And in this kind of a Bihar, why can we all not get together,” Nitish said. Others associated with the project say it will be a symbol of Asian intellect. “It’s the Pan Asian character of Nalanda which makes this new initiative a symbol or an icon of the surge towards this quest for an Asian renaissance.

As Asia regains its economic power, it also seeks some ways to be able to revive Pan Asian intellectual traditions which Nalanda represented in more ways than one,” said N K Singh, a member of the Nalanda mentor Group. Construction is expected to begin in a year. With the revival of this university, perhaps Bihar and India will now find a prominent place on the global education map.

Source: NDTV

Condolences

Noted surgeon and former director-in-chief of health services, government of Bihar, and HoD, dept of surgery, NMCH- Phani Bhushan Prasad passed away on August 19th at Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in Mumbai.

Nitish offers condolences to Prasad's son-film actor and Congress leader Shekhar Suman at Patna.

Picture of Actor- Politician Shekhar Suman

They have a tough electoral contest ahead, but Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his rivals Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan are also jostling for supremacy in Bihar's rakhi markets. A day ahead of the festival, rakhis named after the three were doing brisk business Monday with reports that Nitish Kumar had a slight edge.

"Demand of rakhis with pictures of Nitish, Lalu and Paswan are high among girls, youth and children," Santosh Kumar, a shopkeeper here, said a day ahead of Raksha Bandhan, where sisters tie decorative threads on their brother's wrist as a symbol of sibling love.

While the chief minister belongs to the Janata Dal-United (JD-U), Lalu Prasad heads the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Paswan is chief of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).

Rakumar Chandrawanshi, a wholesaler of rakhis, told IANS that rakhis with Nitish Kumar's pictures, locally known as Nitish rakhis, are selling like hot cakes.

"It is the first preference for people...more popular than those named after Lalu and Paswan. All three are fighting a close battle in the rakhis market," he said.

Mantu Singh, another shopkeeper, said these special rakhis were particularly popular among children and the youth.

With hardly two months to go for the Bihar assembly pols, there are several makeshift stalls selling rakhis named after the state' leading politicians and shopkeepers say many come just to have a look at these special items.

"The rakhis are in huge demand. Even those who do not purchase these rakhis want to have a look at the Nitish, Lalu and Paswan rakhis," said Sultan Ahmad, another rakhi seller.

Aneesh Ankur, a theatre activist, said rakhi manufacturers have named rakhis after the trio of Bihar politics to cash in on their popularity. "Patna's rakhi market is flooded with rakhis bearing names of these politicians and displaying their photographs," he said. Interestingly, there is no rakhi named after Nitish Kumar's alliance partner Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders.

"Rakhis have not been named after Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi," a shopkeeper said.

This is not the first time the Lalu brand has been used to spin money. Lalu rakhis hit markets four years ago and got a good response. Apart from rakhis, Bihar's rural markets have seen Lalu dolls, Lalu chocolates, Lalu fodder and Lalu cosmetics as well.

Firecrackers named after Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar were sold ahead of Diwali a few years ago.

Source: www.mynews.in

August 14th,BEGUSARAI/PURNIA/AURANGABAD: Bihar brains have once again made it to the Union civil services aspirants — with a bang.

Begusarai boasts of having two sons of the soil in the elite club of top 50 successful IAS aspirants this year. While Rajiv Roshan, a native of Gaura village under Teghra subdivision, has secured 23rd rank, Shambhu Kumar of Sihma village is placed 47th. What adds to the pride of Bihar is the fact that Rajiv did his schooling and college in his native district and, thus, breaks the myth that a Bihari has to move to a reputed institute outside the state if he aspires to score high in the toughest all-India test for the coveted job. He cracked the exam in his first attempt.

“If you possess the willpower, so-called obstacles like rural educational background are trivia,” Rajiv, an ancient Indian history graduate from RBS College situated at Teyai under Teghra subdivision, told TOI on Friday.

Currently working for the customs at Mumbai, Rajiv earlier served the CISF as a sub-inspector. His father, Tridev Narayan Choudhary, is a farmer and mother a retired government teacher.

Shambhu, whose father Valmiki Singh is also a farmer, is an IIT engineering graduate and had made to the Indian Forest Service before script-ing his new success story.

Meenu Thakur of Udaynagar village in Purnia's Srinagar block shines at 89th rank. Her father Shyamanand Thakur, who worked as a school-teacher to feed his wife, four daughters and a son, would never let his modest financial status come in the way of Meenu's studies. The family lives in a two-room house and Shyamanand rides a ramshackle bicycle.

Meenu actually dreamt of becoming an IITian. But she bowed to the wishes of her father who wanted her to join the civil services. After pass-ing out of Garhariya middle school, she studied at a Navodaya Vidyalaya and did her graduation in history from Purnia Women's College in 2003. She scored 69% in her MA and is currently doing research for her Phd from Patna University.

Animesh Parashar of remote Nawadih village under Obra block in Au-rangabad district has secured 30th rank. Son of schoolteacher Madhesh-war Prasad Singh, Parashar did his schooling from Rajarshi Vidya Mandir and plus two from Sinha College in Aurangabad. He cracked JEE and studied at IIT-Kharagpur. Though he had made it to Indian Forest Service, he wrote the civil services exam and came out with flying colours, albeit in last attempt.

“I am the happiest mother on the earth,” an elated Rajwari Devi, Parashar's mother, told TOI over phone on Friday.

Read more: Bihar brains shine in IAS exam, again - Patna - City - The Times of India

August 13th, GAYA: The state government's refusal to provide land for a new airport at Patna may prove a boon for the Gaya International Airport, nearly four times bigger than the existing Patna airport.

Airports Authority of India (AAI), as it is, has made its intentions known to develop the Gaya airport as a standby to the Kolkata airport to divert planes in case of any problem at the Kolkata airport.

As against the 254 acres of the existing airport at Patna, the Gaya air-port is spread over an area of 954 acres and the process for acquiring an-other 100 acres of land for the runway expansion is in an advanced stage. Another 100 acres of land of the Gaya airport is under encroachment and with some administrative will, the encroachments can easily be removed. According to Gaya DM Sanjay Kumar, land from four different revenue villages are being acquired for the runway expansion and the acquisition process for two of the four revenue villages has already been completed. Once this acquisition process is completed and encroachments are removed, the Gaya airport will have an area of about 1,200 acres.

Facilities for simultaneous handling of 500 passengers (250 incoming and 250 outgoing) have already been developed at the Gaya airport. Once, phase II of the airport development plan is executed, the passenger handling capacity of the Gaya airport will further go up.

After the runway expansion, the Gaya airport will be in a position to facilitate landing and takeoff of bigger aircraft like Airbus 320 and Boeing 737. The airport terminal building is spread over an area of 7,500 sq me-tres. Gaya airport's distinct edge over Patna lies in its capacity to further ex-pand the 7,500-ft runway. In Patna, extension of runway on either side is not feasible due to the location of railway tracks on one side and the Patna secretariat tower on another. The effective length of the runway at the Patna airport is 6,340 feet.

Once the ongoing doubling of Gaya-Patna rail track is completed, air passengers can commute between Gaya and Patna in about 45 minutes time by non-stop trains, roughly the time needed to reach Patna in case the new Patna airport comes up at Bihta.

Read more: Airport land issue: Patna's loss, Gaya's gain - Patna - City - The Times of India Airport land issue: Patna's loss, Gaya's gain - Patna - City - The Times of India

Bihar’s Water Resources Department Minister Vijendra Yadav and Building Construction Minister Chedi Paswan jointly released the white paper for completion of the ambitious Durgawati Reservoir Project in Kaimur and Rohtas districts within two years at a press conference in Patna on August 6, 2010.

Speaking on the occasion, Yadav said the project would be completed within a record time of two years by March 31, 2012 and facilitate irrigation in more than 33 lakh hectares of land in these two districts.

“We have removed all the hurdles and got clearance from the Environment and Forest Ministry for the project,” he said. A sum of Rs 1067 crore was estimated to be spent on the project, he added Photo: Aftab Alam Siddiqui

PATNA: Information and public relations department (IPRD) secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Saturday said that besides carrying out its routine works, the IPRD has developed innovative ideas which was evident from the successful organisation of the film appreciation workshops.

Addressing the valedictory function of the 10th Film Appreciation Workshop at Soochana Bhawan here, Bhushan said that the IPRD has a dedicated faculty for holding such workshops. He said that Bihar is the only state where the government is imparting training to the students in film production. Though some similar facilities have been provided in Tamil Nadu, it is only for the students of the film institution, he said.

Earlier, the IPRD secretary distributed certificates among 30 participants who attended the workshop.

Chief coordinator of the workshop R N Das thanked the IPRD for organizing such workshops.

IPRD director Ganesh Prasad thanked Bhushan, faculty members R N Das, Prof N N Pandey, Jaimangal Deo, Vinod Anupam, Minti Chaklanavis and other colleagues for the successful conduct of the function.

Patna (BiharTimes) : The prestigious Jagjivan Ram Kisan Purushkar was awarded to a Bihari Farmer, Sudhanshu Kumar of Nayanagar, a remote village in Samastipur district. This national award consisting of a citation and cash of rupees one lakh was presented by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar in New Delhi.

Director General of Indian Council of Agriculture Research, S Ayyappan made a special mention of this achievement of Bihar’s young farmer and noted agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan who delivered key note address on this occasion advised the DG, ICAR to invite farmers like Sudhanshu and others as a visiting faculty in this premier institute to get real field level feedback.

Recently, Sudhanshu, a Delhi University alumnus has emerged as a Change Agent in Samastipur district by advocating and practicing many innovative tools and skills of modern farming. He successfully raised the productivity of his Mango orchard from mere ten thousand to nine lacs in a period of three to four years and similarly experimented the innovative modern techniques to his litchi orchard.

“I have improved the quality and productivity of Litchi by using sprinkler and drip irrigation system in our farm. People from surrounding villages get inspired by this experiment and keep in touch with me from time to time” said Kumar

He told BiharTimes that recently he invested about 35 lacs in purchasing modern harvesters and other machines to modernize age old labour intensive farming practices in his village.

Samta- the first woman assistant loco pilot from Bihar

Samta Kumari (27), the first woman assistant loco pilot in the Lucknow division of North Eastern Railways — at the controls of Lucknow-Gonda 598 DN passenger train at Charbagh station on Wednesday. This was the second time she drove a train — under supervision of loco pilot Gyanendra Dixit. Her first drive was on Tuesday.

Hailing from Bihar’s Patna, Samta joined the Indian Railways after qualifying an examination conducted by Railway Recruitment Board, Gorakhpur, in 2009. Joining work on January 16 this year, she underwent a training in Gorakhpur till May 30.

“As a child I always wanted to drive trains, but you can’t buy a train, you have to join the Railways to drive a train,” Samta said. She is proud that she is among the very few women train drivers in the country. Samta’s father, an office assistant in Railways, died several years ago.

The family includes her mother, a brother and three sisters — two of whom are members of the local Nagar Palika Parishad in Bihar. Samta did her matriculation in Patna in 2003, then got a diploma in electronics from an ITI in Hapur, Ghaziabad, in 2008.

Officials said she is the fifth woman loco pilot in the Indian Railways.