Maharashtra govt toeing path of Thackerays: Lalu

RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, who has always stood against the anti-migrant movement in Maharashtra, termed the state's new policy on taxi driverspermit as 'unconstitutional'."It is a highly objectionable, unfortunate and unconstitutional decision," the former chief minister of Bihar said, calling for an intervention from the Prime Minister.Yadav added, "It appears that the grand old party too has...

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Bihar to provide land ownership rights to women

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Friday announced land ownership rights for women in families that do not own any, saying that the move aims to empower the weaker sex."The government has decided that land ownership rights of the land provided to landless families will be given to the woman of each family," Kumar said at a function here.Kumar said the government decision will strengthen the women's position in the society."It will give them (women) more power," he said.The state government has begun the process to provide land to the poorest of...

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Bihar Tubes to set up plant in Bihar

Patna,(BiharTimes): Bihar Tubes, which supplies steel tubes to various firms, is planning to set up a mill worth Rs 50 crore in Bihar.It already has two plants in north and south India and is now planning one in west and another in the east. The one in the eastern India would come up in Bihar.Bihar Tubes Director Aniq Hussian was quoted in a PTI report from Delhi as saying that the plant would produce one lakh tonnes of tubes per annum. The firm, which is listed in the Bombay Stock Exchange aims to tap the growing demand of its products in the...

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Chavan’s taxi dents Congress’ image

Congress is stuck in an unenviable position over the Mumbai taxi permits issue. Though Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavanbacktracked on making the knowledge of Marathi compulsory for securing a permit, the state government’s handling of the issue is set to boomerang on the party. It faces the prospect of a backlash in the Hindi heartland for toeing the anti-migrant line, while in Maharashtra Raj Thackeray’s MNS has found a new opportunity to vent its hardline ‘sons of the soil’ line.Political parties across Bihar on Thursday came out to criticise...

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Arrested Taliban operative in Bihar to be shifted to central jail

An Afghan national, who has close links with the Taliban and was arrested in Purnia district of Bihar for trying to illegally sneak into Bangladesh, will be shifted to a central jail for security reasons, police said Thursday."Ghulam Rasool Khan alias Khan Mirza, who is currently lodged in Purnia jail, will be shifted to a central jail soon," a police officer told IANS over phone from Purnia. He said that a request letter was sent to IG, Prison, to transfer Khan to a central jail in the state for security reasons. Khan has been kept...

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Gender-based discrimination cases come down

Gender-based disparities have shown a decline in the country in the last decade with the national capital scoring the highest, according to a report by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.There is an overall improvement in the performance on the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) over the decade, both in the all-India score and in the scores achieved by the States and Union Territories, the report titled “Gendering Human Development Indices: Recasting the Gender Development Index and Gender Empowerment Measure for Index” says.The GEM is calculated...

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Bihar shows good regulations can speed up growth: Moody's

Global research agency Moody's Economy.com on Friday said Bihar's stunning economic performance is an example of how government policies help accelerate growth."Recent gains in Bihar, traditionally one of India's poorest states, show how improved economic policy can boost growth," said Nikhilesh Bhattacharyya, economist at the research arm of rating agency Moody's, in a note.According to the latest...

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Nitish's love for heritage takes him to Vaishali

Known for his love for heritage, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today visited Vaishaligarh in Vaishali district where he said he would take up the issue of development of the area as "key tourist attraction" with the Centre .After his four-day sojourn to Rajgir where he held a special cabinet meeting on the Ratnagiri hills near Buddha Stupa last month, Kumar went to Vaishaligarh, 65 kms from the state capital, where he visited the world famous Mauryan age Ashokan Pillar and saw the remains of 'Raja Vishal Ka Garh' at Vaishali.Kumar also visited...

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Youth from Bihar held in kidnapping case

A 19-year-old Bihari youth was today arrested for kidnapping the four year-old son of a building contractor, police here said.Dharmendra was arrested when he came to collect a ransom of Rs five lakh which he demanded from the contractor Vashihar Pandit, also a native of Bihar, for setting free his son Akshay Kumar, whom he had abducted three days ago."Dharmendra had been making calls to Pandit for ransom for the last three days, changing the amount every time before he made the final call last night asking him to deliver Rs five lakh at the pedestrian...

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Congress not to align with any other party in Bihar

After its unsuccessful alliance with RJD and LJP in Bihar in the last Lok Sabha elections, Congress today said it will fight the October assembly polls on its own."We will contest the elections from all the 243 seats in Bihar on our own," AICC Bihar in-charge Jagdish Tytler said after a political resolution was adopted at a meeting of the newly-constituted executive of the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC)."The people of the state are now fed up with the politics of casteism, communalism, corruption and regionalism ever since the Congress...

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Power-starved Bihar to purchase 1,500 MW from open market

Power-starved Bihar will purchase 1,500 MW of electricity from the open market before summer.The Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB) had last year invited a request for proposals (RFP) to purchase power from the open market. 'The response has been tremendous,' Bihar Power Minister Ramashray Prasad Singh told IANS.Added a board official: 'The BSEB has now extended the date (to receive bids) of the RFP in view of the response.'The official said BSEB was hopeful of sourcing power from companies in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala, Chhattishgarh or Orissa.Bihar...

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Cong leaders disown controversial 'caste list'

Facing mounting pressure from the party High Command, strong criticism from the political adversaries and a criminal case under the SC/STPrevention of Atrocities Act, state Congress chief Anil Kumar Sharma and AICC Bihar in-charge Jagdish Tytler are desperately trying to wriggle out of the soup they find themselves after distribution of the list of BPCC office-bearers with their castes affixed against their names. They included Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar.Both Sharma and Tytler are now disowning the list distributed to the media. Sharma claimed...

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'Bihar must maintain 11% growth rate'

Bihar will have to maintain 11.03% growth rate over the next 15 to 16 years to attain the development levels of Maharashtra and Gujarat, deputy chief minister S K Modi has said.Efforts made by the Nitish Kumar government had made possible tremendous achievements in the fields of education, health, road construction and law and order fronts, he said at the Bihar Development Conference here last night.Modi demanded that around 1.5 crore BPL families in Bihar be covered under the provisions of the National Food Security A...

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Sir Ganesh Dutt's 143rd Birth Anniversary Observed

Bihar Legislative Council Chairperson Tarakant Jha, while inaugurating a function to mark the 143rd birth anniversary of educationist Sir Ganesh Dutt at Bharatiya Nritya Kala Mandir in Patna on Wednesday, said that the man known for his penchant for knowledge and education gave away his only home in Patna for advancing education in the state capital."That house is now known as the Psychology Department...

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Caste names in Bihar Congress list: FIR against Jagdish Tytler, Anil Sharma

An FIR was on Thursday filed against AICC in-charge of Bihar Jagdish Tytler and state Congress president Anil Sharma for allegedlyviolating the SC and ST Atrocity Prevention Act following "release" of a list containing caste description of Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and its state unit office-bearers.The FIR was filed against Tytler and Sharma here on Thursday afternoon by Dalit Kranti Morcha leader Vidhanchandra Rana. The duo faces charges under various sections of the SC/ST Prevention Act 1989, police said, adding an inquiry was ordered into...

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Detonators recovered from Bihar bus

Police on Thursday (January 14) recovered 1250 detonators from a bus in Bihar’s Aurangabad district. According to police officials, the bus was to ply from Aurangabad to Ranchi when the explosives were seized. This newest development in the state has raised concerns over the increasing Maoist activity. Police suspect that the detonators were meant to be used by Maoists.Police found 1,250 detonators were found in a bus in Bihar's Aurangabad district, a development that raised further concern over increase in Maoist activity in the state.According...

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Will not sow Bt brinjal, Bengal, Bihar tell Centre

The commercial use of Bt brinjal in India suffered a major setback when two states that produce 41% of the crop told the government they are not willing to introduce a genetically-modified version in their fields.West Bengal and Bihar, which produce 30% and 11% of the country’s brinjal, have opposed the decision.Minister for environment and forest, Jairam Ramesh, had written tothe chief ministers of major brinjal-producing states —- West Bengal, Orissa (20%), Bihar (11%), Maharashtra (6%), Andhra Pradesh (6%) and Karnataka (4%). Of these, only...

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Bihar minister clashes with party MLA

Bihar Minister for food Narendra Singh today had a verbal duel with JD(U) party colleague Asha Devi over a trivial issue at a function organised at the state's NDA office here on the occasion of Makar Sankranti.As soon as Singh, a senior JD(U) leader, entered the NDA office where several ministers and legislators turned up to participate in the feast on the occasion, he made some remarks on seeing MLA Asha Devi.This led to the verbal duel which lasted for sometime.Later talking to reporters, Asha Devi charged the minister with misbehaving with...

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Controlling prices is also responsibility of states: Congress

With UP Chief Minister Mayawati and her Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar blaming the Centre for the price rise, Congress on Thursday hit back saying it (controlling prices) was also the responsibility of the states."The UP Chief Minister does not have the interest of the common man at heart. All she wants to do it to score browny points in politics. Government has announced a number of measures for checking prices and if any Chief Minister puts obstacle in these steps, this amounts to working against the common man," Party spokesperson Manish Tewari...

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Makar Sankranti celebrated in Bihar

Lakhs of people today took a holy dip in various rivers and ponds and offered prayers at different temples on the occasion of Makar Sankranti in Bihar.Thousands of people thronged at the banks of river Ganges at the state capital to take a dip.They later took 'Tilkut' (sweetened 'tila'), curd and 'chura' (beaten rice) as per custom.Terming the widely celebrated Makar Sankranti and 'Lohri' festival in Punjab and Haryana as symbols of India's multi-faceted cultural heritage, Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar greeted the people of the communities concerned."Makar...

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Bihar girl makes it to UN calendar

Her orthodox father wouldn’t let her go out of home — even to school. She defied him, joined an education-cum-vocational centre in her village and her impressed teachers prevailed upon her father to let her go out of village to complete another course. Today, a history honours student, Asma Parween is also a karate trainer whose success story will feature on this year’s United Nations Population Fund...

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US Company Offers to Set up Solar Plants in Bihar

Officials of the US-based Lighting House, a power company, met with Bihar Energy Minister Ramashray Prasad Singh and proposed to set up solar power plants in Bihar.Sudhir Singh and Apoorva Agrawal of Lighting House said that Bihar was the perfect candidate for solar plants that are not only cheap to set up but also effective and environmental-friendly that would allow power to even small villages...

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Paswan Wants '74-type Agitation in Bihar

Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) president Ram Vilas Paswan, in the lack of any cohesive political strategy to remain relevant in Bihar, continued with his policy of disruption that has become the hallmark of his political style since letting power slip away from his hand after the last Lok Sabha elections.At a meeting of the LJP student wing in Patna on Monday, Paswan called for a statewide shutdown of colleges and universities on February 15 if the administration did not announce date of students' union elections by then.Paswan said that it was the...

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Bihar cabinet to meet on floating restaurant

In a first-of-its-kind, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will to hold a cabinet meeting on a floating restaurant in Ganga on Makar Sakranti day, with an aim to promote Ganga tourism in the state."The state cabinet will meet on the Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation's 48-seater AC floating restaurant known as Ganga Vihar on Makar Sakranti day on January 14," officials said today.Special Bihari delicacies would be served to nearly 200 guests, including ministers, bureaucrats and mediapersons on that day, they said.The meeting on the ship...

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The ongoing cold wave claimed 10 more lives in Bihar, taking the toll in the state to 40, officials said Tuesday. 'The weather claimed 10 more lives

The ongoing cold wave claimed 10 more lives in Bihar, taking the toll in the state to 40, officials said Tuesday.'The weather claimed 10 more lives in the last 24 hours,' an official said, adding the toll now stands at 40.According to Met officials, chilly north westerly winds have swept the state. Gaya recorded a minimum temperature of 5.4 degrees Celsius while Patna registered a low of 5.8 degrees Celsius Tuesday.The condition will persist till Thursday, the officials added.Schools opened in the state capital Tuesday but authorities are likely...

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Cold claims 10 more lives in Bihar, toll touches 40

The ongoing cold wave claimed 10 more lives in Bihar, taking the toll in the state to 40, officials said Tuesday.'The weather claimed 10 more lives in the last 24 hours,' an official said, adding the toll now stands at 40.According to Met officials, chilly north westerly winds have swept the state. Gaya recorded a minimum temperature of 5.4 degrees Celsius while Patna registered a low of 5.8 degrees Celsius Tuesday.The condition will persist till Thursday, the officials added.Schools opened in the state capital Tuesday but authorities are likely...

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RBI Deputy Governor Flays Bihar Banks

At a meeting of the State Level Banker's Committee in Patna on Friday, Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor K. C. Chakraborty took class of the bank employees advising them to show more professionalism and adopt a business-like approach in an attempt to raise the state's credit-deposit (CD) ratio."The banks should zero in their eyes on certain economic agendas to increase the CD ratio in Bihar. Merely...

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Railway introduces two new trains but cancels three till Jan 31

Even as the railway cancelled three important trains connecting Delhi to different places in Bihar it on Friday introduced Patna-Ranchi Jan Shatabdi Express and Patna-Jhajha Electrical Multiple Unit (EMU).Departing from the tradition the railway invited the state chief minister, Nitish Kumar, who himself is a former railway minister, to flag off these two trains on Friday afternoon.Ever since 1996...

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NRIs urged to invest in Bihar

The industry minister of Bihar, Vijendra Prasad Yadav, on Friday called on the NRIs to invest in Bihar.Inaugurating the Bihar Stall in 8th Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas 2010 held at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi he said that Bihar has vast opportunity and untapped market. He claimed that Bihar was poised for major development and growth in the next few years.He said that the state government invites all the NRIs to visit Bihar and added that there is vast prospect in sugarcane, ethanol, leather, textile, health-care, tourism, infrastructure and food processing...

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Akshay Kumar becomes a common man!

Bollywood 's Box office King Akshay Kumar has a great year ahead this 2010 with his upcoming Priyadarshan's KHATTA MEETHA ,Sajid Nadiawala's HOUSEFULL ,Nikhil Advani's PATIALA HOUSE and Farah Khan's TEES MAAR KHAN.The normally suave Akshay Kumar will be seen playing a common man in Priyadarshan's KHATTA MEETHA.CHECK OUT: Akshay comes to Arjun's rescueReveals a source 'KHATTA MEETHA is a satire based...

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Death for 10 in dacoity & murder case

Ten men were awarded capital punishment on Friday for the death of a 42-year-old homemaker, Chandana Das, who was pushed off the third-floor balcony of her house in Kanchrapara while the gang was on a looting spree.The judge of the fast-track third court in Barrackpore, where the trial was held, did not read out the punishment for two other convicts as they are absconding.The duo — Ganpat Ram and...

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Fernandes admitted to hospital for a routine checkup Read more: http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/india-news/fernandes-admitted-to-hospital-for-a-r

Former Defence Minister and senior Janata Dal (United) leader George Fernandes was admitted to a hospital in the capital on Saturday for routine check up. He has been suffering from neurological complications for the last few months.Authorities at the Max hospital, where George has been admitted for medical attention, however, assured that there was ‘nothing much to worry about and he is likely to be discharged from the hospital by the evening’.Fernandes, 80, visited the hospital on Friday for a medical check-up.Fernandes contested the Lok Sabha...

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How real is Bihar's stunning growth?

Bihar has shown an average gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 11% in the last five years. This state along with much of the Hindi heartland has been dumped as eternal laggards by analysts. As of march 2009, it had shown an average growth of 11% for the five years starting 2004. Its GDP has nearly doubled in real terms from Rs 58,000 crore in 2004 to nearly Rs one lakh crore in 2009.How real is this growth? What triggered it and is it sustainable? What can it mean for the larger Indian economy? In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Shaibal Gupta,...

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Govt to introduce bivalent Polio vaccine in Bihar

The Government will introduce the bivalent Polio vaccine for the first time in the country tomorrow in Bihar on the National Immunisation Day for the pulse polio campaign.The vaccine was launched today by President Pratibha Patil at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.The new vaccine will be introduced in Bihar from tomorrow and Uttar Pradesh from next year, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said.Around 25 lakh children will get the bivalent polio drops in this round. Over all 170 million kids are likely to be immunised in this round of NID.There are three...

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Bihar, a growth story

Roads “as smooth as Hema Malini’s cheeks” was a promise that Lalu Yadav had once given to the people of Bihar. Ironically, it is his rival Nitish Kumar who seems to be delivering on that front. Despite three years of floods followed by a year of drought, ‘backward and benighted’ Bihar reports a miraculous figure: 11% GDP growth, second only to Gujarat. The state’s economy has never grown so fast so consistently as it has since 2004-2005. A few pointers on what’s going right in Bihar:* Getting anywhere in Bihar has always been an exercise in endurance....

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Ideas galore

There may be just a few days left for the Yatra to get over but the Yatris seem unstoppable. TANYA THOMAS As the Tata Jagriti Yatra enters its final leg, the yatris on board are gearing up with ideas for socio-economic enterprise. While a few are only yet germinating, some are already in full swing. Others seem caught in limbo for a while. Here are a few of the minds whirring as the train chugs on....

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Bihar court grants bail to Pappu Yadav

A Bihar court on Thursday granted regular bail to expelled RJD leader and former MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav in a case related to his unauthorised entry into the high security Beur jail.Yadav surrendered before the court of first class judicial magistrate Rajni Kumari, who granted him bail on two securities of Rs 20,000 each.The former MP had allegedly entered the high-security jail here in the evening of September 26, 2004 flouting the jail manuals.Yadav is facing life imprisonment in the CPI-ML MLA Ajit Sarkar murder case and is on bail...

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add add * Nitish to head Bihar Mahadalit Development Mission

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar would head the Mahadalit Vikas Marg Sarshan Samiti for the uplift of mahadalits.A decision to constitute the samiti was taken at a meeting of the Mahadalit Vikas Mission chaired by the Chief Minister, the mission's chief executive officer K P Ramaiya told reporters here last evening.The meeting decided to train and educate mahadalits from January 15, and 80 per cent would get guarantee of a job either in government or private companies.During training they would get Rs 75 per day. The training would be in computers,...

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Bimaru: the poorest states in India awaken

They had been called Bimaru (in Hindi language means sick) the four Indian states: Bihar,Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, the most poor states in India along with Orissa; but now they are catching up and also performing better than the Indian average of 8.49. Bihar, for example has broken the two digits figure. From 2004 to 2009, Bihar average growth had been 11.03. Uttarahkand (that was part of Uttar Pradesh) had an average of 9.31 in the same period; Jharkhand (that was part of Bihar) had a growth of 8.45, Chhattisgarh (that was part...

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Richard Gere campaigns to turn Bodh Gaya into vegetarian zone Read more: http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/entertainment/richard-gere-campaigns-to-

Hollywood star Richard Gere, who is in Bodh Gaya in Bihar to attend a five-day discourse on Buddhism by Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, Thursday supported the demand to turn the town where Buddha attained enlightenment into a vegetarian zone.“I am strongly in favour of turning Bodh Gaya into a vegetarian zone,” Richard Gere told mediapersons at Bodh Gaya Thursday before going to participate in a discourse on Buddhism by the Dalai Lama.He also appealed to locals as well as tourists to adopt vegetarianism.Richard Gere said he was happy to...

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8 kids born blind in three months in Bihar district

As many as 18 children were born blind in the last three months in Bihar's Bhojpur district, an eye specialist said Thursday. Local and outside doctors have failed to understand the reason.But there is a ray of hope for parents of the children as American eye specialist M. Marlin will visit Ara, district headquarters of Bhojpur, to study and examine the rare case.Dr S.K. Kedia, a local eye specialist, who was first consulted by parents of most of the children born blind, said: 'I come across one or two children being born blind in four to five...

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No respite from cold in Bihar

After a gap of almost five days, most parts of Bihar witnessed a clear sky on Wednesday, giving a hope of some relief from the biting cold. This, however, was not the case as the minimum temperature graph maintained a downward trend, making conditions tougher.“Most of the places recorded a drop in minimum temperature level varying between 3 to 4 degrees C,” meteorologist S I Laskar said and attributed this to strong westerlies sweeping the state. Wind speed, in fact, was 10 to 12 km per hour.Minimum temperature in Patna on Wednesday was 6.8 degrees...

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Bihar on high alert as reports say terrorists sneaked in

A high security alert was sounded in Bihar Friday following intelligence reports that six Pakistani-trained terrorists have entered the state from Nepal, officials said.Bihar police chief Anand Shankar said that a high security alert has been sounded after the reported entry of six terrorists, and all police officials have been asked to keep a close vigil on movement of suspects."Police are alert and ordered to maintain constant vigil at important places, including railway stations, bus stands, temples and markets," he said.Police sources said...

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Bihar needs to look at own entrepreneurs

Bihar is rich in human resources. It turns out unskilled and semi-skilled workers with the same rapidity as IIT engineers and civil servants. Long is the list of top engineers, doctors, civil servants and technocrats from the state. Business schools, medical and engineering colleges always have a more than proportionate participation from Bihar.Yet, the state is not even a blip on the radar screen of the corporate sector. Human resource-intensive sectors like information technology and information technology-enabled services have shunned the state....

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Mercy Bihar Clinic Rollback Plan Unhealthy For 800 Pregnant Women

Mercy Malaysia's plan to roll back next month the only health clinic managed by a humanitarian agency in rural Bihar due to limited funds will leave more than 800 young and poor pregnant women without any medical aid, according to a Mercy Malaysia health coordinator.Che Tah Hanafi said 882 pregnant women had registered with Mercy and that all of them were due to deliver this year, but Mercy planned to close the Biratpur Health Centre because of limited funds for its India operation."Not only will the women suffer without proper anti-natal care,...

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Three killed in road mishap in Bihar

Three persons, including two children, were killed when a car hit them at Lauria chowk in Bihar's West Champaran district today, police said. The accident took place when the driver lost control over the car due to thick fog, the police said.The bodies were brought to this district headquarter town for autopsy, they said....

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Bihar upset Manipur for men’s title

Bihar University upset hosts Manipur University 3-1 in the finals of the East Zone Inter University Badminton Tournament 2009-10 to claim the men’s crown at the Manipur University Indoor Hall, Canchipur. In the first singles match, Bihar’s Sarfaraj Azam had no difficulty in overcoming Rk. Tapankumar Singh of Manipur University 21-15, 21-7 for the title. Thereafter, Aman Ranjan of Bihar University tamed Manipur’s L. Shashikumar Singh in the second singles match 21-12, 21-6. However in the doubles event, the hosts came...

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