BIHAR

Biharhas scored the lowest in terms of and facilities with a total 81 points out of 150 in thePerformance Grading Index(PGI) 2019-20 for states/UTs in the field of school Education, the report of which was released by theMinistry of Educationrecently.
However, the state saw a marginal improvement in its overall PGI score between 5 to 10%, when compared to the figures of 2018-19.

The overall score of Bihar was 747 out of 1,000, landing the state at the bottom 8th position (with grade III) among 37 states and UTs. The top-performing state was Punjab with 929 points.
The PGI is a set of 70 parameters to catalyse transformational changes in the field of school education.

An idiom which was perhaps coined in 18th century to denote surprise, has come to stay as a grim reminder of vagaries of nature as lightning strike has become a lurking threat to outdoor activities, particularly for the farming community in the country.

Lightning is the most impressive, commonly experienced geophysical phenomenon, producing the brightest Light and the loudest Sound commonly occurring on the Earth. There are approximately 30 to 100 cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning discharges per second worldwide; that translates roughly to 9 million discharges per day worldwide.

Globally, 85% to 90% of lightning occurs over land because solar radiation heats land faster, causing convection (thunderstorms) to be taller and stronger. This makes entire India venerable to lightning strike, but considering the fact that lightning is essentially a product of thunderstorm, so central and eastern parts of the country, includingBihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and adjoining areas of Bangladesh are the thunderstorm orlightning hotspots.

With an elaborate Network of ground and space-based observations, meteorological agencies are able to identify the areas of potential formation of such thunderstorm. For a wider outreach, these Services have been made available free of cost through mobile apps like DAMINI of ministry of earth sciences and INDRA VAJRA of Bihar government.

Health department principal secretary Pratyaya Amrit said based on projections that there would around two lakh Covid positive cases in the state over the next 10 days, the Bihar government has requisitioned 300 metric tonnes of Oxygen per day from the Centre.

He said the health department would set up 100 to 150-bed temporary Covid care centres with oxygen facility in every district.

He said Bihar State Medical Corporation Limited (BMSICL) has been authorised to procure cryogenic oxygen tanks as well as 100 TrueNat machines.

Bihar is only state in the country to give one-month additional salary to doctors involved in Covid treatment.

In order to promote related to jaggery and unrefined sugar in the state and help the sugar cane farmers, the State Government is planning BiharStateJaggery ProductionIncentive Scheme and include it in the fourth Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture road map, sugar cane industries minister Alok Mehta said.

Sarvesh pointed that in spite of huge consumption of jaggery in the state, the production was negligible and it was being procured from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. He stressed on the importance of sugar cane as a commercial crop and industries related with jaggery, paper, ethanol and molasses were dependent on it.

The state Education department released funds to universities to pay teachers and non-TEACHING staff salary, pension, and other arrears, but only after a post by noted folk singer andPadma Bhushanawardee,Sharda Sinha, about the demise of a retiredLalit Narayan Mithila University(LNMU) teacher went viral on Social Media.

The allocation of funds to universities is as follows: Rs 15.64 crore to Patna University, Rs 36.98 crore to Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University, Rs 17.64 crore to Veer Kunwar Singh University, Rs 45.06 crore to Jai Prakash University, Rs 8.21 crore to Bhupendra Narayan Mandal University, Rs 20.29 crore to Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University, Rs 157.35 crore to LNMU, Rs 24.28 crore to Kameshwar Singh Darbhanga University, Rs 33.64 crore to Patliputra University, Rs 4.29 crore to Purnea University, Rs 5.36 crore to Munger University, Rs 32.43 crore to Magadh University, and Rs 18.30 lakh to MaulanaMazharul HaqueArabic and Persian University.

Recent data released by the registrar general of India showed that maternal mortality rate (MMR) has dropped in the country, including in Bihar, when compared to the previous years. However,Biharlagged behind the national Average of 97 with anMMRof 118.

According to the World Health Organisation, maternal death is the death of a woman during pregnancy or within 42 days of the termination of pregnancy, from cause related to pregnancy or its management, and not accidental or incidental causes.

MMR is the number of maternal deaths during a given time period per one lakh live births during the same time period.

As per the special bulletin of sample registration system released by the registrar general of India on Tuesday for 2018-20, Indias MMR was 97. Kerala was the best with an MMR of 19, followed byMaharashtra(33), (43), Andhra Pradesh (45) and Tamil Nadu (54). Among the states witnessing maximum deaths of Women per one lakh live birth was Assam which had the highest MMR of 195, followed by Madhya Pradesh (173), Uttar Pradesh (167), Chhattisgarh (137) and Odisha (119). Bihar was placed at sixth among the 19 states and union territories with an MMR of 118.

In 2014-16, the average MMR of the country was 130.
This shows there has been reduction of nearly 25% in the deaths on an average. Data for Bihar for 2014-16 showed that MMR was 165 and it came down to 118 for 2018-20.

The drop has been nearly 28%, slightly more than the national average.

Statetransport minister Sheela Kumari said road safety was a sensitive issue and all the departments should make efforts together to reduce the road accidents.

At a review meeting ofBiharRoad Safety Council here, she said several steps were taken and an action plan was made to avoid road accidents in the state.

State transport department secretary Sanjay Kumar Agrawal said efforts were being made to reduce road accidents in the state. There had been a 13.7% decline in road accidents in 2020 when compared to the 2019 data. Also, there has been a reduction of 7% in fatalities due to road accidents, he said, adding the NHAI should put up signage related to speed limit and other safety aspects on the highways.

State transport commissioner Seema Tripathi highlighted the work done by Bihar Road Safety Council in 2020-2021 and presented the action plan for 2022.

Biharhas urged the Centre to allot Rs 20,000 crore in the 2023-24 Union budget for development and creation of assets in the state and suggested 90:10 ratio of the central and state Shares of funding for the centrally sponsored schemes (CSS). The state also suggested to the Centre to increase the state’s Fiscal Deficit to 4% of the gross state domestic product (GSDP).

Similarly, Choudhary suggested that the Cess and Surcharge collected by the Centre should be included in the central divisible pool to transfer a part of it to the states.

Noting that the central fiscal deficit has been periodically increased in the past far beyond 6%, Choudhary said the Centre should permit the state to have its fiscal deficit 1% more than the mandatory 3% of the GSDP for a backward state like Bihar.

Choudhary said the Centre had provided Rs12,000 crore under Bihar specific plan (BSP) in the 2012 Budget for use in Infrastructure Development and on the creation of assets.

While 95% of the BSP fund provided in 2012 had been utilised, another chunk of Rs20,000 crore should be allotted in the forthcoming Union budget as BSP-Phase II, Choudhary said.