The Jharkhand delegation members to the Bhartiya Divas were as below.Shri Udai Pratap Singh, IAS, Principal Secretary, Dept. of Industries, Mobile 931 206 5511,_x000D_
sec-ind-jhr@nic.in_x000D_
Shri Rai Mahimpat Ray, IAS, Staff Officer to the Chief Secretary, Mobile 943 119 5349, Mahimapat@gmail.com, socjh@gmail.com_x000D_
Dr. Madhaw Sharan Singh, Dy Director cum Dy Secretary, Dept. of Industries, Govt. of Jharkhand, madhawssingh@gmail.comThe following members and associate members of BIT Sindri AA of NA met the Jharkhand government delegation to the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas held at Los Angeles Westin Bonaventure Hotel on November 14 and 15, 2015.Anil Singh (1964 Metallurgy) and RadhaRamesh Yadava, (1971 EE)Uma Jha, (1978 EC) and MamtaKalika Gupta (1991 EE)and NavinWe had very meaningful and useful discussions with the Jharkhand delegations, first day on November 14. The meeting started with a slide presentation (attached). The presentation covered many topics related to the current situation at BIT Sindri such as degradation of academic standard, inadequate laboratories, faculty shortage, crumbling infrastructure, unhygienic conditions in hostels and department buildings, WiFi connectivity, lack of sports facilities especially for girls, safety of girl students, shortage of hostels, how over the years BIT Sindri once comparable to IITs, has now ranks in 3rd tier. We also discussed our association efforts to address some of the above issues, how we have faced bureaucratic hurdles along the way. The delegation members gave a patient hearing, and promised to look into these matters. One can dismiss these as promise of the bureaucrats which are never kept. But, from the conversation and facial expressions, we felt they were quite serious.On the second day, Kalika, Navin and Anil met with all three members of the Jharkhand delegation for almost two hours in an informal setting. Shri Udai Singh, Principal Secretary told us that the previous night after our first day meeting, he talked with the chief secretary (CS), and that CS would very much like to meet BIT Sindri alumni in New Jersey/New York in first or second week of December when he would be in the States for some other purpose. Based on our convenience CS will make his program. (I contacted Neil Pundit, who was in Ranchi meeting with govt. administrators and ministers including chief minister. He said that he had very positive meetings with the chief secretary and the chief minister).Shri Udai Singh, asked us to prepare a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Jharkhand Government and BITS AA of NA of the work that needs to be done at BIT Sindri such as infrastructure development, building of hostels, sports facilities, toilet upgrades, WiFi, etc. They said that this would institutionalize everything, and it would not matter if a particular secretary/administrator is there or not. We definitely are going to look into this proposition. Shri Singh also informed us that the funding for WiFi at BIT Sindri has been approved, and the tender has been sought.From their body language and what they said, I would say that we have now “friends” in Jharkhand administration. Some delegates even gave their personal email addresses and mobile phone numbers. They invited us to visit them whenever we are in Ranchi. The delegate members left Los Angeles on Monday, November 16. They will reach Ranchi on November 23 after spending a couple of days in Delhi.They assigned Shri Rai Mahimpat Ray, IAS, Staff Officer to the Chief Secretary to be our main contact.Credit squarely goes to Kalika and Navin; they really worked hard to make it a success. We greatly appreciate participation in the meeting by associate members Radha Singh and Mamta Jha.  Thanks also to Ramesh Bhai who flew in San Francisco for the meeting