Is Nuclear Power an option for Bihar?

A recent news telecast just a couple of days back, that a nuclear power plant with a capacity of 10,000 MW will be setup in Maharashtra, caught my attention. This nuclear plant , will be the largest nuclear power plant globally and will be setup with the help of the Franch company Areva.

This made me wonder: Is Nuclear Power an option for Bihar? Can nuclear power plants be a viable source of electricity for Bihar? Does Bihar have that kind of land and resources required that can be used to build nuclear power plants, even if small?

We have way too much dependancy, as has been seen in the last 5 years or more, on coal for generating electricity. If Nuclear power is a viable option then why not explore it?

With the recent nuclear deal that India signed, a lot of nuclear nations are more than willing to partner with India: afterall it generates a lot of revenue for them. So getting a partner to generate nuclear power should not be a problem... The question is can nuclear power be generated in Bihar keeping not only the technology itself in mind but also the environment , people, etc.

Does anyone know if nuclear power plants are a feasible option for Bihar or has any thoughts around it?

Trade associations target 4,00,000 Crores investments over next 5 years

Buoyed by the victory of the NDA and Nitish Kumar, three trade associations have come together to target almost 4 Lakh crores worth of industrial investments into Bihar by holding 3 investmarts; one each in 2011, 2013 and 2015.

The three trade associations are

1. ASSOCHAM (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India)
2. BCC (Bihar Chamber of Commerce)
3. BIA (Bihar Industries Association)

The investments being targeted are

1. 50,000 crores in 2011
2. 1,25,000 crores in 2013
3. 1,75,000 crores in 2015

The confidence level is high because of the development focused goverment coming back to power and based on an example of Madhya Pradesh which garnered 2,53,000 crores investment commitments from a two days investors' summit.

The 3 associations have also proposed a public-private partnership to develop 14 new industrial clusters with each cluster housing 1,800 to 2,000 industrial units that will provide direct and indirect employment to 6 lakh people. The total investment on these clusters would be about Rs. 450 crores and land is expected to be provided by the state government. The clusters are proposed in Patna, Darbhanga, Madhubani, Barauni, Muzaffarpur, Katihar, Madhepura, Bhagalpur, Munger, Nawada, Supaul, Gaya, Bhojpur and Hajipur.

In my view, this is a good step if planned and executed properly with the right amount of support from the government. The biggest support that I see would be the power supply required for these industrial units. The Bihar government has already said that it will buy surplus power from other states. It remains to be seen how successful will the Bihar government be in getting the required quantum of power supply quickly.

The details in this post are courtesy of The Times of India article Trade associations to hold investmarts. The article does say that the investments will be 4 lakh crores but the sum total of the investments targeted in each of the 3 years is 3,50,000 crores. Hence there is a difference somewhere but it doesn't matter. Even if Bihar gets investments worth 3,50,000 crores, it will be well on its way to becoming a developed state and a better place to stay.

The New Bihar Cabinet

With the NDA winning the elections with a thumping majority (206 seats out of 243i.e. 84.7% of the seats) and coming back to power, the team led by Nitish was sworn in on Friday (27th November 2010).

The new ministers in Bihar and their portfolios are as follows:

#	Name	Portfolio
1	Nitish Kumar	Home, Nigrani, Nirvachan, General Administration, Department of Cabinet Secretariat and all such departments which is not assigned to any one
2	Sushil Kumar Modi	Finance, Vanijya kar, Environment and Forests
3	Vijay Kumar Choudhary	Water Resources
4	Vijender Yadav	Energy, Products and Prohibition, Terms and Legislative affairs
5	Nandkishore Yadav	Road Construction
6	Narendra Singh	Agriculture
7	Brishin Patel	Public relations & Transport
8	Rami Ram	Revenue and Land Reforms
9	Chadra Mohan Roy	Lok Shwasthya Abhiyantran
10	Ashwini Kumar Chaubey	Health
11	Hari Shah	Panchayati Raj, Peechra warg aur Ati peechcra Kalyan
12	Bhim Singh	Gramin Karya
13	Renu Kumari Kushwaha	Industry and disaster management
14	Jeetan Ram Manjhi	SC / ST Welfare
15	Damodar Rout	Construction
16	Dr. Prem Kumar	Urban Development and Housing
17	Narendra Narayan Yadav	Law, Planning & Development
18	Prashant Kumar Shahi	Human Resource Development
19	Shahid Ali Khan	Minority Welfare and Information Technology
20	Shyam Rajak	Food and Consumer Protection
21	Parveen Amanullah	Social Welfare
22	Nitish Mishra	Rural Development
23	Awadhesh Prasad Kushwaha	Sugar cane and Small water resources
24	Gautam Singh	Science & Technology
25	Janardan Singh Sigriwal	Labor Resources
26	Giriraj Singh	Animal husbandary and Fisheries
27	Satyadev Narayan Arya	Mines and Bhutatwa
28	Ramadhaar Singh	Co-operatives
29	Prof Sukhda Pandey	Arts Culture and Youth
30	Sunil Kumar aka Pintu	Tourism

These set of ministers will now drive the development in Bihar and target to make Bihar a developed state by 2015. My wishes and the wishes of everyone are with them so that they can put Bihar and Bihar's development above everything else and work towards the goal of developing Bihar.

All the best Bihar: Lets look at the dawn of a new, healthy and prosperous era.

Congratulations Nitish, JD(U) and BJP

Dear Nitishji,
Congratulations on winning the election and the mandate of the people. Hopes are running high and everyone is looking forward to you taking Bihar and all Biharis on an accelerated path of development.

All the best and look forward to the rapid growth of Bihar.

Thanks
Prashant

Online website - Bihar election results

The ongoing Bihar election results will be declared on two Election Commission websites.

http://eci.nic.in/

http://ceobihar.nic.in/

Like everyone else, I am looking forward to a positive result for Bihar.

Happy Diwali

Wishing you all and your families a Very Happy and Prosperous Diwali.
Thanks
Prashant