January 4: The price of gold is rising steadily in the domestic market of Nepal.…
January 4: The price of gold is rising steadily in the domestic market of Nepal.…
January 4: The business of bookshops in Thamel that had been affected by the coronavirus pandemic for two years is gradually…
January 4: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has issued a 30-point directive to the government secretaries on various topics issues such as making the public service delivery and matters related to public concern fast and…
January 4: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is preparing to monitor the debtors who take large amount of loans from banks and financial…
January 4: The National Planning Commission has released a digital book on 'Method of Using Key Economic Indicators' on…
Milk production has shrunk in Madhes…
January 3: The distribution of passports from the Department of Passports was obstructed on Tuesday owing to a technical…
Chairman Ganesh Prasad Timilsina of the National Assembly on Tuesday urged the federal government to reduce number of ministries to cut the…
January 3: Even though Nepali cement industries have started exporting their products to India, export has not increased as…
Molung Hydropower Company Limited has opened sale of its Initial Public Offering (IPO) to the locals of project-affected Okhaldhunga district and Nepali citizens working in foreign countries from…
January 3: A recent survey conducted by the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) showed that the demand for medicines in the Nepali market has…
January 3: The state-owned Food Management and Trading Company (FMTC) has procured a total of 63,362 quintals of paddy from farmers as of January 1 in the current fiscal year (FY…
January 3: Some 444 women and girls who reached various nations for foreign jobs from western Nepal have gone missing.…
January 3: The Supreme Court of India on Monday upheld the legality of the government’s decision in 2016 to demonetise 86 percent of the country’s cash in circulation, saying the decision was taken in consultation with the central bank and followed due…
January 3: The hearing on the dispute of the 900-megawatt Upper Karnali Hydropower Project is now referred to the constitutional…
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', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">January 4: The price of gold is rising steadily in the domestic market of Nepal. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers Association (FeNeGoSiDA), the price of 24 carat gold has been fixed at Rs 102,900 per tola (11.66 grams) on Wednesday while it was traded at Rs 102,600 per tola on Tuesday. The federation has fixed the price of 22 carat gold at Rs 102,400 per tola on Wednesday against Rs 102,100 per tola a day ago. The price on Monday was Rs 101,700 per tola for 24 carat and Rs 101,200 per tola for 22 carat gold. Tuesday's price is Rs 900 more per tola than Monday while the price increased further by Rs 300 per tola on Wednesday.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The price of gold did not rise just on Wednesday, but has been increasing continuously since mid-December. On December 16, the 24 carat gold was traded at Rs 99,900 per tola and 22 carat gold at Rs 99,400 per tola. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Mid-December to mid-January is the off season in terms of gold and silver consumption in Nepal while the marriage season is considered to be the peak season of this business. On that basis, common people think that gold gets cheaper in January. This year, the price of gold went up even in the off-season, which surprised the consumers. However, the demand in the Nepali market has no role in the price of gold and silver.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Manik Ratna Shakya, president of FeNeGoSiDA, says that the price of gold increased in the international market and since the Nepalese currency is weak, gold became expensive in the domestic market. He said, “On top of that, the Nepalese currency is getting weaker compared to the dollar. The exchange rate of the dollar has reached Rs 132 for a dollar. Gold is bound to be more expensive.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Experts say that after the Russia-Ukraine crisis that has been going on for a year and the slump of some of the world's economies, people have taken gold as a safe haven for investment, and its value increased in the international market. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Organizations working in the economic sector, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated that many economies in the world will go into recession, so the price of gold is expected to rise even more in the coming days.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-04', 'modified' => '2023-01-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16402', 'image' => '20230104021746_goldee.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-04 14:16:37', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16660', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Thamel Bookshops Record Rise in Sales ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 4: The business of bookshops in Thamel that had been affected by the coronavirus pandemic for two years is gradually improving. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">January 4: The business of bookshops in Thamel that had been affected by the coronavirus pandemic for two years is gradually improving. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Bookshops in Thamel are mainly targeted at foreigners. As the arrival of tourists declined n the wake of the pandemic, it severely hit their sales and business. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"Business has started picking up pace recently," said proprietor of Pilgrim's Book House, Kahani Tiwari. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"Tourists from Germany, France, the US, India and other countries come to look for different kinds of books. However, the number of Nepali readers is not less compared to foreigners,” said Gaurav Awasthi, sales executive at Pilgrims Book House. Although the number of books sold is not high compared to five years ago, the number of readers has increased after the coronavirus pandemic subsided. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to Awasthi, Nepali readers tend to look for books on self-help, business, children, literature, drama, religion, Sadguru and Osho. Tourists look for books by foreign authors. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">English translation of 'Karnali Blues' written by Nepali writer Buddhisagar, 'Shirishko Phool' by Parijat, 'Forget Kathmandu' by Manjushree Thapa, 'The Guru of Love' by Samrat Upadhyay, 'Arresting God in Kathmandu', 'The Royal Ghost' have been preferred by foreign readers. 'Forget Kathmandu' written by Manjushree Thapa is the most sought after Nepali book by tourists. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In Pilgrims, one can find books priced from Rs 50 to Rs 15,000. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, Proprietor of Nepal Book House in Thamel, Ganesh Jung Karki said that foreign customers come only during certain times of the year but domestic customers are the ones who are coming throughout the year. He said that foreigners are more interested in books related to mountains and trekking in Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Book House sells books priced from Rs 250 to Rs 25,000. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, Anjani Agarwal, who has been running Thamel Books for thirty-five years, deals in second-hand books. She says that her business has decreased with the start of buying and selling books online. Tourists come looking for books that are useful for hiking and history of Nepal, said Agrawal. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-04', 'modified' => '2023-01-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16401', 'image' => '20230104015146_pilgrims.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-04 13:51:10', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16659', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'PM Dahal Tells Government Secretaries to Improve Service Delivery within a Month', 'sub_title' => 'Issues 30-Point Directive to Government Secretaries ', 'summary' => 'January 4: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has issued a 30-point directive to the government secretaries on various topics issues such as making the public service delivery and matters related to public concern fast and efficient. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">January 4: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has issued a 30-point directive to the government secretaries on various topics issues such as making the public service delivery and matters related to public concern fast and efficient. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">PM Dahal directed the secretaries of various ministries during a meeting held at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers on Tuesday. The meeting focused on topics such as good governance, service delivery and the people's livelihood. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The secretaries of all the ministries had earlier presented progress reports, the problems and challenges related faced by their respective ministries to the prime minister on Monday while the secretaries at the Office of the President and Vice President and different constitutional commissions and bodies presented the reports on Tuesday. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Addressing the secretaries after receiving their progress reports, PM Dahal said he expected full cooperation from the civil administration and government bodies this time as well just like in his previous tenure. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He focused his address on topics concerned with delivery of public services related to daily needs of the people and with development projects, and the operation of development works, rather than policy issues or long-term matters. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The executive chief mainly expressed his concern regarding the difficulties faced by the general public on matters related to the service delivery, stressing that these matters needed to be addressed promptly. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Stating that the people's expectation that the services would be accessible at their doorstep along with the practice of federalism has not been fulfilled, PM Dahal said the performance of the government bodies has not been satisfactory as per the people's expectations over the last five years. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"News has been published that people have to stay in queue since 2 am for making passport even as we are having this meeting now. The difficulties associated with acquiring the national identity card is equally harrowing. We do not have a satisfactory answer to the question as to why the identity card is necessary," the PM said, adding that it will take decades for the 30 million Nepalis to get the National Identity Card in their hand if the works on this matter progress in the current pace. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The situation is such that one has to wait for many years to get the driving license and your immediate attention is required on this issue as well,” the PM added. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In course of the address he urged the secretaries of the government bodies concerned to immediately keep in priority works on removing the difficulties the general public is facing while accessing the basic services such as education, health, transport, passport, driving license, National Identity Card and paying the land revenue taxes and other fees. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"A situation will come when harsh action would have to be initiated against the officials responsible if the service-seekers have to bear the difficulties of staying in line like they are enduring now to access various services like passport, the National Identity Card, driving license, no-objection letter provided by the Ministry of Education, medical treatment of patients at government hospitals and at places for paying the land revenue, land survey and tax and fees, even within a month from the formation of the present government," the Prime Minister cautioned. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The PM said that his attention was drawn to the fact that no significant progress was achieved in the revenue collection front. There are questions concerning the delivery of government service, he added. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He raised the question that the development expenditure has been only 11 percent when the half of the fiscal year is already past. "What are the reasons the targeted development expenditure has not been achieved? Who is responsible? If we do not look for the reasons behind this now, then when and who will do it? Bring proposals of improvement based on facts if there are problems at the policy level. However, there cannot be any excuses for shying off the responsibility by blaming someone else," he said. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He also directed the National Planning Commission to inform the government about the budget allocated for big projects, expenses made so far and physical progress as well as to seek the measures in order to expedite development projects. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Stating that public service delivery is always problematic, he asked to find out the root causes of the problem. During his address, the PM also raised the issue that citizens had to face deaths and accidents in lack of systematic public transport service. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Prime Minister Dahal instructed the Home Administration to settle the crime-related complaints immediately. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Likewise, he also urged the bodies concerned to control corruption, to carry out activities in order to prevent COVID risk, to pay attention towards the impact due to cold wave and snowfall, to make smooth supply of daily essentials and to forward activities of development projects in an expedited manner.-- RSS</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-04', 'modified' => '2023-01-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16400', 'image' => '20230104122243_PO-KTM-19-RSS2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-04 12:21:52', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16658', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Central Bank to Monitor Large-Scale Borrowers', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 4: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is preparing to monitor the debtors who take large amount of loans from banks and financial institutions.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">January 4: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is preparing to monitor the debtors who take large amount of loans from banks and financial institutions. The central bank is about to issue a procedure to monitor large amount of loans as the entire financial system will be affected if such large loans turn into bad loans.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The central bank, in its monetary policy for the current fiscal year, has announced to develop the Large Exposure Framework to identify the large-scale borrowers from banks and financial institutions (BFIs).</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In addition, monitoring of the credits availed by the big borrowers from the banking system will be made more effective. The existing single obligor limit will be reviewed, states the monetary policy for the FY 2022/23.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Narayan Prasad Pokharel, deputy spokesperson of NRB, said that the procedures are being prepared according to the announcement made in the monetary policy. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“NRB has announced that a procedure will be drafted for the identification of big debtors and their regulation. The draft of the procedure will be revealed only after taking suggestions from all stakeholders,” he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">In 2014, the 'Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS)' had set a high-risk standard to reduce the risk of loans taken from banks by individuals or groups. The standard was set after assessing that if a loan is at risk, it will affect the entire system.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The BCBS has categorized debtors who borrow more than 10 percent of the primary capital of the bank in the high-risk group. Likewise, for a single person or group, the criteria is that no more than 25 percent of the bank's primary capital fund should be invested in loans. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Eight years after BCBS introduced the standards, preparations are being made to implement it in Nepal. As per the information provided by NRB, the central bank will prepare the framework based on the standards of the BCBS.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">In order to reduce big risks in the financial sector, NRB is currently implementing a single customer credit limit and has been monitoring the details of large-scale borrowers of the banks on a quarterly basis.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">At present, NRB has set a limit of loans to a single customer, firm, company or a group of customers with a mutual relationship.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Similarly, the central bank has been collecting the details of the debtors who have used loans of more than Rs 50 million from commercial banks and Rs 20 million from development banks and finance companies on a quarterly basis for monitoring the large-scale borrowers.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-04', 'modified' => '2023-01-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16399', 'image' => '20230104115335_Banks.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-04 11:52:52', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16656', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Digital Book on Using Key Economic Indicators Launched', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 4: The National Planning Commission has released a digital book on 'Method of Using Key Economic Indicators' on Tuesday. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">January 4: The National Planning Commission has released a digital book on 'Method of Using Key Economic Indicators' on Tuesday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The book has been jointly prepared by the National Statistics Office, Statistics for Development Program, The Asia Foundation and Nepal in Data under the leadership of the National Planning Commission. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">At an event held to make the book public, National Planning Commission Secretary, Kewal Prasad Bhandari, said that the digital book was published to address the big gap felt in obtaining accurate data and ways to analyzing it. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He pointed out the need for analysis to be factual as all policies and plans are based on data. I think this is an important book because it covers from the definition of data to its collection, processing, interpretation, and analysis methods, said Secretary Bhandari. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the occasion, Joint Secretary of the National Statistics Office, Nebin Lal Shrestha, said that the publication has been prepared with the aim of preventing wrong analysis of data in various fields including by policy makers, researchers, public agencies, journalists and in the education sector. -- RSS</span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-04', 'modified' => '2023-01-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16397', 'image' => '20230104105256_image.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-04 10:52:12', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16655', 'article_category_id' => '277', 'title' => 'Milk production Declines by 6 per cent in Madhes Province ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Milk production has shrunk in Madhes province. ', 'content' => '<p><br /> <span style="font-size:18px">January 4: Milk production has shrunk in Madhes province. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">A survey on Madhes Province’s Provincial Economic Activities by Nepal Rastra Bank shows that milk production has fallen by 6.03 per cent.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">Madhes province produced 60,05,95,000 liters of milk in the last fiscal year of 2078/79. However, the milk production was 63,91,06,000 liters in the previous fiscal. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">During the review period, Siraha has contributed to the highest quantity of milk production.</span><br /> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"> In the last fiscal year, Siraha produced 12, 61,41,000 liters of milk out of the total mil production in the province. The district recorded milk production of 12,24,70,000 liters in the fiscal year of 2077/78. </span><br /> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">In the last fiscal year, Rautahat produced the least quantity of milk in the province. The district produced just 2,09,10,000 liters of milk against 7,32,15000 liters of milk generated in the previous fiscal year. The district saw 71 per cent decline in the milk production. </span></p> <p><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-04', 'modified' => '2023-01-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16396', 'image' => '20230104062134_collage (20).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-04 06:18:08', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16654', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Distribution of Passports Obstructed due to Technical Glitch', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 3: The distribution of passports from the Department of Passports was obstructed on Tuesday owing to a technical problem. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">January 3: The distribution of passports from the Department of Passports was obstructed on Tuesday owing to a technical problem. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The department apologized for the inconvenience and confirmed that all the services related to passport distribution have been halted until further notice due to a technical glitch in the system.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Citing the department’s Director Durpada Sapkota, the state-owned national news agency RSS reported that it would take some more time for the system to be fully operational. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The department has also urged the service seekers not to visit the department to get their passports until further notice. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">However, the department made it clear that those who have already booked an appointment for passport application can visit the department on the date fixed. </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16395', 'image' => '20230103063510_20220527120844_Consular-6_consular.jpeg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 18:34:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16653', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' NA Chair Suggests Small Cabinet to Cut Expenditures ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Chairman Ganesh Prasad Timilsina of the National Assembly on Tuesday urged the federal government to reduce number of ministries to cut the expenditures. ', 'content' => '<p>January 3 : Chairman Ganesh Prasad Timilsina of the National Assembly on Tuesday urged the federal government to reduce number of ministries to cut the expenditures. </p> <p>Speaking at an interaction programme entitled “Provincial Assembly’s Future Responsibility and Speakers Forum Nepal's Duty organized by Speakers’ Forum Nepal in Kathmandu, NA Chairman Timilsina advised the government not to increase the number of ministries to share the portfolios to all the ruling parties.</p> <p>Timilsina suggested the government to form a cabinet of 20 ministries and commit to solve the people’s problems wholeheartedly.<br /> “Forming a jumbo Cabinet will increase the expenses of the state and development work will not pick up the pace. To improve the deteriorating economy, the government will have to be economical,” Timilsina added.</p> <p>Timilsina also advised to form a small and efficient cabinet at the province. </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16394', 'image' => '20230103060722_collage (18).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 18:04:02', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16652', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Export of Cement Slumps ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 3: Even though Nepali cement industries have started exporting their products to India, export has not increased as expected.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">January 3: </span></span><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Even though Nepali cement industries have started exporting their products to India, export has not increased as expected.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Businessmen themselves admit that five and a half months have passed since Palpa Cement Industries dispatched cement to India. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Palpa Cement exported 3000 sacks of Tansen brand cement to India for the first time. Before that, no Nepali company had exported cement. With the entry of Nepali cement in the Indian market, many people predicted that its export would increase and the trade deficit would decrease.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Three months after Palpa Cement started exporting its products, Argakhanchi Cement Limited exported 1,400 sacks of cement. This added strength to the expectation that the trade deficit would decrease.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">However, since then, no new industry has been able to export cement. Although the companies have continued exporting, the volume is not encouraging.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Dhruba Thapa, president of the Nepal Cement Producers Association, said that the new companies have not been able to export cement due to the delay in obtaining the Indian quality mark. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“As soon as the quality mark is obtained, other manufacturers will also start exporting cement. We will export a lot by the end of this fiscal year. The situation will improve even more from next year," said Thapa.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">He said that because Nepal's cement is of higher quality than that of India, there will be plenty of markets. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Rajesh Agarwal, the owner of Palpa Cement, said that rising prices in the country have added challenges and competition. The price of diesel in Nepal is 25 per cent higher than that in India. Because of this, the cost of transportation is increasing, making cement more expensive.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Agarwal said that some policies of the Nepal government are affecting the cement industry.</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16393', 'image' => '20230103051705_20220607103309_Clipboard18.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 17:16:47', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16651', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Molung Hydropower Company Opens IPO for Project-Affected Locals and Migrant Workers ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Molung Hydropower Company Limited has opened sale of its Initial Public Offering (IPO) to the locals of project-affected Okhaldhunga district and Nepali citizens working in foreign countries from Tuesday.', 'content' => '<p><br /> January 3: Molung Hydropower Company Limited has opened sale of its Initial Public Offering (IPO) to the locals of project-affected Okhaldhunga district and Nepali citizens working in foreign countries from Tuesday.</p> <p>In the first phase, the company is issuing 8,02,500 units of shares worth Rs 80,250,000 which is 10 per cent of the total issued capital of 80,25,00000 for the project-affected locals of Okhaldhunga district. </p> <p>Out of the 10 per cent share meant for the project-affected locals, 5 per cent shares have been allocated for residents of Molung Rural Municipality while 2.5 per cent share each has been allocated for the locals of Sunkoshi Rural Municipality and Siddicharan Municipality. </p> <p>Locals can apply a minimum of 10 units of shares while the maximum units of shares they can apply is 1000 units. The closing date of the IPO for them is January 17, 2023. If the IPO remains under-subscribed, the deadline to apply will be extended until February 1. </p> <p>Meanwhile, 34% of the company's issued capital i.e. 27,28,500 unit shares will be issued later for the general public. Of this public issue, 10% of the shares totalling 272,850 units shares have been allocated for Nepalese citizens working abroad.</p> <p>Migrant workers can apply for a minimum of 10 units, while the maximum units they can purchase is 8000 units. The closing date for the IPO is January 17. Even if the IPO remains under-subscribed, the deadline will not be extended.</p> <p>After the completion of the first phase of the IPO allotment, the hydro power company will issue the shares to the general public. <br /> Run-of-the river project, Molung Hydropower Company Limited has installed capacity of 7 megawatts. </p> <p>The hydropower has been producing electricity. Per megawatt cost for the construction of the hydro power project stands at Rs 20.8 crores. </p> <p><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16392', 'image' => '20230103043704_collage (17).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 16:34:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16650', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Consumption of Medicines Declines with Growing Health Awareness: Survey ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 3: A recent survey conducted by the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) showed that the demand for medicines in the Nepali market has decreased.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">January 3: A recent survey conducted by the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) showed that the demand for medicines in the Nepali market has decreased.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, there was also concerns that patients have stopped consuming medicines. The survey on the state of pharmaceutical industry of Nepal in the first quarter of the current fiscal year (FY 2022/23) showed such outcomes.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">In the survey, producers said that the demand for medicine in the market has decreased by 18.8 percent compared to corresponding period of last fiscal year. Officials of CNI shared that the survey showed that investment plan in the industry has been stopped for the current fiscal year due the decline in market demand.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The country's economy is in a difficult situation due to Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war. It is said that when there is a problem in the economy, there is a decline in consumption and investment of various goods and services. However, even in difficult situations, there should not have been a decline in the demand for essential items such as food and medicine.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">It is also a matter of surprise that the demand has decreased at a time when more medicines were required for treatment of diarrhoea, cholera, and dengue. Officials of CNI said that they have published the final study based on the answers given by representative of drug dealers through the scientific method.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Due financial constraints, the demand for medicines in the market may have decreased even if the common people delay the treatment of non-emergency diseases that require immediate treatment," said Birendra Raj Pandey, vice president of CNI.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Association of Pharmaceutical Producers of Nepal (APPON) claimed that the condition is more grim than the CNI survey has showed. According to the association, the market has decreased by 28 to 30 percent.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Biplav Adhikari, general secretary of the APPON, said that the decline in the demand for medicine in all regions is due to the awareness of the people after Covid-19.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“The number of patients has decreased in the hospital. After Covid-19, people have become aware of the disease. This is a good point. However, it seems that some people are not receiving treatment due to lack of finances,” said Adhikari, “Both public awareness and lack of finances are responsible for the decrease in demand.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to him, drugs are being imported illegally into Nepal for a long time. He also claimed that the amount of drugs entering in this way has increased recently.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> "Illegal imports also have a hand in the decline in the demand for medicines produced in the country," he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Infectious disease specialist Dr Sher Bahadur Pun said that the number of people getting sick from communicable diseases has decreased recently due to the increase in public awareness. He thinks that this may also have reduced the demand for medicines.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16391', 'image' => '20230103030520_20201110124400_1604969759.Clipboard13.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 15:04:44', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16649', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'FMTC Procures over 63,000 Quintals of Paddy from Farmers ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 3: The state-owned Food Management and Trading Company (FMTC) has procured a total of 63,362 quintals of paddy from farmers as of January 1 in the current fiscal year (FY 2022/23). ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">January 3: The state-owned Food Management and Trading Company (FMTC) has procured a total of 63,362 quintals of paddy from farmers as of January 1 in the current fiscal year (FY 2022/23). </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The FMTC had set the target to purchase 30,000 metric tonnes of paddy from farmers but could manage to buy only this quantity of paddy from its 10 offices across the country. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The company's information officer Sharmila Neupane Subedi shared that paddy procurement process has already begun in Birtamod, Biratnagar, Birgunj, Nepalgunj, Dhangadhi and Mahendranagar while the process is due in Lahan, Janakpur and Bhairahawa. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A total of Rs 990 million has been allocated to buy paddy from farmers, said information officer Subedi. A meeting of the Council of Ministers on November 2 this year had determined the support price of thick paddy and medium-sized paddy for this year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The support price of thick paddy has been fixed at Rs 2,967 per quintal while that of medium-sized paddy is Rs 3,128. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the details provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development on production of paddy for the ongoing fiscal year on last Thursday, paddy was planted across 1,447,789 hectare of land and the yield was 5,486,472 metric tonnes this year. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16390', 'image' => '20230103023546_20221213100633_collage (4).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 14:35:10', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16648', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => '444 Women, Girls from Western Nepal go out of Contact after Reaching India and Third Countries ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 3: Some 444 women and girls who reached various nations for foreign jobs from western Nepal have gone missing. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">January 3: Some 444 women and girls who reached various nations for foreign jobs from western Nepal in 2022 have gone missing. The data is based on the applications submitted at Maiti Nepal, Nepalgunj chapter in 2022 with the requests for their search. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The organisation’s Nepalgunj coordinator Keshab Koirala said that Maiti Nepal received 693 applications for finding the whereabouts of missing people. Out of the 693 missing people, 249 were found.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Families and relatives of the women and girls who lost contact with them after reaching India and third countries have sought the organisation’s help to find their whereabouts. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, 529 women and girls who were believed to be at risk were turned back from the Jamunaha transit point along the Nepal-India border in Banke. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During the interrogations, they were found to have left their home for employment or a foreign trip without consulting their family. Most of them were from Surkhet. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Koirala believes that the use of social networking sites and lack of digital security have further fueled the issues of human trafficking and smuggling. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16389', 'image' => '20230103012152_foreign emp.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 13:20:59', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16647', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'India’s Apex Court Validates Demonetisation Move', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 3: The Supreme Court of India on Monday upheld the legality of the government’s decision in 2016 to demonetise 86 percent of the country’s cash in circulation, saying the decision was taken in consultation with the central bank and followed due process.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">January 3: The Supreme Court of India on Monday upheld the legality of the government’s decision in 2016 to demonetise 86 percent of the country’s cash in circulation, saying the decision was taken in consultation with the central bank and followed due process.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">A bench of five justice of India’s apex top court passed the verdict by a majority on petitions questioning the move. According to media reports, one out of the five justices wrote a dissenting note.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The notification dated 8th November 2016 does not suffer from any flaws in the decision-making process,” Al Jazeera quoted Justice BR Gavai, one of the four justices who agreed on the decision, as saying in a written opinion.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The Indian government’s decision on November 8, 2016 to demonetize all 500-rupee and 1,000-rupee banknotes have had implications in Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The decision created confusion over the exchange of the Indian currency worth Rs 8 billion held by banks in Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Nepal Rastra Bank’s Deputy Spokesperson Narayan Prasad Pokharel said that the central bank is making diplomatic efforts to exchange the banned currency.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Although the central bank has been in constant talks with the Reserve Bank of India to resolve the issue and initiatives have also been taken at the prime-ministerial level, India is not ready to refund, said a source at NRB.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In a surprise TV announcement in November 2016, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the shock move to outlaw all 500-rupee and 1,000-rupee notes – 86 percent of the cash in circulation – to target undeclared “black money” and fight corruption, Al Jazeera added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the Doha-based media network, the move, widely known as demonetisation, badly hurt India’s cash-dependent economy. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“It caused losses for small businesses and manufacturers, bringing on an economic slump and months of financial chaos for ordinary, cash-dependent Indians. Hundreds of thousands of people lined up outside banks and ATMs for days to exchange their cash savings for legal tender as cash ran dry.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Despite the hue and cry, India’s Supreme Court on Monday validated the decision. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">However, one of the justices, BV Nagarathna, gave a dissenting judgment, calling the decision “unlawful” and “an exercise of power, contrary to law.” She reportedly said the currency ban could have been carried out through an act of parliament, not by the government.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to media reports, the Indian citizens were given a month’s time to exchange the demonetized currency but that facility was not given to Nepal.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16388', 'image' => '20230103123327_Dem1-1024x683.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 12:32:24', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16646', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Upper Karnali Project’s Dispute moved to Constitutional Bench ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 3: The hearing on the dispute of the 900-megawatt Upper Karnali Hydropower Project is now referred to the constitutional bench. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">January 3: The hearing on the dispute of the 900-megawatt Upper Karnali Hydropower Project is now referred to the constitutional bench. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Justices duo Kumar Regmi and Til Prasad Shrestha sent the case of the Upper Kanrali Hydropower Project to the constitutional bench citing concerns of constitutional interpretation. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Justices Regmi and Shrestha sent the case to the constitutional bench after hearing the petition of the government on scrapping of the interim order that directed the government not to extend the term of the project. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">A meeting of the Council of Ministers on July 15, 2022 had decided to extend the term of the Indian company GMR for financial closure of the 900 MW Upper Karnali Hydropower Project by two years. But the local residents had lodged a writ petition at the Supreme Court challenging the government’s decision to give two more years for financial closure to GMR. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">After the initial hearing, the SC had issued an interim order directing the government not to extend the term of GMR for the financial closure. But the government had again filed a petition to vacate the court’s interim order. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The Upper Karnali Hydropower Project is a run-of-the-river hydropower project being developed on Karnali River in Daikehl district.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The project is supposed to supply power to Nepal, India, and Bangladesh for a contracted period of 25 years.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The Government of Nepal had awarded the project to GMR Upper Karnali Hydro Power Limited, a subsidiary of GMR Group India, under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in January 2008. As per the agreement, GMR was to develop the project on a build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) basis but has failed to expedite the project.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16387', 'image' => '20230103113228_1l-Image-Upper-Karnali-Hydropower-Project.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 11:31:47', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = falseinclude - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
Warning (2): simplexml_load_file() [<a href='http://php.net/function.simplexml-load-file'>function.simplexml-load-file</a>]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "" [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60]file not found!Code Context// $file = 'http://aabhiyan:QUVLg8Wzs2F7G9N7@nepalstock.com.np/api/indexdata.xml';if(!$xml = simplexml_load_file($file)){$viewFile = '/var/www/html/newbusinessage.com/app/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'articles' => array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ) ), 'current_user' => null, 'logged_in' => false ) $articles = array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16661', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Price of Gold Rising Steadily', 'sub_title' => 'Economists Estimate the Price to Rise Further as World Economies Likely to go in Recession', 'summary' => 'January 4: The price of gold is rising steadily in the domestic market of Nepal. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">January 4: The price of gold is rising steadily in the domestic market of Nepal. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers Association (FeNeGoSiDA), the price of 24 carat gold has been fixed at Rs 102,900 per tola (11.66 grams) on Wednesday while it was traded at Rs 102,600 per tola on Tuesday. The federation has fixed the price of 22 carat gold at Rs 102,400 per tola on Wednesday against Rs 102,100 per tola a day ago. The price on Monday was Rs 101,700 per tola for 24 carat and Rs 101,200 per tola for 22 carat gold. Tuesday's price is Rs 900 more per tola than Monday while the price increased further by Rs 300 per tola on Wednesday.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The price of gold did not rise just on Wednesday, but has been increasing continuously since mid-December. On December 16, the 24 carat gold was traded at Rs 99,900 per tola and 22 carat gold at Rs 99,400 per tola. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Mid-December to mid-January is the off season in terms of gold and silver consumption in Nepal while the marriage season is considered to be the peak season of this business. On that basis, common people think that gold gets cheaper in January. This year, the price of gold went up even in the off-season, which surprised the consumers. However, the demand in the Nepali market has no role in the price of gold and silver.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Manik Ratna Shakya, president of FeNeGoSiDA, says that the price of gold increased in the international market and since the Nepalese currency is weak, gold became expensive in the domestic market. He said, “On top of that, the Nepalese currency is getting weaker compared to the dollar. The exchange rate of the dollar has reached Rs 132 for a dollar. Gold is bound to be more expensive.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Experts say that after the Russia-Ukraine crisis that has been going on for a year and the slump of some of the world's economies, people have taken gold as a safe haven for investment, and its value increased in the international market. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Organizations working in the economic sector, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated that many economies in the world will go into recession, so the price of gold is expected to rise even more in the coming days.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-04', 'modified' => '2023-01-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16402', 'image' => '20230104021746_goldee.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-04 14:16:37', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16660', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Thamel Bookshops Record Rise in Sales ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 4: The business of bookshops in Thamel that had been affected by the coronavirus pandemic for two years is gradually improving. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">January 4: The business of bookshops in Thamel that had been affected by the coronavirus pandemic for two years is gradually improving. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Bookshops in Thamel are mainly targeted at foreigners. As the arrival of tourists declined n the wake of the pandemic, it severely hit their sales and business. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"Business has started picking up pace recently," said proprietor of Pilgrim's Book House, Kahani Tiwari. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"Tourists from Germany, France, the US, India and other countries come to look for different kinds of books. However, the number of Nepali readers is not less compared to foreigners,” said Gaurav Awasthi, sales executive at Pilgrims Book House. Although the number of books sold is not high compared to five years ago, the number of readers has increased after the coronavirus pandemic subsided. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to Awasthi, Nepali readers tend to look for books on self-help, business, children, literature, drama, religion, Sadguru and Osho. Tourists look for books by foreign authors. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">English translation of 'Karnali Blues' written by Nepali writer Buddhisagar, 'Shirishko Phool' by Parijat, 'Forget Kathmandu' by Manjushree Thapa, 'The Guru of Love' by Samrat Upadhyay, 'Arresting God in Kathmandu', 'The Royal Ghost' have been preferred by foreign readers. 'Forget Kathmandu' written by Manjushree Thapa is the most sought after Nepali book by tourists. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In Pilgrims, one can find books priced from Rs 50 to Rs 15,000. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, Proprietor of Nepal Book House in Thamel, Ganesh Jung Karki said that foreign customers come only during certain times of the year but domestic customers are the ones who are coming throughout the year. He said that foreigners are more interested in books related to mountains and trekking in Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Book House sells books priced from Rs 250 to Rs 25,000. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, Anjani Agarwal, who has been running Thamel Books for thirty-five years, deals in second-hand books. She says that her business has decreased with the start of buying and selling books online. Tourists come looking for books that are useful for hiking and history of Nepal, said Agrawal. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-04', 'modified' => '2023-01-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16401', 'image' => '20230104015146_pilgrims.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-04 13:51:10', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16659', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'PM Dahal Tells Government Secretaries to Improve Service Delivery within a Month', 'sub_title' => 'Issues 30-Point Directive to Government Secretaries ', 'summary' => 'January 4: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has issued a 30-point directive to the government secretaries on various topics issues such as making the public service delivery and matters related to public concern fast and efficient. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">January 4: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has issued a 30-point directive to the government secretaries on various topics issues such as making the public service delivery and matters related to public concern fast and efficient. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">PM Dahal directed the secretaries of various ministries during a meeting held at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers on Tuesday. The meeting focused on topics such as good governance, service delivery and the people's livelihood. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The secretaries of all the ministries had earlier presented progress reports, the problems and challenges related faced by their respective ministries to the prime minister on Monday while the secretaries at the Office of the President and Vice President and different constitutional commissions and bodies presented the reports on Tuesday. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Addressing the secretaries after receiving their progress reports, PM Dahal said he expected full cooperation from the civil administration and government bodies this time as well just like in his previous tenure. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He focused his address on topics concerned with delivery of public services related to daily needs of the people and with development projects, and the operation of development works, rather than policy issues or long-term matters. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The executive chief mainly expressed his concern regarding the difficulties faced by the general public on matters related to the service delivery, stressing that these matters needed to be addressed promptly. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Stating that the people's expectation that the services would be accessible at their doorstep along with the practice of federalism has not been fulfilled, PM Dahal said the performance of the government bodies has not been satisfactory as per the people's expectations over the last five years. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"News has been published that people have to stay in queue since 2 am for making passport even as we are having this meeting now. The difficulties associated with acquiring the national identity card is equally harrowing. We do not have a satisfactory answer to the question as to why the identity card is necessary," the PM said, adding that it will take decades for the 30 million Nepalis to get the National Identity Card in their hand if the works on this matter progress in the current pace. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The situation is such that one has to wait for many years to get the driving license and your immediate attention is required on this issue as well,” the PM added. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In course of the address he urged the secretaries of the government bodies concerned to immediately keep in priority works on removing the difficulties the general public is facing while accessing the basic services such as education, health, transport, passport, driving license, National Identity Card and paying the land revenue taxes and other fees. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"A situation will come when harsh action would have to be initiated against the officials responsible if the service-seekers have to bear the difficulties of staying in line like they are enduring now to access various services like passport, the National Identity Card, driving license, no-objection letter provided by the Ministry of Education, medical treatment of patients at government hospitals and at places for paying the land revenue, land survey and tax and fees, even within a month from the formation of the present government," the Prime Minister cautioned. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The PM said that his attention was drawn to the fact that no significant progress was achieved in the revenue collection front. There are questions concerning the delivery of government service, he added. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He raised the question that the development expenditure has been only 11 percent when the half of the fiscal year is already past. "What are the reasons the targeted development expenditure has not been achieved? Who is responsible? If we do not look for the reasons behind this now, then when and who will do it? Bring proposals of improvement based on facts if there are problems at the policy level. However, there cannot be any excuses for shying off the responsibility by blaming someone else," he said. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He also directed the National Planning Commission to inform the government about the budget allocated for big projects, expenses made so far and physical progress as well as to seek the measures in order to expedite development projects. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Stating that public service delivery is always problematic, he asked to find out the root causes of the problem. During his address, the PM also raised the issue that citizens had to face deaths and accidents in lack of systematic public transport service. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Prime Minister Dahal instructed the Home Administration to settle the crime-related complaints immediately. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Likewise, he also urged the bodies concerned to control corruption, to carry out activities in order to prevent COVID risk, to pay attention towards the impact due to cold wave and snowfall, to make smooth supply of daily essentials and to forward activities of development projects in an expedited manner.-- RSS</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-04', 'modified' => '2023-01-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16400', 'image' => '20230104122243_PO-KTM-19-RSS2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-04 12:21:52', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16658', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Central Bank to Monitor Large-Scale Borrowers', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 4: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is preparing to monitor the debtors who take large amount of loans from banks and financial institutions.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">January 4: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is preparing to monitor the debtors who take large amount of loans from banks and financial institutions. The central bank is about to issue a procedure to monitor large amount of loans as the entire financial system will be affected if such large loans turn into bad loans.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The central bank, in its monetary policy for the current fiscal year, has announced to develop the Large Exposure Framework to identify the large-scale borrowers from banks and financial institutions (BFIs).</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In addition, monitoring of the credits availed by the big borrowers from the banking system will be made more effective. The existing single obligor limit will be reviewed, states the monetary policy for the FY 2022/23.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Narayan Prasad Pokharel, deputy spokesperson of NRB, said that the procedures are being prepared according to the announcement made in the monetary policy. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“NRB has announced that a procedure will be drafted for the identification of big debtors and their regulation. The draft of the procedure will be revealed only after taking suggestions from all stakeholders,” he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">In 2014, the 'Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS)' had set a high-risk standard to reduce the risk of loans taken from banks by individuals or groups. The standard was set after assessing that if a loan is at risk, it will affect the entire system.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The BCBS has categorized debtors who borrow more than 10 percent of the primary capital of the bank in the high-risk group. Likewise, for a single person or group, the criteria is that no more than 25 percent of the bank's primary capital fund should be invested in loans. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Eight years after BCBS introduced the standards, preparations are being made to implement it in Nepal. As per the information provided by NRB, the central bank will prepare the framework based on the standards of the BCBS.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">In order to reduce big risks in the financial sector, NRB is currently implementing a single customer credit limit and has been monitoring the details of large-scale borrowers of the banks on a quarterly basis.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">At present, NRB has set a limit of loans to a single customer, firm, company or a group of customers with a mutual relationship.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Similarly, the central bank has been collecting the details of the debtors who have used loans of more than Rs 50 million from commercial banks and Rs 20 million from development banks and finance companies on a quarterly basis for monitoring the large-scale borrowers.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-04', 'modified' => '2023-01-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16399', 'image' => '20230104115335_Banks.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-04 11:52:52', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16656', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Digital Book on Using Key Economic Indicators Launched', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 4: The National Planning Commission has released a digital book on 'Method of Using Key Economic Indicators' on Tuesday. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">January 4: The National Planning Commission has released a digital book on 'Method of Using Key Economic Indicators' on Tuesday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The book has been jointly prepared by the National Statistics Office, Statistics for Development Program, The Asia Foundation and Nepal in Data under the leadership of the National Planning Commission. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">At an event held to make the book public, National Planning Commission Secretary, Kewal Prasad Bhandari, said that the digital book was published to address the big gap felt in obtaining accurate data and ways to analyzing it. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He pointed out the need for analysis to be factual as all policies and plans are based on data. I think this is an important book because it covers from the definition of data to its collection, processing, interpretation, and analysis methods, said Secretary Bhandari. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the occasion, Joint Secretary of the National Statistics Office, Nebin Lal Shrestha, said that the publication has been prepared with the aim of preventing wrong analysis of data in various fields including by policy makers, researchers, public agencies, journalists and in the education sector. -- RSS</span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-04', 'modified' => '2023-01-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16397', 'image' => '20230104105256_image.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-04 10:52:12', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16655', 'article_category_id' => '277', 'title' => 'Milk production Declines by 6 per cent in Madhes Province ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Milk production has shrunk in Madhes province. ', 'content' => '<p><br /> <span style="font-size:18px">January 4: Milk production has shrunk in Madhes province. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">A survey on Madhes Province’s Provincial Economic Activities by Nepal Rastra Bank shows that milk production has fallen by 6.03 per cent.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">Madhes province produced 60,05,95,000 liters of milk in the last fiscal year of 2078/79. However, the milk production was 63,91,06,000 liters in the previous fiscal. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">During the review period, Siraha has contributed to the highest quantity of milk production.</span><br /> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"> In the last fiscal year, Siraha produced 12, 61,41,000 liters of milk out of the total mil production in the province. The district recorded milk production of 12,24,70,000 liters in the fiscal year of 2077/78. </span><br /> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">In the last fiscal year, Rautahat produced the least quantity of milk in the province. The district produced just 2,09,10,000 liters of milk against 7,32,15000 liters of milk generated in the previous fiscal year. The district saw 71 per cent decline in the milk production. </span></p> <p><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-04', 'modified' => '2023-01-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16396', 'image' => '20230104062134_collage (20).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-04 06:18:08', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16654', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Distribution of Passports Obstructed due to Technical Glitch', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 3: The distribution of passports from the Department of Passports was obstructed on Tuesday owing to a technical problem. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">January 3: The distribution of passports from the Department of Passports was obstructed on Tuesday owing to a technical problem. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The department apologized for the inconvenience and confirmed that all the services related to passport distribution have been halted until further notice due to a technical glitch in the system.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Citing the department’s Director Durpada Sapkota, the state-owned national news agency RSS reported that it would take some more time for the system to be fully operational. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The department has also urged the service seekers not to visit the department to get their passports until further notice. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">However, the department made it clear that those who have already booked an appointment for passport application can visit the department on the date fixed. </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16395', 'image' => '20230103063510_20220527120844_Consular-6_consular.jpeg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 18:34:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16653', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' NA Chair Suggests Small Cabinet to Cut Expenditures ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Chairman Ganesh Prasad Timilsina of the National Assembly on Tuesday urged the federal government to reduce number of ministries to cut the expenditures. ', 'content' => '<p>January 3 : Chairman Ganesh Prasad Timilsina of the National Assembly on Tuesday urged the federal government to reduce number of ministries to cut the expenditures. </p> <p>Speaking at an interaction programme entitled “Provincial Assembly’s Future Responsibility and Speakers Forum Nepal's Duty organized by Speakers’ Forum Nepal in Kathmandu, NA Chairman Timilsina advised the government not to increase the number of ministries to share the portfolios to all the ruling parties.</p> <p>Timilsina suggested the government to form a cabinet of 20 ministries and commit to solve the people’s problems wholeheartedly.<br /> “Forming a jumbo Cabinet will increase the expenses of the state and development work will not pick up the pace. To improve the deteriorating economy, the government will have to be economical,” Timilsina added.</p> <p>Timilsina also advised to form a small and efficient cabinet at the province. </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16394', 'image' => '20230103060722_collage (18).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 18:04:02', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16652', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Export of Cement Slumps ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 3: Even though Nepali cement industries have started exporting their products to India, export has not increased as expected.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">January 3: </span></span><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Even though Nepali cement industries have started exporting their products to India, export has not increased as expected.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Businessmen themselves admit that five and a half months have passed since Palpa Cement Industries dispatched cement to India. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Palpa Cement exported 3000 sacks of Tansen brand cement to India for the first time. Before that, no Nepali company had exported cement. With the entry of Nepali cement in the Indian market, many people predicted that its export would increase and the trade deficit would decrease.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Three months after Palpa Cement started exporting its products, Argakhanchi Cement Limited exported 1,400 sacks of cement. This added strength to the expectation that the trade deficit would decrease.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">However, since then, no new industry has been able to export cement. Although the companies have continued exporting, the volume is not encouraging.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Dhruba Thapa, president of the Nepal Cement Producers Association, said that the new companies have not been able to export cement due to the delay in obtaining the Indian quality mark. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“As soon as the quality mark is obtained, other manufacturers will also start exporting cement. We will export a lot by the end of this fiscal year. The situation will improve even more from next year," said Thapa.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">He said that because Nepal's cement is of higher quality than that of India, there will be plenty of markets. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Rajesh Agarwal, the owner of Palpa Cement, said that rising prices in the country have added challenges and competition. The price of diesel in Nepal is 25 per cent higher than that in India. Because of this, the cost of transportation is increasing, making cement more expensive.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Agarwal said that some policies of the Nepal government are affecting the cement industry.</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16393', 'image' => '20230103051705_20220607103309_Clipboard18.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 17:16:47', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16651', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Molung Hydropower Company Opens IPO for Project-Affected Locals and Migrant Workers ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Molung Hydropower Company Limited has opened sale of its Initial Public Offering (IPO) to the locals of project-affected Okhaldhunga district and Nepali citizens working in foreign countries from Tuesday.', 'content' => '<p><br /> January 3: Molung Hydropower Company Limited has opened sale of its Initial Public Offering (IPO) to the locals of project-affected Okhaldhunga district and Nepali citizens working in foreign countries from Tuesday.</p> <p>In the first phase, the company is issuing 8,02,500 units of shares worth Rs 80,250,000 which is 10 per cent of the total issued capital of 80,25,00000 for the project-affected locals of Okhaldhunga district. </p> <p>Out of the 10 per cent share meant for the project-affected locals, 5 per cent shares have been allocated for residents of Molung Rural Municipality while 2.5 per cent share each has been allocated for the locals of Sunkoshi Rural Municipality and Siddicharan Municipality. </p> <p>Locals can apply a minimum of 10 units of shares while the maximum units of shares they can apply is 1000 units. The closing date of the IPO for them is January 17, 2023. If the IPO remains under-subscribed, the deadline to apply will be extended until February 1. </p> <p>Meanwhile, 34% of the company's issued capital i.e. 27,28,500 unit shares will be issued later for the general public. Of this public issue, 10% of the shares totalling 272,850 units shares have been allocated for Nepalese citizens working abroad.</p> <p>Migrant workers can apply for a minimum of 10 units, while the maximum units they can purchase is 8000 units. The closing date for the IPO is January 17. Even if the IPO remains under-subscribed, the deadline will not be extended.</p> <p>After the completion of the first phase of the IPO allotment, the hydro power company will issue the shares to the general public. <br /> Run-of-the river project, Molung Hydropower Company Limited has installed capacity of 7 megawatts. </p> <p>The hydropower has been producing electricity. Per megawatt cost for the construction of the hydro power project stands at Rs 20.8 crores. </p> <p><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16392', 'image' => '20230103043704_collage (17).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 16:34:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16650', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Consumption of Medicines Declines with Growing Health Awareness: Survey ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 3: A recent survey conducted by the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) showed that the demand for medicines in the Nepali market has decreased.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">January 3: A recent survey conducted by the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) showed that the demand for medicines in the Nepali market has decreased.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, there was also concerns that patients have stopped consuming medicines. The survey on the state of pharmaceutical industry of Nepal in the first quarter of the current fiscal year (FY 2022/23) showed such outcomes.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">In the survey, producers said that the demand for medicine in the market has decreased by 18.8 percent compared to corresponding period of last fiscal year. Officials of CNI shared that the survey showed that investment plan in the industry has been stopped for the current fiscal year due the decline in market demand.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The country's economy is in a difficult situation due to Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war. It is said that when there is a problem in the economy, there is a decline in consumption and investment of various goods and services. However, even in difficult situations, there should not have been a decline in the demand for essential items such as food and medicine.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">It is also a matter of surprise that the demand has decreased at a time when more medicines were required for treatment of diarrhoea, cholera, and dengue. Officials of CNI said that they have published the final study based on the answers given by representative of drug dealers through the scientific method.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Due financial constraints, the demand for medicines in the market may have decreased even if the common people delay the treatment of non-emergency diseases that require immediate treatment," said Birendra Raj Pandey, vice president of CNI.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Association of Pharmaceutical Producers of Nepal (APPON) claimed that the condition is more grim than the CNI survey has showed. According to the association, the market has decreased by 28 to 30 percent.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Biplav Adhikari, general secretary of the APPON, said that the decline in the demand for medicine in all regions is due to the awareness of the people after Covid-19.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“The number of patients has decreased in the hospital. After Covid-19, people have become aware of the disease. This is a good point. However, it seems that some people are not receiving treatment due to lack of finances,” said Adhikari, “Both public awareness and lack of finances are responsible for the decrease in demand.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to him, drugs are being imported illegally into Nepal for a long time. He also claimed that the amount of drugs entering in this way has increased recently.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> "Illegal imports also have a hand in the decline in the demand for medicines produced in the country," he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Infectious disease specialist Dr Sher Bahadur Pun said that the number of people getting sick from communicable diseases has decreased recently due to the increase in public awareness. He thinks that this may also have reduced the demand for medicines.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16391', 'image' => '20230103030520_20201110124400_1604969759.Clipboard13.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 15:04:44', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16649', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'FMTC Procures over 63,000 Quintals of Paddy from Farmers ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 3: The state-owned Food Management and Trading Company (FMTC) has procured a total of 63,362 quintals of paddy from farmers as of January 1 in the current fiscal year (FY 2022/23). ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">January 3: The state-owned Food Management and Trading Company (FMTC) has procured a total of 63,362 quintals of paddy from farmers as of January 1 in the current fiscal year (FY 2022/23). </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The FMTC had set the target to purchase 30,000 metric tonnes of paddy from farmers but could manage to buy only this quantity of paddy from its 10 offices across the country. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The company's information officer Sharmila Neupane Subedi shared that paddy procurement process has already begun in Birtamod, Biratnagar, Birgunj, Nepalgunj, Dhangadhi and Mahendranagar while the process is due in Lahan, Janakpur and Bhairahawa. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A total of Rs 990 million has been allocated to buy paddy from farmers, said information officer Subedi. A meeting of the Council of Ministers on November 2 this year had determined the support price of thick paddy and medium-sized paddy for this year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The support price of thick paddy has been fixed at Rs 2,967 per quintal while that of medium-sized paddy is Rs 3,128. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the details provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development on production of paddy for the ongoing fiscal year on last Thursday, paddy was planted across 1,447,789 hectare of land and the yield was 5,486,472 metric tonnes this year. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16390', 'image' => '20230103023546_20221213100633_collage (4).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 14:35:10', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16648', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => '444 Women, Girls from Western Nepal go out of Contact after Reaching India and Third Countries ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 3: Some 444 women and girls who reached various nations for foreign jobs from western Nepal have gone missing. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">January 3: Some 444 women and girls who reached various nations for foreign jobs from western Nepal in 2022 have gone missing. The data is based on the applications submitted at Maiti Nepal, Nepalgunj chapter in 2022 with the requests for their search. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The organisation’s Nepalgunj coordinator Keshab Koirala said that Maiti Nepal received 693 applications for finding the whereabouts of missing people. Out of the 693 missing people, 249 were found.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Families and relatives of the women and girls who lost contact with them after reaching India and third countries have sought the organisation’s help to find their whereabouts. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, 529 women and girls who were believed to be at risk were turned back from the Jamunaha transit point along the Nepal-India border in Banke. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During the interrogations, they were found to have left their home for employment or a foreign trip without consulting their family. Most of them were from Surkhet. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Koirala believes that the use of social networking sites and lack of digital security have further fueled the issues of human trafficking and smuggling. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16389', 'image' => '20230103012152_foreign emp.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 13:20:59', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16647', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'India’s Apex Court Validates Demonetisation Move', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 3: The Supreme Court of India on Monday upheld the legality of the government’s decision in 2016 to demonetise 86 percent of the country’s cash in circulation, saying the decision was taken in consultation with the central bank and followed due process.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">January 3: The Supreme Court of India on Monday upheld the legality of the government’s decision in 2016 to demonetise 86 percent of the country’s cash in circulation, saying the decision was taken in consultation with the central bank and followed due process.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">A bench of five justice of India’s apex top court passed the verdict by a majority on petitions questioning the move. According to media reports, one out of the five justices wrote a dissenting note.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The notification dated 8th November 2016 does not suffer from any flaws in the decision-making process,” Al Jazeera quoted Justice BR Gavai, one of the four justices who agreed on the decision, as saying in a written opinion.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The Indian government’s decision on November 8, 2016 to demonetize all 500-rupee and 1,000-rupee banknotes have had implications in Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The decision created confusion over the exchange of the Indian currency worth Rs 8 billion held by banks in Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Nepal Rastra Bank’s Deputy Spokesperson Narayan Prasad Pokharel said that the central bank is making diplomatic efforts to exchange the banned currency.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Although the central bank has been in constant talks with the Reserve Bank of India to resolve the issue and initiatives have also been taken at the prime-ministerial level, India is not ready to refund, said a source at NRB.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In a surprise TV announcement in November 2016, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the shock move to outlaw all 500-rupee and 1,000-rupee notes – 86 percent of the cash in circulation – to target undeclared “black money” and fight corruption, Al Jazeera added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the Doha-based media network, the move, widely known as demonetisation, badly hurt India’s cash-dependent economy. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“It caused losses for small businesses and manufacturers, bringing on an economic slump and months of financial chaos for ordinary, cash-dependent Indians. Hundreds of thousands of people lined up outside banks and ATMs for days to exchange their cash savings for legal tender as cash ran dry.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Despite the hue and cry, India’s Supreme Court on Monday validated the decision. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">However, one of the justices, BV Nagarathna, gave a dissenting judgment, calling the decision “unlawful” and “an exercise of power, contrary to law.” She reportedly said the currency ban could have been carried out through an act of parliament, not by the government.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to media reports, the Indian citizens were given a month’s time to exchange the demonetized currency but that facility was not given to Nepal.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16388', 'image' => '20230103123327_Dem1-1024x683.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 12:32:24', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16646', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Upper Karnali Project’s Dispute moved to Constitutional Bench ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 3: The hearing on the dispute of the 900-megawatt Upper Karnali Hydropower Project is now referred to the constitutional bench. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">January 3: The hearing on the dispute of the 900-megawatt Upper Karnali Hydropower Project is now referred to the constitutional bench. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Justices duo Kumar Regmi and Til Prasad Shrestha sent the case of the Upper Kanrali Hydropower Project to the constitutional bench citing concerns of constitutional interpretation. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Justices Regmi and Shrestha sent the case to the constitutional bench after hearing the petition of the government on scrapping of the interim order that directed the government not to extend the term of the project. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">A meeting of the Council of Ministers on July 15, 2022 had decided to extend the term of the Indian company GMR for financial closure of the 900 MW Upper Karnali Hydropower Project by two years. But the local residents had lodged a writ petition at the Supreme Court challenging the government’s decision to give two more years for financial closure to GMR. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">After the initial hearing, the SC had issued an interim order directing the government not to extend the term of GMR for the financial closure. But the government had again filed a petition to vacate the court’s interim order. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The Upper Karnali Hydropower Project is a run-of-the-river hydropower project being developed on Karnali River in Daikehl district.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The project is supposed to supply power to Nepal, India, and Bangladesh for a contracted period of 25 years.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The Government of Nepal had awarded the project to GMR Upper Karnali Hydro Power Limited, a subsidiary of GMR Group India, under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in January 2008. As per the agreement, GMR was to develop the project on a build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) basis but has failed to expedite the project.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16387', 'image' => '20230103113228_1l-Image-Upper-Karnali-Hydropower-Project.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 11:31:47', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = falsesimplexml_load_file - [internal], line ?? include - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
Notice (8): Undefined variable: file [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133]Code Context// $file = 'http://aabhiyan:QUVLg8Wzs2F7G9N7@nepalstock.com.np/api/subindexdata.xml';if(!$xml = simplexml_load_file($file)){$viewFile = '/var/www/html/newbusinessage.com/app/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'articles' => array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ) ), 'current_user' => null, 'logged_in' => false ) $articles = array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16661', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Price of Gold Rising Steadily', 'sub_title' => 'Economists Estimate the Price to Rise Further as World Economies Likely to go in Recession', 'summary' => 'January 4: The price of gold is rising steadily in the domestic market of Nepal. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">January 4: The price of gold is rising steadily in the domestic market of Nepal. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers Association (FeNeGoSiDA), the price of 24 carat gold has been fixed at Rs 102,900 per tola (11.66 grams) on Wednesday while it was traded at Rs 102,600 per tola on Tuesday. The federation has fixed the price of 22 carat gold at Rs 102,400 per tola on Wednesday against Rs 102,100 per tola a day ago. The price on Monday was Rs 101,700 per tola for 24 carat and Rs 101,200 per tola for 22 carat gold. Tuesday's price is Rs 900 more per tola than Monday while the price increased further by Rs 300 per tola on Wednesday.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The price of gold did not rise just on Wednesday, but has been increasing continuously since mid-December. On December 16, the 24 carat gold was traded at Rs 99,900 per tola and 22 carat gold at Rs 99,400 per tola. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Mid-December to mid-January is the off season in terms of gold and silver consumption in Nepal while the marriage season is considered to be the peak season of this business. On that basis, common people think that gold gets cheaper in January. This year, the price of gold went up even in the off-season, which surprised the consumers. However, the demand in the Nepali market has no role in the price of gold and silver.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Manik Ratna Shakya, president of FeNeGoSiDA, says that the price of gold increased in the international market and since the Nepalese currency is weak, gold became expensive in the domestic market. He said, “On top of that, the Nepalese currency is getting weaker compared to the dollar. The exchange rate of the dollar has reached Rs 132 for a dollar. Gold is bound to be more expensive.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Experts say that after the Russia-Ukraine crisis that has been going on for a year and the slump of some of the world's economies, people have taken gold as a safe haven for investment, and its value increased in the international market. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Organizations working in the economic sector, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated that many economies in the world will go into recession, so the price of gold is expected to rise even more in the coming days.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-04', 'modified' => '2023-01-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16402', 'image' => '20230104021746_goldee.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-04 14:16:37', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16660', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Thamel Bookshops Record Rise in Sales ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 4: The business of bookshops in Thamel that had been affected by the coronavirus pandemic for two years is gradually improving. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">January 4: The business of bookshops in Thamel that had been affected by the coronavirus pandemic for two years is gradually improving. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Bookshops in Thamel are mainly targeted at foreigners. As the arrival of tourists declined n the wake of the pandemic, it severely hit their sales and business. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"Business has started picking up pace recently," said proprietor of Pilgrim's Book House, Kahani Tiwari. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"Tourists from Germany, France, the US, India and other countries come to look for different kinds of books. However, the number of Nepali readers is not less compared to foreigners,” said Gaurav Awasthi, sales executive at Pilgrims Book House. Although the number of books sold is not high compared to five years ago, the number of readers has increased after the coronavirus pandemic subsided. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to Awasthi, Nepali readers tend to look for books on self-help, business, children, literature, drama, religion, Sadguru and Osho. Tourists look for books by foreign authors. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">English translation of 'Karnali Blues' written by Nepali writer Buddhisagar, 'Shirishko Phool' by Parijat, 'Forget Kathmandu' by Manjushree Thapa, 'The Guru of Love' by Samrat Upadhyay, 'Arresting God in Kathmandu', 'The Royal Ghost' have been preferred by foreign readers. 'Forget Kathmandu' written by Manjushree Thapa is the most sought after Nepali book by tourists. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In Pilgrims, one can find books priced from Rs 50 to Rs 15,000. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, Proprietor of Nepal Book House in Thamel, Ganesh Jung Karki said that foreign customers come only during certain times of the year but domestic customers are the ones who are coming throughout the year. He said that foreigners are more interested in books related to mountains and trekking in Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Book House sells books priced from Rs 250 to Rs 25,000. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, Anjani Agarwal, who has been running Thamel Books for thirty-five years, deals in second-hand books. She says that her business has decreased with the start of buying and selling books online. Tourists come looking for books that are useful for hiking and history of Nepal, said Agrawal. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-04', 'modified' => '2023-01-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16401', 'image' => '20230104015146_pilgrims.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-04 13:51:10', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16659', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'PM Dahal Tells Government Secretaries to Improve Service Delivery within a Month', 'sub_title' => 'Issues 30-Point Directive to Government Secretaries ', 'summary' => 'January 4: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has issued a 30-point directive to the government secretaries on various topics issues such as making the public service delivery and matters related to public concern fast and efficient. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">January 4: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has issued a 30-point directive to the government secretaries on various topics issues such as making the public service delivery and matters related to public concern fast and efficient. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">PM Dahal directed the secretaries of various ministries during a meeting held at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers on Tuesday. The meeting focused on topics such as good governance, service delivery and the people's livelihood. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The secretaries of all the ministries had earlier presented progress reports, the problems and challenges related faced by their respective ministries to the prime minister on Monday while the secretaries at the Office of the President and Vice President and different constitutional commissions and bodies presented the reports on Tuesday. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Addressing the secretaries after receiving their progress reports, PM Dahal said he expected full cooperation from the civil administration and government bodies this time as well just like in his previous tenure. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He focused his address on topics concerned with delivery of public services related to daily needs of the people and with development projects, and the operation of development works, rather than policy issues or long-term matters. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The executive chief mainly expressed his concern regarding the difficulties faced by the general public on matters related to the service delivery, stressing that these matters needed to be addressed promptly. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Stating that the people's expectation that the services would be accessible at their doorstep along with the practice of federalism has not been fulfilled, PM Dahal said the performance of the government bodies has not been satisfactory as per the people's expectations over the last five years. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"News has been published that people have to stay in queue since 2 am for making passport even as we are having this meeting now. The difficulties associated with acquiring the national identity card is equally harrowing. We do not have a satisfactory answer to the question as to why the identity card is necessary," the PM said, adding that it will take decades for the 30 million Nepalis to get the National Identity Card in their hand if the works on this matter progress in the current pace. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The situation is such that one has to wait for many years to get the driving license and your immediate attention is required on this issue as well,” the PM added. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In course of the address he urged the secretaries of the government bodies concerned to immediately keep in priority works on removing the difficulties the general public is facing while accessing the basic services such as education, health, transport, passport, driving license, National Identity Card and paying the land revenue taxes and other fees. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"A situation will come when harsh action would have to be initiated against the officials responsible if the service-seekers have to bear the difficulties of staying in line like they are enduring now to access various services like passport, the National Identity Card, driving license, no-objection letter provided by the Ministry of Education, medical treatment of patients at government hospitals and at places for paying the land revenue, land survey and tax and fees, even within a month from the formation of the present government," the Prime Minister cautioned. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The PM said that his attention was drawn to the fact that no significant progress was achieved in the revenue collection front. There are questions concerning the delivery of government service, he added. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He raised the question that the development expenditure has been only 11 percent when the half of the fiscal year is already past. "What are the reasons the targeted development expenditure has not been achieved? Who is responsible? If we do not look for the reasons behind this now, then when and who will do it? Bring proposals of improvement based on facts if there are problems at the policy level. However, there cannot be any excuses for shying off the responsibility by blaming someone else," he said. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He also directed the National Planning Commission to inform the government about the budget allocated for big projects, expenses made so far and physical progress as well as to seek the measures in order to expedite development projects. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Stating that public service delivery is always problematic, he asked to find out the root causes of the problem. During his address, the PM also raised the issue that citizens had to face deaths and accidents in lack of systematic public transport service. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Prime Minister Dahal instructed the Home Administration to settle the crime-related complaints immediately. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Likewise, he also urged the bodies concerned to control corruption, to carry out activities in order to prevent COVID risk, to pay attention towards the impact due to cold wave and snowfall, to make smooth supply of daily essentials and to forward activities of development projects in an expedited manner.-- RSS</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-04', 'modified' => '2023-01-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16400', 'image' => '20230104122243_PO-KTM-19-RSS2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-04 12:21:52', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16658', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Central Bank to Monitor Large-Scale Borrowers', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 4: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is preparing to monitor the debtors who take large amount of loans from banks and financial institutions.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">January 4: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is preparing to monitor the debtors who take large amount of loans from banks and financial institutions. The central bank is about to issue a procedure to monitor large amount of loans as the entire financial system will be affected if such large loans turn into bad loans.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The central bank, in its monetary policy for the current fiscal year, has announced to develop the Large Exposure Framework to identify the large-scale borrowers from banks and financial institutions (BFIs).</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In addition, monitoring of the credits availed by the big borrowers from the banking system will be made more effective. The existing single obligor limit will be reviewed, states the monetary policy for the FY 2022/23.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Narayan Prasad Pokharel, deputy spokesperson of NRB, said that the procedures are being prepared according to the announcement made in the monetary policy. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“NRB has announced that a procedure will be drafted for the identification of big debtors and their regulation. The draft of the procedure will be revealed only after taking suggestions from all stakeholders,” he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">In 2014, the 'Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS)' had set a high-risk standard to reduce the risk of loans taken from banks by individuals or groups. The standard was set after assessing that if a loan is at risk, it will affect the entire system.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The BCBS has categorized debtors who borrow more than 10 percent of the primary capital of the bank in the high-risk group. Likewise, for a single person or group, the criteria is that no more than 25 percent of the bank's primary capital fund should be invested in loans. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Eight years after BCBS introduced the standards, preparations are being made to implement it in Nepal. As per the information provided by NRB, the central bank will prepare the framework based on the standards of the BCBS.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">In order to reduce big risks in the financial sector, NRB is currently implementing a single customer credit limit and has been monitoring the details of large-scale borrowers of the banks on a quarterly basis.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">At present, NRB has set a limit of loans to a single customer, firm, company or a group of customers with a mutual relationship.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Similarly, the central bank has been collecting the details of the debtors who have used loans of more than Rs 50 million from commercial banks and Rs 20 million from development banks and finance companies on a quarterly basis for monitoring the large-scale borrowers.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-04', 'modified' => '2023-01-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16399', 'image' => '20230104115335_Banks.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-04 11:52:52', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16656', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Digital Book on Using Key Economic Indicators Launched', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 4: The National Planning Commission has released a digital book on 'Method of Using Key Economic Indicators' on Tuesday. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">January 4: The National Planning Commission has released a digital book on 'Method of Using Key Economic Indicators' on Tuesday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The book has been jointly prepared by the National Statistics Office, Statistics for Development Program, The Asia Foundation and Nepal in Data under the leadership of the National Planning Commission. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">At an event held to make the book public, National Planning Commission Secretary, Kewal Prasad Bhandari, said that the digital book was published to address the big gap felt in obtaining accurate data and ways to analyzing it. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He pointed out the need for analysis to be factual as all policies and plans are based on data. I think this is an important book because it covers from the definition of data to its collection, processing, interpretation, and analysis methods, said Secretary Bhandari. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the occasion, Joint Secretary of the National Statistics Office, Nebin Lal Shrestha, said that the publication has been prepared with the aim of preventing wrong analysis of data in various fields including by policy makers, researchers, public agencies, journalists and in the education sector. -- RSS</span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-04', 'modified' => '2023-01-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16397', 'image' => '20230104105256_image.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-04 10:52:12', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16655', 'article_category_id' => '277', 'title' => 'Milk production Declines by 6 per cent in Madhes Province ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Milk production has shrunk in Madhes province. ', 'content' => '<p><br /> <span style="font-size:18px">January 4: Milk production has shrunk in Madhes province. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">A survey on Madhes Province’s Provincial Economic Activities by Nepal Rastra Bank shows that milk production has fallen by 6.03 per cent.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">Madhes province produced 60,05,95,000 liters of milk in the last fiscal year of 2078/79. However, the milk production was 63,91,06,000 liters in the previous fiscal. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">During the review period, Siraha has contributed to the highest quantity of milk production.</span><br /> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"> In the last fiscal year, Siraha produced 12, 61,41,000 liters of milk out of the total mil production in the province. The district recorded milk production of 12,24,70,000 liters in the fiscal year of 2077/78. </span><br /> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">In the last fiscal year, Rautahat produced the least quantity of milk in the province. The district produced just 2,09,10,000 liters of milk against 7,32,15000 liters of milk generated in the previous fiscal year. The district saw 71 per cent decline in the milk production. </span></p> <p><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-04', 'modified' => '2023-01-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16396', 'image' => '20230104062134_collage (20).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-04 06:18:08', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16654', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Distribution of Passports Obstructed due to Technical Glitch', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 3: The distribution of passports from the Department of Passports was obstructed on Tuesday owing to a technical problem. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">January 3: The distribution of passports from the Department of Passports was obstructed on Tuesday owing to a technical problem. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The department apologized for the inconvenience and confirmed that all the services related to passport distribution have been halted until further notice due to a technical glitch in the system.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Citing the department’s Director Durpada Sapkota, the state-owned national news agency RSS reported that it would take some more time for the system to be fully operational. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The department has also urged the service seekers not to visit the department to get their passports until further notice. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">However, the department made it clear that those who have already booked an appointment for passport application can visit the department on the date fixed. </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16395', 'image' => '20230103063510_20220527120844_Consular-6_consular.jpeg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 18:34:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16653', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' NA Chair Suggests Small Cabinet to Cut Expenditures ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Chairman Ganesh Prasad Timilsina of the National Assembly on Tuesday urged the federal government to reduce number of ministries to cut the expenditures. ', 'content' => '<p>January 3 : Chairman Ganesh Prasad Timilsina of the National Assembly on Tuesday urged the federal government to reduce number of ministries to cut the expenditures. </p> <p>Speaking at an interaction programme entitled “Provincial Assembly’s Future Responsibility and Speakers Forum Nepal's Duty organized by Speakers’ Forum Nepal in Kathmandu, NA Chairman Timilsina advised the government not to increase the number of ministries to share the portfolios to all the ruling parties.</p> <p>Timilsina suggested the government to form a cabinet of 20 ministries and commit to solve the people’s problems wholeheartedly.<br /> “Forming a jumbo Cabinet will increase the expenses of the state and development work will not pick up the pace. To improve the deteriorating economy, the government will have to be economical,” Timilsina added.</p> <p>Timilsina also advised to form a small and efficient cabinet at the province. </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16394', 'image' => '20230103060722_collage (18).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 18:04:02', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16652', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Export of Cement Slumps ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 3: Even though Nepali cement industries have started exporting their products to India, export has not increased as expected.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">January 3: </span></span><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Even though Nepali cement industries have started exporting their products to India, export has not increased as expected.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Businessmen themselves admit that five and a half months have passed since Palpa Cement Industries dispatched cement to India. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Palpa Cement exported 3000 sacks of Tansen brand cement to India for the first time. Before that, no Nepali company had exported cement. With the entry of Nepali cement in the Indian market, many people predicted that its export would increase and the trade deficit would decrease.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Three months after Palpa Cement started exporting its products, Argakhanchi Cement Limited exported 1,400 sacks of cement. This added strength to the expectation that the trade deficit would decrease.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">However, since then, no new industry has been able to export cement. Although the companies have continued exporting, the volume is not encouraging.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Dhruba Thapa, president of the Nepal Cement Producers Association, said that the new companies have not been able to export cement due to the delay in obtaining the Indian quality mark. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“As soon as the quality mark is obtained, other manufacturers will also start exporting cement. We will export a lot by the end of this fiscal year. The situation will improve even more from next year," said Thapa.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">He said that because Nepal's cement is of higher quality than that of India, there will be plenty of markets. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Rajesh Agarwal, the owner of Palpa Cement, said that rising prices in the country have added challenges and competition. The price of diesel in Nepal is 25 per cent higher than that in India. Because of this, the cost of transportation is increasing, making cement more expensive.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Agarwal said that some policies of the Nepal government are affecting the cement industry.</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16393', 'image' => '20230103051705_20220607103309_Clipboard18.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 17:16:47', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16651', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Molung Hydropower Company Opens IPO for Project-Affected Locals and Migrant Workers ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Molung Hydropower Company Limited has opened sale of its Initial Public Offering (IPO) to the locals of project-affected Okhaldhunga district and Nepali citizens working in foreign countries from Tuesday.', 'content' => '<p><br /> January 3: Molung Hydropower Company Limited has opened sale of its Initial Public Offering (IPO) to the locals of project-affected Okhaldhunga district and Nepali citizens working in foreign countries from Tuesday.</p> <p>In the first phase, the company is issuing 8,02,500 units of shares worth Rs 80,250,000 which is 10 per cent of the total issued capital of 80,25,00000 for the project-affected locals of Okhaldhunga district. </p> <p>Out of the 10 per cent share meant for the project-affected locals, 5 per cent shares have been allocated for residents of Molung Rural Municipality while 2.5 per cent share each has been allocated for the locals of Sunkoshi Rural Municipality and Siddicharan Municipality. </p> <p>Locals can apply a minimum of 10 units of shares while the maximum units of shares they can apply is 1000 units. The closing date of the IPO for them is January 17, 2023. If the IPO remains under-subscribed, the deadline to apply will be extended until February 1. </p> <p>Meanwhile, 34% of the company's issued capital i.e. 27,28,500 unit shares will be issued later for the general public. Of this public issue, 10% of the shares totalling 272,850 units shares have been allocated for Nepalese citizens working abroad.</p> <p>Migrant workers can apply for a minimum of 10 units, while the maximum units they can purchase is 8000 units. The closing date for the IPO is January 17. Even if the IPO remains under-subscribed, the deadline will not be extended.</p> <p>After the completion of the first phase of the IPO allotment, the hydro power company will issue the shares to the general public. <br /> Run-of-the river project, Molung Hydropower Company Limited has installed capacity of 7 megawatts. </p> <p>The hydropower has been producing electricity. Per megawatt cost for the construction of the hydro power project stands at Rs 20.8 crores. </p> <p><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16392', 'image' => '20230103043704_collage (17).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 16:34:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16650', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Consumption of Medicines Declines with Growing Health Awareness: Survey ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 3: A recent survey conducted by the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) showed that the demand for medicines in the Nepali market has decreased.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">January 3: A recent survey conducted by the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) showed that the demand for medicines in the Nepali market has decreased.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, there was also concerns that patients have stopped consuming medicines. The survey on the state of pharmaceutical industry of Nepal in the first quarter of the current fiscal year (FY 2022/23) showed such outcomes.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">In the survey, producers said that the demand for medicine in the market has decreased by 18.8 percent compared to corresponding period of last fiscal year. Officials of CNI shared that the survey showed that investment plan in the industry has been stopped for the current fiscal year due the decline in market demand.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The country's economy is in a difficult situation due to Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war. It is said that when there is a problem in the economy, there is a decline in consumption and investment of various goods and services. However, even in difficult situations, there should not have been a decline in the demand for essential items such as food and medicine.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">It is also a matter of surprise that the demand has decreased at a time when more medicines were required for treatment of diarrhoea, cholera, and dengue. Officials of CNI said that they have published the final study based on the answers given by representative of drug dealers through the scientific method.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Due financial constraints, the demand for medicines in the market may have decreased even if the common people delay the treatment of non-emergency diseases that require immediate treatment," said Birendra Raj Pandey, vice president of CNI.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Association of Pharmaceutical Producers of Nepal (APPON) claimed that the condition is more grim than the CNI survey has showed. According to the association, the market has decreased by 28 to 30 percent.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Biplav Adhikari, general secretary of the APPON, said that the decline in the demand for medicine in all regions is due to the awareness of the people after Covid-19.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“The number of patients has decreased in the hospital. After Covid-19, people have become aware of the disease. This is a good point. However, it seems that some people are not receiving treatment due to lack of finances,” said Adhikari, “Both public awareness and lack of finances are responsible for the decrease in demand.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to him, drugs are being imported illegally into Nepal for a long time. He also claimed that the amount of drugs entering in this way has increased recently.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> "Illegal imports also have a hand in the decline in the demand for medicines produced in the country," he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Infectious disease specialist Dr Sher Bahadur Pun said that the number of people getting sick from communicable diseases has decreased recently due to the increase in public awareness. He thinks that this may also have reduced the demand for medicines.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16391', 'image' => '20230103030520_20201110124400_1604969759.Clipboard13.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 15:04:44', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16649', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'FMTC Procures over 63,000 Quintals of Paddy from Farmers ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 3: The state-owned Food Management and Trading Company (FMTC) has procured a total of 63,362 quintals of paddy from farmers as of January 1 in the current fiscal year (FY 2022/23). ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">January 3: The state-owned Food Management and Trading Company (FMTC) has procured a total of 63,362 quintals of paddy from farmers as of January 1 in the current fiscal year (FY 2022/23). </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The FMTC had set the target to purchase 30,000 metric tonnes of paddy from farmers but could manage to buy only this quantity of paddy from its 10 offices across the country. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The company's information officer Sharmila Neupane Subedi shared that paddy procurement process has already begun in Birtamod, Biratnagar, Birgunj, Nepalgunj, Dhangadhi and Mahendranagar while the process is due in Lahan, Janakpur and Bhairahawa. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A total of Rs 990 million has been allocated to buy paddy from farmers, said information officer Subedi. A meeting of the Council of Ministers on November 2 this year had determined the support price of thick paddy and medium-sized paddy for this year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The support price of thick paddy has been fixed at Rs 2,967 per quintal while that of medium-sized paddy is Rs 3,128. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the details provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development on production of paddy for the ongoing fiscal year on last Thursday, paddy was planted across 1,447,789 hectare of land and the yield was 5,486,472 metric tonnes this year. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16390', 'image' => '20230103023546_20221213100633_collage (4).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 14:35:10', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16648', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => '444 Women, Girls from Western Nepal go out of Contact after Reaching India and Third Countries ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 3: Some 444 women and girls who reached various nations for foreign jobs from western Nepal have gone missing. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">January 3: Some 444 women and girls who reached various nations for foreign jobs from western Nepal in 2022 have gone missing. The data is based on the applications submitted at Maiti Nepal, Nepalgunj chapter in 2022 with the requests for their search. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The organisation’s Nepalgunj coordinator Keshab Koirala said that Maiti Nepal received 693 applications for finding the whereabouts of missing people. Out of the 693 missing people, 249 were found.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Families and relatives of the women and girls who lost contact with them after reaching India and third countries have sought the organisation’s help to find their whereabouts. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, 529 women and girls who were believed to be at risk were turned back from the Jamunaha transit point along the Nepal-India border in Banke. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During the interrogations, they were found to have left their home for employment or a foreign trip without consulting their family. Most of them were from Surkhet. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Koirala believes that the use of social networking sites and lack of digital security have further fueled the issues of human trafficking and smuggling. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16389', 'image' => '20230103012152_foreign emp.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 13:20:59', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16647', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'India’s Apex Court Validates Demonetisation Move', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 3: The Supreme Court of India on Monday upheld the legality of the government’s decision in 2016 to demonetise 86 percent of the country’s cash in circulation, saying the decision was taken in consultation with the central bank and followed due process.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">January 3: The Supreme Court of India on Monday upheld the legality of the government’s decision in 2016 to demonetise 86 percent of the country’s cash in circulation, saying the decision was taken in consultation with the central bank and followed due process.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">A bench of five justice of India’s apex top court passed the verdict by a majority on petitions questioning the move. According to media reports, one out of the five justices wrote a dissenting note.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The notification dated 8th November 2016 does not suffer from any flaws in the decision-making process,” Al Jazeera quoted Justice BR Gavai, one of the four justices who agreed on the decision, as saying in a written opinion.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The Indian government’s decision on November 8, 2016 to demonetize all 500-rupee and 1,000-rupee banknotes have had implications in Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The decision created confusion over the exchange of the Indian currency worth Rs 8 billion held by banks in Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Nepal Rastra Bank’s Deputy Spokesperson Narayan Prasad Pokharel said that the central bank is making diplomatic efforts to exchange the banned currency.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Although the central bank has been in constant talks with the Reserve Bank of India to resolve the issue and initiatives have also been taken at the prime-ministerial level, India is not ready to refund, said a source at NRB.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In a surprise TV announcement in November 2016, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the shock move to outlaw all 500-rupee and 1,000-rupee notes – 86 percent of the cash in circulation – to target undeclared “black money” and fight corruption, Al Jazeera added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the Doha-based media network, the move, widely known as demonetisation, badly hurt India’s cash-dependent economy. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“It caused losses for small businesses and manufacturers, bringing on an economic slump and months of financial chaos for ordinary, cash-dependent Indians. Hundreds of thousands of people lined up outside banks and ATMs for days to exchange their cash savings for legal tender as cash ran dry.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Despite the hue and cry, India’s Supreme Court on Monday validated the decision. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">However, one of the justices, BV Nagarathna, gave a dissenting judgment, calling the decision “unlawful” and “an exercise of power, contrary to law.” She reportedly said the currency ban could have been carried out through an act of parliament, not by the government.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to media reports, the Indian citizens were given a month’s time to exchange the demonetized currency but that facility was not given to Nepal.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16388', 'image' => '20230103123327_Dem1-1024x683.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 12:32:24', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16646', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Upper Karnali Project’s Dispute moved to Constitutional Bench ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 3: The hearing on the dispute of the 900-megawatt Upper Karnali Hydropower Project is now referred to the constitutional bench. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">January 3: The hearing on the dispute of the 900-megawatt Upper Karnali Hydropower Project is now referred to the constitutional bench. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Justices duo Kumar Regmi and Til Prasad Shrestha sent the case of the Upper Kanrali Hydropower Project to the constitutional bench citing concerns of constitutional interpretation. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Justices Regmi and Shrestha sent the case to the constitutional bench after hearing the petition of the government on scrapping of the interim order that directed the government not to extend the term of the project. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">A meeting of the Council of Ministers on July 15, 2022 had decided to extend the term of the Indian company GMR for financial closure of the 900 MW Upper Karnali Hydropower Project by two years. But the local residents had lodged a writ petition at the Supreme Court challenging the government’s decision to give two more years for financial closure to GMR. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">After the initial hearing, the SC had issued an interim order directing the government not to extend the term of GMR for the financial closure. But the government had again filed a petition to vacate the court’s interim order. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The Upper Karnali Hydropower Project is a run-of-the-river hydropower project being developed on Karnali River in Daikehl district.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The project is supposed to supply power to Nepal, India, and Bangladesh for a contracted period of 25 years.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The Government of Nepal had awarded the project to GMR Upper Karnali Hydro Power Limited, a subsidiary of GMR Group India, under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in January 2008. As per the agreement, GMR was to develop the project on a build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) basis but has failed to expedite the project.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16387', 'image' => '20230103113228_1l-Image-Upper-Karnali-Hydropower-Project.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 11:31:47', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = false $xml = falseinclude - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
Warning (2): simplexml_load_file() [<a href='http://php.net/function.simplexml-load-file'>function.simplexml-load-file</a>]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "" [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133]file not found!Code Context// $file = 'http://aabhiyan:QUVLg8Wzs2F7G9N7@nepalstock.com.np/api/subindexdata.xml';if(!$xml = simplexml_load_file($file)){$viewFile = '/var/www/html/newbusinessage.com/app/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'articles' => array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ) ), 'current_user' => null, 'logged_in' => false ) $articles = array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16661', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Price of Gold Rising Steadily', 'sub_title' => 'Economists Estimate the Price to Rise Further as World Economies Likely to go in Recession', 'summary' => 'January 4: The price of gold is rising steadily in the domestic market of Nepal. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">January 4: The price of gold is rising steadily in the domestic market of Nepal. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers Association (FeNeGoSiDA), the price of 24 carat gold has been fixed at Rs 102,900 per tola (11.66 grams) on Wednesday while it was traded at Rs 102,600 per tola on Tuesday. The federation has fixed the price of 22 carat gold at Rs 102,400 per tola on Wednesday against Rs 102,100 per tola a day ago. The price on Monday was Rs 101,700 per tola for 24 carat and Rs 101,200 per tola for 22 carat gold. Tuesday's price is Rs 900 more per tola than Monday while the price increased further by Rs 300 per tola on Wednesday.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The price of gold did not rise just on Wednesday, but has been increasing continuously since mid-December. On December 16, the 24 carat gold was traded at Rs 99,900 per tola and 22 carat gold at Rs 99,400 per tola. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Mid-December to mid-January is the off season in terms of gold and silver consumption in Nepal while the marriage season is considered to be the peak season of this business. On that basis, common people think that gold gets cheaper in January. This year, the price of gold went up even in the off-season, which surprised the consumers. However, the demand in the Nepali market has no role in the price of gold and silver.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Manik Ratna Shakya, president of FeNeGoSiDA, says that the price of gold increased in the international market and since the Nepalese currency is weak, gold became expensive in the domestic market. He said, “On top of that, the Nepalese currency is getting weaker compared to the dollar. The exchange rate of the dollar has reached Rs 132 for a dollar. Gold is bound to be more expensive.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Experts say that after the Russia-Ukraine crisis that has been going on for a year and the slump of some of the world's economies, people have taken gold as a safe haven for investment, and its value increased in the international market. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Organizations working in the economic sector, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated that many economies in the world will go into recession, so the price of gold is expected to rise even more in the coming days.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-04', 'modified' => '2023-01-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16402', 'image' => '20230104021746_goldee.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-04 14:16:37', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16660', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Thamel Bookshops Record Rise in Sales ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 4: The business of bookshops in Thamel that had been affected by the coronavirus pandemic for two years is gradually improving. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">January 4: The business of bookshops in Thamel that had been affected by the coronavirus pandemic for two years is gradually improving. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Bookshops in Thamel are mainly targeted at foreigners. As the arrival of tourists declined n the wake of the pandemic, it severely hit their sales and business. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"Business has started picking up pace recently," said proprietor of Pilgrim's Book House, Kahani Tiwari. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"Tourists from Germany, France, the US, India and other countries come to look for different kinds of books. However, the number of Nepali readers is not less compared to foreigners,” said Gaurav Awasthi, sales executive at Pilgrims Book House. Although the number of books sold is not high compared to five years ago, the number of readers has increased after the coronavirus pandemic subsided. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to Awasthi, Nepali readers tend to look for books on self-help, business, children, literature, drama, religion, Sadguru and Osho. Tourists look for books by foreign authors. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">English translation of 'Karnali Blues' written by Nepali writer Buddhisagar, 'Shirishko Phool' by Parijat, 'Forget Kathmandu' by Manjushree Thapa, 'The Guru of Love' by Samrat Upadhyay, 'Arresting God in Kathmandu', 'The Royal Ghost' have been preferred by foreign readers. 'Forget Kathmandu' written by Manjushree Thapa is the most sought after Nepali book by tourists. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In Pilgrims, one can find books priced from Rs 50 to Rs 15,000. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, Proprietor of Nepal Book House in Thamel, Ganesh Jung Karki said that foreign customers come only during certain times of the year but domestic customers are the ones who are coming throughout the year. He said that foreigners are more interested in books related to mountains and trekking in Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Book House sells books priced from Rs 250 to Rs 25,000. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, Anjani Agarwal, who has been running Thamel Books for thirty-five years, deals in second-hand books. She says that her business has decreased with the start of buying and selling books online. Tourists come looking for books that are useful for hiking and history of Nepal, said Agrawal. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-04', 'modified' => '2023-01-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16401', 'image' => '20230104015146_pilgrims.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-04 13:51:10', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16659', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'PM Dahal Tells Government Secretaries to Improve Service Delivery within a Month', 'sub_title' => 'Issues 30-Point Directive to Government Secretaries ', 'summary' => 'January 4: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has issued a 30-point directive to the government secretaries on various topics issues such as making the public service delivery and matters related to public concern fast and efficient. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">January 4: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has issued a 30-point directive to the government secretaries on various topics issues such as making the public service delivery and matters related to public concern fast and efficient. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">PM Dahal directed the secretaries of various ministries during a meeting held at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers on Tuesday. The meeting focused on topics such as good governance, service delivery and the people's livelihood. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The secretaries of all the ministries had earlier presented progress reports, the problems and challenges related faced by their respective ministries to the prime minister on Monday while the secretaries at the Office of the President and Vice President and different constitutional commissions and bodies presented the reports on Tuesday. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Addressing the secretaries after receiving their progress reports, PM Dahal said he expected full cooperation from the civil administration and government bodies this time as well just like in his previous tenure. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He focused his address on topics concerned with delivery of public services related to daily needs of the people and with development projects, and the operation of development works, rather than policy issues or long-term matters. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The executive chief mainly expressed his concern regarding the difficulties faced by the general public on matters related to the service delivery, stressing that these matters needed to be addressed promptly. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Stating that the people's expectation that the services would be accessible at their doorstep along with the practice of federalism has not been fulfilled, PM Dahal said the performance of the government bodies has not been satisfactory as per the people's expectations over the last five years. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"News has been published that people have to stay in queue since 2 am for making passport even as we are having this meeting now. The difficulties associated with acquiring the national identity card is equally harrowing. We do not have a satisfactory answer to the question as to why the identity card is necessary," the PM said, adding that it will take decades for the 30 million Nepalis to get the National Identity Card in their hand if the works on this matter progress in the current pace. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The situation is such that one has to wait for many years to get the driving license and your immediate attention is required on this issue as well,” the PM added. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In course of the address he urged the secretaries of the government bodies concerned to immediately keep in priority works on removing the difficulties the general public is facing while accessing the basic services such as education, health, transport, passport, driving license, National Identity Card and paying the land revenue taxes and other fees. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"A situation will come when harsh action would have to be initiated against the officials responsible if the service-seekers have to bear the difficulties of staying in line like they are enduring now to access various services like passport, the National Identity Card, driving license, no-objection letter provided by the Ministry of Education, medical treatment of patients at government hospitals and at places for paying the land revenue, land survey and tax and fees, even within a month from the formation of the present government," the Prime Minister cautioned. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The PM said that his attention was drawn to the fact that no significant progress was achieved in the revenue collection front. There are questions concerning the delivery of government service, he added. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He raised the question that the development expenditure has been only 11 percent when the half of the fiscal year is already past. "What are the reasons the targeted development expenditure has not been achieved? Who is responsible? If we do not look for the reasons behind this now, then when and who will do it? Bring proposals of improvement based on facts if there are problems at the policy level. However, there cannot be any excuses for shying off the responsibility by blaming someone else," he said. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He also directed the National Planning Commission to inform the government about the budget allocated for big projects, expenses made so far and physical progress as well as to seek the measures in order to expedite development projects. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Stating that public service delivery is always problematic, he asked to find out the root causes of the problem. During his address, the PM also raised the issue that citizens had to face deaths and accidents in lack of systematic public transport service. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Prime Minister Dahal instructed the Home Administration to settle the crime-related complaints immediately. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Likewise, he also urged the bodies concerned to control corruption, to carry out activities in order to prevent COVID risk, to pay attention towards the impact due to cold wave and snowfall, to make smooth supply of daily essentials and to forward activities of development projects in an expedited manner.-- RSS</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-04', 'modified' => '2023-01-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16400', 'image' => '20230104122243_PO-KTM-19-RSS2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-04 12:21:52', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16658', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Central Bank to Monitor Large-Scale Borrowers', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 4: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is preparing to monitor the debtors who take large amount of loans from banks and financial institutions.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">January 4: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is preparing to monitor the debtors who take large amount of loans from banks and financial institutions. The central bank is about to issue a procedure to monitor large amount of loans as the entire financial system will be affected if such large loans turn into bad loans.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The central bank, in its monetary policy for the current fiscal year, has announced to develop the Large Exposure Framework to identify the large-scale borrowers from banks and financial institutions (BFIs).</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In addition, monitoring of the credits availed by the big borrowers from the banking system will be made more effective. The existing single obligor limit will be reviewed, states the monetary policy for the FY 2022/23.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Narayan Prasad Pokharel, deputy spokesperson of NRB, said that the procedures are being prepared according to the announcement made in the monetary policy. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“NRB has announced that a procedure will be drafted for the identification of big debtors and their regulation. The draft of the procedure will be revealed only after taking suggestions from all stakeholders,” he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">In 2014, the 'Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS)' had set a high-risk standard to reduce the risk of loans taken from banks by individuals or groups. The standard was set after assessing that if a loan is at risk, it will affect the entire system.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The BCBS has categorized debtors who borrow more than 10 percent of the primary capital of the bank in the high-risk group. Likewise, for a single person or group, the criteria is that no more than 25 percent of the bank's primary capital fund should be invested in loans. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Eight years after BCBS introduced the standards, preparations are being made to implement it in Nepal. As per the information provided by NRB, the central bank will prepare the framework based on the standards of the BCBS.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">In order to reduce big risks in the financial sector, NRB is currently implementing a single customer credit limit and has been monitoring the details of large-scale borrowers of the banks on a quarterly basis.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">At present, NRB has set a limit of loans to a single customer, firm, company or a group of customers with a mutual relationship.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Similarly, the central bank has been collecting the details of the debtors who have used loans of more than Rs 50 million from commercial banks and Rs 20 million from development banks and finance companies on a quarterly basis for monitoring the large-scale borrowers.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-04', 'modified' => '2023-01-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16399', 'image' => '20230104115335_Banks.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-04 11:52:52', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16656', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Digital Book on Using Key Economic Indicators Launched', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 4: The National Planning Commission has released a digital book on 'Method of Using Key Economic Indicators' on Tuesday. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">January 4: The National Planning Commission has released a digital book on 'Method of Using Key Economic Indicators' on Tuesday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The book has been jointly prepared by the National Statistics Office, Statistics for Development Program, The Asia Foundation and Nepal in Data under the leadership of the National Planning Commission. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">At an event held to make the book public, National Planning Commission Secretary, Kewal Prasad Bhandari, said that the digital book was published to address the big gap felt in obtaining accurate data and ways to analyzing it. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He pointed out the need for analysis to be factual as all policies and plans are based on data. I think this is an important book because it covers from the definition of data to its collection, processing, interpretation, and analysis methods, said Secretary Bhandari. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the occasion, Joint Secretary of the National Statistics Office, Nebin Lal Shrestha, said that the publication has been prepared with the aim of preventing wrong analysis of data in various fields including by policy makers, researchers, public agencies, journalists and in the education sector. -- RSS</span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-04', 'modified' => '2023-01-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16397', 'image' => '20230104105256_image.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-04 10:52:12', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16655', 'article_category_id' => '277', 'title' => 'Milk production Declines by 6 per cent in Madhes Province ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Milk production has shrunk in Madhes province. ', 'content' => '<p><br /> <span style="font-size:18px">January 4: Milk production has shrunk in Madhes province. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">A survey on Madhes Province’s Provincial Economic Activities by Nepal Rastra Bank shows that milk production has fallen by 6.03 per cent.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">Madhes province produced 60,05,95,000 liters of milk in the last fiscal year of 2078/79. However, the milk production was 63,91,06,000 liters in the previous fiscal. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">During the review period, Siraha has contributed to the highest quantity of milk production.</span><br /> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"> In the last fiscal year, Siraha produced 12, 61,41,000 liters of milk out of the total mil production in the province. The district recorded milk production of 12,24,70,000 liters in the fiscal year of 2077/78. </span><br /> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">In the last fiscal year, Rautahat produced the least quantity of milk in the province. The district produced just 2,09,10,000 liters of milk against 7,32,15000 liters of milk generated in the previous fiscal year. The district saw 71 per cent decline in the milk production. </span></p> <p><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-04', 'modified' => '2023-01-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16396', 'image' => '20230104062134_collage (20).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-04 06:18:08', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16654', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Distribution of Passports Obstructed due to Technical Glitch', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 3: The distribution of passports from the Department of Passports was obstructed on Tuesday owing to a technical problem. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">January 3: The distribution of passports from the Department of Passports was obstructed on Tuesday owing to a technical problem. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The department apologized for the inconvenience and confirmed that all the services related to passport distribution have been halted until further notice due to a technical glitch in the system.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Citing the department’s Director Durpada Sapkota, the state-owned national news agency RSS reported that it would take some more time for the system to be fully operational. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The department has also urged the service seekers not to visit the department to get their passports until further notice. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">However, the department made it clear that those who have already booked an appointment for passport application can visit the department on the date fixed. </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16395', 'image' => '20230103063510_20220527120844_Consular-6_consular.jpeg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 18:34:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16653', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' NA Chair Suggests Small Cabinet to Cut Expenditures ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Chairman Ganesh Prasad Timilsina of the National Assembly on Tuesday urged the federal government to reduce number of ministries to cut the expenditures. ', 'content' => '<p>January 3 : Chairman Ganesh Prasad Timilsina of the National Assembly on Tuesday urged the federal government to reduce number of ministries to cut the expenditures. </p> <p>Speaking at an interaction programme entitled “Provincial Assembly’s Future Responsibility and Speakers Forum Nepal's Duty organized by Speakers’ Forum Nepal in Kathmandu, NA Chairman Timilsina advised the government not to increase the number of ministries to share the portfolios to all the ruling parties.</p> <p>Timilsina suggested the government to form a cabinet of 20 ministries and commit to solve the people’s problems wholeheartedly.<br /> “Forming a jumbo Cabinet will increase the expenses of the state and development work will not pick up the pace. To improve the deteriorating economy, the government will have to be economical,” Timilsina added.</p> <p>Timilsina also advised to form a small and efficient cabinet at the province. </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16394', 'image' => '20230103060722_collage (18).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 18:04:02', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16652', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Export of Cement Slumps ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 3: Even though Nepali cement industries have started exporting their products to India, export has not increased as expected.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">January 3: </span></span><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Even though Nepali cement industries have started exporting their products to India, export has not increased as expected.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Businessmen themselves admit that five and a half months have passed since Palpa Cement Industries dispatched cement to India. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Palpa Cement exported 3000 sacks of Tansen brand cement to India for the first time. Before that, no Nepali company had exported cement. With the entry of Nepali cement in the Indian market, many people predicted that its export would increase and the trade deficit would decrease.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Three months after Palpa Cement started exporting its products, Argakhanchi Cement Limited exported 1,400 sacks of cement. This added strength to the expectation that the trade deficit would decrease.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">However, since then, no new industry has been able to export cement. Although the companies have continued exporting, the volume is not encouraging.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Dhruba Thapa, president of the Nepal Cement Producers Association, said that the new companies have not been able to export cement due to the delay in obtaining the Indian quality mark. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“As soon as the quality mark is obtained, other manufacturers will also start exporting cement. We will export a lot by the end of this fiscal year. The situation will improve even more from next year," said Thapa.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">He said that because Nepal's cement is of higher quality than that of India, there will be plenty of markets. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Rajesh Agarwal, the owner of Palpa Cement, said that rising prices in the country have added challenges and competition. The price of diesel in Nepal is 25 per cent higher than that in India. Because of this, the cost of transportation is increasing, making cement more expensive.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Agarwal said that some policies of the Nepal government are affecting the cement industry.</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16393', 'image' => '20230103051705_20220607103309_Clipboard18.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 17:16:47', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16651', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Molung Hydropower Company Opens IPO for Project-Affected Locals and Migrant Workers ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Molung Hydropower Company Limited has opened sale of its Initial Public Offering (IPO) to the locals of project-affected Okhaldhunga district and Nepali citizens working in foreign countries from Tuesday.', 'content' => '<p><br /> January 3: Molung Hydropower Company Limited has opened sale of its Initial Public Offering (IPO) to the locals of project-affected Okhaldhunga district and Nepali citizens working in foreign countries from Tuesday.</p> <p>In the first phase, the company is issuing 8,02,500 units of shares worth Rs 80,250,000 which is 10 per cent of the total issued capital of 80,25,00000 for the project-affected locals of Okhaldhunga district. </p> <p>Out of the 10 per cent share meant for the project-affected locals, 5 per cent shares have been allocated for residents of Molung Rural Municipality while 2.5 per cent share each has been allocated for the locals of Sunkoshi Rural Municipality and Siddicharan Municipality. </p> <p>Locals can apply a minimum of 10 units of shares while the maximum units of shares they can apply is 1000 units. The closing date of the IPO for them is January 17, 2023. If the IPO remains under-subscribed, the deadline to apply will be extended until February 1. </p> <p>Meanwhile, 34% of the company's issued capital i.e. 27,28,500 unit shares will be issued later for the general public. Of this public issue, 10% of the shares totalling 272,850 units shares have been allocated for Nepalese citizens working abroad.</p> <p>Migrant workers can apply for a minimum of 10 units, while the maximum units they can purchase is 8000 units. The closing date for the IPO is January 17. Even if the IPO remains under-subscribed, the deadline will not be extended.</p> <p>After the completion of the first phase of the IPO allotment, the hydro power company will issue the shares to the general public. <br /> Run-of-the river project, Molung Hydropower Company Limited has installed capacity of 7 megawatts. </p> <p>The hydropower has been producing electricity. Per megawatt cost for the construction of the hydro power project stands at Rs 20.8 crores. </p> <p><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16392', 'image' => '20230103043704_collage (17).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 16:34:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16650', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Consumption of Medicines Declines with Growing Health Awareness: Survey ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 3: A recent survey conducted by the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) showed that the demand for medicines in the Nepali market has decreased.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">January 3: A recent survey conducted by the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) showed that the demand for medicines in the Nepali market has decreased.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, there was also concerns that patients have stopped consuming medicines. The survey on the state of pharmaceutical industry of Nepal in the first quarter of the current fiscal year (FY 2022/23) showed such outcomes.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">In the survey, producers said that the demand for medicine in the market has decreased by 18.8 percent compared to corresponding period of last fiscal year. Officials of CNI shared that the survey showed that investment plan in the industry has been stopped for the current fiscal year due the decline in market demand.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The country's economy is in a difficult situation due to Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war. It is said that when there is a problem in the economy, there is a decline in consumption and investment of various goods and services. However, even in difficult situations, there should not have been a decline in the demand for essential items such as food and medicine.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">It is also a matter of surprise that the demand has decreased at a time when more medicines were required for treatment of diarrhoea, cholera, and dengue. Officials of CNI said that they have published the final study based on the answers given by representative of drug dealers through the scientific method.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Due financial constraints, the demand for medicines in the market may have decreased even if the common people delay the treatment of non-emergency diseases that require immediate treatment," said Birendra Raj Pandey, vice president of CNI.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Association of Pharmaceutical Producers of Nepal (APPON) claimed that the condition is more grim than the CNI survey has showed. According to the association, the market has decreased by 28 to 30 percent.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Biplav Adhikari, general secretary of the APPON, said that the decline in the demand for medicine in all regions is due to the awareness of the people after Covid-19.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“The number of patients has decreased in the hospital. After Covid-19, people have become aware of the disease. This is a good point. However, it seems that some people are not receiving treatment due to lack of finances,” said Adhikari, “Both public awareness and lack of finances are responsible for the decrease in demand.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to him, drugs are being imported illegally into Nepal for a long time. He also claimed that the amount of drugs entering in this way has increased recently.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> "Illegal imports also have a hand in the decline in the demand for medicines produced in the country," he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Infectious disease specialist Dr Sher Bahadur Pun said that the number of people getting sick from communicable diseases has decreased recently due to the increase in public awareness. He thinks that this may also have reduced the demand for medicines.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16391', 'image' => '20230103030520_20201110124400_1604969759.Clipboard13.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 15:04:44', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16649', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'FMTC Procures over 63,000 Quintals of Paddy from Farmers ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 3: The state-owned Food Management and Trading Company (FMTC) has procured a total of 63,362 quintals of paddy from farmers as of January 1 in the current fiscal year (FY 2022/23). ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">January 3: The state-owned Food Management and Trading Company (FMTC) has procured a total of 63,362 quintals of paddy from farmers as of January 1 in the current fiscal year (FY 2022/23). </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The FMTC had set the target to purchase 30,000 metric tonnes of paddy from farmers but could manage to buy only this quantity of paddy from its 10 offices across the country. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The company's information officer Sharmila Neupane Subedi shared that paddy procurement process has already begun in Birtamod, Biratnagar, Birgunj, Nepalgunj, Dhangadhi and Mahendranagar while the process is due in Lahan, Janakpur and Bhairahawa. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A total of Rs 990 million has been allocated to buy paddy from farmers, said information officer Subedi. A meeting of the Council of Ministers on November 2 this year had determined the support price of thick paddy and medium-sized paddy for this year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The support price of thick paddy has been fixed at Rs 2,967 per quintal while that of medium-sized paddy is Rs 3,128. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the details provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development on production of paddy for the ongoing fiscal year on last Thursday, paddy was planted across 1,447,789 hectare of land and the yield was 5,486,472 metric tonnes this year. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16390', 'image' => '20230103023546_20221213100633_collage (4).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 14:35:10', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16648', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => '444 Women, Girls from Western Nepal go out of Contact after Reaching India and Third Countries ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 3: Some 444 women and girls who reached various nations for foreign jobs from western Nepal have gone missing. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">January 3: Some 444 women and girls who reached various nations for foreign jobs from western Nepal in 2022 have gone missing. The data is based on the applications submitted at Maiti Nepal, Nepalgunj chapter in 2022 with the requests for their search. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The organisation’s Nepalgunj coordinator Keshab Koirala said that Maiti Nepal received 693 applications for finding the whereabouts of missing people. Out of the 693 missing people, 249 were found.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Families and relatives of the women and girls who lost contact with them after reaching India and third countries have sought the organisation’s help to find their whereabouts. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, 529 women and girls who were believed to be at risk were turned back from the Jamunaha transit point along the Nepal-India border in Banke. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During the interrogations, they were found to have left their home for employment or a foreign trip without consulting their family. Most of them were from Surkhet. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Koirala believes that the use of social networking sites and lack of digital security have further fueled the issues of human trafficking and smuggling. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16389', 'image' => '20230103012152_foreign emp.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 13:20:59', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16647', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'India’s Apex Court Validates Demonetisation Move', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 3: The Supreme Court of India on Monday upheld the legality of the government’s decision in 2016 to demonetise 86 percent of the country’s cash in circulation, saying the decision was taken in consultation with the central bank and followed due process.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">January 3: The Supreme Court of India on Monday upheld the legality of the government’s decision in 2016 to demonetise 86 percent of the country’s cash in circulation, saying the decision was taken in consultation with the central bank and followed due process.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">A bench of five justice of India’s apex top court passed the verdict by a majority on petitions questioning the move. According to media reports, one out of the five justices wrote a dissenting note.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The notification dated 8th November 2016 does not suffer from any flaws in the decision-making process,” Al Jazeera quoted Justice BR Gavai, one of the four justices who agreed on the decision, as saying in a written opinion.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The Indian government’s decision on November 8, 2016 to demonetize all 500-rupee and 1,000-rupee banknotes have had implications in Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The decision created confusion over the exchange of the Indian currency worth Rs 8 billion held by banks in Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Nepal Rastra Bank’s Deputy Spokesperson Narayan Prasad Pokharel said that the central bank is making diplomatic efforts to exchange the banned currency.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Although the central bank has been in constant talks with the Reserve Bank of India to resolve the issue and initiatives have also been taken at the prime-ministerial level, India is not ready to refund, said a source at NRB.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In a surprise TV announcement in November 2016, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the shock move to outlaw all 500-rupee and 1,000-rupee notes – 86 percent of the cash in circulation – to target undeclared “black money” and fight corruption, Al Jazeera added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the Doha-based media network, the move, widely known as demonetisation, badly hurt India’s cash-dependent economy. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“It caused losses for small businesses and manufacturers, bringing on an economic slump and months of financial chaos for ordinary, cash-dependent Indians. Hundreds of thousands of people lined up outside banks and ATMs for days to exchange their cash savings for legal tender as cash ran dry.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Despite the hue and cry, India’s Supreme Court on Monday validated the decision. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">However, one of the justices, BV Nagarathna, gave a dissenting judgment, calling the decision “unlawful” and “an exercise of power, contrary to law.” She reportedly said the currency ban could have been carried out through an act of parliament, not by the government.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to media reports, the Indian citizens were given a month’s time to exchange the demonetized currency but that facility was not given to Nepal.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16388', 'image' => '20230103123327_Dem1-1024x683.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 12:32:24', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16646', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Upper Karnali Project’s Dispute moved to Constitutional Bench ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 3: The hearing on the dispute of the 900-megawatt Upper Karnali Hydropower Project is now referred to the constitutional bench. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">January 3: The hearing on the dispute of the 900-megawatt Upper Karnali Hydropower Project is now referred to the constitutional bench. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Justices duo Kumar Regmi and Til Prasad Shrestha sent the case of the Upper Kanrali Hydropower Project to the constitutional bench citing concerns of constitutional interpretation. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Justices Regmi and Shrestha sent the case to the constitutional bench after hearing the petition of the government on scrapping of the interim order that directed the government not to extend the term of the project. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">A meeting of the Council of Ministers on July 15, 2022 had decided to extend the term of the Indian company GMR for financial closure of the 900 MW Upper Karnali Hydropower Project by two years. But the local residents had lodged a writ petition at the Supreme Court challenging the government’s decision to give two more years for financial closure to GMR. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">After the initial hearing, the SC had issued an interim order directing the government not to extend the term of GMR for the financial closure. But the government had again filed a petition to vacate the court’s interim order. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The Upper Karnali Hydropower Project is a run-of-the-river hydropower project being developed on Karnali River in Daikehl district.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The project is supposed to supply power to Nepal, India, and Bangladesh for a contracted period of 25 years.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The Government of Nepal had awarded the project to GMR Upper Karnali Hydro Power Limited, a subsidiary of GMR Group India, under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in January 2008. As per the agreement, GMR was to develop the project on a build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) basis but has failed to expedite the project.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-01-03', 'modified' => '2023-01-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16387', 'image' => '20230103113228_1l-Image-Upper-Karnali-Hydropower-Project.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-01-03 11:31:47', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = false $xml = falsesimplexml_load_file - [internal], line ?? include - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
| Currency | Unit |
Buy | Sell |
| U.S. Dollar | 1 | 121.23 | 121.83 |
| European Euro | 1 | 131.65 | 132.31 |
| UK Pound Sterling | 1 | 142.47 | 143.18 |
| Swiss Franc | 1 | 124.29 | 124.90 |
| Australian Dollar | 1 | 71.69 | 72.05 |
| Canadian Dollar | 1 | 83.90 | 84.32 |
| Japanese Yen | 10 | 10.94 | 11.00 |
| Chinese Yuan | 1 | 17.17 | 17.26 |
| Saudi Arabian Riyal | 1 | 32.27 | 32.43 |
| UAE Dirham | 1 | 33.01 | 33.17 |
| Malaysian Ringgit | 1 | 27.36 | 27.50 |
| South Korean Won | 100 | 9.77 | 9.82 |
Update: 2020-03-25 | Source: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB)
| Fine Gold | 1 tola | 77000.00 |
| Tejabi Gold | 1 tola | 76700.00 |
| Silver | 1 tola | 720.00 |
Update : 2020-03-25
Source: Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers' Association
| Petrol | 1 Liter | 106.00 |
| Diesel | 1 Liter | 95.00 |
| Kerosene | 1 Liter | 95.00 |
| LP Gas | 1 Cylinder | 1375.00 |
Update : 2020-03-25
