Bihar sets up tourist protection force
Press Trust Of India / Kolkata/ Patna November 15, 2006
business standard,

Taking a cue from Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, Bihar government have
decided to set up a special police force for giving security cover to
tourists visiting the state.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has given nod to the proposal for setting
up the new force soon, put forth by the state tourism department a few
days ago.

The force, to be controlled by the superintendents of police of
respective districts, would be deployed at various tourist spots like
Rajgir, Nalanda, Bodh Gaya, Patna, Munger and other such places to
promote tourism, official sources said.

Rural India's going the ATM way
Arijit Sen
CNN-IBN
Posted Thursday , November 16, 2006 at 23:28
Updated Thursday , November 16, 2006 at 23:33
QUICK MONEY: The beneficiaries of the NREGA will bridge the rural
urban development divide.

New Delhi: The UPA Government's flagship scheme, the National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act had a lot of loopholes.

"There's a big concern about leakages and corruption and inadequate
implementation of transparency safeguards that will prevent
corruption," says social scientist Jean Dreze.

But now the Government has decided to give out smart cards in two
panchayats in Bihar for making payments quickly to those who work
under the scheme.

"This will ensure that middlemen will go and problems with muster
rolls and corruption will stop," says Rural Development Minister,
Raghuvansh Prasad Singh.

A software has been designed which will calculate wages of the people
working based on the work done and then the money will be transferred
to the ATMs.

The council for advancement of rural technology along with
Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL) is setting up the
project and the State Bank of India and Central Bank are helping
opening the accounts

If the smart card addiction spreads across rural India, it will be an
ATM like this that will separate the beneficiary from his or her
money.

But question is how many of the ATMs are there in the villages and how
many of these beneficiaries trained to withdraw money?

"All these people have been trained with colour coded cards how to use
an ATM," says Veena Rao of Council of Advancement of People's Action
and Rural Technology (CAPART).

And if the pilot project works well in Muzzafarpur and Vaishali
district of Bihar, all beneficiaries of the Employment Guarantee Act
will be swiping their smart cards and bridging the rural urban
development divide.

HRD team to take stock of activities
[ 17 Nov, 2006 0229hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

PATNA: A team of officials from the Union human resource development
(HRD) ministry and Department for International Development (DFID)
will arrive in Patna on Friday to take stock of activities of the
Bihar Mahila Samakhya Society (BMSS).

A statement from BMSS said the team would visit Muzaffarpur and
Sitamarhi and see the Mahila Shikshan Kendra, Mahila Jagjagi Kendra,
Kishori Manch, Mahila Samuh, Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya and
other programmes being run by BMSS.

BMSS was conceived after the National Education Policy in 1986
stressed equal education opportunities for women. It now operates in
13 districts in Bihar. The society which, till 2005, was functioning
as part of the Bihar Education Project, now works independently.

The districts where the society works includes Rohtas, West Champaran,
Sitamarhi, Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Bhojpur, Gaya, Sheohar, Kaimur,
Supaul, Banka, Kishanganj and Jamui.

Through various programmes, the society strives to boost
self-confidence of women and help them develop right skills to
question, debate and develop solutions to problems.

The programmes also help women understand the value of education so
that they develop an interest towards it and are also able to ensure
the education of their children.

The society also aims to make girls and women self-sufficient by
teaching them vocational skills which can help them become an earning
member of the family.

Besides, the society trains women in a manner so that they are able to
recognise harassment and exploitation and raise their voice against
it.

The society's Jagjagi Kendras are centres of informal education for
women and girls above the age of nine years. Here they are taught
various things, including life skills.

Kishore Manch is a platform which allows adolescent girls to openly
discuss their problems, needs and devise solutions.

Double hurdle to polio fight- Dirt & overcrowding
G.S. MUDUR
No Remedy?
Telegraph, Nov. 18, 2006

New Delhi. Nov. 17: Poor sanitation and overcrowded living conditions
lower the efficacy of the oral polio vaccine (OPV) in parts of India,
international health experts said today, vindicating what an Indian
virologist has been asserting for 30 years.

In a study to fathom polio's persistence in India despite multiple
doses of OPV, researchers from India, the UK and WHO have identified
poor sanitation and overcrowding as key obstacles to eradicating
polio.

These conditions make it easy for the polio virus to spread through
water contaminated by faeces and decrease the efficacy of the standard
trivalent OPV, they said in a report today in the journal Science.
Trivalent OPV has live, but weakened, versions of each of the three
types of the polio virus.

Although children in India have received more doses of the vaccine
than children in other countries, polio has persisted — and surged
this year with 520 confirmed cases, compared to 66 cases last year.

The outbreak this year is clustered in western Uttar Pradesh. In Bihar
and Uttar Pradesh, children under five have received on average 15
doses of the vaccine, compared with 10 doses in the rest of India.

"Everyone has been asking — with so much vaccination, why is polio
still around?" Nicholas Grassly, an infectious disease expert at the
Imperial College in London and the principal investigator, said.

"This vaccine has worked well in the rest of India. It's important to
acknowledge and understand its low efficacy in western Uttar Pradesh,"
Grassly said.

The study analysed over 96,000 cases of polio-like paralysis in
children since 1997 to find out what factors most strongly influence
polio persistence.

In unsanitary and overcrowded conditions, such as those prevalent in
western Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, a child is likely to have other
stomach viruses and diarrhoea which can prevent trivalent OPV from
working effectively, it said.

The study team members said their findings corroborate earlier work by
T. Jacob John, former head of virology at the Christian Medical
College in Vellore, who had first highlighted the low efficacy of OPV
during the 1970s.

NALANDA MARK II - A self-defeating obsession with symbols is not education
SUNANDA K. DATTA-RAY
sunanda.dattaray@...

Telegraph, Nov.18, 2006

When one of Delhi's brightest senior bureaucrats said he was dashing
off to Patna for an economics conference, I couldn't help asking "Does
Bihar have an economy?" Sulkily, he retorted, "It has economists!" The
fear of Bihar being similarly landed with a cargo of scholars but no
scholarship assailed me as I read of A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's uplifting
promise to Singapore (via live videocast) to recreate the "holistic
traditions of knowledge creation, acquisition and dissemination as
practised in ancient Nalanda."

This is not a swipe at a state that has become identified with Laloo
Prasad and should, some say, be outsourced, lock, stock and barrel. My
first book, Bihar Shows the Way, traced Jayaprakash Narayan's idealism
to the heroic legacy of the land that bore him. Bihar is Vaishali, the
world's oldest democracy. It is Pavapuri where the tirthankar Mahavira
preached. It is Pataliputra, pride of the Mauryan empire. Megasthenes
paid tribute to its finely graded sales tax system, Hieun Tsang to its
learning. Forty-two years after Bakhtiyar Khilji sacked Nalanda, the
Tibetan pilgrim, Chag Lotsawa, found that scholarship, like love,
survived among the ruins. A solitary teacher, 90-year-old Rahul
Shribhadra, still devotedly discharged his duty to 70 students.

The multimillion dollar extravaganza on whose behalf the president
addressed Singapore may yield rich dividends in trade, tourism and
strategy. It could kick-start decrepit Bihar's reconstruction and
establish a major halt on the Silk Route that now animates planners,
road-builders and railwaymen. It could facilitate guanxi — networking
— among Asian diplomats. But can we expect Rahul Shribhadra's
single-minded dedication to teaching? That, to my mind, would be an
international university's only justification.

The symposium of Asian, Western and non-resident Indian scholars was
the soft packaging for high-powered hard-sell. The aim is to raise Rs
5 billion, not only from Singapore but, through Singapore acting as "a
facilitator, a catalyst" from the rest of Asia. The Chinese
government, which gave Rs 570,000 as long ago as 1960 — yes, an
embryonic plan has been gathering dust for 46 years — is pledged to
provide up to Rs 4 crore. If China comes, can Japan be far behind? In
fact, the Japanese have already indicated their willingness to develop
the historical trails of Buddhism. Other sponsors are expected to sign
up at next month's East Asia Summit in the Philippines when Manmohan
Singh will unfold details and make another pitch for funds.

"We want a degree of partnership and ownership of various countries in
the region," demands N.K. Singh, deputy chairman of Bihar's state
planning commission and the driving force behind this ambitious dream.
But I notice that George Yeo, Singapore's soft-spoken deceptively
young-looking foreign minister, who graciously hosted a dinner for
delegates at a Buddhist temple, promised only an "indirect, helpful
role on the side." Yeo is a friend of Palaniappan Chidambaram — both
are American-consecrated Young Leaders — and is acutely aware of the
Indian system's limitations. He has described them in the past with
blistering candour.

His reported comments suggest a proper appreciation of reinvented
Nalanda — Nalanda Mark II — in its true political context as "an icon
of the Asian renaissance" and of Sino-Indian rapprochement. "China is
likely to be India's largest trading partner in two years' time. The
recent reopening of the Nathu-La pass is of great symbolic importance.
All of Asia and Australasia will be affected by this new cycle of
history. As in earlier periods of globalization, we have to manage
diversity and learn from one another on the basis of mutual respect
and mutual understanding. Nalanda can express this hope and bring
people together again." Of this non-academic, essentially public
relations, exercise, he says, "Singapore should be part of this
process."

To say the aim has little bearing on education is not to belittle it.
Nor is it to suggest that existing universities are temples of
academic perfection. India's institutes of technology and management
are keenly sought after not because they are centres of excellence but
because they offer the best meal tickets and, in the former case, the
prospect of an American Green Card. One failing of the five-year plans
was that colleges churned out graduates far more rapidly than the
economy-generated jobs. And unemployed graduates were often
unemployable because the self-seeking political thrust was to set up
more and more degree-granting institutions — ill-equipped, badly
staffed and inadequately financed — instead of sound primary and
secondary schools. The radiance of a Presidency College or Jawaharlal
Nehru University could not compensate for this plethora of useless
mofussil colleges.

The outcome was a mockery of education: India towers over China in
collecting Nobel Prizes but China's literacy rate is much higher. The
grandiose Nalanda project will not even begin to address this fatal
flaw in policy. In fact, it is another manifestation of exactly the
same self-defeating obsession with symbols that raised a tertiary
edifice on shoddy foundations. We need many more schools, better paid
competent teachers, laboratories, libraries and recreational
facilities. Not fancy monuments to globalization.

Bihar achieved great things; it is also a graveyard of ideas and
institutions. Pataliputra cradled Ajatasatru who — remember
"Pujarini"? — cruelly suppressed Buddhism. When I sought his capital,
no one in Patna, not even my Bihar government guide, knew what I
meant. The word Pataliputra conveyed nothing. They knew the site as
Kumraon. But Bakhtiarpur immortalizes the man who destroyed Nalanda
though not many know he was taliban's spiritual ancestor. The story
goes that before attacking the ancient Buddhist university he asked,
"Is there a copy of the Quran there?"

Nalanda lay forgotten for centuries until British archaeologists
unearthed its remains in 1860. The flickering lamp of Pali studies at
the Nava Nalanda Mahavira is its only link with the glorious past.
That doesn't mean that there won't be takers for the Mark II version.
My recent meanderings on the fringes of academia have revealed to my
surprised disappointment a pursuit of commercial careerism that has
little to do with teaching. I am not speaking of Indian academics, of
whom I have no working experience, but of universities abroad that
assess staff by the conferences and seminars to which they succeed in
wangling invitations, by the papers they present (one man recycles the
same paper at meeting after meeting in different countries) at these
international jamborees and by the essays they publish in periodicals.

The conference circuit is great fun, but surely no participant deludes
himself that it serves a public cause? Even the rationale that
gallivanting about the globe enables teachers to pick up bright new
ideas does not apply to the milieu I know. Travel is not reflected in
bold changes in curricula or brave innovations in instruction. The
classroom is often something to be suffered between foreign jaunts.
Many lecturers get away with ready-made Power-Point projections.

If the money pours in, Nalanda Mark II will be the thinking man's
Sentosa, Singapore's isle of leisure and pleasure. It will hum with
conferences and seminars, and buzz with rhetoric about the dialogue of
nations and the discourse of civilizations. It will flaunt its
international identity and stake a claim to contemporary relevance
with a whole faculty devoted to understanding terrorism, especially
its internet ramifications, with sophisticated high-tech methods.
Professional academics, businessmen, officials, politicians and
operators will rub shoulders there, deriving a patina of
respectability from a scattering of distinguished scholars like JNU's
Tan Chung who also attended the Singapore symposium. But New Nalanda
will send forth no pilgrims to preach the Vajrayana, Mahayana and
Theravada schools of Buddhism.

We may have to look in vain there for the simple pursuit of studies or
the vocation to teach. The impact on the nation's intellectual life
will be no more meaningful than that of Santiniketan or Auroville. A
Rahul Shribhadra would feel very lost in such a glittering cosmopolis.

Campaigners for 'freeing airwaves' welcome new CR policy

By FN

In Cyberspace, Nov 18, 2006: One decade and a year after the
Supreme Court directed New Delhi to "open up the airwaves",
campaigners who battled long for this to happen gave a sigh
of relief when India finally opened up its broadcasts to
community radio this week.

"The decision by the Indian government to allow civil society
organisations and community groups to own and operate radio
stations will give an additional tool to the civil society to
empower people it works with," commented Rahul Kumar of
OneWorld South Asia, a civil society and non-government
organisation network working in 11 languages, and in Delhi too.

On Thursday, Cabinet decided to grant permission for setting
up of Community Radio Stations to non-profit organizations --
apart from the already-permitted educational institutions --
provided they had a proven record, no links to political
parties and fulfilled some other criteria.

Community radio is a type of radio service that caters to the
interests of a certain area, broadcasting material that is
popular to a local audience but is overlooked by more
powerful broadcast groups.

In South Asia, Nepal is the only country where community
radio stations have surprisingly flourished. In India,
citizens' groups have long argued for a 'third layer' of
broadcasters, apart from the State-run and commercial FM
networks.

Said Dr Vinod Pavarala, a US-educated Hyderabad-based
academic who solidly supports the idea of community radio:
"On Saturday, we are organizing a media tour of the Deccan
Development Society radio station at Machnoor (Andhra
Pradesh, that has been waiting for years to get a license). I
can't go on asking (village women there) to be any more
patient."

"The new policy will now allow civil society organizations,
NGOs and other non-profits to apply for Community Radio
licenses making 'citizens radio' a reality. Members of the
Forum have congratulated this move that will brign about
democratization of India's airwaves," commented Gujarat based
citizens' media campaigner and videographer Stalin K. of the
Community Radio Forum, India.

Backed by influential players like UNESCO and the UNDP --
both United Nations bodies -- as also the experiences of even
poorer, less tech-skilled countries in Africa and East Asia,
the campaigners have long made a case for promoting community
radio in India too.

But the news was tempered with caution. Campaigners were
cautions, after many false starts -- including a
BJP-government drafted policy for 'community radio' that only
allowed prominent educational centres to launch their own
stations, that too under strict conditions, more on lines of
campus radio.

IIT-educated Delhi engineer, whose company radiophony.com
offers circuits to create ultra low-powered FM transmitters
for a few hundred rupees, questioned the new policy.

Mehta commented, in an online discussion forum: "Wait a
second! No news or current affairs (under the new policy)?
(Delhi-based varsity) Jamia's community radio has a surfeit
of Urdu poetry, because without news and current affairs,
they don't have much else (to broadcast)."

"I agree (that this technology) will have so many spin offs.
There are exiciting times ahead!," commented Rajen Varada,
director of the Bangalore-based Technology For The People
network, also a non-profit organisation.

"(Those who have regularly campaigned in cyberspace have
probably) pushed it really hard lobbying offline as well. You
all really deserve a round of applause," commented Isteyaq
Ahmed Manager-Marketing of RED FM 93.5 Bajate Raho in Mumbai.

The Kuala Lumpur-based Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union noted
this decision, and said the move came "aiming to put in place
a vibrant community radio system in the country". It noted
such radio stations by non-profit organisations would be
allowed "after ensuring security clearances from the Defence
and Home Ministries."

Community radio outlets may also carry news and information
programming geared toward the local area, particularly
smaller population or language groups poorly served by other
media outlets. Its proponents argue that community stations
can be valuable assets for a region.

Technology and economics have made it possible to set up a
large number of low-powered FM stations, catering to local
needs, and more importantly offering information that could
play a crucial role in the lives of the poor, via a device
-- a radio -- the bulk can today easily afford.

Does this mark the beginning of the end of a regime where the
"world's largest democracy's" airwaves have been controlled
by rigorous oversight -- as against the only nominal controls
over its Press, cinema and internet, and moderate control
over cable TV and satellite TV? (ENDS)

Join: CR-India [http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/cr-india]
--
FN 9822122436 +91-832-240-9490 (phone calls after 1 pm please)
[http://fn.goa-india.org] [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers]

 
   
   


Deshkal Society
329 SFS Flats, Mukherjee Nagar
Delhi-110009
India
Email: desh13@...
Ph: 91-11-27654895
Fax: 91-11-27655336
URL: www.deshkalindia.com

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Folks

As we all watch with anxiety the unfortunate kidnapping of three year
old Anant, the son of the MD of Adobe India and pray for his early
return, we do expect the UP police to be making an effort to nab the
kidnappers. But what do we see the top police official of our western
neighbour do? Demonise Bihar for this most unfortunate incident.

Instead of workiong to solve the case or at the very least hang his head
in shame, Mr KL Gupta, the DGP of UP police is busy denigrating Bihar.
See his interview
<http://www.ibnlive.com/news/kidnapping-a-high-profit-industry/26287-3.h\
tml>

Just a couple of years ago, famous Kanadda actor Raj Kumar was kidnapped
in Karnataka. Why not associate the name of Karnataka with this
kidnapping. Again, the MD of EXIDE SB Ganguly, was kidnapped from
Chittaranjan Avenue, Calcutta in the none too recent past. So was the
daughter of a Marwari trader from Salt Lake City. Why not say similar
things about West Bengal?

It is particularly galling that this senior officer has chosen to
indulge in this highly irresponsible and provocative non sequitir at a
time when the govt of Bihar is trying it level best to improve the law
and order situation in very trying circumstances with very limited
resources. Let alone praise the effort of the Govt of Bihar, this crab
mentality person has chosen to hurl this unwarranted abuse. It is
typical of the roadside bullies to indulge in such tactics in the face
of pressure situation. It is really shameful to see an officer holding a
responsible and senior position to stoop to such tactics to feel better
(?) in the face of his utter failure to perform his duty.

Let us all raise our voice in protest of the grossly unjust statement.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Bhojpuria.com director Sudhir Kumar felicitated

   After winning the prestigious Manthan-AIF award for the best cultural website
in India, awards and rewards have slowly becoming a habit for Bhojpuria.com, the
world’s first portal for Bhojpuri speaking people. And the latest in this list
is a prestigious felicitation by one of the India’s biggest Bhojpuri body –
Akhil Bhartiya Bhojpuri Sahitya Sammelan.

   In its 21st National summit at Sararam, Akhil Bhartiya Bhojpuri Sahitya
Sammelan felicitated Sudhir Kumar (Director, Bhojpuria.com) for his contribution
in expanding Bhojpuri.

   “Bhojpuria.com has become a milestone in the development of Bhojpuri as a
language and as a culture. In my view, it had become a powerful medium to unite
bhojpurias across the globe”, renowned filmstar and singer Manoj Tiwari ‘Mridul’
said on this occasion.

   “Bhojpuria.com is putting up a glorious image of bhojpuria culture across the
globe. Akhil Bhartiya Bhojpuri Sahitya Sammelan will do everything possible to
help it”, Dr. Gurucharan Singh, Convener, Sasaram Summit, said.

   “We are thankful to Akhil Bhartiya Bhojpuri Sahitya Sammelan for the honour.
This honour, by our own people, at our home, will motivate us to do much
better”, Sudhir Kumar, director, Bhojpuria.com said.

   Renmowned writers, poets, politicians, artists and lakhs of people attended
the summit.

   In past, Sudhir Kumar have been felicitated by Viswa Bhojpuri Sammelan
(Jharkhand Unit) and Jamshedpur Bhojpuri Sahitya Prishad.


   You may read the story online at
   http://www.bhojpuria.com/samachar/news.php?a=1854

   You may read the story in Bhojpuri at
   http://www.bhojpuria.com/jump.php?page=events/abbss_sudhir.htm

   Please find attached photograph of the function.



---------------------------------
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Kalam's vision for Nalanda project

P.S. Suryanarayana
Hindu, Nov. 14, 2006
Autonomous academic body proposed

# "It would provide leadership in world peace"
# Functional basis through discussions with scholars

SINGAPORE: The universal "mission" of the proposed Nalanda University
is to serve as a seat of learning for "providing leadership in world
peace," said President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on Monday.

In a live videocast from New Delhi, Mr. Kalam told the participants of
an international symposium here that another "mission" would be to
"work towards building an inclusive society in a world free of
violence, terror, war, and fear." Spelling out the global vision of
the "fully autonomous academic body" proposed to be set up at the
original site of the ancient Nalanda university, the President said
its functional basis would be determined through a "process of
discussion with hundred scholars drawn from different parts of the
world." They "may include those who have been internationally
recognised for their exemplary contribution to peace in the world."

Cultural links

The one-day symposium was organised by three regional institutes and
the faculty of the National University of Singapore.

The thematic programme, on the "Buddhist cultural links between
eastern and southern Asia," was supported by the city-state's Ministry
of Foreign Affairs and the Singapore Buddhist Federation. The
participants included Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo, and
Deputy Chairman of Bihar Planning Board N.K. Singh. The topics for
discussions were "China's historical tryst with Buddhism," the "modern
memories of ancient bonds" between India and East Asia, "Buddhism in a
practical context," and "the relevance of Nalanda's past for our
modern times."

The discussions were led by Director of the Singapore-based East Asian
Institute, Wang Gungwu, and four other professors — Tan Chung, Sugata
Bose, Ishii Yoneo, and Stanley Tambiah. External Affairs Ministry
Secretary (East) N. Ravi was an invited participant.

The Bihar Government's draft bill on the objectives and formation of
the proposed university was circulated to elicit opinions on the
parameters for setting up the institution with an international
dimension.

Rich historical traditions

Mr. Kalam explained how he came to envision the concept of "a unique
institution in Nalanda in the context of current ambience in the
world." This project, designed for a "unity of minds" in the 21st
century, would draw "inspiration from the rich historical traditions
of Nalanda, Bodhgaya, where Lord Buddha got enlightenment, and other
spiritual centres in Bihar."

Being planned as a multi-discipline university, it will have a
sweeping focus from science and technology to spirituality.

"Equitable societal welfare"

It's multiple objectives would be the revival of the old Nalanda
knowledge ethos, the creation of a new "meeting place ... for
thoughts" and about an array of issues, including "equitable societal
welfare," the formulation of an "action-oriented academic structure,"
and the establishment of "one of the largest libraries of the world"
including a digital version.

Health policy for cancer patients in Bihar

Hindustan , Nov. 14, 2006

Patna, November 13, 2006


The Bihar government is planning to introduce a separate health policy
for cancer patients in the state.

"I have asked the state health department officials to formulate a
separate policy under the health assistance policy, for which a
separate fund would be created for the cancer patients,"  CM Nitish
Kumar said on Monday.

Stating that the present health policy was not appropriate for the
cancer patients, Kumar said hundreds of patients suffering from the
disease go to Mumbai for treatment and in absence of money, the poor
are forced to sell their property to meet the exorbitant expenses.

"A CM Health Relief Fund will be created and it will be looked after
by health experts and not bureaucrats," he said.

Terming the disease as 'a curse', Kumar said the people living in
Bihar are most affected by cancer, tuberculosis and other illnesses
and the state government has taken effective steps to streamline the
functioning of the government hospitals and improve condition there.

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Silicon Valley entrepreneur makes Bihar hometown an outsourcing hub

Katihar (Bihar), Nov 10 (IANS)
Katihar, a small town in Bihar, is today providing tech support to
public and private sector firms in California - thanks to the efforts
of Ravi Verma, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who was recently in Patna
in connection with the preparations of "Global Meet" to be held in Jan
next year.

Verma, who hails from Katihar, around 350 km from Patna, is the CEO of
Telecommand Software and Services in the Silicon Valley that maintains
the Entrepreneur Resource Planning (ERP) systems of the State of
California.

ERP systems integrate all data and processes of an organisation into a
single unified system.

"I am from Katihar. I invested some dollars here because I feel
charity should begin at home. It was my childhood dream to do
something for my native place," Verma, who recently visited Bihar,
told IANS during a visit here.

According to Verma, Telecommand provides IT consulting and support to
both public and private sectors in Sacramento county and wider
northern California areas.

Verma, in his 30's, said he was proud of running a successful software
development centre in Katihar. "Not many thought it could actually
happen. I chose Katihar to prove that one can make a difference."

He started his business in this town in December 2005 and it was a
profitable venture right from day one. "California is our premier
customer and our Katihar team works hard to maintain its systems. Our
team in Katihar works as though they are sitting in the US itself."

The biggest challenge for Verma was to motivate the people in Katihar.
He hired software engineers belonging to the town who had gone to
cities like Bangalore and Mumbai in search of work.

Verma also set up the R.S College of Computer Science and Engineering
in Katihar in July.

"I hope other NRIs also do something for their hometowns or home
districts," said Verma, a graduate from IIT Kanpur who migrated to the
US in 1994-95.

Bihar sugar mills responded positively on WTO rulings
IANS,
Nov. 11, 2006



"All the nine sugar mills of Bihar recorded a massive increase of 63
percent in their crushing capacity after WTO rulings on sugar in
September 2004. After the rulings European Union agreed to reduce its
subsidy by 36 percent over four years," revealed in a new study on
sugar industries in Bihar.

Oxfam Internationals' as a part of its make trade fair campaign,
released a report here on sugar the industry in Bihar in a function
jointly organized by Bihar Times, a Patna based news portal and Oxfam.
"The first and foremost concern is inadequate and untimely payment to
cane growers. If farmers are paid a remunerative price on time, there
is no reason why they will not grow sugarcane. This truth is known to
farmers all over Bihar", the report entitled a case study of sugarcane
farming and sugar industry in Bihar, said.

About half a million farmers and 50, 000 labour force are dependent on
the sugarcane and sugar industry in Bihar for their livelihood.

The report focuses on the fate of sugar cane growers and sugar
manufacturers in rural Bihar. "The report has come out with its
findings showing gross inequities in the sugar industry in Bihar"- an
official of the Oxfam Internationals' make trade fair campaign said.

According to the report, large number of poor villagers firmly hope
that if trade practices are fair, sugarcane cultivation will lift the
entire village from the depths of poverty.

Amru Sada, a landless cultivator in Pahsara village in Begusarai
district, rears a few cattle and whatever he earns through dairying,
he invests in sugarcane cultivation on two bigha leased land.
Similarly, Jawala, a dairy farmer, invests in sugarcane cultivation.
But they know the hard way to get good return, report pointed." The
village like this and others witnessed large-scale migration due to
economic hardship. But poor farmers' hope lies in sugar cane and sugar
industry if they get right return of their hard labour" report said.

" Dairy farming is doing well, but sugarcane cultivation could bring
real prosperity to the village" Jawala said.

The report stressed for new approaches that could restore farmers'
livelihood in Bihar.

While highlighting the importance of sugar cane farming, the deputy
chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi interestingly narrated the recent
carbon credit policy for eco friendly power generation from bagasse
and new emerging ethanol market.

Interestingly the Oxfam's report has come at a time when the one year
old Nitish Kumar government is making all efforts to attract private
investors in sugar industry in state." Our government has cleared 13
proposals for setting up sugar mills and two proposals are waiting for
approval " Nitish Mishra, Sugar cane development minister of Bihar
said.

Mishra said that investments worth Rs 4000 crore was attracted for
sugar industry in last eleven months, a record in itself.

" At one time about 40 percent of production of sugar came from Bihar.
But it declined to 1.6 percent in 2000-01 and is currently hovering
around 2 percent" the report said.


The study report sponsored by Oxfam International was conducted by
Shambhu Kumar of J P University, Chapra and Kumar Gautam of the New
Delhi based Centre for Trade and Development.

Assam blast victims' families in Bihar bemoan poverty
www.newkerala.com

Patna, Nov 7: Grieving family members of five Bihar migrant labourers
killed in the twin bomb blasts in Assam say poverty and lack of job
opportunities in the state forced the men to seek jobs elsewhere.

The five men from Bihar's Samastipur district were among the 14 killed
in Sunday night's twin blasts in Guwahati.

The shocked family members say the Bihar government has failed to
create employment in rural areas or improve the socio-economic
condition of the impoverished people in the state, forcing them to
become migrant labourers to earn a livelihood at the risk of their
lives.

In some villages, family members of those labourers seriously injured
in the blast were praying for their fast recovery.

According to records with the district administration, those killed in
the blast are Manchun Mahto of Kariyan village, brothers Pawan Sah,
16, and Suresh Sah, 20, as well as Sajjan Roy, 25, from Haldiya
village, and Surendra Mahto, 30, of Panchgama village.

"All those killed in the blasts were the lone bread earners of their
families, which were living below the poverty line," said a district
official.

"Poverty forced the Sah brothers to leave their village to earn for
the family," a relative said. "We demand adequate compensation from
the Assam government," he said.

Officials of the labour department told IANS over telephone Tuesday
that hundreds of people, mostly the poor, are working in Guwahati and
different parts of Assam.

"Most of them migrate out of compulsion to earn money to send back to
their families," the official said.

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad strongly condemned the blasts and
demanded protection for Bihar people living in Assam.

--- IANS

A Bihar teacher on a mission to eradicate illiteracy
www.newkerala.com

By Ajay Kumar, Navada (Bihar), Nov.8:

Vishwanath Prasad Vishwakarma, a government schoolteacher in Navada in
Bihar, has made it a mission of life to take education to as many
people as he can.

Vishwakarma moves around extensively across his hometown Navada to
reach out to illiterate children and adults who had to drop out of
school because of economic and other reasons.

After his official duty hours, Vishwakarma ensures that he reaches out
to all those who have been deprived of reading or writing skills. For
his mission he has selected labourers' children that he finds at
several quarries in Navada area of Bihar.

Besides stone quarries, Vishwanath frequents railway stations and
trains to teach drop-outs, who work as railway hawkers.

"I want to make these children to be aware of their basic rights,
which will happen only once they are educated. Till they are educated,
they won't understand the implications of government programmes and
schemes, and how they can benefit them. Once they are able to do that,
they will be in a position to better their situation themselves," says
Vishwanath.

Vimal, a quarry worker, was enlisted in his neighbourhood government
school but stopped visiting it for some time. He refused to go to
school saying the teacher hardly showed up. Today, he works as a daily
wager.

"Of course, we want to study. But the teachers at our school don't
turn up. So we come here and work. This way, we at least make some
money in the meantime," says Vimal.

Vishwanath's efforts have not gone unrecognised. He has got several
awards from the State and Central governments, and a nomination for a
top national civilian award for his contribution to education.

The sight of hawkers with an assortment of fares- snacks, newspapers,
apples and oranges- huddling around Vishwanath is amusing to commuters
who crowd around the 'classroom.'

Vishwanath says that the success of his initiative would lie in his
efforts sending across a message to others who might try replicating
his model.

Bihar has the lowest literacy rate in the country. It has a dismal
literacy rate of 47 per cent, as against the national average of 65
per cent.

In the state, Patna has the highest literacy rate with 63.82 per cent
Kishanganj has the lowest with 31.02 per cent.

The average annual per capita expenditure on education by the State
government was 44 rupees, around a dollar.

--- ANI

Beggars in Bihar to curb spread of AIDS
Wednesday, 08 November , 2006, 17:51
www.sify.com

Kolkata: Thousands of beggars in Bihar have been recruited to help
stem the spread of the HIV/AIDS virus by singing songs and acting in
plays about safe sex.

Officials in Bihar say they want to train many of the state's
estimated 1,00,000 vagrants to sing songs in trains and buses and
beside busy roads, as well as enact street plays about the deadly
virus.

"Beggars are great actors and very creative," Vijay Prakash, Bihar's
welfare secretary, said. "They always had the skills, but lacked
direction which we are giving them and the experiments have so far
been very successful."

India has the world's highest HIV/AIDS caseload with 5.7 million
infected people, according to the United Nations AIDS agency. But
activists say the true figure may be much higher as surveillance is
limited in much of the country.

According to official figures, just 1,078 people from Bihar's
population of over 83 million are infected with the virus—although
AIDS campaigners say infection rates are grossly under reported.

The new recruits will be paid a few hundred rupees for their work.

"Some can dance very well, and we hope our training programme will
help them earn a living," Prakash said.

If the project is successful, officials plan to recruit beggars to
promote awareness of diseases like polio and malaria.

Copyright 2004

Vidya Vihar Residential School (VVRS) located at village Parora, 10 kms from
Purnia city,  has been running with the gracious help and guidance extended by
Shriman KN Vasudevanji, ex-principal Netarhat Vidyalaya &  Full Bright scholar,
as its Director and alumni from our alma mater for the past 10 yrs. & more as a
project of Netarhat Alumni Educational Trust, a society registered under the
Societies Registration Act 1860.

The school is being upgraded to CBSE senior secondary classes  for engineering
subjects Physics, Chemistry, Maths, Computer Science) from the session June
2007. State of the arts senior secondary fully residential campus for boys is
being constructed at a cost of about 2.5 crores and is expected to be completed
by April 30, 2006.

Vidya Vihar Institute of Technology (VVIT), an engineering college in the
process of seeking approval of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)
and proposed to be affiliated to BIhar Technical University, being established
under a sepearte Act of Bihar Legislature hpefully in the coming winter session,
is now being raised under the aegis of Vidya Vihar Educational Trust (VVET),
registered as public trust under Indian Trust Act 1882.

It is yet another project  being impemented by some of the alumni as well as
with the help of experts from other service sectors & IT, now under progress for
which about 10 acres of land have been handed over and 8 more acres is under
allotment by the Department of Industries Govt. of Bihar. The campus wall is
already being constructed and expected to be over by December 2006. Construction
of the main building is scheduled to begin by January 2007.

VVIT has been listed as the first proposal under the list of proposals with
heading:
"PROPOSALS APPROVED BY STATE INVESTMENT PROMOTION BOARD (SIPB)" approved by the
CM/Cabinet Govt. of Bihar on 13-06-2006
http://industries.bih.nic.in/Documents/SIPB%20Proposal%20Status.pdf

This site of the institute is located at BIHAR INUSTRIAL AREA GROWTH CENTRE AT
VILLAGE MARANGA ON NATIANAL HIGHWAY 31 (EAST WEST CORRIDOR) near Purnia City.

The trustees/organizers are loking for keen, motivated, experienced as well as
younger professionals as teachers/lecturers/ associate
professors/professors/head of the institute to teach subjects Physics,
Chemistry, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology, Electronics &
Communication Engineering for 10+2 as well as for the engineering college. The
priority for the +2 classes is foremost.

The facilities are being raised aiming to attain world class standards. The pay,
perks & privileges are expected to be exceptionally good.

Your help, guidance & participation are solicited. The addresses in CC may be
responded accordingly.

LET JOIN US TO RECONSTRUCT A NEW BIHAR! A NEW INDIA!

ATTA DEEPA VIHARATHA!











Lt. Col. (Retd.) Bajrang Bihari Singh
Sec-5, Plot - 452
Vaishali, Ghaziabad
U.P.
Phone- 0120-2772949

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Assam blast victims' families in Bihar bemoan poverty
newkerala.com

Patna, Nov 7: Grieving family members of five Bihar migrant labourers
killed in the twin bomb blasts in Assam say poverty and lack of job
opportunities in the state forced the men to seek jobs elsewhere.

The five men from Bihar's Samastipur district were among the 14 killed
in Sunday night's twin blasts in Guwahati.

The shocked family members say the Bihar government has failed to
create employment in rural areas or improve the socio-economic
condition of the impoverished people in the state, forcing them to
become migrant labourers to earn a livelihood at the risk of their
lives.

In some villages, family members of those labourers seriously injured
in the blast were praying for their fast recovery.

According to records with the district administration, those killed in
the blast are Manchun Mahto of Kariyan village, brothers Pawan Sah,
16, and Suresh Sah, 20, as well as Sajjan Roy, 25, from Haldiya
village, and Surendra Mahto, 30, of Panchgama village.

"All those killed in the blasts were the lone bread earners of their
families, which were living below the poverty line," said a district
official.

"Poverty forced the Sah brothers to leave their village to earn for
the family," a relative said. "We demand adequate compensation from
the Assam government," he said.

Officials of the labour department told IANS over telephone Tuesday
that hundreds of people, mostly the poor, are working in Guwahati and
different parts of Assam.

"Most of them migrate out of compulsion to earn money to send back to
their families," the official said.

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad strongly condemned the blasts and
demanded protection for Bihar people living in Assam.


--- IANS

Bihar's economy to boom with investments
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
Posted online: Monday, November 06, 2006 at 1613 hours IST
Financial Express, Nov. 6, 2006


PATNA, NOVEMBER 6:  The economy of Bihar, one of India's most
underdeveloped states, is poised to grow rapidly thanks to the sugar
industry attracting private investments to the tune of Rs 4,600 crore.

"The sugar sector in Bihar seems to be the most-preferred investment
destination where our government has already sanctioned proposals in
private sector for 10 sugar mills and received detailed project
reports for 15 other sugar mills with the letter of expressions from
the private entrepreneurs to invest a whopping Rs 4,620 crore," Sugar
Minister Nitish Mishra told.

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The move comes amid the changing industrial climate propelled by
marked improvement in law and order and measures for wider reforms
under the new industrial policy taken by the year-old Nitish Kumar
government, he said.

Mishra said out of the 15 sugar mills having shown interests for
pumping in money, the State Investment Promotion Board had cleared the
project reports for six.

The ten sanctioned sugar mills would have the capacity to create
direct job opportunities for 10,000 people with over an above
engagements for about two lakh people, he said.

The places where the sugar mills would come up are Kotwa, Marukiya,
Kewalpura, Rasulpur, Madhuvan, Udakishunganj, Bahadurpur, Chorma,
Pakaridayal and Asthawan.

The projects which got clearance from the investment promotion board
are for the sugar mills to be installed at Guruwalia, Rajaun,
Barhanbenusar, Nariyar, Nawagaon and Supaul, the Minister said.

Bhojpuri-speaking people demand separate state



Patna, Nov 6 (IANS) Hundreds of Bhojpuri-speaking people gathered in
Bihar's Sasaram town to demand creation of a separate state for those
who speak the regional dialect.

Meeting under the aegis of the 21st All India Bhojpuri Sahitya
Sammelan they demanded Sunday the creation of a separate state and
protection of the interests of the people speaking Bhojpuri.

"A resolution to demand for creation of a separate Bhojpuri state was
passed unopposed in the meet," a member of the Bhojpuri meet said.

They said they would launch a campaign to mobilise support and build a
strong lobby to put pressure on the government for a separate state.

According to the agenda paper, the proposed separate Bhojpuri state
would consist of 32 districts spread over Bihar, Uttar Pradesh,
Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. "We have come out with a proposed map of a
separate Bhojpuri state," a member said.

Two central ministers Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and Meira Kumar attended
the inaugural ceremony of the meet on Saturday. Singh promised that
the issue would be raised in parliament. The meet was attended by
retired professors, bureaucrats, journalists and artists.

Over 270 million people are estimated to speak and understand
Bhojpuri. There is a large Bhojpuri diaspora based in countries like
Mauritius, Ghana, West Indies, Fiji, Nepal, Dubai, Indonesia, and the
Netherlands.

Govt affects major shuffle of babus
[ 6 Nov, 2006 0258hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
Times of India

PATNA: In a major administrative reshuffle, Bihar government on Sunday
shifted over a dozen senior IAS officers, including two
commissioner-rank officials.

These two commissioner-rank IAS officials, V Jayashankar and H C
Sirohi, had to pay "heavy price" for allegedly violating Indian Forest
Conservation Act, 1980 and Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, sources
said.

The state government had to create a special post to "accommodate"
energy commissioner V Jayashankar in the welfare department.
Jayashankar has been made commissioner (disabilities).

Similarly, Sirohi, commissioner, water resources development
department, has been "shunted" to Bihar state planning board as an
advisor. Sirohi had earlier also served as home secretary during the
Nitish regime.

The department of personnel and administrative reforms has already
issued a notification to this effect.

Senior IAS officer Ravi Kant, who was holding the post of the
secretary, department of personnel and administrative reforms since
long, has been shifted to the department of cooperative in the same
capacity.

COMPFED managing director (MD) Amir Subhani will replace Ravi Kant in
the department of personnel and administrative reforms. Registrar
(cooperatives) Atish Chandra will replace Subhani as COMPFED MD.

Agriculture production commissioner (APC) A K Sinha will be the new
water resources department commissioner. M S Madhavan, who was on
foreign assignment, has been made new APC. The secretary, department
of cooperatives, B B Srivastava has been made new revenue and land
reforms commissioner.

State planning board advisor Anand Vardhan Sinha has been made
secretary to the lokayukta, Bihar, while the CMD of Bihar state
housing board Anil Kumar has been made animal husbandry department
commissioner.

Building secretary Arun K Singh has been given additional charge of
housing board.Munger divisional commissioner Rajesh Gupta has been
made new energy secretary.

Excise secretary S P Sinha has been given additional charge of IG
(registration). Additional secretary (forest and environment) B P
Sharma has been made registrar (cooperatives).

Asia`s biggest cattle fair Sonepur Mela begins
Sonepur (Bihar), Nov 05: The Bihar government will place a bill in the
assembly during the winter session for constituting an authority to
oversee popular fairs in the state.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar made the announcement after inaugurating
the month-long Sonepur Mela, billed as Asia's biggest cattle fair.

Cows, buffaloes, camels, horses and elephants are on sale at the fair.

Stalls dealing with household goods, clothes, woolens and other daily
items have come up at the venue. Theatres, where small-time artistes
sing and dance on Bollywood numbers have also pitched their tents.

Several government departments and the Indian Railways have also set
up their stalls to apprise the people about their projects.

Bureau Report

Ex-CM's kin can't make ends meet
Prabhakar Kumar
CNN-IBN
Posted Sunday , November 05, 2006 at 10:05
Updated Sunday , November 05, 2006 at 11:33

REALITY BITES: Shastri's family has been trying to get a house under
the Indira Awas Yojana but has been unsuccessful.

Purnea (Bihar): Shiya Devi is a daily wager and a mud house is her
only property. These are tough times for her and her family but there
was a time when the family was held in high-esteem. Shiya Devi is the
daughter-in-law of three-time Bihar chief minister, Bhola Paswan
Shastri.

Shastri's family is now struggling to get a house under the Indira Awas Yojana.

"We work very hard to sustain ourselves. If we don't work we will
starve," Shiya Devi said.

Shastri had been Bihar chief minister thrice from 1968 to 1972. A
Dalit, he was widely perceived to be an honest man. Yet, it is only a
neglected statue, a signboard and a photo that brings back his
memories in this village.

His family has been trying to get a house under the Indira Awas
Yojana, but has been unsuccessful.

"There should be some help for people like us. There is widespread
unemployment and one has to find solutions for it. There are no job
cards also," Shastri's grandson, Mahesh Paswan said.

"The Shastri family is in a very bad condition. The entire family
works in other people's farms. They don't get medicines from the
hospital and neither do they have a house," a villager, Baiju Ram
said.

It's ironical that on one hand the people of Bihar swear by the name
of Bhola Paswan Shastri's honesty and on the other hand his family is
living in such penury.

(With inputs from Puja Mishra)

Bihar's islands of prosperity

Statesman News Service

PATNA, Nov 4. - For Bihar's big-time politicians, charity always
begins at home and does not go much farther. Mr Lalu Prasad's native
village of Phulwaria, his in-laws' hamlet of Selar Kalan and the
official residence of Mr Nitish Kumar reveal it. Phulwaria and Selar
Kalan are islands of prosperity in virtually penurious Gopalganj
District.
Phulwaria has a fenced-in helipad, a power sub-station, a police
station, a block-cum-anchal office, a registry office, a post office,
a 30-bed hospital named after Mr Prasad's mother, the late Marchhia
Devi, a water tower, a guest house, a computerised branch of the State
Bank of India, a water tank, a middle school and a 10+2 school. Its
roads are made of concrete.
At Selar Kalan, a huge Gokul Dwar named after Mrs Rabri Devi's
grandfather welcomes visitors, who then step forth on a cemented road.
Electricity is abundant and television sets are ubiquitous. The
government has so far spent around Rs 12 crore on doing up the
official residences of the chief minister, ministers and National
Democratic Alliance members. More than Rs 10 lakh is reported to have
been spent on renovating Mr Kumar's abode and the work continues, with
a gate being set into the north-east corner of the house in accordance
with vastushastra.
A south-east gate is being closed and the boundary wall, complete with
iron grilles, is being raised higher. About Rs 9.75 lakh was said to
have been spent on a waterproof pandal, carpets and chairs for the
chief minister to be able to meet the people. His secretariat now has
glazed tiles and computers. The state government is Rs 42,483 crore in
debt, though.

Boom! Bhojpuri films are here to stay
ibnlive.com

Posted Saturday , November 04, 2006 at 15:37

BHOJPURI BOOM: The Bhojpuri film Ganga starring Amitabh Bachchan is
doing good business.

New Delhi: After being ignored for years, the Bhojpuri film industry
is finally getting its due.

Bhojpuri films are not only reaping rich dividends at the box office
but also attracting the attention of Bollywood bigwigs like Amitabh
Bachchan, Dilip Kumar and Jeetendra.

While the Amitabh starrer Ganga is doing very good business, thespian
Dilip Kumar has written the script for a film to be produced by his
wife Saira Banu and Jeetendra is in talks to star in a Bhojpuri film.

There are rumours Konkona Sen Sharma could also act in a Bhojpuri film.

"Around 50 Bhojpuri films are released in a year. Every week there is
one release," Mumbai-based film publicist Ashok Bhatia said.

The industry, which is re-surfacing slowly, churns out moderate budget
films that do well in the rural hinterland of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

These have benefited from the highly glamourised recent Bollywood
potboilers, which are aimed at the NRI audience.

"Single theatres in small regions in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh don't run
these big-budgeted Bollywood films as they focus on the NRI audiences.
The B and C grade audiences don't like them. They prefer Bhojpuri
films instead," said Bhojpuri filmmaker Alok Kumar.

Kumar has made two films Raja Bhojpuriya and Ho Gail Ba Pyaar Odhaniya
Waali Se, which has completed 100 days in Mumbai.

"Earlier, it used to be family-oriented emotional dramas. But now the
audiences like to watch masala flicks. So the current films are
modelled on the Hindi hits of the 70s and 80s," said Kumar.

Making a Bhojpuri film is cheap compared to the crores spent on a
single Bollywood film.

They cost around Rs 70-80 lakh and the biggest Bhojpuri stars like
Ravi Kishan or Manoj Tiwari apparently charge Rs 25 lakh per film - a
nominal amount compared to what the Hindi film heroes command.

"We have to keep the budget in control because we don't have access to
all the theatres in the country. And we don't get instant results. We
recover our cost, but not immediately," added Kumar.

Talking about the overseas market, Kumar said, "There is a demand for
Bhojpuri films overseas but proper infrastructure is not there. I
would love to screen my films there. Music albums of Bhojpuri films
are going there and are very popular."

Bhojpuri film actors, following in the footsteps of Bollywood stars,
are all set to woo global fans with live performances.

Members of the Bhojpuri film fraternity, which has seen a phenomenal
growth in the last few years, have joined hands to organise their
first star-spangled stage show called Bhojpuri Hungama with 20 shows
planned in various parts of India and across the world.

Bhojpuri film industry witnessing a boom
Sunday November 5 2006 00:00 IST

IANS

NEW DELHI: After being ignored for years, the Bhojpuri film industry
is finally getting its due.

Bhojpuri films are not only reaping rich dividends at the box office
but also attracting the attention of Bollywood biggies like Amitabh
Bachchan, Dilip Kumar and Jeetendra.

While the Amitabh starrer "Ganga" is doing very good business,
thespian Dilip Kumar has written the script for a film to be produced
by his wife Saira Banu and Jeetendra is in talks to star in a Bhojpuri
film.

There are rumours Konkona Sen Sharma could also act in a Bhojpuri film.

"Around 50 Bhojpuri films are released in a year. Every week there is
one release," Mumbai-based film publicist Ashok Bhatia told IANS.

The industry, which is re-surfacing slowly, churns out moderate budget
films that do well in the rural hinterland of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

These have benefited from the highly glamorised recent Bollywood
potboilers, which are aimed at NRI audiences.

"Single theatres in small regions in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh don't run
these big-budgeted Bollywood films as they focus on the NRI audiences.
The B and C grade audiences don't like them. They prefer Bhojpuri
films instead," said Bhojpuri filmmaker Alok Kumar.

Kumar has made two films "Raja Bhojpuriya" and "Ho Gail Ba Pyaar
Odhaniya Waali Se", which has completed 100 days in Mumbai.

To cater to the audience' taste for fast-paced action, the
family-oriented Bhojpuri films had to morph into the masala genre.

"Earlier, it used to be family-oriented emotional dramas. But now the
audiences like to watch masala flicks. So the current films are
modelled on the Hindi hits of the 70s and 80s," said Kumar.

Making a Bhojpuri film is cheap compared to the many millions spent on
a single Bollywood film.

They cost around Rs 7-8 million and the biggest Bhojpuri stars like
Ravi Kishan or Manoj Tiwari apparently charge Rs 2.5 million per film
- a nominal amount compared to what the Hindi film heroes command.

"We have to keep the budget in control because we don't have access to
all the theatres in the country. And we don't get instant results. We
recover our cost, but not immediately," added Kumar.

Ravi, who is the superstar of Bhojpuri films, said: "I have worked
very hard to popularise this language, which was looked down upon as a
C-grade vernacular language. I am from Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, and
love my language. I decided to market it in a way that would make it
an international phenomenon. And see... we are now going to have our
first Bhojpuri concert across the globe."

Over 270 million people speak and understand Bhojpuri and the Bhojpuri
diaspora is based in countries like Mauritius, Ghana, West Indies,
Fiji, Nepal, Dubai, Indonesia, and the Netherlands.

Talking about the overseas market, Kumar said: "There is a demand for
Bhojpuri films in those countries but proper infrastructure is not
there. I would love to screen my films there. Music albums of Bhojpuri
films are going there and are lapped up."

Bhojpuri film actors, following in the footsteps of Bollywood stars,
are all set to woo global fans with live performances.

Members of the Bhojpuri film fraternity, which has seen a phenomenal
growth in the last few years, have joined hands to organise their
first star-spangled stage show called "Bhojpuri Hungama" with 20 shows
planned in various parts of India and across the world.

Amitabh starrer "Ganga" - a Bhojpuri film produced by his make-up man
Deepak Sawant, is doing good business.

"There is a huge craze for Bhojpuri films and people will start
respecting them after the international shows. Shweta Tiwari of
'Kasauti Zindagi kii' fame is also joining us. Actresses Nagma and
Rambha are also part of this concert," said Ravi.

In India, Bhojpuri films are now gaining popularity beyond the
boundaries of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Said Arun Kumar Singh, a Delhi-based teacher from Bihar: "We live away
from our home. Whenever we are homesick, Bhojpuri films provide us
emotional succour. We are able to connect to the films because they
show our culture and tradition."

Now Bollywood ace choreographer Saroj Khan is directing a Bhojpuri
movie, director Tinnu Verma is remaking a Bollywood hit, "Mera Gaon
Mera Desh" in Bhojpuri, and Bollywood singer Udit Narayan is producing
a Bhojpuri film called "Kab Hoi Gauna Hamar".

Apart from that, producers like Subhash Ghai, are foraying into
Bhojpuri films and so are Hindi movie stars.

Ukrainian actress Tanya has just completed shooting for "Firangi Dulhaniya".

Bihar to get eight new private medical colleges
Sunday November 5 2006 00:00 IST
newindexpress.com

IANS

PATNA: Eight new private medical colleges are set to open in Bihar as
two US and six Indian firms have submitted proposals to invest in the
health sector.

"The Bihar State Investment Promotion Board (SIPB) has approved the
proposals for eight new medical colleges in the private sector," said
a state official on condition of anonymity.

"This heralds the beginning of big private investments in the health
sector," he added.

According to SIPB sources, two US firms, owned by NRIs, have submitted
separate proposals for opening medical colleges in Patna.

Medical World4U, a company owned by Ashok Kumar, a US-based doctor, is
to set up a medical college and super-speciality hospital here with an
investment of Rs 1.4 billion.

Another firm called Indo-American Medical Foundation is to invest Rs 1
billion in setting up a college.

Bettiah, in west Champaran district, has attracted two proposals - one
by Medicontrivers India Ltd and the other by Kerala-based Universal
Empire Group.

Rajeshwar Thakur, a doctor in the Bihar capital, is to invest Rs 3
billion and the Hai Medical and Research Institute Pvt Ltd has
proposed a project worth Rs 80 million.

In Bhojpur district's Ara town, the Ambedkar Medical and Technical
Education Trust has proposed a Rs 350 million project.

SIPB has also approved a proposal by the Lord Buddha Educational Trust
to open a medical college and hospital in Saharsa district with an
investment of Rs 1 billion.

Bihar currently has six medical colleges and hospitals and all are state-owned.

From Bihar to Broadway
- New York-based lawyer directs play on Ramanujan
SANTOSH SINGH
Telegraph, Nov. 2, 2006

Patna, Nov. 1: New York-based corporate lawyer Bhavna Thakur is
equally at home at spinning a web of logic as she is pulling off a
stage act.

The 28-year-old legal eagle, who hails from a non-descript village at
Madhubani in Bihar, is now busy unravelling the method and the madness
of Srinivasa Ramanujan, the maths wizard, who clawed his way up from
the alleys of Chennai to being recognised as Fellow of Trinity and a
Fellow of Royal Society in England.

The "Bihari" at heart, who did her schooling graduated from National
School of Law India University in Bangalore, has donned the hat of the
artistic director of The First Class Man, a play on the Indian
mathematician who made clinching contributions to number theory and
modular functions.

Given to directing plays and acting since his school days, Bhavna, the
daughter of IAS Ajay Thakur, a planning board adviser in the state,
told The Telegraph in an e-mail from New York that a tale of John
Nash, another mathematics genius, acted as a trigger for her current
project.

"Ramanujan came into my mind when I saw A Beautiful Mind. I felt that
the Indian genius was unrecognised," she said. Around the same time,
Bhavna also read Ramanujan's biography The Man Who Knew Infinity
authored by Robert Kanigel. "It is cut out for a theatre," Bhavna
further said.

The play, she added, explores the complex quotient between Columbia
University mathematician G.H. Hardy's world of scientific orthodoxy
and Ramanujan's spiritual relationship with numbers.

Bhavna, the co-founder of Alter Ego Foundation, a non-profit theatre
company, produced the play after a conference at Columbia University,
her alma mater (she did her LLM from here), with top professors from
Princeton, New York University and Columbia.

Written by David Freeman, the 2-hour-20-minute play opened on October
5 at the 45th Street Theatre in New York. And it's already caught the
fancy of the audience in the Big Apple it seems. "The audience loved
it. Some, mostly Indians, had some comments on the costumes and the
accents but, that apart, we had an overwhelming response," Bhavna
said.

Experts moot Indo-Nepal railway link
Kumod Verma
[ 3 Nov, 2006 0330hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]


PATNA: With the completion of the 1956-km rail link between China and
Tibet recently, technical experts of the Indian Railways have once
again reiterated the need of laying a direct rail link between Birganj
and Kathmandu, a distance of about 200 km, in the larger interest of
the two countries.

This ambitious project, which could be launched as a joint venture of
the two countries, is likely to incur an expenditure of about Rs 1,500
crore.

According to the technical experts, Nepal has been keen to lay railway
tracks between Kathmandu and Indian border in Bihar. Since the railway
tracks are already in existence up to the Indo-Nepal border, rail
connectivity is only required from the Himalayan kingdom capital,
Kathmandu, they said, adding a study was earlier conducted by the two
countries, but the project could not get the approval of the two
countries on one or the other pretext.

Former chief engineer and technical expert of the railways G N Sahay
said unless the Indian Railways lends its helping hand to the project,
it will be impossible to carry out such an ambitious project. The new
rail link will also help both the countries in improving their
socio-economiccondition as well. That apart, it will also help in
keeping a close vigil on the activities of extremists and subversive
forces, he said.

According to him, the Indian Railways could take up this project on
the pattern of the Konkan Railways, keeping in view the fact that the
entire route is dotted with difficult terrains. The estimated cost
will be thus Rs 10 crore per km in the terrain areas only. Otherwise,
the proposed Kathmandu to Indian border (Bihar) route is feasible for
laying railway tracks, he said.

The technical experts said the proposed Hajipur-Sugauli new railway
line could serve as a dedicated corridor for the railway traffic,
linking it directly to Kathmandu. It would also give a boost to the
economy of Nepal since food items, including salt, milk, fertilisers,
coal, heavy machineries and metal ores, could be easily transported to
that country through the rail route from India, they said.

Kathmandu has been a popular place for both tourists as well as
pilgrims. The direct rail link will certainly facilitate their visit
there. The rail link is most preferable in the sense that it is six
times more energy efficient than the road transport.

Besides, the Indian defence ministry has also expressed its desire to
extend the railway network up to Nepal to keep a close watch on the
activities of subversive elements. The sudden spurt in Maoists
activities have been of great concern for India.