Patna - Bihar has indeed showed the way. At a time when there is a mad scramble among the leading multinational companies to make established brand names like Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni their ambassadors, a leading Norwegian telecom operator, Telenor has made a village girl from Bihar its "role model".

The company is said to be highly impressed with Amita Kushwaha, a 21-year-old girl from Bochaha village in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district and the way she educated herself despite all odds - grazing goats in the fields and rearing honeybees to feed her family.

She, at present, is in the final year of a bachelor degree course and is also an established honey trader in the district with an annual turnover of around $0.09.

"Yes, the company has intimated me through a mail that the first SIM of its mobile will be given to me. I'm very much excited", said Anita.

The Norwegian mobile company which co-owns Uninor with Indian real estate company Unitech Ltd has announced it would launch mobile services in India by the end of this year.

The company has not yet fixed a date for the launch of mobile services in Bihar but reports are that the services will be launched very shortly.

Company officials said they have made Anita their company's role model since her brilliant success story is an inspiration for others. They said the company wanted to give this honour to a person who has made a name for himself/herself on their own and they found all these qualities in Anita.

Bihar has, so far, proved to be a fertile ground for cellular companies to start business and there is a scramble among them to reach out to more subscribers.

According to an official report, there are presently $2 telephones (basic and mobile) in Bihar. BSNL, Reliance, Bharati Airtel and Tata Telcom are the four telecom service providers in the state.

Earlier, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) had included a chapter on this girl in one of its books, inspired by her grit and determination and the way she demolished the male bastion by establishing herself as a honey trader.