Cool Bihari: August 2008

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Bihar Flood Relief – Your Contribution will save life

Bihar is facing its worst ever disaster in recent times and the koshi floods (river of sorrow) has ravaged the lives of millions (almost 50 lakh people) in the state. It’s impossible to even estimate the magnitude of the damage caused, lives that has been lost in the last few days as millions are stranded in marooned areas where no relief effort has reached.

Folks who have been carrying out rescue operations in the state have been in touch and the situation on ground is really heart wrenching. We are trying to supply some relief material and work with the agencies and NGO’s to provide support.

What is our focus?
Our focus is on providing clean water, Life Jacket and Plastic sheet for temporary shelter. Availability of clean drinking water is necessary to prevent any epidemic breakdown. Your donations are required for buying medicines & Plastic. You can also help us in purchasing these medicines by providing contacts.
These medicines will be delivered to Chandan Singh who is part of our team and based out of Patna. Chandan will take care of its further distribution. Distribution will be through some of the good NGOs working in the relief operations.

People behind this initiative
This initiative is driven by people from multiple bihar based groups. We have executed similar projects in past through these yahoo groups. Some of the projects that we have executed in past can be found at http://www.bihari.org/ , http://1bihar.blogspot.com/ & http://coolbihari.blogspot.com/

How these medicines will be distributed?
Last year also the group had worked for the flood relief operation and drive details are available on http://biharfloodrelief.blogspot.com/ .This year’s efforts are updated on http://biharfloodrelief2008.blogspot.com/

Transparency
Your donations will be acknowledged and account statements will be published regularly, you can track the development by this blog. Donations collected and purchases done will be displayed & it will be updated regularly.

Online –Transfer your donations to ICICI bank
Name: Ashok Kumar Sharma,A/C Number: 005301022273,Branch: Jayanagar/Bangalore
Please mention flood relief and your name in remarks section while transferring funds Please mention your name in the comments (will help us track).After transfer send an email with the transfer details to ashok.1857@gmail.com.We will send you a confirmation for the same.

How to transfer donation?

Bihar Chief Minister Relief Fund

Write a cheque to
A/C Name: “Chief Minister Relief Fund, Bihar”
A/C No: 10839124928
Bank: State Bank of India, Secretariat Branch, Patna.
Put your Phone number, name and address on the back of the cheque.Deposit the cheque to the nearest State Bank of India cheque drop box

Disaster relief State Control Room Number:: 91-612-2217305/2215027/6452572

NGO Prayas

Institutional Donor and as well as individual can donate via our Sister NGO PRAYAAS
Account in on the name of: M/S Prayaas,
Current Account No. : 10447347087
Bank Address : State Bank of India, Indiranagar,
Bangalore,Bank Code : 3301
Routing Number (Swift No.) : SBI NIN BB 147A,MICR number : 560002021

Prayaas Official Address:Mr. Amitesh Bharti,Prayaas(r),
C1-201, GreenWood Regency,Doddakannahalli village,Carmelaram
PO, Adj. Wipro,Sarjapur Road,Bangalore – 560035,India.

If you want to send a cheque/DD:Please send the crossed A/c Payee cheque in favour of,”SBI, A/c Prayaas, Current A/c No. 10447347087

Please pass this post to your friends and relative who may be interested in supporting this relief operation.

Updates available on:
http://biharfloodrelief2008.blogspot.com/

Chandan #9931763070PatnaEmail: csingh@gmail. com
Vivek Kumar #9908233935HyderabadEmail: vivek.learner@ gmail.com
Ashok Sharma -Email: ashok.1857@gmail.com
Ajit Chouhan Email: ajitchouhan@gmail.com
Divyanshu Verma Email: divyanshuv@gmail.com

Labels: Bihar Floods, relief

Posted by Ajit Chouhan at 8:34 PM | Permalink | Comments

Saturday, August 09, 2008

Bihar's key initiative in Education sector

Finally country’s eighth Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) got off to a flying start at Patna .Few would have believed that this transformation will happen so soon.This marks a beginning of a new era in technical and higher education in Bihar.

Altogether 108 students, including six girls, belonging to different parts of the country have taken admission to the Patna IIT which has started with three formal trades electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and computer sciences. Said Palak Agrawal, a student of computer sciences, “I hadn’t imagined, not even in the wildest of my dreams, that my hometown will get an IIT and I will be a proud student of this institute.”

In another development Bihar government has approved the allocation of Rs 586 million for the setting up of a branch of the prestigious National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT). In May this year, the cabinet had approved free-of-cost transfer of 10 acres of land from the agriculture department to the industries department for establishment of the NIFT branch, which will be the ninth in the country. NIFT has branches in Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Rai Bareilly.

School and primary education in Bihar has also got boost with the new radio program titled English is Fun which is being used for teaching English to more than 67 lakh students in over 70,000 government schools. The results of the radio programme helping children learn English have been encouraging. The pre-launch survey indicated 47.9 per cent had average knowledge of English and only 10 per cent were good at the language. However, after the pilot programme, 73 per cent have average knowledge and more than 18 per cent are good.

Job market in Bihar has also undergone sea change in the last few years,this is truly demonstrated by the growth of private enterprises and manpower consulting firms in Bihar. the state government's labour department held a job-cum-career counselling Mela at the S K Memeorial Hall here. Around 26 private companies, including Reliance, HDFC, IBN Daksh, Wipro and ITC, were engaged in recruiting 2,000 youths. Around 10,000 boys and girls clutching their certificates were crowding the various stalls set up on the occasion.

Labels: Community Radio, Education in Bihar, IIT Patna, Jobs in Bihar, NIFT Patna

Posted by Ajit Chouhan at 11:04 PM | Permalink | Comments

ASHA -The Livelihood Programme for millions

Bihar Development Trust has partnered with MAKETICK Foundation, California, USA to fight for 2.5 million dollar sponsored by American Express. This amount will be given to most deserving ideas that make a positive impact in the world.

The project name is ASHA - The Livelihood Programme for millions.It project has been categorized under economic development & microfinance subcategory within community development category. We believe that our goal to establish a platform that will facilitate to create sustainable livelihoods for these underprivileged artisans, particularly rural and women artisans and thereby, improve their economic and living conditions is the most deserving one. The artisans are organized as self help groups; provided with orders and designs to fulfill the order and given credit to purchase raw materials. The production goes through a QA cycle. The artisans will be federated at the district level and organized as Producer Company. The project is already working with the weavers of Bhagalpur, Bihar.

Please visit this page to vote for Asha Project

You have to first sign up as guest member. Then you have to log in as guest member. Then you have to click on nominate this project. Please vote and ask your friends & relatives to vote for ASHA - The Livelihood Programme for millions which will bring better income to millions of weavers/artisans household as well as give them ownership on their processes.

To keep track of ranking, please click here

Posted by Ajit Chouhan at 2:37 PM | Permalink | Comments

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Revisiting Bihar

It always a great experience to take photos in Bihar. In the last two weeks I had the chance to take some shots in my native village Minapur near Muzzafarpur and also had the privilege to visit Vaishali again after a long time.

Historically important, Vaishali, on the left bank of the Gandak river, is spiritually supreme. Lord Buddha visited this place frequently and at Kolhua, close by, preached his last sermon. To commemorate the event, Emperor Ashoka, in the third century B.C. erected one of his famous lion pillars here. A hundred years after the Mahaparinirvana of the Buddha - Vaishali hosted the second great Buddhist council. Two stupas were erected to commemorate this event. Jainism, too, has its origins in Vaishali, Lord Mahavir was born in 540 B.C. in vaishali and died in 468 B. C. in Pawapuri. Vaishali is then twice blessed and remains an important pilgrim center for both Buddhists and Jains, attracting also historians foraging for the past.

On the outskirts of Vaishali stood the grand double storied Buddhist monastery. Buddha often discoursed here. Much against his wishes, he extended spiritual enfranchisement to women by admitting them to the Holy Order which was founded here. Legend has it that on one of his visits, several monkeys dug up a tank for his comfortable stay and offered him a bowl of honey. This is regarded as one of the great incidents in the legends of Buddha, who announced his approaching Nirvana and preached his last sermon here. The Lichchhavis came a long way to bid him farewell on his way to Kushinagara and finally, they were stopped by a river created by Buddha. He once again paused to have a last of his much loved city. As a piety for Vaishali, he had already given his alms bowl which remained here for long time.

A life size-pillar beside a brick stupa at Kolhua commemorates Buddha's last sermon and announcement of his approaching nirvana. The lion faces north, the direction Buddha took on his last voyage. Adjacent to this is the tank associated with the monkeys offering honey. Nearby are the skeletal remains of a monastery where Buddha resided and a votive stupas dot the region.

Ashokan Pillar : Emperor Ashoka built The Lion Pillar at Kolhua. It is made of a highly polished single piece of red sandstone, surmounted by a bell shaped capital, 18.3 m high. A life-size figure of a lion is placed on top of the pillar. There is a small tank here known as Ramkund. This pillar beside a brick stupa at Kolhua commemorates Buddha's last sermon.

Budha Stupa-II : Excavation at this site in 1958 led to the discovery of another casket containing the ashes of the Lord Buddha.Kundalpur:Birth place of Lord Mahavira. It is believed that the Jain Tirthankar, Lord Mahavir was born over 2550 years ago. Mahavir is said to have spent the first 22 years of his life here.

On one side of the Abhishek Pushkarni is the Vishwa Shanti Stupa(World Peace Stupa) that adds to the glory of Vaishali. It is sixth in the series to be created in India after Rajgir, Dhauli, Leh, Wardha and Darjeeling by Nipponzan Myohoji under the guidance of Rev.Fuji guruji of Japan. The 125 feet tall peace pagoda, inaugurated on Oct 23, 1996, was constructed over the ruins of the sixth century BC stupa that also contained the casket with the ashes of Buddha. Buddha is believed to have preached his last sermon here which was the sixteenth chapter, Saddharmapundarika Sutra.

Labels: Ashoka Pillar, Bihar Culture, Bihar Heritage, Bihar Images, Bihar Tourism, Brand Bihar, Buddha Stupa, Jainism, Lord Buddha, Lord Mahavir, Minapur, Muzaffarpur, Peace Pagoda, Vaishali

Posted by Ajit Chouhan at 8:21 PM | Permalink | Comments

Monday, August 04, 2008

The Super 30 saga

Recently a three part series on Super 30 success story was shown on the Al Jazeera channel. The film covers the journey of the super 30 students success saga and the way they take part in an intensive educational programme to gain entry into the country's top educational institution.