Bibhuti's News & Views

My Best Wishes for Strong, Healthy and Prosperous India in the Year 2010

2009-12-31T21:02:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,
The year 2009 has just become the past, gave us insight to fight against social and political evils. The internal and external outfits are dangerous for civil society who are among us. Certainly some of them are result of repurcussion and some of them are like demons (Rakshash) which is developing within us because of negative interpretation of situtions.

The political evils who wish to go India in medieval ages; who wish to see India “ a fractured nation without Identity”; who wish to differentiate own people in the name of language, region and religion; who doesn’t wish to develop India at all; who doesn’t wish to spread sense of nationality among us, are the real threat for India being strong and prosperous nation of the world.

To fight against these, our civil society must be strong and people must discard these evils. Therefore, I do wish, Year 2010 would make our civil, natioanalist forces strong so that all of us prosper in Healthy and Strong India.

On Behalf of BiharBrains Family, my heartiest wishes and regards goes to all members.

May God bless you to fulfill your dreams in the year 2010.

Warm regards

Bibhuti Bikramaditya
Chairman,BiharBrain s(BBrains Development Society)

Bifurcation of states and Development of India

2009-12-11T20:07:00.001-08:00

Indian states were said to be formed on the basis of language and it was perhaps thought that same language people can mix up and communicate easily and therebye develop themself. But I feel, it became true under limitation of uniting same language people, It didn't give much output in terms of development. I didn't see any states of India or any big cities of India which became developed because of same language. We must understand and be clear that for development, mean minded attitude will not work in any parts of the world.

Now come to Tilangana and newly formed states in 2000. Lets discuss first the development of newly formed states in 2000. The statistics given by Gowri jee is fine, its true as far as statistics are concerned.

But I feel, after separation from Bihar, main focus of developmnet of Adivasis (TRIBES) are same which were with Bihar. Govt. of Jharkhand which is said to be formed for the development of Adivasis, could n't develop them. Yes, some roads have been built in Ranchi and Jamshedpur. Is this only meaning of developmnet? I didn't see any progress in Jamshedpur, Bokaro, Dhanbad which are heartland of India.
Jamshedpur has potential to become best industrial city of India; Dhanbad, Bokaro and all coal field cities should be become one of the mega cities of India because these places are heart for coal mines and other energy and power sector. If Jharkhand stops providing these minerals to other states of India, the development of other states will be stopped. Thanks for frieght equalisation policy of India.

But go there and see,only Bokaro steel plant looks good; outside steel plant, development is almost none, Only Jamshedpur Township is beautiful;outside township, you will feel the difference. Moreover, there is a complete anarchy in Jharkhand which has become worst than Bihar though 80% of economies were coming from these places when it was in Bihar.

Come to Chhatisgarh and Uttarakhand, I didn't see much developmnet after bifurcation of
state. yes, Raipur and Dehradun are developing. What about outside state capital.. I didn't visit Chhatishgarh but visited Uttrakhand. This state is beautiful, scenaries are good.. these are the good spots for tourism too.
But the importance of these places were same when they were with MP or UP or Bihar. These states didn’t produce result as much it was expected. Question is why? Answer is very simple; There is a case of attitude and mentality. Politicians of India are not visionary ; they just want to earn for their family and friends. Some politicians are now talking about dividing many states for the development of the region but I am sure, it won’t suffice purpose. It will put extra burden of economy for the creation of the states and political “adda” for so called “mean development”.

Now come to Tilangana, Can anybody say that after bifurcation, tilangana will be developed within 10 years and will be on par with Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat and Maharashtra. My answer is no. I don’t see any visionary leadership in KCR or present CM of Andhra or even later YSR. If development is meant only in Hyderabad and Vijaywada, I am sorry..I don’t want that kind of India. Because place centric development raises always case of dissatisfaction among other people. Today Tilangana and rest Andhra people are fighting for Hyderabad. Later they will fight for their next good place like Vijaywada and say that we want more states within this reason. The dissatisfaction among people will always present if we don’t develop each cities and villages of India. As a result they demand more no. of states .. Dividing India in again 552 Riyasat and some big states will put us in medieval times. Sometimes I feel, Indian leaders has started doing the same for their mean political agenda and success of their short term goal. This is dangerious portents and negative factor for the dream of developed India. In my view, Just making separate states in the name of culture or langauage is not solution and also is not means of development. We must adopt culture of development;

This is my cause of concern.

Keep Development Agenda of Bihar

2009-11-06T22:13:00.000-08:00

Recently in 2-3 years, there is trend of keeping people of Bihar out of the other states of India. The recent remark of CM of MP has certainly raised many questions about India being nation. People sitting on highest constitutional seat making humourous and unconstitutional remarks. More than that being sincere citizen of India, I can say, this trend is alarming and can be repeated against other states too. My cause of concern is that our central govt is becoming week which is against the vision of our first Prime minister Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru who fought and gave us strong India. This was one of the reasons of bifurcation of India and Pakistan. He was against weak center. I admire Nehru for this. But gradually our center is becoming week and states are becoming strong. Thanks to some states who developed themselves and center who doesn’t look towards weeker states.
North eastern and eastern states of India are poor and week. Central govt. has not paid attention on the development of these states. In eastern India, Bihar is the best example of this. There is one think tank among educated people of India why Bihar has not developed themselves when other states were doing so. Bihar had all resources.
When I see this point, I find yes, this is the fact that when other states were developing themselves, Bihar leader were enjoying power, not doing anything for the state. No development activites can be seen in post indepedence era . Bihar leaders and those were in power made money for their family and friends. Similarly I feel, educated people of Bihar, industrialists of Bihar and those who has performed well in national and international forums are also responsible for this awkward situation. They hate Bihar like other states and other nation people. They didn’t do anything for their region/village and even for their own family. My major cause of concern is that.

But Now also, time has not passed.I would suggest, don't be frusterated...Think positively, Do good ,satisfy yourself and try to understand others;then help if you can, try to make pressure on politicians to perfom well. Let our politician understand what people like or dislike. try to build trust among people..

Make healthy society like other states of India. I see the development of MH was result of cooperative movement. People in MH (Maharashtra) make society and help others. I feel, we need this kind of society in bihar. We must throw feudal mentality into infinite range of destination. If you become successful in building your career, try to help others.

If you see Biharis in other countries, they are very few in numbers and those who go outside country don't help others to go there. But see people of tamil nadu and Maharashtra, if one person goes to foreign countries, they bring 10 of his friends /family members to that country. They really help others But we don't. This is the mentality of most people in Bihar. We must change that. Here GOvt. doesn't say. neither central nor state govt. comes in between. I want to say, just build up attitude of help each other.. see the result. I am sure this will lead to another silent revolution in the state.
I feel people of Bihar talks more, do less, We must adopt mentality of talking less and doing more.
The situation of Bihar is pathetic but curable.

Govt,and society both can play vital role in rebuilding and re-glorifying our state. Govt has much responsibility but Society has also many things to do for the common mass. lets accept this responsibility and act progresively. Development is the answer of most of our problems. So please come forward for the cause of development of the state and our mother India.

Pokharan’98 and Govt. Nuclear Diplomacy

2009-09-21T09:12:00.000-07:00

On May, 11 &13, 1998, India conducted three serial underground nuclear blast at Pokharan, namely (i) Atom bomb, (ii) Hydrogen Bomb & (iii)Low yield Devices.
In all of the three, today our chief concern is about the hydrogen bomb explosion, which is a thermo nuclear device. This is because, we had already tested Atom Bomb explosion, which is a fission device, at the same place, 24 yrs ago in May 1974 which is yielded about 5.1 on Richer Scale equivalent to about 12 kilo tone and only a marginal improvement has been reported in the Shakti 98 (pseudonym for Pokharan II explosion given by Vajpayee govt.) And as far as low yield device is concerned, it can not be placed in the list of astonishing scientific advancement that could cause flurry of hot debates.
The success of nuclear explosion is measured from the yield, which results from the nuclear explosion. The yield or total energy of a thermonuclear device is generally expressed in mega tonnes (“one megaton is 1000 kilo tones and one kilo tonne is 1000 tonnes of equivalent of chemical explosives.
In seventies, china conducted thermonuclear device and the yield was found to be about 6 megaton’s.
The first thermo-nuclear test was conducted by US in 1951 followed by USSR in1993. It is said that yield found by USSR was about 500-mega tone which is about 84 times more than that of china. But we found, is no more secret now, you will see later, is definitely confusive.
“ The new Scientists” (May 23,98) reported an assessment by Dr. Frode Ringdal, scientific director of the Norwegian Seismic array near Oslo, which is also a part of global network,’ that blast(May 11) registered clearly in Pakistan, Canada, Russia, Australia and here(Oslo).All the traces show, it was almost 15tonnes.
“Seismological Research Letters”(sept,98) cared an article” the May 1998-India and Pakistan Nuclear test” containing an analysis of data of 22 monitoring station around the world with conclusion that May11,explosion had a combined force of no more than 15 kilotonne,so small that they involved a less sophisticated fission bomb than the thermonuclear bomb.
According to Mr. Gregory Evan Vink,Director of Planning at Incorporated Research Institute of Seismology, the seismic signal about explosion, was found to be .4 which is he thought ,10 to 25 kilotons.
More or less, the Japanese scientists and the British Scientist estimated the same yield.
Mr. Gregory E.Van Vink is also the expert advertising US Congress and Clinton Administration, he reported the congress that either Indian thermo nuclear device failed completely or what ever yield that had been recorded, was entirely from the boosted fission device.
Experts at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Princeton University and the Incorporated Research Institute of Seismology at consortium of 90-research University that operates a global network of 100 seismic monitoring stations, endorsed the upper data.
At Princeton, Mr. Frank Von.Hippal, a physicist and Ex- Assistant Director for the national security in the white house office of science and technology policy, said, “it seems pretty convincing to me”.
But the data’s collected by Indian seismological centers and the claim of prominent Indian scientists (like Chidambaram, kalam, Dr.Sikka and Anil kakodkar) was rather different.
While delivering a press conference, Dr.Chidambaram reported that serial blast occurred in India at Pokharan in May 98 had a following device wise yield:

On May 11,98
(i) Fission device (atom bomb)-15 kilotons
(ii) Low yields device-0.2 kilotons.
(iii) Thermonuclear device comprises-
a. Fission device: 12 kilotons.
b. Fusions device:45 kilotons
Total: 57 kilotons
On MAY 13, 98
Two sub kilotons device exploded, gave 0.5 kilotons and 0.3 kilotons yield respectively.
That means, the yield found by Indian seismological center was about 57 kiloton but magnitude just 5.2 on Richter scale. This is also astonishing. Only a margin of 0.1 (5.2 in 1998 & 5.1 in 1974) on Richter scale, there is a difference of 45 kilotons (57-12 =45 kilotons). Is it believable? When asked about the reason behind this, he replied the reason for low values recorded by international seismic sensors was the simultaneous triggering of the three devices-(i) fission device (ii) low yield device & (iii) the thermo nuclear device on May11, 1998.
According to him, the simultaneous explosion caused interference of shock waves traveling through the earth and resulted in a low value seismic data at the international seismological centers. If it is true, one can ask, how the shock waves had no interference at Indian seismic centers.
Clarifying this, Dr.Sikka (who was monitoring his team to assess the yield) said that the final result of the yield gives by us is after cross checking of different data’s.
This type of claims and counter claims is certainly not convincing but looks very elusive.
Dr. B.K.Subha Rao, an eminent Nuclear scientist at IIT, Mumbai has also written an open letter to the Prime Minister on dated 22 Sept. 98 (published in the HINDU on 27oct.,98)urging him to order a judicial inquiry into Pokharan 98. According to him, Dr.kalam and Chidambaram have made a great fool to the nation.

GOUND YIELD REALITY
Now two points are very clear:
(i). Yield reported in many different seismological centers of India and abroad varied from 5.1 to 92 on Richter Scale and therefore, controversial equivalent energy gained also varied from 25 kiloton to 57 kilotone.we could not achieve the standard yield level of one megaton .we were far behind.
(ii). Therefore claiming that the data’s collected by our scientists are satisfactory and exhilarious, is certainly a farce. This is unresistingly true at least in comparison to four other nuclear states like America, UK, Russia and China.
Now, this is not question whether India conducted thermonuclear device test explosion, but this is very necessary to see how much extent test succeeded achieving the yield. In the context, our results were not up to the mark. This is the ground reality.
I am not anyway going to belittle the scientific efforts and the advancement they made but attempts should necessarily be made to do further nuclear test in order to find standard yield of the order of mega tones as also Russian defense analyst claims. According to the Russian analysts, India must have to test at least 4 more nuclear explosions for the minimum credibility.

NUCLEAR DIPLOMACY

Our govt. became overjoyed for this splendid endeavor of the scientists at Pokharan. Just after explosion, India clarified her nuclear diplomacy based on the three declared intensions of a minimum credible deterrent, of no firt use and willingness to go beyond the moratorium on test towards CTBT and FMCT.
What is meant for maintaining minimum credible nuclear deterrent, we do not know and has not been defined properly? This is abstruse.
No first use is welcome event for the sake of universal brotherhood. But this is very unlogistic and unfavorable efforts to generate favorable public opinion for allowing the govt. to sign CTBT. Now, there will be very possibility of the American govt. supporting India to get permanent seat in the UN Security council. Perhaps, this is the clear result drawn by India after recent Clinton visits. Thanks to Clinton sahib for dispelling the doubts that he is the super boss, controlling the world in very astute manner.
But we must not forget that at the cost of only a marginal scientific advancement, selling of national interest is dangerous and the nuclear diplomacy based on the false claims can be dangerous to the national security.
This is the cause of serious concern.
The govt. must pay attention to that.

(This article was not published by any of the media in 1998)

Outstanding Biharis; Non-Biharis Honored

2009-09-19T02:38:00.000-07:00

News Related to "Bihar Asmita Samman award, 2009".

http://www.biharbrains.org/biharbrains-bihar-asmita-samman-2009.php

Outstanding Biharis; Non-Biharis Honored
Patna: September 12, 2009

Twenty-seven persons, including 15 Non-Resident Biharis and 5 non-Biharis, were honored at a function organized by the Bihari Helpline at the Sri Krishna Memorial Hall in Patna on Saturday for their invaluable contributions towards bringing accolades to the state in a number of fields including education and entertainment.

Former Governor Kailashpati Mishra and Jagatguru Shankaracharya Swami, following the opening ceremony featuring a religious song by noted singer Chhabi Pandey, presented shawls and mementos to Bhojpuri film star Manoj Tiwari, Bihar Brains chairperson Bibhuti Bikramaditya, physician Dr. Arun Tiwari, educationist Shatrughan Kumar, ISKCON Patna chairperson Krishna Kripadas, journalist Firoz Ashraf, Bhojpuri linguist Dr. Arunesh, Bus driver Kuldeep Singh who lost both of his eyes while trying to save passengers in a bomb blast, journalist Dr. Kumar Saptarshi, social activists Shakeel Ahmed Fatami and Sudha Varghese, and a number of other prominent citizens for their outstanding contributions in bringing name and fame to Bihar.

Manoj Tiwari, who is a well-known name in the Bhojpuri world for bringing a number of characters alive on the silver-screen, said his company Ashwini Group was working on a new film based on Chhath Puja and Sri Satyanarayan Katha that would essentially bring both legends to the bigger screen that had remain untouched by filmmakers until now.

"This award is a gift to our organization "BiharBrains" that has become a global development forum for Bihar," said Bikramaditya in an email to PatnaDaily.Com adding the honor goes to all the members of BiharBrains whose guidance, support, and cooperation provide impetus to the execution of various projects in Bihar.

Click here for more

Bihar Asmita Samman Award, 2009

2009-09-19T02:29:00.000-07:00

I am very Happy to Know that I got "Bihar Asmita Samman, 2009" award by Bihar Helpline foundation. Its really a great honor for me and my organization "BBrains Development Society" popularly known as "BiharBrains".
This is the result of our consistent honest effort in the direction of executing development projects in Bihar.
This award goes to all our members whose guidance, support and cooperation boost us to execute projects in Bihar. Hope, it would be continued till infinite.
Hats off to all our members.

Bibhuti Bikramaditya

IITP/Central University still landless:What happened to govt?

2009-06-04T21:28:00.000-07:00

This is so bad to hear that IIT Patna is still landless. They didn't get 500 acre land which govt. has proposed near Bihta. As a result, IITP has not started yet its infrastructural plan which would take not less than 3 years. This means IIT has to be accomodated three acacemic years in Pataliputra Polytechnic which is in very shabby condition. The whole Pataliputra colony gets submerged in rainy season which affects academic activties too. I don't know why govt is taking time in handing over land to IITP.

The same thing is happeneing in the case of Central University. It was earlier proposed that it would be opened in Motihari, And also there is confusion whether it is Motihari or in Patna because Central govt has appointed VC for this proposed central university who already arrived in Patna, and waiting for govt orders.Central University has to start its academic activity from this year. But still govt couldn't able to provide land in Patna or Motihari.

Aryabhatt Technical University: is also proposed, Bill has already passed. In a telephonic conversation with one of the highest DST Bihar officials, he told that this university has already appointed VC who is professor of IIT Delhi. As per govt. plan, they would start this university in a temporary campus at Patna but still couldn't start and there is no updates in this in media.

Similarly Nalanda International University is also running in very slow pace. Govt. must work on its plan. In my view, there should be a team of professors from MIT/Oxford etc univeristies and other reputed universities too in this advisory body of proposed Nalanda International University. Time bound action is neccessary for this chalking out the dream plan. Till today, we are able to organiza meeting with Dr. Kalam, Amartya sen and few foreign ministers and professors from Singapore. As per plan, This university proposal has to be tabled in ASEAN meet. But in my view, If govt has got land of 600 acres, then they take possession. This is neccessary.

All are good plans of govt but I feel govt. officials lack in its execution pace which gives bad image in national and international fora.

Financial allocation and Bihar educational projects

2009-04-08T08:04:00.000-07:00

It looks good that Bihar gets financial aid from the central govt as per their demand. My happiness goes more when Bihar govt spent all money in the financial year. Earlier, there was a time when most part of allocated money were used to returned back to central govt because of lack of plannning and projects.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Patna/Rs-16K-cr-plan-size-okayed-for-Bihar/articleshow/4180007.cms

Thx to present govt for bringing and implementing good projects in Bihar.
I would be very happy if Bihar gets following educational Institutions

1. Nalanda International University : of global standard (MIT/OXFORD)
2. IISER : This instituted is in dire need for Bihar. We are demanding since long.

3. Aryabhatt Knowledge University: is in the stage of formation. I heard news that within a month or two, this university will take shape. One professor of IIT Delhi has been appointed as VC of the proposed university.
4. IIT, Patna : I feel very bad about IIT Patna because of their very bad infrastructure. I don't know why govt gave this polytechnic space for IIT and also amde it "Police Chhawani". The govt should not bargain on the standard of IIT.
I hope, IIT Patna will have good infrastructure in 2-3 years and Then it would function like IIT like status. This would be irony if IIT Patna becomes at the par of IIT K. IITM,IITKH. I would be very happy if IIT Patna produces reseaechers not only enginners.One survey says,all IITs failed to produce researchers, they produce only quality engineers.

Bihar need minimum 100 school of enginneering, management, medical colleges. For this, Private sectors must come to Bihar and invest into this sector. Bihar has enough potential of becoming developed state thru educational rennaissance.

year 2008 : a year of misfortune

2009-01-02T01:08:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,

The year 2008 will be remembered as " a year of misfortune" for the state as well as nation. At state level, Bihar has seen bad days of flood and its devastation. Thousands of people died and lakhs of people became homeless. State govt in association with several NGOs, national and international agencies has started working on rehabilitation work and infrastructural development of the affected region. I hope, year 2009 would bear fruits of happiness among flood affected people.
At national level, India has become weak in internal security. Though terrrorism has become global phenomenon and almost all countries are affected by this. But at the same time, we can not deny some lacunae in our system. There is consensus that we will have to change our intelligence system and police machinary. Our police and security guards must serve the general public, they must not work only for the safeguard of the high profile citizen. The youth of India protested at several places and gave very clear message to our politicians to stop spreading message of hatred within our country, stop taking votes in the name of caste, religion, region and language. I hope, govt will learn something from the mood of the youth and the nation.

Some times, I felt, our unity is at stake. Within India, some greedy, selfish people has started spreading heinous act of regionalism which is against the nationhood. we all condemn and must try to get away this kind of forces if they are around us and within us. govt must take strict action and give space in Jails. I hope, govt in 2009will become more strong and will make strict internal policy and laws which are independent of religion, region, caste and culture. We need one rule and one common system for the best interest of the nation.

Become Tough Now Please

2008-12-02T05:15:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,

Let me thank first for this article to Mohd. M.J.Akbar, a famous editor and writer.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/dec/02mumterror-pakistan-will-have-to-pay-a-heavy-price.htm

Govt must stop this soft policy towards terrorism, regionalism, casteism and all kind of evils which stops India to grow , which divide us in the name of man made inequalities.

I hearly appreciate this man and request all politicians to act.... Don't be moot spectator. Our Hon'ble PM should't be dragged for not doing anything and khichadi for all decisions. Now every eye is on Him what he does for our country.

Become Tough Now Please

World class Univ at Motihari and central University at Patna?

2008-11-25T17:23:00.000-08:00

It seems, under the scheme of central govt for setting up of world class university and Central university in the state, Motihari is becoming destination for world class university.But central univ at Patna has not yet been finalised. Please see the news in TOI.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Patna/Fresh_plea_for_Central_varsity_status_to_PU/articleshow/3758017.cms

Patna Univ is demanding for central univ status whereas central govt asked for new central university at Patna. It seems political circle has not yet finalised the direction. I think, there is no harm now to give Patna university, a status of central university with some terms and conditions to improve their academic standards.

However this is welcome event that World class university is being constituted at Motihari, I heartly appreciate the effort of govt.

Wake up call for Bihar Politicians

2008-11-12T19:38:00.001-08:00

I feel very sad about politicians of Bihar who are in Power in both central as well as the state govt. This is because they are just fighting against each other and not focusing on the development of the state. Though at present, Bihar Politicians are strong in center, they failed to bring many projects in Bihar till today

1. Indian Institute for Science Education and Research, IISER: The demand for establishing this institute by BBrains development Society is long. We submitted report to Bihar govt (51 member committee of BiharBrains). A report has been given on http://www.biharbrains.org/bihar-brains-demand-NISC-IISER.php. In turn Govt of Bihar, put case before Hon'ble CM (you can see on www.dst.bih.nic.in) and Also Hon'ble CM wrote letter to Hon'ble PM about need for the establishment of IISER in Bihar. Bihar Govt has assured the land for this mega project. But I feel, again CM is sleeping. He forgot to give " Bell Ring" to Hon'ble PM. Even though he forgot, where are our central govt leaders from Bihar. What our hon'ble MHRD minister and Hon'ble Railway Minster are doing. I appeal to our Hon'ble MHRD minister to bring IISER in Bihar. Bihar needs plenty no. of R&D organizations in which IISER has great potential to revive its ancient glory of research and development.

2. Indian Institute for Information Technology, IIIT: I heard this news from media that IIIT is going to be established at Darbhanga in Bihar. Hon'ble MHRD Minister has announced in a public meeting. But after that no updates............. What happened to IIIT in Bihar? I again appeal to Hon'ble MHRD state minister to fulfill his promises.

3. Central University and world class University: MHRD ministry has announced to establish one Central University and one world Class University in Bihar. This was also mentioned by our Hon’ble CM during inaugural function of the First Bihar Science Conference organized by BBrains Development Society at Patna. I don't know what the meaning of world Class University is but at least central university can be set up as soon as possible. I do request central govt to start the process of implementing the decision of the cabinet.

Other Possibilities to bring R&D projects in Bihar by Central govt.

1. National Railway University, NRU: Bihar is the fit case for setting up this university. But I think, this idea has not come in the mind of our Hon'ble Railway Minister yet. I appeal to Hon'ble Railway Minister to set up this university in Bihar which will be unique for India and the world.
2. DRDO R&D center/CSIR Labs: In Bihar, there is no DRDO organization and CSIR labs. I do request and appeal to Honb'le PM and our central leaders to please set up at least 10 these organizations in Bihar.

Possibilities to start Projects by State Govt:

1. Aryabhatt Knowledge University : Bihar govt has passed the Bill but I feel there is no development in this. Please do this asap.
2. Patna School of Economics: I feel, on the pattern of Delhi School of ECONOMICS, Patna University or state govt should set up this institute. This type of institutes in Bihar will certainly pave the path for making financial junction of the state.

3. Medical and Engineering Colleges: I feel, there is no good progress on opening Medical and engineering colleges in Bihar by state govt. MCI is not giving certificate to Bihar because of its low standard and also Bihar govt is not satisfying the standard of MCI. This is so bad.

There are plenty no. of such projects required to be installed in Bihar but our politicians are not paying attention on the development. Bihar needs silent revolution of development and show the standard to the world. This is wake up call for all our leaders to develop this undeveloped state.

Wake up call for Bihar Politicians

2008-11-12T19:38:00.000-08:00

Rebuilding Ancient Glory of Education & Research in Bihar

2008-11-06T01:49:00.000-08:00

Bihar is progressing towards rebuilding its ancient glory of education & research. In less than three years, Bihar has got some good national and international repute educational institutes like IIT, NIT,BITS,Central University, many institutes in the field of Pharmaceutical science and research,medical Science, Fashion technology, Law and Management college and some are in pipeline. Let's have look at these center of excellence in Bihar.

Center of Excellence in Bihar
Science & Technology

1.Indian Institute of Technology, Patna: www.iitp.ac.in
2.National Institute of Technology, Patna: www.nitp.ac.in
3.Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Patna: http://www.bitpatna.ac.in/
4.National Institute of Fashion Technology, Patna: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NIFTP
5.National Institute of Pharmaceutical education and Research, Hajipur: http://niper.nic.in/
6.Indira Gandhi Institute of medical sciences, Patna: http://www.igims.org/
7.Patna Science College, Patna: www.patnasciencecollege.in
8.Rajendra Agriculture University, Samastipur : http://www.pusavarsity.org.in/

Law and Management

9.Chanakya National Law University, Patna: http://www.cnlu.ac.in/
10.Chandragupta Institute of Management, Patna: http://www.cimp.org.in/
11.LN Mishra Institute of Economic development and Social change, Patna: http://lnmipat.ac.in/home/index.htm

Social Science and Studies

12.A. N Sinha Institute of Social Studies: http://www.ansiss.org/
13.Asian Development Research Institute, Patna: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Development_Research_Institute
14.Bihar Yoga Bharti, Munger: http://www.yogavision.net/
15.Kameshwar Singh Darbhanga Sanskrit University, Darbhanga: http://www.ksdsu.edu.in/
16.Patna University, Patna: www.patnauniversity.ac.in
17.Patna Women’s college, Patna: www.patnawomenscollege.in
18.Patna College, Patna: www.patnacollege.ac.in
19.A.N College, Patna: http://www.ancollege.org/

World Famous Library

20. Khudabaksh Oriental Public Library : http://kblibrary.bih.nic.in/

Coming up:
1.Nalanda International University, Nalanda: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nalanda_International_University
2.Central University, Patna
3.Aryabhatt Knowledge University: www.dst.bih.nic.in/Documents/APU-Bill-2008-Eng.pdf

Though this is not sufficient; Bihar needs about 150 universities considering the size its population of nearly 10 crore. At Present, we have only twelve traditional universities, one I.I.T. and one law university. We need to expand the teaching and baring facilities at a fast speed to reach the target of developing another nearly 140 universities by 2015 to become a knowledge based society. Only govt. cannot achieve this enormous target.
This requires a public private partnership to achieve such a challenging task and the govt. to accept flexible and supportive approach.
At the present junction of fast changing scenario, BBrains Development Society has a special responsibility of achieving knowledge based society for the state for Bihar. Looking at this, the global scientific council of BBrains Development Society is forming draft for the establishment of the " Pataliputra University of Science and Technology in Bihar. I do hope other majaor players, industrialist, educationist, govt and non govt. agencies would also come forward for investing in Bihar in the field of education and research.
May glorious past of Bihar return back in my life journey !

Local Media news coverage on Bihar Science Conference 2008 published During May 7-May9,2008 part 3

2008-06-28T05:40:00.000-07:00

Local Media news coverage on Bihar Science Conference 2008 published During May 7-May9,2008 part 2

2008-06-28T05:37:00.000-07:00

Local Media news coverage on Bihar Science Conference 2008 published During May 7-May9,2008 part 1

2008-06-28T05:30:00.000-07:00

Govt withdraws,Kalam not to attend : : Hindustan Times exclusive report on Bihar Science Conference 2008

2008-06-27T07:03:00.000-07:00

Collection of Online e-news on First Bihar Science Conference,2008

2008-06-04T06:51:00.000-07:00

Collection of Online e-news on First Bihar Science Conference,2008: Organised by BiharBrains at Department of Physics, Patna University(Patna Science College campus)

1.Dr. Kalam Accepts Invitation to Bihar Science Conference
www.patnadaily.com/news2008/apr/040908/dr_kalam_to_attend_science_convention.html

2. Kalam to address first Bihar Science Conference on May 7
http://news.oneindia.mobi/2008/05/01/612460.html

3.Bihar government asks Kalam to skip conference
http://www.indiaenews.com/politics/20080503/115590.htm
http://www.indiaenews.com/pdf/115590.pdf

http://in.news.yahoo.com/indiaabroad/20080503/r_t_ians_sc/tsc-bihar-government-asks-kalam-to-skip-1bdf89b.html

4. Govt. withdraws from Bihar Science Congress, Kalam not to attend

http://www.bihartimes.com/newsbihar/2008/May/newsbihar03May1.html
5. Please do not come to Bihar: Nitish to Kalam
http://www.mumbaimirror.com/net/mmpaper.aspx?page=article§id=3&contentid=2008050420080504021900651dd9551ef&pageno=1
6.Nitish: scientific research should be used in human interest
Three-day science conference begins
http://magnificentbihar.com/more-news.php?id=679
7.Dr. Kalam not to attend science congress as government withdraws support
http://magnificentbihar.com/more-news.php?id=674
8.Bihar Science Congress 2008 Inaugurated
http://www.voiceofbihar.com/blog/view/id_49/
9.Scientific research must for human beings: Nitish
http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?gid=65&id=569056
10.Jagran`s Coverage

http://in.jagran.yahoo.com/news/local/bihar/4_4_4427484/

11.CM Inaugurates First Bihar Science Conference Conference

http://www.patnadaily.com/news2008/may/050708/science_conference.html

12.Bihar Science Congress uncertain
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/004200805031521.htm
13.

Meet babus who are Bihar proud

2008-04-19T22:35:00.000-07:00

Meet babus who are Bihar proud
- Expatriates continue to help their home state
SANTOSH SINGH
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080407/jsp/jharkhand/story_9104725.jsp

From the state: Navinchandra Ramgoolam
Patna, April 6: While Shiv Sena continues its anti-north India, especially anti-Bihar tirade, unknown faces silently continue to make Bihar and the country proud.

People like Ramesh Yadav, an NRI, who unfolded his plans to construct hotels at Gaya and Rajgir after a global meet in early 2007 — is only one example among several.

Like him there is Sukhanandan, a software expert based in California, who recently visited home district Sitamarhi with a blueprint to start a hospital at Dumra, 60km from Patna.

Its construction would involve as many people from local areas and would offer a mix of allopathic, yoga and ayurvedic cures. Sukhnandan has started acquiring land for his project, due to start after he completes all government formalities.

For the project, Sukhanandan met kindred spirit, senior IPS officer Arvind Pandey, the founder of Biharbhakti Andolan — a campaign to unite people of Bihar.

Talking to The Telegraph, Pandey, currently serving as the deputy inspector-general of police (Tirhut range), said: “I usually request people who visit the Biharbhakti Andolan website to help their state.”

Pandey, originally hailing from Vindhyachal in Uttar Pradesh, has settled in Bihar and feels proud to call himself a “Bihari”.

“We plan to start offices in all districts of the state and in other states and abroad where people from Bihar live to help the state that I call my home,” he adds.

In his website he has found the support of 100-odd NRIs, mostly from Bihar.

Ramraj Pandey, a Muzaffarpur resident now living in USA, recently organised a scientific foresight meet at Patna. He has plans to start an engineering college at his district town.

He is expected in the state later this month.

Vibhuti Vikramadity, a Patna resident living in South Korea, is planning another scientific meet in Patna.

New Delhi-based senior IPS officer revealed his plans to start a scholarship programme from hometown Bhagalpur to promote local brains.

Dr. Kalam Accepts Invitation to Bihar Science Conference

2008-04-16T01:44:00.000-07:00

http://www.patnadaily.com/news2008/apr/040908/dr_kalam_to_attend_science_convention.html

Patna: April 9, 2008
Dr. A. P. J. Kalam, the former President of India, has confirmed his participation as the keynote speaker in the inaugural function of the first Bihar Science Conference being organized by Bihar Brains (BBrains Development Society) and Department of Science and Technology, Govt of Bihar, at Patna scheduled for May 7-9, 2008.

Considering the extreme heat during the week of conference, the committee decided to change the venue from Patna University to Sri Krishna Memorial Hall for the inaugural session the Patna Planetarium auditorium for technical session.

The 3-day conference will be attended by more than 300 scientists from India and abroad including scientists from Oxford University, University of Leeds, Max Planck Research Institute, Germany, Korea and USA, IITs, NITs, IISC, Central Universities and other research institutes in India.

Prominent scientists who are expected to deliver their lecture include Dr. S. E. Hasnain (Member, SAC-PM), Prof Animesh Jha (University of Leeds), Mr. Ashish Kumar (Oxford University), Prof Ruxandra Sitaraeneu (Max Planck Research Institute, Germany), Prof M. K. Mishra, IIT Mumbai, Prof Shibaji Raha (Director, Bose Institute, Kolkata), and Prof Vijay Singh, TIFR, Mumbai.

This was informed by Dr. Jagannath Thakur, chairman of the conference and former Vice Chancellor of Patna University.

This conference is on the pattern of Indian Science Congress in which one university gets "Hosting University status". Patna University is the first hosting university for this conference, Thakur said.

The conference intends to create a platform for the great minds from various subjects to come together for fostering scientific temperament in the state. Experts from various fields are likely to evaluate the existing information, to interpret the presented data, to discuss suitable measures for clear and useful results and finally to explore if collective efforts are promising to achieve favorable working environment for research and development in the state.

Dr. Anil Kumar, state Minister for Science & Technology, Prof Shyam Lal, Vice Chancellor Patna University, Prof I. Ehsan, Pro-Vice Chancellor Patna University, Dr. Y. C. Simadri, (former PU VC), Dr. (Prof) S. E. Hasnain, Scientific Advisor to the Prime Minister of India and the Vice Chancellor of Hyderabad University.

Bibhuti Bikramaditya, Global Chairman, BiharBrains (BBrains Development Society) is the patron of the conference. He was scheduled to be accompanied by Prof J. N. Chatterjee, the former head of Chemistry Department, Patna University, who sadly died just few days back.

“I am very happy to know that Bihar is gearing up for holding its first Bihar Science Conference (Bihar Vigyan Sammelan) which will bring scientists, academicians and young scientist from India and abroad on a common platform for exchanging ideas on the subjects of science and technology,” Dr. Hasnain said about the conference.

More information can be found at www.bbscindia.com/ScienceConference.

Maharashtra episode and govt inaction

2008-03-07T23:59:00.000-08:00

http://www.patnadaily.com/readerswrite/2008/mar/nitesh_ambuj1.html

The recent happenings in MH (Maharashtra) are against the principle of nationhood and are directly related to anti-national activities. In my view, nobody has a right to speak anything against any region of India and beating up is a height of atrocities and this spreading of contempt within regions of India is a dangerous portent. Govt must take strict action against all who are involved in anti-national activities.

http://www.patnadaily.com/readerswrite/2007/mar/b_bikramaditya3.html

But what we feel is that political parties want to take advantage of it. This is the reason why no action has been taken place either by MH govt or by central govt. We seriously condemn this heinous act of central govt as well as state govt of MH.

This is very ridiculous that now every political parties in MH want to grab this opportunities for their vote bank which is dangerous portent of any civil society and against nationality. Mockery of the episode is that CHACHA-BHATIJA of MH started fighting saying he is the "Real MH Manus".

Now let them fight.. Let them make mockery of the nation whatever they can till central govt come out of the sleeping bed. It seems country lacks in visionary leadership. They forgot medieval India times. They forgot how Britishers ruled us ...Our leaders have taken negative lesson from the British how to rule India.... And this is the way.. They are doing....

Though it has pained us much to the great extent but if you see the whole hog the reason behind no action, you can understand. It seems, both govt (state and central) will not do anything because they know very well that economically Bihar is nowhere in India; doesn’t contribute much for India as nation. This is one of the hard fact.

Friends, take it very positively and start contributing in development process of the state.

Let us work towards making strong Bihar. Now this is the high time for this which is the best option for well being of the nation too. Bihar is known for revolution and we have done many revolutions in the past. Now TIME has come for "Silent revolution in Bihar" i.e. for development ".

I saw somewhere written

"The lord is the strength of the strong"

It seems this is true in one sense. Take lesson from south India.. Once they were beaten by same CHACHA in the past and now the same CHACHA-BHATIJA cannot utter any wrong words against them. The reason is simple...

Therefore Make yourself strong and then say others.. Then people will think before beating or saying anything bad. - Bibhuti Bikramaditya, Chairman, BiharBrains, Seoul, S Korea - Mar. 8, 2008

Luminaries to foster science environment in the state

2008-01-26T22:02:00.001-08:00

Luminaries to foster science environment in the state
http://www.magnificentbihar.com/video/biharbrains.htm

24-01-2008

Bihar Science Conference to be held in March

Patna. Come March and Bihar will be buzzing with scientific activities. Dynamic minds of contemporary science world of the country will congregate here to foster scientific temperament in the state during the three-day Bihar Science Conference beginning on March 18.

According to former vice-chancellor of Patna University and well-known astrophysicist Dr Jagnnath Thakur, the conference will explore possibilities of research and development through discussion, interpretation of data and evaluation of existing information.

For last few months the state capital has been witnessing a spurt in academic activities. The conference will be held at Patna University under the aegis of the Bihar Brain Scholastic Centre.

It was decided in a meeting that Bihar Science Congress will be held every year on the lines of Indian Science Congress. The convener of the conference and former head of the department of Physics of Patna Science College, Dr.S.P.Verma said that many renowned scientists from India and abroad had given their consent to participate in the conference.

Giving details, Dr Verma informed that experts like scientific advisor to the Prime Minister and vice-chancellor of Hyderabad University, Dr. S. E. Hasnain, Head of Psychophysics, Max Planck Brain Research Institute of Germany, Dr. (Prof) Ruxandra Sireteanu, Dept of Engineering Sciences of Oxford University, Dr. Bhaskar Choubey, Colorado State University of USA, Dr. Ajay Jha, VC of Sikkim Manipal University, Dr. Jay Kumar and Prof Raman Jha, Head of Physics department of Sikkim Manipal University.

Dr. Hasnain, who is also a patron of the organising committee, said, "I am very happy to know that the state is gearing up for holding its first Bihar Science Conference which will bring scientists, academicians from India and abroad on a common platform for exchanging ideas on the subjects of science and technology."

The organising committee has also decided to extend invitation to Dr. R. K. Pachauri, former President of India, Dr. A.P.J Abul Kalam, former head of ISRO, Prof C.N.R. Rao, renowned astrophysicist and former chairman UGC, Prof Yashpal and heads of CSIR and INSA including secretary of Department of Science & Technology of government of India.

The conference will also have oral and poster presentation which would cover all areas of Physical science, Chemical science, Biological science, Earth science, Electronics and Information Technology. The best presentation in both the sections would be awarded.

Bibhuti Bikramaditya, chairman of BiharBrains, opined that BBrains Development Society commonly known as BiharBrains had given a platform to all educated people of Bihar and would now make an effort to bring science and technology environment in the state on the track. He also said that organising Bihar Science Conference was one such initiative being taken up by BiharBrains.

The names of the patrons of the conference were also shared in the meeting. Those who accepted to become patrons are state minister for Science & Technology, Dr. Anil Kumar, scientific advisor to the Prime Minister of India and vice-chancellor of Hyderabad University, Dr. S. E. Hasnain, renowned scientist and former head of Chemistry Department of Patna University, Prof J. N. Chatterjee and Global Chairman of BiharBrains, Bibhuti Bikramaditya .

PU VC Resigns

2008-01-26T22:02:00.000-08:00

PU VC Resigns

by Bibhuti Bikramaditya
Seoul, S Korea
Jan. 23, 2008
http://www.patnadaily.com/readerswrite/2008/jan/bbikramaditya1.html

I got the news about sacking of Patna University VC, Dr Y C Simadri.

This is once again a serious crisis. The reason for sacking is just because he left France without informing the government. This could have been sorted out by giving a show-cause notice to the VC and a meeting between the VC and the government but sacking/removal of the VC has once again put a question mark; was it necessary? Why politics in education?

In my view, Dr Y C Simadri did laudable work in streamlining sessions, started some professional courses. Popularity of Patna university was gaining momentum. Teachers were taking classes and serious students were happy. Guardians and parents were also happy as their children passing out on time and educational environment was returning to the colleges.

But in Bihar those who wants to do something have to pay heavy price. It seems elite educational circle of Bihar has also become corrupt; they don't want any change in the system.

Personally I do feel that people in Bihar should cooperate if any person is doing something good, Politics in education should be stopped.

Comments:
As I know, the rule in all government sectors for officials is that to take a clearance from the government before leaving the country. Even if you leave the city you must have to give a prior intimation to the organisation. Once people like VC, Director, and chief of the governing body breaks the rule, how do you expect others to obey the rules? - Dr. Manis Kumar Jha, Invited Scientist, South Korea - Jan. 24, 2008
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is really unfortunate as I know well that YC Simhadri has done tremendous job in PU and in fact just due to him PU was getting back on the track. This caused faculties and politicians getting into unrest because they did not like this dynamism of Patna University and professionalism as they had become lazy idiots for long time. PatnaDaily had published photographs of people celebrating his dismissal. Just take a look on their faces and tell me truly that if any one of them even looked like a student or even eligible for the post of peon. But those were the future leaders of Bihar politics, like mosquito larva breeding in the stagnant water!

Just like worms of dirty world they behaved and politicized everything. When such unfortunate things can happen to such premiere institution where sycophancy, politics, inefficiency and corruption are the eligibility criterion to become member, honest and performing faculties and teachers will be humiliated. These are the people and there kind due to which Bihar is being destroyed everyday.

These selfish people never think and bother for the generation, children and future and the mess in which we all are today with Bihar, is just due to this generation and such people who gift only such unfortunate things to the coming and present generation, with no sense of responsibilities.

These are the people who are behind such big outflow of students, children and workforce in the search of basic education and employment. Such people should be thrown out of system and beaten naked in the mid of Patna. Even after so much loss and backwardness they are drunken and misadventuring with future of thousands of students and society which hopes that someday again Bihar would be respected. But such incidences will work like very strong signal to deter the honest and capable leaders and people to take Bihar still seriously and do anything for it.

YC Simhadri is the man who changed the face of BHU and he was exactly doing the same for Patna university. His visionary steps were laudable and within no time he changed many things in PU which was disliked by these dishonest faculty lobbies who had now to work instead of freely taking up salary at the end of month. He streamlined the session and made it regular .... and for this all and such person ..award of this kind has been given by this unfortunate state.. and our CM is sleeping everywhere and emerges only when damage is already done! Mr. Nitish Kumar has no control left otherwise such unfortunate things would never never would have happened. A firm protest by progressive faculties and students against this move is very much needed. Let the education minister, politicians and lobbyists understand that Bihar really want to develop and education is not a kept of politicians! This all has given very bad impression of Nitish Kumar and his ministers who have emerged as a political jokers with no sense of responsibility towards state which needs strong handling and administration and respect for people like Dr. Simhadri instead of sycophants and politicians raping the already dead society and civilization of the State of Bihar!

Now I strongly feel that there is no bad when we find "Bihari" term as an abuse when we go outside Bihar. Thanks to such people, such politicians and such dead society. Who will respect such thankless people who have no vision for future and their own people and children good being and those who still want to pass life as backward parasites of stagnant stinking system?

May God Save Bihar! - Dr. Ravi Shankar - Jan. 24, 2008

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sacking of Mr. YC Simhadri is really disappointing news to the people who are looking for improvement in education in Bihar. This also shows Nitish government's weakness towards bringing the education system back to track. They are used to sycophancy and could not digest an honest man making commendable progress in Patna University. God Bless Bihar. - Sujay Roy - Jan. 25, 2008

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BB Motihari chapter inaugural function news2

2007-12-30T22:46:00.000-08:00

BB Motihari chapter inaugural function

2007-12-30T09:04:00.000-08:00

Appreciative words of Harivansh jee,Chief Editor, Prabhat Khabar

2007-08-09T22:48:00.000-07:00

From: "Harivansh"
To: bikramadityabibhuti@yahoo.com
Subject: published article in Prabhat Khabar
Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2007 10:44:02 +0530
Dear Vibhuti Jee,

I am personally obliged for your comments/ suggestions made for Jharkhand’s progress. We as a newspaper always try to interact with our readers differently. Our main concern is – How we, Hindi States can develop at par with our southern states. Hindi states’ main challenge is our attitude and mindset. How can we start thinking positively, this is our concern and in a limited way we try to address such issues. Your guidance in this challenging task will always be inspiration for us. My collogue Nirala was in touch with you. I express my gratitude for your intervention and suggestion.

Regards,

Harivansh

Investment Possibilities in Bihar and Role of NRIs

2007-08-06T10:44:00.000-07:00

(This article was translated into Hindi by Prabhat Khabar and published on July 11-07)
Bihar is on the path of progress. The new regime in Bihar is taking serious effort in this direction and progresses have been in almost sectors like Infrastructures (Roads, Electricity), Primary & Higher education and more than that progress have been made of even modus- vivendi of common man. In my recent India visit during April-May, 2007, I found that in buses, trains, pan shops, tea shops, hotels and restaurants, people has started about talking about development in Bihar and new perspectives in the changed environment. Even law & order of the state has improved; now you can roam in Patna till late night and other parts of Bihar also that fear has gone. Local businessman community and educated community are now doing have been activated to do some things for the state.

In the changed environment, Now international business community and NRIs have golden opportunity to invest in Bihar ; Educated class of Bihar have now better chance to look back to their motherland and start helping people of Bihar in their own way; start giving support to local entrepreneurs and can work for entrepreneurship development among youths.

This article is aimed to explore those areas where NRIs /NRBs can pay their attention. Let’s call spade and spade and differentiate between working NRIs (NRIs who are employee of any company ,organization,R&D institute or University) and NRIs who are an employer and businessman .

What working NRIs/NRBs/Scientists and Professors can do?
In my view, all erudite of Bihar who are working class living in different parts of Country and abroad can have better chance in following:

1. Financial helps: they can take School and colleges for their infrastructure development as their pilot project, they can help in establishing R&D centers in Bihar to build working environment in the state.

2. Help Talents and Help needy talents: Bihar is well known for genius brains; there is no doubt about it, but what I feel that there are big gap between rich and poor. Rich people can send their children outside or even give beter education in Bihar but poor after certain extent doesn’t have capability to continue their education. We all need to help all those students. For that either they can explore individual way or can go for society for giving their plan.
BiharBrains www.biharbrains.org has started BiharBrains Talents search scheme where any NRIs can give their plan to help needy talents and BB will be only the agent to executing it .
Recently some schemes have been started by BiharBrains. To name a few, Sri (Late) Anil kumar singh yojna for needy children (for the dist of Gaya), Janipur school yojna has already been started by the society. This is to be noted here that this society is a platform of NRIs/NRBs and has chapters in 18 places in India and abroad.

3. Providing consultancy for enormous opportunities in Abroad: I do feel that the students of Bihar have less acquaintance about opportunities in abroad. They can be very helpful in building their career and providing guidance in abroad.
BiharBrains is the best platform for doing this activity. Here everybody can take free online membership and help, guide those students.

What Business community/NRIs Business man can do?

Post global meet has played significant role in making new business environment in the state. Here are the following regionwise sectors where business community of India, particularly from Bihar who are living in India and abroad can start their business or help others to invest in the state.

A. Patna Region: Patna has great potential in Finance, Trade & Commerce, Entertainment & Media, Tourism, Dairy Technology, IT and R&D Companies where
Patna can be the best choice of investors.Patna can be the city of education and higher learning along with center for R&D.
NRIs and business community may think about establishing R&D centers in the field of embedded technology, nanotechnology, Bio technology and physical sciences where Bihar has great achievers.
Recently Dept of Science & Technology has revived its Technical education policy and made rule for private partnership program (PPP) under which govt can give full support to any who wants to invest in Bihar in terms of space, Bank loans and mutual partnership with govt. This is the best time to grab this opportunity.

In Dairy Technology, Patna and Muzaffarpur have shown its potential and this is the only industries in Bihar which has excellent track record in terms of profits. NRIs can invest in diaries industries in Bihar.

B. Vaishali & Muzaffarpur bound areas: Hajipur can be the good place for Tourism (Vaishali), Manufacturing Industries, and food processing industries because of nearness from the state capital and open space for the big industries.
In fruits exports (Litchi, Mango and Banana), both city can be developed as center and there are large possibility of opening export –import company in this area where investment from private sector is required.
NRIs and Business man can try for the possibility of these industries in this region of Bihar

C. Sitamarhi & Raxaul: Sitamarhi can be the best destination for tourism and can attract Hindu religious people as it is the birth place of Hindu Goddess Sita. The govt and private agencies should come forward to develop this city and bound areas. This district is also good in Sugar Industry. Riga Sugar Factory, near Sitamarhi is well known which should be given more importance and revived by govt. Other non govt agencies should come for the investment in sugar industries in this district.
In Litchi production, Sitamarhi is second best after Muzaffarpur. Raxaul can be developed for the international trade with India and Nepal.

D. Darbhanga: This region can be developed as good place for floriculture and horticulture. Pan, Makhan and Machhali (fish) are three important things for the people in Mithila region. People of whole Mithila are known for their brilliancies since ancient times.
As whole Darbhanga, Madhubani, Saharsha and Supaul has large no of ponds, fishery industries can be developed. There is immediate need of Establishment of Fishery Research Institute at Darbhanga.

F. Samastipur: This dist is famous for Famous for Khaini (Tambaku) production and
Wheat. This needs to be more advertised as it is cash crops. The establishment of sugar industry in this dist will be good option for the investors.

G. Bhagalpur Region: Bhagalpur has great potential in Silk Industry, Textile, Handloom & Handicraft, Gems & Jewelry, and Furniture & Artifacts etc. This city should be popularized and advertised as “Silk city of India” .This region is also be developed for tourism as same as Nalanda. Vikramshila can be the good spot for the tourist.

H. Begusarai: Begusarai district in known for the industries in the field of petroleum, chemical, petrochemical integrate complex including upstream & downstream industry. Presently only govt has its own industry in this field but this dist needs more investment by private sector.

I. Purnia and Katihar Region: This dist is good in agro based industry like Jute, Leather and allied products, animal products, fisheries, poultry. The entrepreneurship can be developed in the youths of this district so 38 as they can earn huge amount of Money from this sector.

J. Munger Region: can be developed Electrical & Mechanical Hardware Industry,
and Heavy Industry etc.

K. Gaya, Nalanda & all Budhist Cicuit Regions: No need to say much about this
Buddhist circuit. Because of internal terrorism this dist has got bad name. Because of tourist attraction, there are plenty of opportunities in hotel industry in Gaya, Rajgir, Pawauri, Nalanda, Patna, Fatuha where much money can be earned from the foreigners. Nalanda will be center for world tourism particularly after revival of Nalanda University which is on full swing.
Here business opporunties are enormous where NRIs can invest and start development process in the state.

L. Bhojpur Region: Bhojpur Region of Bihar can be developed as the center agriculture .ifgovt pays attention; this has potential to produce wheat and paddy as Punjab and Haryana produces.
In the above mentioned district wise investment opportunities is based on my personal experience and after talking to many business and educated communities of Bihar.

In a nutshell, we can say that Bihar has enormous opportunities in Higher education & Research, Tourism and hotel industry at Tourist spots, Agro-based industries and their export-import units, Food processing units’ etc where Bihar can give model to the nation in building strong India and developed nation by 2020.
All NRIs /NRBs/Business Communities can give a thought for these sectors for investments in Bihar in a changed environment.

Bibhuti Bikramaditya
Seoul S korea

निवेश की संभावनाएं एवं अप्रवासी भारतीयों की भूमिका : प्रभात खबर मे छपा आलेख

2007-08-06T10:22:00.000-07:00

निवेश की संभावनाएं एवं अप्रवासी भारतीयों की भूमिका : प्रभात खबर मे छपा आलेख
Date: July 11,2007

अदूरदर्शी नेतृत्व है राह का रोडा: मेरा प्रभात खबर से साक्षात्कार (जुलाई १७,२००७,झारखण्ड और जुलाई १८,बिहार )

2007-07-18T06:46:00.000-07:00

This article was published in Jharkhand based Prabhat khabar Edition of Ranchi,Jamshedpur,Deoghar etc on July 17,2007 and Bihar based Patna edition. on July 18,2007

2007-07-11T06:55:00.000-07:00

Prabhat Khabar interview : July 2007

1. How do you see the process of globalization!

Answer: In my View, the adoption of Dunkle proposal and GATT treaty affected Indian economy to reach at height of around 10 % GDP Growth and maintaining average GDP growth of around 7-8 % which is good sign for the country. This has certainly benefited larger section of the society, mean to say from lower middle class to upper class of the society. The growth can be visible. Many MNCs has started its operation In India and in the same way many Indian companies are performing very well in other countries and approaching the level of MNCs and also in the international market, our companies got brand name. The take over Daewoo in Korea, Take over of corus in UK, take over of POSCO in Korea by Mittal group, Excellent record of Mittal industry in steel are excellent examples.

But the negative point of the Globalization is that poor are not benefited much and their life style almost remains the same. If we go in depth, we found that the gap between rich and poor, halves and halves-not are increasing.
Also development is not uniform; every parts of India are not affected by the globalization. In the context of Bihar, North –East states, globalization doesn’t come into picture as it has not affected the economy of the state. As a result industrialization reached to some states of India and those states have become rich state in terms of wealth and per capita Income. So Bihar has little contribution for the development of the country.

2. Do you agree with the existing model of development! if yes or no, then why!

Answer: I agree with the model as this is global phenomenon. If we go the whole hog, non-uniform development will always exist everywhere in the world, particularly the countries which are Poor and developing.
To overcome this gap of society, Govt and non government organization, Companies and business class should come forward for the investment and to start welfare activity.
NRIs, businessman of this region should come forward to help poor, infrastructure of school & colleges and welfare is required on the basis of the son of the soil.

3. Do you see any ray of hope of changing the scenario of Hindi heartland ie Bihar, jharkhand, eastern u.p etc like southern and western state of country.

Answer: All three states Bihar, Jharkhand & Eastern UP are gradually developing but performance of these states are very poor.
After bifurcation from Bihar, Jharkhand have become one of the wealthiest states in the country. This is perhaps the first state in the country which produces surplus budget. Bihar in the present regime is also on the path of progress. Post Global Meet scenario has changed the thinking of even common man. Development is only the issue for them.
But the political condition and nature of the politicians of both the state are almost same. They believe in cheap politics and see every thing from the eye of the heinous politics. We always fear the constant growth of the development and thinking of the vibrant govt.
Though presently Bihar is on the Track but In Jharkhand after bifurcation from Bihar, political condition of this newly borned state is not good. Politicians are corrupt and immature believe in “Utta Patak natak”. State gives good performance because of its natural power and mines not because of the good policy of the govt and its politicians.
Mean to say at Present, there is ray of hope from the govt of Bihar and its new leadership but the condition of ruling party in Jharkhand is not good. People should give clear mandate to avoid these “nataks” by politician.

4. In your opinion, what are the main hurdles that have halted the process of development in hindi heartland.
Answer:• Politics in nerves of common man: In my view, politics is the main hurdles of the development of all Hindi states. What I found is that even common man involves themselves in the politics, some times dirty and heinous politics at all levels from family level to country level. They apply and think in the same angle of politics. Even in buses/trains /pan shop, Tea shop every where they talk about Politics; they never engage themselves in the personal /individual development; they never talk about business and business growth of the family.
But reverse is the case in South Indian States, western Indian states; they don’t have time to talk about politics; they even don’t know about abc of the politics.
If they talk, then only about individual growth.

• Lack of visionary and honest politicians: In all these states, there is lack of visionary politicians. Politicians of Bihar/Jharkhand believe in cheap politics and short term goal of squeezing/making utmost personal money instead of doing development activity in the sake of the state.
It can be easily understood and can be seen.
• Illiteracy and vast population: Illiteracy and vast population are also the main root cause for slow process of development. Here implementation of laws are very difficult, it doesn’t reach to the masses. Because of the common man innocency they can be easily misunderstood and misunderstood by the politicians.

• Failure of cooperative movement: Cooperative movement was successful in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab and other south Indian states. In the development of Maharashtra and Gujarat, cooperative movement played significant role. Still cooperative societies are working not only larger level but also apartment and house level. But in Bihar and Jharkhand, they all were fake organization who earned money in the name of cooperative society.

5. Good governance is the newest buzzword of indian polity but it seems that it is not so appealing in the hindi heartland. what cold be the reason behind it! Answer: The reasons are same as discussed above. In addition to this, one more factor also hampers development
• Attitude and cooperation: Lack of helping Positive attitude and co-ordination, cooperation with the people of whole north India hinders others to progress and streamline the pace of development. They don’t help each other. But in the case of people of South India and western India, the case is reverse; they are very much cop-operative. If any south Indian, particularly people of A.P ,Tamil Nadu goes out of India, they helps other minimum 2-3 friends from India to get employment abroad or do business activity but very few from North India have this tendency. In North India , Only Punjab has good reputation and no of people in outside India and other states is having poor no of migrants .

6. what short of business activities, development model and work, would you like to suggest for bihar, jharkhand.
Answer: let me give you very frank opinion about this. First reputation of Jharkhand is better than Bihar after bifurcation of the state. That why business model in both the state is different. Let us discuss both one by one.

Investment possibility in Jharkhand:

In Jharkhand which is the rich state in terms of mines and minerals, investment possibilities are there in Software industry, R&D labs, Steel industry etc.
Jamshedpur can be center of investment where R&D centers in software /hardware can be started. There has been enough potential in this city and environment is like metropolitan city of India and possess rich culture because of existence of TATA Motors and many companies with their townships.

Ranchi can be the best spot in Medical education, engineering education and I do feel that revival of Heavy Electric Corporation will pay the state as well as contribute in the nation economy. Pharmaceutical industry and hotel industry has enough potential to grow in this state.

Dhanbad and Bokaro need more Mines Research Center as well as steel giant to come for the investment.
Hazaribagh can be preserved as the natural beauty in the form of tourist place.

Investment possibilities in Bihar

Though the common perception about opportunity in Bihar is completely negative
because of the environment made by the past all governments in Bihar but there are many opportunities where industries, Investors can show their interest. Following are region wise opportunities which were either not identified by govt or not given much attention to it.
A. Patna Region: Patna has great potential in Finance, Trade & Commerce, Entertainment & Media, Tourism, Dairy Technology, IT and R&D Companies where
Patna can be the best choice of investors. Magadh stock exchange at Patna should be immediately revived. Patna can be the city of education and higher learning along with center for R&D. In Dairy Technology, Patna and Muzaffarpur have shown its potential and this is the only industries in Bihar which has excellent track record in terms of profits. Many more diaries industries should come forward to invest in this sector. There are potential in opening Film city, shopping malls, and hub of tourism industry at Patna.

B. Vaishali & Muzaffarpur bound areas: Hajipur can be the good place for Tourism (Vaishali), Manufacturing Industries and also electronic city of Hajipur should be immediately revived and reinstalled. Because of nearness from the state capital, the area from Patna to via Hajipur Muzaffarpur will be good destination for the investment in Education, Manufacturing industries and food processing industries. In fruits exports (Litchi, Mango and Banana), both city can be developed as center and there are large possibility of opening export –import company in this area where investment from private sector is required.

C. Sitamarhi & Raxaul: Sitamarhi can be the best destination for tourism and can attract Hindu religious people as it is the birth place of Hindu Goddess Sita. The govt and private agencies should come forward to develop this city and bound areas. This district is also good in Sugar Industry. Riga Sugar Factory, near Sitamarhi is well known which should be given more importance and revived by govt. Other non govt agencies should come for the investment in sugar industries in this district.
In Litchi production, Sitamarhi is second best after Muzaffarpur. Raxaul can be developed for the international trade with India and Nepal.

D. Darbhanga: This region can be developed as good place for floriculture and horticulture. Pan, Makhan and Machhali (fish) are three important things for the people in Mithila region. People of whole Mithila are known for their brilliancies since ancient times. There are opportunity to develop this city as center of education and research. The forts of Darbhanga Kingdom can be used for the tourism purpose. The forts of Darbhanga in all over the state can be used for the spot for the tourist attraction. As whole Darbhanga, Madhubani, Saharsha and Supaul has large no of ponds, fishery industries can be developed. There is immediate need of Establishment of Branch of Central Fishery Research Institute (CFRI,Mumbai) at Darbhanga.

E. Madhubani: is Famous for Mithila Paintings in all over the world. It needs to be
spread to all villages of Mithila and other districts of Bihar as one of the industries.
Presently only few village women are working. Govt should declare it as industry.
There are huge scope for private sector and NGOs to come forward & help to grow this industry in the state.

F. Samastipur: This dist is famous for Famous for Khaini (Tambaku) production and
wheat. This needs to be more advertised as it is cash crops. The establishment of sugar industry in this dist will be good option for the investors.

G. Bhagalpur Region: Bhagalpur has great potential in Silk Industry, Textile, Handloom & Handicraft, Gems & Jewelry, and Furniture & Artifacts etc. This city should be popularized and advertised as “Silk city of India” .This region is also be developed for tourism as same as Nalanda. Vikramshila can be the good spot for the tourist.

H. Begusarai: Begusarai district in known for the industries in the field of petroleum, chemical, petrochemical integrate complex including upstream & downstream industry. Presently only govt has its own industry in this field but this dist needs more investment by private sector.

I. Purnia and Katihar Region: This dist is good in agro based industry like Jute, Leather and allied products, animal products, fisheries, poultry. The entrepreneurship can be developed in the youths of this district so 38 as they can earn huge amount of Money from this sector.

J. Munger Region: can be developed Electrical & Mechanical Hardware Industry,
and Heavy Industry etc.

K. Gaya, Nalanda & all Budhist Cicuit Regions: No need to say much about this
Buddhist circuit. Because of internal terrorism this dist has got bad name. Because of tourist attraction, there are plenty of opportunities in hotel industry. Gaya,Rajgir, Pawauri, Nalanda, Patna, Fatuha should come under special category for Bihar where govt can get much from the foreigners. In addition to tourism and hotel industry,
these whole region are also good in Cement,Stone Slabs, Prefab Structure, Power Plants other Mineral Based Industry.Jehanabad can be the center of the production of wheat and rice.

L. Bhojpur Region: Bhojpur Region of Bihar can be developed as the center agriculture .ifgovt pays attention; this has potential to produce wheat and paddy as Punjab and Haryana produces.

7. Do you think that S.E.Z will able to provide durable opportunity for development or to provide employment to reduce poverty!
Answer: Yes, I completely agree.
I think, there has been negative politics in the name of SEZ. Every one knows that India needs Industrialization to compete the world economy as well as to progress of common man.
I can not deny the worst part of the episode that has happened in west Bengal but it doesn’t mean that it should be stopped.
Some people say that companies should directly contact and bargain with the landlords, this is just one way of solution. This is worldwide approach that govt provide land to the business man who wants to invest.
I have reservation on not using fertile land for business process.
Can anybody say that IIT Khragapur is not fertile land, IIT Kanpur and IISC Bangalore is not on the fertile land?

8. Would you like to return your native place/state to change its face!
Answer: Yes, I have already started movement for uniting educated people of Bihar under BiharBrains (www.biharbrains.org) under BBrains development society which happens to be the first international society of its kind in Bihar and forum for NRIs.

I have also just established my own company called TekBrains (www.tekbrains.co.in) which will do its operation at Patna, New delhi and south Korea.This company is in the field of Chip design and development and will be first company for the state of Bihar in high end technology. My vision is to develop it into IC manufacturing industry and make North India as center of Hardware technology.
At present, India is doing well in software industry and earned more money and got good brand name, but we will not achieve success unless we get hardware manufacturing center and start the fabrication of ICs for which India has potential. Let us work on the “Made in India Brand” in a new approach and thought.

2007-07-10T07:09:00.000-07:00

Patna July 2006: Vikasheet Bihar Lakshya aur Hamara Yogdan : Article in Hindi was sent to Prabhat khabar on their demand which they publish it in the titled " Kaisi ho Madat Saat Samundar Par se" What kind of support can be expected from across the sea"

2007-07-10T06:48:00.000-07:00

Expectations from Global Bihar Meet

The first ever Global Bihar Meet organized by Bihar times & Institute for Human development, New Delhi in association with govt of Bihar on Jan 19 ,2007 –Jan 21,2007 at SK memorial Hall is at door. The preparation for making it successful remembrance meet is on full swing. Bihar Govt ,particularly Hon’ble DY CM of Bihar, Sri Sushil Kumar Modi with its counterpart Hon’ble CM ,Sri Nitish Kumar jee are involved themselves in inviting top brasses of India & abroad including President of India , PM of Mauritius,Sri Naveen Gopal , RBI governer etc , many new names are being included into it.
It looks Patna is going to be most happening destination for some days where NRIs, NRBs, Industrialists, academicians, scientists & social workers from different countries and states of India are visiting to show their presence for the noble cause into this summit and give blessings to new Bihar for their healthy & prosperous future .
As the reports last came in, altogether 70-80 NRIs of different countries & over 150 NRBs of different states of India including CEOs/CTOs of big companies are expected to participate.

This is the first time that people of Bihar from different country will be sitting together and will be discussing on development perspectives of the state, giving their proposal to invest into state, giving their ideas to develop Bihar and more than this all will interact each other for the noble cause which may develop fertile ground for the big investment in the state.

President A P J Abdul Kalam will inaugurate the Global Bihar Meet in Patna on January 19 and the Prime Minister of Mauritius Navin Gopal will also grace the occasion. “Former RBI Governor and Chairman of PM’s Economic Advisory Council, C Rangarajan has given his consent to give the valedictory address on January 21,
The other technical sessions will be attended by representatives from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, UNICEF and Bihar Industries Association.

Though many big shots are participating in this global meet, the question arises
Should we expect large investment from this global meet?
Are NRIs /Industrialists of Bihar confident & secured to invest in the state?
Will they invest on the basis of son of the soil?
These are the big question in the minds of every one, all fear about repetition of past unfruitful NRIs meet in 1990’s.
Let us come and discuss on these aspects which is directly or indirectly related to the development of the state.
Why Investors may think about Bihar?

To be very frank, businessmen are the only businessman who doesn’t work on sentiments. They usually don’t think about the investment where conditions and situation are not favorable even if they are the son of the soil.
They establish their industries which happen to be most suitable for them. This is the main reason why many states of India progressed very well by making their destination favorable to Businessman. In India , except some states like Maharashta, Gujarat, Punjab, UP, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka etc ,other states were not successful in luring large nos of investors in their states because of worse Law & order and Infrastructure , internal terrorism etc which always hinders business man from opening their business and R&D houses.

Bihar which is supposed to be most backward state in India has been devoid of willful politicians and policy makers. The selfish, non co-operation & non –coordination attitude of not only Local politicians and the govt but also erudite who have not been contributed for the development of the state. This resulted anarchy after independence particularly in 15 yrs misrule of the past RJD govt. The state was known to be hub of knowledge, sheet of learning, enlightening whole world through scientific, cultural and ethical values has become sorry state of India. We have not seen any investment by major players of India in Bihar because of the bad environment for the investment in state even though many major players started their business from united Bihar like TATA, MAHINDRA etc

The new NDA govt in Bihar which has just come into power, a year ago have initiated development process. They have very tough task for ameliorating & changing rotten systems, mending Law & order situation, paying attention into infrastructure development (Road, electricity, Transportation) & developing education system which are the key factor for the development of the state.
Following are the efforts made by govt in around one year

1. Law & order situation improved: the first & foremost condition of NRIs and industrialists for Non –committal to investment in the state is worst law & order situation. They don’t want to invest because local goondas, hooligans demand “firouti” from the businessman. The most vital part was, they all were running their business under local politicians. This govt have taken strict action on these activities and the situation is improved, crime rate has decreased, and people in Patna started moving on the roads in the late nights with their family & friends. In other parts of Bihar also, Law and order has gradually improved. This is also to be noted that miscreants and goondas are now smashed in the public. This is also one major change which has been witnessed in this new regime.

2. Infrastructure development: the state govt has given much attention on improving road condition and electricity. If you visit Bihar, everywhere construction works has started. The connection links between Patna and North Bihar through Muzaffarpur & Hajipur has been given more attention. The govt has decided to start work on four lane road between Patna and Muzaffarpur which is the National Highway. The construction works has been started on the flood affected areas between Sitamarhi and Muzaffarpur by constructing long bridges and good roads. This is to be noted that Muzaffarpur, Hajipur can be best destination for investment in tourism, education and Sugar and also IT because of the good connectivity with the state capital. Sitamarhi, the boarder dist of Nepal can be best destination for tourist for Hindu goddess “Sita”. Darbhanga, Motihari, Bhojpur, sonepur May also become favorable destination for investors in the field of Food processing unit, fruit exports and also the pharmaceutical industry because of its connectivity by good roads and distance from state capital .
All Buddhist circuit places have been already connected by good
Roads where Japan. China & Singapore etc countries are investing on the
improving road condition and other infrastructure development. And many
more Buddhist countries are interested for infrastructure development of
this part of Bihar particularly in Hotel industry, roads and power etc.
It seems, within 2-3 yrs, all parts of Bihar will connected by good roads.

3. Educational development: This govt has vision for improving education system of Bihar right from Primary education to higher level education. Recently implementation of common school system (first time in India), appointment of 50,000 teachers in govt primary schools , establishment of extension center of BIT Mesra at Patna ,establishment of National Law school (in the name of Chanakya) at patna, new strict order for professors in colleges for improving standards of education are some of the major steps taken by govt. The establishment of New IIT and re-opening of
Nalanda University is also one of the major decisions taken by govt in Bihar. Many countries such as Japan, Singapore, Indonesia & china are ready to play major role in reviving this ancient sheet of learning at Nalanda. Many engineering colleges, Medical colleges and Management colleges are going to be opened in which private sector is playing major role. There is huge demand for the investment in Bihar in opening engg & medical colleges, Management and Hotel management colleges. R&D institutes, IT Design and training centers in Bihar.

4. Investment Initiatives: Bihar govt has approved investment proposals of around Rs. 25000 crore in last one year. Around Rs 4,600 crore has been invested for opening new sugar factories and the revival of the closed ones. This is the major Breakthrough in the industry of Bihar. All the closed Nine sugar factories has been re opened and many private companies has come forward for establishing sugar industries in Bihar. The Bihar Foundation has been established by the govt under DY CM of Bihar. This is an agency to be put in place by the government soon, will coordinate efforts to bring in investments from outside the state and link them to local enterprises. The Deputy Chief Minister, who visited Britain, Italy and Canada to market Bihar as a favorable investment destination, has proposed to set up an NRI cell in the State Government to facilitate investments.

Investment Possibilities & Ground Realities:
in the 1990’s , then chief Minister Lalu Prasad visited to England, United States, Singapore, among others, ostensibly to invite investment in the state. NRI meet also was organized by the state govt. All attempts were unfruitful because of the basic thing as mentioned above which govt had never paid attention to improve in the state.
The present govt also felt the same thing and started working on creating work environment in the state. As initiatives Hon’ble DyCM of Bihar visited many countries to give impression that they are committed to the development of the Bihar and more than this, he popularized that Bihar is now means Business. This was good sign for investors. Sri NK Singh became the brand ambassador of Bihar in US /UK & other European countries to convince investors that Bihar govt is now seriously thinking to invite investors in the state by doing some work, providing basic infrastructure, law & order etc. Bihar Govt with its ambassadors have tried to convey their message that the state Govt is Very keen on the investment in fields of tourism, sugar Industries, other agro based industries, education, IT and health. These are the areas where Bihar has enough potential. As a result some companies including Tata, Mahindra has already showed their interest and decided to invest in the state.
Organizing global Bihar meet is the one of the major decisions taken by state govt which is unique in its significance. Bihar Govt in association with Bihar Times and Institute of Human Development, New Delhi and also in active coordination with overseas coordinator, are trying to prepare ground for NRIs/NRBs and Industrialist where they can altogether discuss on the issue of development of the state.
Though organizers and coordinators do feel that nos of participation in this first global meet are not so satisfactory in terms of no of industrialists & CEOs from abroad because many of them are employee of different companies, many of them have not planned for the investment in Bihar, many of them are going with their futuristic approach and they will decide after seeing the changes made by Bihar govt in view of investment in the state.
At one glance, if they get satisfied, they will be thinking later to invest in Bihar.
Many NRIs is of the views that Bihar has to improve a lot but certainly this meet will help investors to think about possible investment in the state.
In the global meet, the govt is expecting investment particularly from health, IT & Tourism section

Organizers, govt and overseas coordinators have already decided to popularize and convey message to all that” it is not an investment conference”. The missions of the conf are to

(1) Improve Bihar Image
(2) Communicate Opportunities in Bihar
(3) Convince participants to take the roll of Ambassador of Bihar

All the three factors are very important for Bihar. Bihar has got very bad name in spite of the fact that state has immense opportunities place/sectors to sell its brand.

The Bihar govt has to work hard & show that they really want to improve things which are very much needed for the investment in the state. Mean to say that govt has to work more in the direction of creating work environment in the state, luring business man, easing their rules for investment, improving law & order, improving Roads & electricity condition of the state on which they already started work.
Convincing on this mission of the conference, Sri Ajay Kumar, CEO, Bihar Times, along with the Institute of Human Development, Delhi, agrees that this conference will facilitate to bring prospective investors across the world and the Bihar Government on a common platform in connection with the conclave.
As far as investment in the state through this meet is concerned, we can not deny some investment by IT companies, Educational trusts and societies, investors in Tourism and hotel Industries along with agro based industries in Bihar.
Many organizations including BiharBrains (www.biharbrains), bajana (www.bajana.org), IABJ, Dubai will ready to present model to Bihar in the field of education.
As the reports available, NRIs from UK will be interested in investing Health sector whereas many NRIs from US and other European countries will be interested in investing IT & Tourism sector particularly in hotel industry in the Buddhist circuit of Bihar.
Global meet do expect more participation from CEOs of India based companies who are also vital part of this meet. Locally, many companies including TATA, Mahindra, Ranbaxy and other IT players are sending their representatives to give their signals for the investment in the areas of pharmaceuticals, IT, Power and hotel industries .

Many govt officials will be sitting in the conference hall for any kind of help to the investors & they may approve instant projects in Bihar after discussion.

In this global meet, The Govt may decide to
1. Form special economic zone (SEZ) for Bihar.
2. Separate ministry for NRBs on the pattern of the Punjab, Gujarat, Goa and Kerala governments etc.
3. direct investment through Bihar Foundation trust(www.biharparishad.org ) established by Bihar govt which will be under DY CM of Bihar

These decisions will be helpful for the investors. NRIs now can directly take help from Bihar foundation trust for the investment in state.
As far as big investment in state through this global meet is concerned, that process has already started and will depend upon the commitment made by the govt in meet. In fact Govt has to sell itself in front of investors. Govt has to assure them for their full security and environment in the state.
Certainly this Global meet will be historic in view of uniting people from Industry of origin of Bihar to discuss on the development perspectives of the state and starting new ventor with major players and attendees of the global meet.
More than this they all will vow to work for building Bihar, a developed state in Indian union.

Bibhuti Bikramaditya,
Chairman BiharBrains(www.biharbrains.org
Overseas coordinator, Global Bihar Meet.
Daejeon, S korea

-----The End---------------------------

2007-07-10T06:42:00.000-07:00

Patna Jan 20,2007: Article in Hindi on " Niweshak Bihar me Niwesh ke liye Kyon sochen" ("Why Investors should invest in Bihar")was published by noted Hindi Daily "Prabhat Khabar" on the occassion of First Global Bihar Meet ,2007 for which I was the overseas coordinator .

2007-07-09T09:06:00.000-07:00

Patna Feb4,06 : Dainik Bhaskar udaipur (Rajasthan) Published news on BiharBrains on Feb 4-06. The same news daily published in all the editions of Dainik bhaskar in northern India. Thx to Sri Swayam Prakash for forming article on BiharBrains.

2007-07-09T09:02:00.000-07:00

Patna March 30,06: Prabhat Khabar News on meeting with Hon'ble Minsiter of S&T,Govt of Bihar in a delegation of BiharBrains led by me to put the demand of IISER in Bihar .

2007-07-09T08:55:00.000-07:00

Patna March 29,2006: News reports on local meet at Patna chapter and was decided to hold meeting in a dlegeation led by me with Hon'ble S&T minsiter Sri Anil Kumar at Technology Bhawan to discuss on Role of NRI for the development of Bihar and to put forth the demand of IISER in Bihar. This was the first step for putting demand of IISER in front of govt.

2007-07-09T08:51:00.000-07:00

Patna Feb12,o6: News coverage on seminar on Embedded system which was delivered by me at Magadh Mahila college,Patna on the request of the College/dept officials.
In this seminar , large no of studnets from Magadh Mahila college, Science College and National Institute of Technology,Patna were participated and were given certificate of participation by BBSC,Patna

2007-07-09T08:46:00.000-07:00

Patna Feb 10-16,2006 : News articles published in various news papers (Hindustan Times/Prabhat Khabar/Dainik Jagran,Patna) on Career counselling Porgram-06/Inaugural Function of Patna Resource Center at Patna science College

2007-07-09T08:42:00.000-07:00

Patna Feb 8,9,10 : Article was published on VLSI Systems and Embedded system in Hindi Daily and Hindustantimes wrote Special Article on BiharBrains on FEB10-06

2007-07-09T08:38:00.000-07:00

Patna Feb 6-7,2006: Article in Prabhat Khabar on my statement on VLSI System . I introduced VLSI in Bihar and Tried to let people learn these tools and technology.

2007-07-09T08:33:00.000-07:00

Patna Feb4,2006: My Interview In prabhat Khabar in Bihar,Jharkhand and west Bengal. They published on the first Page of the news Daily on Feb 4,2006. Thx to Prabhat Khabar team.

2007-07-09T08:24:00.000-07:00

Behtar Bihar Ke Liye : On BiharBrains
Published by Dainik Bhaskar in all over north India and Prabhat khabar at Patna, Ranchi and West Bengal on Feb 3,2006

Thanks to Sri Swayam Prakash jee for this article that helped people to know about BiharBrains . Special Thx to Him.

2007-07-08T07:06:00.000-07:00

Nitish Writes Letter to PM for IISER/NISER in Bihar
Patna: July 7, 2007
http://patnadaily.com/news2007/july/070707/nitish_to_pm_on_iiser.html

In a letter written to the Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar asked him to personally intervene on the matter of setting up of a National Institute of Science/Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) and National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) in Bihar to maintain regional balance in the field of education.

"It can not be overemphasized that a Scientific Research and Development activities in any state facilitates overall improvement and development of skill, public services, and quality of life of the people.

The Govt. of Bihar is irrevocably committed to develop scientific awareness among its people by increasing the opportunities of Technical Education & Scientific research in the state in every possible manner," Kumar said in his letter dated June 27, 2007 as furnished by Bibhuti Bikramaditya, the founder of Biharbrains, an organization committed to promoting higher education in Bihar.

The state government was willing to extend all possible help and provide necessary infrastructural support for the opening of IISER and NISER, the Chief Minister wrote in his letter.

2007-07-08T07:05:00.000-07:00

Hope for IIT/IISER/Central University in Bihar

In the recent development, the central govt has decided to increase no of IITs, central universities and IISER (Indian Institute of Science Education & Research) in India and Rs 1, 32,000 crore will be invested in setting up of 30 Centarl universities and three IITs, seven IIMs, 20 NITs, five Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) and Indian Institute of Information Technologies (IIITs) and two school of planning and architecture (SPA) during 2007-14. A centrally sponsored scheme or additional central assistance would be worked out to provide the finances. The Commission has envisages that 14 of the new CUs in different states will be of world class standards.
Referring to the link
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=169343
This is really commendable effort taken by the central govt to improve S&T environment in India .

In this context Bihar is the fit case for all the institutions as Bihar doesn뭪 have any of the institutes and also major labs (out of over 250 odd institutes under the department like DAE, DOS, DBT, ICAR, CSIR, DRDO, DIT and department of health) in spite of the fact that Bihar produces large no of techies and scholars who has contributed and are contributing in all national and international fora. In view of population, Bihar has more than 8% of total population of the country, this position is absolutely outrageous.

If we go whole hog we find that these centers are located in cities of few states or in the metropolis which are totally embarrassing and fit case of regional imbalance and negative sidelining attitude by the center towards Bihar . In my view, Bihar should get fair share of 20 research centers (out of a total of above 250 such research centers across the country) or for that matter 12 national academic institutions (out of over 175 such institutions under various ministries

Though our local politicians of without vision are responsible for this disaster who never dares to put such demands in front of central govt seriously but in the same way central govt should also be held responsible for this disparity and gaining momentum of regional imbalance. ). If national leadership would have taken care for restoring parity to the state by allocating at least 40 of centrally funded autonomous institutions (out of total of over 433 as Per expenditure committee report 2004-05 or CAG report which states the number above 499 in year 1998-99 report), state would have been definitely be a much improved place for its denizens.

Anyway thanks to present govt for raising all those issues and getting support from all quarters. Now Bihar has started development process in all the fields, they have taken some steps also to improve standards of education and also to improve infrastructure of the state including law & order which were one of the most negative factors for not installing these institutions in the state. Now this reason should not be taken into account by central govt and politicians of the central govt.

Recently on the announcement by Hon뭕le HRD minister for three more IITs in Bihar, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, Bihar Govt has given clearance for the space for IIT in Bihar and gave full support of the establishing this institute of high repute in Bihar. This is good step and should be appreciated by all.

Apart from IIT, to develop scientific environment in the state, the importance of IISER should be given more attention. In this scenario, recently on the basis of demand for an IISER in Bihar by BiharBrains since long, Bihar govt has written letter to Hon뭕le PM for the IISER in Bihar and has given very clear indication that Bihar we will provide land for IISER in Bihar in his letter to Hon뭕le PM Dr.Manmohan Singh. This is good initiative taken by Bihar govt.

Bihar doesn뭪 have central university, the movement for Making Patna University as Cenral University should be started by us and also the state govt should give more focus as this university deserves this status. In the recent statement given by Hon뭕le VC of Patna university, he claimed that situation in Patna university has improved , education environment has also changed ;many new professional courses has been started by this university in the recent past. Patna University in all the fields has contributed a lot. Hon뭕le VC Sri Samiadri claims that Patna University is the fit case for getting central university status and he takes it a challenge for getting it. This is great and he deserves appreciation for this.

Now ball is firmly in the court of the federal government. We hope at least one IIT, one IISER and one central university and few DST labs for the time being from the present central govt which is the need of the hour.
We have hope for the same .

Bibhuti Bikramaditya
Chairman, BiharBrains
www.biharbrains.org
Seoul, S.Korea
+82-10-6872-1733

2007-07-06T20:25:00.000-07:00

Hats off people’s President

This article is devoted to non -other than our beloved Dr. APJ Kalam who made history by his vision of India 2020 and advocated action plan to develop India into “Knowledge super power “and into a “developed nation by 2020”; who made history as missile man of India and was brain child of Nag , Prithvi Akash, Trishul, Agni and several other projects being heads of around 50 R&D Institutes; who made India a nuclear power and was leader during Shakti-98; who gave mantra for educated politicians (unfortunately not approved by the parliament) to rule over the country; who when gave little smile, all children’s of India bestowed exhilarating love and the last but not the least he is who gave vision for the development of Bihar and stated that the development of Bihar leads to the development of the nation.
In his entire mission, I saw him very much clear to his points. Once he advocated policy of educated politicians. Though it was rejected as it was not suited to political circle of India for the well known reason but certainly his advocacy will start discussion among educated circle of India.
In his entire term, he worked for pioneering S&T in India, in his foreign tour too, he visited labs of the country and met scientists and professors. His extra ordinary love towards children was also admired by all countries where he visited. They all arranged special program in schools where he met with children.
In the implementation of his project ideas, sometimes he went out of the way too. The best example is Bihar. In Bihar, he visited two times and addressed joint session of parliament, gave full support to present Hon’ble CM of Bihar for the implementation of projects in Bihar, openly gave 10 points formula to develop Bihar by Power point presentation while inaugurating Global Bihar Meet, 2007. This was his unique style of functioning and we are proud in ourselves by the seeing the attitude of this high tech president. In recently concluded global Bihar Meet in Jan 19-21, 2007 at Patna, he gave a surprise by giving his confirmation by one simple mail from one of the organizer (there was no official mail from the govt).On the basis of that mail, he wrote to the state government and asked it to arrange his programme.That a President took cognizance of a casual letter so seriously and that too on such a short notice shows his interest in Bihar, the state with which he had no past record of association.
His mission and vision towards the development of Bihar will be always remembered particularly for two projects which he initiated 1. Revival of Nalanda University and 2. Establishment of IISER,, Indian Institute for Science Education & Research. He advocated for both of these institutes in Bihar in his entire visit to Bihar.
I am personally very happy to see the progress made for the revival of Nalanda University which has become now cynosure of all political and non political circle and landmark for building strong relation with china.This is welcome event that many Buddhist country have offered their contribution for the revival of the said university and more than that we praise Prof Amartya sen for taking responsibility of the university.
The development process of establishment of IISER is very slow as matter has already been raised by BiharBrains (http://www.biharbrains.org/bihar-brains-demand-NISC-IISER.php ) for which separate blog has been created in association with Dept of S&T ,Govt of Bihar. Please visit blog www.bbiiser.blogspot.com . Now the good news is that Dept of S&T, Bihar has taken now serious note of it and started work on it and joined hands with BiharBrains for the noble cause. This is to mention here that the establishment of IISER will bring R&D environment into track in Bihar. I do hope govt will pay more attention to this project too in the near future.
Anyway If Bihar got implemented both of these projects and become develop state of the nation in the long run, the contribution of Dr. Kalam will be remembered by respect and as messiah for Bihar.
Let me hats off towards noble work of this people’s president and expect words of praise from all section of the society.

Bibhuti Bikramaditya
Chairman, BiharBrains
www.biharbrains.org
Seoul, S. Korea

2007-07-06T20:23:00.000-07:00

Scholarship for poor students

http://www.bihartimes.com/news07/March/2632.html

Patna March 21, 2007: BiharBrains Scholastic Center, BBSC, Patna) announces Special Talent Search program for the poor in the name of brave warrior of India, Late Sri Anil Kumar Singh, IPS who died in an encounter with six armed robbers in the Mumbai bound train at Patna last year on June 4,2006. In the moving train, on seeing helpless passengers being robbed, Late Singh, unarmed, confronted the robbers alone and in the process got shot. Risking his life, he held on to one of the robber till help arrived. He saved fellow passengers but could not save his own life.

Sri Anil Kumar Singh, DIG retired from IPS (Bihar Cadre) in 2002 after a highly decorated career. He was one of the most respected police officers of Bihar and was practicing as a lawyer in Patna High Court after his retirement, providing free legal help to the needy.
The scholarship in his memory will be awarded to the meritorious and needy poor children, studying in class 6th to 10th in Gov/Village schools of Bihar.

As per plan, three Students will be selected from each of the class on the basis of merit, demonstrated in a talent competition, to be held every year by Bihar Brains. Each of the 15 students will get scholarship of Rs 250 every month for a full year along with a prize of Rs.5000/- with a certificate to the best scorer of marks at Bihar School Examination Board.
The scholarship money to the tune of Rs.50000/-has been donated by Late Singh's son, Siddhartha.

2007-07-06T20:21:00.000-07:00

Bihar's Deputy C.M Endorses BB Demand For IISER
http://www.bihartimes.com/news07/Jan/1011.htm

Patna 8th Jan. 2007: A four member delegation of BiharBrains met Sri Sushil Kumar Modi, Deputy Chief Minister ,Govt of Bihar today at 5.00 P.M. and presented the demand for establishment of Indian Institute of Science Education & Research (IISER) and discussed its various facets . The meeting lasted for about forty minutes. Mr. Modi was very positive in his approach and tried to understand the problems associated with science education and research in the state of Bihar and apathetic attitude of the centre.. He was also concerned with falling standards as well as dearth of good students in the higher education especially in the science/tech. field. He assured the delegation that as he had a scheduled meeting with Chief Minister on 9th Jan 2007, he would make it a point to raise the issues presented in the memorandum with him. The delegation stressed that it was high time for the state government to make it a point to strongly demand the IISER in our state as it would help in strengthening & raising the quality of science education in the state.

Though the BB is trying to meet the P.M. and the Union HRD Minister with the memorandum but they feel that unless the state govt. took the issue seriously at the central level it would be a difficult proposition. Mr. Modi opined that the state's student's performance level was still higher than most of the states in Joint entrance or other services examination.
The honourable Minister also invited the BiharBrains' local representatives to the Global Meet of NRI and planners being held at Patna on Jan 19-21 ,2007.

The members of the delegation were Prof. Jagannath Thakur , Former Vice Chancellor , Patna University & Head , Physics Deptt. , P.U., Prof. B.K. Sharma , Head, Electronics Deptt. , N.I. T. , Patna , Prof. S.P. Verma, Former Head , Physics Deptt. , Science College and Mr. Vijay Sharan, Office Exec. BiharBrains.

2007-07-06T20:18:00.000-07:00

Demand for establishment of IISER in Bihar

http://www.bihartimes.com/news06/Dec/20124.html

A delegation of BiharBrains met Dr. Anil Kumar , Minister of State - Independent Charge (S&T), Govt. of Bihar and presented the demand for the establishment of Indian Institute of Science Education and Research [IISER] in the State. A detailed draft was presented and discussed with the minister. The hon’ble Minister had appreciated the efforts of the BiharBrains and assured the delegation that he will be taking up the proposal to the C.M. and Govt. of India for establishment of IISER in Bihar.

It has been agreed upon by the hon’ble Minister that state will provide the land for building infrastructure if the proposal gets approved by the Govt. of India in the same way as it was done recently for the NIFT. The BB will be informed about the developments in due course of time.

A Delegation of of BiharBrains led by Dr. SP Verma (fourth from left) submitting Memorandum for the demand of IISER in Bihar at Technology Bhawan to Dr. Anil Kumar(second from left) , Hon'ble Minister for Science & Technology ,Govt of Bihar (Independent charge)

The details about IISER can be seen on website of BiharBrains on the link http://www.biharbrains.org/bihar-brains-demand-NISC-IISER.php

2007-07-06T20:14:00.000-07:00

SciTechFest 2007 from Nov 23-25
http://www.bihartimes.com/news07/May/20511.html

A state level three days SciTech festival would be organized from 23rd to 25th Nov at Patna by 'Bihar brains'- an organisation of intellectuals from Bihar. The chairman of this organization, Bibhuti Bikramaditya announced the details of this meet in a recently held get together.

While delivering key note address, Sri Ajay Thakur, Commissioner cum Secretary of the department of Science and Technology emphasized the need for revamping the technical education in Bihar with the help of civil society organisations. He announced that Bihar Govt. is in the process of establishing Knowledge Park with the help of ICICI bank and other investors. He also put his point for the formation of Technology vision group under PPP (Private partnership Program) in which private agencies will be invited for the establishment of Technical institutions in Bihar.

He also announced that Bihar Govt is now seriously taking up the matter of the establishment of IISER (Indian Institute for Science Education & Research) in Bihar for which BiharBrains started a campaign. He appreciated BiharBrains for this Herculean task.
It was also decided in the meeting to organise three days' State level SciTech Fest 2007 from Nov 23-25, 2007 in which 100 local researchers from graduate level to Research Level would present their projects and about hundred private companies would be invited to install their stalls

BiharBrains is also going to start Late Anil Kumar Singh Yojna for needy talent in Gaya district of Bihar. As per this scheme, 15 students of class six would be selected through dist. level test examination and would be given Rs 250/- per month scholarship till the completion of their matriculation (Class 10th). This scheme will be launched in Gaya on June 4, 2007 on the occasion of the death anniversary of Anil Kumar Singh and scholarship would be awarded on Nov 10, 2007 (on the occasion of his birth anniversary). This was decided in the presence of Manju Singh, wife of Late Slain DIG who died while fighting bravely with criminals in a train at Rajendra Nagar Terminal, Patna, a year ago.

In this meet, Prof S.P Verma (EX-HOD ,Physics, Patna Science College), Dr. Dolly Sinha (HOD, Physics & Computer Science , Magadh Mahila College, Patna), Dr. B.K.Sharma (HOD,Electronics, NIT,Patna), Prof Santosh Kumar (EX-HOD CWRS,NIT,Patna), Prof Bharti S.Kumar , Dept of History ,Patna University) Amalendu Narayan Sinha, former editor, Hindustan times, Ajay Kumar,editor, BiharTimes were also present

2007-07-06T20:05:00.000-07:00

Bibhuti Bikramaditya elected President of IAD
http://www.bihartimes.com/news07/March/731.html

(Daejeon, S Korea)March 4:The Indians living in Daejeon City of Korea gathered for the re-organization of Indian Association in Daejeon (IAD), South Korea. Bibhuti Bikramaditya, a cabinet member of IAD was elected unanimously as President of IAD. His name was proposed by outgoing president Dr. S.G.T Bhatt, a visiting Senior Scientist of Korea Institute of Energy Research, KIER and retired Vice president (R&D) of IPCL (Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited, India).
Bibhuti Bikramaditya is the third President of IAD and the first from Bihar in any South Korea organization.

Bibhuti Bikramaditya is also the chairman of Bihar Brains which is an organization of Biharis living in India and abroad having concern for the development of the state.

A post graduate from Dept of Physics, Patna University, Bibhuti is a chip design architect working for South Korea based company in the Daejeon city of Korea.

2007-07-06T20:00:00.000-07:00

BiharBrains' call toindustrialists

Shri Bibhuti Bikramaditya, Chairman, Bihar brains(www.biharbrains.org) and overseas coordinator of NRI meet to be held in Bihar was in Patna today and apart from holding the meeting of the local chapter, he addressed the pressmen at hotel Rajasthan in an exclusive interview. He informed that as an overseas coordinator he was in regular contact with various NRI groups located in different cities of the world and a good number of them are visiting Patna to attend the NRI -meeting focused on development of Bihar but looking at profiles of the sons of the soil the number of industrialists expected to participate in is still not satisfactory. Therefore it is urgent that NRI-industrialists of Bihar occupying key positions in the International Economy or manufacturing sector should be mobilized to come, share their perceptions/views and add their bit in the developmental efforts of the state of Bihar. He met the organizers at Bihar Chamber of Commerce and had a input sharing session.
The Global meet is scheduled to be held on 19-21 Jan, 2007 at S.K. Memorial Hall , Patna, the capital city of Bihar state. Meanwhile BB- Scholastic Centre, Patna has organized a week long programme with the chairman as the key-resource person.
Sri Bikramaditya conducted seminar at NIT, Patna on "Chip Design Trends and prospects in India".

He will be visiting Sitamadhi and will conduct meetings/activities with some rural schools at Janipur village.
Earlier in the day, a local chapter meeting was held attended by Prof. J. Thakur. Former V.C. Patna Univ, Dr. B.K. Sharma, HOD, Electronics, NIT, Patna, Sri Amalendu N. Sinha, Ex. Editor Hindustan Times, Sri Shakil Kakvi of Kainat International , Qatar , Sri R. Kishore(an innovator in Food Products), Prof. S.P. Singh, Principal , College of Commerce, Magadh Univ, Dr. Amarendra Narayan, Physics Deptt. ,P.U., Prof. S.P. Verma, President , Science For Society, Bihar and a few others.
The deliberations included a brief presentation of activities of Biharbrains by Mr. Bikramaditya and possible strategies for pressurizing the state and central governments for taking up establishment of Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) in Bihar.
It may be noted that BiharBrains has earlier submitted a demand in the form of a proposal to the Minister, Sc. and Technology , GOB and is going to present the demand to the C.M., Deputy C.M. and Union HRD Ministry and Prime Minister of India in the coming week

2007-07-06T08:29:00.000-07:00

Political Apathy Reason for no IISER in Bihar
by Rajkishore Prasad

Nov. 28, 2006

http://www.patnadaily.com/readerswrite/2006/nov/rajkishore_prasad.html

On various occasions, our Hon'ble PM has been speaking on the need of strengthening the status of science education and research in country. Very recently, on Oct. 6, 2006, while speaking at the Platinum Jubilee Celebrations of the National Academy of Sciences, Hon'ble PM again remarked the missing link of research and teaching in science. It will be not out of place to place here our concerns for the downhill journey of science education and research and crying needs of its excellent status for making India a knowledge power

"I draw your attention to this fact because we do see today a disconnect between research and teaching in the sciences. Research has increasingly been concentrated in specialized institutes. The university system is unable to mobilize adequate financial and intellectual resources in support of creative research and development effort. The resulting divorce between teaching and research hampers the growth of the spirit of inquisitiveness and enquiry among students coming out of our universities. We need teachers who will inspire their students by operating on the frontiers of knowledge. Then alone can we realize the full creative potential of our students. I have spoken often, in recent months, about my concerns in this regard. It is my sincere intention to once again restore this link between research and teaching in our universities, especially in the frontier areas of knowledge."

These statements are enough to imbue the concerns of Hon'ble PM to pave the status of science education and research as it is a realized fact that our economic and social growths are highly dependent on our ability to explore area of science and technology (S&T). The whole nation is lacking in S&T skilled human resources with greater crisis of experts in scientific areas. However, such problem is not new, merely, decade's long story. One of the root causes of such chronic problem is sustained dereliction of science education systems by the state and central government that led to such a soft misery.

In the last six months current central government made a history by opening three IISERs (Indian Institute of Science for Education and Research) at Pune, Kolkata and Chandigarh and one NISER (National Institute of Science Education and Research) in Orissa. This shows determination of the government to vitalize higher studies and research in science. Such waves for science education were first seen in 60s and 70s that gave birth of many institutes. However, only three IISERs across the country are like a small drop in the ocean. What we need in India is at least one IISER in every state. The lack of institutes make devoid of opportunity to our young aspirants. Due to lack of institutes selection test or admission tests conducted for limited number of seats in limited number of institutes become an arm for rejection. Candidatures of students are not rejected for merit but due to limited opportunity. If one examines the status of Bihar and its need for such institutes, one can easily say that top priority should be given to Bihar while establishing such institutes in the light of concerns of central government to even the prevailed disparities. In this regard, following points are considerable:

1. Bihar is deserted of National Educational Institutes: In the name of national institute, Bihar has a National Institute of Technology that is in its infancy. It is a well known fact that in Bihar there is not a single institution like Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Research laboratories of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Laboratory of Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), Central University or other institutes of national and international reputes.

2. Bihar needs R&D in locality: The sorrow points with existing educational institutes in Bihar are that their research and development activities are either paralyzed or dead. Now Govt. of India has established Knowledge Commission but with what Bihar will join such avenues for national and global race? How a Bihari can contribute in it and take benefit from it? Without research and quality education, how one can think to grow, develop and become prosperous? One may argue that institutes like IIT, IIIT, NIS, IISC, IIM, ISI are accepting students on merit from all over India, and then it does not mean anything wrong if it is situated in Bihar or out of Bihar. In the wide sense, it is acceptable and if a Bihari student comes on merit he/she can get admission, but local benefits will be totally absent. Local benefits of big institutes are numerous and important. The existence of educational institutes of repute in proximity increases awareness among people for the quality education. It works as node for interaction and transmissions of knowledge among aspirants, teachers, and local people. It procures lot of benefits to employed faculties of nearest colleges and universities. The chances of getting higher education and training for faculty members of other local colleges, universities will increase. This will improve their quality and capacity, which will be further beneficial for the students getting education under them. Lot of employed teachers in different universities of Bihar do not move for training program and Quality Improvement Program (QIP) because such facilities are available in the reputed institutes and are far from their working place. The existence of big institutes also improves inclination for research among employed faculties. At present research orientation among college or university teachers in Bihar is very less. If some teachers are active in research, it is painful for them to get research materials. For that, they need to see some institutes in other places like Varanasi, Allahabad, Delhi, Kolkata which are not near. Rushing to these institutes takes time, handsome amount of money and will-power which can not be naturally expected from all the research aspirants. The result of such difficulties is that very few faculty members dare to do research and thus fail to improve themselves and one can not expect quality teaching from them. Under such circumstances, teachers have to rely on their own experience of knowledge which in turn compels teaching to run under the strategy of chalk-talk-rote-routine which is never good in university education. Availability of big institution in locality can tackle these problems and inspire or open eyes of both the teachers and learners.

3. Big institutes accelerate industrialization in the locality: Big institutes attract industries. It can be observed in all places where big institutes are situated. The relation between companies and big institutes of S&T is like that of bee and flower. Companies always like to open their branches near such institutes for technical collaboration. So establishment of big educational and research institute is an open invitation for companies resulting in new job openings as well as local developments.

4. It will help in stopping brain drain (internal and external): The existence of big institute can stop brain drain which is essential for the developing Bihar. Of course, many Biharis are getting higher educations and are doing well in different areas of scientific research, medical, engineering etc. Such people also aspire to live in Bihar and have a plan to do something for their birth state. But there is no place to keep them in Bihar. Big institutions act like a magnet that can keep learned people of the society in the society. Lacking of this, Bihar is depleted of its own skilled human resources as well as of their contributions.

5. Establishment of NISc/IISER in Bihar will be a step to reduce regional imbalance and increase funding to Bihar: There is a great regional imbalance in the distribution of national institutes and national funds available for education to different sates. Bihar is one of the most neglected states. Since independence, there have been developments of many institutes in the southern India in comparison to northern part and they are more or less uniformly distributed. The zone wise distribution of national institutes of reputes is not even.

In one of the analysis done for distribution of central funds for higher education (technical), based on data of 2005-06, it has been shown that Bihar is the least fund fetching state. It is amazing to know that while Central Government spends Rs. 100 per person in Delhi, it spends Rs. 59.5190 in Uttaranchal, Rs. 59.2818 in Arunachal Pradesh, Rs. 43.8686 in Assam, Rs.19.0718 in Himachal Pradesh, Rs. 15.8650 in West Bengal, Rs. 14.1825 in Karnataka, Rs. 10.0440 in Tamil Nadu, Rs. 9.6488 in Maharashtra, Rs. 9.6432 in Uttar Pradesh, Rs. 9.1463 in Jharkhand, Rs. 9.0617 in Andhra Pradesh, Rs. 8.1865 in J&K, Rs. 7.5542 in Punjab, Rs. 4.81 in Haryana, Rs.4.46 in Kerala, Rs. 4.17 in Chhattisgarh, Rs. 2.7 in Gujarat, Rs. 2,29 in Orissa, Rs. 1.46 in Rajasthan, Rs. 1.05 in Bihar (Data 2005-2006) for the technical education. The single cause of such uneven distribution of central fund is highly biased distribution of central institutes across the country. Such imbalance in distribution of Central funds for education can not be described as good sign for the development and integrity of India. However, this point has been noticed by our Hon'ble PM who made public speech concerning this.

In his speech on 'India Science Report' of the National Council of Applied Economic Research on Sept. 30, 2005, Hon'ble PM has shown his deep concern over such regional imbalance which can be imbued from his speech as under:

"Yet, we still have the skeptics, the worriers, and the critics. Some have genuine concerns about change; others continue to be prisoners of the past. Today, when I look back, I am even more convinced that I was correct to observe in my first budget speech in 1991 that the idea of the emergence of India as a front ranking economic powerhouse of the world economy was an idea whose time had indeed come. I had then added, quoting Victor Hugo that no power on earth can stop an idea whose time had come. I must amend that to say that if there is any power that can still stop this idea of a resurgent India, it is ourselves. I believe that there are no external constraints now to India's growth and whatever constraints are there, are internal; constraints imposed by our polity, our social structures, our regional imbalances, our ability to handle inequity, and our ability to take hard, but essential decisions."

6. It is a big political decision: Establishment of NISc/ IISER in Bihar will be a big political decision. In the eye of central government, present educational environment of Bihar is not conducive for the establishment of such institutes. Also, neighboring states are in race for getting NISc/IISER. Unfortunately, our political figures from state are not entertaining the matter. In the light of decision of Central Govt. to promote science education and research people of Bihar should come ahead to make a successful consensus on the issue. The most important point to note here is that none of the political party alone can bring IISER like institute in Bihar. What we need is consensus of political system of the state on this issue. At present, there are many ministers in the central government and if our political system of Bihar become attentive on the issue and tuned together establishment of the IISER in Bihar will be easier. Hope Bihar Govt will take serious steps to bring an IISER in Bihar.

7. Hon'ble President's vision for Bihar: On March 28, 2006, while addressing joint session of legislatives of Bihar and also Bihar Chamber of Commerce, Hon'ble president emphasized the matter of establishment of IISER in Bihar in his 10-points prescription for the development of Bihar

8. Bihar comes under BIMARU state in India Science Report: Bihar shares higher percentage of non-scientific and technical workforce of the country. In the India Science Report Bihar comes under BIMARU group of states and keeps 8.9% of non scientific and non-technical workforce of the country. As per India Science Report 2005, the number of Bihari students migrating to other states for the higher studies in science may be somewhere less than 0.6%. This happens due to imbalance in distribution of such institutes.

Getting higher education outside is costlier and every aspirant cannot afford it despite his/her will to continue higher education in science. Such migration of student also leads to the development of infrastructure to states where they study. The establishment of such institute will increase percentage of students from Bihar seeking higher education in science. The unavailability of institutes like IISER of higher education and research also forbid students from other parts of the country to immigrate here for education. This dispels Bihar from national and international educational streams and state remains known for its ugly faces to the rest the country.

These reasons are enough to justify establishment of IISER /NISc/NISER in Bihar. Consistent negligence by government put our education system on downhill journey which is still in continuation. Amazingly ,It has been argued by many policy makers that Bihar does not deserves for institute likes IISER/NISER on the ground of downhill journey of our higher education system. Opinion like this was of our hon'ble S&T minister when I asked for establishment of IISER in Bihar, however he also opined that Bihar should get an IIISER. We accept that our higher education system is on the downhill journey but when we introspect to find out why, the root causes become ignorance, deprived of opportunities to develop, allocation of central funds on our education etc.

Despite such persistent ignorance academics from Bihar has made great success in many fields. The teaching of science is being done in the local universities but research is partially absent. Research requires resources which are not available. So denial of IISER/NISER like institutes on the basis of our poor research and education condition is totally baseless and is like an old well-known saying in Hindi: Suta na Kapas aur Julaha se Latha Lathi.

Based on such observations Bihar must get an NISc/IISER. Educational history of Bihar is not bad. Bihar has produced many international figures in the area of scientific research. It had global study center in the deep past. It is matter of grave concerns that Bihar went unnoticed for its berth for IISER/NISER in the first phase despite there are several union ministers from Bihar in very important and powerful portfolio including MHRD. Further, the amazing face of the political frigidity of statesmen from the state is that till today no stronger political support has been gained for the same. Nothing can be better indicator than this for vision-lacked politics for the state. Hon'ble President while addressing joint session of our legislators made very honest effort to induce vision for development among our cream politicians in March 2006.

Recent announcements by Hon'ble union minister for state A. Fatami to open an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) and crowning a state run university with central cap is an auspicious sign and is being welcomed by every Bihari people. It will fulfill our long pending demand; however, matter of IISER/NISER is still lacking serious attentions of political system from the sate. Very recently, the scientific advisory council to the PM has recommended opening of three more IISERs, in addition to the existing three, across the country. However, locations of IISERs in waiting have to be decided by the government and hence a big political issue. Under such circumstances only political system can help the sate and if activated can easily snatch from centre. I hope some miracle will happen to bring consensus on the issue among statesmen from the state.

Comments:
According to a report published in the Times of India; between 1980 to 2000, the number of scientific papers from India, indexed in the Science Citation Index, fell from 14,987 to 12,127. But China grew from 924 to 22,061. It has now been universally accepted that a rot has set in terms of interest in science, investment, institutes, number of scientists, scientific papers and their quality showing declining trends in Indian science. In early 1970s, the decline in the university system began - with research shifting to specialized institutes, and the lack of support systems to match the changing face of science, are the obvious reasons for the decline. Amitav Ranjan/Shiv Aroor recently investigated what went wrong with the DRDO and they termed DRDO as "Delayed Research and Derailed Organization". This shows a complete lack of enthusiasm across India.

According to Prof C. N. R. Rao - “There should be at least 100 world class universities in India itself.” “Judicious employment of people, making science more attractive monetarily and a pride in doing research for the country are crucial ingredients for growth of science in India.” To keep pace with the developed world, India has to step up the number of research and development workers by a factor of 12 and to increase scientific effort by 50-fold.” Government of India has realized the need of science and development. Setting up a NISc and IISER are the efforts in this direction. In Bihar, even today 100 years old laboratory experiments are being carried out for B.Sc and M.Sc classes, because there was/is no support from Government of Bihar as compared to West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and others. I strongly agree with Raj Kishore that there needs a big political decision. We all know that Prafulla Kumar Mohanta, the ex-CM of Assam signed accord with then PM (Late) Shri Rajiv Gandhi to open an IIT in Assam after a famous Assam students’ movement. Now IIT Guwahati has started catering to the local needs, has started creating awareness amongst local young talents. 5-10 years down the line, Guwahati will definitely have an advantage of being a place for highly skilled professionals. Such types of institutes (IIT, IIM, IISER etc.) in Bihar may help and provide a big leap in the area of highly skilled workers, which may lend support to entrepreneurship as well. More over, these institutes will provide logistic support to IT, agro-based and various service sectors. Stronger science and technology capacity in country like India and a state like Bihar is not a luxury now but an absolute necessity to participate in the world's fast forming, knowledge-based economy. We should proliferate with such words to our young talents at school level in order to tap our best resources in right direction.

NEGATIVE SIDE: UP, Uttaranchal, and Delhi have lots of good universities, IIT Kanpur, IIT Delhi, IIT Roorkee and various CSIR labs but one can hardly find students from UP, Bihar and Uttaranchal pursuing research (PhD). The reason is there is no motivation from our society, especially in Bihar. “Lack of awareness” and “early settlement in the life” compels many more to leave science in lurch and pursue their lives in other service sectors. Without creating an atmosphere for promotion of science, it won’t help much. Ministry of science and Technology should come forward, form a core team, and then organize scientific seminars in a few select schools/colleges of Bihar. These activities will certainly yield results in coming years. - Dr. Sudhir Ranjan - Nov. 29, 2006
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Let me first put my appreciation for the learned author for timely initiating the issues that Bihar should put in action. Fighting simply in the name of social justice for political ends has done enough harm to Bihar when compared to the growth potential and its needed development. One and all Biharis should support with full motivation. Given the option Biharis from lower middle economic stream can be benefited. A request to all Biharis spread over almost all country's of the world may solve the economic chapter. PatnaDaily should create a platform. - Khagendra Chandra Das - Nov. 29, 2006

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Recently, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeo Bhattacharya spoke with BCCI chairman Sharad Pawar for Saurav Ganguli's inclusion in the Indian team. Earlier, during Champions Trophy matches, ministers from West Bengal made street protest as Eden Garden was excluded from the scheduled venues. It is a true example of team work revealed by WB ministers for the issues, no matter how much small, so far it benefits their motherland. This is called positive push ups.

The ministers from Bihar known for pushing up idiotic issues like better infrastructure for Shahabuddin in jail and inclusion of tainted politicians such as Jai Prakash Yadav in Cabinet ministry. The man, Mr. George Fernandes, who pushed for Ordinance Factory in Bihar and raised the voice for setting up an IIT in Muzaffarpur, is now kicked off by his best friend, egoist CM Nitish Kumar. Another firebrand Cabinet Minister, who has capacity to move things upside down, Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan is busy pushing up the issues like Muslim CM and cast-based reservations.

Now the hope only lives with Non-Biharis to improve the fate of Bihar. I am referring to the offer made by Singapore and Japanese govt. to build up world class university in Nalanda. Let's hope for similar offer from UN, US, and rest of the world and then students from Bihar will inhale a sigh of relief and breathe with pride in their motherland. - Tarakeswar Dubey - Nov. 29, 2006

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It's a nice article by Dr. Rajkishore Prasad and I appreciate his concerns to raise this issue on PD.

This is to inform you all PD readers and writers that BiharBrains (www.biharbrains.org) have already started initial talks with the government for the demand of IISER in Bihar.

On the basis of talks with S&T minister, Bihar, in a delegation of BiharBrains on March 30, 2006, we formed a 51-member committee (32 from Bihar and 19 from different parts of India and abroad) of which Dr. Rajkishore Prasad, Dr. Sudhir Ranjan, VCs, ex-VCs of Bihar, many academicians, scientists, people from media are members. Core committee has submitted its report to BiharBrains and BiharBrains is now going to submit before the government on Dec 12, 2006 .

Talks have also been initiated with top officials (CM/DY CM) in Bihar and central ministers (HRD).

All PD readers are requested to contribute whatever they can for bringing IISER in Bihar.

Details for this and Efforts taken by BiharBrains has been givrn on website http://www.biharbrains.org/bihar-brains-demand-NISC-IISER.php

Certainly there is a political apathy for not a single research institutes in Bihar.

Now we have hopes from the new government in Bihar to take up the issue and talk to central leadership.

We will be acting like catalysts and will be giving pressure to all political parties, particularly those from Bihar, to bring IISER in the state.

I do request all Bihar-based academicians, NRIs, scientists to contribute for the same. - Bibhuti Bikramaditya, Chairman, BiharBrains, Daeejon, S Korea - Nov. 30, 2006

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Extremely powerful idea to have centers of excellence that will eventually lead to generate social capital. Though the efforts to realize the vision to have such centers of excellence are in the process, can we enlarge our vision for education in Bihar? How best can we connect primary, secondary and higher education? Some strategic thinking- strategic planning and then advocating for the ideas which will help break the vicious cycle that the state of Bihar seems to be gripped in? - Manoj Kumar Lall - Dec. 15, 2006

2007-07-06T08:26:00.000-07:00

Agenda for Growth
by D N Mishra

Feb. 7, 2007
http://www.patnadaily.com/readerswrite/2007/feb/dnmishra1.html

Achieving sustainable and long term economic growth through a eight step process.

0. God Governance: Institutionalization of efficient & effective governance through structural changes & induced autonomy in the various establishments. Re-establishing meritocracy and building the environment for excellence in administration.

I can make out from the emerging pattern & methods in the chief ministers initiative as this to be already the case. Anyway, prime responsibility for this lies in hand of state government.

1. Increase Urbanization: Working to the plan instead of stepping everywhere. State ought to decide how much people it wants to be dependent on rural economy and what % it would it like to move to urban growth centre. We will have to remember that our rural economy is a fine case of underemployment and also incidences of hidden unemployment are quite common. In my opinion state need to achieve 60-40 ratio by 2015 to optimize its developmental process. We need to conceptualize and develop six or seven mega cities of over 40 lac population in the state. We will have to ensure planned development of these cities; JNNURM should be taken optimum advantage of in this process.

However, in building these mega cities state will have to plan among other things as to what will drive the economy of the cities. Cities will have to be developed alongside the industrial clusters, befitting their competitive strength.

State will have to plan all these angles about mega cities, central government need to put them under JNNURM to support in developing the urban amenities.

2. Revive Rural Economy: Rural economy needs to be energized through cooperatives like COMFED in the other segments of “Potentially Rural Productivity” including in agro-processing, food processing, and animal husbandry and so on, with liberal dose of upstream corporate retailing linkages involving Bharti, Reliance, Tata & Birlas. State should take initiative to bring home contract farming, contract food processing / animal products processing and contract agro processing in association with these corporate groups.

3. Build Financial Infrastructure: As far the basic ingredients for economy goes state has advantage of land ( raw material) and labor (though skill enhancement is definitely needed) but lacks in Capital, Management & Entrepreneurs. It is not a hidden secret that Bihar lacks in home grown Capital Market & Financial Infrastructure. Market outside is plagued by many stereotypes about the state putting it at the disadvantage. Creation of homegrown financial market is a pre-requisite for development of the state. Ready access to capital market, awareness & understanding of capital market is very much adds in availing the capital so badly needed for industrial development.

Though an initiative has to be taken by state, but only the central government will have to take most of the actions here. Other places have just benefited from policy of central government, raj’s legacy and central largesse.

Some of the financial market Apex (Regulatory) Bodies, and also a few PSU’s, need to be headquartered in the state. May be state can ask Pension Fund Regulatory Authority to be located in State. Advent of the apex body itself will make it mandatory for all the governed entities to set up a shop in the state.

Building a culture of “Financial Excellence” is simply an imperative.

4. Institutions as Growth Drivers: Setting up of “Centre of Excellences” in Higher Education, Specialized Education Centers (as under various ministries at centre other than the ones under HRD) Technical Education, Research, and Vocational Institutes & Training Centers. This institution acts as the nucleus for “Economic Capability Building” and results in a definite competitive advantage in knowledge economy.

If we go by what has happened elsewhere, these “Center of Excellences” has been set up by central government only. State has got a short shrift in allocation of these assets. Regional Interest active at central level did never thought of building India. People at the helm of affairs were busy building there own native states. Bihar & UP lost out as they lulled themselves in the belief of being one India.

Though state can go ahead and create these institutions and it should be doing so, It should also fight for its right till the skewed situation in rectified in states favour. Under the garb of military principle of strategic depth, national asset can not be made repository of southern region. Bureaucrats & Ministers from heartland so get all those policies which militates against these states shelved, be it freight equalization, or the current policy of taking infrastructure development to the developed areas. Developed areas should sustain themselves through user charges & private investment. Public Investment should go to underdeveloped region.

State can not afford to loose out its elite through brain drain. Large Scale Migration warrants charges of criminal negligence of Eastern UP & Bihar. If central government does not proceed to rectify the situation, it should be prosecuted on this count.

5. Building Backbone Infrastructure: It is pity that state is being accorded the lowest priority under NHDP and also the GAIL Gas Grid has not been extended to the state even after a lapse of two decades, when it was brought to Jagdishpur in UP.

It is de-facto heartland of the nation still the infrastructure veins has always tried to bypassed the state completely excepting only where there is no alternative to passing through it because of geo-location advantage of being at the national cross road.

Inland Waterways, River Flow Control are other area asking for attention and have a great economic potential. Though center has initiated dredging of Palk Straight under controversial sethu-samundram project, it has not bothered to develop the national waterways across Gnga and its tributaries which can accrue immense benefit to the heartland.

Obviously, a major role in infrastructure development has to be played by centre. State will have to ensure that it gets it dues. Of course, in addition state will also have to play its own role in infrastructure development.

6. Seeding the Industrial Growth: Pattern & methods of Industrial Growth across country indicates the role played by Central PSU’s all over. Private sector has joined the bandwagon latter on. State PSUs have hardly ever been unable to provide this seeding effect anywhere. Seeding a Central PSU is also required to demonstrate suitability of location/infrastructure for an industry. Moreover many PSU’s has been able to create multiplier effect on the local economy. Since pvt sector is not going to be in any hurry to help the state out of this morass of underdevelopment central PSU need to step in to seed the industrialization in selected places in the state depending on the state governments plan.

7. Creating a Bandwagon Effect through Industrial Clusters: State and Central PSUs and the willing Private Sector Majors can come together to set up there units as part of an Industrial Cluster so as to create the “Critical Mass” for self propagation of industrialization of the cluster. This will happen because setting up of many other ancillaries, upstream and downstream businesses and industries will become viable once this critical mass is reached.

Setting up a wheel factory at one place, ordnance factory at another place and locomotive factory at a third place is not an ideal thing to do as such. In this we have lost out the advantage of creating the critical mass & subsequent bandwagon. Else it would have attracted toll manufactures, steel mills forging units and likes (depending on commonality of requirements) also in the vicinity.

State can think of dividing state in 8 Industrial Zones for its all round development.

Patna and around : Finance, Trade & Commerce, Entertainment & Media, Tourism, Healthcare, Consumer Durables, Consumer Non Durables, ICT etc.

Muzaffarpur and around: Agro & Food Processing and Allied Industry

Gaya and around: Tourism, Cement, Stone Slabs, Prefab Structure, Power Plants other Mineral Based Industry.

Barauni and around: PCPIR ( as planned by central government) (petroleum, chemical, petrochemical integrate complex including upstream & downstream industry),

Bhagalpur and around: Textile, Handloom & Handicraft, Gems & Jewelry, Furniture & Artifacts

Katihar & around: Jute, Leather and allied products, animal products, fisheries, poultry and so on.

Darbhanga & around: Higher Education, (Armed forces, Police, CPFs) Training & High End Research Labs specially in biotechnology, nanotechnology, communication technology and so on.

Munger & around: Electrical & Mechanical Hardware Industry, Heavy Industry and so on.

Comments:
Excellent analysis

It brings the strategic advantages of the various regions of Bihar very well. - Thakur Vikas Sinha, Powai, Mumbai - Feb. 8, 2007
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Wow! Great job Mishra Jee. You are a GURU.

There are several growth factors you have define here the way it should be. I liked the way you have created the industrial zones. That's the way to 'Go'.

Although Mr. Nitish/Mr Modi and their team might already have a good number of smart planners and administrators, still I hope they read your project plan on PD. - Naren Singh, India/USA - Feb. 8, 2007

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The article written by Dr. Mishra jee is well written . He deserves appreciation for this.

In addition to all his points following are my suggestions region wise industry

A. Patna : IT and R&D Companies, Dairy Technology Patna can be the city of education and higher learning along with center for R&D. In Dairy Technology, Patna and Muzaffarpur are the best. Patna Dairy project and Muzaffarpur Dairy Project are the only industries in Bihar which has excellent track record in terms of profits.

B. Tirhut Region:

1. Vaishali Region/Muzaffarpur Region: Tourism and Manufacturing Industries /Development of Electronic city in Hajipur as it was shifted from Hajipur. The area from Patna to via Hajipur Muzaffarpur will be good for the investment in Education, Manufacturing industries and food processing. In fruits: Litchi, Banana, Mango export industries should be established for which both cities are famous.

2. Sitamarhi: Sitamarhi can be the best destination for tourism. This is the birth place of Hindu Goddess Sita. This district is also good in Sugar Industry (Riga Sugar Factory, near Sitamarhi is well known). In Litchi production, Sitamarhi is second best after Muzaffarpur.

C. Mithila Region:

1. Darbhanga: Good for tourism too (forts of Darbhanga Kingdom). This region can be developed as good place for floriculture and horticulture. Pan, Makhana and Machhali (fish) are three important things for the people in Mithila. Yes, Darbhanga can be city of education.

2. Madhubani: Famous for Mithila paintings in all over the world. It needs to be spread to all villages of Mithila and other districts of Bihar as one of the industries. Presently only few village women are working.

3. Samastipur: Famous for Khaini (Tambaku)

These are some of the suggestions for the government. - Bibhuti Bikramaditya, Daejeon, S. Korea - Feb. 8, 2007--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wow, kya article hai. Mishraji aap ko to Planning Commission mein hona chaahiye tha.

Seriously, if people who are doing planning for development had this kind of thought we would've done better for sure. We all know that Bihar as a State has lots of untapped potential but it's never been planned to tap those untapped potentials.

The specialized industrial zones is the way to go. This way we can leverage on the strength of each region in Bihar and make them self sufficient and powerful. When this happens I am sure it will stop the labor migration upto a greater extent. When (not if) that happens the other states who call us BIMARU will realize the importance of Bihari work force. - Samir Kumar Mishra, Brisbane, Australia - Feb. 8, 2007

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What is most urgently required is to reduction of rural population and that can only be achieved by the process of urbanization. In comparison to Bihar’s population, meager number of rural population has migrated to different urban centers in Bihar and in other states. Lack of this process has led to violence in rural areas over the years due to continually decreasing agriculture land. Fall out at Singur and Nandigram in West Bengal (a center for rural economy engine), whatever the other reasons, is due to late admittance to urbanization process.

The real meaning of urbanization is to rich or marginal farmers settling down in cities. Their links to the land must be severed and they should become an integral part of urban communities.

As wisely suggested by D N Mishra, what we need now to identify strategic urban centers. This will allow entrepreneurial people with relatively good educational backgrounds to launch their own businesses or become high-caliber professionals in various sectors, where the growing population will be dependent upon its "hinterlands" to provide it with food and its product. This will certainly boost economy of our agricultural society. Eventually, there may emerge a large number of prosperous small towns in rural areas, which will demonstrate the progress of Bihar's urbanization process.

In today’s world, cities are the virtual face of development. A rational pattern exemplifying city construction of different sizes should be sought with the tag of special economic zone. If not SEZ, but a kind of SEZ is urgently needed in Bihar that too in a phased manner. - Dr. Sudhir Ranjan, USA - Feb. 8, 2007

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Mr D N Mishra deserves kudos from all BIHARIS for giving an excellent and comprehensive plan for developing the state. However, it will very much depend on the government how fast they can act and what projects are taken on priority. It is necessary to take up at least some areas on fast track which can give some visible results quickly and the wheel of backwardness starts moving back. "The low lying fruits should be plucked first".

I would like to add that international standard roads connecting major cities of state and availability of power is of prime importance. Apart from this in at least two areas Bihar can make its place on world map. One is tourism - being the most important place for all Buddhist countries. Japan is already showing interest and investing money. Bihar should supplement it by providing other infrastructure - like safety of tourists, clean and good places to stay and have food. Tourists experience can be enhanced by providing additional amusements like developing banks of Ganges into good sightseeing place.

Setting up world class health facilities - especially for heart disease, neurology, cancer treatment and prevention, radiology upgrade, mental disorder and rehabilitation with facilities for stay of patients' family members in nearby places will prevent large number of people from going to far off places and spending a fortune. This will also attract people from nearby countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan etc to come to Bihar for treatment. This may attract NRIs also to visit home state and get comparatively cheaper medical treatment as it has been reported to be happening in Gujarat. - Mithilesh Kumar, Delmar, NY, USA - Feb. 8, 2007

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This is an excellent article on the growth of Bihar. A lot of congratulation to Mishraji for doing such extensive research and hard work. - Seema Jyotishi - Feb. 8, 2007

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Really thoughtful and deep dug analysis by Mishraji. I could not comment much on the theoretical facts elaborated by Mishraji. He has really done a great work for ideal solutions for the modernization and economic strength.

But, the facts are far from reality. I know that my comments would be treated as negative attitude and would be forced to a back seat but bringing out the truth is as important as digging the theoretical facts.

1. Any development of Bihar should be seen in national perspective. After all, the short and long term plans of center are going to decide the fate of each and every part of India. I do not see Bihar developing its own economy going out of national policies.

2. The blind liberal economic policy adapted by the center has left nothing to be done by the government agencies. In every sector of life, the private companies have been invited to play their own games of money-spinning. I do not think that the MNCs coming in India are so generous that these would develop the non-profit fields like rural economy, backward states etc. After all, India still is 80% village and state of the villages would require huge non-refundable amount of money and resources which is out of capacity of an MNC or all MNCs.

3. The development plans are like child birth which cause lot of pain to the procurer. Whenever, anybody would think about any development plan, it would include replacing current policies, structures, trends, mentalities and attitudes with the new ones. I have doubt whether current political situation would permit anyone, whosoever may be, to start new plans. The latest example is the master plan for Delhi. After severe political pressures, the master plan has become miserable plan. The unplanned (mis)management of population, land and water has become so worse that it is out of reach of current law-makers, politicians, official and people too.

4. The theories would be thrown to air if an honest answer to the following question is tried to find:

What would happen (no. of chain events) if a hut comes in the middle of a large piece of land which has been acquired by the government for erecting a mega housing colony? The colony construction would bring employment to 1000 poor people, solve the space problem, develop the neighbourhood economy etc. The hut is to be removed!

Before answering, think about Narmada Baandh Pariyojna (Enron got bankrupted), Delhi Master Plan, Patna Master Plan, Reliance Project in UP, Singur and what not. Moreover, Bihar has more political potential than other states (everybody is a neta).

5. Have a look at the entrance of MNCs in retailing market. Big malls, good quality items, universal prices, clean crease staff, shining covers, big lights etc. The SABJIWAALA of our neighbourhood would go back to his village only to starve because we people are going to a big mall to purchase vegetables. That means (I know it would smell dirty), the MNCs are now planning to pick the last left 25 paise in the torn pockets of the sabjiwallahs and send it back to their own heaven.

If anyone can deny the above truths, I am sure Bihar and India would become the ideal place to live. - Ravish Kumar (A Worried Bihari), Hyderabad - Feb. 9, 2007

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Everything is fine except THE TRIDEV:

Good road (as per dream project of the former Prime Minister Shri Atalji), Power (at least 12 hours non-stop power supply to every nook and corner of the state), and good health services (for every human beings and animals) at every government health centers of the State. Then, development comes and asks (kneeling down):

"Mere Aaqa! Hum hazir hain! Kaya hukum hai?" - Madani Mohiuddin Ahmad, KSU, Riyadh , KSA - Feb. 10, 2007

2007-07-06T08:24:00.000-07:00

Bihari Mindset and Economic Development
by Prabhat Kumar Sinha
Montreal, Canada

February 23, 2005
http://www.patnadaily.com/readerswrite/2005/feb/prabhat_sinha1.html

The year 2005 has quite an eventful start especially in the context of India. Let me summarize a few events that thrilled me.

1) The Republic day on 26th January was as usual in celebrations but unusual in when a big tricolor appeared on NASDAQ wall emphatically underlining the growing importance and recognition of India on world economic map. And it was not just limited to this symbolic recognition as it became evident when our...

2) Finance Minister P. Chidambaram was invited to a G7 Meet of finance chiefs held in London on Feb. 4 to present India's role and expectations in international economy. It was India's debut at a G7 meeting. Others debutants were Brazil and South Africa. China attended for the second time. The G7 comprises the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Britain. This is a recognition that India is an emerging (economic) power.

3) Another interesting announcement came from Korean steel giant Posco that it is going to invest $10 billion in Orissa, up from it's earlier plan of $8.4 billion (amidst rumor of it going to Brazil).

4) A recent report states that India would be an economic super power by 2025.

I felt myself lucky for the fact that I am a growing man in a growing nation and I am witnessing this great transition from a struggling country to a growing economy of the world. This is something I had never imagined during my school/college days.

But next moment I was a sad person. My happiness vanished in thin air as my thoughts crossed over my native place Bihar. Thanks to the ongoing election in Bihar, national media, intelligentsia and many others are taking keen interest in the affairs of state of Bihar. Most of the analysis/debate/discussions on Bihar boil down to one thing - deep rooted casteism (and hence caste based politics) as the root cause of backwardness of Bihar. So unless and until we root out this evil, we (Biharis) cannot progress.

Somehow I do not agree with this approach. Let me ask you a few questions. Have any of the developed states (in India) not suffered from this menace, or do they have found the solution? NO (otherwise we could have borrowed the solution)! As during the relief work in tsunami affected areas, prevailing casteism was very well evident in a developed state like Tamil Nadu (someone rightly said that even tsunami could not wipe out this social evil). Take Haryana, for example. You will witness more feudalism in Haryana than in Bihar, yet Haryana is a far better developed state than Bihar. Developed states in country have neither removed casteism nor found a solution to it. They have progressed well despites this social evil.

Take another point. Don't we remember that till start of last decade, huge population of the country appeared a very big (among many other issues) obstacle in the path of our journey of development? "Population explosion" and its impact on our future appeared very scary. Significant amount of government and public energy went into this debate. Not to say that this is no more an issue but the same population is now viewed as huge market and work-force by the entire world. There were many issues which added to our woes whenever we discussed/debated our development path. Corruption, criminalization of politics, rapid degradation of moral values of society in large, huge amount of debt on government etc. were such things that haunted all of us across the nation. With all these, no one imagined that we would see India as one of the fastest growing economies of the world. They (problems and issues) are still there but India still progressed a lot. When we were hit by tsunami, our economist PM Mr. Manmohan Singh refused to take any help from any country instead it extended all sort of help to tsunami affected other countries. It did not surprise me because it is during the same Manmohan Singh as the Finance Minister, when India had abandoned its earlier plan to take a new $7-billion loan from the IMF, Instead, it repaid $1.13 billion to the IMF ahead of schedule. India had also told the World Bank that it did not want any more fast-disbursing loans (where it gets upfront cash in return for policy changes). Did any one imagine that we would achieve this in short span of economic reforms? NO.

When India embarked on its economic reforms in 1991, critics claimed the doors were being opened for the re-colonization of India by a new version of the East India Company. But the experience of 14 years of economic reforms is clearly proving otherwise. Even change in govt. at centre did not reverse this trend. Many Indian companies across different sectors have successfully faced the challenge and grown to become multinationals. There is significant decline in urban and rural poverty. Success of a state government is now measured in terms of number of investments it has attracted. Even left front-led West Bengal government and Socialist Mulayam-led U.P. government is not shying away from inviting investors. State government are competing with each other to attract investors. Only recently when my company (an MNC) decided to have a presence in South India, Bangalore appeared the obvious choice but then the CEO received a call on his cell phone directly from Chandrababu Naidu to have a discussion to consider Hyderabad. Needless to mention, clever Naidu succeeded in convincing the CEO by offering all sorts of help and now the MNC is in Hyderabad instead of Bangalore.

The role of state is reducing to that of facilitator. This is significant diversion from its earlier role as mai-baap. All sectors (Banking, Insurance, Pharmaceuticals, Automobiles, Steel, Power, Oil, Telecom, Aviation, IT & ITES, and manufacturing) are registering impressive growth during last many financial quarters. Both export and import are witnessing unprecedented growth. India has become a favored nation for foreign investors world wide. The reducing role of government and increasing role of private sectors in our daily life is changing the social dynamics in a big way. Even basic phone was luxury for many parts till few years back where as now mobile phones are found in the hands of carpenters, electricians and small businessmen as a helping device in their business. Small shops using computers to maintain their accounts are a common site even in non-metro cities and towns. Do we hear anti-computerization rhetoric any more? NO. Someone rightly termed it as revolution of the mindset.

Even today a vast majority of population still live below poverty line (BPL) struggling for basic needs of life but there is no denying that aspiration to have better living standard is increasing across different sections of society. Reports after reports are suggesting this. And people are not looking towards government to achieve this. All this happened in a short span of 14 years of open economy.

Let me share you one first hand experience - Once I was traveling in a general bogey of a train from Mumbai to Patna. The general bogey was full of poor people mostly laborers. When TTE came, he asked me "Sir! Ticket please" in a polite manner while the same TTE asked a poor person "chal ticket nikal" in a rude manner. The TTE did not know our caste. But from look, I definitely appeared better off to the TTE. Now there may be two approaches - 1) Bring change in the mindset of the TTE so that he does not discriminate or 2) Bring change so that the poor is no longer poor.

Now you decide which one is objective and which one is subjective.

Comments:
Subjective is changing the mindset of TTE and objective is brining a change so that poor is no longer poor. - Vinod Sinha 02/23/2005

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The slight changes which you are visualising in the trains, buses, use of mobile phones, landline phones etc are mere reflection of the economic development as well as technological development of the country. Mobile telephones and landline phones are nowadays prevalent every where in most of the houses and streets of the urban Bihar. In Rural part of Bihar, it has not yet reached to many of the household. Why? Not because of the awareness but because of their social and economical condition. Since 15-20 years, I have not seen any dramatic change in the conditions of these villages, only people are somewhat in better condition, people are still hand to mouth, means they can't save money for the future use.

I admit that changing mindset is a slow process and depends upon the real development of the individual also but in Bihar, "Padhe likhe logon ka bhi mindset change nahi ho raha hai" because of our social structure, caste-based wrong, shameful politics and discrimination that divides rich and poor, upper caste and lower caste. Even leader becomes "leader of a particular caste". This is more or less everywhere in India but Bihar is intensely affected by these deadly viruses.

Caste-based society and culture is not wrong but its implication and interpretation for hatred and discrimination is affecting Bihari mass comparatively more than other states. We can learn from other developing and so-called called developed states of India. - Bibhuti Bikramaditya 02/25/05

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Any nation can never bloom without its states. What Bihar is looking for is an aspiration for the quality of life that might include opportunity to freely choose profession and life-style, right to receive full and fair education, strong rural economy and transparency and freedom from political oppression.

Fortune and all other efforts in favour of our beloved Motherland are sure to re-establish our pride in being Indians and Biharis across the globe.

Yes, it's true that we are going to see, feel and experience, very soon, the vision of India as a super Power in reality. - Soni Tiwary, Patna 02/25/05

2007-07-06T08:22:00.000-07:00

China vs. India - Investor-Friendliness
by Indra

June 13, 2006

http://www.patnadaily.com/readerswrite/2006/jun/indra22.html

From 1983 to 1997, I was closely associated with the automotive industry of Japan. It was the time when Japanese automotive industry was showing interest to come in big way in India. Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, Mitsubishi, and Isuzu, beside the only successful enterprise of Suzuki collaborated with some Indian partners. Most of the collaborations were limited to technical assistance with very little equity participation. They didn’t find the overall economic atmosphere conducive to go ahead in big way. I remember the red tape in bureaucracy, and the type of licenses and clearances required for every thing. Once, while in Delhi, some of the Japanese friends wanted to have some Japanese food. I couldn’t find any restaurant anywhere. I could very well understand and appreciate the need of food of your own land when you are in a foreign land. We were lucky that in Japan we could get an Indian restaurant almost everywhere. Even that small town Hokke Club Hotel in Kawasaki had an Indian restaurant in its basement.

Last week, I was reading a similar story about the China that shows why we failed to attract the manufacturing biggies of Japan whereas the Chinese have succeeded in getting all the big names in every sector from all over the world including India.

Back in 2002, Girija Pande, Asia Pacific Head, TCS (Tata Consultancy Services), used to fly down to Hangzhou province in China from his Singapore office every weekend. He was on a mission to find a site for the company’s third development center after Shanghai and Beijing. Every time he visited the province, the mayor welcomed him. During one of his casual exchanges, Pande remarked that the lack of a good vegetarian restaurant would disappoint the mostly South Indian project managers of TCS. When he visited the province for the fourth time, the mayor took him to a spanking new vegetarian restaurant promoted by the state government. This is the Chinese hospitality towards foreign investors.

With all these inputs from the India Inc available and known to the ministers and bureaucracy, why can’t they change if they want FDI to come in a big way? Why are they happy with Mauritius being the biggest FDI country for India? Why can’t Manmohan Singh’s government bring changes in qualitative and quantitative term? Don’t they know that it takes 71 days to start business in India when for China it is 48; it takes 67 days for registering property in India when in China it takes 32; it takes 90 days to arrange funds in India when it takes 40 days in China; and it takes 10 days in resolving insolvency in India when it can be done in 2.4 days in China? I remember the years it took to finalise funding by bankers when I was working with the projects of HM in which Isuzu trucks were to be produced at Vadodara. By the time we started because of the changes in yen and dollar exchange rates, the project became unviable. Even today, our efficiency is doubted. With all the media reporting of improved attractiveness for investment, India hardly gets the respectable share of FDI.

With the Great Trinity of Manmohan Singh, Montek Singh, and P. Chidambaram at the head of the country, we expect at least these procedural bottlenecks resolved, if not any other human values related things such as built-in hospitality.

Comments:
Dear Indra jee,

I agree with your arguments with few reservations.

Yes, you are right when you talked about hospitality and importance of home food in foreign land. This argument is only for the feel good factor for investors and may be one of the factors for the low turnout of foreign investments in India. It cannot be major reason.

In India also you will get foreign restaurants.

In Chennai where Daewoo has a plant, they have got a restaurant. In Bangalore, you may get restaurants from many countries. In Delhi and Mumbai, there are plenty of restaurants for foreign nationals. I don't think govt can do all the works of opening hotels for a few people.

In Gunsan, Korea TATA has taken over Daewoo, many employees have come from India and used to come regularly in a team from Jamshedpur. They are hundred in numbers or more than that. Employees get Indian food only at company premises.

In the same way, Samsung has got a large number of employees from India and also from SISO, Bangalore and Samsung Electronics, NOIDA. Large number of employees used to visit in a team. They also can enjoy Indian food at company premises.

There are Indian hotels and restaurants but only in Seoul. One Indian restaurant is now going to open their branch in Daejoen where we live because of the increasing Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi population. And this also is being done by private investors, a group of Chakra hotel owned by Chennai-based businessmen settled at Seoul.

Korean govt doesn't take any step for opening any Indian restaurants even though large Indian population is day by day increasing here at Korea. Indian IT firms and IT engineers are doing very well for the development of Korean economy.

I mean to say, this extra hospitality has been done by Chinese govt because they want to lure Indian businessmen for starting IT firm in China and taking advantage from that under the condition that many Indians will visit that place where TCS started their operation. This is just one example.

Certainly Indian govt can also do that but that also depend on case by case basis, not always for each and every company cause.

For the less turnout of the Investors in India, there are many other reasons.

In India, we still don't have enough infrastructure for the development of an R&D center. Bangalore is the heart of IT as pronounced by the Indian and state govt but if you go to Bangalore, you will notice that the whole city has become standstill because of the growing population and poor road and other infrastructural facilities.

Industries should shift towards Delhi (NCR region), Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad where these difficulties are comparatively less.

In whole India, we have a lack of infrastructure. In Delhi, there is power cut at least once in a day in hot seasons. In rainy and winter seasons also, we have power cuts. Roads are still not up to the mark. Only main roads are looking good and in good condition but when you enter inside the city on the link roads, condition is pathetic everywhere in India. Just after rain, water logging starts and then starts many types of health problems.

But in foreign countries, that is reverse. I have never seen power cut in my two years in Korea. Roads are 6 lanes, there is no traffic jam. All the cities are connected by expressways. We have expressways only between Pune-Mumbai, Delhi-Noida, Jaipur-Delhi and few more areas.

Yes there is still "babudom" in central as well as state govt but for the opening of the firms govt has eased rules and regulations after 1990 thereby getting good responses from private investors from all over the world.

China has grown well and given more attention to its infrastructure. Mauritius and other nearby countries have invested more in roads, electricity, water and other infrastructural facility.

In my view, India has to improve its infrastructural facilities first. Then and then only we can expect heavy investment from across the border. - Bibhuti Bikramaditya, Daejeon, S.Korea - June 15, 2006

2007-07-06T08:20:00.000-07:00

Revamping of Education in Biharby Nirmal Kumar, Reader
Department of History
Sri Venkateswara College, New Delhi

December 18, 2005

http://www.patnadaily.com/readerswrite/2005/dec/nirmal_kumar.html

It is through your website that I wish to convey to the new Bihar Government of the urgent need to improve the higher education. At present lakhs of Bihari students migrate to Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Bangalore and elsewhere to get higher education. That means loss of millions of rupees to these states, but earned in Bihar. Had the higher education been better, these students would have spent their hard earned money in Bihar. They would have bought books, registers, pens, food stuffs, clothes and travel needs in Bihar. Instead they are getting targeted by Shiv Sena goons in Pune and anti Bihari feelings in Delhi.

A simple improvement in higher education would entail revised and updated syllabus, teaching vacancies filled up, well stocked libraries and labs, ample sports facilities, seminars and conferences round the year, and fair and timely examinations. Not a very difficult task to accomplish. All it needs are funds and some political will.

English must be made the medium of instruction at all levels so that the average Bihari student is able to enter the competitive world market in IT. For that, it may also be essential to have computer education at all levels. We can not afford to miss the IT bus. Bihar with large number of public schools breeds a good number of students who can speak good English. Naturally they can have the pie of BPO boom.

The new government will also have to set up many medical and engineering colleges to stop this drain to Maharashtra and Karnataka. The beginning seems to have made when Birlas are planning to open one engineering college in Bihar, I know of some other educational barons who would be interested in opening colleges in the state. That must be encouraged and they must be give hassle free one window clearance may be at the level of Chief Ministers' office.

Comments:
While I am not competent to comment on the state of education in Bihar, I wish to touch upon your opinion on the emphasis on English. I was a medical student at the JIPMER, Pondicherry in the eighties. There were a sprinkling of Bihari students. All of them adjusted well to the different academic environment at the prestigious institute. Most of them made up for their lack of proficiency in English by sheer hard work. Those fluent in the language either schooled in Delhi or other major cities and thrived in the liberal academic climate then. Only one, a dear friend I still call my Bihari brother, had to drop out because his English was so poor that even after five years he still had no proper grasp of the language despite all the help we gave him. I have often wondered if only he had had the benefit of English medium schooling.

For the record no Bihari or any other student has ever been discriminated in Pondicherry either within the institute or by the warm and friendly Tamils of Pondicherry. As a Malaysian I can vouch for that. Perhaps now is the time for the competent education authorities in Bihar to seriously implement English statewide so that no smart Bihari will ever be disadvantaged by merely the lack of proficiency in one language.- Dr Ignatius Joseph - Dec. 19, 2005
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I am all for Biharis learning English, but NEVER at the cost of Hindi. An unenlightened approach to lap up English can lead to lapping up of a lot of nonsense that people with hidden agendas have tagged along with the English language. While adopting winning qualities from the Western world, concerted efforts must be made to preserve the wonderful traditions of our culture. A culture where divorces are rarer than the horns of an ass. A culture that does not have to deal with the debris of failed marriages and of people living empty lives that result from broken marriages.

Learn English, better than the Englishmen - to earn a living. Speak Hindi, to talk to a friend, to talk to your spouse, your children and to listen to radio and TV. Language is a major part of a peoples' character... And as we all know.."... if character is lost, everything is lost. - Arecee - Dec. 21, 2005

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Dear Nirmal jee, I do agree with you. Revamping education will bring Bihar into lightened track and achieve the glorious past.

Bihar needs revolution in the education sector, stop brain drain and uplift poor and intelligent brains of Bihar. Not only the government, but NGOs, NRIs, Trusts and industrialists should come forward for building a new Bihar but certainly government has to improve law and order, good governance must be achieved. Communication is not at all a problem when we have good education system. - Bibhuti Bikramaditya - Dec. 21, 2005

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Nirmal Ji is right and wrong. I think we need a balance of English and Hindi. Do not let go of your own language but do impart more teaching in English. - Vivek - Dec. 22, 2005

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I read the comments of all the people on this forum and wish to highlight the following:

There is a culture of dowry so much prevalent in Bihar that all the educated who can talk in English and hold high post in Govt. and non government organisations who are the so called the leaned elite take pride in taking the highest amount for his caliber.

It is better to posses some social morality rather than to know English acquire high degrees and then succumb to the greatest evils of society that is dowry.

The so called learned people of Bihar state and their parents , I swear do not posses an inkling of remorse for asking for dowry and then torturing the poor woman if her father promises and then is unable to provide.

This may be common in all states but it is very rampant in Bihar.

There are people who also offer dowry for instance a father of a girl will offer high dowry because it is his status symbol but what about father of girls who are middle class?

I must say that before we get down to teach and learn English, we must first imbibe social responsibilities and traits which will help shape the future of our state rather than starting it up with English. - Sanjay - Dec. 22, 2005

2007-07-06T08:18:00.000-07:00

Bihar Journalists and IISER
by Dr. Rajkishore Prasad
Research Fellow, Japan

Feb. 15, 2007
http://www.patnadaily.com/readerswrite/2007/feb/rajkishorepd2.html

In order to emphasize our demand for establishing an Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) in Bihar, media should give proper attention. Only media can help in creating mass awareness and seriousness. I think the matter is lacking wide coverage and mass support. The repeated recommendations by hon'ble president and contradictory reply by the central government　on the matter have induced thinking that after giving IIT center is not going to entertain matter of IISER with priority. However, both types of institutes are needed in Bihar to upgrade and stabilize existing higher education system. It's sure that someday IISER or equivalent will come to Bihar but why not today? Why does central government is ignoring prescriptions of Hon'ble President and why does our political system is failing to counteract? I hope journalists can better help to answer such questions. We need to keep candle lighting and one of the most effective ways is to sustain with demands with larger force. The journalists from Bihar can help in much better way. The might of media is tremendous; that's why it has been said that

KHEENCHO NA KAMANO, NA TALWAR NIKALO
JAB TOPA MUQAVIL HO TO AKHABAR NIKALO

Our journalists can stimulate our political system from very close by exchanging opinion of government, our MP's, central ministers and other prominent figures whose active support can make significant changes. It will be great if some local correspondents come forward on this mission. Many of the influential figures from state are in the capacity to bring an IISER in Bihar but we need to activate them repeatedly. Till today, one of the central ministers and an MP from Bihar; have given active support to matter and have raised the issue but what about the opinion of the rest. Such explorations in the interest of Bihar can be easily done by our journalists. It will be highly helpful if some one can procure list of accredited journalists, with addresses (preferably e-mail addresses), from Bihar. I hope Patna Daily can do something in this direction as PD it has been covering the related matters with priority.

Comments:
Same can be had from the website http://www.prdbihar.org/ listed under "Media List" heading on the left margin. You may also find the following Id's useful in your endeavor:

1. Mr Laloo Pd Yadav ( Member Union Cabinet, Member Cabinet Committee on Economic Affair).
2 Mr Raguvansh Prasad Singh ( Member, Union Cabinet & Cabinet Committe on Economic Affairs)
3. Mr Ram Vilas Paswan ( Member, Union Cabinet & Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs)
4 Mr MAA Fatmi (Union HRD Minister of State & MP from Darbhanga)
5 SC Jha ( Member Economic Advisory Committee & Chairman PM's task Force on Bihar)
6. Anawarul Hoda: Member Planning Commission (originally from Bihar)
7. Ashok Kumar Jha (is Union Finance Secretary and is on Various committees Including Scientific Advisory Committee), IAS officer of AP cadre but original resident of Bihar (as you can make out).

Union Cabinet has also approved plan for setting up 4 new NID's as well on 8th feb 2007 and one National Institute of Food Technologies & Entrepreneurship in last quarter. 11th plan talks of setting up 4 SPA, 10 Central Universities of Excellence, 20 IIIT's, 3-5 IIM's and so on as well. - D N Mishra - Feb. 16, 2007

Note from the editor: PatnaDaily does not publish email addresses of people without their prior permission. We have had this problem before when we published someone's email address and then later got slammed for sending spammers into their mail box. Mr. Mishra, with all good intentions, had provided the email addresses of the leaders he mentions above but we chose not to publish them. Please go to the web site mentioned by Mr. Mishra to obtain relevant email addresses. Thank you.
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This is not only the issue of highlighting this matter to media to bring govt into action, this is also matter of grave concern that why after repeated mentioning by HE president of India for need of Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, (IISER) in Bihar in the joint session of Parliament in Patna as well as recently held Global Bihar Meet (See text of his speech in Education and entrepreneurship section of Mission of Bihar: http://presidentofindia.nic.in/scripts/eventslatest1.jsp?id=1423) neither govt of Bihar nor any politicians of Bihar has come into action. The pity is that they even don't know about IISER. This we have felt while working with govt for the demand of IISER in Bihar since a year.

Though we as a team of BiharBrains have been successful in talking with DY CM just before Global Meet over this issue and in near future we are going to have meeting with CM and HRD Ministers of India, we do feel that unless all section of the society comprising Educated class, (scientists, professors), politicians, administrators , students raise this issue to bring into notice of Hon'ble Prime Minister of Inda, it will be futile attempt.

We should understand that only IIT in Bihar will not serve the purpose; the establishment of IISER will help in creating research environment in the state in the field of all streams of sciences. This institute has great potential in bringing research environment on track and also this will be perhaps the first research institute of its kind in the field of science for the state of Bihar.

We are in the need of starting a campaign by all political parties on the demand of IISER in Bihar. I do hope all citizens of Bihar will help in this. I do hope all MPs of Bihar will sign over it and then in a team of MPS We can have meeting with Hon'ble Prime minister of India.

I do request all PD writers to join hands with us for this noble cause. For all other information about our demand for IISER in Bihar, please go to
http://www.biharbrains.org/bihar-brains-demand-NISC-IISER.php - Bibhuti Bikramaditya, Daejeon, S Korea - Feb. 16, 2007
Discussion on this topic is

2007-07-06T08:16:00.000-07:00

'Doing for the Joy of Doing' Need of the Hour
by Rajesh Chaubey
June 19, 2005
http://www.patnadaily.com/readerswrite/2005/jun/rajesh_chaubey17.html

I share this as I find the readers of PD seem to be in knots when it comes to the question of what concrete action can be taken by them. There is an almost hysterical screaming at other people to do something for the “beloved” state/nation. All the self generated hysteria makes people behave in ways not befitting of well educated people. Ego battles are fought in cyber space. However, what is pathetically comical is that even after making enough noise to make a large flock of parrots shy, hardly any action seems to result.

I guess the greatest problems are the theoreticians. These people who distance themselves from problems, sitting far away they make plenty of noise accusing/abusing the system for the problem. They pray with folded hands that “someone” will do “something” for their state/nation. They are a part of the problem and not a part of the solution.

There are others who do not communicate as much but have their own tiny shrines inside them. They find it difficult, or rather awkward, to display their softer side. They have their own tiny worlds where they shed off their armor and do little things to make themselves and others happy.

Decades back I came across an organisation which picked up four academically good but poor students every year and funded their education. This small self-financing organisation took care of the kids till they settled in life. Till date it has produced many good professionals who are working in India and abroad. They keep in touch and a small society has grown.

In return for whatever the organisation does for such kids the only two expectations from them are clearly defined. Expectation One: Try to open a similar organisation where ever you work in life. Expectation Two: Help poor kids whose education has been financed by similar organisations to find jobs and settle in life.

I must say the contributions made to such organisations are miniscule when you compare them with the amount of happiness and satisfaction they bring. I request all PD readers to form groups, setup such organisations, fund them and experience the true joy and satisfaction. By doing so you will be starting a chain reaction of help and happiness. The important thing here is trust in the system so your group must consist of your own close friends and relatives. Do the screening carefully to ensure that your help reaches the really deserving children.

There is not much point in asking others to do things. Do something yourself quietly and reward yourself with true joy and satisfaction.

Comments:
You are absolutely right, Mr. Chaubey. There must be an association of educated people of Bihar who are residing in different parts of India and abroad. I am trying since 8-9 month and started one organization called "BiharBrains" (www.biharbrains.org) to meet those objectives which you have mentioned above.

We have representative in almost all major countries (USA, Saudi Arabia, UAE, UK, South Korea, Australia, Bangkok, Singapore) and all major Indian cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Patna, Bangalore, Calcutta, Ahmedabad, Chennai). We called global chat on Jan 9, Jan 16, and Jan 23, 2005 and formed many committees to carry out those projects to be implemented in Bihar. We held many meetings in those cities and countries successfully.

We are establishing "Bihar Brains Scholastic Center" and forming NGO at Patna for which we have already taken space at Shanti Maitri Bhawan, BM Das Road, Patna.

We have announced some welfare schemes for poor school going students, projects for engineering colleges for awareness; GRE/GMAT Institute at Scholastic center (giving new look to the Scholastic center) etc.

We are in the process of forming an NGO for which members are from all over the world who are also residents of Bihar. At the local level also, our organization is gradually becoming stronger, trying to involve all top brass of Bihar, all educationist, all workers who want to invest their time and share their views for the execution of these projects.

Many VCs (Patna Univ, Mithila Univ, Ex Patna Univ), ex-chief secretary, Bihar, K. K. Srivastava), SBI AGM, Retd. IFS Ashok Kumar, Tripura cadre, many CEOs, CTOs, R&D professionals and people from all stream have joined hands and joining hand gradually.

On my next visit to India in the 3rd week of July, I would like to meet all interested people who really want to do something for Bihar.

It would be better if all PD writers would contribute something for this society for the noble cause. - Bibhuti Bikramaditya, Seoul, South Korea - June 21, 2005

2007-07-06T08:14:00.000-07:00

Anti-National Statement Makers Should be Held Accountable
by Bibhuti Bikramaditya
Daejeon, S Korea

March. 12, 2007
http://www.patnadaily.com/readerswrite/2007/mar/b_bikramaditya3.html

The recent public statement by Mr. Raj Thackeray against non-Maharashtrians and particularly against the people of Bihar has opened eyes of every Indian. This has now become cynosure for media and burning topic of discussion among Indian community on cheap politics and heinous act by few politicians which is completely against nationhood. The points here are to mention that this is not first time that any such public statement has come against Bihar in the name of protecting Marathi culture, in the name of making Mumbai dirty and few more other reasons.

As far as Marathi culture is concerned, I don’t think this is very much different from other Hindu cultures. I was in Maharashtra for couple of years, I know people of Maharashtra as soft spoken, business minded, strong faith in religious cultures and harmony and the passion for nationhood.

Yes, there are some instances that happened in Maharashtra in which people of Bihar were involved themselves in the wrongdoing and crimes. Because of the bad governance and lawlessness in the state and also by some students of Bihar in different colleges of Maharashtra who involved themselves in politics in the colleges and involved themselves in criminal activity, they feel that even common mass of Bihar is boorish and violent.

The reason for bad reputation against Bihar and people of Bihar is well known, Bihar should develop its own region in terms of literacy, unemployment, education, law and order and infrastructure etc which is gradual process, takes time.

But as far as state wise culture of our country is concern, this is not at stake because of people of Bihar or any other state /region. I am sure, they (common people of Maharashtra) don’t believe that people of Bihar in Maharashtra are maligning the culture of the state. They are living in complete harmony and brotherhood with all other citizens of India in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra.

Only politicians like Mr. Thackeray believe threat to culture and make this as big issue because he/she wants vote banks by spreading regionalism through these kind of heinous statements which is against any good society and culture.

In the same way, many a times politicians and Mumbai Municipal Corporation, BMC claimed that Mumbai is dirty because of the people of Bihar and UP. But this is not the fact. Mumbai city has become dirty because of the complete failure of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation. The improper way of making plan and its execution is the main cause for dirtiness of Mumbai which is going from bad to worse. The govt of Maharashtra should pay more attention to that.

If we look from a different angle, Mumbai is the cosmopolitan city of India, treated as financial capital of India, and has good reputation in the world.

If any city grows, develops, and becomes a metropolitan, then not only because of the local people but also good people from different parts of the country who go there to start and establish business and contribute in their economy for the development of the state as well as of the nation. This is true.

In the professional world, no one can offer jobs to anyone for charity. If the people of Bihar or any parts of India go there to seek employment and get employment, then not because of the charity that company or institute offers, this is only because of the talent, which he/she possesses.

Being an Indian, we should preserve our talent and give a chance whether they are from any parts of India working in any parts of India.

India is known for the talent; let us not squeeze those talents in the name of language, culture, regionalism, casteism and religionalism.

People go to every state for business and jobs and have right to go anywhere, reside any where in India. Let every body enjoys their life wherever they want in India.

Let us not forget that formation of state is only for the good governance of the country. Don’t spread regionalism among any Indians. Nationalism is above than any other factors. At the cost of "desivad", nobody should dare to spread any kind of mistrust, regionalism and casteism, religionalism etc in India.

People should understand that we are progressive and doing well in all front and giving competition many nations of the world. In the modern India, there is no room for looking back into blunders of the past medieval India.

This is not the first time that any politicians raised voice against any particular state/region, this had happened in the past too.

In 1970’S, Shiv Sena made similar statements and even harassed a few Tamilians because they were taking many office jobs.

In 1990’s and post 2000 era, this has increased and many instances are there into Maharashtra, Assam, Manipur and few more states.

I don’t want to dig into the reasons of the incident that has happened in the past but
certainly these incidences are serious cause of concern and dangerous portents of Indian society. This type of public statement against any Indian national or any state of Indian Union is shocking and against the national character of our nation. Such people whether he is in Maharashtra or in any other parts of the country should be punished and declared as "Traitor of India".

This is very bad that till today nobody has appealed to the court against his remark. People or law expert should come forward for the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) for the noble cause.

I would like to draw attention to the central govt that as this case is increasing and has increased in the recent past, Govt should enforce law under Indian constitution to stop this kind of heinous act and stopping politicians to play cards of cheap politics which will have adverse impact in the long run. In my view, this case can be treated as "Traitor of this country" and he/should be punished under constitution.

This law will be good for well being of the nation.

2007-07-06T08:13:00.000-07:00

Time to Introspect
by Guneshwar Anand

April 22, 2005
http://www.patnadaily.com/readerswrite/2005/apr/guneshwar_anand.html

What we are doing these days is only blaming political parties for all kind of debacles in Bihar. As a human being, we always try to find out error in other fellows. But now time has came to get rid of this sticky situation and start thinking in different directions.

Let's introspect what all of us have done in last ten year?

Please ask these questions from yourself:

1. Have we ever tried to help any poor child to get his basic rights like education, good food etc.

2. Have we ever tried to come against child labour like boycott products from company that employ child labour?

3. Have we ever tried to help any underprivileged family for its basic needs?

I can ask several such questions and the answer of most of us will answer no, in fact most of us have never thought about this. Am I right?

So it's time to take responsibility on our hand and do things differently.

What we can do? How we can help underprivileged people?

I have few ideas which I want to share with all of you:

1. We can start working with NGO. We need not to put our full time effort.

2. We can open a small library in rural area as it does not require large amount of money. We can collect old books from cities and start library. Even Rs 1000-1500 may be suffice for starting library.

3. Our foreigner Bihari brothers too can contribute from there itself. They can start an organization and collect some money like monthly 10 dollar by each member and send to the NGOS working here in Bihar. Similar organization we can start here too and put a minimum member fee of Rs 100.

4. If You are a doctor then you can start a weekly or monthly check up campaign in rural areas.

5. Young student can visit rural area and tell the basic rights to the villagers and how they can fight for that and help them in to getting there right.

Bihar is the least educated state in India. In Bihar, the least educated district is Kishanganj with literacy rate around 20%. Its shameful for us. So let's start working in this direction. Each educated person should promise to himself that he must educate at least one underprivileged child.

Comments:
Yes, Mr. Anand, I agree with you. I have started uniting educated people of Bihar under the society called "Biharbrains" (www.biharbrains.org) for the development of Bihar and doing the same thing which you have suggested in your article for contribution.

Biharbrains Scholastic center at Patna, many welfare schemes, career guidance, schemes for poor, opening of R&D Centers etc are some of the initiatives taken by us at Patna under this NGO. You can contribute and ask others also to contribute for this noble cause. - Bibhuti Bikramaditya, Seoul, South Korea - April 25, 2005
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I still have hope somewhere in my heart, not in mind, that Bihar will see its people united for the sake of development. Development will take place automatically if basic things like respect for poor and socially deprived people and education are given priority.

The best thing we can give to our state and possibly to a human being is to give respect and forward our hand first to bring them in the mainstream. - Prashant, Bangalore - April 26, 2005

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Please visit us at www.bihari.org.

You would be amazed to know that a virtual group with more than 1400 members all over the world, what all we have done in the past, and what are being discussed and implemented currently. In the past we have implemented many projects with the help of NGOs operating in Bihar.

To know us better please join us and be an active part of our group and discussion. - Amar K Jamadhiar, Pennsylvania, USA - April 26, 2005

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I’m part of both Bihari (www.bihari.org) and Bihar Brains (www.biharbrains.org) and we as a group have started working on it. We are doing whatever we can do for our state.

During my recent Patna visit, I conducted a seminar on one of the cutting edge topic for students of NIT Patna. We are also coming up with a Scholastic center for students in BM Das Road under the banner of Bihar Brains. In past we did work with Blind School (near Arts College).

Samir Kumar Mishra, Brisbane, Australia - April 30, 2005

2007-07-06T08:11:00.000-07:00

Campaign for an IISER in Bihar
by Bibhuti Bikramaditya
Daejeon, S Korea

March. 7, 2007
http://www.patnadaily.com/readerswrite/2007/mar/b_bikramaditya2.html

This is not only the issue of highlighting this matter to media to bring government into action, it is also a matter of grave concern that despite repeated mentioning by the President of India for an Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) in Bihar in the joint session of the Assembly in Patna as well as at the recently held Global Bihar Meet, neither the Bihar government, nor any politician from Bihar has come into action. The pity is that they even don't know about IISER.

Though we (the BiharBrains team) have been successful in talking with Deputy Chief Minister just before the Global Meet, we do feel that unless all sections of the society including the educated class (Scientists/professors), politicians, administrators, students raise this issue to bring into notice of the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India, it will be a futile attempt.

We should understand that Only IIT in Bihar will not serve the purpose. The establishment of IISER will help in creating research environment in the state in the field of all streams of sciences. This institute has great potential in bringing research environment on track and also this will be perhaps the first research institute of its kind in the field of science for the state of Bihar.

We are in the need of starting a campaign by all political parties on the demand of IISER in Bihar. I do hope all citizens of Bihar will help in this. I do hope all MPs of Bihar will sign over it.

I do request all PD readers to join hands with us for this noble cause.

Comments:
I agree with the concern expressed by the Bihar Brains team. Every state is taking appropriate measures to bring world class educational institutions in their locality. Bihar has also started working on the same path but we should try our best to bring IISER also in Bihar. Majority of students from Bihar go out of state and end up in spending more than justified money on getting education. Apart from that we do not have any renowned research organization in Bihar. After splitting of the state, ISM, BIT etc institutes went to Jharkhand. So it is very necessary to bring some dignified research organization to Bihar so that it enhances it's capability to produce world class researchers. I would say it is the demand of time, I fully support this campaign. - Sachin Suman - Mar. 9, 2007

2007-07-06T08:07:00.000-07:00

Why Biharis are Discriminatedby Prabhat Kumar Sinha
Montreal, Canada

April 30, 2005
http://www.patnadaily.com/readerswrite/2005/apr/prabhat_sinha3.html

A Sardar jee was arrested in Australia for stabbing "his" pregnant wife. Further investigation revealed that the woman was in fact "his" wife on paper, and in reality she was his elder brother's wife. When accused wanted to migrate from Punjab, India to Australia, he failed to get visa. His elder brother was settled in Australia and they designed a plan to help the younger brother migrate to Australia. Australia settled elder brother would "divorce" his wife and then she would go to Punjab and "marry" the younger brother and on the basis of her status in Australia, the younger brother would get visa. After coming to Australia, the woman started living with her "real" husband. The younger Sardar jee who is now her "official" husband did not like this and when he noticed that she is pregnant he got infuriated and stabbed her. This is no sardar jee joke but a true incident of recent past (3-4 months back).

Why am I telling you a fraudulent migration story on a site related to Bihar? I am trying to understand Bihar and Biharis with respect to our brethren from relatively far better developed states like Punjab and Gujarat. I am trying to understand why a Bihari is looked upon down in his own country. What is the contribution of "underdeveloped" Bihar in the national prosperity compared to other developed parts of the country? This discussion is relevant when there is a growing sense of discomfort among many that Bihar is fast becoming a liability on the nation especially after it's bifurcation as it is no more provider of natural industrial resources and it's contribution to national exchequer is decreasing. If you carefully read newspapers and listen to national media, it is not difficult to see that the so-called "progressive" and "prosperous" states seem to be up in arms against what they consider an injustice where their "efficiency" and "progressiveness" is being penalized by diverting resources to the poorest state like Bihar which they term as "laggards". When EFC (Eleventh Finance Commission) made some recommendations in respect of sharing central revenue by the different states, there was lot of noise against this on the basis of contributions to the central revenue made by poor states. Don't we listen on the same line that since Mumbai is giving highest contribution of Income Tax, it deserves highest attention from central govt.? Even for the same reason we Biharis feel the pain and accept that we don't command respect in different parts of the country because our own state is in pathetic condition. Give Bihar to Pakistan instead of Kashmir, Bihar is a gutter and like insects, Biharis are coming out of this gutter and spreading in better parts of country and making those parts bad, oye Bihari, oye Lallu kind of remarks are regularly inflicted on us by media and by even leaders and many responsible persons. I am Atal not-Bihari Vajpayee, we will not let Haryana become another Bihar by new CM of Haryana, Bihar type incidents are happening in Punjab, Gujarat is NOT Bihar by Narendra Modi to NRIs in USA and UK; are constantly echoing in my ears. More painful is to see educated Biharis justifying these remarks on the basis of our own pathetic state Bihar and say that respect is earned NOT demanded and as Bihar is really a liability on the nation. To deserve respect we must develop Bihar. Only a developed state people deserve and command respect. How come a Bihari, who belongs to a very corrupt, crime-prone, and most backward state called Bihar, can command respect, is a sentiment even echoed by many Biharis also.

Let us analyze the contribution of truncated Bihar compared to others in national prosperity and progress.

We all know that large numbers of poor, illiterate Biharis are taking trains to reach Mumbai, Delhi, Punjab, Gujarat in search of rozi-roti. These people are "destroying" the beauty of the metros and stressing the limited resources of Mumbai, Delhi etc. Future of Mumbai is in danger and to save Mumbai we must drive these Biharis out. Hindu Hridaysamrat Bal Thackeray drives his main political strength from these sentiments only. Recently there was a drive to raze slums and oust such Biharis from Mumbai and the Congress Govt. got support from all the opposition party like Shiv Sena and national party BJP who claim to be nationalist parties. Even when many of the people have NOT seen Bihar, they get bad impression of Bihar by seeing poor, illiterates Biharis flocking metros. Once a Bihari settled in Mumbai, many more from his village follow him.

Wakeup at 3 o'clock in the early morning of a harsh Delhi winter, come to Chanakyapuri where many foreign country's embassies are located. Go to embassy of Canada, UK, USA and see yourself a very long queue of visa seekers. You will notice that the very large numbers of people standing in the queue are illiterates, semi-literates, poor people from Punjab. These type of people outnumber well educated visa seekers even when India is becoming IT superpower, s/w engineers seeking company sponsored visa are in far less numbers compared to semi-literate people of Punjab. Not a single Bihari you will find in the queue who is NOT well educated. Go to International Airport in Mumbai, and the scene is NOT very different from Patna Railway Junction. Poor people from Kerala and many southern states are going to Middle East countries to do all petty works like cooks, carpenters, electricians, laborers etc. Go to any place in Punjab, Guajarat, Kerala and you will find many agents promising visa to Canada, UK, Kenya etc. Migration is an industry in Punjab, our no. 1 developed state. People are so desperate to migrate that they are doing all sorts of frauds and innocent people becoming victims in the process. There are hundreds of stories of abandoned brides reported in the Indian press in the past few years. Indeed, so titanic is the problem that its effects are being felt in Indian towns and villages too. The National Commission for Women (NCW) in New Delhi recently identified desertions of women by NRIs as one of the most serious gender issues in Punjab. It is bringing bad name to the nation also.

I have been to different parts of the world like UK, USA, and Canada due to nature of my job. I came across many Gujaratis, Punjabis working as truck drivers, cleaners, grocery shop owners etc. NOT to say that all Gujaratis and Punjabis in USA, UK, Canada, SA countries are like that but majority of them are doing these type of work. I have met many Biharis also in USA, UK, and Canada but yet to come across a single Bihari who is NOT well educated.

British took people from Gujarat and Punjab to their colonies for menial jobs. Since then they have learnt the trick to become NRIs. They have established links in many countries. A Punjabi having a job in India is ready to come to Canada etc. and take any low end job to earn dollars and become NRI with help of scores of Punjabis already settled there. The very lucrative approach to earn money and status of NRI is forcing them to do all kind of frauds and heinous crimes. They even give anti-India statements and stories to gain the status of refuge. Do a Google search and you will come across hundreds of thousands of such cases of migration frauds. But once they acquire the status of NRI they command respect in India. They deserve respect as they contribute significantly to our forex reserves. Latest report says that NRIs wired 23 billion USD to India, far more than what s/w companies are bringing to the nation. We conveniently ignore that all the separatist movements whether in Punjab or any other parts of the country, they get largest funds from NRIs. Funds from NRIs have even gone to many communal movements/riots in the country. It is a fact.

We conveniently ignore that Bihari laborers are backbones of unorganized economy of the nation. These cheap labors are NOT different from H1 labors working in USA. Yes, H1 visa holders are known as "skilled labors" in official documents. But when there is any threat on H1 visa numbers or rules we cry foul and plead that in a way we are helping economy of US. It is Bihari labors who helped Punjab witness green revolution, it is Bihari cheap labors that real estate industry in Mumbai, Delhi and other place are thriving upon, it is Bihari cheap labors who build flyovers, roads, bridges and factories. It is Bihari cheap labors who make unskilled work force of the country. It is poor Biharis who are guarding MNCs and factories as security staff. But if an illegal slum comes up in metro, instead of blaming local administration for that, it is easy to thrash and bulldoze them. How convenient it is that to complete your real estate project, you settle poor labors in local vicinity, poor labors pay bribes to local civic machinery on regular basis but once work is over, to beatify the place they become a liability overnight. Recently Bal Thackeray gave dictate that those Biharis who have been residing for less than 20 years must be driven away from Mumbai. NRIs seek Green card in USA in 6 years but Biharis need more than 20 years in their own country to get ration card.

And its "intelligentsia" - which the poverty of local education and paucity of local opportunities could not hold on to - forms the bulk of the country's administrative and institutional strength, populating secretariats, banks, universities and media houses. Biharis are not lagging behind any state people in any race be it IIT, IIM type world class institutions or IAS, IPS, or other streams of bureaucracy. According to a recent estimate, every district of the nation will be having either DM or SP as Bihari. Biharis are backbone of administration of the nation. It is no exaggeration. Any decision-making body of the central govt. has definitely Biharis in good number, be it a political body or bureaucratic body. That too when the education system in Bihar is in mess and central govt. has systematically neglected Bihar. Bihar, which was once seat of learning and boasted world class learning centers like Nalanda and Vikramshila, does not have a single central university. I can give you many examples, which tell the story of criminal discrimination, and injustice Bihar has been continuously subjected to. Talents of Bihar are going to different parts of the country to do research, higher studies etc. There are many incidents in recent past when Bihari students were denied admission in various colleges in Delhi and Punjab and harassed based on flimsy ground. Delhi alone has 4 Central Universities. Even North-East region has 5 central universities. Bihar is much bigger and populous than Delhi. Population of Bihar is more than double of that of combined population of all the North-east states. I am not writing this article to elaborate injustice against Bihar as it would require a separate article running into pages, but I am pointing to Bihar's contribution in national prosperity and progress despite it's own backwardness due to various reasons.

Who can deny the fact that Bihar is a most backward state of the nation? Our corrupt and shrewd politicians are mainly responsible for that. But same is true for developed states as far as corrupt politicians are concerned. Corrupt politicians and corruption is not unique to Bihar. Bihar is NOT no. 1 corrupt state in India. Stamp Paper scam (which ruined the revenue systems of state govts.), UTI scam, Shares scam (which duped thousands of investors), Land scam of Mumbai and Noida, Cricket scam, Hawala scam, Telecom scam of Sukhram fame, Tehelka scam and many such never ending lists of scams in the country tell the story of corruption. Disease of corruption is everywhere and it is rotting the system. Bihar cannot be singled out as most corrupt state. Read any official, un-official report on corruption in India.

Is Bihar a most criminal state of the nation??? All will jump to agree with this, thanks to media, even educated Biharis are spreading this blatant lie. This is a classic example of urban middle class thought process who cannot think beyond crime happening in urban places like Patna and Delhi. If a school boy is kidnapped in Patna by hard core criminals, it becomes a national headline, but many crimes which are committed against dalits, woman and poor people in rural part of the country are not even getting attention of print media. Mind that these type of crimes are NOT committed by professional criminals but by people with powerful connections and is very prevalent in all parts of the country. Let us look at crime from at all India level to understand Bihar's position. To begin with, let me tell you about what National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has said in it's latest report :-

Pondicherry reported the highest crime rate for all IPC crime, 447.7, which is 2.6 times the national crime rate of 169.5. It also reported 54 suicides per 100,000 people. The national average was 10.6.

Kerala reported the highest crime rate followed by Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

As for crimes against women, Chhattisgarh reported 38.4 per cent of a total of 146,678 cases registered nationwide.

Among the 35-mega cities, Delhi accounted for 24 per cent (320 out of 1,312) rape cases and 34 per cent (759 of the 2,251) of kidnappings and abduction of women.

You may jump to say that crimes in Bihar go un-reported but wait as although non-registration of crime is a common, nationwide phenomenon; it is most prevalent to conceal the incidence of minor offences, or charges against the rich and the influential. In point of fact, data for every year since 1953 have been systematically compiled by the NCRB, and the trend patterns that emerge show no sign of systematic concealment or manipulation.

Clearly Bihar is not the most criminal state as is consistently projected by media. Why is it so that even we Biharis tend to believe that Bihar is most crime-prone state? Powerful urban middle class who writes in newspapers, debate on TV, forms opinion, gets maximum attention from Govt. are talking about crimes committed by criminals. They immediately take note of crimes happening in cities including Patna. They take note of crimes, which affect them directly. These urban middle class talk about crime they mean crimes happening in cities and Patna which are committed by pure criminals and ignore crimes committed by public in villages on dalits and women. A random sampling of crimes reported in mainstream Indian newspapers tells their story: "Dalit boy beaten to death for plucking flowers"; "Dalit tortured by cops for three days"; "Dalit 'witch' paraded naked in Rajsthan"; "Dalit killed in lock-up at Kurnool"; "7 Dalits burnt alive in caste clash"; "5 Dalits lynched in Haryana"; "Dalit woman gang-raped, paraded naked"; "Police egged on mob to lynch Dalits". Statistics compiled by India's National Crime Records Bureau indicate that in the year 2000, 25,455 crimes were committed against Dalits. Every hour two Dalits are assaulted; every day three Dalit women are raped, two Dalits are murdered, and two Dalit homes are torched. Most of the above crimes are NOT done by professional criminals. But why NOT it becomes an issue? Why India shines and UMC feel good? Recently an eight year old boy named Shyam Sada was severely branded using a hot iron rod ("hansia"). He fainted. A son of a owner of a brick clan ("bhatta") committed this crime in a village in Darbhanga. When a crime committed by a criminal in Patna/Delhi, then it is considered a crime. But, when a crime is committed against a poor child, that too not by professional criminals, it is not even counted as crime. Remember, how "Kislay kidnapping" incident in Patna and "Arpit kidnapping" by his maid servant in Delhi, it attracts attention of national media. Police swing into action and criminals are punished. Kislay had become son of Atal not-Bihari Vajpayee.

If Bihar has a politician like Md. Shahabuddin, then the same Bihar has a bureaucrat like C.K. Anil. No, Bihar is again NOT unique in harassing upright officials. An IAS topper of 1991 batch, Raju Narayanswami who was in Kerala cadre was once asked to report a junior officer in Kerala as this very meritorious person was never very popular among politicians. There are many such stories of IAS/IPS harassment by political establishments keep coming from progressive and developed states like Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Punjab, Haryana.

When CAT paper leak scam happened, it was conveniently highlighted more that the responsible persons were from Bihar while forgetting it was the management that should be considered more responsible for this type of happening. And certainly, the management or organizing board was outside of Bihar. The main focus of the debate was "persons belong to Bihar" rather than leakage of CAT paper itself. But when on April 6, 2005, few employees of a Pune based call center were arrested for stealing over $350,000 from four Citibank customers -- which has sent shock waves through the Indian IT-enabled services sector, did we read anywhere about the state those arrested frauds belong to? I am sure that media and others must have worked very hard to find some Bihar link in this case of crime. Recently so-called progressive states run by pro development people refused to implement VAT. Haryana is the first state to implement VAT, and results are very encouraging. Revenue increased many folds and very less "chori" of sales tax. Imagine, had Bihar opposed VAT, what we would have been termed as ? Imagine, if Bihar is a developed state and all Biharis labors or educated return to Bihar, do you think that Punjabis, Gujaratis, Keralites and others will restrain themselves from temptation to earn status of NRI and will stay back to drive the Indian economy in unorganized sector? We celebrate the "Prabasi Bhartiya Diwas" every year, but we degrade our own brothers from Bihar who are building the nation. I am very sure that we are fully capable of building Bihar as well. It is just a matter of time. There is no reason that Biharis should feel ashamed about themselves. In fact we have every reason to be proud of being Bihari. No doubt about that.

Bihar is a mainstream state of India, and it has always lead role in any significance change in the country, be it our freedom movements or Indira's dictatorship or dislodging the last Govt. led by BJP from centre when buoyed by BJP's success in Gujarat and few more states, many related outfits were openly talking of repeating "Gujarat experiments" elsewhere in the nation. Bihar, a land of Emperor Ashoka, Chandragupta, Chanakya, Budhha, Mahavir, Guru Govind Singh jee, Sher Shah Suri, Rajendra Prasad, Jaiprakash Narain and may such luminaries, can boast of many original thinkers and our rebellious fighting nature and deep political understanding can be attributed to above glorious inheritance. Precisely for the above facts, we Biharis have never demonstrated any narrow regional thinking. Bihar is also a border state, yet there is no history of any kind of separatist movements, and I am more than 100% sure that in future also Bihar will play the lead role on the question of integrity of the nation. For us there has been no difference between India and Bihar. For NRIs, India may be a picnic place to be visited for "dandiya" or "bhangra" but for a Bihari like me, Bihar is our home, sweet home, not just a place to go for "sattu" and "litti-chokha". I cannot accept any insult to my beloved state called Bihar.

Comments:
The article by Mr Sinha is fantastic and an eye-opener for all Indians especially Biharis. - Madhurendra K Verma, Laheriasarai, Bihar - May 1, 2005
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I must thank Prabhat Kumar Sinha, based in Montreal Canada for bringing out such positive sparks for Bihar. I am currently based in New York and there has not been a single day when I have not browsed PatnaDaily.Com and hindustandainik.com to get a feel of Swades (Bihar in this case).

The reality is in India, Bihari Indians are being discriminated and are being snatched away from the very right of Indian Constitution. But the question is who cares.

The politicians of Bihar do not as they do not have the required education to be able to think for the large picture.

The living mass of Bihar is not financially sound to be able to demand for their right.

I cannot agree less to the idea of what "Bihar is to India", "India is to the world". So it's high time Biharis take pride in whatever they do, as I am very positive about this new generation.

Regards and kudos to PatnaDaily team for such a brilliant effort. - Atul Vatsyayan - May 1, 2005

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Excellent Mr. Prabhat.

It's all a branding issue. When a Bihari says 'Subhas' instead of 'Subhash', or 'Burma' instead of 'Verma' he is made fun of. But check on these, from top of my mind

Gujrati pronunciations:
1. 'Cope' stands for COP
2. 'Coel' stands for COIL
3. 'Hole' stands for HALL
4. 'Strend' stands for STRAND
5. 'Cedaaar' stands for 'CEDAR'

Keralite pronunciations:
1. 'Aundy' stands for Aunty
2. 'Ungle' stands for Uncle
3. 'Onn' stands for One
4. 'Eightttt' stands for Eight

Bengali pronunciations:
1. 'Kolbor' stand for 'Culver'
2. The funniest one "Hum giregi" means "I would like to get off.'

It's all about branding. I am a proud Bihari. I am proud that in the next 10 years all 900 + districts in India will either have a Bihari DM or SP. - Raj Verma, PA, USA - May 1, 2005

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Congratulation to Prabhat Sinha and PatnaDaily to tell us the truth about Bihar and Biharis. Relentless campaign by media against Biharis have started fetching them results. Anti-Bihar sentiments are now all time high in India. Bihar has, successfully, been colonized once again, but this time, internally.

Many thought, it will happen to only supporters of Laloo Prasad, many thought it will happen only to subjeewala in Delhi, many thought it will happen to only poor students in Bombay, but no, it has started happening everywhere and with everybody. From Parliament to Airport and to Yadav Ji and to Sinha Ji.

There are cases that Biharis who are carrying passport issued in Patna are strip searched separately in Bombay and Bangalore, who knows if they belong to Bangladesh posing as Hindus. List has increased; earlier it were Muslims, now Biharis have been added.

But who cares for Bihar? Laloo Prasad is too busy attacking Narendra Modi and Sushil Modi is too busy protecting Narendra Modi. Bihar is not an issue for them, but I once again congratulate PatnaDaily for raising issue relevant to Bihar. - Raghu Yadav, London, UK - May 2, 2005

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A lot of my fellow Biharis are curious why we are discriminated across India. Why is Bihar the poorest state in one of the poorest countries in the world namely India. If we think from the global perspective we are at the bottom of the bottom!

The solutions to Bihar's problems are well known and are not impossible implement. Build character, morals, ethics, empathy and civic sense in the citizens of Bihar. Fix these problem and it wouldn't matter what the others say about Biharis.

The easiest way to start doing this is teaching these social values to children. This should be done mostly in school because it is impossible to monitor and teach each and every family to provide these values to their children. On the other hand schools can do it more effectively.

All the people who are over 30 years old cannot be changed so children are our only hope. Do not spend too much time in trying to change the grown ups. Build strong law and order and legal system to make the grown ups follow the concept of 'community living'.

In case a child daily spends say 8 hours in school teach them about 'social values' for 4 hours. Remember that each of these children will be the future citizens/members of the society and we will have to interact with them as fellow members of the society almost every hour. Don't you want them to be nice people?

Secondly, in case some kid is extremely bright in say engineering, science or medicine, the schools should identify them early, give them special coaching and make them topnotch engineers, science and doctors. Don't waste the time of rest of the students in science and engineering teach them social values instead. This is more important.

Also, make every child attend school. This should be more important than religion or politics and every parent who decides to have children need to make sure that they go to school. In case the parents are unable to do so the government and NGOs need to help them to the maximum extent. In case the parents do not want to do this even though they have the means then arrest them for being anti-national and let the government take the children away from these parents and bring them up as responsible adults. This system is not as difficult as it
sounds. It works out great in USA and China. Let the Army, NGOs, respected citizens take care of these children. Give businesses big tax break in case they help out with this effort.

Regarding businesses, build a system that supports innovative and honest people rather than mean and manipulative people.

By nature Biharis are fearless and intelligent but when character is added to the mix they become divine.

Once these children with social values grow up, we will have a society that is even better than the Americans! People will not tolerate injustice in the society, they will be brave to take tough decisions, they will stand up for the weak and the truth. They will set high goals, build the biggest company, the biggest buildings, hospitals, bridges, universities, space shuttles et cetera.

It is not difficult to build a great nation, you don't need diamond, gold, IIT, IIM , Tata or Birla. You just need the most important ingredient namely the people. Working together man can build all the IIT , IIM, Tatas or Birlas, bring water to even the desert, make electricity and create prosperity, peace and enjoyment. Japan has no other natural resource but it's people and it builds the best electronics, Americans have converted deserts to 18 hole golf courses, the Western Europeans have overcome the challenge of living in a snow covered dead land and
built the best societies. I am sure Biharis can overcome their own problems and become great too!! - Som Vishwakarma, USA - May 2, 2005

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I was highly moved by the article and I personally feel that it is very well-written. - Rohit Kishore - May 2, 2005

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Dear Prabhat jee:

Most of the points raised by you are valid. But I have some points and reservations to few of them and I personally feel to highlight those points also.

Yes, we all know that Biharis name has gone bad among rest of the Indians. But the question is why? Your article only covers this. One thing is very much clear; getting a bad name is a slow and gradual process. Behind the curtain of pride, many facts show different pictures which not only look odd and gives negative impression about Biharis but are also against the humanity.

If you go to other states in India, people ask many questions once they know that you are from Bihar like how do people live in Bihar? Why people are so dangerous? Why do they believe in dirty politics? Why they are not educated? Why crime rates are high?

If people ask these types of question, they have a valid point. The answer is: because we are more actively involved in wrong things compared to any other state.

Our leaders act in a way as if we are only illiterates. It seems Bihar is without brains or educated people even though maximum IAS, Civil servants, bank P.Os, IIT’ians are from Bihar only. You know when I started organization called "Bihar Brains", people ask: Are there any brains in Bihar also?

My all logical statements and proofs become illogical because of the common man mentality and thinking about Bihar and Biharis. I am giving some examples in support of the wrongdoings by Biharis which have directly or indirectly created and creating bad image of Bihar:

1. Engineering/Medical students: Since we have less number of medical/engg colleges, most students are going out of state for studies. Most of them are performing well but some of them are actively involved in disruptive activities, party politics, and heinous crimes. I saw many cases when I was working in Pune. Many a times, I played role of guardian of the boys and once I even became a guardian of a Bihari girl also. I got the impression from their warden/college teachers that she was not attending the classes, roaming hither and thither and that’s why she was failing in the examinations conducted by college/university. During 4 years at Pune, I didn't see any untoward incident. Once, a Bihari student, the son of a bigwig, brutally killed a famous badminton champion in a hotel. CBI investigative team started an investigation; found that the killer was the son of famous politician from Bihar.

It means sons of bigwigs never think about their prestige, they know that their fathers are well and good, whatever they do; it will be corrected.

2. Train incidents/student mobs for examinee: Most of the job seekers in Bihar go out for taking exams and create problems for average people who have train reservations and rights to sit and sleep. They simply tell the passengers that from now on they will have to sit and not sleep. And "Bechara" passenger has to accept whatever the student mob says, otherwise many times we see the news that family members are misbehaved by these student mobs. The victims are not always people from other states but, in general, whoever is sitting on their own reserved seats.

3. Respect for foreigners: Once I was traveling in a second class from Delhi to Varanasi, a student mob, seeing foreign girls and boys in the train, started teasing them and laughing. When I asked about this, they told me that these foreigners do not know Hindi so they cannot understand what they were speaking. I told them that the language of crying and laughing was universal all over the world so if they laughed at others, they could certainly feel it and it would create bad impression on them. After that, they stopped teasing.

So many times we have heard that foreigners are misbehaved in trains.

These are just a few of the incidents but it happens regularly. Maharashtra incident was just one of the examples of student mob. People don’t want to cross Bihar by train.

We have maligned our reputation ourselves. By writing this article, I am just trying to highlight some more facts where we commit blunders.

Biharis bad name will certainly change into good name when we do some good things and set standard in that (like we have good name for Civil service results), do some developmental work, leave all the inequality we have in mind, help each other in co-operative manner. We must prove to ourselves first by doing good deeds. We don’t have good schools, colleges, R&D centers not only because govt. is not taking any interest in them but also that we have not done anything for Bihar. We have not taken any preventive measures to save Bihar and Biharis name and fame. Yes Biharis must be respected by taking names of Ashoka, Chandragupta, Chanakya, Buddha, Mahavir, Guru Govind Singh jee, Sher Shah Suri, Rajendra Prasad, Jaiprakash but certainly these name would be sustained if we follow their paths. Then we can feel a sense of pride about Bihar and Biharis. - Bibhuti Bikramaditya, Seoul, South Korea - May 2, 2005

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I am sure this article will open eyes of many Biharis. I fully agree with the author. After reading few comments here I am tempted to comment back.

I read somewhere,

Lohe ka swad mat poochho lohar se,
poochho oos ghode (horse) se,
jiske mooh me lagam hai.

If you are still not at the receiving end, you will still not realize the pain or problem. Let me put mother of all logic on their behalf.

"A child is born today in Bihar. He deserves humiliation. He is responsible for this. He has maligned his reputation himself."

His mistakes,

Engineering/Medical students:
Train incidents/student mobs for examinee:
Respect for foreigners:

And I will add one from my side, he does not know anything about VLSI (8 Cr Biharis should know this stuff), am I right? I think so.

When we are not at the receiving end, we start comparing Bihar, which is just another state of India, with sovereign super powers like USA and talk about all those chicken and egg theory. - Shankar Paswan, Reading, England - May 2, 2005

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The article smells more to be a collection of all the news from Bihar. The writer seems to be frustrated who instead of writing about contribution of people from Bihar to their country is more interested in criticising his own and other communities and respective states. - Mallika - May 4, 2005

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I completely agree with Ms Mallika. The writer seems to be fully frustrated. It seems Mr. Prabhat has never had his education outside Bihar. I did my education from IIT, Delhi. Some of my best pals have been from Bihar. One never makes friends because they are from a state/territory. I never treated them differently because they are from Bihar. But the difference in thoughts does make us choose friends of our choice.

How does it make a difference if Punjabis are doing labour jobs? Is doing labour bad? All jobs demand labour - some mental and others physical. After having visited places like US, Canada and UK, the writer would have realised by now that the key to getting rich is working hard and not doing a white collar job.

The writer has tried to hurt the sentiments of certain communities. I think he should not forget about the contributions that Sabeer Bhatia, Kalpana Chawala, Dr Hargobind Khurana have made contributions in the technical areas. Some of the other rich and famous Punjabis are Kanwal Rekhi who has earned the title of sage of Silicon Valley, Jessie Singh, who is worth millions today from trading in computer peripherals in the US, Narinder Kapany the father of fiber optics, Sanjeev Sidhu the founder of i2 Technologies and Sant Singh Chatwal who owns the largest number of hotel rooms in Manhattan and runs the Bombay Palace chain of restaurants globally. The list is endless.

Let's rise above this narrow minded thinking that 'I am a Bihari, you are a Punjabi, You are a Gujrati' and think of an united India. Let's respect our fellow brethren for what they stand and not because from where they are. - Gurleen Canth - May 4, 2005

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It's definitely a very good article on past, present and good future of Bihar. The article gives a hint of author's deep knowledge about many past and current social, economical, political ... issues. But one thing I have to say that in PD, this Bihari Diaspora often writes about the current plight of Bihar, injustice, anti-Bihari sentiment all around, English media, …it's not very late …Bihar's pride will be back one day …blah-blah-blah. But how many of this $ earning NRBs really do anything for Bihar at ground level? How many of you even have helped your next coming generation morally, financially or for their good education (either they are your nephew, niece/cousin, in some case, even own brother…) who is still growing up in the place of cynosure, Bihar with its long list of problems. If we really want some change then we need to act on it too! You will find lots of Gujaratis, Punjabis, South Indian communities abroad. These people do have strong bonding for their people and community. They help them to reach the place/status where they are today. If one Patel/Sardarji of the village reaches abroad, he just not gloats about his own success when he visits back home next time. He helps his people; it's no more a secret to us now. But we Biharis in general (not talking about the exceptions) have got so much jealousy inside that we always like to enjoy the status of being 'special or superior' to the people in and around. So most of us think that if this guy reaches the same height, how come I will remain superior to him anymore in our Bihari samaj? And we are so much fragmented on the caste line that makes things even worse in this case.

Hope this educated (!) Diaspora of Bihar works on some ground realities with their best available resources for improving the things around, than just writing articles and comment in PD. Bon Chance! - Kaushik Kumar, Graduate Engineering student,
Montreal, Canada - May 4, 2005

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The young man Kaushik hits the nail on the head. It is refreshing to hear from young people who have clarity of thought. The monsoon frog chorus about the pros and cons of Bihar & Biharis is meaningless. The fact that a person left Bihar for greener pastures does not automatically make him / her a consultant who can give the best remedies for Bihar's ills.

If you mean good do good. Actions speak louder than words. I suspect many NRBs who have had to make cultural compromises console themselves by reminding themselves and others about the ills of Bihar. They do nothing for Bihar and the criticism they spew out is more of a back patting for having fled from a messy home without cleaning it. They are happy to sit in the neighbour's palatial bungalow and congratulate themselves as they watch their kin line up at the street tap across the road. If they have no problems with their own conscience so be it.

Bihar needs affection and help from them, not just reminders of its poor state and uncalled for advice. Remember Bihar may be hell on earth but they were nurtured here when they were vulnerable small children. The people who held their hand still live here. It is thanks to the education Bihar gave them that today they are where they are. The culture they are proud of came from Bihar.

Without Bihar, NRBs will be rootless - flying leaves in a cultural blizzard. The realization would dawn when their next generation takes charge.

While your head sways in the skies do not forget to water your roots. - Rajesh Chaubey - May 5, 2005

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It was great to read an eye-opening article on PatnaDaily after long time. Hearty congratulations to Mr. Prabhat. This article is full of true facts. Mr. Rajesh Chaubey and Mr. Kaushik have said that the NRBs don’t do any thing about Bihar. It is wrong. As per news on PatnaDaily about IIT in Bihar, I am sure Mr. Rajesh Chaubey and Mr. Kaushik will find their apprehensions unfounded.

Every body has the right to advise on issues related to Bihar. If NRBs will not talk about Bihar then who will talk about Bihar? People should stop enjoying nail on head!

Sardar Harbhajan Singh, Patna, Bihar (India) - May 6, 2005

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First off, regards to Mr. Prabhat Jee for opening eyes of thousands of educated Biharis. Special thanks for bringing crime rate of all India in light. Personally speaking, I have never been to Jahanabad side but I do feel scared.

Now Whole Bihar got bad face just because of our educated brethren never defended Bihar from being given a bad name. I fully agree with Bibhuti Jee in coming out without hesitation that our student do misbehave with fellow passengers in train where number of passenger are from our neighboring states and hence often fellow passenger get scared while passing through Bihar. I admire Prabhat Jee the way he caught media as an ingredient to defame Bihar.

Whenever I travel I always defend our brethren for defaming the land of Great Ashoka.

Here I would like to put one point: From where an anti social element starts his “gundagardi”?

If you think, you will get the answer. Yes, when our and world’s one of the most prestigious institution NALANDA UNIVERSITY got destroyed.

I still remember L. S. College of Muzaffarpur got high position in academic institution after Patna Science College during '80s. The guys staying in hostels started accumulating guns. Now how did they succeed in managing weapons in hostels? There can be only two reasons: 1. Guardians are losing hold on students even days before matriculation. 2. Hostel wardens are busy making money.

Why people laugh at us?

Because there are no civic sense in our brethren. As a person I won't look into other states. But as a responsible citizen of India I will look into myself where I went wrong.

Let me tell you why we learn English twice.

Because during school days we speak what we learn there but when we take a chair with DPS guys they tell us you didn’t learn correct pronunciation.

My point is to come up with a plan which can uplift our education system.

I partially agree with Mr. Prabhat jee that Center plays step father with us. When I was in Delhi, I raised the term “DECENTRALIZATION OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS”. The problem of North India is that every thing is in Delhi. Thanks to the Supreme Court order, industries are shifting to Ghaziabad and Noida. With no industries in Bihar, labour class of Bihar cannot feed its families in working in Zamindar’s field. As a result, labour flies to Delhi, Punjab. No good higher educational institution in Bihar, government school teachers and college professor are busy making money rather than doing their duty. Result- students fly to Delhi. We don’t have choice other than these places. Middle class of Bihar is very much aware of the education system so they send their sons and daughters to Delhi. Now Bihari crowd makes more than 30% of Delhi population. Hence if any misdeed happens; who gets noticed?

Until and unless Bihar gets good higher educational institution crime will not stop. Parents have to be aware enough about their children, right from the beginning. Guardian should be given parenting skills. Career-oriented camp should be organized in rural Bihar and most important thing: Crime prone areas should be on top priority. Even parenting-skill camp should be organized first in crime areas. - Prashant, Bangalore - May 6, 2005

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I read the article & the comments of most of my friends. I am a student doing my PG from JNU Delhi. I belong to Patna. In JNU, people call me as 'Bihari'. I just ignore these words or take it as a matter of pride. I always think high about myself. Not for any other reason, but for my education, my values and my family. And so should all of us feel. I feel the writer has some kind of insecurity and low self esteem.

And if you really feel that you can do something, go to Bihar, adopt at least one child, raise him, educate him and bring him up. Give him the values that makes him a self confident person. I can guarantee that you'll feel less frustrated. - Mukesh K Jha, JNU, New Delhi - May 7, 2005

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Your article touched my heart and brain. No doubt its cent percent correct as per our experience. When I joined BARC in Mumbai 2 years ago, someone called me "Bhaiya". I felt happy that they were showing regard to me but immediately I felt that they were mocking me. That time I felt how they were discriminating the Biharis.

Thanks, I really appreciate your attempt, I read your article a number of times, and hope those who are ashamed of being Bihari will feel proud of themselves after reading this article. - Ajay Mishra, VECC, Kolkata - May 10, 2005

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Dear Prabhat and others who have commented for the article and who have shown slight irritation.

I hope that many of you might have read Maugham, he has given a very lucid and clear understanding of human beings in "Of Human Bondages" and I want to draw a parallel line with what he has said in his book and what we Indians think about each other.

At first to draw a conclusion and compare one state with the other in itself is a myopic idea because this does not serve any purpose at all, we must be concerned Indians and instead of highlighting problems and spending days over them must try to first make ourselves a conscious Indian and rise to occasions where we can show the world that we are the largest and best example of a closely knitted democracy.

This will come only when we forget that we are individuals from different states because state-wise discrimination must be first eliminated from the mind because we are already under the burden of casteism et el.

To draw examples and blame a person of a particular state amounts to racism and would we love to be called racist in our own country by pointing fingers at each other?

We all represent India may be we are from different strata of the society but we still share a common platform.

Whenever some goon is caught in Delhi and people discover that he is from Bihar they start commenting that all Biharis are alike and whenever a South Indian is in the same league, people say "arrey dekho sab Madrasi aise hi hote hain."

Now go to any state where Marwaris are considered as makkhichoos, and kanjoos, is this what we expect of each other.

It is very easy to place blame on others and it is also policy of many to create rift between two fraternities just to add joy to his soul which is derived out of such menial things.

My comments may sound wayward to many but I also know that many would like it because we are running away from creating our own identity in the eyes of the world, friends lets wake up now and embrace our brethren , from whichever state he is from, if we find he is uneducated then instead of making a comment, please take a moment and feed his mind with some positive and industrious thoughts.

We must be an industrious nation, we must build for others and reap the benefits of our hard work as working and making things will always be rewarded rather than just sitting idle and blaming each other.

Every state is an important part of our country and we must respect each other and appreciate good efforts and try to subdue the bad ideas not the people. - Sanjay Gupta - May 13, 2005

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What Shri Prabhat has pointed out in his article entitled Why Biharis are discriminated is indeed praiseworthy and the attitude and mentality of the people towards Bihar and Biharis is vehemently condemnable. However, there are some points I, being a Bihari, want to add them to his.

Those with such an aversion for Bihar and Bihari should understand that Biharis are no less than anybody, as far as the talent is concerned. Though the literacy rate Bihar is poorer than that of other States, yet the fact remains that Bihari students have been proving their talent in different competitive exams. It is a fact well known to all that a large number of candidates passing the civil services exam belong to Bihar. Even this year Bihar has produced 158 IAS & IPS, UP being the first 201 in view of its larger area.

Biharis are possessed with countless qualities except a few shortcomings. They are hard working, struggling, audacious, adjusting, sociable, talented and very much competitive. They can get settled anywhere in the world; earn their livelihood in any way. They don’t look forward to others for any sort of support. These features can’t be found in any people of other states.

Corruption, murder, Kidnapping, rape, scam, looting, snatching...all these evils are rampant in almost all the States of India. But in case of Bihar it is much more highlighted by media, causing severe criticism of its people. All are blind to the fact that Mumbai is the haven of criminals, Dada and Bhai. Punjab shelters terrorism, Andhra Pradesh extremists, Kashmir insurgents, and West Bengal infiltrators. UP fosters casteism and Tamil Nadu jingoist crime. - Umesh Kumar - May 19, 2005

2007-07-06T08:03:00.000-07:00

Can Jharkhandis be Treated as People of Bihari Origin?by Vipin Singh

January 14, 2006

http://www.patnadaily.com/readerswrite/2006/jan/vipin_singh.html

In India people carrying Pakistani or Bangladeshi passport can neither claim to be people of Indian origin (PIO) nor can they be treated as Non Resident Indians (NRIs) the same should be applied among states which has been formed by partitioning bigger states. Even though we all remain Asians but this step was quite logical considering the fact that Pakistan was formed as a result of partition of India. Similarly, those of us who chose to be part of Jharkhand should stop considering themselves as people of Bihari origin. They are of Jharkhand origin. If they visit other states outside Jharkhand they will be called Non Resident Jharkhandi, rather than Non Resident Biharis. Though we all are Indians but only Biharis residing in other states except Jharkhand should be treated as Non Resident Biharis. Those of us who have moved to Jharkhand after separation can also be considered as Non Resident Biharis but they should not enjoy the privilege to call themselves as Non Resident Jharkhandi outside Bihar and Jharkhand.

When a Bihari introspect on the weakness of Bihar it is understandable but why should a Non Resident Jharkhandi introspect on behalf of Biharis for the weakness of Bihar. We can understand the interest of Pakistanis in Indian affairs but just imagine what disaster will happen if Pakistanis are allowed to freely inter switch between Indian and Pakistani identity. Similarly to avoid the similar disaster our Jharkhandi brothers should be requested to contain themselves with Jharkhandi identity and should not try to alternate between Jahrkhandi and Bihari identity while taking interest in affairs of Bihar. This is good for both our two great states Bihar and Jharkhand.

If a guy from Hazaribagh is caught uploading child porn on internet then he is called a Bihari but if a Dhoni performs better then he is a Jharkhandi. This must stop. Both are Jharkhandi and none of them are Bihari.

There should have never been a Jharkhand but now that it is a truth we should follow the rules of engagement in separation.

I will tell you a story, there was a guy telling this horrible joke about gifting Bihar to Pakistan and I was listening that with one of my childhood Bihari friend whose family was settled in Ranchi. After the joke I being a Bihari from Patna felt bitter and sad but my Bihari friend was laughing. With unbelief I looked at my Bihari friend and asked him what was there in that joke for us Biharis to laugh? He said that he is now from Jharkhand and when Bihar will become part of Pakistan his Jharkhand will still remain in India. I soon realised why after partition, India decided not to consider Pakistanis as people of Indian origin (PIO).

Comments:
Vipin ji, you have touched a very good point. Congratulations. I think pretty soon we Bihari will have to accept that Jharkhand is no longer Bihar and Jharkhandis are no longer Biharis. I will not be surprised if we soon start facing discrimination in Jharkhand also.

If Kashmir is taken by Pakistan only head of India will go but with Jharkhand gone it seems to me like Head, Hand, Leg and heart of Bihar was taken away.

To me it seems like in a old and malfunctioning car good tyre, engine, transmission and music system was taken away and car was left in a junk yard.

But you know what, it may be blessing in disguise. With body becoming weak soul of Bihar has become strong. We no longer live in illusion of highest mineral deposit, colliery and coal mines. Now we know who we are. Poor Bihari. But we will work it out.

We will build a new car with Goodyear Tyre, BMW engine, Honda Transmission and Bose music system. - Kaushal Das - Jan. 14, 2006
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While we dwell on jokes here is one more. A foreigner was returning back from India after a long stay in this country. At the airport a friend asked him what he thought about Indians. The foreigner responded he had not met any. His friend was bewildered. He asked "You stayed here for so long and now you say you did not meet an Indian???!!!" The foreigner clarified "I have met Biharis, Bengalis, Gujaratis, Marathis, Tamilians, Keralites but no Indians". Vipinji the cake symbolizing the Indian people has been cut so many times that only crumbs remain. There are division on language lines, state lines, caste lines, state of origin lines and God above knows how many more lines. We are everything but Indians.

Now when the crumbs are becoming too small to divide please do not bring microscopes and micro-surgery equipment to try to further divide the crumbs just because someone cracked and inane joke. Even after division to the atomic level and beyond can you stop equally foolish jokes? Vipinji let us eschew anger and use this forum to unite people. Even if you take the super-glue of love, brotherhood and nationhood and try to join the crumbs it will take more than a life time to reconstruct the full cake symbolizing the Indian people. Let us talk like intellectuals and get above small time politics. The good of the Indian society and the good of India should be our aim. - Rajesh Chaubey - Jan. 14, 2006

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I understand the author's point. He has asked for separation solely based on the fact that we are now two distinct states with two distinct identities. It is similar to comparing them like Bangladeshi and Pakistani --- people from two separate nations. In the case of Bihar and Jharkhand, we operate under the same constitution.

Many of us have relatives in Pakistan. We seldom have contact with them. In the case of Jharkhand, the bifurcation is still new, and we still have strong ties with relatives and even some cities there. It is almost a kind of NRB. Jharkhand and Pakistan are two different stories.

If some in Jharkhand relish their “clean slate”, they should be willing to accept both praise and criticism of their citizens. There does seem to be a disconnect on both sides of the boundary --- a sense of nostalgia for our very recent geographic tie, and a willingness to assign all bad behavior a Bihari origin.

People will make jokes about each other. It seems to be human nature. “Bihar is so bad we should hand it over to Pakistan.” Maybe the truth is that Pakistan would happily engulf us. I am sure, on the other hand, that such an event would be monumentally disastrous for the rest of India. - S. M. Khurshid Anwar - Jan. 15, 2006

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I can't believe what I am reading here.

Vipin ji, I can't help but thank God you are not in a position to shape the politics of India. Why do you have so much hatred for other states or people or culture other than Biharis, (though now I am having serious doubts about your love for Biharis as well), as you have displayed in your other comments elsewhere? Do you have some personal experience that has ignited such loathe for other people in you that we don't know of but should know before understanding your separatist psyche and your highly divisive philosophy?

Why stop at Bihar and Jharkhand? Let's also cause split among Biharis also. We are already divided on caste and class lines, let's further divide ourselves on sub-caste and village basis. Let's promote more hate between Rajputs and Bhumihars, Srivastavas and Ambasthas, Yadavs and Gopes and so on. And then let's bomb each other to maintain our supremacy. How's that for your kind of politics?

Please don't say you are just being 'practical' and 'realistic' because that's exactly what Hitlers and Stalins and Saddams have been saying for generations. Try to get along. You don't have to mix politics into everything. Some things are best left for future.

Do you think a single Jharkhandi would by shedding tears if you stopped calling them People of Bihar Origin (PBO)? I seriously doubt it. The point is, it hardly makes a difference whether they are called PBOs or not. This is a pointless discussion. If you don't want to call them PBO, it's your prerogative. You can't stop others from calling whatever they want.

Rajesh ji, thanks for thinking like a rational, matured person. At least now I know I am not the only 'pacifist' here. I am using this term because I can see it coming. According to some folks here, if you try to be nice to someone, it amounts to appeasement. Being nice to your fellow countrymen is out of style now; you must see everything from a jaundiced eye and must doubt the intentions of others from the very get-go. That should be your default response. Everyone is out to get you - that should be your approach if you want to survive in today's world. By reading your other write-ups on this web site, I know you are big into environment and green-house effect and such and how they can destroy the world but I am more concerned about this attitude among people as shown by Mr. Vipin Singh. This will push the mankind to the verge of extinction in much fraction of a time taken by all the smoke and gas and pollution and deforestation combined. - Anil Kumar - Jan. 15, 2006

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Some time back, at a 'paan' shop in Deoghar (Baidyanath Dham), I came across a Bhojpuri cassette, the title of which was "Baba became Jharkhandi". Though the title was just meant to draw people's attention, I laughed and thought "They did not spare Him even". And so, now millions of 'Biharis' take the water of Ganges from Sultanganj in 'Bihar' and walk bare-footed, cross state border (thankfully, without a passport) and come to Deoghar in 'Jharkhand' to worship the 'Jharkhandi' Baba. I have enclosed 'Biharis', 'Bihar', 'Jharkhandi', and 'Jharkhand' in single quotes, because still I can't see the difference. To our older generations, this boundary may sound ridiculous. But, then it is a political fact. Though, from the deepest bottom of my heart, I wish to die a Bihari with Bihar and Jharkhand united again, I can only hope for it. I can't predict if we will reunite like East and West Germany, or become enemies like India and Pakistan. The realisation of Bihar and Jharkhand as separate states will become deeper in our next generations.

In 2002, there was a controversy over Domicile Act brought by the then Jharkhand government, causing riots between Jharkhandis and non-Jharkhandis. Rumour was that 1932 would be the cut-off year to determine the domicile status on basis of land documents. The fact, however, was that there were districts with no land survey conducted after 1896. Yeah, so? Why am I telling this to you? Well, even if they decide the domicile status based on 1896 or even older survey, I will still be a Jharkhandi, politically. But, I know of people who call themselves Jharkhandi, who happen to be in Jharkhand just because their fathers came there a few years back to work. I welcome their love for Jharkhand, unless it is an outcome of an attempt to disassociate themselves from their Bihari identity. It hurts me to see some bright people working in other states trying to escape from the derision which follows by introducing yourself as Bihari. I request you, particularly Mr Vipin and Mr Kaushal to read my comments to the article 'Bihari? Bhaiyya? Paki?' posted on December 7, 2005 on PatnaDaily.

To understand the plight of tribals in Jharkhand, you ought to know the age-long oppression and exploitation done to them. You must see the half-naked people living beside the mines, wandering in the forests to collect some wood and herbs to survive. How they migrated to Assam only to be killed by the separatists. How these naive simple people work diligently to fill the pockets of the land-grabbing mafia, just to build a decent hut for themselves only to be crushed by the wild elephants. The poorest people of the richest land! How could have Bihar developed with crores of tribals still living in such a pathetic condition? I don't know if the partition of Bihar will help them, which was more a result of politics. However, I hope it does. With that I also hope that the politics of separation is shunned by the people, or else there will be more states called Poorvanchal, Mithilanchal, and Santhal Pargana.

Vipin ji, you may close your doors to me, ban me from writing on this website about Bihar, and you may succeed also, but I welcome you with open arms to write about the problems in Jharkhand. I will continue reading the articles of my brothers, will laugh like crazy in the boring solitude of US, reading the funny experience of Mr Kaushal's bus journey. For, we Biharis and Jharkhandis are fighting for the same cause. I hope you understand the difference between Advani praising Jinnah in Pakistan and a Pakistani baby Noor Fatima being operated by Indian cardiac surgeons. - Kumod Jha - Jan. 15, 2006

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Kaushal Ji, you are always welcome, you are absolutely right, we will do it! Magadh will rise again as phoenix! Under the leadership of Nitishji and Sushilji, Bihar is set to become one of the most developed states of India. Rajesh Ji, sorry I will take the liberty to differ.

Coming back to article, friends, these issues are not in my hand. Tell me what I could have done to change the events as Indian on that unfortunate day when Biharis were being slapped and kicked in front of TV camera in Kalyan by some criminals. I have met some of those abused. Every slap on their chick had convinced them that they are Biharis and not Marathis. Yes they are Indian and there is no dispute about that, even they agree to this. Whatever happened on that day was not only in violation of Indian constitution but also in violation of International Convention of Human Rights.

A crime is a crime, is a crime and is a crime; there is no justification for a crime. But time and again I have seen here on PatnaDaily some people trying to justify such crimes openly or covertly. I always wondered why? What may be the motives behind such justification? I guess many but with Lalooji gone we have to negate that and guess about other motives.

I love my country and I believe in Indian Constitution by its words and spirit. But there are so called Biharis who are objecting to Bihari Rickshaw pullers in Delhi trying to earn an honest life, now either I should stand by Indian Constitution or violate the Indian Constitution and support those disguised as Biharis who are objecting to Bihari Rickshaw pullers in Delhi. I have no option friends, I will stand by Indian Constitution!

Those Biharis who have no problem with existence of Maharashtra as a state should not have objection to respectable and clean existence of Jharkhand too. Existence of states in India is a horizontal understanding rather than a vertical one, neither in Maharashtra before beating nor in Assam before genocide, Biharis were asked their caste, why then fear of caste A hating caste B is becoming relevant on talk of Jharkhand? If people can give sermons about the existence of “people of Tamil origin” and need to respect them why they get disturbed when I remind them about “people of Jharkhandi origin”. “Kahin daal me kuchh kala to nahin hai”. Anyway I am sure this article will help smart and intelligent Biharis who love to read in between the lines to look through the haze.

Here I go again, I am proud of our Ganga and our Magadh, now if somebody is finding my this feeling offensive then he is free to repeat few names of world’s evil dictators.

Kumod Jha Ji, in earlier debate as soon as you said, you are a Jharkhandi, my respect for you increased hundred folds. Why only Jharkhand, even Bihar is your home. With your idea to introduce passport to visit Bhole Baba, can I politely remind you that this Bhole Baba was on Kailash and moved to Jharkhand for Biharis and if Biharis are in trouble to see their beloved Bhole baba then he will move to Bihar. Ashok Dham of Lakhisarai is becoming more popular from the day people have started calling Bihari Bhole Baba as Jharkhandi Baba, actually some people have started talking that true Kailash wale Baba is at Ashok Dham in Lakhisarai and not in Jasidih, it seems Baba has started his move towards Bihar (Smile). Kumod Ji, please don’t embarrass me by using the word ‘ban’ as this is prerogative of PatnaDaily Editor. - Vipin Singh - Jan. 15, 2006

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This is my last article to this website. I ban myself! Because, I have failed. I was preaching others what I could not accomplish myself, that is to have healthy debates to come to a positive solution on a variety of topics. I do not need to debate with people like Mr Aarcee, Mr Rajesh, Mr Anil, Dr Ignatius and many others, because they are always convinced with what I say, probably out of affection. It is them whom I would not name, but readers can guess, who I wished to engage into meaningful debates. It's not that I want everyone to be convinced with whatever I say, but I wished people would debate for a purpose, and not maintain skewed positions, determined not to lose a debate than to think of solutions. Let this be an example to other potential writers, the curious eyes behind the bushes. Next time if somebody ventures, let him/her be better prepared than I was. I am sure there are many others much better than me, who can improve the quality of discussions here.

Mr Vipin, what made you think that this so-called-Bihari is opposed to Bihari rickshaw-pullers in Delhi. That I see the rickshaw-pulling as a wrong profession. Were you referring to my comments to the article "Bihari? Bhai...."? That was a fact used to describe one of the reasons for being ridiculed as a Bihari in Delhi. It's the society, which considers rickshaw-pulling as an inferior (not wrong) profession, not in Delhi alone, everywhere (as if you don't know that). How can I be disrespectful to Bihari (and Jharkhandi) labourers in Delhi when my own cousins are working in the factories there for 3-5000 Rs a month salary? What right do I have to criticize them when I could not create jobs for them in Bihar (and Jharkhand)? It does not bring shame to me that they are doing low-end jobs there, what hurts me is that even after completing Intermediate/Graduation, they had to come all the way to Delhi only to do such jobs. And the fact that I have not done anything to stop that. But then what is the point in telling this to you?

The problem of tribals in Jharkhand is not a caste problem, Mr Vipin. But again, why should I tell you that? I've learnt that the more we talk, the more harm will be done to this forum.

Here you see, Mr Vipin, I am losing my cool, as I am losing the debate. You won! I was wrong! And as it is natural for the loser to show his frustration, let me tell you this shloka that I read in class X, which goes, "Agyah sukham aaradhyate, sukhtaram aaradhyate visheshagyah, alp gyan durvidagdham tam naram, Brahmaapi na ranjayate". - Kumod Jha - Jan. 15, 2006

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Dear Jhaji, no I don't agree with you because of affection. I agree with you because you make sense. You are not swayed by cheap propaganda created by some members of the press and certain 'self-declared' messiahs of the Biharis. You use logic, experience, history, and current state of conditions to form an opinion of your own which is not only good for the Biharis, a myopic view taken by some individuals, but for the entire nation, and eventually for the entire mankind.

I also read the last comment by Vipinji. Apparently our views are so diametrically opposed to each other that I have chosen not to respond to it anymore. I am not here to win arguments. We all know we cannot convince others to change their views no matter how radical, or even ridiculous. You try it but it never works. Then you simply let the other party feel that he has won the battle and move on.

Please do not quit on account of a few people. Just because some people disagree with you doesn't mean you don't have people who agree with your viewpoints.

I just want to know how many of us have told and re-told Sardarjis' jokes and laughed at others told to us by others. By Vipinji's definition, it should be all Sardarjis on one side and the rest of India on the other. The truth is, the Sikhs are one of the most loved people in the entire world. We all have Sikh friends who are much trustworthy, helpful, and compassionate people than many Biharis we know. I wonder what would have happened had they not taken it lightly.

Please do continue to write your views in PatnaDaily just as I ask Vipinji to continue to express his views here even though we will probably not agree on most issues that affect us Biharis or Indians. - Anil Kumar - Jan. 16, 2006

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Vipinji have you read the story of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza? Read about the characteristics of Don Quixote. He used to see imaginary enemies all the time and used to attack harmless things. From that characteristic of his personality the term "Quixotic" has been coined.

Let us stop seeing imaginary enemies. With fertile imaginations we at times blow things out of all reasonable proportions to make them look like critical matters. A fellow cracks an inane joke about Bihar and we get charged up, reading volumes into those words, interpreting many meanings and selecting the worst. We analyze who all laughed at the joke and who looked indifferent.

Then we launch our attack. Who is the attack directed at? The man who narrated the foolish joke may be miles away by now sharing his joke with someone else. We can not locate him so we generalize our field to include all people of the same religion, caste or looks. We are charged now and we have to attack. We attack the first person, with similar looks or who is of the same state, who we find standing and smiling by the road side. Reason? The fellow was laughing at us Biharis. He too wants Bihar to be presented to Pakistan.

For God's sake, relax. It was a foolish joke and nothing more. - Rajesh Chaubey - Jan. 16, 2006

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Dear Kumud, Anil ji and Vipin ji, I don' think I sent my previous comment in very good taste. It was a sudden reaction. I apologise for any bad content.

I think we are doing a crime here to all Jharkhandis / Biharis by discussing Bihar/Jharkhand and crime to Hinduism and human being by discussing Baidyanath Dham and Jharkhandi Baba.

I hope Baba Baidyanath and all readers will forgive us for this. - Kaushal Das - Jan. 16, 2006

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Dear Vipin, I have realized soon after sending my first comment that I have done something wrong. I sent a second comment. While I thought it is better to keep quiet and let time heal I realized I needed to send yet another comment.

While you might have picked a few words by Kumod here and there and drawn your hypothesis and conclusion, you have totally missed the whole underlying message. You might have stressed your mind too hard but not used your heart. At least in your comment regarding Baba Baidyanath, you completely missed the underlying message of Kumod.

I can not understand why you did not get that Kumod was trying to tell how integrated we Bihari and Jharkhandi are by example of Baba Baidyanath. I am really feeling so much pain by your "Ashok Dham in Lakhisarai" comment. It is outrageous. No excuse.

I never even felt need of moving or creating another "Tirupathi", neither did anyone else.

Kumod ji, I agree with Anil ji that you are a good man, a better and a matured person. While I may or may not agree with each and every of your views, I do feel that I need to apologise for my part in comment.

And yes I know you are a "Nautankiwala" but why this "nautanki" of not writing , ban etc. If you stop writing because somebody has problem of you being "Jharkhandi" then I have domicile of "Maharashtra" and I can produce certificate and also I have domicile of US (Green Card). Should I stop reading too? And yes I studied this in class IX or X: "Nindak Niyare Rakhiye, Aangan Kuti Chawaye," Bin Paani Sabun Bina, Nirmal Kare Subhay - Kaushal Das - Jan. 16, 2006

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I don't know why this kind of discussion is going on. People started saying Bihari, Bengali, now Jharkhandi, Marathi etc... and then many differentiation between them. I personally discourage this.

Division of states (whatever basis) is only for the good governance of the country.

Think positive in right direction. These kind of thinking will bring us again back to the medieval period of India. Modern India must be free from all these deadly viruses. World is progressing, Indians are also doing well. Being an Indian, we must show our maturity in thinking level as well as show progress in effort level by doing good, not discussing on the topic which will have negative effect or of no use or differentiation among people in the same country.

Talk only on the development perspectives, talk only on the eradication of all social evils. Since Bihar is backward state in the Indian Union, we have some responsibility, come forward for starting/doing developmental work. - Bibhuti Bikramaditya, Seoul, South Korea - Jan. 16, 2006
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Today I am going to fill all space of PatnaDaily in response to this article .

Rajesh and Anil ji , through your Sardar joke I remembered a true incidence which happened with us.

One of my friend who is actually a Bihari Bengali (!) is married to a Sardarni . My friend is very comedian like and who else can be a better candidate then presence of a Sardarni. Time and again we use to tease her always by saying

"Barah baj gahe kya?"

"You will know Khusboo of Pubjab ki mitti if you wake up and go to farm early morning "

Whenever she will do any mistake in driving we will say "Can a tractor be more automated than Toyota Camry which even a Sardar can drive "

She was so much use to listening all these. One day while on a long drive we got lost in a rural area. We were trying to find any body but due to rural area no body was visible. Then my friend suddenly say "Hey look can we go to that tractor..." Without thinking even for a second she slapped my friend real hard "Do you think this is time to joke ".

Within a few second she saw the tractor too.. and you know what? We had one more Sardar joke.- Kaushal Das - Jan. 16, 2006

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Kumodji, don't be so hurt. Earlier I too was affected by comments which were not in line with my views. I used to argue and try to convince. Then I developed the art of selective reading. I suggest you develop the art of selective reading too.

I read the articles and comments of only a few people in detail and you are one of them. When I read the articles of these individuals I apply my mind and try to understand what is written.

For the rest I either go dip, dip, dip or jump clean over. After all my time is precious and I refuse to spend it on quixotic stuff. I conserve my energy there. Who is going to try to educate people with fixed ideas?

You must stay on for I am going to miss your articles and comments. As I see it, it will be loss to PD too. - Rajesh Chaubey - Jan. 16, 2006

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Friends, I say treat this article just as a crude Joke and stop discussing this topic. I would appreciate discussion on how can we make Bihar a better place and rather I would be happy to know people's experience on what they have done so far or what they are planning in near future to make Bihar a better place to Live. - Avinash Jha, South Africa - Jan. 16, 2006

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If we say that we like the opportunity for free expression, then I suggest that we should act as if we truly do like it. The differences in opinion are a fact of life. Since we are all human beings, I think it is important that we all get a chance to be heard. Some will have had experiences that make them more sympathetic or open to your view. I do not think differences in opinion are good reasons for abandoning the platform we have here. If we keep away from the personal attacks, it is more respectful. If you decide to leave this loosely organized group of concerned people, you will miss an opportunity to find the common ground between yourself and someone you tend to disagree with. When such moments happen, it can not help but make us more open. - S. M. Khurshid Anwar, New York, USA - Jan. 16, 2006

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I am one of those 'lurkers' here who read the news and comments on PatnaDaily on a regular basis. I agree with Avinash Jha. This is an exercise in futility. We can find a more sensible topic to discuss here than worry about whether the Jharkhandis should 'have the privilege of being called PBO". - Diwakar Prasad - Jan. 16, 2006

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I will only be a stubborn egoist not to respond to this love shown by my elders and friends. Sorry for the delay in response. I could not send this message earlier due to some security restrictions in my office. Lunch break gave me a little time to type this comment in hurry, or PatnaDaily message box would start overflowing.

I am glad my message reached to my friends, finally. Kaushal ji, I knew you did not mean what you wrote earlier in the first comment to this article. In absence of a moderator, I expect the editor to use his privileges to cut the lines out which are merely an outburst of sentiments, but may cause unintended damage. Even I have written few lines, which I regret now. Mr Aarcee had raised this point some time back.

I had lot of topics in my mind, which I had planned to write upon last weekend, but this discussion did not leave me in a position to write. I will follow the wise suggestion of Rajesh ji hereafter. Thanks to everyone! - Kumod Jha - Jan. 17, 2006

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Ravi Pandey Ji wrote an article on PatnaDaily, “Our Social Messiahs or Are They”, I wrote back a comment that was totally against the content of his article, later he wrote another article, “A Horrible Tragedy but a Golden Opportunity”, I wanted to support that but because of my busy schedule I could not reply. Then he wrote another, “Social Justice Virus”, I didn’t even considered worth commenting but then he wrote, “Propaganda for Improving the Image of Bihar” and there I was supporting him with my full heart because I agreed with his each word. I can be against a view or I can be for a view. These are my judgments and prerogative of PatnaDaily Editor whether he finds them fit to be expressed on PatnaDaily.

Rajesh Ji, with respect to your second comment I can understand what you are saying but this article was not in reaction of a joke or in reaction of fellow listeners otherwise I should have started my article with that joke. Hope it helps.

You see with all this Bihari bashing, Bihari beating, Bihari butchery and so called sermons about introspection on the sin to be born as a Bihari, which goes on and on and on, I tried to put Bihari identity naked, without Lalooji’s Lalooland and Jharkhandi buffer for all those who say that they carry a Bihari soul and helped readers to see what is at stake.

All I am requesting is to come out of Inertia, your logic didn’t helped Lalooji and if you continued on that then it will not help even Nitishji. If you have believed that Biharis working as cheap labour in Maharashtra and Gujarat have damaged the image of Bihar then you not only have believed in a lie but now you will be countering the statement of Nitish Ji at Prawasi Bharitiya Diwas, where he said that Bihari labours have contributed to development of Maharashtra and Gujarat.
After winning the election Nitish Ji said myth about Bihar is breaking, choice is yours, either you share the joy of breaking myths one after another or share your views on Nirvana.

And for those extreme types, I will never ever and I am saying it again, I will never ever apologies for the fact that I am a Bihari. I simply can’t afford this and if some of you are feeling hurt or feeling offended, I am sorry, I can’t help the situation.

Kaushal Ji, I can understand your sentiments and I respect them but let me tell you one thing very politely you have missed the biggest reason in whole of argument, it was never against what Kumod Ji said. Lord Shri Ram himself created Bhole baba of sand in Rameshwaram. I didn’t put the passport in bracket but if there will be passport, we will apply for that, but if it is rejected then we will work the way Lord Shri Ram did, hope you get it this time. Kaushal Ji, “Pattahr me baste hain bhagwan jara dhyan se dekhiye to sahi”. Outrageous for you but makes lot of sense to me otherwise still there are temples where ‘Dalits’ are being kicked out and this capability of ‘Bhagwan’ to reside in any ‘patthar’ is quite a help for our Dalit population.

Kumod Ji come back, I didn’t refer to your comments on Delhi Rickshaw puller, I was referring to comment from another guy in last debate. I just read your comment now on “Bihari? Bhaiya? Paki?” Unfortunately I don’t agree there also with most of what you have said. I don’t know why you are giving so much of importance to my agreement. Kumod Ji, I may not agree to the contents of what you write but I respect the honesty in contents of what you write. Stop embarrassing me by giving so much of importance to my views. Ok let me see, if it helps you in ignoring me, how about if I tell you that I am just doing my engineering in Patna and I am even younger to you, a small timer Bihari internet surfer, can you ignore me now, please? Just understand that for me Bihar is not nostalgia but a reality. Like many others I don’t have to read or see Bihar in media but I have to live Bihar and breath Bihar. I know nothing of Jharkhand, I find myself equally close to all states of India. I have hardly been to any place outside Bihar. Please ignore my views and come back.

Let this be my last comment on this topic. - Vipin Singh - Jan. 17, 2006

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Hi Vipin, don’t worry about gang-up and keep rocking. You have proven that land of compassionate George Orwell is live and kicking with true spirit. Oh boy! You are sitting in Patna with 56K dialup, still at engineering college and forced the fat NRIs like me with 8Gig wireless to gang-up against you. Man just keep writing and don’t care who says what. I love the way you present your case, sincere and compelling but still composed and people are left with nothing but calling their team mates. Keep it up buddy! It seems PatnaDaily, the pride of Patna has become more dynamic with your presence. - Vidyasagar S R Holkar, London - Jan. 17, 2006

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Dear Vipin, I would have ignored your comment, had you not disclosed that you are an engineering student at Patna. To say the least, I am amazed! It has just changed my angle of perception towards you. I always have believed that whatever happens, happens for good. And today my belief has become stronger.

Our views may not match, but there is no point of discussion if there is always a consensus. As an elder brother, I am now a little worried about your studies. I hope these debates are not taking your precious time. If you are able to balance your time between your studies and PatnaDaily, then that would be great.

Students like you have always made me proud. So what if you don't think the way I do? It does not matter to me any more. I am a different person today than I was at your age. I wish you good luck for your career. Please keep writing here. - Kumod Jha - Jan. 17, 2006

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So Vipinji is a very young person and what we were experiencing all along was, in large parts, generation gap. It seems funny in retrospect. I must congratulate Vipinji for presenting his case in good language, even though he has had people screaming at him. My suggestion to him is that when he writes he should cool down his emotions a little and write the logic very clearly.

There have been times when the references he made were so oblique that I missed the point all together. Perhaps he, being young, is too emotionally charged when he writes. I have been in the eye of storms frequently for my at times unusual or too frank views. You can see some discussions on PD, Some have been removed for their volatile content.

My suggestions to Vipinji is, do not use too many words, examples and oblique references. Your logic should be direct and clearly stated in simple language especially when there is storm around you. One more thing, Vipinji the world is changing fast. None of knows what tomorrow may bring in. For this reason, we should walk towards he future with an open, friendly mind and without a huge back-pack emotional filth from the past. It is futile. Look at the two countries India and Pakistan carrying the filthy ghosts of the past while the world zooms by. Hope with time and experience, you will make waves. - Rajesh Chaubey - Jan. 17, 2006

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Dear Kumod Jha it's nice to see that you are back. All of yesterday I felt sad that a good person like you was going to leave the PD arena. I mentioned this to my wife last night and said that if there was no news from you this morning I was going to send you an open letter through PD.She was rather amused that I should have good 'vibes' over someone so far away.Of course having never been to India she does not know what it means to spend one's youth here and how when we go back we leave our heart here and take a little of India with us.

Your comments on many issues have often been in tandem with mine and you come across as open minded,well informed and far sighted. However with age and experience alone will come that valuable quality--patience. Keep writing, let us be inspired by it and perhaps someday when I pluck up sufficient courage I might even write an article.

I must say that I was more than a little surprised by Mr. Vipin Singh's revelation. The maturity of his writings belies his age. We have the makings of a great, inspirational writer in him. - Dr Ignatius Joseph, Malacca, Malaysia - Jan. 17, 2006

Discussion on this topic is now closed.

2007-07-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

Where Should Incoming IIT go in Bihar?
by Dr Rajkishore Prasad

Jan 11, 2007

http://www.patnadaily.com/readerswrite/2007/jan/rajkishore_pd2.html

Now Bihar state will get an IIT in the name of a central institute of higher education and research. The dream came true after many decades. After highlight of regional imbalance in the distribution of reputed institutes of S&T central government is trying to minimize prevailing disparity by opening some new institutes of national reputes in backward and ignored states. Among the ignored state Bihar and Rajasthan is at the top. Opening of an IIT in Bihar will certainly open new avenues and bring more central funds for higher education in the state.

After the announcement by the Central Government to open an IIT in Bihar, there started debate in many Bihari groups on the place of establishment. Where should it be established in Bihar? The question is natural as in Bihar too the disparity in distribution of educational institutes is too much. However, it will be not clear unless state government does not come to decide, so from different groups of people there were emerging many guesses about places like Patna, Hajipur(Vaishali), Darbhanga etc. Of course many might have first choice as Patna. The matter gets more localized when there came news related to location of the IIT in Bihar by the central government. As per letter by MHRD to the state government, the spot selected for setting up the prestigious institute should have approximately 600 acres and be well connected by road, rail and air.

So far as transportation facility is concerned Patna will be better choice but to acquire land of 600 acres will be cumbersome. However, establishment of IIT in Patna will be a worst choice keeping in view developing face of the state. Patna has already　many engineering institutes such as National Institute of Technology, an extension center of BIT Mesra Ranchi, and many private engineering colleges. In the near future, a state run university will become a central university and for that race Patna University is on top. There is also a national level institute of law at Patna. In Nalanda there will be an international university. So certainly it will be not a wise decision to open an IIT in or very near to Patna. It should go outside the Patna in the areas like Vaishali (Hajipur, Goraul), Muzaffarpur or Darbhanga. Specially, Goraul has road and train connectivity and government can acquire land around Charvaha Vidayalaya, a useless and irrelevant area situated in front of main road, to build an IIT. It is also not far from airport Patna. Establishing IIT in Patna will again create imbalance distribution of educational institutes in Bihar as is prevailing in the country.

While deciding place, the government should also consider minimizing the wanted land. Instead of expanding the institute horizontally, government should plan to expand it up. There are many other countries which have not so much land resources, such as Japan, and running many institutes like IIT in the lesser area. Fortunately our country is spacious but we should build our institutions keeping in view our populations and required land for agriculture too in future. I am sure some special planning to expand institute vertically will bring handsome reduction in the required land area.

Comments:
Once the proposed 6-km 'rail-cum-road bridge' connecting the Digha locality of the state capital with Pahleja Ghat under Sonepur sub-division of Saran district, over the Ganga river is over, Pahleja-Sonepur area would certainly be an ideal location for establishing new IIT. This will boost the urbanization process of entire Saran (Chhapra, Siwan and Gopalganj) commissionary. - Dr. Sudhir Ranjan, USA - Jan. 11, 2007
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If it makes me win the next elections, I can prove my constituency to be best suited for an IIT. Let us hope such things don’t happen in the way of opening up educational institutes. IIT itself does not bring development to any region. - Kumod Jha - Jan. 11, 2007

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I fully agree with Dr. Sudhir Ranjan,

Saran, (covering Chhapra, Siwan and Gopalganj) would be an ideal location for establishing this new institute of importance and it would add fillip to the growth of this reason. To note Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga in East Bihar already have some Engineering colleges. However, Saran does not have any such institute. Also from the point of connectivity Saran is well connected from Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai Via train and one the new Ganges bridge near Sonepur-Digha is built transit time from Patna to Saran - would reduce considerably. So any one wanting to come over by flight can come to Patna and each Saran in a very short time conveniently. - Santosh Pandey, Amsterdam - Jan. 11, 2007

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It is a great news that opening an IIT in Bihar is on cards. For location we should not fall prey to the thinking in terms of regional imbalance within a state. IITs are not going to be meant for the people of only that area. Admissions are going to be from all over India. However for students from Bihar it may give an option of study closer to home. More important thing is where govt can find enough land with other infrastructure facilities to sustain high level of academic work and give a good environment to students coming from all over India. Road, rail and air connectivity are important, at the same time availability of power, water and clean environment is also required. Place may be Vaishali or even Bodh Gaya where we have an international airport. Japanese are going to make good roads and closer to both Patna and grand chord line. Main thing is to see where an academic institution of repute will have better chances of growth. - Mithilesh Kumar, Delmar, NY, USA - Jan. 11, 2007

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As far as I know, place for IIT is decided. This is perhaps far from Bye pass road in Patna, around 600 acre land has been acquired. I heard when I was in meeting with Minister Science & Technology at Patna.

But when I came back to Korea, I saw news about confusion.

I think we should not discuss these issues. In a talk with the Minister, he said that getting Land is now a difficult task in Bihar because of the technical reasons. I was in review meeting with him for the development of IISER proposal submitted by BiharBrains delegation at Patna.

They said they are managing land for IIT and have got 600 acres land. It doesn't matter IIT should be in which part of Bihar - Patna bound areas or North Bihar. But certainly there should be decentralisation of mega institutes. Govt should take care of that.

One major problem is that every institute wants space in Patna-bound areas and in Patna, now space is limited. Technical problems come in between. This is also one of the challenges before the state govt. They are fearing about the episode what has happened in the case of West Bengal govt for giving land to TATA motors.

Politically, Mr. Fatmi, Hon'ble Union (state) minister for HRD, may want IIT to be at Darbhanga to satisfy the people of his constituency. Geographically, this place is also not wrong. We can not say that there is no good link of Patna to Darbhanga or any other cities of Bihar.

Now every part of Bihar is on the path of development. Govt is giving much attention to roads, electricity, and education.

If you visit Bihar, you will see everywhere constructions work has started; all MLAs are camping in their own areas for development. Many thanks to the present Bihar Govt. Let us wait and watch . Give free hand to the govt. In my view, we should not discuss these issues. - Bibhuti Bikramaditya, Daejeon, S. Korea - Jan. 11, 2007

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I agree with Dr Sudhir's idea. The govt. needs to count 'flood factor' before a final decision.

Another suburban town which is not affected every year by flood is Maner. This town is very close to the existing airport and railway station. - Naren Singh, India/USA - Jan. 11, 2007

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It is a very good news for us. I think IIT should be opened at Bodh Gaya because this place is well-connected by rail, road, and air. - Mahesh Singh Yadav, Jehanabad, Bihar - Jan. 12, 2007

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Magadh region has already taken lead on development. So to cater regional imbalance, IIT should be opened in Saran region only as it is most neglected. It will be well connected with Patna after the new bridge on Ganga gets completed.

It should not be opened in Mithilanchal region as it already has some institutes of repute and is demanding for separate state. Once separated, it will sway away all the virtues as Jharkhand did to Bihar earlier. - Tarakeswar Dubey - Jan. 13, 2006

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I fully agree with Mr. Bibhuti Bikramaditya. We should not raise the issue of location of propose IIT in Bihar. I think the current government is doing very well and we could help it by giving free hand to take decision. We should not discuss such type of topics which could be a big controversy in future like Singur in West Bengal. So please avoid it. - Manoj Kumar, Kolkata - Jan. 16, 2006

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It is a very good news that Bihar is going to get IIT very soon. It is better late than never.

In my opinion we should select one location from amongst Bodh Gaya, Ara, Sasaram, Bhagalpur, Darbhanga in that order. Bodh Gaya and Bhagalpur have airports and connectivity. Ara, Sasaram and Darbhanga have only rail connectivity. However, air connectivity should not be prerequisite because Kharagpur does not have air-connectivity but still has got a very good IIT. - Braj Mohan Mishra, Assam - Jan. 16, 2006

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There are several places in Bihar where an IIT could be established. Hajipur and Patna are very close to each other. I would not support for opening of this in Muzaffarpur too. These places already have the engineering colleges from very long time. Mithila region, particularly Darbhanga and Madhubani would be better choice for establishing an IIT or IISER. Mithila region including Begusarai, Samastipur, Darbhanga, Madhubani, Jainagar etc are very backward region in Bihar and establishing such central education center would develop the mind of local people apart from development of the area.

I individually posted a request to Mr Arjun Singh by e mail. I do not know how much effective that e mail would be. I am delighted after reading the proposal by Shree Ram Kripal Yadav to to set up an Indian Institute of Science for Education and Research (IISER) in Bihar. - Prabaht Kumar Purbey, Senior Research Fellow, Pune - Jan. 20, 2006

2007-07-06T07:58:00.000-07:00

Bihar's Woes and Causes
by Prabhat Kumar Sinha
Montreal, Canada
April 8, 2005

http://www.patnadaily.com/readerswrite/2005/apr/prabhat_sinha2.html

Bihar is a backward state. All Biharis instantly agree. Other parts of the country is developing thanks to economic reforms started in 1992. 15 years ago, what Bihar is today to India, India was to the world. But in last 15 years, the gap between Bihar and rest of the country has become very wide. So Bihar's backwardness is more apparent or visible now. All type of Biharis (poor, illiterates, educated) are going to different parts of the country for rozi-roti, education, medical reason, and in the process, they are witnessing "development". Naturally they are desiring to see a "developed" Bihar. This again is bringing the "backwardness" of Bihar in the centre of our daily thought process. Most of us are concerned. A good sign in itself.

But the most vocal section of the society is urban middle class (educated, well employed, residing in urban areas of the country and abroad). They "appear" to be most concerned about Bihar. It is the most visible section who forms opinion, who writes in newspapers, who debates on TV and who demands and gets attention from authority or Govt. Ask anyone from this section of society, why is Bihar so backward, most answers will revolve around poor "law and order" and casteism. Most will point fingers towards current generation of politicians. But why in election, people vote to non performing politicians even with criminal background and a person with good clean background, educated and NOT of typical politician type loose election? Obvious answer is - casteist society vote on caste line. Let us analyze this:

Few years back, someone informed me that a new Mercedes showroom or workshop had opened in Delhi. This information did NOT enthuse or excite me because neither I have a Mercedes nor was planning to have it. It is beyond my dream. Similarly, when we talk about constructing roads in Bihar, will it excite a larger population of Bihar, when most of them don't even have a bicycle? Yes, road is useful for everybody BUT most of us (urban middle class who is reading this article) think of roads because we want to run our cars, scooters, motorbike. We want electricity because we want to run our electrical appliances and electronic items. We want good "law and order" so that we can enjoy our hard earned money. Nothing wrong about it. But what we miss in the process of thinking about development that we are NOT able to connect with rest of our
rural poor mass who have different priorities or need in life.

A poor person is migrating away from Bihar NOT for education, or good roads or certainly not because of poor law and order, they have been migrating from Bihar much before 1990 (but "we" never bothered about them and they don't write and read, so they don't complain also). They have been leaving Bihar, to get rozi-roti. They are poor and illiterates. But they are the one who bring Bihar very down on development parameters like literacy and poverty.

What is the solution you have for them?

You may say education. But tell me how come opening a school will help them. Why should they send their children to schools when they get to see many educated BUT unemployed youths roaming around, good for nothing. Even if the school is free and giving free lunch?? If you are uneducated then you can earn your rozi-roti by doing any job involving physical labor. But when we talk about development, we quickly relate illiteracy to poor development and one of the root causes of all ills including casteism and criminalization of politics. Lower the illiteracy rate, higher the development. (on the other hand, the more development may lead to better literacy rate).

Precisely for this reason, govt. schools are failing. Charwaha Vidyalay or Harijan Schools all failed and will always fail.

Another may say employment and for employment generation we have to get investment and it will come only when the "law and order" is good enough. And "law and order" will improve only when we elect good people. But, a society which is so casteist, will always vote on caste line electing criminals. So back to square one i.e., a vicious cycle.

The problem with most of "us" that there is big gap between our type of "development" and "their" type of "development". Precisely for the same reason, we never talk about issues like Flood, "Land Reform", "Agrarian reform", "Freight equalization"., change in attitude of educated and well employed resident Biharis like IAS etc.. Let us discuss few of the issues here.

Flood:

Every year, entire North Bihar witness large-scale flood causing immense harm and hardship to poor people. I rarely come across a debate or discussion or article talking about cause and solutions of this issue. This issue never becomes a part of electioneering for even slogan purpose. Believe me, the discussion of flood itself deserve a full article running into many pages. But irony is, most of "us" don't bother about it. Is Flood issue going to resolve once we have good electricity, roads and good law and order ??????

Last year, we had tsunami in South India and all of us (including "us" Biharis are demanding a warning system to alert people residing at coastal region. Can't we have something like "disaster recovery plan" when we are very sure of flood every year?? How to take advantage of lands becoming very fertile afterwards of floods?? Does not this issue deserve an attention from central govt.?? Do we Biharis demand anything for this problem from the Govt.?? What does stop us ??

Land Reform:

This again deserves a full article running into pages. But I can give a pointer to assert it's importance and urgency. The term "Land Reform" is viewed as ultra pro-poor and thus implicitly it is viewed as ultra anti-rich. This extreme mis-conception about "Land Reform" is the biggest obstacle in it's success. It does have a goal to achieve "social equity" but productivity of agricultural land is the main outcome. This very important consequence is largely overlooked. It is a world phenomenon and it has been tried and retried in many countries as different as Japan, Russia, Philippines, China or many Latin American countries etc., to improve the productivity of lands and thus improve the opportunities of target groups to engage in economically sustainable productive activities. Do a Google search on "Land reform" and you will realize it's importance and relevance. It is NOT a communist phenomenon. It is NOT simply owning a piece of Land by all equally. NOT at all. The basic purpose or goal of Land reform is to increase the agricultural productivity of the land. If you are just a tiller who does NOT own the land, then he is almost helpless to increase the productivity. He is merely a labour BUT we think that he is a farmer. It has been proved beyond doubt that if the tiller owns the land, the productivity has increased many fold. It is world experience. Small farms have more productivity where the farmers are himself involved. In certain parts, it is legal restriction where a NON-farmer CANNOT buy agricultural land, precisely for the same reason. Land Reform is NOT employment scheme, it is rather "prosperity" scheme.

Increasing the wealth of a large section of poor population through agriculture. Apart from few landlords we have large section of non-farming population who have retained their right over farming land. They are not landlords, in many cases they are not even big farmers. This section doesn't take any interest in farming and the actual farming in this case is being done by "bataidars". Suppose if Bataidar needs credit to buy inputs like fertilizer and high quality seeds, he can not apply for the same because he can not give collateral guarantee to bank. Why? Because his right on the land is no way recognized. Then how can he take credit from bank and apply latest farming technology? Do you know one reason of Bihar's backwardness is low Debit- Credit ratio? That means we deposit more money in Nationalized Bank than we take credit in Bihar. In last budget proposal Chidambaram propose to increase the credit flow in agricultural sector. In which way this proposal is going to benefit the agricultural sector in Bihar??

Land reform should aim to strongly encourage and attract talented producers or farmers and in turn it must discourages those who want land for rent-seeking purposes only. Why give land to the poor (give health, education, money, but why land): You may suggest that give poor money and if they are really interested in farming they would buy land. ---- Giving land helps in population retention in the rural areas. Our cities are overcrowded and that the private benefit from migrating to the city substantially exceeds the benefit to society. Giving the poor assets that can only be useful in rural areas (unlike money) would be a way to stop them from migrating to cities. Other dangerous side effect of migration of poor to cities is AIDS.

Land can be a permanent source of income for a poor family.

Those who talk about the need of land reform are NOT anti-rich. I don't talk about redistribution of factories etc. In fact, even in corporate world, the concept of giving ownership of company to it's employees through equity or shares is aimed at increasing the productivity.

The increasing number of non-farmer landlords in Bihar (this trend is largely due to rush to metros) are making a large amount of land as very inefficient, a very detrimental factor for rural economy which has the ultimate potential to tackle poverty.

Land Reform is one such thing which can change face of Bihar. No doubt about it. It can bring lot of prosperity to rural poor mass. Bihar can witness "harit kranti". Without land reform, most of large land holders are having lands for the purpose of rent. Rent-seeking landlords are biggest obstacle in improving productivity of lands.

With changed priorities of central govt. (due to economic reforms) we are today at a juncture where land, mostly for the urban, educated elite, and who also happens to be the powerful decision-maker, has become more a matter for housing, investment and infra-structure building. In the bargain, the existence of land as a basis of livelihood -- for subsistence, survival and human dignity has largely been lost. Do we bother about this issue??

Freight Equalization Policy:

What is this policy? If you don't know then I am NOT surprised at all because most of us don't know about it as it does NOT fit into our "normal" thought process. Do a Google search on "freight equalization". Immediately after independence, the policy of equalization in the freight rates of the railway, in the matter of coal, iron ore or steel and cement, the most important mineral inputs for industrial development, had devastated the
undivided Bihar. Not only Bihar stopped becoming the destination for investment in spite of its locational advantage vis-à-vis mineral resources, it rather subsidized the capitalist industrial transformation of India at its own peril. In 1947, the Eastern Region was the most industrially developed section. The raw materials for the engineering industry are in the Eastern Region. This locational advantage was nullified by freight equalization policy.

After independence six All India financial institutions were set up. These are IDBI, ICICI, IFCI, UTI, LIC and GIC. The lion's share of industrial finance in India came from these bodies. IFCI was headquartered in Delhi and the rest of them were headquartered in Bombay. Do remember, that when these were set up, Calcutta and not Bombay was the Industrial Capital.

Have you heard of Industrial Development and Regulation Act? Under it (inter alia) a license was required for setting up most industries. This license was issued by Central Govt. The ostensible purpose of this act was to have a balanced development of industrial growth all over India. Now, look around and check for yourself whether you see a balanced industrial growth all over India. By a "judicious" applications of the licensing provisions industrial base has been shifted out of Eastern India to Western India.

Now after Jharkhand, Bihar has lost major sources of revenue and it should get a big financial package to compensate the loss. Do we hear anyone talking about this?? How are poor law and order, casteism stopping central govt. to give this financial package??? Kashmir can get it but Biharis can't even demand it.

Role of IAS and other educated people:

Whenever we talk about development, the most obvious culprit of present status of state of Bihar is - our politician. We never think about an important pillar of democracy i.e., executive. We Biharis take pride in the fact that Bihar is producing very large number of IAS or IPS officers year after year. None can deny this fact. Any office of importance or significance where decisions are taken, you are sure to find a Bihari IAS part of the decision making process. Yet, Bihar is denied it's share of cake.

Merit gets too much attention and status in Bihar. I have seen an old lady in Thane SDO office chiding the SDO for non-fulfillment of promise. Can you imagine this in Bihar? The DM has so much "akar" that even his peon shoos me away?? Why most of the people don't dare to meet DM and ask or question something? Why is DM maintaining so much "distance" from general people. We always find faults with everything BUT not with IAS.

An IAS has proved his "merit" by passing UPSC test. He does NOT need to go beyond that. He enjoys and basks in the glory of people telling his "virgatha". I am NOT talking about a very few IAS who are toiling hard and working despite all odds. But majority of them take shelter in the name of political interference. Tell me if one DM is transferred and the next DM also is upright then how come this political interference will succeed??

Go to any collectorate in Bihar. It houses hardly 500 staffs. The most important office of an important component of democracy (i.e., EXECUTIVE) is an example of most inefficient and unproductive entity. The "powerful" DM is most unprofessional person (even though well educated). If he cannot manage his own office efficiently and professionally, how come he will manage the entire district. Reason is simple :- He does NOT need to prove anything. He is "the meritorious" person in Bihar. He has attained "mokshha".

When IAS officers humiliating teachers, professors, we don't resent this. We think that "meritorious" persons should be worshipped by rest AND rest all are worthless.

Real development will start NOT due to spread of education, but it will start due to professional approach of educated IAS executives. Then only development schemes will be efficiently implemented including education and literacy scheme.

Most of the people or Biharis (of our generation) who are worried about Bihar are INNOCENT people. They have no vested interest in the "talk" of development. Most of these innocent people are very progressive. They are very receptive to progressive thoughts and ideas.

BUT they lack information or knowledge about root cause of issues and their solutions. Migration to different parts of the world is making them to desire for "development" BUT in the process, they get divorced from real issues of Bihar. Tell me, can a Mumbai guy understand the issues of Bihar? No way. Mumbai or Punjab has different or same issues and "different" solutions. Precisely for the same reason, most of us don't sing a song beyond "law and order", electricity, roads etc. We simply join the age old chorus song.

We don't even talk about flood because my Delhi friend or leader does NOT talk about it. But even Biharis were singing songs of tsunami, latur etc.

And the moment you go deeper and talk about issues like "land reform", you are branded a communist.

1) We need investment of knowledge in current generation (especially in urban middle class Biharis).

2) We need to make inroads in their thought process.

3) We need bridges to bridge gaps in the meaning of "development".

Doing all above are NOT very difficult. Here IT is playing a big role to spread the awareness.

We must continue our discussion or debate as there is NO obstacle in doing so. It is big and first step.

Comments are most welcome.

Comments:
Dear Prabhat Sinha jee,

No need to comment on the issue raised by you which is by and large the facts, directly or indirectly responsible for deteriorating development in Bihar.

This article is creating awareness among mass about the real problem, not the solution. I am very much worried about only talking about problems; please come with solutions.

Yes, we all know that good governance must be there to clean all different types/categories of garbage; yes we all kow that Vinoba Bhave's Land reforms could not unfortunately be implemented in Bihar because of feudalism among us (in comparison to other states); yes we all know that most Bihari technocrats and bureaucrats forget to do some thing in Bihar, exceptionally few of them (IAS) are doing great but this problem is spread all over India, this is the common nature in Indian people.

The efficiency of an IAS or other govt officials depends upon the attitude and priority of the government and that priorities and attitude varies from govt to govt . For instance, in the present President's Rule, almost all officers are doing good, taking major decisions which would have taken 3-4 years before. Example: opening a BIT Mesra Center at Patna, Patna University as Central University (that it really deserves). Talks were going on since 10-15 years but no decision. Why? Certainly lack of good governance; opening good Netarhat-type school in Bihar in the name of Gautam Buddha etc.

I personally welcomed the decision taken by present Governor under the President's Rule, I think everybody agrees that but the thing is, why now only? Why not before? Reason is simple: lack of vision, lack of positive attitude by our silly governments. Casteism here does not apply. Land reforms also does not. Same bureaucrats can have the same efficiency as they are showing.

Nobody stopped us from opening good schools, reputed Engineering/Medical Colleges in Bihar as most of the Biharis who have enough money are going out of the state for studying but for others? They can't go outside because of poor family economical condition. Every year around 3-4 lakh students pass matriculation exams; how many engineering colleges, medical colleges, management colleges are in Bihar? Only brilliant, genius are passing the exam of IIT/IIMs,CBSEs/AIIMS, are others fool? In Maharashtra, Andhra, Tamil Nadu, almost every house is producing one engineer/doctor but in Bihar, hardly one or two in a village and that person is called "Engineer Saheb" or "Doctor Saheb". Now a days this has become a "dhandha" in other states to open engineering colleges and earn huge money out of it from the student particularly from Bihar, UP, MP, West Bengal etc.

Can we start this movement by opening engineering, medical, management colleges to preserve the talent? If yes, then the govt high officials or caste will not come in the picture. Please open engineering colleges by forming trusts, co-operative societies. This can also be one of the solutions.

Bihar is having talent, no doubt about it, it needs to be explored. We are educated people, we have also some responsibilities and that responsibility comes out only while writing such articles; not while doing implementation of projects.

No solution unless we do something. - Bibhuti Bikramaditya, Seoul, South Korea - Apr. 07, 2005
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He (the author) has not just shown us his genius writing skill with emotions and eagerness to do something for Bihar by highlighting the awareness, but also has given key for the solution to some of the major obstructions in our road to success.

It is nice to see someone is there who can think beyond casteism and corrupt politics for degrading development of Bihar. - Soni Tiwari. Patna - Apr. 16, 2005

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The author has very well brought the burning issues of Bihar out in the light. No offence meant, but do we all warm ourselves in the heat or do something about it? Issues are certainly massive be it - flood, land reform, etc etc, but as we all nod our heads on contributing to the development, do we think how? I have been to a few states in India and met Biharis there. It was shocking to note that most of them (believe me) did not admit that they are from Bihar. How do you expect them to extend their hand for the cause then? Let us all work on our attitude first. Remember, if we keep our fingers crossed, things are going to aggravate. - Julie Sarup, Ahmedabad - Apr 22, 2005

2007-07-06T07:57:00.000-07:00

Need for Job Fairs in Bihar
by Manish Kumar

July 19, 2006

http://www.patnadaily.com/readerswrite/2006/jul/manish_kumar.html

One can often read in Rediff.com, BusinessLine, The Hindu, Indian Express, Economic Times etc that TCS is going to hire 6000, Satyam to hire 2000 professionals, Wipro plans to hire 3000 for Kolkata hub, Cognizant Technology Solution (CTS) will hire a large number of programmers, Infosys to hire 25000 more in Chennai, and the major reasons they state for hiring is to expand operations, to cope with exceeding business demands etc. But still one can find that the IT job opportunities for Bihari students are almost absent. Very few companies come for campus selection in management school, technical institutes and universities of Bihar. But if one looks at the placement scenario of colleges in south India especially in Tamil Nadu, he will be surprised. Majority of the colleges, deemed universities etc have more than 70% campus recruitment. Some good institutes like NIT Trichy, Thiagrajar Engg College, PSG Tech, CIT, Anna Univ (College of Engg), Madras Institute of Technology, VIT have 100% placement. Almost all software companies do have their development centre, office, etc in Chennai, Bangalore, and Coimbatore (better call it metro effect). The other reasons for the good placement are the regular organization and conduction of Job fairs in cities like Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore, Trichy etc.

In Bihar, we can’t find centers of TCS, WIPRO etc, but yeah we can surely bring these software companies in our own state through the job fairs. The companies need potential candidates for their work. Every one knows that Biharis are known for their merits. Take any national level exams like IIT JEE, CAT, UPSC, State PSC, Engg Services, LIC, CBI, Railways, Banking PO, Income Tax exams, Pre Medical test; you can find Biharis securing top position in written, interview etc. The whole India knows the story of the SUPER 30. We have some big, popular and old institutes like Science College (Patna), L. S College (Muzaffarpur), TNB (Bhagalpur) etc. We have good engg colleges at Muzaffarpur, Patna, Bhagalpur. So why can't we organize a job fair for the students of engg, MBA, MA, M.Sc, B.Sc etc? The software companies are looking for graduate in statistics, maths, physics, chemistry, engg, management, biotechnology, economics etc. Our state has surplus number of bright candidates in these areas.

If our state conducts a job fair, it would be win-win situation for both the companies as well as for the students. The fair will hopefully provide opportunities for companies to meet a wider segment of qualified candidates. Of the multiple channels of recruitment which company follow such as advertisements, employee references and campus recruitment, job fairs are one of the most important as they get a chance to assess those with specific skills. At the same time it will be an opportunity for students to know what companies look for. Potential candidates can aim to get placed in sectors such as information technology and IT enabled services, tourism, ticketing, pharmaceuticals, insurance, sales and marketing, banking, printing agencies, chemicals and cosmetics, herbal industries and management agencies. The students from the rural areas can also get benefit through these kinds of fairs. There would be something for everybody in job fairs— freshers, the experienced, those looking for a job change and even a couple of VRS retirees.

In city like Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore etc The Hindu, Indian Express, Anna Univ, Madras Univ do conduct job fairs time to time. If our state conducts a similar job fairs, not only the students' community but a wide range of people can also be benefited.

I strongly appeal to the media (www.patnadaily.com, Hindustan times, Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhaskar, Hindustan etc), Director and Principal of various institutes, Vice Chancellor of Universities and the officials of State government to kindly look into the matter and formulate a strategy to conduct a job fairs in our state. Top notch firms like Cognizant, Infosys, e-Serve International Ltd, Accenture, Verizon Data Services, HCL Technologies, ICICI Prudential, Wipro Technologies, Satyam, NIIT, Larsen and Toubro Infotech, Hewlett Packard and IBM India do need large number of candidates in near futures. If we can jointly take an initiative to conduct a similar kind of job fairs, it would be of immense help in creating job opportunities for many in our state.

The author is a research scholar at IIT Madras and can be contacted atthis email address. this email address.

Comments:
This issue needs immediate attention. However, the way it would have to be tackled would be slightly different if it has to have an impact.

- Each college must necessarily have a training and placement office and savvy teachers should be made in charge of these. These are a must for the colleges having engineering or MCA/BCA type of education.

- TPOs should look at the placement brochures of successful institutions like Manipal colleges and prepare similar brochures and presentations that they must disseminate to the prospective employers

- TPOs should make a round of organizations all over the country which are going to recruit. There is no substitute to personal contact. College administration should be encouraged to have special budget for this activity so that TPO in charge makes this round. They should also show willingness to change their syllabi to accommodate the suggestions of the prospective employers if the situation so warrants. Also TPO in charge must be members of the syllabus committee of the colleges.

The scene can change dramatically in a couple of years. There are so many successful professionals from Bihar who would be willing to help in this endeavour. Particularly useful would be the HR professionals from XLRI, XISS and LSW PU. - Thakur Vikas Sinha, Powai, Mumbai - July 20, 2006
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You are absolutely right about the present scenario that non of big techies hires from Bihar. Actually, these companies do not hire from any of the BITs. Even ISM guys have the same complaint. I guess only BIT Mesra has the brand name that attracts top notch IT companies.

Organizing job fair is not the solution and it won't work. Because, first, our education system of Bihar is very corrupt. You simply can't have faith in one's achievements. Mark sheets are forged, cheating is rampant in examinations, schools and colleges are just not functional. Mind it, I am targeting the education system not the students.

Second, the education system suits for succeeding in governmental jobs - IAS, IES, IFS, you name it. These jobs requires excellence in paper based competition which we Biharis have mastered over time. The hiring criteria for IT companies are different. These companies are looking for people who do well in one-on-one interview. They don't put much emphasis on paper based examination. To succeed, students of Bihar have to be interview savvy.

Third, IT companies prefer hiring experienced people which Bihar cannot provide because there is no IT company in Bihar.

My suggestion is Bihar government should hire consultants from McKinsey, IIMs. Their expertise would be the best solution. Of course, this will cost money because There Is No Free Lunch! - Vinod Kumar - July 20, 2006

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The author has made very good observations. Holding job fares will definitely help the locals in getting access to the job market across the country. - Som Vishwakarma, USA - July 20, 2006

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Kindly allow me to say thanks to Mr. Manish Kumar of IIT Madras, for his remarkable ideas/observations/opinion on the article title "Need for Job Fairs in Bihar". What he has written is the need of time. A job or career fair is a place or an event that invites prospective candidates to meet with and link up with possible employers. In essence, this is an accurate view held by the majority of concerned people, parents, teachers and candidates. Inspite of the fact that Biharis are talented as Mr Kumar has rightly said, the tragedy is white colored jobs are not coming in Bihar. One may quote100 of reasons for it. Majority of colleges don’t have TPO and there is need for TPO (as suggested by Thakur Vikas Sinha), our education system is paralysed (as quoted by Vinod Kumar). But the problem is we can’t play blame game here. We have to look into the solution which can start giving immediate results. Making a TPO, better education system blah blah blah may be a part of long term objective or medium term objective. Manipal kind college, do charge fees in lakhs per year. Apart from this there is boarding and lodging charges also. A middle class or a lower middle class family can’t afford to send their ward in college like Manipal (don’t talk of Bank loans and all at present). Now coming to the comment on education system in Bihar. Gone are the days of cheating in exams and forging mark sheets. The probability of occurrence of such incidents is minimal these days. At least the condition has dramatically improved in Bihar, and we hope it will get a new direction. Regarding the government job, do Mr. Vinod Kumar thinks that the interview process for IAS, IES, IFS, banking PO is much easier than the IT related jobs. My dear Vinod Kumar, clearing the interview for these exams (especially it helps in getting good ranks) are 1000 times tougher than clearing the IT related jobs. Ask any guy who is preparing for UPSC, IES, PO etc, or who has cleared these exams. Every engg graduate knows how guys are clearing the interview of TCS, Infosys, CTS, Patni, Mahindra Bristish Telecom etc. The whole sets of questions year wise with solutions is available to the students of many institutes. You can get those papers from the hostels of these institutes. For some reasons, I am not taking the name of all those institutes. There are some standards questions related to HR (may be 10-15) which is asked to every students and some technical questions too. These questions also one can get from the hostels of these institutes. If any one needs clarifications or wants to check the truthfulness of these facts he or she may contact some of his friends who are studying or passed out from some good institutes and enquire. One can get questions and some sample interview questions of different companies from the Internet also, just do a google search. In my eyes its easy to clear IT related Job. One should be good in logical and analytical skills, in which majority of the Biharis are fairer. Who said IT companies prefers only to hire experienced people only? If this is the case then the fresher will die immediately after graduating. A large number of fresher are getting absorbed by different companies through campus selection, advertisement, and as rightly said by Mr. Manish Kumar through Job Fairs. If you will look at the article of Manish Kumar, he has said that “The other reasons for the good placement are the regular organization and conduction of Job fairs in cities like Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore, Trichy etc”. It’s a pure fact.

To conclude with, I strongly advocate for the organization of Job fairs, which is the need of time. The young people do need jobs and the state, media, institutes and Univ can help them by conducting job fairs. It’s not only advisable from the cost point of view, but also it has a wider impact. Making a TPO, improving educational system can be kept on the objectives, as it will improve the status and will help in the coming years. Thanks again Mr. Kumar for your article and I hope that it will be taken seriously. - Ashok Pandey - July 20, 2006

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Awesome suggestion by Mr. Manish Kumar. I too think that Job fairs will do a lot to change the present scenario of unemployment for the students of professional/technical colleges of Bihar.

But, before that we have to consider the image and weight (quality) of education in Bihar. It's true that the students of Bihar origin are earning laurels in each and every field only if they are studying out of the state. (I mean, in institutions of national importance).

A few suggestions would be:

# As suggested by others, hiring consultants to examine the grim situation of education in the state.

# Establishing institutions of national importance something like recently established Chanakya National Law University. [The average salary of graduates of other National Law University ranges between 2.5- 8.0 lacks per annum.] So the need of the hour is to change according to the job market.

# Compulsory paper on English Language/ Communication Skills/Personality Development etc, for the students of professional colleges.

# Industry linkage (if possible) e.g., in Tamil Nadu, engineering colleges like SSN College of Engineering & Technology (Anna Univ.) is backed by Sri. Shiv Nadar, Chairman, HCL. Many such examples are there.

# Modernising the course curricula of Universities in Bihar.

# Introduction of job-oriented professional courses like -
Agriculture technology, Biotechnology, Integrated science, Computer Application/Technology, Industrial Microbiology, Industrial Fish and Fisheries, Environmental Science, Bachelor of Mass Communication, Communicative English, Bachelor in Business Administration, MBA (IB), B.A. (Hons.) B. Ed., 4-year Integrated Course, Functional English, Advertising Sales Promotion and 'Sales Management, Tourism and Travel Management, Design and Fashion Technology, Watershed Management, Aquaculture, Journalism, Agricultural Waste Management, Cattle Farming, Rural Women Empowerment, Sugar Technology, Sugarcane Technology, Electrical and Electronic Goods Management, Horticulture, Environmental Chemistry, Cultivation of Medicinal Domestic Plant and many more........

# Hiring highly qualified and industry experienced faculties/ visiting faculties.

# Rigorous teaching method, workshop, industrial training, presentations, seminars etc.....

# Semester system and internal evaluation.

The list may be endless but at least the responsible authorities can initiate some of the points mentioned above. - Ashwini Kumar Singh, Director – DREDS (District Rural Education Development Society), Gopalganj, Bihar - July 20, 2006

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Dear Manish jee,

Very good points raised by you..

I am giving you my experience with a few hard facts.

In the months between February 2006 and April 2006 I was in Patna and during this period, I took many seminars, short-term courses including Career Counseling and Guidance Program at Patna Science College campus. Before that, I visited all the prominent engineering/science colleges of Patna.

I called five companies. One company's Human Resources visited the place and took GD. After all the hectic schedule and GD, she found three out of around 100 students good to some extent.

In the end, no students were selected because of poor quality of those students.

I tried very much for at least one student, but till today no confirmation from the company.

Hard fact is that bona fide students go out of state and the rest of the students are not up to the mark, particularly in communication.

I am also trying very hard to start a work environment in the state, did many things before e.g. career counseling program (it was like job fair), Scitechfest, DISHA, recently concluded (it was in the news too), many short term courses from the society called BiharBrains (www.biharbrains.org) but what I found that Bihar needs gradual improvement. There should be many engineering colleges, professional degree colleges with some companies in that bound areas. Then and then only company will visit campuses and participate in the job fair. Last time even Naukri.Com from Delhi also could not come even though I tried.

Though I am in complete agreement with you, but frankly, Bihar in the present scenario, is not ready for the same. This will take some more time. - Bibhuti Bikramaditya, Daejeon, S Korea - July 20, 2006

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The same development formula may or may not be applicable to every state in the country. For a state which has the lowest literacy, poor infrastructure, serious problems of law and order, floods, I would say, the priority today is not a job fair. At the risk of sounding pessimistic, I see such fairs to be a big flop in Bihar. And why for heaven's sake, we are so desperate to bring software companies to our state? Believe me, software will be the last industry to come to Bihar. But that's not a problem at all! Now I must talk something positive to save my own image. I know I won't succeed in convincing you that I am not a pessimist, but still.

There have been so many illustrious articles by Mr. Indra on where our strength and opportunities lie. The agriculture, food processing, farming, flood research, biotechnology are the most talked about. We need institutes which can provide all kinds of professional training. I won't repeat what Mr. Indra has already written in great detail in his articles; I would like you to go through them (Actually I don't remember them all myself, I learned this trick from one of my teachers).

What is the point in becoming a civil/mechanical/electrical engineer to get a job in a software company? Communication (read speaking English) is very (probably most) important criteria to get s/w job and we know where we stand on that. I myself had never spoken English (except the 'May I come in, Sir?') till I came to Tamil Nadu at the age of 22. That does not make one a bad engineer, though. So, let the software prosper in South. We need the 'real' engineers in Bihar. I won't digress further on this issue.

Our priority today should be improving the academic education, ensuring regular classes, appointing staff, building and maintaining new schools/colleges. The syllabus needs to be modernized. Teachers need to be trained well for the updated syllabus. They should be evaluated and given incentives (smells of privatization?). Private tuition (at least till class X) should be banned (after ensuring the above points). Guess papers should be banned (after ensuring that every student gets the required textbooks). Evaluation should be in such a way that most of the students can make it to the college. Universities need drastic change in their culture.

All such initiatives would require reduction in corruption, red-tapism and crime. We have high hopes from this government on such fronts. It seems to be moving in the right direction but is too slow to deserve any appreciation. - Kumod Jha - July 21, 2006