Bihar first state to launch food security scheme

The National Food Security Act (NFSA), which guarantees foodgrains at nominal prices to the poor, was on Saturday launched in some districts of Bihar, making it the first state to do so.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who addressed a function marking the symbolic launch of the scheme, said 84% (6.90 crore) of the rural below poverty line (BPL) people and 74% (70 lakh) urban BPL population would be the beneficiaries of the scheme.

For now, it has been launched for Patna, Nalanda, Gopalganj and Purnia districts. The statewide launch would happen around February 20-21, when the Food Corporation of India would allocate the state food grains.

In an important development, Nitish promised that 40 lakh BPL families, which were left out in a survey that determines eligibility for food security scheme, will be entitled to subsidised foodgrains.

The beneficiaries would get 5 kg of foodgrains every month--- wheat at Rs. 2 per kg and rice at Rs. 3 per kg. Under NFSA, each beneficiary is a unit, unlike in targeted PDS, where the family is treated as a unit.
"Although 5 kg of foodgrains is not enough, it would spare some money for the poor to be spent on other nutrients," Kumar said.

A web portal of Bihar state food corporation was also launched to ensure transparency through GPS tracking and monitoring of vehicles carrying foodgrains from godowns to PDS dealers.

It would also help update stock position and lifting, besides providing a variety of other related information.

Nitish said the NFSA would put an additional annual burden of nearly Rs. 800 crore on the state government--- Rs. 400 crore on commissions to PDS dealers and Rs. 388 crore on doorstep delivery to PDS dealers.

"The Centre is just paying the cost of foodgrain meant for NFSA," he added.

Kumar hit out at the Centre for fixing the number of BPL families in Bihar at 65-70 lakh, while three surveys commissioned by the state government had put the number at 1.40 crore.

Source: HT

World Bank soon to have office in Bihar

The country director of World Bank, Onno Ruhl, said on Friday that his organization is thinking in terms of opening an office in Bihar as “I am infatuated with the state and wish to contribute to its development.”

Addressing a function of Innovation Forum she lauded the developmental initiatives of chief minister Nitish Kumar.

Surprisingly, she spoke in Hindi and appreciated the Jeevika scheme of the state government.

The chief minister, while speaking on the occasion, said the state government has set a target to constitute 10 lakh self help groups (SHGs) in Bihar by 2017. He said around two lakh such groups have already been formed.

Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society (BRLPS), an independent society set up by the state government and supported by World Bank, is running Jeevika with the objective of enhancing the social and economic empowerment of the rural poor in the state.

Nitish claimed that SHG women members have been successfully running public distribution system outlets.

He also awarded many Innovators who through water harvesting, mushroom cultivation and goat rearing have helped change the life of the people, especially in rural areas.

Delhi, Bihar and Jharkhand produce best pool of engineers in India

The best talent pool of engineers is in Delhi, Bihar and Jharkhand, while those from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are least employable, said a report.

Employability for IT product roles in Delhi is as high 13 per cent and as low as 1 per cent in Chennai, says the National Employability Report of Engineering Graduates, 2014 by Aspiring Minds.

Bangalore with 3.7 per cent employability emerges as the best amongst Southern and Western cities in the IT product sector, it added.

Tier III cities cannot be neglected from recruitment perspective as at least one out of every six engineeringcolleges is in a tier III city, the study said.

Around 12 per cent of engineers employable in IT services are in tier III cities, an absolute number of about 13,000.

"Our National Employability Report in its latest edition goes deep in to the employability of engineering graduates, their capability, qualifications and aspirations," Aspiring Minds CEO Himanshu Aggarwal said.

Looking at state-wise distribution of employable talent, Aggarwal said while certain states produce huge number of engineers, the average employability in significantly low.

"It is clear that that states need to be conscious towards better education quality rather than building more capacity," he said.

The mushrooming growth in terms of number of engineering colleges in the country has been alarming and has come out as the major reason for low employability of engineers.

The report was based on the graduate class of 2013 and covers data of more than 1,20,000 engineering students from more than 520 engineering colleges, across 18 Indian states.

Source: IBN