Sultanganj is a place of hoary antiquity

Sultanganj is a place of hoary antiquity. It is traditionally associated with the sage Jahnu, whose ashram was a centre of learning and culture. Jahnu Muni's ashram was located on the rock jutting out of the bed of the Ganga River. Now the site has the Shiva temple of Ajgaivinath, also known as Gaibinath Mahadeo. The story is that the river Ganga on her way to the ocean interrupted the Muni in hismeditation by the rush of her currents. The sage swallowed the river in a gulp. Bhagiratha intervened and the Muni again let her out by making an incision in his thigh. That is why the river Ganga is also called Jahnavi.
Traditionally Sultanganj formed a part of the great Anga, State. In the days of the Mahabharata, Karna, the sixth brother of the five Pandavas, ruled in Anga. The capital of Anga was Champa. Champa is the present Champanagar situated three miles to the west of Bhagalpur. King Karna had his castles at Champa (modern Champanagar) and Jahnugiri (modern Sultanganj). At present Champanagar, the- site of Karna''s castle, is well known as Karnagarh. Karnagarh is practically a part of Bhagalpur town now.

The 1500 year old Sultanganj Buddha

The 1500 year old Sultanganj Buddha was one of the first items acquired by BM&AG and has been on continuous display in the city for over 140 years. The Buddha was discovered during the building of the East Indian Railway, a project that involved the export of over two million tons of rails, sleepers and carriages made in England. The Buddha was brought to Birmingham at a time when the city, as a centre of world metallurgy, was forming a museum for the inspiration of its craftsmen. At over two metres tall and weighing over 500kg, the statue is probably the most important work of Indian art in the country and its complicated history speaks of the complicated processes by which England has been bonded to parts of the world, such as the Indian subcontinent. This bond continues through the many people of South Asian origin who, following in the footsteps of the Buddha, have made Birmingham their home.

HIGHLIGHTS - India's 2008/09 annual budget

Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram presented the union budget for 2008/09 on Friday, the fifth and final full one of the administration before elections due by May 2009.

Here are the major highlights:

• Personal income tax exemption hiked to Rs 1.5 lakh

• Senior citizens threshold tax limit increased from Rs 1,95,000 to Rs 2,25,000

• Tax exemption for women increased to Rs 1.8 lakh

• New tax slabs: 10 per cent for 1,50,000 to 3,00,000, 20 per cent for 3,00,000 to 5,00,000 and 30 per cent above 5,00,000

• Excise on packaged softwares to be lower from 8% to 12%

- No excise duty on refrigerating equipments
- Anti-Aids drug exempted from excise duty
- Small cars to become cheaper
- Reduced excise duty on two, three wheelers
- Excise duty on hybrid cars cut from 24 pct to 14 pct
- Excise on small cars cut to 12 pct from 16 pct
- Rs 50 cr for tiger conservation
- Sixth Pay Commission report by March 2008
- Defence allocation up by 10% from Rs 96,000 cr to Rs 1,56,000 cr
- 22 Sainik schools get Rs 44 crore
- Rs 624 cr for Commonwealth Games
- PAN sole identification in securities market
- Debt waiver scheme and relief to small and marginal farmers
- Duty reduced on life saving drugs
- Rs 750 crore for upgradation of 300 ITIs in 25 districts.
- No change in peak customs duty
- Central sales tax cut from 3% to 2%
- Govt withdraws banking transaction tax
- Revenue implication of Indirect taxation to be 5900 cr
- Direct taxation changes to be revenue neutral
- Levy on STT only on option premiums
- Commodities transaction tax introduced like STT
- Short term capital gains to be taxed at 15%
- No change in surcharge of corporate tax
- Money changers and people running gains of chance and tour operators to be brought under service tax net
- Revenue Deficit is Rs 55,184 cr at 1% of GDP and fiscal deficit is Rs 1,33,287 cr at 3.1% of GDP
- Estimated planned expenditure at Rs 2,43,086 cr and non-panned expenditure Rs 57,409 cr
- Central Plans Scheme monitoring system under Plan Panel to be unveiled
- Non-agri peak rates for customs raises to 10% from 2% in 2004
- Tax to GDP ratio at 9.2% in 2004 up by 12.5% in 2007-08
- Custom duty on steel scrapped
- Set-top boxes to become cheaper
- Custom duty on vitamin pre-mixes to lower from 30% to 20%
- Agri loans disbursed by rural banks, RRBs and Cooperative banks before March 2007 and overdue on Dec 2007 waived
- Overdue agri loans amount to Rs 50,000 cr under the waiver and Rs 10,000 cr under the one time settlement
- Implementation of waiver to be completed by June 2008
- Farmers eligible for fresh agri loans post the waiver or one time settlement
- Haryana and Chandigarh to introduce smart card based delivery system under PDS
- National Agri Insurance scheme get Rs 640 cr
- National Highway development program gets Rs 12966 cr
- Rs 8000 cr plan for faster power reforms
- National housing bank gets Rs 1,200 cr for refinancing
- Govt asks commercial banks to add 250 rural household accounts every year in rural and semi-urban banks
- States urged to open bidding for 5 more ultra mega power projects
- All 30 integrated textile parks approved
- Rs 340 cr insurance scheme to cover 17 lakh farmers and weavers
- SITP gets Rs 450 crore
- Rs 275 cr earmarked for state data centres
- NHDP allocation up from Rs 10,866 cr to Rs 12,966 cr
- Move towards nutrient-based fertiliser subsidy stressed
- National fund for transmission and distribution reforms for power sector
- FDI in Apr-Dec at $12.7 billion, FII inflow over $18 billion
- PNB says banks to be reimbursed accordingly
- Tea Research association gets Rs 20 cr
- 500 soil testing labs to be set up in the 11th plan, govt to give 1 time budgetary assistance of Rs 75 cr to agri ministry for setting up mobile soil testing facilities
- National Horticulure Mission to get Rs 1,100 cr
- Govt sets up irrigation and water resource finance corp with an initial corpus of Rs 100 cr
- Schedule Commercial Banks farm credit 75%
- Micro irrigation scheme gets Rs 500 cr to cover 4,00,000 additional hectares
- Rs 12050 cr for strengthening rural health services
- 24 pct allocation hike for women, child development
- Inflation will be kept under check
- Jawaharlal Navoday Vidyalaya to be set in 20 new districts for SC/STs
- Healthcare allocation to be raised by 15%
- Bhopal and Tripura to get one IIScR each and 2 colleges of art
- 3 IITs to be set up in Bihar, AP, Rajasthan
- 288 public sector bank branches to be opened in areas with concentration of minorities
- Irrigation outlay increased
- National Minority Development and Finance Corp to get Rs 75 cr
- Special attention, more funds for North East
- 54 gender budgeting cells set up
- Agriculture share in total investment up from 10.2% in 2003-04 to 16% during the 11th Plan
- Agri credit target to be Rs 2,80,000 cr for 2008-09
- LIC to cover all woman SHGs linked to the bank
- Mobilisation of additional resources of Rs 10,000 cr as planned capital expenditure under Plan-B
- Allocation for ministry of minorities doubled to Rs 1,000 cr
- Schemes for woman to get Rs 1,460 cr this fiscal
- Child related schemes to get Rs 33,434 cr
- 54 departments to be set up gender budgeting divisions
- Rajiv Gandhi drinking water mission to get Rs 7,300 cr
- Rs 3,966 cr for SC/STs schemes
- Allocation of Rs 75 cr for 2008-09 for the Rajiv Gandhi felicitation programme
- Sanitation to get Rs1,200 cr
- Rs 200 cr for providing portable water system in each school in areas of water scarce regions
- IT industry gets Rs 100 cr for connecting knowledge institutions
- NREGS to be extended to 596 rural distt with an outlay of Rs 16,000cr
- The remuneration Angan Bari workers has been increased from Rs 1000 cr-1500 cr per month
- Women entitled to equal share and equal say
- Science scholarships for young learners
- 16 Central universities to be set up
- 6000 model high schools to be started
- Science scholarships for young learners
- Inflation will be kept under check
- More allocation for polio and AIDS
- Health covers of Rs 30000 for workers in unorganised sectors
- Education sector gets a boost
- Agri credit doubled in first two years
- Bharat Nirman allocation to go up to Rs 31,280 cr from Rs 24,603 cr
- Gross Budgetary support to be Rs 24,3386 cr about Rs 38,286 cr more than 2007-08
- Agriculture credit to touch 2,40,000 cr in 2008
- Focus on achievement of self-sufficiency in food grain
- Soyabean output to be 9.45 mn tonnes
- Maize production to be 16.78 mn tonnes
- Rice production to be 94.08 mn tonnes
- Total agri production to be 219.32 mn tonnes at all time high
- Agriculture disappointing at average annual growth of 2.6%
- Keeping inflation under check to be on focus
- Focus on management of supply side of food, market, capital inflows next year
- India has registered a growth of over 8%$ for 12 successive quarters till Dec 2007