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
Probe ordered into possible mid-air collision
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has started an enquiry into a possible mid-air collision involving two Airbus 320 aircraft and 336 passengers on Friday at Patna airport.
Updated on Mar 29, 2011 12:02 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Alert pilot averts near collision at Patna airport
Two aircraft together carrying 336 persons came with a distance of 1,800 metres after the air traffic control (ATC) gave clearance to an IndiGo plane to take off and asked a Kingfisher flight to land here on Friday evening. Airport director Arvind Dubey has ordered an inquiry into the incident.
Updated on Mar 26, 2011 12:03 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Satphones for EC officials
The Election Commission (EC) has identified 69 locations in Bihar, mostly in Maoist-affected areas, where its officials will have to use satellite phones in absence of mobile connectivity, during the six-phase assembly polls starting on October 21.
Updated on Oct 04, 2010 10:56 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Airport Authority of India to downsize Patna ‘Clock Tower’
The tall structure of the majestic state secretariat building — a hallmark of the state capital — is at risk of losing its identity. That’s not all. Some 3,700-plus trees in the Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park, a protected forest, falling in the approach funnel of aircraft, also need to be lopped off.
Updated on Aug 22, 2010 05:57 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
31, still young for MBBS course
Remember Murli Prasad Sharma’s jaadu ki jhappi in Munnbhai MBBS? Well, for a change, leading medical colleges of Bihar are now close to being full of them, at least, if it is a matter of age.
Updated on Aug 17, 2010 09:00 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Baggage nightmare for Delhi-bound Jet fliers
Nightmare visited around 25 Delhi-bound passengers, flying from Patna on Wednesday afternoon by a Jet Konnect flight. They had to undergo the travail of landing in the national capital sans their baggage!
Updated on Jun 11, 2010 01:30 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Mangalore rerun in Patna, almost; no one hurt
Air India flight IC-415 almost did a Mangalore at the Jaiprakash Narayan International Airport here on Monday. The 139 passengers on board the Delhi-Patna flight had scary moments when the pilot went full throttle up after descending to an altitude of 400 metres and did a ‘go around’ before a rough landing at 12:45 am.
Updated on May 25, 2010 01:12 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Engineer pinches laptop, deplaned
Aiports too have their share of kleptomaniacs. An engineer was nabbed by the security forces after he pinched a laptop belonging to another passenger.
Updated on Apr 06, 2010 03:17 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Arsenic fear forces people to flee Bhojpur villages
Six years ago, solemnising marriages of youths was a pipedream in Simaria Ojhapatti village in this district. The reason: arsenic contamination in groundwater and the fear of people contracting diseases caused by its consumption. Ruchir Kumar examines...
Updated on Apr 02, 2010 11:51 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Bhojpur (bihar)
Now, a 6 quintal flower garland welcomes neta
If suspended Janata Dal-United (JD-U) MP Ejaz Ali was presented a garland of currency notes at Patna airport last week, a more weighty welcome was accorded to Rajya Sabha MP from Lok Janshakti Party Shabir Ali on Monday when he came back from Delhi, reports Ruchir Kumar.
Updated on Mar 24, 2010 09:17 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
12-yr-old Patna boy tells stories with numbers
Ask Saswat which day of the week July 28, 2347, will be, and you will get the correct answer in an instant. Show him a 500-digit number and he can reproduce it from memory.
Updated on Mar 17, 2010 11:49 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Grammys try to gobble sattu in Bihar
Bihar’s popular health food sattu has taken the Grammys by storm. A Patna-based company marketing it as a beverage under the brand name Grammy Instant Sattu Drink could be in a soup.
Updated on Mar 12, 2010 12:09 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Corruption in India echoes at international meet
Shame and disrepute came India’s way when the issue of corruption reared its ugly head on the concluding day of the two-day first International Buddhist Conclave at Nalanda, some 85 kms south-east of Patna, in Nalanda on Sunday.
Updated on Feb 08, 2010 11:12 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Nalanda
More children in school; teaching quality poor: Report
Bihar is making news — for the right reason.The pan-India Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), facilitated by Mumbai-based NGO Pratham, released at Teen Murti Bhawan, New Delhi, on Friday has commended Bihar on its initiatives to democratise its educational base, reports Ruchir Kumar.
Updated on Jan 16, 2010 06:55 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Bringing sunshine to their lives
In Patna, a Jesuit priest who set out to save trees ended up heading a non-profit solar power appliance plant that is changing lives, reports Ruchir Kumar.
Updated on Nov 30, 2009 12:04 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
State Human Rights Panel cracks the whip against striking docs
The State Human Rights Commission (SHRC), Bihar, on Thursday cracked the whip against the striking post-graduate junior doctors when it directed the government to file criminal cases against them forthwith and also take steps for cancellation of registration, reports Ruchir Kumar.
Updated on Nov 19, 2009 07:54 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Govt iussues threat to agitating doctors
The government on Saturday made a veiled threat to the striking medicos of Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH) that their careers were at stake if they continued with the strike. Ruchir Kumar reports.
Updated on Nov 15, 2009 01:51 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Cycling glory: Woman on wheels
She tours villages with tips for better farming and empowering women. Meet rural Bihar’s ‘Kisan Chachi’
Updated on Nov 08, 2009 02:32 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar
Fifty rupees at a time
From the land ravaged by the Kosi, a lesson for India: How women in a remote, disaster-battered village changed their lives. A report by Ruchir Kumar.
Updated on Oct 05, 2009 11:06 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Supaul
Salman Khursheed's chopper delayed over a snag
Was it an error committed by the pilot or did the GPS or the homing instrument of the chopper Union Minister for Minority Welfare Salman Khursheed was flying in, temporarily develop a snag on Sunday? Ruchir Kumar examines...
Updated on Sep 13, 2009 10:50 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Mr Kumar and his Japanese wife
Call it business acumen. Or let’s just say love is blind. For the local youth in the Buddhist temple town of Bodh Gaya, situated some 120 km from Patna, marriages are fast turning out to be a ticket to the good life, reports Ruchir Kumar.
Updated on Sep 13, 2009 12:46 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar
The united colours of Hajipur
Every afternoon, Chandrabhushan Singh Shashi, 40, teaches Hindi in Hajipur, some 30 km from Patna. But between 6 pm and 8 pm, he wears his other hat, that of partner in Sach Mein, a four-year-old news channel, reports Ruchir Kumar.
Updated on Sep 05, 2009 11:28 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Hajipur
Junior docs call off strike after talks
The Junior Doctors Association called off its five-day old strike, which had crippled the functioning of the Patna Medical College Hospital and the Darbhanga Medical College Hospital, after a meeting with Health Minister Nand Kishore Yadav here late on Monday evening, report Ruchir Kumar & CB Choudhary.
Updated on Sep 01, 2009 05:54 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar & CB Choudhary, Patna/darbhanga
Mobile towers bear brunt of Naxal attacks
In the recent 48-hour Maoist bandh in Bihar and Jharkhand, Naxals have destroyed five mobile towers, reports Ruchir Kumar.
Updated on Aug 31, 2009 07:19 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Bihta cleared for new airport in Patna
Subject to clearance from the defence ministry, the Jayaprakash Narayan International (JPNI) Airport is headed further west - towards Bihta. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has agreed to the shift, given the severe constraints in runway expansion here.
Updated on Aug 28, 2009 08:27 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Now, Bihar to begin mothers’ milk bank
Bihar is to start an exclusive mothers’ milk bank! Unique as it sounds, this will be the sixth in India. Maharashtra has two and Delhi, Gujarat and Goa have one each.
Updated on Aug 25, 2009 08:45 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Year on, water has receded, not misery
Across the Kosi plains of Madhepura, Saharsa, Supaul, Araria and Purnia, the story is almost the same — broken railway lines, ruined bridges, caved in roads, destroyed buildings, heavily silted farmlands and a slow babudom. Arun Kumar & Ruchir Kumar report.
Updated on Aug 18, 2009 01:47 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Arun Kumar & Ruchir Kumar, Kosi Plains
EC issues 24-hour ultimatum to relieve officers
The Election Commission has given the State Government a 24-hour ultimatum to relieve all officers who have been transferred but not relieved after completing three to four years in a district. Ruchir Kumar reports.
Updated on Mar 07, 2009 07:53 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
Beware of govt funds in Bihar
Some 26 out of 39 cheques pertaining to the Mukhya Mantri Chikitsa Sahayta Kosh (Chief Minister’s Medical Relief Fund) have been returned to the Health Department because of insufficient funds. The returned cheques amount to Rs 14.65 lakh, reports Ruchir Kumar.
Updated on Feb 22, 2009 01:54 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna
A-I Patna flight catches fire
There was a scare at the Jayaprakash Narain International Airport here after a fire broke out in the auxiliary power unit of the Delhi-Patna Air India flight IC 409 on Friday. All 117 passengers were reported safe, reports Ruchir Kumar.
Updated on Feb 14, 2009 02:08 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ruchir Kumar, Patna