Ruchir writes on health, aviation, power and myriad other issues. An ex-TOI, he has worked both on Desk and in reporting. He over 25 years of broadcast and print journalism experience in Assam, Jharkhand & Bihar.
Articles by Ruchir Kumar
AI plane catches fire, lucky escape for passengers
Around 111 passengers on board a Patna-New Delhi Air India Airbus 320 aircraft (AI 408) had a lucky escape when one of its engine allegedly caught fire, forcing the pilot to abort take-off at the eleventh hour in Patna on Wednesday afternoon (at 3.15pm).
Updated on Jun 19, 2013 04:29 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Bihar health minister ‘competes’ Nitish Kumar in popularity
Bihar chief minister, it appears, has competition, so far as Bihar popularity stakes go. Ruchir Kumar reports.
Updated on May 09, 2013 09:37 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
MBBS seats in six new AIIMS to be doubled
Here’s a great bit of news for those aspiring to be doctors. All six new all India institutes of medical science (AIIMS), including the one at Patna, will double their intake in the MBBS course from the upcoming session, reports Ruchir Kumar.
Updated on Apr 27, 2013 04:36 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Patna HC stays arrest warrant against Taslima
A single judge bench of the Patna high court has stayed the non-bailable warrant (NBW) of arrest issued against Bangladesh-born Swedish citizen and Bengali author Taslima Nasreen by a Bettiah (north Bihar) court, reports Ruchir Kumar.
Updated on Apr 15, 2013 09:39 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Patna hospital chief faces harassment charge
A female faculty member of a nursing institution under Patna’s top super-speciality hospital has accused its director of making an ‘indecent proposal’ to her and of harassing her when she declined it. Ruchir Kumar reports.
Updated on Feb 02, 2013 11:46 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, New Delhi
Psychiatrists condemn Bollywood mantra of using depression to spice reel life
Films being films, they are far from the truth, especially when it comes to portraying mental illness of a protagonist. Psychiatrists at the 16th Psychiatry meet here, feel that scriptwriters and producers usually use psychiatric illnesses as condiments to cook a spicy movie, not actually bothering to go into the finer points of psychiatry.
Updated on Dec 17, 2012 05:17 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Patna-Purnia air service begins
Chartered air service between Patna and Purnia commenced on Tuesday with four passengers from the state capital taking the nine-seater Spirit Air aircraft to Purnia.
Updated on Nov 07, 2012 03:48 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar/Aditya Nath Jha, Patna/purnia
Body handed over to kin after 17 hrs
You may die fighting the time taking and complicated red tape.
Updated on Oct 15, 2012 05:38 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Contractual docs threaten strike on MCI visit eve
Stung by the downward revision in monthly emoluments, around 378 contractual doctors in different medical colleges, engaged on a four-year tenure post by the state government, have reportedly threatened to go on a two-day token strike, beginning Monday.
Updated on Oct 13, 2012 01:38 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
No ban on LPG godown delivery in Patna
Though oil companies discourage godown delivery of LPG cylinders for safety reasons, they do not ban it.
Updated on Oct 09, 2012 01:05 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Civil servants dismiss dress code!
President Pranab Mukherjee showed etiquette, which most of our state bureaucrats did not, as the first citizen of India rounded-off his two-day trip to the state here on Thursday.
Updated on Oct 05, 2012 04:20 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Gate-crashers at Guv's dinner for Prez!
A party without gate-crashers? Quite rare, more so in this part of the Hindi belt. But governor Devanand Konwar's state banquet, hosted in honour of President Pranab Mukherjee at the Durbar hall of the Raj Bhawan in Patna on Wednesday evening, was no exception.
Updated on Oct 04, 2012 11:02 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Be ready to pay more for uncapped LPG cylinder
The ‘uncapped’ domestic liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinder you buy this month is bound to upset your household budget. For, it’s going to cost you even higher than what it did last month.
Updated on Oct 03, 2012 03:42 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
R4L compensation for kid’s illegal detention
The high court said that under Juvenile Justice Act, no juvenile would be charged or tried for any offence together with a person who is not a juvenile, nor can he be sentenced.
Updated on Sep 27, 2012 01:08 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
New flyover to ease woes of Bailey Road commuters
Besides being Bihar's longest flyover, stretching 2.62 km, the entire structure of Sheikhpura-Jagdeo path flyover will be on central single piers - a total of 94. It will allow more carriageway for service lanes beneath the flyover. Ruchir Kumar reports.
Updated on Sep 23, 2012 04:09 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Model blood bank docs on tenterhooks
Doctors in a fix over the health department's 11 July notification demanding cancellation of medical officers who have completed three years or more at a particular place.
Updated on Sep 12, 2012 12:58 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
State electricity board approaches HC, burns pocket
The state power board’s decision to contest in the high court a rights panel decision, asking it to pay Rs. 1 lakh compensation to a consumer for depriving him of power for nearly six years - despite an order by the State Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission - has further burnt the pocket of an ailing Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB).
Updated on Aug 28, 2012 04:26 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
AAI relaxes deadline for Patna airport till Sept 19
For the second time in less than a month, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has deferred till September 19 the effective date of implementation of its order, reducing the runway length of the Patna airport.
Updated on Aug 28, 2012 04:38 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Quintuplets born after infertility treatment die
The quintuplets — five children — born to a couple in Bihar after infertility treatment have died within a week, succumbing to perils of premature birth.
Updated on May 06, 2012 11:21 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Tamil supercop dons the dhoti in Bhojpuri potboiler
Bihar's deputy inspector general of police Raveendran Sankaran, who hails from Tamil Nadu, is donning the grease paint for a Bhojpuri flick, never mind the accent. Ruchir Kumar reports.
Updated on Apr 30, 2012 02:01 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Vice-prez’s visit sparks row between Bihar, Centre
Vice-president Hamid Ansari’s visit to Patna on April 12 has sparked a row between the Centre and the Bihar authorities on the number of vehicles to be allowed on the Patna airport tarmac during a VVIP visit. Ruchir Kumar reports.
Updated on Apr 16, 2012 01:39 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Doc rejects police claim in maiming case
A doctor attending on daily-wage worker Ram Sagar Chandravanshi, whose hands were allegedly mutilated for his inability to repay a Rs 300 debt, has rejected the police claim that the injury was the outcome of a train accident.
Updated on Mar 05, 2012 01:45 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Billimoria wants Bihar farmers to produce barley as he brews beer
UK's India-born beer baron Lord Karan Bilimoria, who brought his Cobra Beer to India and set up a $35-million production facility at Bihta near here, has urged the state to encourage farmers to produce quality barley and promised to buy up their entire produce if it is upto the mark.
Updated on Feb 21, 2012 12:22 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Bihar bureaucrats meet their ‘water-loo’
The Bihar bureaucracy is fighting the problem of the bladder! And, it’s losing the fight.
Updated on Jan 11, 2012 10:36 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Paucity of space in Patna
The institute still operates from a temporary campus and doesn’t have sports facilities or a girls’ hostel
Updated on Dec 21, 2011 10:32 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, New Delhi
Judge goes ballistic at Patna airport
Enraged over the delay in getting his cabin baggage at the airport here, a sitting judge of the Patna high court allegedly manhandled airline staff, damaged equipment and verbally abused a court protocol officer.
Updated on Nov 04, 2011 01:42 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Gaya airport robbed of night landing facility
Thieves have rendered the international airport at Gaya, the famous Buddhist pilgrimage centre in Bihar, non-conducive for night landing of aircraft. Ruchir Kumar reports.
Updated on Oct 04, 2011 11:28 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Dreams crash mid-air, family shattered by loss
Late on Wednesday evening, as Bettiah's Kumar family sat down to watch television, they had no idea that two promising youth from their family — Rahul Raj, 20, and Ratnesh Kumar, 23 — will die in a crash.
Updated on May 27, 2011 12:04 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Sibal, Nitish spar on land and location of central institutes
The foundation-laying ceremony for the Indian Institute of Technology (Patna) became a sparring scene on Tuesday between Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and union human resources development minister Kapil Sibal on the location and land allotment for two other institutions. Arun Kumar & Ruchir Kumar report
Updated on Apr 20, 2011 02:00 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Arun Kumar & Ruchir Kumar, Patna
AAI finds no fault with ATC for near-collision
An enquiry by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has found no fault with the air traffic control (ATC), whose reported lapse almost caused a disaster at Patna airport on Friday.
Updated on Mar 30, 2011 08:15 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna