Friday 9 March 2012

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

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

Income Tax Exemption Limit to be raised to 3 Lakhs

Posted: 09 Mar 2012 07:07 AM PST

Central Government is planing to riase the income tax exemption limit from existing Rs. 1.8 lakh to Rs 3 Lakh.

The Standing Committee on Finance on the Direct Taxes Code bill, headed by former finance minister Yashwant Sinha, has proposed that tax exemption limit should be riased to Rs.3 lakh a year and the investment limit for tax saving schemes to Rs.3.20 lakh per year. A flat 10 percent tax would be levied on income between Rs.3-10 lakh, 20 percent between Rs.10-20 lakh and 30 percent on income over Rs.20 lakh.

The DTC had earlier proposed income tax exemption limit at Rs.2 lakh, 10 percent tax on income between Rs.2-5 lakh, 20 percent for Rs.5-10 lakh and 30 percent on income above Rs.10 lakh.

The committee has also suggested that the Securities Transaction Tax (STT) be abolished and the wealth tax limit be pegged at Rs.5 crore.

As regards the rate, it said the wealth tax should be charged at 0.5 percent on assets between Rs.5-20 crore, 0.7 percent on assets between Rs.20-50 crore and 1 percent above Rs.50 crore. The wealth tax rate now is 1 percent.

The STT is a levy on transactions in the stock market i.e. on purchase or sale of shares, derivatives and equity-oriented mutual funds.

However, the committee has suggested that corporate tax rate be retained at 30 percent.

“The committee has rightly struck the need to have balance in tax reforms by putting the onus and making the tax authorities accountable as well. Clearly, a lot of work will need to go in – as per suggestions and recommendations of the Committee – for the tax authorities to put back the draft into shape to be finally made into law,” said Neeru Ahuja, partner at consulting major Deloitte Haskins & Sells.

The committee submitted its recommendations to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar Friday.

The DTC Bill seeks to replace the Income Tax Act, 1961.

Even before the DTC bill is passed by Parliament, the government may look at introducing some tax measures in the forthcoming Budget itself to be presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the Lok Sabha March 16.

Why India mourns the exit of Rahul Dravid ?

Posted: 09 Mar 2012 05:41 AM PST

Rahul Dravid
Rahul Dravid, the perfectionist of Indian Cricket has finally announced his retirement. He has been by far the most admired player both on-field and off-field.
He never believed in half measures. He tried to be perfect in everything he did both on and off the field. For 16 years, he played international cricket and outside of it in all forms of the game with dignity and humility. A gentleman-cricketer to the core.

Spotted by coach Keki Tarapore, whose list of trainees include practically all the great Karnataka players who played for India, Dravid’s name would be right up there if Keki decides to rank them all.

Dravid formed the ‘Fab Four’ of Indian batting with Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and V.V.S. Laxman. Tendulkar described him as the perfectionist who showed patience and willingness to build big knocks.

Tendulkar’s cricketing tribute to him is apt: “Rahul has a excellent technique and he is someone who occupied crease for a long time and concentrated extremely well.”

The 39-year-old Bangalore-based Maharashtrian ended his One-Day career during last summer’s England tour, and now he chose to retire from all forms of international cricket after a none-too-happy series in Australia.

Dravid, the only Indian cricketer to score a century in all Test playing nations, is a rare persona. Well read, his interests are varied and different from his teammates. Not for him the entertainment spots. In his spare time, he is invariably found in bookshops or discussing environmental subjects or wildlife. One can discuss with him any subject under the sun.

Dravid, a team man to the core, agreed to play the ODI series in England even though the selectors had not thought of him in the last two years. Someone who has amassed 10,820 runs in 343 ODIs, played just to add some stability in the middle-order of an injury-hit Indian batting after making it clear that he would be retiring from limited-overs cricket at the end of the series. He had 12 ODI centuries and scored runs at an average of 39.16.

He is going out of Test arena as the second highest run-getter in the world (13,288 runs) after his teammate, the legendary Sachin Tendulkar. Dravid has 36 Test centuries and his runs came at an average of 52.31. He was always India’s saviour overseas and 21 of those 36 centuries were scored on foreign soil.

But he couldn’t repeat his magic in the Test series in Australia. The former India captain has realised that 194 runs in eight innings and getting bowled out in six of them Down Under was hint enough for him retire, not wanting to remind the fickle cricket pundits and fans his performance in England.

In England series, a banner at The Oval read: “England vs. The Wall” – that pretty much summed up what the tour for the Indian team was. He was by far the best batsman, aggregating 461 runs at an average of 76.83, which accounted for 23 percent for the Indian team’s runs. In the first innings, he got 388 runs at an average of 184 that accounted for India’s 35 percent runs.

Dravid’s three of the last four Test centuries came in a losing cause on the tour, but his three centuries were all about immense pride and dignity. Two of them came as a stand-in opener, a role that he never relished.

England always was a special place for Dravid, who made his Test debut there along with his former captain Sourav Ganguly in the summer of 1996 at the Lord’s. While Ganguly went on to score memorable century on debut, Dravid, who came in to bat at No.7, fell short by five runs.

It took another six months to score his maiden Test century (148) against South Africa at Johannesburg in January 1997 and since then there has been no looking back.

Most of his big knocks either won the Tests or saved them for India. He himself listed Thursday quite a few, including that memorable 180 in a monumental partnership with Laxman (281) at the Eden Gardens that fashioned one of India’s greatest Test wins, against Australia in 2001. That win proved to be the cornerstone for India’s ascent in international cricket, culminating in their becoming World’s No.1 team.

Considered a slow starter in ODIs, Dravid emerged as one of the finest finishers. He went on to become the highest run-getter in the 1999 World Cup in England with 461 runs.

Dravid also kept wickets when the team needed. In the words of Ganguly, “Rahul has had a checquered One-Day career and it took a new turn once he decided to keep wicket in 2002. His decision was absolutely for the team as it helped reorganise the middle order and add more depth to it.”

It later helped the team during the 2003 World Cup, when India came close to becoming the world champions for the second time, though they were outplayed by Australia in the final.

Though it took another eight years for India to win the World Cup a second time, Dravid was missing. He led the team in the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies, where India made a shocking first-round exit. By the time India got ready to host the World Cup at home, Dravid was no longer a serious One-Day player. That only made him greater Test cricketer.

Meet Five remarkable women from Rural Bihar

Posted: 09 Mar 2012 03:34 AM PST

raj kumari deviBihar has got some of the most powerful women. Clad in traditional dresses you may not recognize their superiority, but when it comes to action they have outplayed all  and have shown to the World their might.

Post International Women’s Day we present few remarkable  rural women from Bihar who broke the traditional myth and have become a rolemodel for others in the society

1. Rajkumari Devi is no astrologer. But with self-acquired expertise in agriculture she has become proficient in assessing the quality of soil in her area and ensuring successful harvests. With three decades of experience, Kisan Chachi or Farmer Aunty as she is called, has learnt all the nuances of good farming practices. Today, this 58-year-old mother of three grown-up children, cycles through the dusty lanes of villages in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district, giving tips to people on kitchen farming and developing the right agri-based products for business. She has mobilised more than 300 women to form self-help groups (SHGs) and become financially independent.

2. Bimla Devi of Bara village in Bodh Gaya block of Gaya district mobilised over 200 women to block traffic movement on the highway skirting their villages for two days.

“We allowed traffic to move only after the Block Development Officer (BDO) arrived on the spot and promised in writing a regular supply of oil from the local public distribution system (PDS) shop”. Four years ago, the same Bimla says she “used to shiver” if an outsider spoke to her.

3. Savitri Devi’s family was on the verge of starvation when her young son died. Her 70- year-old husband was able to earn as and when he found work as a daily wage labourer. How was she to feed a family of nine with such an erratic income?

Four years ago she took a Rs.5,000 loan and opened a general store in her village Bara. “Now I earn Rs.100 a day. I send my grandsons for tution, have a savings account in the bank and have repaid the loan,” she says.

What changed it all for these women? Their coming together to form vibrant and bankable self-help groups (SHG) under the World Bank aided Bihar Rural Livelihoods Project (BRLP) called ‘Jeevika’. The poverty alleviation programme targets the poorest of the poor, and particularly women, in the villages.

The objective of BRLP is to usher in social and economic empowerment of rural households by developing institutions of the poor like SHGs, and their federations. These have enabled them to access and negotiate better services, credit and assets from public and private sector agencies and institutions as well as promoted development of micro finance and agribusiness.

4. For Dukhni Devi of Shekhwara village, those days of seeing her husband go off for months to big cities in search of work are over. She decided to take to agriculture interventions that have increased the yield from her rice and wheat field by four times.

It has also drastically cut down the expenditure on buying seeds and manure. “I now have food grain for an additional six months, so there is no need for my husband to go to the city to earn money.”

5. Noorjehan of Jagatia was beaten by her husband for attending a meeting of women. “He has shut up now that I bring in substantial money for the family”. Noorjehan is part of a group of women who roll out incense sticks to meet the order of a multinational.

“The tie-up with this big company has raised the rate of agarbatti by Rs.5 per kg. Earlier we used to sell in the local market or to a middleman who gave us the raw material,” she said.

Women like her have emerged as the backbone of the BRLP. The success of the programme is credited to the women’s SHGs which are in an overwhelming majority. Experience shows that the men’s SHGs are non-starters. The repayment of bank loans acquired through SHGs is about 95 percent.

“We have learnt that our strength lies in numbers. We have joined hands irrespective of what caste we come from. Together we decide what is best for us and our family. We then work towards attaining it,” says Bimla who was elected the village organisation head by 13 SHGs comprising about 200 women.

“We decide if we need a loan to set up a small business, meet a health emergency, switch to agriculture intervention like System of Rice/Wheat Intervention, start a school for children, build toilets or even run our own PDS shop so that we are not cheated of a regular supply.”

The women’s SHGs are bringing down caste barriers, stemming migration by improved earnings at home, hiking literacy rates, putting a stop to wife beating, child marriage and alcoholism among men.

“We have brought in winds of change. We now take part in decision making at the family level and are no longer merely informed of decisions taken by the men folk. The same husband who used to order us indoors when officials came to talk now tell us to go to the BDO, SDO and even the District Magistrate when there is a problem,” says Radhadevi of Barma village with pride.

Bihar on alert, Sends SOS to Center for Bird Flu

Posted: 09 Mar 2012 12:32 AM PST

Bihar has been badly hit by Avian influenza also known as Bird Flu  which is caused by H5N1  Virus. Government has requested an urgent help from Center to tackle this disease.

A SOS was sent after the Bhopal-based High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (HSADL) attributed the deaths of a number of crows across the state to the H5N1 virus, Animal Husbandry Minister Giriraj Singh said.

“In January, samples were sent to HSADL. Last month it found bird flu of H5N1 grade behind the death of crows in the state,” Singh said.

He said that the state government had sent an SOS to the central government to send a specialised team to Bihar for tackling the disease as the state lacks testing facilities.

“After it was confirmed that crows all over Bihar had died due to bird flu, it now poses a serious threat to the state’s poultry industry and is a danger to the human population also,” an official of the health department said here.

The H5N1 bird flu is a highly communicable disease. It is also considered a pandemic threat across the world.

However, no alert has been sounded so far to prevent panic among the public, the official added.

At the same time, the animal husbandry department has asked the people not to touch dead crows. It has issued advertisements in local dailies asking people to keep away from the dead birds and inform the administration when they spot dead crows.

“Some measures have been taken to control the situation and check possible spread of any kind of infection. Human beings should stay away from the crows,” the official said.

Most of the crows have died in Gaya, Banka, Nawada, Jamui, Bhagalpur, Munger and Aurangabad districts and the deaths are continuing.

Two months ago, neighbouring Jharkhand reported death of crows.

Today it is Holi in Bihar

Posted: 09 Mar 2012 12:25 AM PST

It is Holi today in Bihar, while most of India has celebrated it on Thursday. Biharis are celebrating a day late due to some conflict with the traditional calendar which spans it to two days.

Some astrologers have also advised  not to celebrate Holi Thursday and to do so only Friday. “We are not celebrating Holi Thursday as it is not auspicious. We will celebrate it Friday,” Mahesh Prasad Mahto, a shopkeeper in Phulwarisharief locality here said.

Patna-based astrologer Nawalkishore Mishra said March 7 was the “Holika Dahan” day while March 9 was the day to celebrate Holi when people throw colour on each other.

“The gap between the Holika Dahan and Holi is due to astrological reasons. According to the “panchang” (Hindu astrological calendar) of Mithila and Benares, water colours come out on the occasion of “Pratipada”, the day after Purnima (Full-Moon Day),” he said.

Purnima would continue till late on March 8, the day following Holika Dahan. But Purnima is not considered auspicious for Holi. According to the Mithila Panchang, the date of watercolour Holi is March 9, Mishra said.

Few Less known things about Rahul Dravid

Posted: 09 Mar 2012 12:16 AM PST

Rahul DravidHis Full Name is Rahul Sharad Dravid

He has been playing International Cricket since 1996

Dravid was honoured as one of the top-five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 2000

He is the one who holds the record of having taken the most number of catches in Test cricket

He is the second Indian batsman, after Sachin Tendulkar, and the third international player to reach 12,000 runs in Test cricket

He is the first and only batsman to score a century against all ten Test playing nations.

He is the and only first non-Australian cricketer to address at the Bradman Oration in Canberra

He is the only Indian to score two back to back centuries at the World Cup

The Great Indian Wall Collapses down

Posted: 09 Mar 2012 12:05 AM PST

Rahul DravidPeople worshiped him,  Bowlers feared him, Other Cricketers called him the Wall, the Indian Wall which has collapsed today after being fed up with the drama being performed by the BCCI and Indian Team.

Former India captain and batting legend Rahul Dravid Friday announced his retirement from Test cricket to bring the curtains down on his illustrious 16-year-old career.

Addressing a press conference at the Chinnaswamy Stadium here where he was first spotted by Keki Tarapore, an emotional Dravid, 39, bid farewell to the longer format of the game in which he is the second highest run scorer (13,288) after teammate Sachin Tendulkar. Dravid has 36 Test centuries from 164 matches and scored at an average of 52.31.

“I announce my retirement from all forms of international and domestic cricket. I had to make place for the next generation of cricketers,” Dravid said.

Dravid had retired from ODIs in England last year after he was surprisingly picked for the team. His decision comes as a slap on the face of the national selectors, who had ignored him for the last two years. Dravid has 10,889 runs at an average of 39.16 with 12 centuries from 344 ODIs.

Why Pregnant women get back pain ?

Posted: 08 Mar 2012 08:53 PM PST

pregnantIn a study delving into the causes of backache among women, the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre (ISIC) Wednesday said postural changes during the pregnancy months is when back pain problems begin in over 50 percent of cases.

Out of 510 patients reporting back pain, nearly 43 percent were women. Among them, nearly 82 percent had done no exercises at all during pregnancy.

“Complaints of backache during and immediately after pregnancy are very common. The increasing weight and the forward shift of the centre of gravity add to the problem,” said H.S. Chhabra, medical director of the south Delhi-based ISIC.

“General conditioning and back strengthening exercises during and after pregnancy help to counter this. However, this is seldom done in our country,” added Chhabra.


The study said: “In over 60 percent women respondents, the pain disappeared within two days after delivery. In those with recurrent back pain from previous pregnancies, as many as 82 percent have persistent pain at 18 months.”

Specific back exercises under proper medical guidance and proper posture can help in prevention of recurrence of back pain.

“Pregnant women must ensure that they do all the proper exercises to avoid back pain during this stage. The result of the study reveals that more than 80 percent of women had not done any general conditioning and strengthening exercises after pregnancy,” Chhabra added.
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