IIM-AHMEDABAD helps Bihar attract tourists

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has reached out to Modi-land for tourism development. He is getting tips from students of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad on developing and selling Bihar tourism.

Six students of post-graduate programme in Agri-business Management have worked on a project to improve the tourist inflow to Bihar. The students identified the problems in infrastructure, developed websites with attractive package deals and offered solutions in developing the eco-tourism in the state.

"We studied all aspects related to tourism including agriculture, industry and communication among other things to suggest an appropriate solution. We also identified the roles that could be played by a facilitatore”be it the government, private companies or associations," said Shashwat Siddhant, one of the students, who developed the project as part of their Rural Immersion Programme.

The students suggested developing two districts which have the potential to attract eco-tourists”Madhubani, which is home to Madhubani paintings, and Bhagalpur, which is famous for home made khadi and silk. The reports have been submitted to the respective district magistrates in Bihar.

The students studied three important aspects pertaining to Madhubani ” its paintings, Khadi and tourism-and conducted interviews with painters, weavers and others to develop a website on Madhubani paintings. The students, in collaboration with NABARD, are helping the tourism department set up e-kiosks at Madhubani railway station to provide information on the art and its availability.

The students also identified the religious importance of the districts in Bihar as mentioned in Ramayana and Buddhism. "Bihar is significant from the religious point of view. So we have also explored the angle of religious tourism as well," said Siddhant.

Bihar farmers better than scientists: Nobel laureate Joseph E Stiglitz

Nobel laureate Joseph E Stiglitz is impressed by the organic farming practices in Bihar's Nalanda district, terming its practitioners "better than scientists" and calling for their experiences to be researched so that these can be replicated elsewhere. "Indian farmers are better than scientists," Stiglitz said here after visiting organic farmers in Nalanda, the home district of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

"It was amazing to see their success in organic farming. Agriculture scientists from across the world should visit their farm land to learn and be inspired by them," said Stiglitz, a professor of economics at the prestigious Columbia University and here to deliver the Asian Development Research Foundation Lecture 2013.

"There is a need to take the experiences of these farmers seriously and go for research to give a scientific approach to adopt it outside," he added. According to Chanchal Kumar, a senior government official who accompanied Stiglitz, the economist minutely inquired about the techniques. He said that Stiglitz also told farmers that the increasing trend of organic farming is good for the health too.

Bihar is turning its attention to popularising and promoting organic farming in the state to usher in a new "Green Revolution" in agriculture. The Nitish Kumar government has already decided to promote organic farming in at least one village of the state's 37 districts. It launched an "organic farming promotion programme" over a year ago, intended to develop organic grams (organic villages).

A sum of Rs 255 crore (nearly 50 million USD) has been sanctioned for development of organic farming, said an official of the agriculture department. The new techniques however did not have many takers in the beginning. "Initially the farmers were reluctant to adopt organic farming despite the state government providing free seeds, fertiliser and experts to guide them. But now more farmers have expressed interest in adopting the method of farming," said a district official in Nalanda.

Last year, a young farmer of Darveshpura village in Nalanda set what is claimed to be a world record in potato production through organic farming. Earlier, farmers of the same village created a world record by producing 224 quintals of paddy per hectare. Nitish Kumar has repeatedly said that he wants to have one or two agriculture products from the state on the plate of every Indian in the coming years.

"Several steps, including promotion of modern techniques of farming, organic farming and use of improved seeds, have been taken in the last two-three years, but it is still a long way to go in developing the agriculture sector," said the agriculture department official.

Agriculture is the backbone of Bihar's economy, employing 81 per cent of workforce and generating nearly 42 per cent of the state's domestic product, according to the state government.

Federation of University Teachers' Associations of Bihar unhappy with ad hocism in state varsities

Expressing their concern over the sluggish growth of higher education in Bihar, the academics have urged the powers that be not to carry forward some of the crude legacies of yesteryears if they really want to revitalize the system of higher education.

The year that has just passed witnessed some serious controversies over the appointment of VCs and the ad hocism prevailing in the universities. The universities were made to run in blatant violation of the provisions of the Act and statutes owing to serious differences between the two constitutional authorities, the state government and the chancellor, said Federation of University Teachers' Associations of Bihar (Futab) working president Kanhaiya Bahadur Sinha and general secretary Sanjay Kumar Singh.

The state education department also did not lag behind in destabilizing the system by ignoring the orders of the court resulting in over 3,000 writs and contempt cases. The education department is yet to set a benchmark for itself as the bureaucrats have failed to decide what actually are their duties and responsibilities in shaping the higher education system, the two leaders said.

Appointment of teachers, rationalization of posts, resolution of the perennial problems of designated demonstrators, non-payment of salaries to the fourth phase constituent college teachers, implementation of recent Supreme Court directions with respect to the teachers absorbed over three decades back, and denial of second promotion to a large number of teachers despite a national consensus on granting at least two promotions in the entire career are some of the issues which must be resolved without any further delay, they said.

They further said that the government has failed to come out with a concrete policy on delinking of intermediate teaching from degree colleges, opening of model colleges and accommodation of a large number of inter pass outs into the higher education stream.

Semester system is being introduced without revamping of the examination sections of the universities, which find themselves unable to cope up with the present workload. In some universities, honours papers are being examined at obscure places by unqualified persons, they alleged. The leaders demanded revival of the Bihar State Inter University Board which can serve as a policy framing body as well as an advisory council to the state government and the chancellor. The academic policies must emerge from some academic body, they added

Mauritius president visits his ancestral village in Bihar

Mauritius President Rajkeswur Purryag today could not hold back his emotions when he reached his ancestral Wajidpur village near Patna.

"Main apne pardada ki dharti par akar bhawuk hun (I am filled with emotion on reaching the land of my forefathers," he said at Wajidpur in Patna district from where his forefathers were taken to Mauritius as indentured labourers by the then British rulers about 150 years ago.

"I greet your land and you people," Mr Purryag told people who had gathered to welcome him.
Accompanied by his wife Anita, Mr Purryag is in Patna for his first ever visit to Wajidpur. Purryag's distant nephews Mahesh and Ganesh Mahto spoke for some time with the Mauritius president.

Mr Purryag recalled that he had visited Bihar about 25 years ago to find out the land of his forefathers, but failed during his three-day stay in Patna then.

He thanked Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for tracing his ancestral village that made this visit possible. He lauded Mr Kumar for bringing development in Bihar and changing negative perception about the state and its people.

"Now Bihar and its growth story is being talked about not only in other parts of India, but across the globe. Now we all proud of our Bihari origin," Mr Purryag said.

Mr Purryag said he and the people of Mauritius always cherished their association with India and Bihar.

Apologising to locals for being able to spend only sometime in the village, Mr Purryag said he would return to spend quality time with them and his relatives.

He also recalled the struggle and sacrifices of his forefathers after being taken to Mauritius.

Mr Purryag said, "Our forefathers were lured by Britishers to go to Mauritius for a better life where they could virtually lay their hands on gold mines.

"However, they found only stones and boulders when they reached Mauritius. There was abject poverty and nothing much to eat," the Mauritius President said, adding that they worked tirelessly to build a modern and developed Mauritius.

"Our forefathers provided good education to their children for success in life" and since then, successive governments in Mauritius had given stress on educational infrastructure, he said.

During his brief visit to Mauritius in early 20th century, Mahatma Gandhi expressed pain and anguish at the plight of the indentured labourers and their families, Mr Purryag said.

Gandhi had then laid stress on giving education to their children, he said.

In the Mauritius president's honour, the Bihar government laid a foundation stone for a high school in the village where he was also felicitated in presence of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and other ministers.

Mr Purryag's relatives in the village gave gifts like village soil contained in a silver 'lota' (pitcher), freshly harvested paddy and dhoti to the visiting President and his wife

Sushil Kumar Modi inaugurated the 21st Rajgir festival at Qila Maidan

Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi inaugurated the 21st Rajgir festival at Qila Maidan on Friday. The newly built international convention centre's inauguration was postponed as chief minister Nitish Kumar could not reach Rajgir from Delhi due to inclement weather.

Minister of art, culture and youth affairs, Sukhda Pandey, mines and geology minister Satyadeo Narayan Arya, vice-chancellor of Nalanda University Gopa Sabarwal, principal secretary, tourism, Deepak Kumar, MP from Nalanda, Kaushlendra Kumar and all the MLAs and MLCs of the district were also present.

The absence of chief minister on the occasion dampened the spirit of the revellers. The visitors were also disappointed as Sufi singer Zila Khan also failed to reach the venue. He was to perform on the opening day of the festival. People were looking for tourism minister Sunil Kumar Pintu who also could not reach here, despite the fact that his department is the chief sponsor of the festival along with district administration, Nalanda.

The Rajgir festival, which was earlier known as Rajgir Nritya (dance) Mahotsav, was started in 1986. The then chief minister, late Bindeshwari Dubey, had inaugurated the festival in Swarna Bhandar area on April 4. 1986 in the presence of the then Union tourism minister, late HKL Bhagat, the then state tourism minister Uma Pandey and the then state deputy minister of education, Surendra Kumar Tarun.

The tourism department-sponsored festival continued till 1989. It was not held for the subsequent four years before getting revived in 1994. Since then, it is an annual event on the calendar of Bihar Tourism. With a change of venue and the added colour and development of new tourist spots in the last few years, the festival has become a favourite event for domestic as well as foreign tourists.

Following chief minister Nitish Kumar's initiative and timely execution of programmes by DM Sanjay Kumar Agrawal for the development of tourists spots, including Ghora Katora dam, Pandu Pokhar etc, and the renovation of various pilgrim centres in and around Rajgir, the festival is now organized at a more accessible Qila Maidan in the backdrop of Ratnagiri hills. Various sporting activities like tonga race, martial arts competitions, mehndi contest, mahila utsav, food plaza, gramshree mela etc have been introduced besides organizing performance by artists of national and international repute.

The efforts of the tourism department and the district administration to add something new every year have also paid off. This year, they have included horse race and a book fair for the tourists.

Noted artists like Hema Malini. Sonal Man Singh, Birju Maharaj, Bhupen Hazarika, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Ghulam Ali, Talat Aziz, Ravindra Jain, Hari Haran, Shovana Narayan, Jaspinder Narula, Alka Yagnik, Meenakshi Seshadri, Roop Kumar Rathod and Sonali Rathore have already performed during Rajgir Mahotsav.

Bihar expects over 1 million foreign tourists this year

Bihar is set for a record arrival of over one million foreign tourists in 2012, Sunil Kumar Pintu, Minister for Tourism, Government of Bihar, said. “I am fully confident that the number of foreign tourists in Bihar would cross one million in 2012,” Pintu was quoted.

He said that more than 800,000 foreign tourists visited the state till October 2012. As per the Central government’s data, about 9.72 lakh foreigners visited the state’s tourist attractions, including Bodh Gaya, Rajgir and Nalanda, Pintu said.

Girl gang-raped in Patna

A teenaged girl, vacationing at her maternal grandmother's village, was gang-raped allegedly by three men in  Patna district, police said on Thursday.

The incident took place in Chhoti Kewai village two days ago with the alleged perpetrators identified as Guddu Yadav,Annu Yadav and Arjun Yadav, they said.

A case has been registered against the three on the complaint of the victim, they said.

The victim was medically examined at a hospital in the state capital and the report is awaited, police said.