BIHAR

State industries ministerSyed Shahnawaz Hussain said the government was committed to improving the ecosystem for startups in Bihar. He hoped that young entrepreneurs fromBiharwill set up ventures in their Home state instead of going to places like Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru.

Addressing a function to mark the inauguration of the fourth annual Bihar Startup Conclave organised by Bihar Industries Association (BIA) with the support from industries department at Gyan Bhawan here,Shahnawazsaid an ideation lab would be set up at Udyog Bhawan in the city soon for which a memorandum of understanding has been signed with IIT-Patna.

According to officials, Bihars Rs 500-crore startup policy has been approved. An initial of Rs 2.7 crore was made at the event on Saturday. The industries minister handed over cheques for Rs 8 lakh and Rs 60 lakh to startups which emerged winners in the pitching session on Friday. Devesh Jha andSuman Kumartook first place in the competition, followed by Rashmi Kumari and Sandeep Kumar (second), andSantosh Kumarand Ravindra Sharma (third) for New Innovative Start-Up Ideas.

Chief ministerNitish Kumar expressed concern over the slashing of funds for central schemes meant for rural development in the 2023-23 UnionBudget, and also reiterated his demand for the grant of special category status toBihar.

The Centre should have accepted the demand of a poor state like Bihar regarding special category status to it, and three to five other states. This measure and central assistance would have helped their developmentt, which, after all, would have been in favour of the country, the CM said.

There is nothing in the central budget in the interest of the people, and rural areas. Funds allotted for the central schemes in 2022-23 financial year have been slashed, he said when asked about his response on the budget during his Samadhan Yatra in Saharsa district.

The CM said funds for important initiatives like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural EMPLOYMENT Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) have been brought down from Rs 73,000 crore in 2022-23 to Rs 60,000 crore, for PM Krishi Sinchai Scheme by Rs 2,167 crore and for Rashtriya Shiksha Mission by Rs 600 crore, besides others.

Health ministerMangal Pandey said a full-fledged medical university will start functioning from the next academic session in Bihar.

Pandey told this newspaper that the state cabinet has already sanctioned the posts of vice-chancellor (VC),pro-VC, registrar, examination controller, and other officials along with those of secretarial staff for the university. The process of their appointment will be initiated by the government soon, he said.

In a distinct departure from the conventional universities of the state, the VC and pro-VC of this medical university would not be appointed by the governor-cum-chancellor but by the itself. The government is likely to constitute a search committee to recommend suitable people for appointment to the top executive posts of the university.

Bihars Mithila Makhana Is Given the Tag by the Centre.

Highlights:

Under the Central Ministry of Commerce, the Geographical Indications Registry (GIR) has obtained the petition to rename Bihar Makhana as Mithila Makhana.

It also proposed further changes to the brand logo to reflect its origins.

It also offered modifications within the brand logo to spotlight its origins and protect the products Geographical Indications (GI) rights.

The Sabour based Bihar Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture University (BAU) started an application on behalf of the Mithilanchal Makhana Utpadak Sangh (MMUS) to call their produce Mithila Makhana for the welfare of fox nut growers within the Mithila region.

The state cabinet approved the proposal of the general administration department (GAD) to extend the deadline for completing the exercise of caste-based headcount in the state by three months to May, 2023.

The caste-based headcount was to be completed by February next year, but the deadline was extended as the will conduct the electoral roll revision exercise during this period and there will also be Matriculation and Intermediate exams early next year.

The cabinet also gave its nod to the purchase of speed boats, chain and other equipment by the mines and geology department for use in controlling illegal sand mining and transportation in the rivers of Patna, Bhojpur, Saran and other districts. For this, Rs 5 crore was sanctioned to the mines department from the state contingency fund.

Several government schemes have helped increase the Percentage of girl children inBiharattending school from 56.9% inNational Family Healthsurvey-4 (NFHS-4) to 61.1% in NFHS-5. However, the percentage of Women with ten or more years of schooling remains low as the state Average in this category is 28.8%. This means that even if the girls go to school, majority of them do not study for even ten years.

Also, in almost all the social parameters, females are lagging behind males. When it comes to urban and rural divide, the condition of females is worse in the rural areas.

In ten or more years of schooling, while 28.8% of females had attended school for ten or more years compared to 42.8% males in the state. Countrywide data shows that 41% of females had attended ten or more years of schooling compared to 50.2% men.

The National Mission of Clean Ganga (NMCG) has signed an MoU with Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Institute (WASH Institute) to efficiently address Faecal Sludge and Septage Management (FSSM) issues in towns and cities of the Ganga basin.

The project that will ensure a series of trainings to enhance the quality of service of officials in (ULBs) will be funded by the US AID and supported by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).

In India, untreated faecal sludge and urban sewage are the primary source of Water Pollution, particularly in the cities around Ganges. Under Prime Minister’s Swachh Bharat Mission, more than 62 lakh toilets were built but half of these toilets rely on on-site sanitation system (OSS). “Managing the waste collected from these toilets is the next big challenge for India.

Considering these challenges, systematic capacity building initiatives needed to be undertaken to build the skill and knowledge of the government, Urban Local Body (ULB) officials, STP/FSTP Operators, sanitary workers, entrepreneurs, NGO professionals and other stakeholders involved in the FSSM sector across India, the release said.

As a first step in this collaboration, a webinar followed by two batches of detailed online trainings have already been conducted starting off with the state of Uttar Pradesh covering 20 ULBs.

Over 75% of the work on construction of the international cricket stadium-cum-Sports academy in Rajgir has been completed. If all goes well, it will be ready before the March 22, 2022 deadline set by art, culture and youth minister, Alok Ranjan.

Spread over 90 acres of land, the state-of-the-art stadium at Pilkhi panchayat in Rajgir will accommodate 45,000 people at a time. It will also have indoor and outdoor sports complexes and facilities like a playground, research centre, latest equipment, fitness centre, library, and motivation centre.

The CM had laid the foundation for the international cricket stadium-cum-sports academy in 2018 and its implementing agency, Shapoorji Pallonji Group, was supposed to complete its construction in 2020. However, the work was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.