Monday, 16 July 2012

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

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


Males donot prefer to get sterilized for Family Planning

Posted: 16 Jul 2012 05:30 PM PDT

Male sterilisation continues to remain the least preferred method of family planning despite efforts by the government to publicize it, according to the annual health survey released Monday.

The survey was conducted in 284 districts in nine states – Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisg arh and Assam, constituting 48 percent of India’s population.

The survey found that female sterilisation is the most preferred method of family planning while percentage of male sterilisation continues to remain negligible.

“We have been trying to emphasize on male sterilisation and males are coming forward for sterilisation in last few years but more needs to be done,” said Health Secretary P.K. Pradhan.

The survey found stark differences among and within states on parameters like total fertility rate, current usage of family planning, mean age at marriage, delivery care and immunisation.

More than half of currently married woman aged 15-49 years are not using any method of family planning in Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar.

“As many as 98 districts have reported less than 50 percent current usage of any method of family planning. Only 12 districts of 284 surveyed districts feature in 70 percent and above category,” said the survey.

The survey found that in 164 districts, a woman bears more than three children on an average with the highest (six) born to a woman in Shrawasti (Uttar Pradesh) and lowest (two) in Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand.

The survey found that marriages among females taking place below legal age (18 years) are rampant in rural areas as compared to urban areas.

“In rural areas every fourth marriage in Rajasthan, every fifth in Bihar and Jharkhand takes place below the legal age. It has been noted that higher proportion of males are getting married below legal age (21 years) as compared to females in these states,” it said.

German Company BOC to invest 5.4 Billions in Kalinganagar Orissa

Posted: 16 Jul 2012 04:30 PM PDT

Industrial gas manufacturer BOC India (BOCI), a member of the Germany-based The Linde Group, Monday announced that it would invest Rs 5.4 billion to build two new air separation plants in Odisha’s Kalinganagar.

The Kolkata-based company had been awarded a major long-term industrial gases supply contract by Tata Steel, which is progressing with the first phase of its greenfield integrated steelworks in Kalinganagar Industrial Complex.

The two air separation plants, each with a capacity of 1,200 tonns per day (tpd), would supply gaseous oxygen, nitrogen and argon to meet the production requirements of Tata Steel’s new steelworks, a BOCI release said here.

The new air separation plants, which would be commissioned in 2014, would also produce liquid products to meet the growing demand for gases in the merchant market.

“Our new contract with Tata Steel represents a great strategic win, given the fast-rising importance of the Kalinganagar industrial complex as a massive steel production hub in India,” said BOCI managing director S.K. Menon.

Menon said the company also intended to establish an extensive pipeline network through the industrial complex to meet the demand for gases of the various steel production units operating there.

Indian Government takes dig at Obama’s Perception regarding India

Posted: 16 Jul 2012 04:02 PM PDT

Indian Government has questioned US President Barack Obama’s perception of India’s economic reality and asserted that policy making is a “sovereign” right of the country.

“There is always a difference between perception and reality. India remains one of the most attractive destinations for foreign investors,” Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma told reporters here.

“We have adopted a calibrated approach in liberalisation.”

Sharma said India’s foreign direct investment (FDI) policy regime is investor-friendly and the country had taken an array of steps to liberalise the economy and ease norms related to foreign investments.

Quoting a study conducted by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Sharma said in terms of attracting foreign investments, India was among the top three countries in the world.

The minister was reacting to Obama’s interview to a news agency in which he expressed concern over the deteriorating investment climate in India and called for pushing up the reform process, especially allowing overseas investments in retail.

He urged the US to “demonstrate leadership” in bringing down trade barriers and encouraging capital flows.

“The US should be taking forward the stalled Doha Development Round of the WTO to a meaningful conclusion.”

Corporate Affairs Minister Veerappa Moily said fundamentals of the economy were strong and the corporate lobbies led by the companies like Vodafone were spreading negative view of India.

“Certain international lobbies like Vodafone are spreading this kind of a story and Obama was not properly informed about the things that are happening in India,” Moily said.

Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, however, said many countries had voiced such concerns and the government would take these factors into account while formulating policies.

“Many countries have been expressing concern over the investment climate. We should take these factors into account,” Ahluwalia said, but there is no particular reform that would change these perceptions.

“We need to strengthen the investment climate. I don’t believe that the agenda of reform is ever coming to an end,” Ahluwalia said.

Political parties also reacted sharply and asked the government not to succumb to US pressure while taking decisions on economic reforms.

Former finance minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha said India should open up the retail sector for overseas investments as and when required and it may not be done under pressure from the US.

“If Obama wants FDI in retail and India does not want, then it won’t come just because he is demanding it,” Sinha said.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) objected to the remarks by Obama that India open the doors to Wal-Mart for retail trade and other American investments in India.

“The statement is a brazen attempt to pressurize the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government to adopt such steps as opening multi-brand retail to FDI.

“The Manmohan Singh government should not succumb to this pressure,” the party said in a statement.

Supreme Court takes strict notion against rulings of Khap Panchayats

Posted: 16 Jul 2012 10:30 AM PDT

The Supreme Court Monday was urged to issue direction to police to take preventive steps to protect the life and dignity of people from the arbitrary diktats of khap panchayats (community councils).

“Any gathering that instigates commission of an illegal act is an illegal gathering. It amounts to instigation to commit a crime which may result in the death of individual,” amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran said in his suggestion to the apex court.

Ramachandran is amicus curiae in the hearing on a petition by NGO Shakti Vahini, which has sought the intervention of the apex court to curb the phenomenon of “honour killings” and the violation of human rights and dignity by extra-constitutional bodies like khap panchayats.

The amicus curiae gave his report to the apex court bench of Justice Aftab Alam and Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai.

In response to the petition, the central and state governments filed their replies.

The apex court Jan 9 asked Ramachandran to suggest measures to effectively “confine and limit the activities of such bodies or social groups within lawful parameters”.

The amicus curiae suggested to the court to direct the state governments to immediately identify districts, sub-divisions and villages where suspected honour-killings took place and khap panchayats were held in last one year.

The local police station in-charge should inform the superintendent of police about any instance of inter-caste marriage and if there was any attempt to hold khap panchayat against it, he said.

It would be the duty of the superintendent of police and the district magistrate to ensure the safety of the couple which had opted for the inter-caste marriage.

Radio Jockey raped by Industrialist’s Son in Kolkata

Posted: 16 Jul 2012 10:10 AM PDT

A Female Radio Jockey working with  a  FM Radio in Kolkata has accused a Big Industrialist’s Son of Raping her during the party. The incident took place when she had gone to attend the party hosted by Industrialist’s Son, where she was drugged and raped.

The incident took place in May, 2012 but  an FIR was lodged only in June.  The Industrialist’s son has also been charged with Drung peddling, but no arrests has been made so far.
“The victim in her complaint alleged that she was raped by a person who happens to be the son of an industrialist. The alleged offender is also suspected to be involved in drug peddling,” Joint Commissioner (Crime) P.K. Ghosh told media persons.

The incident come to public notice following media reports alleging police inaction in the case. According to police, the RJ and the alleged offender were known to each other before the incident.  The alleged rape took place when the victim consumed intoxicants and lost her consciousness at the party.

Tips to stay Healthy during Rainy Season

Posted: 16 Jul 2012 07:30 AM PDT

Dos and and don’ts suggested by experts for the monsoon season
Dos:* Go for green leafy vegetables

* Properly wash fruits and vegetables

* Eat barley, brown rice and oats

* Add garlic to soups, stir-fries and curries

* Avoid milk, have curd

* Drink more water

* Use anti-bacterial soap and face wash

* Use talcum powder to keep skin dry

Don’ts:

* No oily food, street food or spicy food

* No watermelons or muskmelons

* Not too much of mangoes

* Intake of dairy products should not be high

* Don’t ignore skin problems and allergies as this could be a sign of dengue

Assam CM Gogoi questions Journalist’s Ethics in Girl Molestation

Posted: 16 Jul 2012 07:11 AM PDT

Screenshot of Guwahati School Girl Molested by PublicAssam CM Tarun Gogoi has slammed the role of  Newslive Journalist in Guwahati Girl Molestation case  and called it unethical.He further asserted that the Police should have been informed as early as possible instead of Filming the Video

“This is not a case of ethical journalism. It is alright to film the incident as a part of his job. But he should have informed police about the incident,” Gogoi said.

“The media blames the government and particularly the police on all accounts, but journalists, too, have responsible role to play in society and in this particular case they have failed miserably. I am ready to meet the girl and we are going to help her by all means, including arranging proper rehabilitation for the girl” he added.

Read what the Editor in Chief of Newslive which filmed the whole episode has to say.
The role of a local TV news channel’s journalist was first alleged by anti-dam activist Akhil Gogoi. He also submitted video footage of the incident to the state police chief and media on Friday, showing the journalist instigating the crowd to assault the girl.

The chief minister said he had already set up an inquiry commission headed by Additional Chief Secretary Emily Choudhury. “I have also directed police to form a special task force to deal with the increasing crime against women in Assam,” he added.

“To analyse the crime situation in the state, I have asked the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) here to carry out research and steps will be taken accordingly to stop the rising crime graph against women,” Gogoi added.

He also admitted there were lapses on the part of police primarily because there is shortage of manpower in the state police force.

Meanwhile, the First Day of Assam Assembly Monsoon session was rocked due to Girl Molestation case. Leader of Opposition Sirajuddin Ajmal, of the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), demanded the adjournment motion on the ground of deteriorating law and order across Assam “where lives of women are not secure”.

“It is not the women who are insecure in the state but even we are not secure inside the legislative assembly,” said BJP legislator Prashanta Phukan while criticising the speaker for the AIUDF legislators’ eviction.

However, the government dismissed the criticism.

“We have nothing to hide. Action had already been taken against the policeman who failed to reach the spot. An inquiry had also been ordered. We can discuss it under separate rules and procedures of the assembly,” said Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

The Ethics of  Newslive Journalist has been questioned by Fellow Journalists also.
T.R. Ramachandran, senior journalist who is also president of the Press Club of India, says while journalists at a scene have a social responsibility, “they can’t just say we are filing”.

“What would happen in a worst case scenario (rape) – then what would he have done? Would he still have gone ahead and filed and say I was doing my job? The molestation went on for about 20 minutes, and for a girl even one second is like hours. It was absolutely hell for her,” Ramachandran told IANS.

“I don’t subscribe to what the editor said. It is fine to give evidence, but one should also have to have social responsibility to intervene and stop the incident,” he added.

The uncut version of what News Live aired – leering men pulling the girl by her hair, trying to paw the kicking, screaming girl, with some dramatic background music to boot – is on YouTube for anyone to see. The reporter asks the girl her name, not once but twice, which she replies, then her address and her school.

Independent journalist, commentator and educator Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, who has written a book on media ethics, said however much TV channels or photographers try to justify it questions will be raised.

In a statement, News Live reporter Gaurav Jyoti Neog has denied the allegations “as malicious and wild”. He said he was performing his professional duty as a “responsible journalist” “so as to fulfill the social responsibility of identifying the molesters and get them punished”. He has resigned as reporter until the probe is over.

Nitumoni Saikia, Executive Editor, News Live, in a statement, justified the decision to telecast the clip “to enable the viewers to see the ugly face of these molesters and help the police to identify them and get them punished”. He said the attempt was successful as the visuals helped identify the culprits. While strongly denying the charges against the reporter of having orchestrated the incident, Saikia said “We are not trying to protect or shield anyone and cooperating and would cooperate to get the culprits.”

Indian Scientists preserve 131 year Old Temple Tree in Cambodia

Posted: 16 Jul 2012 06:30 AM PDT

Indian scientists have been successful in conserving 131 trees at the 800-year-old Ta Prohm temple in Cambodia, better known as ‘Temple Tree’.

Experts from the Dehradun-based Forest Research Institute (FRI) along with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) have been working on the Conservation and Restoration of Ta Prohm Temple (Cambodia) Project under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme (ITEC) of the external affairs ministry.

The team, which has been working there since 2007, has started seeing some good results with improvement in the health of trees which were in a bad shape, threatening the monument built in the late 12th century by Jayavarman VII of the Khmer empire in memory of his mother. The temple is a Unesco World Heritage Site.

Several movies, including the Hollywood blockbuster “Tomb Raider”, were shot there.

Different species of matured and young trees, some standing on the ground and some on the walls and roofs of various structures, are seen in the temple premises.

The most common tree species is Tetrameles nudiflora, locally known as ‘Speung’.

N.S.K. Harsh, head of Forest Pathology at the Forest Research Institute (FRI), said that before starting the project, they conducted a survey and found that of the 131 trees in the premises, 36 needed immediate attention.

“The trees were found under stress at the site due to heavy tourist pressure, soil compaction, injuries to exposed roots and stems, cavities in trees and exposed buttresses and basal rotting. Besides, a few trees were dangerously leaning and causing the walls and other structures to collapse under their weight,” Harsh told IANS.

The tree height here ranges from 40 to 80 metres with huge trunks while the girth exceeds more than three metres in some cases and buttresses span up to 13 metres at the base.

The buttresses and roots are spreading all over the structures and ground, making them magnificent visual objects.

The institute’s team carried out periodic treatment of the decayed portion of trunks, stems and roots of the trees by using eco-friendly material (an oleoresin tapped from a tree) followed by cavity filling with polyurethane foam and wax.

The exposed roots of trees were covered with soil in different sections. Periodic surface treatment with anti-fungal material on etched surfaces was prescribed.

A prop was provided to support a dangerously leaning tree and was designed to withstand its swaying and weight. A metallic support was designed and erected below a wall collapsing under the weight of the tree.

“I would say timely intervention by FRI has halted further deterioration of tree health. The trees are now in a better health and their life span has increased,” Harsh said.

FRI has also carried out training classes for capacity building of local stakeholders so that they can continue the conservation work on their own post-2014 when the institute’s contract ends.

Regular monitoring of tree health is being done to check the level of decay, insect attacks, phenological behaviour and emerging tree growth pattern.

This is not the first time that India is helping Cambodia in restoration of a heritage site. Indian archaeologists had successfully restored the world famous Angkor Vat temple in the country.

In India, the FRI has conserved the famous Bodhi tree (‘pipal’) in Bodhgaya, a direct descendant of the original tree under which the Buddha meditated. It has also conserved a neem tree in the Sai Baba temple in Shirdi in Maharshtra.

India to launch ASTROSAT Series of Satellite

Posted: 16 Jul 2012 05:30 AM PDT

Astrosat, the $50 million astronomy satellite India will put in polar circular orbit in 2013, will study the universe at multi-wavelengths for the first time, .

“The Astrosat mission will study for the first time the cosmic sources of the vast universe at optical, ultraviolet and X-ray wavebands simultaneously,” state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientific secretary V. Koteshwar Rao told IANS here.

The 1.6-tonne satellite will be launched from the Sriharikota spaceport off the Bay of Bengal coast in Andhra Pradesh, about 90km northeast of Chennai, onboard a 300-tonne rocket with five scientific instruments to study at multiple wavelengths.

The instruments include a soft X-ray telescope, an ultraviolet imaging telescope, an imager and a sky scanning monitor.

“Unlike astronomical satellites of other countries, Astrosat will study visible to high-energy X-ray emissions from celestial objects on a single platform, take the highest angular resolution imaging in ultraviolet and measure short-term variation of X-ray emissions,” Rao said at a space summit here, about 150 km from Karnataka capital Bangalore.

A five-year delay has escalated the mission cost to Rs.270 crore (nearly $50 million), including the satellite to Rs.180 crore and the rocket Rs.90 crore.

A wavelength is a unit of measurement indicating the distance between the peak of one wave and the next. As forms of electromagnetic radiation, they make unique patterns in shapes and lengths as they travel through space.

“Most astronomical objects emit radiation spanning the electromagnetic spectrum from long wavelength radio waves to very short wavelength gamma rays. Simultaneous observation of the multi-wavelengths will enable us to understand the physical processes behind the phenomenon,” Rao pointed out.

Orbiting at 650 km from the earth with a five-year lifespan, the satellite will conduct major investigations across visible, UV, soft and hard X-ray bands to find out the source of radiation, study magnetic fields on neutron stars, search for sources of black holes and scan the farthest regions of the universe.

The spacecraft has already been designed and built to integrate the instruments (payload) at ISRO’s satellite centre in Bangalore.

The space agency has roped in other state-run and private organisations such as the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Raman Research Institute, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and its Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad.

The Canadian Space Agency and Britain’s University of Leicester are also collaborating with the astro project.

The space agency’s telemetry tracking and command network in Bangalore will provide the ground support for all the phases of the astro mission, while its deep space network at Byalalu, about 40 km from Bangalore, will collect the voluminous data from the instruments.

Watch the First Looks of new iPhone 5

Posted: 16 Jul 2012 04:50 AM PDT

Iphone 5 photos

When there is barely a month left for  Apple’s launch of  iPhone 5 or possibly new iPhone ( August 7), a website in China has leaked the pics of casing of iPhone 5.

According to Apple.pro, the iPhone 5 would have certain changes in the screensize and would be more slim.

The image of Casing sugegsts that on the right of the picture there would be space for the single home button that’s been a feature of the iPhone from day one, with the round hole on the left of the shot making space for the FaceTime video-calling camera, now moved to the centre of the face.

This image  also suggests that it will have  larger screen with aspect ratio of 16:9 in landscape mode. The new phone will have a 4-inch screen (possibly measured corner-to-corner). Previous models have had a squarer aspect ratio, so movies have black bars at top’n'bottom. But on the new phone, films will fill the full space of the screen

There would also be a white version of the new iPhone

The next Apple phone will also feature new iOS 6 software, with new maps apps, Facebook integration and assorted other improvements.

According to iTechPost.com the new iPhone 5 will be equipped with a 3D camera. Apparently an Apple employee’s family has presented the new iPhone. A family member then informed the employees of iTechPost. Due to the space required, it is assumed that the iPhone will not be equipped with two five-camera lenses, but rather with a 3D software.

According to 9to5Mac, the next iPhone  5 is equipped with the energy-saving Broadcom 4334 wireless chip. The new chip also supports Wi-Fi (b /g / n), Bluetooth 4.0, FM radio, dual-channel WiFi and WiFi-Direct. This would open the way for the ad-hoc service AirDrop on IOS devices.

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