Bihar News, Latest News from Bihar, News of Bihar, Biharprabha News |
- Team Anna for One day Protest at Jantar Mantar
- 40 Kg Silver Throne offered to Sai Baba
- Software Engineers in Kerala to learn Dance
- WiFi not working in new Apple iPad
- EmTech India to be attended by 6 outstanding MIT scientists
- Dr. G. D Aggarwal ends fast after assurance from PM
- Foodistan’ winner wants to cook for Amitabh Bachchan
- Slumdog Millionaire Children to star in another British Movie
- Village Panchayat Bans Liquor in Assam
- A Glimpse of Bihar Diwas 2012 Celebrations
| Team Anna for One day Protest at Jantar Mantar Posted: 23 Mar 2012 08:13 AM PDT Anna Hazare will go for a day long fast at Jantar Mantar on Sunday to re-affirm citizen’s demand of a strong Lokpal Bill. Street plays, pamphlets to drum up support and a series of meetings to form teams of volunteers and take care of logistics — Team Anna is working overtime to ensure that their Sunday protest at Jantar Mantar is a success. Anna Hazare will sit on a day-long fast at Jantar Mantar to demand that parliament pass the Lokpal bill and a stronger whistle-blower protection programme under the Jan Lokpal Bill. “We have been preparing for the last ten days. We have been sending out SMSes, distributing pamphlets and doing street plays in Delhi-NCR (National Capital Region),” said an official of Team Anna. “We are focusing on the youth and street plays and interactive sessions are are being conducted in Delhi University and the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU),” added the official. Speaking about the preparations at the venue of the protest, the official said that the marquee would be put up Saturday and all other arrangements including drinking water and sanitation will also be put in place. “We have meetings daily to work out the details. Several teams have been formed to take care of the crowd, logistics, venue security etc.,” said the official “The bills will be settled from the money that we had collected in last year’s agitation at Ramlila ground. However, we won’t be accepting any donations this time,” added the official.  |
| 40 Kg Silver Throne offered to Sai Baba Posted: 23 Mar 2012 07:57 AM PDT A Mumbai based businessman has offered a donation of a 40-kg silver throne for Saibaba on the occasion of Gudi Padva, the Maharashtrian New Year. According to a spokesperson for the Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust, the estimated value of the throne, donated by Kiran Mehta, is around Rs.2.20 million. “Since we were tied up with the arrangements for the 3-day Saibaba Festival which started today (Friday), our temple goldsmith could not certify whether it is pure silver or any other metal like copper is also mixed. We shall do it later,” the temple spokesperson told IANS. A few months ago, the businessman had expressed a desire to donate the throne and he was permitted to do so by the temple authorities. The throne will be kept in Babaki Chavri, which is adjacent to the world famous Saibaba Temple in Shirdi, around 250 km from Mumbai. In December 2007, a Hyderabad builder donated a gleaming 95 kg gold throne worth nearly Rs.95 million (Rs.9.50 crore) on which the main statue of Saibaba now rests. Recently, the Bombay High Court’s Aurangabad Bench had sacked the governing board of SSST and ordered the Maharashtra government to announce the new trustees within a fortnight for the temple, among the top five richest temple trusts in India.  |
| Software Engineers in Kerala to learn Dance Posted: 23 Mar 2012 07:53 AM PDT Software Engineers at Thiruvananthapuram’s Technopark will now relieve their stress by dancing – all thanks to an exclusive dance class. Dance forms like Western Freestyle, Hip Hop and Salsa would be taught to interested techies by tutors who include two women and five men, all qualified dancers. Thiruvananthapuram-based Elements Consultants Company will help the techies destress and to improve their physical and mental fitness. Rejeth Raveendran, who heads Elements Consultants Company, said the classes start from this Saturday and will be conducted at the Technopark Club. “The response has been excellent. We never thought on day one that we would get these many (35) applicants. Classes will be held only on Saturdays and Sundays and each session would last an hour,” said Raveendran. “Dancing is one of the best stress relievers and, believe me, it could be learned by anyone who has never ever taken a dance step. After a three-month session with us, we will make each techie fit to take part in any dance competition,” said Raveendran. The fee for learning the basic course is Rs.1,000 per month. The dance form of Salsa will be taught only for techie couples and it would cost Rs.3,000 for a couple. Technopark campus is home to more than 25,000 techies besides other staff members.  |
| WiFi not working in new Apple iPad Posted: 23 Mar 2012 04:40 AM PDT
“This is a problem Apple – you need to fix it,” says one user. “The laptop wifi reception is as strong as it gets, but the iPad only registers a weak signal. Anyone else having similar problems? Any suggestions?” Daily Mail quoted one user as saying. Other Apple launches have been blighted by similar problems, including the original iPad and some models of iBook, the newspaper said. The news comes as users complain that a hidden “upgrade” to the new machine has meant that many older “Smart Covers” – the magnetic covers used by Apple which turn on the machine automatically when opened – won’t work. The problem is particularly bad with third-party covers made by companies other than Apple, but older official Apple covers also fail to work, the paper added.  |
| EmTech India to be attended by 6 outstanding MIT scientists Posted: 23 Mar 2012 03:35 AM PDT Six outstanding scientists and researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), including two Indian Americans, will participate in the fourth emerging technologies conference of MIT Technology Review’s EmTech India in Bangalore. The conference starting March 27 will see over 500 innovators getting an insight into the work being done in digital transformation; network designs in the social world and the innovation ecosystem and how it can impact society. Three MIT scientists, George Westerman, MIT Centre for Digital Business; Marie-Jose Montpetit, MIT Research Lab of Electronics; and Shiladitya Sengupta, Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology will deliver keynote addresses on the first day. On day 2, Brian Anthony, MIT’s Engineering in Manufacturing Programme, Rahul Sarpeshkar, MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Joseph Paradiso, MIT Media Laboratory will speak on concepts and interplay between medical imaging, manufacturing inspection and video analytics; energy efficient systems in biology, engineering and medicine and the emerging nervous system of ubiquitous sensing. The US-based Director of GE’s global research Mark M Little, who leads a team of nearly 3000 GE researchers working with GE business ranging from aviation to energy and healthcare to electronics, will deliver the inaugural address. For a nation of a billion cricket fans, the organizers–MIT’s Technology Review–have appropriately dedicated a session to ‘Technology in Cricket’. Here Siddharth Khullar, a doctoral candidate in imaging science from Rochester Institute of Technology, MIT Media Lab along with College of Engineering Pune student Chinmaya Joshi will come face to face to show case some of the new advances that hope to take away all the controversies and appeals in the field of international cricket. Twenty innovators from Technology Review’s India TR35 list of technologists under the age of 35 would also present their innovations at the Emerging Technologies conference.  |
| Dr. G. D Aggarwal ends fast after assurance from PM Posted: 23 Mar 2012 03:28 AM PDT Environmentalist G.D. Agarwal, 80, who was on a fast-unto-death since Jan 15 to save the Ganga river, Friday ended his fast after the government agreed to call a meeting of the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA), a central government constituted body for cleaning the Ganga, on April 17. Agarwal, a former Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) professor and member of Ganga Sewa Abhiyan, broke the fast after drinking juice at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), where he was shifted Monday from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh after his condition deteriorated. “I will only take liquid diet till any concrete decisions are taken to save the Ganga. The government has called a meeting of the NGRBA on April 17 and I don’t know what will happen. I will only consume food after some concrete decisions to ensure uninterrupted water flow and purity are taken,” Agarwal told reporters. Agarwal said he doesn’t have much time and won’t live long so the government should take measures to clean the Ganga before the January 2013 Allahabad Kumbh. “How can the government commit to save the Ganga till it allows mining, construction of dams and flowing of drainage water in the river” Agarwal asked. Agarwal had stopped taking even water from March 9. Union Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal and Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office V. Narayanasamy met the activist Friday at the AIIMS and assured him that government is ready to accept his demands. “The government has agreed to the demands of Agarwal and has called a meeting of NGRBA on April 17. He has been invited as a special invitee to attend the meeting. The agenda as proposed by the Ganga Sewa Abhiyan will be the agenda of NGRBA meeting and shall be placed for discussion,” Jaiswal told reporters. “We take the opportunity to assure him that main issues related to Ganga have been verbally several times told to various authorities and concerned agencies. We do request him in the interest of nation and Ganga, to call off his fast,” the minister said. He said the union government understands the importance of the Ganga and will explore all measures to ensure its uninterrupted flow, purity and sanctity of Ganga. Agarwal is unhappy over the “unsatisfactory and ineffective functioning” of the NGRBA. The authority has only met twice since it was constituted in 2009. Besides, Agarwal is against ongoing construction of dams/barrages/tunnels on Ganga which he says would totally destroy the natural flow and quality of the river water; the “total failure” of regulatory agencies in controlling discharge of urban and industrial wastes into the Ganga and “complete lack of sensitivity” of the government on these issues. Rajendra Singh resigned as the chairman NGRBA last week over “government’s insensitivity towards Agarwal and gross negligence towards worsening state of the holy river”. Two other members of the NGRBA have also resigned over the issue. “We haven’t heard anything from the government since we sent our resignation,” said Singh. Agarwal has served as secretary of the Central Pollution Control Board, the country’s premier anti-pollution body, and helped put together environmental legislation in India. This is his third fast-unto-death in the last four years.  |
| Foodistan’ winner wants to cook for Amitabh Bachchan Posted: 23 Mar 2012 02:29 AM PDT
“In my early days as a chef, I was working in a restaurant called Thai Pavilion at Mumbai. That was the only time where I got a chance to cook for Amitabh Bachchan. But since I was a junior chef, I couldn’t get a chance to meet him,” Mehrotra told IANS. “But yes I cooked for him and it was a great feeling. If I get a chance to make something for him now, I’ll make a long list for him so that he can choose what to eat. I know that he is a vegetarian so I would definitely make something vegetarian for him,” he added. The masterchef, who has been using his culinary skills professionally for over 15 years, was announced the winner of “Foodistan” on the finale episode, aired on NDTV Good Times Wednesday. The show was a cooking competition between chefs from India and Pakistan.  |
| Slumdog Millionaire Children to star in another British Movie Posted: 23 Mar 2012 01:20 AM PDT From slums to flats, from “Slumdog Millionaire” to another international movie with Anthony Hopkins. The dream ride continues for Rubina Rafiq Qureshi and Azharuddin Ismail, who will now be seen in British director-producer Martin Pennell’s “Lord Owen’s Lady”. The third child actor seen in Danny Boyle’s Oscar winning film, Ayush Mahesh Khadekar, the son of a civil engineer, has also found a role in “Lord Owen’s Lady” that stars Rohini Hattangadi along with “Silence of the Lambs” star Hopkins. Fourteen-year-old Rubina’s father Rafiq Qureshi, whose family has moved from a tenement to a flat in Bandra after his daughter appeared in the Oscar-winning “Slumdog Millionaire”, is jubilant. “I am extremely happy that my daughter has got such a huge film. She will start shooting for the film in the next two to four months,” Rafiq told IANS, adding that he got a call from Pennell a year ago. “Now things have fallen into place. She was earlier supposed to play a sister but now there are apparently some changes. We have been told that she will be paid 1,000 pounds a day (Rs.16 lakh for 21 days),” he added. Rafiq, who once allegedly tried to sell Rubina, now says he will always support her. “She always wanted to be an actress and I am with her. My dream is to see Rubina working with Salman Khan. Rubina herself is a huge fan of Salman. Though she has never met Salman, she wants to work with him at least once.” “Lord Owen’s Lady”, a love story between a Welsh nobleman and a naively romantic Indian woman, will be shot in London and Shimla and Rafiq is hoping to accompany Rubina. “Rubina now goes to a school called Asima in Bandra West. We stay in a Bandra flat given to us by Danny Boyle’s trust. We shifted just a week back,” said Rafiq. Rubina’s co-star Azharuddin, also 14, is going places too. He has moved into his flat in the suburb of Santacruz as well and is studying in Class 4 in Asima. The one cloud in his happiness is the absence of his father, who passed away last year. “We were told about the film a year ago, we signed it at that time. Now it is happening. Azhar’s father expired in 2011 during Ramzaan. The film was signed when his father was alive and his father wanted him to do the film and grow in life. Even Azhar is happy about the film,” Azhar’s mother Sharmeen Shaikh Ismail told IANS. “We stay in Santacruz (East). The flat is given to us by Danny Boyle and we are thankful to him,” added Sharmeen who earlier used to stay in Behrampada, Bandra. “Danny makes it a point to meet Azhar and Rubina whenever he comes to India. Last time Azhar and Rubina met Danny at JW Marriott hotel. He said he would cast Azhar and Rubina whenever he makes his next film,” she said. “Azhar wants to be an actor like Salman. His abba and me also wanted him to be an actor. I have lost my passport… I need a new one so that I can accompany Azhar for his shooting.” Ayush’s story is a little different. His father’s a civil engineer and his mother a teacher; so his is not the rags to riches story. But Mahesh is equally happy that his 11-year-old son has got another international project. “However, they have told me not to disclose the story. It’s in pre-production stage,” he said, adding that he wants his son to work in children-oriented films where he can get a role like “Slumdog…”. “I am not craving for money. I only want Ayush to do some sensible projects. I am very much satisfied with what I have got in life,” he said.  |
| Village Panchayat Bans Liquor in Assam Posted: 23 Mar 2012 12:18 AM PDT At a time when Assam’s excise revenues are shooting up, indicating a huge increase in the sale of liquor all over the state, a gram panchayat in the remote Assam-Meghalaya border has become a trendsetter by banning consumption of liquor of any sort in about 70 villages under its jurisdiction. The prohibition of liquor, whether country made or IMFL, is a Herculean task in villages where there is 100 percent tribal population and rice beer is a tradition to welcome people with. “The socio-economic condition of the villagers had forced us to take such a stern decision. Most of the villagers are poor and it is very difficult for them to make ends meet,” Weneed R. Marak, a member of the Kinan Gaon Gram Panchayat, told IANS. Kinan village is located only about 70 km from Assam’s seat of power, Dispur, but due to poor road conditions it takes almost five hours to reach the village. The people of most of the villages under the panchayat still have to walk for at least 10 km to reach Boko, a small township in South Kamrup from where they can board a bus and other vehicles to the other parts of the state. “The people are poor and they earn their livelihood by farming in the family land, and sometimes by working as daily labourers in Guwahati and adjoining areas. There are hardly a few people in the villages who have a government or a private job,” said Marak, adding that alcohol has taken a heavy toll in the villages. “They (members of the panchayat) called a meeting of the panchayat about two months back and unanimously decided to ban consumption of liquor – be it country made or IMFL. The panchayat has also decided to impose a fine of Rs.500 if someone is found drinking in the village,” Benedict Areng, a resident of Kinan, told IANS. “The situation has improved in almost all the villages as the panchayat has also unofficially appointed some people to monitor the situation. If someone is found drinking alcohol of any sort, it is immediately conveyed to the panchayat and the individual or the family is fined,” said Benedict. A fine of Rs.500 is a big amount for the villagers and no one dares to violate the law. Besides, the rules and disciplines are followed strictly in most of the tribal societies in this part of the country, like the Garos. “We have kept certain relaxations too. Like rice beer is a tradition with the Garo community and it is also used in traditional rituals. So, there is no harm in using the rice beer in rituals. However, the panchayat must be informed in advance,” said Marak, who is also headman of Kinan village. “There are 80 villages under the panchayat and almost all are following the instructions. There are a few cases of violations and we have taken action against violators. The penalty or fine of Rs.500 is just a way to reform the person and not a way to tax the family. So, in some cases of violations we have collected fine as per the capacity of the family or the individual,” said Marak.  |
| A Glimpse of Bihar Diwas 2012 Celebrations Posted: 22 Mar 2012 08:05 PM PDT Bihar Diwas 2012 Celebrations took place all around the world. Below we present few beautiful pictures of Bihar Centenary Celebrations.
Photo Courtesy: Rajesh Sinha  |
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