http://7wondersofindia.ndtv.com/vote_final.aspx
Please vote for Nalanda University as one of the 7 wonders of India (contest of NDTV), if you truly feel that Nalanda University deserves a place on this list.
http://7wondersofindia.ndtv.com/vote_final.aspx
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Analysis of Criminal contestants - Assembly bye elections 2009
I have extracted the names of the politicians from Bihar who have criminal cases pending against them from the ADR published list. I have put this together in an excel sheet for easy of anyone who wants to find out the names of the candidates . Some of the eye-catching findings are
- 25 candidates have a serious IPC case pending against their name (generally cases like murder, attempt to murder, etc). Out of the 25 candidates 4 have been fielded by JD (U) and 4 are independant. RJD, Congress and CPI have fielded 3 candidates. The other parties have lesser than 3 candidates with serious IPC cases pending.
- Begusarai has 7 politicians followed by 6 in Nautan with criminal cases pending.
- The highest number of cases pending against any individual is 17
The most suprising part (or un-surprising part) is that none of these politicians have even been convicted in a single case.
People who would like to find out the details of the candidates can do so from the excel sheet posted at Contestants with Criminal backgrounds (Assembly bye elections 2009)
The summary is as below.
Party : Total of Serious IPC Cases
IND : 4
JD (U) : 4
CPI : 3
INC : 3
RJD : 3
CPI(M) : 2
LJSP : 2
NCP : 2
BJJD : 1
BSP : 1
Grand Total : 25
Some other statistics
- The average age of the politicians standing in the bye election is 47 years.
- The age range of the politicians is 29 to 66 years.
Contestants with Criminal backgrounds (Assembly bye elections 2009)
Criminal backgrounds Politician in assembly bye elections 2009
An interesting statistics was published by National Election Watch (Association for democratic reforms). Thanks to Dr. V. N. Sharma for sharing the statistics with us.
As per the statistics
As per the statistics
- Maximum no of candidates with pending criminal charges contesting elections are from Bihar (45 out of 123, 36.49 %). It is followed by Gujarat where 9 (out of 24, 37.50%) candidates have pending criminal charges against them.
- Of the political parties, INC has fielded 13 (out of 31, 41.94%) candidates with pending criminal charges. It is followed by RJD 9 (out of 12, 75%). BJP & JD (U) have fielded 5 candidates each (out of 17 & 11, 29.41% & 45.45% respectively) with pending criminal charges
- There are 15 candidates with murder and attempt to murder charges pending against them. Out of these 13 are from Bihar and 1 each is from Delhi & Gujarat.
The detailed document has been uploaded at Contestants with Criminal backgrounds (Assembly bye elections 2009)
I think it is time again for people of Bihar to come out and not vote for candidates who have a pending criminal case against them or are criminals. I know some good politicians with false criminal cases might suffer due to this but for the bigger cause of Bihar's development we will have to make a sacrifice.
Let us all decide and influence as many people as possible to not vote for politicians with pending criminal cases or who are criminals.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Acceleration of Bihar's Growth and development.
There was a discussion in one of the forums about the difference between "vikaas" and "pragati" in Bihar's context. It was pointed out that today Bihar government is developing the basic infrastructures which will provide the growth needed for Bihar. It was also pointed out how investments in different areas are important for accelerating the growth in Bihar.
In my view investments into agriculture, tourism and industry is definitely required to put Bihar in the accelerated growth mode.
Industries:
Bihar government has been trying to attract investments into India which is a very good sign and with the improved law and order and security and road infrastructure we will see an increase in industrial investments. But this will take time to bear fruits as industrial investments normally take time to mature. The government should not only make efforts to attract more investments but also provide the right kind of support in getting these projects implemented in the shortest possible time keeping in mind the best option for the people of Bihar.
However there are two areas in which Bihar can immediately start reaping more benefits with investments from the Bihar / Central government and lesser dependence on investors: Tourism and Agriculture.
Tourism:
There are many places that can be converted into tourism attraction easily and Bihar can earn much more revenues from tourism than it currently does. With relatively lesser investment and in shorter duration of time, Bihar can attract much more revenues which can be ploughed back in the development of Bihar.
Some examples pointed out for places which can be developed, besides the already more popular attractions, are Sitamadhi (birthplace of Sita) and Gandhi Museum (currently suffering from neglect) in Motihari…
How about the wildlife of Bihar? Bihar boasts of 2 national parks and 21 sancturies. These include the country’s only hideout for wolves, a sanctuary for dolphins, a crocodile centre and a lake that is home to an infinite variety of birds migrating from Central Asia.
Similarly there will be many more such important tourist attractions which if adequately developed and marketed, can benefit Bihar.
I happened to visit Hearst Castle in USA in early 2000s. I was surprised by the amount of revenues this tourist attraction far away in wilderness was attracting, just based on the positioning the marketing team has achieve for Hearst Castle. If one look at Hearst castle and more so from within, one will realize that Bihar's historical and cultural heritages have much more to offer than a Hearst Castle. And still we are not attracting many tourists (domestic and international), that can be attracted to Bihar.
Agriculture:
Bihar mainly being an agricultural economy (and that can be said about all India as 70% of Indian GDP is agriculture and related industries), it is of prime importance to strengthen the investments in agriculture such that our farmers are negligibly effected by climatic adversities. On one hand certain districts are suffering from no rain and on the other hand some districts are suffering from floods. The Bihar government should immediately start investing in infrastructure which would allow the excess water, from areas that get flooded, to be used for irrigation in the areas where there is no rainfall. It is important for the sustained growth of Bihar, that the government over the next 2-3 years makes concerted efforts to bridge this gap between dry areas and flooding areas. Bihar will be so much more economically stronger if this is done.
Even though 70% indian economy is agriculture based, the investments in irrigation projects is very low even though the investments in agriculture development fund is Rs. 3.25 lakh crores. The government of India in 2009-2010 is only investing about Rs. 1000 crores on irrigation projects which in my mind should be increased and implemented on a war footing in all agricultural economies of India. (Budget information courtesy: India Union Budget 2009 - 2010)
In my view investments into agriculture, tourism and industry is definitely required to put Bihar in the accelerated growth mode.
Industries:
Bihar government has been trying to attract investments into India which is a very good sign and with the improved law and order and security and road infrastructure we will see an increase in industrial investments. But this will take time to bear fruits as industrial investments normally take time to mature. The government should not only make efforts to attract more investments but also provide the right kind of support in getting these projects implemented in the shortest possible time keeping in mind the best option for the people of Bihar.
However there are two areas in which Bihar can immediately start reaping more benefits with investments from the Bihar / Central government and lesser dependence on investors: Tourism and Agriculture.
Tourism:
There are many places that can be converted into tourism attraction easily and Bihar can earn much more revenues from tourism than it currently does. With relatively lesser investment and in shorter duration of time, Bihar can attract much more revenues which can be ploughed back in the development of Bihar.
Some examples pointed out for places which can be developed, besides the already more popular attractions, are Sitamadhi (birthplace of Sita) and Gandhi Museum (currently suffering from neglect) in Motihari…
How about the wildlife of Bihar? Bihar boasts of 2 national parks and 21 sancturies. These include the country’s only hideout for wolves, a sanctuary for dolphins, a crocodile centre and a lake that is home to an infinite variety of birds migrating from Central Asia.
Similarly there will be many more such important tourist attractions which if adequately developed and marketed, can benefit Bihar.
I happened to visit Hearst Castle in USA in early 2000s. I was surprised by the amount of revenues this tourist attraction far away in wilderness was attracting, just based on the positioning the marketing team has achieve for Hearst Castle. If one look at Hearst castle and more so from within, one will realize that Bihar's historical and cultural heritages have much more to offer than a Hearst Castle. And still we are not attracting many tourists (domestic and international), that can be attracted to Bihar.
Agriculture:
Bihar mainly being an agricultural economy (and that can be said about all India as 70% of Indian GDP is agriculture and related industries), it is of prime importance to strengthen the investments in agriculture such that our farmers are negligibly effected by climatic adversities. On one hand certain districts are suffering from no rain and on the other hand some districts are suffering from floods. The Bihar government should immediately start investing in infrastructure which would allow the excess water, from areas that get flooded, to be used for irrigation in the areas where there is no rainfall. It is important for the sustained growth of Bihar, that the government over the next 2-3 years makes concerted efforts to bridge this gap between dry areas and flooding areas. Bihar will be so much more economically stronger if this is done.
Even though 70% indian economy is agriculture based, the investments in irrigation projects is very low even though the investments in agriculture development fund is Rs. 3.25 lakh crores. The government of India in 2009-2010 is only investing about Rs. 1000 crores on irrigation projects which in my mind should be increased and implemented on a war footing in all agricultural economies of India. (Budget information courtesy: India Union Budget 2009 - 2010)
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Tourism picking up in Bihar
The news that more foreign tourists visited Bihar in 2008 than ever before has pleasantly surprised me. As per the article dated 2nd Sept 2009, appearing in Times of India , 3,45,572 foreign tourists visited Bihar in 2008. In 2005 the number of foreign tourists visiting India was 63,321. This is over 5 times increase in foreigners visiting Bihar and this is a very good sign specially as this number was next only to Goa's.
Dy. Chief Minister Sushil Modi has attributed this to better law and order situation, improvement in tourists’ facilities and positive changes in the state. I will tend to agree with his statement.
The dramatic increase in foreign tourists illustrates how a positive change in basic infrastructure and security can have an all round impact on the state. Bihar has a lot of opportunities to build global tourism destinations . Many of the tourist locations like Nalanda, Rajgir, Kesariya Stupa, Gaya, Tutla falls, etc can easily be developed into international tourism destinations of repute. I am sure the government has this in mind and will develop more and better infrastructure that will attract big revenues from tourists internationally and domestically that will in turn aid in the faster development of Bihar. If some people in the government have not realized this, I am sure they will, after hearing or reading this article in Times of India.
The detailed article can be found in Times of India : Over 3.4 lakh foreigners visited state in 2008
Dy. Chief Minister Sushil Modi has attributed this to better law and order situation, improvement in tourists’ facilities and positive changes in the state. I will tend to agree with his statement.
The dramatic increase in foreign tourists illustrates how a positive change in basic infrastructure and security can have an all round impact on the state. Bihar has a lot of opportunities to build global tourism destinations . Many of the tourist locations like Nalanda, Rajgir, Kesariya Stupa, Gaya, Tutla falls, etc can easily be developed into international tourism destinations of repute. I am sure the government has this in mind and will develop more and better infrastructure that will attract big revenues from tourists internationally and domestically that will in turn aid in the faster development of Bihar. If some people in the government have not realized this, I am sure they will, after hearing or reading this article in Times of India.
The detailed article can be found in Times of India : Over 3.4 lakh foreigners visited state in 2008
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