Bihar wins award for e-governance- 'ELECON AWARD FOR 2012-13'

Bihar bagged the Computer Society of India (CSI) Nihilent e-governance 'elecon' award for 2012-13 at the CSI annual convention in Visakhapatnam. The e-governance initiative 'elecon' (for developing a scientific database on state election process) is a joint initiative of chief electoral officer, Bihar, and National Informatics Centre.

Technical director of NIC, Bihar, Shailesh Kumar Srivastava, received the award from J Satyanarayana, secretary, IT, government of India, and SV Raghavan, scientific secretary, office of the principal scientific adviser to the PM. "In total, 200 entries were received for this award," Srivastava told TOI over phone from Visakhapatnam.

The project has been completed under the guidance of Ajay V Nayak, chief electoral officer, Bihar, and Santosh Kumar, state informatics officer, NIC, Bihar. It was selected through III-tier process which also involved field visit by a CSI team of technical experts in November, 2013, followed by a presentation at IIT, Hyderabad.

The elecon software, which had won silver medal at the 11th National e-governance award, 2008, is the first software in the country to extensively use ICT in the election process.

Elecon generates various MIS reports for the returning officers (RO) and central observers besides incorporating web GIS modules for better management and planning. The project was initiated by NK Sinha, the then DM of Nalanda and currently principal secretary, IT department, and a team of NIC officers of Bihar way back 1991. The software is used to bring transparency and fairness in the poll practices, maintain data secrecy, and implement mechanism to weed out any kind of bias. Thorough analysis of ECI's guidelines and compendium of RO handbook has been studied before making the software.

The work flow is based on application system which leverages spatial and textual data to generate various MIS to serve and facilitate various levels of decision support to election machinery across 38 districts, 243 assembly and 40 parliamentary segments of Bihar to facilitate district administration and police administration, Election Commission of India, Srivastava said.

source:TOI

Rs 50 crore and more will be given preference over smaller ones. Entrepreneurs wishing to invest in selected sectors, which include manufacturing and processing, IT and industrial parks in Bihar

The land crunch in the state has forced Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority to become selective in allotment of plots in future.

Now on, proposals for investment of , common logistical facility and industry-related training centres, will be now given preference of land allotment.

With the Biada having frozen all fresh allotments in October stating that they do not have “any land left”, the authority has spelled out a few guidelines for the fresh allotments whenever they open their window. 

“At present, the fresh land allotments are not taking place as there is no land left with the Biada. However, acquisition will be made and it is under process. There will be fresh allotments soon with a notice regarding the same to be made public. However, the authority will now focus on certain fixed sectors and on investments worth at least Rs 50 crore and above. It is not that investments below Rs 50 crore won’t be considered but the preference will be on the Rs 50-crore-and-up bracket,” a Biada official said.

If one looks at the SIPB approvals until October last year (as available with the department), the total investments between Rs 10 crore and Rs 99 crore stand at 255. The investments below Rs 10 crore stand at 606 and investments worth between Rs 100 crore and Rs 500 crore, stand at 107. The investments above Rs 500 crore stands at only 47 according to the list, which has not been updated.

“The small investments are more in the state. Recently, chief minister Nitish Kumar has also acknowledged the fact that the state was aiming at the small investments for now. But they seem to rise above the bar of very small investments. The project-price link is probably set for this,” an industrialist said on condition of anonymity. 

Sources said the state government now was focusing on the fixed sectors. “Recently, a task force has been formed for the manufacturing sector. With the government focusing on fixed sectors, the allotment of land will also be on the basis of the same. The government will concentrate on some sectors for at least a year. This means that for at least one year, preference for land allotment will be given to these sectors. After a year, a review will be held on the performance and the list of sectors may be changed,” the Biada official added. 

source:The Telegraph

The first working women’s hostel in the state was inaugurated to the relief of professionals in need of suitable accommodation in Patna.

                                                                                                                                                           Social welfare minister Parveen Amanullah (left) and managing director of Women Development Corporation Bandana Preyashi inaugurate the hostel at SK Puri on Wednesday. Picture by Jai Prakash 

Social welfare minister Parveen Amanullah inaugurated the hostel called Akansha at SK Puri. Women Development Corporation, Bihar, which works under the social welfare department, has set up the facility. 

The hostel, set under the Mukhya Mantri Narishakti Yojana, has eight rooms and 50 beds with provisions made for married professionals and their children too. It will run under the guidance of a superintendent and would have security guards, a peon, a cook and a helping hand. Women staying at Akansha have to pay Rs 3,500 a month.

Persons interested to stay at the facility would have to fill a form there with their details and relevant documents, including health certificate, income certificate and joining letter. 

The boarders would be taken in on first-come-first-serve basis. 

Amanullah said: “Our motto is to provide working women in the city a safe accommodation where they can stay without any problem. This is a step towards woman empowerment.” 

Four such hostels are being planned in the divisional headquarters of Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur and Gaya. 

Akshita, a marketing executive who stays in a private hostel for girls near Nageshwar Colony, said: “Staying with single girls or students is very difficult. Often the study hours clash with our time to sleep, which makes it difficult for everybody. We also have to enter the hostel by 6pm after which we have to pay a fine. But for a working woman like me, it is not always possible to come back by 6 in the evening. Authorities at a working women’s hostel would understand our constraints. At least, a part of my salary would not be wasted in paying fines.” 

At Akansha, the gates would be open till 9pm but women with late-night jobs can enter later too.

Taking note of working mothers, the hostel has also decided to provide them with a help. “A woman can stay at the hostel with her infant. A help would be assigned to the mother who would look after the child till the woman is back from work,” said social welfare minister Amanullah.

The Women Development Corporation has also set up a five-member committee, which would visit the hostel every few months to check everything is in order. 

Bandana Preyashi, managing director, Women Development Corporation, said: “A person applying for staying at the hostel needs to have a minimum monthly salary of Rs 20,000.” 

source : the Telegraph 

A heliborne geophysical survey (HGS), first of its kind in the country, started from the apron of Bihar.

 Flying Institute near Patna airport on Wednesday to identify the hidden reserves of water and decipher the aquifer geometry in Patna district. The survey will provide accurate information on water availability beneath 50-300 metres of land. The technology has been shared by Denmark.

Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) member R C Jain and regional director Dipankar Saha, Geological Survey of India director in charge N P Maharatra, state minor irrigation department secretary Mihir Kumar Singh, public health engineering department secretary Anshuli Arya and other scientists jointly flagged off the helicopter fitted with Sky-TEM (transient electromagnetic) equipment which would cover an area of 120 sq km between Naubatpur and Bikram areas in five days.

CGWB officials claimed that India will be soon among the few countries using HGS. "This survey will provide us accurate information. Unlike ground research, it will give continuous data of a huge area of land in a short span of time. Only 4-5 countries are using this technology so far," said Jain.

The union water resource ministry will map around 9 lakh sq km in five states of the country. The CGWB, with assistance from National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), is spearheading the project at an estimated cost Rs3,300 crore. The data collected through HGS survey will be collaborated with ground research to spot the exact locations of water availability. The information will later be shared with farmers, government and other stakeholders.

Saha pointed out that as a prelude to detailed aquifer (storehouse of groundwater) mapping for the entire country, five pilot projects have been taken up in different parts of India. Maner-Khagaul area in Patna district has been taken up for detailed aquifer mapping as one of the six pilot projects. Various hydrogeological, geochemical and geophysical investigations are being carried out in the pilot study area located in the western and southwestern part of Patna district. Two geophysicists from Aarhus University of Denmark explained the HGS utility for correct assessment of groundwater resources. "HGS will give continuous data of the region. In the survey, a helicopter fitted with Sky-TEM, a device to map the near surface in high resolution with accurate measurements of depths up to about 300 metres, will fly in a definite path. The data collected will then be collaborated with the ground research in same areas. This will help scientists in spotting exact locations of water," they said.

The Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) has recently launched a helicopter-borne electromagnetic survey in Patna for accurate and comprehensive assessment of groundwater resources of the district. A helicopter will collect important data of the subsurface geology and groundwater occurrence up to a depth of 300 metres.

The project is funded by the World Bank, and has been launched in collaboration with the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI)-Hyderabad and Aarhus University, Denmark. The interpretation of the data will be validated on the ground with borehole results.

The unique ability of the heli-borne survey to accurately map the top 300 metres in fine detail has been used by engineers and environmentalists in Australia, Malaysia, Norway, Greenland, Italy, Germany, Holland, France and other countries, and has been employed for a wide range of applications, including tunnel pre-engineering, contaminant plume detection, tailings pond assessment and coastal salt water encroachment studies.

Bihar is one of the six states selected by CGWB for pilot aquifer mapping. Bihar represents the alluvial area. Other states, including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Rajasthan represent desert, coastal, volcanic and hard rock regions.

Like most countries in the world, India's major water demands are fulfilled from groundwater. The ever-increasing population and its resultant stress on groundwater are felt largely in terms of drying of large number of bore wells across the country.

Source: Times of India

BIHAR is in a Transition Phase,Real estate Booming all over the major Town.

Bihar.s economy growth has spurred a steady rise in real estate prices in not only Patna bur also in similar Town like Muzaffarpur,Chapra,Vaisali, Nalanda,and Darbhanga.

3 BHK Flats & Apartments for Sell at Muzaffarpur

Property Address : Majhaulia Road, Muzaffarpur, Bihar

Bihar stands as a model state for development across the country today.It has gained recognition even overseas,as one of the fastest growing states in India.This positive publicity coupled with a strong law and order has lead to a real estate spurt in the state with the close cooperation of private builders and developers and the state government.

This transition stage has opened new opportunities of investment for realtors in the capital city,Patna,as well as in adjoining areas like Muzaffarpur,Ccchapra,Begusaraii and Bhagalpur.A Darbhanga based builder and owner of Labh Heritage,Rajesh Kumar says,"Bihar is in a transition phase,Real estate is booming in Patna.It has now become like any other developed city.But the best part is that other towns like Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga are also growing.It's like the real estate growth in Patna is pulling up these areas too,primarily because now there is a good road connectivity to these places."Looking to capitalize on this opportunity, kumar has recently launched another new project,Kamla Heritage,in Darbhanga.

"Since Patna is now saturated,developers as well as buyers have shifted their focus to other cities,which are driving the realty development in these places.The travel time to most of the district in Bihar has reduced substantially,and it has become easier to explore options of investment outside the capital city,"says Dilip tiwari,Who is associated with a Gurgaon based reality firm TDS Projects and Construction.TDS has recently launched an ambitious project,Dashrath Binda Enclave in Mithanpura,Muzaffarpur.

"After having launched projects in patna,choosing Muzaffarpur was a natural choice for us as it is one of the most developed cities in North Bihar and there are good opportunities for investment.People have the spending capacity to buy luxury properties here,[provided they are offered better facilities.This explain why thers is property consumption in Muzaffarpur despite residential selling rate of Rs.2,500-3,500per sq ft and commercial monthly rental rate of Rs 30-50 per sq ft.

Darbhanga's case and that of other developing towns of Bihar,and like Patna ,Property prices in Darbhanga are also soaring because of non-availability of land and growing demand.Since Darbhanga is an educational and Medical hub of Mithilanchal,people migrate from village to this place in search of better job,better life style etc,fuelling the demand of property and consequently,the realty rates.In fact,this is also the case in other city and town inthe state,which are witnessing growth in construction sector and rising property prices.

In Darbhanga ,commercial monthly rentals are Rs-25-30 per sq ft.For resident,the selling rate is in the range of Rs. 2,800-3,500 per sq ft."However,most of these apartment do not have basic facilities like parking space,open area,community center etc.In fact,this is true for almost all the cities in Bihar.

   












source:Rakesh Ranjan reports times property