Plan to develop the Shaktipeeth Tourist circuit

The State Government of Bihar plans to develop a new Shaktipeeth tourist circuit in Bihar which will cover all the Shaktipeeth temples in Bihar. The plan is to organize conducted luxury bus tours  and the tour would include the Shaktipeeth temples at Thawe (Gopalganj), Ugra Tara Temple (Saharsa) and also West Bengal's Tarapeeth Temple.

More details can  be found in the Times of India article Govt to develop Shaktipeeth circuit in state

Prashant
www.progressivebihar.com

Bihar Progress Report - 2011

Finally I was able to lay my hands on the Bihar Progress Report for 2011.  Was trying to get this from the last 3 months now.

Some of the key things that caught my attention were

1. Out of School students - The percentage of students who are not attending school dropped from 12% to 3.5%.
2. Bihar saw the largest increase in literacy rate across India in the last one decade. The literacy rate in general increased by 16.82% whereas the female literacy rate increased by 20.21%
3. 4712.12 KMs of road were constructed between Nov 2010 and Oct 2011 at a cost of Rs. 3478.81 Crores.
4. Out of 15 micro hydro power stations (8MW) sanctioned, 7 are generating power and 8 remaining power stations will commence generation shortly.
5. 30,000 elementary school teachers appointed
6. 1,384 Ayush doctors appointed on contract at additional PHCs.
7. 464 senior resident doctors appopinted
8. 373 specialists doctors appointed.
9. 154 teachers appointed in engineering colleges and state polytechnics.
10. Bihar Right to Public Service Act 2011 implemented
11. Tax revenues in the state was Rs. 9,869.85 Crores
12. Process initiated to upgrade all PHCs (Primary Health Centers) to 30 bedded health centers.
13. 4 crore people got treatment at government health facilities in 2010-11. 24 lakh people were admitted to these government health facilities in this year as compared to 7.98 lakh patients in 2007-08.
14. 5.16 lakh family planning operations were carried out as compared to 1 lakh in 2005.

 The copy of the report that I have got is a smaller version 4" x 6" report in the form of 88 image files. The image files were with small font and will be difficult for many  people to read clearly. However, I have compiled them into a PDF format so that atleast people will be able to read the report as one document.  This report is available at "Bihar Progress Report - 2011".

Prashant
www.progressivebihar.com

Bihar Economic Survey 2011-12

Bihar's economy continued to exhibit a high growth rate in 2010-11 and grew at a rate of 14.8% during 2010-11. Thus Bihar's economy has grown at an annual rate of 11.36% between 2004-05 and 2010-11. As with previous years, the economy has grown primarily due high public investment.

Some of the salient highlights from the Economic Survey 2011-12 are as follows

1. Per Capita Income 
1. Bihar's Per Capita Income in 2009-10 was Rs. 16,119 as compared to Rs. 10,055 in 2006-07. 
2. However it is much below the country average of Rs. 46,492 and continues to be at the bottom of the rankings of states with respect to Per Capita Income.
3. In 2006-07 Bihar's Per Capita Income was 32.2% of the all India average (Rs. 31,198) whereas today it has slightly increased to 34.7%
2. Growth Sectors - During the period 2004-05 to 2010-11, the sectors that reported a growth rate of more than 15 percent are 
1. Registered manufacturing - 23.30 %
2. Construction - 19.61 %
3. Communications - 27.23 %
4. Trade, hotels and restaurant - 20.22 %
3. Population Density - The minimum population density of Bihar is 1102 persons living per sq. km.
4. 90% of the people in Bihar live in Villages.

In my opinion, the continued stride of growth and high economic growth is good and has to be sustained for Bihar and Biharis in general to prosper. The Economic Survey report can be found at "Bihar Economic Surveys"