An ad for clinical trials! New Delhi: As many as 436 people died last year due to serious adverse events (SAE) during clinical trials. Investigations are now on to ascertain how many of the deaths were caused by drugs administered to the trial subjects. Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said on Friday that deaths could be due to life-threatening diseases such as cancer, heart failure and stroke or side-effects of the drugs or their administration to critically or terminally-ill patients. “Such deaths are investigated to arrive at the causal relationship, if any,”... 

Road repair: by private firms! Patna: For the better upkeep of the roads, the state government has approved its new road maintenance policy. Under this policy, the upkeep of the road would rest on the contractors for the period of five to nine years. The state government gave its nod to the ambitious policy earlier this week. The principal secretary of the Cabinet Department, Brajesh Mehrotra told the press, “Under this new policy, the state government has changed its entire mechanism of road maintenance. Under this new policy, the state government proposes a performance based maintenance. The... 

February, 2012: when the foundation was laid! Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel) has bagged a contract worth Rs 2,854 crore for supply of the Steam Generator Package for three coal-fired thermal units of 660 MW each with supercritical parameters. The order has been placed on Bhel by Nabinagar Power Generation  Company (NPGCL), a joint venture of NTPC and Bihar State Electricity Board, for the upcoming 1,980 MW Nabinagar Supercritical Thermal Power Project (STPP) in Bihar. Significantly, this is the second supercritical thermal power project being executed by Bhel in Bihar, the first being the 2×660... 

  A mammoth GAIL pipeline Patna: another evidence of how the Bihar government is pursuing all possible ways to solve its energy problems – according to a recent report Bihar government is likely to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Gas Authority of India Ltd. (GAIL) for use of the natural gas from proposed Jagdishpur-Haldia gas pipeline. The commissioning of the 800 km pipeline would help state government in setting up new industries and power plants. Around 205 km of the pipeline will pass through the state. “We are in touch with GAIL management,” state industries... 

  Making of Sikki New Delhi: Sikki craft, the theme of Bihar tableau in this year’s Republic Day programme in New Delhi, has brought under focus the traditional craft women of Mithila region of the state, who has been practising the art for long. The tableau displayed artisans from Bihar making products made of sikki, a golden coloured grass grown in the wet and marshy areas around rivers and ponds in Madhubani, Darbhanga, Sitamarhi and other North Bihar districts. In Mithila and other parts of Bihar, palm and other leaves are also used as material to be woven into vessels for daily... 

  Ganga in Patna Patna: After failed attempts to attract private investors for the Ganga Expressway project along the banks of the river here on the lines of Mumbai’s Marine Drive, a government agency has now been roped in to construct it, an official said. “The Bihar government is committed to the mega project – Ganga Expressway – as private companies have not come forward to promote it. Now the state government’s own agency will construct it,” Road Construction Minister Nand Kishore Yadav told the press. Yadav said the government has initiated the process... 

  Power situation: looking up? Patna:  Bihar’s power supply situation is set for major improvement beginning the coming fiscal. The State is currently offered a mere 900 MW by the central sector to meet an estimated daily domestic demand of 2,000 MW. The result: Large parts of the State — outside the capital Patna (which needs 400 MW) — run on diesel generators. But, according to a senior State official, Bihar is expecting average grid supplies to improve by approximately 600-700 MW in 2013. The bulk of the additional supply will come from the upcoming 2 X 660 MW Barh-II thermal power... 

  Anopheles: at it! Researchers say they have discovered how the malaria parasite gains a foothold inside the human body, causing the life-threatening illness.  The finding could lead to a new treatment for malaria – using a drug that’s already in clinical trials for use against another condition. After taking a blood meal, experts say the malaria-infected female Anopheles mosquito injects about 1,000 parasites into the bloodstream. The microorganisms quickly reproduce after each one enters a red blood cell, according Doron Greenbaum, a professor of pharmacology at the University... 

  Jaduguda: affected by Uranium mining! Ranchi: a three-day festival, which kicked off at Central University, Brambe, on Tuesday, travelled to the RIMS campus on Wednesday. Students and teachers of the premier medical college, film lovers and social activists watched six documentaries and short films that highlight the ill effects of uranium mining. The films screened were Michael Madsen’s Into Eternity, Ranchi-based film-maker Sriprakash’s Buddha Weeps in Jadugoda and Jadugoda: The Black Magic, Galina Laskova Sanderson’s (Belarus) To Whom It May Concern, When the Dust Settles by Australian... 

  Corporates: ‘Hail Caesar!!!’ Gandhinagar: when the corporates get poetic, the reasons must be very prosaic, which is indeed the case.  Sycophancy by the corporate crowd has however reached new levels of indecency in the case of Gujarat. At the vibrant Gujarat summit opening, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was hailed by RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani as a leader with “grand vision” and his younger brother Anil Ambani of ADAG placed him in the league of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel. Anil went a step further – he first acknowledged “respected elder brother...