Facts about Bihar

• As every year boys and girls from Bihar have done well in the Union Public Service Commission examination 2007. In all 734 candidates have been selected for various central services. The candidates from the state have once again exploded the myth that only Biharis studying out of the state can do better as most of them who qualified have got their entire education in Bihar. In one case two candidates from the same class of Patna University qualified.
• Biharis are generally hard working making them do well in all fields from science and technology to administrative fields. No wonder Bihar sends a large contingency of IAS cadres to cater the administrative needs of vast India.
• Shitikanth, 17, discovered he had topped the All India Joint Entrance Exam for the Indian Institutes of Technology. Since then the celebrations haven't stopped in his Patna home, neither has his cell phone stopped ringing.
  Shitikhant @ his residence @ patna with MOM and Sister
  "I had expected to be amongst the top 5 and since the scores are not out yet -- I am hoping to get a score of 440," told Shitikanth .
  The sons of doctor parents, Shitikant says he will opt for IIT-Kanpur to pursue a degree in computer science. "I have always been interested in it and feel not only is a good field but will also give me great scope for research."
  Before he enters the hallowed portals of IIT-K, he will travel to Vietnam on July 17 to participate in the Physics Olympiad.
• Cracking IIT-JEE entrance exams has become a habit for the students of Patwa Toli village in Bihar. This single village has almost 100 IITians

PATNA: A Bihari girl making it to a beauty pageant in the US. Sounds exciting, doesn't it? But Reshoo Pande has done more than that: She has won Miss India USA-2004 crown at a keenly-contested pageant held at Wilkins Theatre in New Jersey on October 2 midnight.

Patna: Two school girls from Bihar have brought international laurels to the state by winning the top spots in their respective categories in the World Gojakai Karate Championship in Singapore last week, official sources today said.

Two girls- Sapna Rani, a class seven student of the Government Secondary School, Golghar in Patna and Neha Kumari, a class eight student of Pokharpur Secondary school of Nalanda, clinched the top spots in their respective categories in the two-day international tournament in Singapore from September four.

• according to Augustine Veliath, Information and Communication Officer of UNICEF, Patna, who supports the Meena campaign, "in several areas families were not coming forward with the number of girl-children. They were not considered worth mentioning. Rupa got on to her Meena chariot (a wagon with Meena's posters and slogans painted all over) singing songs and distributing handbills to attract attention in the villages and get people to cooperate with the census programme. Meena has indeed become a trusted brand-name."
• Sita Devi's hands are not able to recreate the magic that won her the Padma Shri in the 1960s. However, she doesn't need to. At 95, she is a living legend and stories about her interaction with prime ministers and presidents of yesteryear is part of the local lore. It is Sita Devi's fame that has given her village the development it needed. Jitwarpur falls under Madhubani Assembly segment in Madhubani district. The surrounding villages, barring a few that have had other famous Madhubani artists, are like the rest of Bihar decrepit, awaiting for someone to come and wave the magic wand and change people's lives.
• PATNA — An alumna of Patna’s Notre Dame Academy, Tanya Gupta is the first Asian selected as ‘Merrill Presidential Scholar’ by New York’s Cornell University.

Merrill Presidential Scholars are graduating Cornell seniors who have demonstrated outstanding scholastic achievement, strong leadership ability, and the potential for contributing to society.