Sunday, 1 May 2011

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

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

Bihari becomes President of Australian university students association

Posted: 01 May 2011 08:25 AM PDT

PATNA: With reports of racial violence pouring in, Australia is the dream destination of few, if any, Indians aspiring to pursue higher studies on foreign shores. But Patna’s Kanishk Kumar, a postgraduate student in Sydney, says there’s no need to worry. “Main hoon na!” he told  in an emailed interview on Saturday.

Kanishk’s is not a hollow boast. This Bihari is the duly-elected president of Newcastle UniversityPostgraduate Students’ Association (NUPSA), which represents 9,500 students spread over the university’s four campuses in Australia and one in Singapore. “I was the association’s vice-president last year and unanimously elected president next year,” he said.

An alumnus of DAV-Patliputra and DAV-Khagaul, Kanishk graduated in Business Administration from Pune’s Symbiosis and worked for an insurance major till recession hit the economy in 2009. “That was not the time for career growth and I decided to utilize the recession period for pursuing higher studies,” said the Punpun boy who will be getting a combined degree of MBA and Master of Marketing from the Newcastle next month.

NUPSA liaise with the university authorities for the students. “And we gap the bridge between newcomers and the huge university,” Kanishk said and added the association functionaries are also on the university’s various boards that formulate policies for the students. “We bring out a newsletter and organize events such as barbecues to help international students feel at home even while living with the Aussies,” he said.

Indians today number not more than 50 in the university which has on its rolls 30,000-odd students, including undergraduates. “The number of Indians has been on the wane because of racial violence,” he agreed and added he wanted to help all Asians overcome this fear and that’s why joined the fray for the NUPSA leadership.

The Newcastle campuses have not witnessed any ugly incident. But its international students are frightened when such incidents happen in other cities. “During those days, we counsel them on safety measures, including how to travel safe at night,” Kanishk said.

NUPSA also coordinates with the city administration for bettering amenities for the students. It recently assisted the local city council in mapping the shortest and safest cycle route from the city to the university.

Kanishk visits Patna once every year and, like every Bihari, is proud of the changes taking place in his home state though he was not ashamed of his ‘Bihari’ tag even earlier. “We talk of racism in foreign countries. But I have lived in Maharashtra and Delhi where Biharis are looked down upon as untouchables,” he said and “feel hugely relieved” that things are now changing for the better for the Biharis outside Bihar.

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Bihar media tops in coverage of non-corruption issue says report

Posted: 01 May 2011 06:19 AM PDT

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: An increasing share of the prime time and space of major national news channels and newspapers is flooded with corruption-related stories, especially involving the UPA-II regime, finds a survey by the Centre for Media Studies (CMS).

In the prime time between 7 p m and 11 p m, the news channels have devoted 7.87 percent of their time for corruption-related stories in the period between January and March in 2011, while it was 4.13 percent in 2010, the survey has found.

 

The time devoted was comparatively much lower in the previous years. While it was one percent of the prime time in 2009, it was just 0.29 percent in 2008, 0.44 percent in 2007, 0.30 pc in 2006 and 0.7 pc in 2005. The trend in the national newspapers is no different story. While 10.62 percent of space was devoted for corruption-related stories in the period between January and March in 2011, it was 4.22 percent in 2010.

 

''This shows that despite getting a clear mandate for governance for a  second term, it is not able to control corruption. Instead, the better mandate it has is being taken as a licence for corruption,'' says Prabhakar, the head of the Media Lab of the CMS.  In the preceding years, the space occupied by graft stories was comparatively low -1.37 percent in 2009 and 0.94 percent in 2008. The report finds that while Hindi news channels focused more on institutional-level corruption, English news channels focused on corruption involving individuals.

 

The study also says that most of the prime time coverage of corruption was of routine nature (bribery, raids by CBI/IT, land scams, fraud etc) and very little time was devoted to special drive such as corruption in politics and laws to protect whistle blowers. In covering corruption, channels devoted most of their time to  independent (one-time) news stories (Sukhna land scam, CBI probing 2G Spectrum, etc) and barely carried special or a follow-up series to expose corruption, the report finds further.

 

The states which gave least opportunity for the news channels for corruption coverage in their prime time were just three – Bihar, which contributed only 0.01 percent, Chaattisgarh (0.05 percent) and Kerala (0.09 percent). The report finds that as most of the channels are based in Delhi, the coverage of corruption was confined mostly to the state or NCR region, followed by Maharashtra.

 

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Govt seeks IITians expertise to solve Kosi problem

Posted: 01 May 2011 04:22 AM PDT

PATNA: Bihar government has made a request to three experts, all IIT-Kharagpur alumni, to make their presentation here on May 4 about their cost-effective, innovative technology in breach-resistant earthen bund for river Kosi.

These experts have developed a technology which should ensure cent per cent success in preventing breaches in bunds. Since silting is a major problem with most Indian rivers, application of this technology should prove extremely useful to tame floods, said one of the experts.

The three experts are T K Choudhary, civil engineer and river management specialist, Mihir Biswas, mechanical engineer, and Somnath Ghosh, former Hod, civil engineering, IIT-Kharagpur. They are likely to make their presentation here at the water resources development department on May 4.

Mihir Biswas, an IIT-Kharagpur alumnus with considerable post-qualification experience in engineering and management fields, had approached Bihar chief secretary about breach-resistant bund for the Kosi last month. This technology is said to be cost-effective.

It may be recalled here that in 2008 there was a breach in the earthen river protection bund of river Kosi in Bihar. The breach caused devastating flood and changed the course of the river.

Since the river bed of Kosi is at a higher level than the adjoining area, construction of a breach-resistant bund is the only solution to ensure safety from periodic floods, says an expert.

The bund comprises of a suitably designed bund section, concrete walls with precast concrete materials at toes of riverside earth slopes, and protective concrete tiles meant to avoid erosion of the bund.

The composite design will effectively prevent any breach in the bund. This innovative technology was developed by T K Choudhary based on his technical paper published in the May 2006 issue of the Civil Engineering Journal of the Institution of Engineers ( India). The technology was since vetted by IIT-Kharagpur and received approval. Choudhary is an IIT alumnus and recognized river management expert.

“The technology is indigenous and labour-intensive, utilizing unskilled local labour, making execution very much cost-effective. Use of heavy equipment is minimal, effectively enabling fast execution,” said Mihir Biswas.

“The cost of one kilometre-long and two-metre high earthen bund with Breach Resistant wall (BRW) is estimated to be around Rs 1 crore,” Biswas told TOI over phone. “The cost, however, may be higher depending on adverse local conditions,” he said. “In any case, the new technology will be cheaper than other traditionally used methods,” Biswas said.

T K Choudhary got extensive experience as a senior engineer with Kolkata Port Trust in the management the Hoogly River estuary at Haldia.

 

 

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Kalam to be in Patna on Tuesday

Posted: 01 May 2011 01:25 AM PDT

PATNA: Former president APJ Abdul Kalam will deliver a lecture on ‘Socially and Economically Developing Bihar’ at a workshop to be organized by the Bihar Chamber of Commerce (BCC) here on May 3.

BCC president O P Sah said the workshop was being organized as the state is surging ahead in development with justice and social harmony. “At this juncture, Kalam’s guidance will be helpful for he would give important suggestions for the all round social and economic development of the state and its people,” Sah told TOI.

“Bihar has wriggled out of the crumbled administrative machinery. With the incumbent government discharging its duty with utmost care and responsibility, a new hope has emerged that Bihar will surge ahead with sufficient social and economic development of all its people,” Sah said.

In such a positive environment, a brainstorming session of the experts is needed under the guidance of former president Kalam, who had been a guiding force to the Chamber earlier also when in his speech he had virtually scripted the development prowess of the Bihar people and the need of utilizing their talent and immense natural and other resources of the state, BCC president Sah said.

The other speakers at the workshop would include water resources minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, industries minister Renu Kumari Kushwaha, eminent sociologist and secretary, Gandhi Sangrahalaya, Razi Ahmad and orthopaedic surgeon Dr R N Singh.

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Redevelopment of Gardanibagh soon

Posted: 01 May 2011 12:11 AM PDT

PATNA: The Planning Commission has okayed the proposal to redevelop the state capital’s oldest government residential colony – Gardanibagh – which covers an area of 276 acres. Bihar’s building construction department has already got a re-development plan prepared. The redevelopment plan would be executed in public private partnership (PPP) mode.

Currently most of the single-storied government bungalows in the area are in bad shape. A large number of bungalows are illegally occupied. These government bungalows are mainly meant for class two and three government employees.

“It is sheer wastage of government’s precious land by not developing this area, which is located near the secretariat and airport, said an octogenarian resident, Sahdeo Prasad. Before demolishing these bungalows government must accommodate all bonafide occupants in some other flats, said a government employee working in the finance department.

The issue was discussed in a meeting held under the chairmanship of advisor to deputy chairman, Planning Commission, Gajendra Haldea, on April 15 in New Delhi while reviewing the PPP programme in Bihar. Besides four officials of the Planning Commission, five senior Bihar government officials, including principal secretary, health, Amarjeet Sinha, attended the meeting. 

The meeting also felt that there was need to prepare a proper feasibility report by engaging a town planner or an architectural expert. Accordingly, as a starting point, it was decided either to engage a town planner of national/international repute to provide a report on the land use plan of Gardanibagh area or to undertake a detailed survey by the government department concerned to assess how much land of the area is available for development and measures required to vacate the area that has encroachments.

The meeting also discussed three projects that are being considered by the state government for taking up in the PPP mode: a super-speciality hospital in the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna; super-speciality hospital in the Jayaprabha trust hospital, Patna; a district hospital in one of the divisional headquarters.

It was decided that after a decision is taken by the state on setting up three super-speciality hospitals, one greenfield pilot scheme on PPP mode could be undertaken.

Proposals for power distribution in PPP mode in respect of two towns – Patna and Muzaffarpur – have been submitted by the Bihar State Electricity Board to the energy department. Similar proposals have been submitted for Darbhanga and Munger districts, as per the decision in a high-level meeting.

The Delhi meeting felt that the proposed project for Patna may be taken up first and based on the model that emerges, other districts could be taken up.

The Planning Commission, in a recent letter to Bihar chief secretary has requested him to arrange a meeting with CM Nitish Kumar early next month, wherein a detailed presentation on these issues could be made for giving a go-ahead signal.

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