Call for Papers Jigyasa: Documenting

Bihar's Development Journey

For achieving Bihar @ 2025, Government of Bihar has embarked upon one of its most
comprehensive and collaborative efforts Badh Chala Bihar. In the next 8 to 10 weeks, Badh
Chala Bihar aspires to reach 4 crore people through 40,000 events. Over 10,000 Government
officials and civil society members, through the use of traditional and new age media, will create
layered platforms for exchange and initiate a direct conversation with the citizens of Bihar to set
up a strong framework for setting medium to long-term goals through multifaceted, tailored
interactions with different sections of society.
One of the event formats, Jigyasa, calls for research papers in the interest of knowledge sharing
and dissemination of best practices. Researchers and students from educational institutions and
think tanks are invited to study and document Bihars accomplishments on identified topics across
prescribed areas of research like economic and social indicators, law and order, etc.
The event will be conducted in two stages: a qualifying round, and a final round consisting of
further desk and field research. Details of stages are as follows:

In the first and qualifying round, research proposals along with a Field Research Utilization
Plan, will be invited on specified topics (detailed below). Interested participants will be
given approximately four weeks from the date of announcement of the areas of research to
submit this proposal
On the basis of these submissions, five selected teams will be invited to Bihar to conduct
sponsored field research during the designated field research period of one week
The final submissions selected by a panel of judges will be published in a Government of
Bihar publication
Based on the final reports incorporating the results of the field research, the three most
qualified papers will be selected by a panel for presentation to the State leadership of Bihar,
at the culmination event

Important Dates for Participants

Description of Tasks
Deadline for submission of proposal

Timeline
5thJuly

Announcement of final 5 qualifying teams

10thJuly

Orientation for field teams

15thJuly

Field Research Period and Final Paper Preparation Period

Deadline for submission of final paper
Announcement of the 3 Best Papers & the Culmination Event

16thJuly - 23rdJuly
24thJuly
1stAugust

Incentives
Participants at various levels will be awarded at the culmination event.
Details of the rewards are as follows:
Top 5 Finalists: Field research in Bihar, sponsored by the GoB; papers will be published in
a Government of Bihar Publication
Fellowships for Winning Team: Winning teams members will be provided fellowship
opportunities with the Chief Ministers Office in Bihar
Winning Research: Rs. 1,00,000
1st Runner up team: Rs. 50,000
2nd Runner up team: Rs. 25,000
3rd and 4th Runner up teams: Rs. 15,000 to each team
20 teams, with the best proposals, apart from the top 5 teams, will also get cash prizes of Rs.
5,000 each

Eligibility
Eligibility criteria for participating in the competition are as follows
Teams must consist of five members.
At least one out of five members in each team should be either a current student with an
undergraduate or post-graduate educational institution and/or else is able to demonstrate an
academic affiliation with a research organization and/or think tank.

Topics
Participants must choose one of the following topics to submit their research proposals.
Additionally, participants can refer online for detailed abstracts on each topic.
Women Empowerment
Bihar has implemented several path breaking initiatives for women such as, Mukhyamantri Balika
Cycle Yojna, the introduction of 50 % reservation in PRIs, both concepts pioneered by the State.
These and other initiatives have resulted in strengthening the role of women, and allowing them
greater participation in society.
Examine and explore such initiatives in the state of Bihar which have contributed towards women
having a greater presence in the social, economic and political sphere.
Education
Bihar has taken several initiatives to improve the education status of the state. Bihar witnessed a
growth of 16.3% in literacy levels from 2001 to 2011 (Census, India). Moreover, improvement in
Female Literacy Rate during the same period (20 percentage points) was the highest ever
achieved by any state in India.
Examine the design and implementation of the interventions by the Government of Bihar that
helped raise education profile of the state.
Law and Order
The Government of Bihar has taken ingenious, on-the-ground action, such as the creation of
Special Auxiliary Police in order to further stabilize law and order in Bihar. Further, between
2006 and 2012, more than 78000 accused were convicted in Bihar (Bihar State Police, 20062012).
Examine how these and other innovative approaches, have helped in securing a significant
number of convictions and improved the law and order scenario in the State.
Health
In the past decade, Bihar has taken great strides in providing quality infrastructure and
implementing several schemes in the healthcare sector. Amongst other indicators, this is evidenced
by a 30% decline in Infant Mortality Rate and 59% decline in Maternal Mortality Rate between
2005 & 2012 (Planning Commission, India).Moreover, from immunization coverage of 17% in
2005, the percentage of fully immunized children has increased to 69.9 per cent in 2013 (AHS,
2012-13).

Examine specific interventions and schemes undertaken by the GoB, particularly in areas such as
institutional delivery and immunization coverage, to achieve an improvement in health indicators.
Agriculture
The average growth rate of GSDP in the agriculture sector is 5.35% for the period 2005 06 to
201314 (Planning Commission, India).The agriculture sector in Bihar has outperformed the
national average by 100 basis points. Production of rice has grown seven times faster and that of
wheat has grown two times faster than the national average.
Analyze and document the efforts of the Government of Bihar that has led to the growth in
agricultural productivity in Bihar, over the past decade.

Guidelines for Submission

Prior to submitting entries, please visit www.bihar2025.in/jigyasa and register all team members.
Research Proposal
The research proposal should be between 1500 2000 words
The deadline for the submission of research proposals is5th July.
Indicative format for the research proposal can be found at www.bihar2025.in/jigyasa
Research proposals shall conform to recognized styles of citation (APA, MLA, Oxford,
Bluebook)
Field Research Utilization Plan (FRUP)
Research Proposals shall also include an appendix briefly outlining a plan for the utilisation of
the Field Research Period and tentative data requirements.
The FRUP must adhere to the format communicated to registered participants, please check
the website regularly for more details.
Final Submissions
The final paper shall not exceed 8000 words, which should be inclusive of a short paragraph
introducing the team
An indicative format for the research will be made available to final teams
Final papers shall conform to recognized styles of citation (APA, MLA, Oxford, Bluebook)
In addition to the final paper, teams are mandated to post video blogs of their field research
journeys, restricted to a maximum of ten minutes
For further details email at jigyasa@bihar2025.in and contact +91(0)612-302-1818
For FAQs and Terms and Conditions, visit www.bihar2025.in/jigyasa