Bihar: Some Bright Spots

by Indra

January 12, 2006

Whenever we talk about Bihar, we mention only of its lowest rank on any of the indicators of development. However, some data below will provide some hope and naturally with the effort that the new government is putting for an all-out improvement, things will be much better:
· Bihar’s infant mortality rate is 62 per 1,000, which is below the national average of 66 per 1,000. It is better than not just states like Uttar Pradesh (83) and Orissa (91), but better than even states like Andhra Pradesh and Haryana (both 66).

• In terms of life expectancy, the average Bihari male lives a year longer (63.6 years) than his average Indian male counterpart (62.4 yrs) and the state's performance in increasing life spans has been better than most during the past three years.
• Bihar has 7.04 million hectares under cultivation and its yield of 1,679 kgs per hectare, while less than the national average of 1,739 kgs per hectare is better than that of six other states, which include some big agricultural states like Karnataka and Maharashtra.
• Patna has the lowest proportion of slum dwellers at only0.3%.
• And then comes the questions of the latent strength on which Bihar can build itself.
• Patna has the country's seventh oldest university as well as some of its premier colleges such as the Patna Science College. Many teachers of the college have made meritorious contributions to research in their respective fields in the past for which they received national and international recognition. This healthy trend continues even to this day.

1. The research works carried out by emeritus scientist and renowned chemist J N Chatterjea, including synthesis of oxygen containing natural products and production of shellac-based colours for internal decoration are known throughout the world.
2. The works carried out by the late R P Roy in the field of Cytogenetics are also widely acknowledged.
3. R C Sinha, The father of Indian geochemistry established the Geochemical Society of India in 1965 and started publication of a research journal.
4. The department of zoology has been doing commendable work in the fields of environmental biology, especially Ganga river Dolphin, biodiversity and water quality monitoring.
5. The department of botany has undertaken a multi-institutional project entitled "Microbial Biodiversity Consortium Network of Bihar". Another collaborative research project is entitled "Assessment of Microbial Load of Herbal Drug Triphala" thst has been taken up by the department in collaboration with the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre.
6. The department of geology has undertaken an ambitious project on rainwater and artificial recharge to groundwater.

Patna, Bhagalpur, and Muzaffarpur engineering colleges are old and distinguished. I know about Bhagalpur, as Dr. Gopal Sinha presently the director of central Mechanical Engineering research Institute graduated in mechanical engineering. Dr. B. B. Pandey, Emeritus Professor in Civil Engineering IIT Kharagpur taught at Patna Engineering College for sometime.

I have heard of Khudabux library and about number of reputed historians.

With all this why can’t Bihar move fast? The present government must use the synergy of the talent available with it. With whom so ever I have talked here or in US, every one is expecting the government to succeed. But it must know how to do it.

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