Eight companies have submitted quotations for the Rs.2,234.46 crore project, said an official of the Bihar State Road Development Corporation Ltd.

Bihar Road Construction Minister Nand Kishore Yadav told IANS here that the government would select the company by June.

“We hope to start construction work by next year and the project would be completed by 2016,” he said.

Last year, the union finance ministry and the Planning Commission cleared the project.

In the first phase, the driveway will connect Digha and Didarganj, a stretch of 21 km, and in the second phase, it will go to Fatuha, a distance of 18 km. About seven km of the road will run on an elevated platform.

Indira Gandhi, then prime minister, had first proposed such a driveway in Patna, said a retired engineer associated with construction of the Mahatma Gandhi Setu here.

A FIR was lodged by resident Rakesh Kumar Singh on April 21. The FIR alleges Nirmal Baba made a false promise of fame and fortune to him and, in return, forced him to pay Rs 1,000 in three instalments between January and March 2011.

The Baba allegedly also asked Singh to send him the counterfoils of the deposit forms through which he deposited Rs 300 twice and Rs 400 once in the Baba’s account with Punjab National Bank. While he couriered the counterfoils to the Baba’s Delhi address, he has preserved the courier receipt, the FIR said.

According to Araria SP Shivdeep Lande, police investigated the case and found the accusation prima facie true following which he directed the investigating officer to move the court and seek the warrant of arrest. He has constituted a police team led by DSP Vikas Kumar which will now need the DIG’s nod to leave the headquarters and arrest the accused.

This year, 27 of the 30 students from Bihar’s Super 30 cracked the Indian Institute of Technology-Joint Entrance Examination.

Shailesh Kumar and Biswajit Bahera are among the successful 27 students.

Biswajit Bahera, whose father works as a security guard in Kolkata, said he had never dreamt of cracking the prestigious exam. “My father is a security guard in Kolkata. As I gave him the news, he was extremely happy, though he does not quite understand what it would mean,” Bahera told IANS, adding his stay at the Super 30 hostel and the coaching by Anand Kumar and his team filled him with a lot of confidence.

Shailesh’s father is a marginal farmer with less than two bigha land for agriculture, his main source of livelihood.

Behra was full of gratitude for Super 30. “If Super 30 had not provided me with facilities, it was beyond my reach to crack the IIT-JEE,” he said.

“At Super 30, it is only education that matters. Even in the hostel, the peer group helps. We sit, eat and sleep together solving problems. When Anand Kumar teaches, it is like music. As most of the students are from poor background, they all put in all their effort, which leads to healthy competition,” Shailesh told IANS.

Ashish Ranjan, whose father is a truck mechanic, said his family and everyone in his village are in a celebratory mood. “As soon as I told my father about my success on the mobile, he was extremely happy. But he often said ITI, instead of IIT. He is a truck mechanic. He did not have enough money, but I read about Super 30 and came here to take the entrance test. Once I qualified and stayed at Super 30, I felt I could do it,” Ashish said.

Sonu Kumar Rudra, son of a daily wage labourer, said his father and relatives were disbelieving at first when he told them he had cracked IIT-JEE. “I am lucky that I was selected by Super 30′s Anand Kumar,” Sonu said.

Sumit Kumar Gupta was on cloud nine after seeing his result. “I got to know of Super 30 through a newspaper. I came to Patna and took the test. Luckily I made it to Super 30 and that changed the course for me. Else, with the meagre income from my father’s grocers’ shop I would not have been able to continue my studies. At Super 30, there was no botheration, as I did not have to pay anything. Plus there was quality teaching,” Sumit told IANS.

Sumit recalled how two of his brothers could not continue their studies due to financial hardship. “I want to go for UPSC after my B.Tech. I have seen how Anand sir is making a difference to so many poor students, who don’t even have proper schooling. His style of teaching is distinct. I also want to do something for the society,” he added.

The institute selects talented students from poor families and provides them with free coaching, food and accommodation.

According to Anand, “Hard work, proper guidance and supervision are the secrets of our success.”

Students from poor families have to pass a competitive test to get into Super 30 and then commit themselves to a year of 16 hours a day study routine. Coaching, food and accommodation are free for the students. Anand Kumar said the institute is supported by income generated from his Ramanujam School of Mathematics, which has students who can afford to pay fees.

In 2003, the first year of the institute, 18 students made it to the IITs. The number rose to 22 in 2004 and to 26 in 2005. In 2007 and 2006, 28 students made it through IIT-JEE. In 2008, for the first time all 30 students cracked the exam, as well as the following year.

The success story of Super 30 was telecast by the Discovery Channel two years ago.

Three years ago, Norika Fujiwara, a former Japanese beauty queen and actress, made a documentary film on Super 30 for its innovative and successful attempt to send poor children to India’s top engineering colleges.

“It is again good news that this year, 27 out of the 30 students made it to the IIT-JEE… it has underlined how with proper opportunity, students from poor families can also reach the prestigious IIT,” Super 30′s founder-director Anand Kumar told IANS.

The successful candidates include the wards of a truck mechanic, a farmer, a daily-wage labourer and vendors.

“All of them have managed to successfully chase their IIT-JEE dreams at Super 30 with their commitment and hard work,” he said.

Last year, 24 students of the institute had cleared the IIT-JEE.

Super 30, which helps economically backward students crack the IIT-JEE, was selected by Time magazine in the list of The Best of Asia 2010.

Students from poor families have to pass a competitive test to get into Super 30 and then commit themselves to a year of 16 hours a day study routine. Coaching, food and accommodation are free for the students. Anand Kumar said the institute is supported by income generated from his Ramanujam School of Mathematics, which has students who can afford to pay fees.

In 2003, the first year of the institute, 18 students made it to IITs. In 2008, for the first time, all 30 students of the centre cracked the exam, a feat which was repeated in 2009 and 2010.

Super 30 is a highly ambitious and innovative educational program running under the banner of “Ramanujan School of Mathematics”. It hunts for 30 meritorious talents from among the economically backward sections of the society and shapes them for India’s most prestigious institution – the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).

In the last seven years, it has produced hundreds IITians from extremely poor background. During this program students are provided absolutely free coaching, lodging and food. Super 30 targets students from extremely poor families. They have all seen the change with sheer disbelief in their eyes that their children are now going to be top
technocrats.

The event will focus on ways and means by which Bihar can become a role model for India and the world if the investment climate is optimized, create opportunity for renewable energy industry to network and develop viable energy models.

“Our aim is to further strengthen the political commitment of the Bihar government to work towards DRE and to bring energy experts, policymakers and financial investors on the same platform and get unanimity of approach for working together cohesively,” said Ramapati Kumar, one of the organizers of the conclave. Greenpeace India is the organizer of the event.

The business conclave will see participation of experts like MNRE director Pravin Dhameeja, Energy Head India ( World Bank) Ashish Khanna, Moser Baer CEO Rajvardhan Ghai, Alstom Power India (country head) Sunand Sharma, Greenpeace India executive director Samit Aich, Sun Source Energy CEO Adarch Das, and head Renewable Energy Campaign (Greenpeace India) Ramapati Kumar.

The meet would also launch Smart Energy Access Report on Bihar which would showcase potential roadmap to boost investment in the renewable energy sector to remove energy deficit. It will show how micro-grid system based on renewable energy sources can provide sustainable energy services to all as it is available in the developed world.

Anand, whose efforts to help underprivileged students get through the tough competitive examination were recognised world-wide, said the problem had been detected soon after the examination, but it was confirmed after the JEE uploaded the answers to three questions yesterday.

Anand said it was strange that instead of accepting the mistake, the authorities had once again resorted to average marking, which, he believed, would affect meritorious students adversely.

In respect of one question each in chemistry (Q No. 23) and mathematics (Q No. 60) of Paper 2, the JEE authorities wrote that all students would get zero mark for it. “This means that the problems are wrong and even those students who still made an attempt to solve them would get zero mark. Similarly, in question number 6 of physics, there should be one right choice, but two choices have been given,” he explained.

He lamented this trend of setting wrong questions had been going on for the last three years due to ‘callousness’ on the part of the question-setters. Last year, he pointed out, questions worth 18 marks had been detected wrong and later average marks were given. Anand said that two years ago it came to light that Hindi-medium students had been discriminated against due to low marking.

“This does injustice to the meritorious students, as they suffer due to average marking. What is more, such things raise a question mark over the IIT’s credibility and shakes students’ confidence,” Anand lamented. It is high time, he said, the authorities worked out a foolproof mechanism to prevent repeat of such mistakes in future, as the IIT-JEE is a prestigious examination, he said.

“The teachers should test the answers by solving them before sending them for print,” he felt. Anand had a few days ago submitted a detailed proposal to HRD minister Kapil Sibal regarding IIT-JEE reforms.

“We hope our project does well there too, but either way, we will cherish the whole experience for a lifetime. We have learnt so much,” a representative of The D Labs said of the July finals of the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2012.

The D Labs was chosen as the best in software design category. In addition, it also took top honours in the local accessibility awards.

Its award winning entry records minute details about a child’s activities and then creates solutions suited to his or her needs and orients games and exercises to address those needs.

Now in its 10th year, the Imagine Cup saw over 50,000 students from colleges across India register this year for eight categories. In the most prestigious category, the Software Design, the top seven teams were shortlisted and competed for the first prize and the honor of representing the country at the global finals. These teams showcased their innovative projects before an eminent panel of judges with a mix of academicians and industry representatives.

Imagine Cup is a year-long activity open to students across the globe. The competition begins with local, regional and online contests, followed by screening of best projects from each country and with winners from these legs participating in the global finals held at a different location every year.

In keeping with its 10th anniversary, the competition this year challenged the students to help solve one of the many tough problems that the world is facing today, such as those identified by the United Nations in its Millennium Development Goals from eradicating extreme poverty and hunger to ensuring environment sustainability.

Hafeez Contractor

“Contractor submitted his proposed plans to the state government during his visit here Tuesday,” an official said referring to the proposed New Patna World City.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is reportedly impressed by Contractor’s plans to develop a future city in Patna.

“After Contractor met him in this connection, Kumar has asked development commissioner A.K. Sinha and top officials of the urban development department to have a meeting with Contractor to discuss it,” officials said.

“All the high-rise buildings and apartments will be constructed on eco-friendly lines with water sports facilities on the river side,” the official said.

An official of the urban development department told IANS that Contractor’s plans are to develop a new city spread over an area of 1,700 acres. This would include residential, commercial and entertainment centres on 300 acres while 350 acres would be developed as green fields.

“He plans to develop a park on 600 acres on the lines of the New York park which is spread over 800 acres,” officials said.

Other facilities like seven-star hotels, malls and shopping centres, schools, hospitals, health clubs, meditation centres, art galleries, convention centres and sports centres would be created in the planned city.

Kumar Wednesday laid the foundation for Bihar’s first multi-storeyed industrial complex at the Fatuha industrial area near Patna. At a function on the occasion, he said Contractor had come up with a layout to develop land full of sand near the Ganges.

Contractor said Patna has the potential to become a city like Delhi or Dubai. “Patna has a lot of potential with regard to infrastructure development, especially with the positive leadership in the state,” he said.

Contractor is already working in Patna. Eary this year, the Bihar State Housing Board (BSHB) selected him for the re-development of the housing board’s flats here.

There are many precious and rare species of trees on the 15 acre land of the zoo and some of them which are above 25 feet height may be cut down.

The zoo has about 10,000 trees. Some of them, like patali, putranjiva, hijjal, terminaliya myriocarpa, heterophragma, kigalia pinnata, ficus and cassia javanica, are of rare varieties.

Director of Patna airport Arvind Dubey said, “Aircrafts taking off and landing at the airport face disturbances due to the thick vegetation around the airport area. The proposal for removal of trees has been pending for a long time and we want this change for the safe movement of flights. The survey is on to list the trees creating disturbances in the area.”

The center would be officially inaugurated on Thursday and a team of experts from differnt central universities are already camping in Patna for the same.

Aryabhatta Knowledge University (AKU), Patna has been established by Government of Bihar for the development and management of educational infrastructure related to technical, medical, management and allied professional education in the state.

AKU has provided affiliation to all Engineering colleges in Bihar in addition to several Medical and Pharmaceutical colleges.