Thursday 21 April 2011

Bihar News, Latest News from Bihar, News of Bihar, Biharprabha News

Bihar News, Latest News from Bihar, News of Bihar, Biharprabha News

Increased women participation in Panchayat Polls

Posted: 21 Apr 2011 06:43 PM PDT

Patna, (IANS) Nearly three lakh women candidates are to contest the 10-phase panchayat polls in Bihar  which began on Wednesday, thanks to the 50 percent reservation for them in village council seats.

In 2006, Bihar became the first state in India to reserve for women 50 percent seats in panchayats, providing a rare opportunity to nearly half of the state’s 10.38 crore population to empower itself.

“(Chief Minister) Nitish Kumar’s bold step in 2006 is showing results now,” woman activist Kanchan Bala said.

An official of the state election commission told IANS that nearly three lakh women are in the fray for 1.31 lakh of the 2.62 lakh panchayat posts in Bihar.

“Reservation is making a difference. Women are seen everywhere, in political circles and at the panchayat level,” the official said.

Nearly 40,000 women are contesting for the posts of panchayat head, called mukhiya. Similarly, 80,000 women are contesting for the post of panchayat member, and 55,000 for the post of panch in village councils.

Women in large numbers are also contesting to be elected from panchayat samitis to zila parishads (district councils).

The 10-phase panchayat polls will end May 28.

However, the reservation rule has also been twisted in many cases, with many influential men fielding their wives or close women relatives.

“I was forced to field my wife for the mukhiya post as my seat was reserved for women,” said Nandu Yadav, a resident of Naubatpur in Patna district.

But such cases notwithstanding, experts say reservation has had a positive impact on the condition of women in the state.

According to social researcher A.K. Jha, of the Patna-based A.N. Sinha Institute of Social Science, women are no longer confined to their homes and are actively participating in the state’s electoral process.

It was reflected last year when women outnumbered men while voting for the state assembly polls.

A total of 54.8 percent women voted in the polls, compared to 50.7 percent men. The turnout of women was as high as 60 percent in nine of the state’s 38 districts.

Four years back, the state government also reserved for women 50 percent of teachers’ vacancies in government-run primary and secondary schools.

However, there is a disturbing trend as revealed by Census 2011. While the state’s population rose from 8.29 crore in 2009 to 10.38 crore in a decade, the sex ratio (number of females per 1,000 males) declined from 921 to 916.

“All this happened even as so much is being talked about women empowerment, better healthcare and so on. The overall gender ratio in Bihar has fallen to 916, while child gender ratio has declined from 942 to 933,” social researcher Soroor Ahmad said.

 

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Bihar to deliver utility certificates online

Posted: 21 Apr 2011 07:40 AM PDT

Patna: Bihar's Rural Development Department has decided to provide on line service to the people seeking income, caste, death and birth and others certificates.

“We are contemplating to provide on line service to the people, who have to run to the block office for such certificates,” Rural Development Minister Nitish Mishra said.

Mishra after review of the development schemes undertaken by the department said that the people would not have to go to the block office every time for certificates.

The scheme christened as ‘kahin bhi kabhi bhi sevayen’ would be launched soon. “The department is moving methodically before launching the scheme aimed at mitigating the problems of the common masses,” the Minister said.

The Minister said that he recently met IT Minister Shahid Ali Khan to discuss the IT support required to his Department for the purpose.

The meeting assumes significance as the functioning of the 2 MBPS lines, through which the block offices are connected, are not up to the mark.

 

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Bihar boys make the state pride

Posted: 21 Apr 2011 06:11 AM PDT

PATNA: Even as the soil of Bihar has not so far been quite conducive for scientific pursuits, students from different parts of the state working within or outside the state have achieved rare success in the field of science and technology in recent times.

At least two US journals, the New Scientist and the Boston Globe, in their latest issues, have highlighted the breakthrough made by a team of researchers led by Patna boy Saikat Guha in the field of optics. Saikat, son of Aryabhat Knowledge University vice-chancellor S N Guha, along with his team members, has envisaged a theory which could lead to incredibly powerful radar systems as well as advancements in telescopes and other technologies that use light.

Highlighting Guha’s work the New Scientist says, “Stealthy radar systems and the ability to transmit large amount of data over long distances are a step closer, thanks to a technique that could improve the efficiency of modern optics by a factor of 1000. Traditional methods of transmitting data, such as fibre optics or laser-based radar, require roughly 100 photons to transmit a single bit of data.”

“Now a team led by Saikat Guha at Raytheon BBN Technologies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, say they can transmit 10 bits on a single photon – a 1000-fold improvement. To do this, the researchers exploit a phenomenon known as entanglement, in which the quantum state of one photon is linked to that of another, regardless of how far apart they are. Once created, each entangled pair of photons is separated by passing a laser beam made up of them through a filter made from a non-linear crystal,” the journal adds.

Earlier, Guha was selected for the NASA Tech Brief Award in recognition of his contribution to the National Space Programme and to the mission of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA. His work on “Phase-conjugate receiver for Gaussian-state quantum illumination” was highly acclaimed by NASA.

Quite recently, a group of students from BIT Mesra, Patna campus, led by Peetak Mitra, was selected to take part in the NASA Lunabotics Mining Competition, one of the world’s most challenging robotics competition. This event is to take place at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, this year. They have made a lunar excavator that can go on the moon and excavate lunar soil.

Yet another Patna boy, Sunny Mahajan, achieved a commendable feat in the medical world by making valuable contributions to the human brain mapping. He presented his research finding at the 16th annual meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM), held in Barcelona, Spain, in June last year.

Sunny’s work deals with brain mapping of patients in a state of coma. In technical language, this work will help neuroscientists in the understanding of consciousness states based on MRI data. Sunny, a student of IIT Mumbai, is the son of Patna-based income-tax lawyer D B Gupta.

 

 

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Bihar colleges and universities to get science grant

Posted: 21 Apr 2011 04:11 AM PDT

PATNA: The universities and colleges in Bihar are likely to get handsome grants from the Union science and technology department for strengthening teaching and research activities in science subjects.

The universities of the state presented the details of their requirements before the department’s standing committee headed by Hyderabad Central University VC E Hasnain in New Delhi last week. The committee members may visit the state universities soon for making a final assessment of the grants to be doled out.

Patna University (PU) science faculty dean and coordinator of the scheme Arun Kumar Sinha, who presented the university’s requirements before the committee, said Rs 20 crore has been sought for PG science departments and another Rs 15 crore for the colleges of PU.

Bihar is the third state after Jammu and Kashmir and the north-eastern states to get a special package from Union science and technology department for strengthening science teaching and research. As proposed, 60 select colleges of the state would be getting Rs 50 lakh each and each university would be getting Rs 1.5 crore.

A high-level team of the department led by its secretary visited Bihar in May last year and interacted with the VCs and other senior officials of the universities in the state. The team advised the universities to assess their requirements properly and submit the same to the department.

PU departments have already submitted details of their future activities and funds required for their implementation to the coordinator. There are eight science departments in PU and if the university gets its share of Rs 1.5 crore, each department would get about Rs 20 lakh.

 

 

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GCMMF cheif praises CIMP`s achievements

Posted: 20 Apr 2011 11:00 PM PDT

PATNA: Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Limited ( GCMMF), Anand, managing director (MD) R S Sodhi on Sunday said that the Chandragupt Institute of Management Patna (CIMP) is an institution with considerable achievements to its credit.

Delivering the convocation address on the occasion of the second annual convocation of the CIMP, Sodhi said that there are some striking parallels between the CIMP and his organization with its brand, Amul. He said that both the organizations were established by great visionary leaders.

“While Dr Verghese Kurien triggered a socio-economic revolution in rural India 60 years ago, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar transformed the face of modern Bihar and inspired the creation of CIMP as a world class business school designed to enrich the management education profile of the state and to focus on developmental issues, specially pertaining to eastern part of the country,” Sodhi said.

He said that in this era of globalization, knowledge of international business practices is a must and so is the ability to operate in a globally inter-linked environment. The CIMP imparts a global outlook to its students enabling them to contribute meaningfully towards leading the Indian economy to higher levels of growth, he pointed out.

In his message, Nitish said that the CIMP is ranked among top 20 institutions in India in the field of economic researches. He said that people of the state gave another chance to the NDA government as the ruling alliance is committed to implement sushasan in Bihar. In the coming years, commercially trained people would prove to be the base of sushasan and development, he said and added that to achieve this goal, the state government took efforts to open the CIMP, which is set to achieve international importance. “I wish a very bright future to the students of the CIMP,” he added.

Earlier, welcoming the guests, CIMP director V Mukunda Das thanked Sodhi for participating in the convocation of the institute. Congratulating the students, he said the CIMP has been able to generate 147 job opportunities for 2009-11 batch, comprising 38 students. He said that the CIMP has achieved everything because of the support and dedication of the Board of Governors. He said that chief secretary Anup Mukherjee has set standards by his commitment to maintain the autonomy of the CIMP.

Awards were also given to the students of batch 2009-11. While Kirti was awarded for best academic performance and for being topper of the batch, Neelanjan Sinha was awarded for his best all-round performance. Smriti bagged special award for outstanding contribution to campus life while Abhishek Kumar got the best alumni award, batch 2008-10.

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Nitish thanks Junior Bachchan for praising Bihar

Posted: 20 Apr 2011 10:58 PM PDT

PATNA: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday acknowledged Bollywood star Abhishek Bachchan’s words of praise on the perceptible change in Bihar and wished him good luck.

“I acknowledge with humility the junior Bachchan’s gesture praising the change he witnessed in Bihar,” Kumar said while replying to a question on his Janata Darbar programme here.

“I Thank Abhishek and wish him a good luck and bright future,” he said.

During a visit here to promote his film ‘Dum Maro Dum’ on Sunday, Abhishek said: “I have myself been impressed with the fantastic progress made by the state in recent years which was reflected in the confidence of the people,” he said adding the perception about the people of Bihar had also changed for better.

 

 

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