Tourism Status in Bihar ( As of the End of October 2012)

The tourism data released by the Government of India at the end of October 2012 shows that the total number of tourists visiting Bihar in the 1st 10 months of this year was 1.95 crores which was about the same number of tourists that visited Bihar in the complete year 2011. This is about a 20% increase in the number of tourists that visited Bihar in 2011. However the number of foreign tourists that visited Bihar remains flat and roughly the same number of tourists will visit Bihar in 2012 as they did in 2011.

The below table represents the total number of tourists that have visited Bihar in the last 9 years and is courtesy the Tourism Website of Bihar.

Year	Total Domestic Tourists	Total Foreign Tourists	Total Tourists
2012 (First 10 months)	1,88,00,000	7,93,000	1,95,93,000
2011 (Jan. TO Dec)	1,83,97,490	9,72,487	1,93,69,977
2010 (Jan. To Dec)	1,57,87,256	4,92,913	1,62,80,169
2009 (Jan. To Dec)	1,57,84,679	4,23,042	1,62,07,721
2008 (Jan. To Dec)	1,18,89,611	3,45,572	1,22,35,183
2007 (Jan. To Dec)	1,03,52,887	1,77,362	1,05,30,249
2006 (Jan. To Dec)	1,06,70,268	94,446	1,07,64,714
2005 (Jan. To Dec)	86,87,220	63,321	87,50,541
2004 (Jan. To Dec)	81,35,574	38,118	81,73,692

These numbers varying slightly as you see different government sites and publications but is a fairly accurate representation of the number of tourists who have visited Bihar in the last 9 years.

Further information on the 2012 data can be found in the Times of India article "1.95cr tourists visit Bihar in 10months of 2012"

Rs 6000 crores siphoned off out of Rs. 8189 crores - MNREGA

Corruption was always at a high in Bihar be it in Lalu's regime or earlier regimes or even Nitish Kumar's regime. I have heard of examples where

1. PWD officials used to go to their offices 3 - 4 times in a month. Once to collect their pay, once to sign the monthly roster and once or twice in between. Offcourse black money was asked and sought for every work that had to be awarded or every work that had to be done.
2. Police wanting money to do anything even if it was the right thing to do including lodging one's report.
3. 80-85% money for any scheme was siphoned off even before they reached the grass root levels where the scheme was to be implemented. The chain of corruption ran from the minister down to the BDOs and the clerks in the BDO offices.

All this combined with the inaction from Politicians in power for any development, led to the downfall of Bihar and called a BIMARU state: A state that had the potential of being the most prosperous state in India became a failed state. And then came Nitish Kumar who brought with him a lot of hope - a hope for progress and betterment of life for everyone living in Bihar. With this change of leadership at Bihar came a lot of change for Bihar:

1. A sustained growth of more than 10% over the last 5-6 years out of 7
2. Increasing GDP
3. Better roads and infrastructure
4. More prospering people and happier people
5. More schools, more teachers and more students
6. Bihar no longer being called a BIMARU state or a failed state
7. A drive towards girls empowerment and
8. An increase in the funds for development with a growing annual planned expenditure

But one thing that did not change was corruption. It was there from before and is there even today - If anything it has only grown because there is now more money to loot. And there have been on and off reports of corruption at the Bureaucratic level, the SDO level etc but we all chose to ignore it as this got overshadowed by the growth Bihar was seeing in the last 7 years (something not seen in the prior 15-25 years). However , this corruption is now eating into the growth of Bihar and more importantly hindering the growth in Bihar. The survey conducted by the Delhi based NGO "Centre for Environment and Food Security (CEFS)" suggests that Rs 6000 crores out of the Rs 8189 crores given against the MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act)  have been siphoned off by the corrupt officials and only Rs. 2189 crores have reached the people.

Does this news come to many of us as a shock? I think the answer would be NO as most of us would agree that there is enough corruption in Bihar. But do all of us agree to allow this kind of corruption ? I would again say that the answer is NO. This corruption has to stop and steps have to be taken to stop such corruption. We have lived long enough overlooking the corruption in the last 7 years BUT NO MORE. This corruption has stop. The free hand with which Bureaucrats, officials , police and politicians are looting Bihar has to stop. This Rs 6000 crores could have immensely helped the poor people instead of going into the pockets of these people. Strict action is required against all corrupt and the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar cannot continue to treat this corruption as low priority and continue to ignore the rampant corruption in the Bureaucracy and elsewhere any more.THE CORRUPTS NEED TO BE PUNISHED. Mr CHIEF MINISTER - Please take action against all the corrupt officials, bureaucrats and politicians. People of Bihar should be above all whether its the officials, bureaucrats or the politicians.

On another note, while action is being taken against the corrupt officials, I feel that the Rs 6000 crores could be an exaggeration as the survey has focused only on the poorest of the poor and other sections of society might have benefited from the MNREGA scheme, if reports that migration to other states in search of labor jobs has reduced by more than 35-40%, have to be believed. But that said, even if the amount siphoned off is lower, it in no way reduces the gravity of the situation. THE CORRUPTS HAVE TO BE PUNISHED.

This change has to be brought in Bihar.... Period!!!

The details on the MNREGA corruption is courtesy The Times of India article "Rs. 6000 cr MNREGA funds siphoned off in Bihar?"

Bihar Progress Report 2012

The 7th annual progress report of Bihar was released by Chief Minister,  Mr. Nitish Kumar on the 24th of November 2012. I am attaching the hindi version of the report here for everyone's reference. I have also asked for the English version and will post it once I get it. I will also post my views on the report shortly.

Bihar Progress report - 2012 

The link is also present on my main blog page at Progressive Bihar

Adventure tourism at Valmiki tiger reserve

The state government of Bihar plans to develop the Valmiki Tiger reserve as a place for adventure tourism where people can indulge in boating, rafting and mountaineering. There would be entrances built at Madanpur, Goberdhana and Manguraha. Rest houses will also be built for visiting tourists.

Besides adventure tourism including sightseeing, one key historical place which can become a major tourism attaction in this area is the Valmiki Ashram which is located in the Chitwan National Park, Nepal. One can reach the Valmiki ashram through the Valmiki Tourism Reserve.  This ashram is the home of Valmiki who wrote the epic Ramayan and is also believed to be the place where Goddess Sita had taken shelter after being renounced by God Ram. Luv and Kush were also born here.

More details can be found in the Times of India article "Bihar Govt plans adventure sports at Valmiki Tiger Reserve".

While this is a good and welcome move, I am skeptical of the plan taking shape and adventure tourism actually starting at this place. This is based on my experience with the Bihar government's earlier examples of announcing tourism options and then doing nothing about it. Case in point is the Tutla Waterfalls and I will write about it in one of my subsequent posts.

Tie up with Mauritius tour operators to visit Bihar

Many people from Mauritius , who are of Indian origin, have their roots in Bihar. A majority of these people want to come to Bihar to explore their roots, at least once in their lifetime. Thus it is befitting that the Bihar government has signed a MOU (memorandum of understanding) with the Association of Tour Operators (ATO), from Mauritius to launch tour packages which will allow all such people to visit Bihar in a more structured way to explore their roots... and the program is aptly named as "Discover Your Roots".

I think the Bihar government should sign a similar MOU with Suriname, Fiji and Trinidad & Tobago which also have a significant Indian population that come from Bihar.

More details can be found in the Times of India article "Memorandum of Understanding with Tour Operators of Mauritius"

Astro Tourism Circuit

The Bihar government plans to develop Khagual, Taregna and Taregna Top as a astro-tourism circuit, These are historical locations, where renowned astronomer and mathematician Aryabhata conducted astronomical studies. Aryabhata, who was born in 476 AD , also wrote the monumental work "Aryabhatiyam" at the age of 23.

Aryabhata has also been credited for inventing "zero" and giving it a place within the numerical systems besides approximating the value of Pi (π).

The state's science and technology department has decided to develop these three places as centers of tourism attraction highlighting the life and work of Aryabhata. These centres would showcase Aryabhata's concepts and models.

More details can be found in the Times of India article "Government to develop Astro Tourism Circuit"

More details about the number zero can be got from the article "History of Zero"

Go see Patna Museum this Diwali

The Patna museum, which is 84 years old,  is undergoing renovation and will have new galleries and lighting systems that will be of international standards.

It will also house an exhibition gallery where local artists could exhibit their art. Besides this there would be a modern cafeteria , better lavatories and a  museum shop for souvenirs.  It should be worth a visit to the museum and hopefully becomes a tourist destination for tourists from outside the state, bringing in more job opportunities for the local people.

More details can be found in the Times of India article "This Diwali Patna Museum to get a new look"

Some high level financial statistics for BIhar.

1. Plan expenditure leapfrogged from Rs. 4000 crore in 2004-05 to Rs. 24,000 crore in 2011-12
2. Average annual GSDP (Gross State Domestice Product) grew from 4.42% between 1999-2000 and 2004-05 to 11.36% between 2004-05 and 2010-11.
3. Bihar's GSDP is now larger than that of Punjab
4. Bihar's per capita income is one-third or the national average and one-seventh of New Delhi

As per some report I had seen though, If Bihar was a country on its own, then the per capita income of Bihar would have been the 3rd lowest in the world... Something still very worrisome and needing to be fixed surely and quickly.

40% reduction in worker's migration from Bihar

This is one piece of great news that I read in the Times of India today. As per the labor resources department minister Janardan Singh Sigriwal, the migration of unskilled workers from from Bihar to other states has fallen by around 35-40% compared to what it was in 2005.

Two years back this percentage was 30%. Hence there is definitely more for the unskilled people to do in Bihar than it was even two years back confirming the fact that the opportunities in Bihar are increasing at least in the unskilled worker's category. These are the people who have lately been the bone of contention in many places like Maharashtra and Punjab. Punjab's bicycle industry is already bearing the brunt of the shortage of workers who are preferring to stay back in Bihar. Even incentive like free mobile phones, bicycles and increase in salaries from Rs. 3,500 to Rs. 6,000 is not motivating these workers to go to Punjab. As a result around 5000 bicycle units in Punjab are facing a 50% shortage of workers. Soon industries in other states would also start suffering when they face such shortage too as the number of migrant Bihari workers reduce.

Well done Nitish and the whole team.. Well done Bihar.

More details can be found in the Times of India article "40% drop in workers' migration"

Why are there more crimes these days

Only a few months back, last year, we were all happy that the crime situation in Bihar had significantly improved and we had very few crimes in Bihar. But in the last few months there are so many news articles about rapes in Bihar. What is happening. Are the people in Bihar , riding on the growing prosperity wave, getting more frugal and indulging in things like rape. Is prosperity changing the mental attitude of people? Or is it that media is better represented in Bihar now more than ever before and therefore many things which did not make news before have started making news now... Or is there a breakdown in the law enforcement mechanism in Bihar resulting in more crimes happening.

Or is there some other reason which I am not thinking of. In any of the cases , the government has to start thinking and reacting quickly to remedy the situation otherwise whatever edge, goodwill and trust that they have gained from people will quickly evaporate if the situation does not improve at the earliest.

Coal linkage for Barauni Thermal power plant - 500MW of power

Nitish Kumar, after following up for years to get coal linkages from the Government of India, has finally managed to get his first victory in this area, albeit a small one : He has managed to get coal linkages for two 250 MW power plants in Barauni.These state run power plants are expected to be up and running by July 2014 and will add 500 MW of power for the state.

This is a good win for Bihar even though it came after a long drawn campaign and possibly in return for supporting the the President/Vice President elections in India. People are debating and agruing about it all over the web, but at the end of the day , it is Bihar and the people living in Bihar who will benefit by this coal linkage. Kudos to Nitish Kumar for maneuvering through it.

More details can be found in the Times of India article " Nitish Kumar gets coal supply for Bihar plant with PM's help"

Bihar's GDP 2011-12

At the beginning of June, the data on GDP for the year 2011-12 was out. Once again Bihar was the fastest growing state in terms of GDP. Bihar grew at 13.13 % based on constant (2004-05) prices.

Congratulations are in order for everyone who is making this possible. This is great news  because this growth is more due to inclusive growth i.e. growth due to government spending on infrastructure, law and order, etc and not reliant on the corporate world. What this means is that the current growth will not be so much affected by the economic situation in the corporate world. At the same time, Bihar's GDP will get an impetus if and when the corporate world starts getting into Bihar in a big way. Hence hopefully the Bihar GDP growth story will continue to grow.

The Top 5 GDP growth states for 2011-2012 were

State	2011-12 GDP growth percentage
Bihar	13.13%
Delhi	11.34%
Puducherry	10.95%
Chattisgarh	10.81%
Goa	10.65%

With this growth, Bihar's GDP is now larger than Punjab and is the 13th largest state in terms of GDP in India. Even though Bihar's GDP is now larger than Punjab, we still have a long way to go: The per capita income of Bihar is much lower than that of Punjab.

Anyway, its good to see that Bihar's GDP is continuing on a growth path. As per some analyst that I read, if Bihar continues on this growth path for the next 15 years, it will definitely become a prosperous state. Bihar's GDP from 2004-05 until 2011-12 is as follows:

Year	Bihar's GDP	Percent growth over previous year
2004-05	77,781
2005-06	78,494	0.92
2006-07	92,427	17.75
2007-08	99,492	7.64
2008-09	113,994	14.58
2009-10	125,875	10.42
2010-11	144,472	14.77
2011-12	163,439	13.13

I am sharing the GDP data of various states and union territories in India. The GDP for all the states and union territories at constant (2004-05) prices for the year 2011-12 are as follows:

Rank	States	2011-12 (in INR Crores)
1	Maharashtra	NA (2010-11 : 775,020)
2	Tamil Nadu	428,109
3	Uttar Pradesh	419,090
4	Andhra Pradesh	407,949
5	Gujarat	NA (2010-11 : 365,295)
6	West Bengal	340,234
7	Karnataka	297,964
8	Delhi	213,429
9	Kerala	208,468
10	Rajasthan	NA  (2010-11 : 204,398)
11	Madhya Pradesh	NA  (2010-11 : 182,647)
12	Haryana	179,589
13	Bihar	163,429
14	Punjab	157,455
15	Odisha	137,585
16	Chattisgarh	87,723
17	Jharkhand	83,170
18	Assam	80,465
19	Uttarakhand	55,606
20	Himachal Pradesh	42,032
21	Jammu and Kashmir	41,367
22	Goa	23,151
23	Chandigarh	NA (2010-11: 15,754)
24	Tripura	15,463
25	Meghalaya	11,760
26	Puducherry	11,448
27	Nagaland	8,929
28	Manipur	7,632
29	Arunachal Pradesh	5,899
30	Mizoram	NA (2010-11 : 4,557)
31	Sikkim	NA (2010-11: 3,642)
32	Andaman and Nicobar Islands	3,003

If anyone wants more details of all the states GDP, historic data from 2004-05 then the details can be found at GDP of Indian States (2011-12)

Village Tourism - Homestay

The Bihar state tourism department is planning to experiment with "Village Tourism". The plan is to develop some remote villages rich in arts and crafts as tourist destinations. The agenda would be to attract tourists who want to spend some time in villages and learn about the village traditions and skills. The plan seems to be aimed at foreign tourists in particular, as I don't know of many Indians who would want to travel to a village and stay there.

With Bihar now getting one of the highest number of foreign tourists and many foreign tourist's wanting to understand the Indian culture from up close, this might be a good option available for them. I think this might just help some rural areas to set on the path of development. However I do not know if this concept will pick up so much as to become a major tourism revenue generator. Hopefully it does, as it will provide some growth avenues in rural areas.

The concept will be tried out in 10 villages at first. These villages are those that are rich in traditional arts and crafts. The villages that have already been identified are

1. Baswanbigha and Nepura in Nalanda - Baswanbigha is famous for "Bawanbuti" saris whereas Nepura is locally popular for "Tussar" silk.
2. Ranti and Jitwapur in Madhubani - Famous for and known as the birthplace for Mithila paintings.
3. Tehta in Jehanabad
4. Patharkatti in Gaya - Famous for sculpting and has as many as 3000 people engaged in making sculptures.

The model will work as follows. The tourism department would support villagers interested in developing their homes as per defined guidelines and pay for half the amount or Rs 4 lakhs (whichever is higher) to develop their houses. At the same time these villagers would get rent from the tourists.

I am happy that tourism department is becoming creative in identifying tourists needs and developing solutions around them. I hope that this avenue of tourism does show results in the short run.

Youngest person to clear Class 12 CBSE exam

Satyam Kumar who cleared the IIT-JEE exam with an all India rank of 8,137 , at the age of 12 years, has also become the youngest person in the country to clear the Class 12th CBSE exam. He has passed the exam with 85% marks.

Satyam belongs to Bakhorapur village in Bhojpur district. He has decided to appear for the IIT-JEE exam once again to better his results and get into an IIT.

Satyam is again another proof to the world that Biharis have the capability and can do really well in any area that they want to. Infact , once Biharis have decided, they can also change the face of the world as they are doing now by changing the face of Bihar.  This recognition can also be fathomed from the example where Bihar's labor minister is part of a 4 member delegation attending the 16-day 101st International Labour Conference (ILC) to be organized by the International Labour Organization (ILO) at Geneva (Switzerland), from May 30th.  The other members of the delegation are Union labour and employment minister Mallikarjun Kadge and the labour ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Haryana. The last time Bihar was part of this delegation was in 1984, 28 years back.

More details can be found in the Times of India articles "12-year-old Bihar boy who cracked IIT-JEE clears class XII exam" and "Bihar to figure in international labour meet at Geneva"

Early signs of social changes?

Two brides refused to marry their grooms because the grooms had come drunk to the marriage. Not only that, but the families of the brides also fully supported their daughters. Interesting and a welcome news : Unlike yester years, the families broke the tradition of forcing their girls into marriage after seeing the evils without fearing any social stigma. This happening in two different villages is a good sign and shows that such incidents have started to happen at the grass root level in Bihar.

Are these the indicators or early signs of the changing social framework in Bihar? I would think so and would love to be proven correct on this.

More details on the incidents themselves can be found in the DNA news article "Brides in Bihar refuse to marry drunk grooms" 

Current GSDP growth statistics

As per data presented by Minister of State for Planning, Ashwani Kumar, in Parliament today, Bihar, UP, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Gujarat have been doing well in terms of economic growth in the last three years. Some of these states exceed the national average for growth.

Gujarat recorded consistent increase in Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) from 6.8 percent in 2008-09 to 10.47 percent in 2010-11 and Bihar grew from 14.58 percent to 14.77 percent during the same period.

More details on Ashwani Kumar's discussion in parliament can be found in IBNlive's article "Bihar, UP among states that done well in last 3 yrs in growth"

25 small Hydel power plants for Bihar

From a long time all of us know that Bihar does not have much power generation capacity. And then many of us would have heard or read about Bihar not getting the coal linkages or the water linkages for generating power through proposed thermal power plants. These thermal plants are good as they will be able to produce hundreds and thousands of Mega Watts of power. However we have been just hearing about them in the last 3-4 years with work only starting on one or two of such plants.

So I am very happy when someone finally spoke of generating power by hydro electric means. After all we get a lot of excess water in some places of Bihar and then we have rivers which can be used for generating Hydro electric power. So the proposal of putting together 25 Hydel power plants which will produce a total capacity of 800MW came as good news to me. Even if the capacity per plant would be small, the chances of getting these power plants built and commissioned faster, are much higher and can happen more quickly as we do not have to depend on coal linkages.

One of such projects is the Dagmara Hydel Power Project over River Kosi which will generate 130 MWs of power. Atleast Kosi will do more than disrupting lives of people if this power plant gets approved and built.

More details can be found in the Times of India article "Bihar proposes to setup 25 Hydel power projects"

George Orwell

Millennium writer George Orwell's birth place at Motihari in East Champaran district , which was earlier declared as a "Protected" site, will now be converted into a full-fledged museum. George Orwell (Born Eric Arthur Blair) was born in a seven-acre campus which also housed an opium warehouse. His father worked for the opium department during the British rule.

George Orwell moved to England and went on to write last century's best dystopian novels 1984 and Animal Farm.  Hopefully the restoration work and conversion into a full fledged museum will attract more tourists to Bihar and Motihari in particular increasing the means of livelyhood for the people there.

More details can be found in the First Post article "George Orwell museum to come up in Bihar"

Hafeez Contractor's plan for developing a world city at Patna

Hafeez Contractor has submitted a proposal for developing a world class city, in lines of Dubai, alongside River Gang to the Bihar Chief Minister during his visit to the City on Tuesday (24th April).

He plans to develop a city spread over 1,700 acres that boasts of  eco-friendly buildings and water sports facilities. This would include residential , commercial and entertainment centers on 300 acres while 350 acres would be developed as green fields. There will also be a park on 600 acres.  The other facilities planned include a seven star hotel, malls, shopping centers, schools, hospitals, health clubs, meditation centers, art galleries, convention centers and sports centers.

Now why would anyone propose building a seven star hotel and other such facilities in Patna unless he or she was convinced that Patna  had reached a potential that people will start needing such facilities in the near term.

For those who do not know, Hafeez Contractor is one of the most renowned architects from India. Some of the key facilities that he has architected are

• Mumbai airport redesign
• Infosys complexes in Bangalore, Pune, Mysore, etc
• Russi Modi Center of Excellence in Jamshedpur
• TC Grand Central, Mumbai
• Hyatt Regency, Mumbai
• Birla Institute of Technology & Science

More details on the news can be found in the Times of India article "Hafeez Contractor plans Dubai-like 'New Patna" on Ganga"

"The D Labs" Wins national Microsoft Contest

This news is just a re-iteration that Biharis are intelligent, can do better and be the best given a chance and therefore I wanted to share it with everyone.

Microsoft is conducting a worldwide student competition called "Microsoft Imagine Cup 2012" for which a national level competition was conducted. About 50,000 students from across India participated in this competition and 4 students from Bihar , christened  "The D Labs" won this competition. The four students are Devesh, Kumar, Amit Kumar Sharma and Abhishek Kumar from BIT, Mesra (Patna campus) and Deepali Sinha from NIFT, Patna. The winners were announced by Kevin Turner, COO of Microsoft in New Delhi.

The worldwide finals will be conducted in Sydney in July 2012.

The D Labs team has developed a software to enhance the learning abilities of school students suffering from dyslexia. The device records minute details about a child's activities and then creates solutions suited to the needs of the student, and orients games and exercises to address those needs.

I think its a well deserved win, as not only it is innovative but also focuses on an area that would help lots of people who will benefit from it.

More details can be found in the Times of India article "Patna students win national round of Microsoft contest"

Rs 15,047 Crores - State's budget allocation for Education in Year 2012-13

With a focus on improving the literacy rate of Bihar and empowering the people of Bihar with knowledge, the state government of Bihar has allocated Rs. 15,047 crores for education in this year's (2012-13) state budget.

The approximate breakdown of the allocation is as follows:

1. Rs. 9,093 crores for primary education
2. Rs. 3,201 crores for secondary education
3. Rs. 2,497 crores for college and university education
4. Rs. 255 crores for adult education

Besides this, the annual plan outlay of Rs. 28,000 crores for 2012-13 also provides Rs. 3,670 crores for education.

Educating the people in Bihar is the only way for sustaining a long term Bihar growth strategy, empowering people, improving their lifestyles and reducing the stigma of casteism that plagues Bihar. Thus a good step in the right direction.

This and more details can be found in the Times of India article "State committed to achieving news heights in mass literacy: Dy. CM Sushil Kumar Modi"

Strengthening Tourism in Bihar

The Bihar government will invest Rs. 300 crores to strengthen its infrastructure to attract more tourist to the state. These investments are for setting up the Ramayan and Sufi tourism circuits and the work on the infrastructure has started.

The Ramayan Circuit will cover the following places:

1. Tar in Bhojpur
2. Ahirauli in Buxar
3. Pretshila Hills in Gaya
4. Ramachura
5. Panth Pakar
6. Valmiki Nagar

The Sufi Circuit will cover the following places

1. Biharsharif
2. Manersharif
3. Munger
4. Phulwarisharif

The tour packages for these circuits will be announced in sometime. The BSTDC (Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation) also plans to promote its traditional circuits in South East Asia.

There are also plans to develop tourism activities centered around river Ganga. The current offerings include

1. A Floating restaurant 
2. Cruise services from Patna to Kolkata, Varanasi and Faraka 

The new offerings around river Ganga will include

1. Ganga River Island which will offer camel rides and food courts
2. Aqua tourism for domestic and international tourists.

This and more details can be found in The Economic Times article "Bihar Tourism to spend Rs. 300 crore to ramp up infrastructure"

Happy Bihar Diwas Day 2012

I want to wish all my friends a Very Happy Bihar Diwas Day.

Bihar Diwas day is being celebrated in a grand way as it is also the 100th year of the formation of Bihar.

Ex-President Kalam donates Rs. 25 Lakhs to serve Bihar's student's cause

Ex-President A P J Abdul Kalam donated Rs. 25 Lakhs for the cause of propagating scientific knowledge amongst children studying in the rural schools of Bihar. The money would be utilized in launching two mobile science laboratories. The Rs. 25 Lakhs comes out of the Rs. 1 crore that he had won as part of the S. R. Jindal award . The S. R. Jindal award was given to him for his "Exemplary service to the mankind in the area of science and technology".

Hats off to Kalam, our Ex-President.

More details can be found in the Times of India article "Kalam donates Rs. 25L for mobile labs"