Bihar Current Affairs September & October 2021
■ Monthly Current Affairs
■ CM Nitish
Kumar has inaugurated Bihar’s second ropeway at Mandar hills in Banka, developed by the state
tourism for worth over ₹9 crores. The travel length of the Mandar ropeway
is 377.36 metres.
Mandar Hill is an 800 ft high granite hill and is a religious place for Hinduism, Jainism and Safa faith.
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■ National Institute of Technology (NIT) Patna,
will become the first
institute in India to start engineering courses in Hindi medium.
The Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Bhagalpur
will also be conducting Btech in Hindi from the academic session 2021-22.
■ IOCL launches smart LPG cylinders in Patna. The fibre cylinders will have a
transparent component for consumers to verify the quantity of LPG and will
allow customers to easily plan their next refill.
■ According to State transport department figures in
Bihar, the road accident cases in the state has declined
by 8.68% but the fatalities increased by 0.3% in the first six months of 2021,
as compared to 2019.
■ The Diesel Locomotive Factory at Marhowrah
(Saran) has achieved a commendable feat by dispatching its 300th
locomotive. This factory is a joint venture
of General
Electric of the US with Indian Railways for the production of 1000
high-power freight locomotives.
■ US President Joe Biden has nominated Rashad Hussain,
the son of Indian immigrants from Bihar, as the US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious
Freedom. He is the first Muslim to head US diplomacy for advancing
religious liberties.
■ The Yidan Prize Foundation awarded Dr Rukmini Banerji
from Bihar and Professor
Eric Hanushek from the U.S the prestigious Yidan Prize 2021, in recognition of
their ground-breaking work addressing a crucial piece of the education puzzle:
improving quality of education and outcomes for learners at scale.
Dr Rukmini Banerji is the Chief Executive Officer of
the Pratham Education Foundation who in 2005 pioneered the Annual Status of
Education Report (ASER). ASER is an annual household-based, citizen-led survey
of unprecedented scale, assessing 600,000 children in practically all rural
districts in India over 100 days.
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■ Bijendra Prasad Yadav has been made the Deputy Chairman of the Bihar State Planning Board.
■ The Prakash Punj that comprises Prakash Kendra and its
garden, is being built at a cost of ₹54
crores to keep the memory of 350th ‘Prakash Parv’ of Guru Gobind Singh, at Guru Ka Bag in
Patna Sahib.
The Guru Ka Bagh is related to Guru Gobind Singh, who
was born in Patna in 1666 to Guru Teg Bahadur, the ninth Sikh guru, and Mata
Gujri.
■ Former Bihar assembly speaker Sadanand Singh died after a prolonged
illness. Mr Singh was the Congress Legislative Party leader in the Assembly
and nine-time MLA from Kahalgaon in Bhagalpur. He made his debut in 1972
winning the Kahalgaon assembly seat.
■ The Department of Post released postal stamps on Jardalu mango and Katarni rice as philately as a mark of recognition to the two unique items of the Bhagalpur region.
■ Anand Kumar from Bihar has been conferred with Sarabhai Teacher
Scientist National Honorary Award 2021.
■ Satyam Shankar Sahai of Bhagalpur has become Ironman
for the ninth time by successfully completing the competition organized by World Triathlon
Corporation in Switzerland.
■ Bihar has been allotted four blocks for mining in a
high-level meeting on mineral exploration in New Delhi.
Out of these four blocks, Aurangabad and Gaya districts have been allotted
one Potash block
(One block to each) and Rohtas district has been allotted one Chromium
and one Nickel mining
block.
■ Balamurugan D has been appointed as the chairman of the Bihar Technical Service Commission.
■ Bihar ranked the lowest (20th rank) among the
large states in ensuring food safety in 2020-21, according to the Food Safety and
Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) report released by the Union Ministry of
Health and Family Welfare. The overall score of the state was 35
whereas Gujarat
topped with 75 points.
The third edition of the State Food Safety Index
ranked the states on five parameters of food safety, which included
human resources and institutional data (20% weightage), compliance (30%), food
testing facility (20%), training and capacity building (10%) and consumer
empowerment (20%).
■ The Indian Institute of Technology-Patna (IIT-P) moved
up three notches in the “overall” category and secured the 51st rank in the country
among the higher education institutes as per the National Institute Ranking Framework (NIRF)
report.
Only four higher education institutes in Bihar have
figured in the NIRF 2021 report – IIT-P in three categories, National Institute
of Technology-Patna (NIT-P) in the engineering category, Chandragupta Institute of
Management-Patna (CIMP) in management category and Patna Women’s College (PWC)
in college category. No institute from the state has figured in pharmacy,
university, dental, law, medical and architect categories.
■ CM Nitish Kumar laid foundation stones for a ₹422 crore
double-decker
flyover from Kargil Chowk (Gandhi Maidan) to Science College
via Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH). It will be the first double-decker
flyover in the state capital and the second in Bihar.
■ Bihar’s first double-decker flyover, which is coincidentally
India’s longest
double-decker flyover, is coming up in Saran district’s Chapra town. The 3.5 km
long flyover will connect Gandhi Chowk and Nagarpalika Chowk in Chhapra
town.
■ Rachit Raj has become the first transgender constable in the Bihar Police to be deployed in the
confidential branch of the SP office in the Kaimur district.
■ Bihar Agricultural University has decided to
implement the Rohtas
model of stubble management in the entire state. Under the Rohtas
model, a compressed bundle of stubble is made at high pressure with the help of
a machine called a strabbler. This bundle is sold to dairy societies, where it
is used as fodder. This not only provides additional income to the farmers but
also solves the fodder problem of the cattle rearers and encourages animal
husbandry and milk production.
This stubble management model of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Rohtas
has been awarded Eco-Agriculture Award, 2021 in May 2021.
■ Ninety-two women constables, selected from the Bihar Special Armed
Police, who have been trained at the Central Training Centre of the Central
Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Mudkhed in Maharashtra, will fight against
Maoists and terrorists. Women were trained in Patna, Dehri-on-Sone and then in
CRPF's CTC Mudkhed
for advanced training. This is the first time that such a squad of women commandos
has been prepared in the state police.
■ Huge stock of fire clay has been found in Madhorampur Mauja of Kahalgaon
in Bhagalpur district by the geological survey of India.
■ In Bhagalpur district,, the first organic haat of Bihar has been
opened under the organic corridor scheme.
■ In the recent NITI Aayog's Best Practices in the Performance of District
Hospitals report, Bihar has been ranked lowest in the country with only
six hospital
beds per 1 lakh population.
 |
| Source: NITI Aayog |
According to the Indian Public Health Standards’ 2012 guidelines, district hospitals should have at least 22 beds per 1 lakh population.
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■ Bihar received a 3% surplus rainfall in the four-month-long monsoon
season. The Southwest monsoon had entered Bihar through Purnia in north-eastern parts of the
state on June 12,
a day ahead of its schedule.
■ Supaul district has topped in Bihar in terms of
making the fastest progress in the
annual ranking of Mukhyamantri Saat
Nischey Yojana.
■ Bihar government has decided to open model residential
schools for students belonging to the scheduled caste (SC) and scheduled tribe (ST)
families in every
block that has 50,000 and more population of these groups.
■ Bihar government has planned to develop a monkey park
near Simraha
village in Araria
district, the native place of Phanishwar Nath Renu who is one of the most
influential writers of modern Hindi literature (famous novel: Maila Anchal).
It’ll be built on 10 acres of land and the first-of-its-kind
park will have a restaurant, a swimming pool, and walking tracks for the
visitors.
■ In Bihar
56% (amounting to 2.2 lakh) teaching positions in government schools are lying
vacant; out of which 89% are in rural areas, which is the highest in the country as per UNESCO’s 2021 State of the Education Report for India: “No
Teachers, No Class”, released on the World Teachers’ Day.
Based on the pupil-teacher ratio of 35:1, the total additional teachers'
requirement is found to be about 2,20,000. Presently, there are 5,84,327
teachers in 89,224 schools across the state, of which 85% of teachers and 90% of schools are in rural areas. The report revealed that 3,700 schools in the state
are single-teacher institutions, mostly in rural areas.
Bihar is also among the five states having a low (40%) proportion of women teachers
in the workforce. The report said Bihar’s policy of not deploying teachers within 15km of their
villages has also affected the attractiveness of the teaching
profession for women.
As per the report, around 1.32% of teachers in higher secondary
schools in the state are under-qualified, which is almost 1.1% higher than the national average of 0.22% and
the second-highest after Andhra Pradesh (2.2%).
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■ The Bihar State cabinet approved the government’s
proposal to pay compensation worth ₹650 crore to farmers against crop damages they suffered due to
floods, excess rainfall and water-logging besides the ex-gratia payment of ₹50,000
to the next of kin of each of around 10,000 persons, who succumbed to the
Covid-19 infection this year.
■ The Indian Institute of Technology-Patna (IIT-P) and
the Education department of Bihar would set up hi-tech science laboratories in the government schools
of the state.
Education minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary claimed that ₹5 lakh would be given to the IIT-P experts for each lab.
■ The Jaypraksh movement senanis who remained in the
prison for one to six months will now be paid ₹7500 per month as pension while
those who remained more than six months will be paid ₹15000 per month.
■ President Ram Nath Kovind laid the foundation stone
for Shatabdi
Smriti Stambh (Centenary year Pillar) and planted a sapling of
Mahabodhi Tree in the premises of Bihar Legislative Assembly on the occasion of the centenary celebration of the Bihar Legislative Assembly in Patna on 21st
October 2021.
■ Chief Justice Sanjay
Karol administered the oath to seven judges at the
Patna high court. Three of them — Justices Rajan Gupta, Ananta Manohar Badar and Pavankumar Bhimappa
Bajanthri have been transferred from different high courts while
lawyers Sandeep
Kumar, Purnendu Singh, Satyavrat Verma and Rajesh Kumar Verma were recommended
by the SC collegium for elevation as Patna HC judges.
With the new appointments and transfers, the working
strength of judges at the Patna HC has increased to 26. Still, 27 posts are lying
vacant. The total sanctioned strength of judges in the Patna HC is 53.
■ The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)
has approved the Artificial Intelligence (AI) based software technology ‘COVZN’,
developed by the IIIT-Bhagalpur for detection of Covid-19, tuberculosis and
other severe chest infections at low cost and in less time.
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