Wednesday, 29 June 2011

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

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

Bihar to setup PDS model similar to Chhatishgarh

Posted: 29 Jun 2011 01:22 PM PDT

Patna, Jun 28 (PTI) Bihar Deputy Chief Minister S K Modi today praised the existing Public Distribution System in Chhattisgarh and announced the government”s decision to implement a similar model in the state.
“The system of procurement of paddy and PDS are very good in Chhattisgarh… even the planning commission has praised it. We have also decided to implement similar arrangements in Bihar,” he told reporters here.
The government has decided to ensure purchase of paddy and wheat through Primary Agriculture Cooperatives (PACs) in the selected districts under a pilot project during the next Kharif season, said Modi.
The state government has also planned to equip 8500 PACs with computers and link them with the headquarters, which would ensure early survey of crops for purchase during the Kharif season.
“Every PAC will have a storage capacity of 200 tonnes of foodgrains and we have started work on 2,200 PACs at present,” he said.
Modi, who undertook a visit to the naxal-hit state of Chhattisgarh recently, said the state government would use vehicles for transportation of foodgrains directly to PDS shops and godowns and the message would be circulated to the people through SMS.
“All these steps will be taken to wipe out black marketing of the foodgrains,” he said, adding the state government had also decided not to allot public distribution work to an individual but to a PAC or self-help groups.
The Deputy Chief Minister criticised the Food Corporation of India (FCI) for its alleged apathy towards the purchase of foodgrains and their storage.

UP bypasses Bihar in the labour workforce

Posted: 29 Jun 2011 11:21 AM PDT

LUCKNOW: According to key employment and unemployment indicators for the state, Uttar Pradesh registered an unemployment rate of 19 per 1000 persons between July 2009 and June 2010. This has been revealed in a data released by the Union ministry of statistics and programme implementation through its National Sample Survey Office. The data is based on information gathered during the 66th round of the national sample survey. The last such survey was held between July 2004 and June 2005.

In UP, 8,933 households and 49,524 persons were surveyed for key employment and unemployment indicators. Across the country, trends that have been arrived at are based on a central sample of 1,00,957 households in urban and rural areas. The survey has defined lead indicators of Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), or the ratio of labour force to population, Workers Population Ratio (number of persons employed per 1000 persons), Proportion Unemployed and unemployment rate (ratio of unemployed to labour force.

The survey findings, which were released on Friday, reported that UP registered a LFPR of 296 during the survey period. This was higher than Bihar where labour force participation rate was 276 for every 1000 persons. Workers population in UP was pegged at 291 (Bihar was 268), while the proportion of unemployed in UP stood at 6 for every 1000 persons. Here also, UP pipped Bihar, which stood marginally lower at 7 for every 1000 persons. On the unemployment rate parameter too, UP appears to have bettered Bihar, recording a rate of 19 unemployed persons against Bihar’s 27 for every 1000 persons.

According to survey results, while Nagaland registered the highest number of proportion unemployed (per 1000) at 83, UP recorded among the lowest figures at 10. Only Karnataka (9), MP (8), Arunachal Pradesh (8), and Chhattisgarh and Sikkim at 8 each had lower unemployment levels in the 15-59 age group categories. Besides these indicators, the survey has revealed other important statistics relating to distribution of workers, on the basis of employment status, industry as well as on wage rates of persons receiving regular wages, salaries and casual labourers. On the whole, while the working population ratio (WPR) has been recorded at 37% at all India level, WPR in rural areas (37%) was found to be higher than urban areas, where it was recorded as 34%.

In rural as well as urban centres, WPR for men was found to be significantly higher than female WPR; 54% WPR for men, in comparison to a paltry 20% for rural women and 12% for women in urban areas.
Similarly, unemployment ratio (UR) at all India level was found to be nearly 3%. In comparison to the UR in the rural areas (2%), UR in urban areas was higher at 4%. Unemployment among women in urban areas was the highest at nearly 7%, followed by urban male at 3%. In rural areas, unemployment rate among both men and women was nearly the same at 2%

Abhayanand joins hands with NHELite for IITJEE preprations

Posted: 29 Jun 2011 06:02 AM PDT

PATNA: The selection test for the NHElite Super 30 programme for IITJEE would be held on July 10. Sanjay Kumar Singh, adviser, Business Development (North India), in a press release issued here on Monday, said that test centres would be located in major districts of Bihar and Jharkhand. He said that a large number of students had already applied for the admission test.

Singh said that senior IPS officer Abhyanand, who is the mentor of Super 30 programme for deserving and meritorious aspirants of IITJEE in Bihar, is famous at the national level for his guidance to students. He said that in order to provide an excellent academic and living environment to students, Abhyanand has joined hands with NHElite of the Shriram Group to run the Super 30 programme in Patna. He said that together, they would help meritorious students of Bihar and Jharkhand get a seat in IITs.

Rail engine factories in Bihar gets further delayed

Posted: 29 Jun 2011 03:01 AM PDT

Indian Railways' already delayed plan to set up two engine-making plants in partnership with private companies, Indian and foreign, could be delayed further with the ministries of finance and railways differing on several aspects of the plan, including the price the companies can charge for their engines.

The two projects—one to build electrical engines and the other to build diesel ones—were announced by then railways minister Lalu Prasad in 2006. They were conceived as public-private partnerships (PPPs) with the railways holding 26% stake in each. The total estimated value of the contracts for 800 electric engines and 1,000 diesel ones is $13 billion.

The electric locomotives will be manufactured at a factory in Madhepura and the diesel ones at Marora—both in Bihar. The value of the projects is based on the price of the engines, design costs and costs incurred towards establishing the proposed units.

The difference between the two ministries is on the inflation-related price rise that the winning bidder can charge the railways for the engines. The railway ministry wants to make some changes in this, while the finance ministry says that since the projects were originally structured by the former, there is nothing to be gained by revisiting the structure. Mint couldn't immediately figure which structure would work out to be more cost-efficient from the perspective of the railways.

Four companies—General Electric Co. (GE), Alstom SA, Bombardier Inc. and Siemens AG—are competing for the electric engine contract. A joint venture between GE and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd is competing with Electro-Motive Diesel Inc. for the diesel engine contract.

An empowered committee comprising top officials from the ministries of railways, finance and law, and the Planning Commission met on 21 June to consider the changes. Mint has reviewed a copy of the minutes of this meeting.

According to the minutes of the meeting, a railway official, who attended the meeting, said the original bid documents had not accurately factored in cash flows from the projects and the impact of the pricing model agreed upon on costs including those incurred in maintaining the engines. The official described the contracts, that cover both maintenance and procurement, as "complex".

The minutes also cite a second railway official present in the meeting saying the committee had the right to approve changes in the contracts based on concerns aired by the bidders, always keeping in mind the government's interests.

The 21 June meeting remained inconclusive and a follow-up meeting scheduled for 23 June wasn't held. The government has to finalize the terms of the contract before the next pre-bid conference with the qualified bidders; the last such meeting for the electric engine project was held on 19 January. The last meeting for the diesel engine project was held in October.

The Union cabinet had approved the two projects in principle in 2006, but took three more years to sign off on the details. The opening of price bids for the electric engine project has been deferred eight times and is now scheduled for 15 July. That for the diesel engine project has been put off six times and is now set for 29 July.

Abhaya Agarwal, executive director and PPP leader at Ernst and Young, said such PPP deals were essential for the railways because they would help it leapfrog technologically. "Already, Indian Railways uses obsolete technology as compared to global standards. Any further delay in awarding such projects would put it back several years."
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