April 27: Hearing on the case filed by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari at the Supreme Court against the government could not be completed on…
April 27: Hearing on the case filed by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari at the Supreme Court against the government could not be completed on…
April 26: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected Nepal’s economy to grow by 4.1 percent in…
April 26: The Department of Commerce and Supply and Consumer Protection took action against two traders for creating artificial shortage of cooking gas.…
April 26: Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) has decided to operate three flights in a week to Japan’s Narita from Kathmandu starting from May…
April 26: The Nepal Association of Tours and Travel Agents (NATTA) has expressed concerns regarding the government’s decision to increase the airport service…
April 26: The state-owned Food Management and Trading Company Limited (FMTCL) has yet again failed to procure paddy as per its target this…
April 26: Nepal's air safety rating has increased significantly in the last five years, according to a safety audit conducted by the International Civil Aviation Organization…
April 25: The Forest Research and Training Centre (FRTC) announced the launch of Nepal’s National Land Cover Monitoring System (NLCMS) in collaboration with various stakeholders on the occasion of the Earth Day on April…
April 25: Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Pampha Bhusal held a meeting with the Chief of the Army Staff, General Prabhu Ram Sharma at her office in Singha Durbar on…
April 25: Sumi Tripathi, a permanent resident of Kavre currently living in Tripureshwor, has to urgently visit Ganga Lal Heart Care Centre in Kathmandu where her mother was admitted for treatment last…
April 25: The Nepalese Young Entrepreneurs Forum (NYEF) on Saturday organized the Young Entrepreneurs Summit Women (YESW) with the aim of promoting women…
April 25: The Ministry of Finance held separate discussions with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the Ministry of Health and Population on Sunday regarding the budget for the upcoming fiscal year.…
April 25: Nepal witnessed an increase in export by 69.44 per cent in the first nine months of the current fiscal year (FY 2021/22) as compared to the corresponding period of the last year (FY…
April 25: The Federation of Contractors' Associations of Nepal (FCAN) has announced a 'construction holiday' arguing that there is lack of environment conducive for construction due to price hike of construction…
There was a time when the private sector used to be described as a sector that focuses solely on profit…
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He returned back to office after the apex court issued the interim order to stay the government’s decision. </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-27', 'modified' => '2022-04-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14915', 'image' => '20220427095213_Supreme Court.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-27 09:51:30', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15172', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => 'IMF Projects Nepal’s Economy to Grow by 4.1 Percent in 2022', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 26: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected Nepal’s economy to grow by 4.1 percent in 2022.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 26: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected Nepal’s economy to grow by 4.1 percent in 2022.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The IMF published its report ‘World Economic Outlook’ which states that Nepal’s economy will grow by 4.1 percent in 2022 after suffering a slowdown to 2.1 percent in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The report further states that Nepal’s economy is projected to grow by 6.1 percent in 2023.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Economic growth in Asia and the Pacific is poised to slow more than previously estimated this year amid headwinds from the war in Ukraine, a resurgent pandemic, and tightening global financial conditions, according to IMF.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The war in Ukraine has triggered a costly humanitarian crisis that demands a peaceful resolution. At the same time, economic damage from the conflict will contribute to a significant slowdown in global growth in 2022 and add to inflation,” states the report. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to IMF, fuel and food prices have increased rapidly, hitting vulnerable populations in low-income countries hardest.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Interest rates are expected to rise as central banks tighten policy, exerting pressure on emerging market and developing economies. Moreover, many countries have limited fiscal policy space to cushion the impact of the war on their economies, IMF further said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Global growth is projected to slow from an estimated 6.1 percent in 2021 to 3.6 percent in 2022 and 2023. This is 0.8 and 0.2 percentage points lower for 2022 and 2023 than projected in January. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Beyond 2023, global growth is forecast to decline to about 3.3 percent over the medium term. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“War-induced commodity price increases and broadening price pressures have led to 2022 inflation projections of 5.7 percent in advanced economies and 8.7 percent in emerging market and developing economies—1.8 and 2.8 percentage points higher than projected last January.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Multilateral efforts to respond to the humanitarian crisis, prevent further economic fragmentation, maintain global liquidity, manage debt distress, tackle climate change, and end the pandemic are essential, the report added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">With a few exceptions, employment and output will typically remain below pre-pandemic trends through 2026. Scarring effects are expected to be much larger in emerging market and developing economies than in advanced economies—reflecting more limited policy support and generally slower vaccination—with output expected to remain below the pre-pandemic trend throughout the forecast horizon.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-26', 'modified' => '2022-04-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14914', 'image' => '20220426051733_imf.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-26 17:16:47', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15171', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Dealers Fined Rs 20,000 for Creating Artificial Shortage of Cooking Gas', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 26: The Department of Commerce and Supply and Consumer Protection took action against two traders for creating artificial shortage of cooking gas. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 26: The Department of Commerce and Supply and Consumer Protection took action against two traders for creating artificial shortage of cooking gas. The department’s Assistant information officer Dhaneshwor Poudel informed that action was taken against Raju Store located at Sankhamul, Lalitpur and S and JS Store, located at Prayag Pokhari for hoarding LPG.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Poudel said that the department booked the store owners after it was found that they were hiding the LPG from consumers while saying that there was no gas available. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Action was taken after we found Raju Store hiding 10 cylinders and S and JS store hiding 15 cylinders of LPG. Both the stores have been fined Rs 20,000 each,” Poudel said, adding that action was taken against both the stores for violating the Consumer Protection Act 2075 BS.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The market is facing shortage of cooking gas ever since the petroleum dealers, transport companies and LPG dealers began protest since March 20.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the dealers have withdrawn their protests and Nepal Oil Corporation has increased the supply of gas, consumers are still facing trouble to get the LPG. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As the price of crude oil continues to rise in the international market, the dealers allegedly started hiding gas in order to sell them at an increased price later when the NOC increases the price.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The department informed that it has increased monitoring, of gas depots and gas stores and will continue the monitoring in upcoming days to expose such irregularities.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-26', 'modified' => '2022-04-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14913', 'image' => '20220426042227_1650891800.gas.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-26 16:21:48', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15169', 'article_category_id' => '228', 'title' => 'Nepal Airlines to Operate 3 Flights a Week to Japan from May 1 ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 26: Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) has decided to operate three flights in a week to Japan’s Narita from Kathmandu starting from May 1.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 26: Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) has decided to operate three flights in a week to Japan’s Narita from Kathmandu starting from May 1. At present, the flag carrier of Nepal has been operating two flights a week to Narita. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The NAC will be operating the flights on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays, informed Karishma Shrestha, former spokesperson of NAC. </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 state-owned airline company of Nepal said in a statement that the flights conducted on Sundays and Tuesdays will carry 140 passengers while there will be only 120 passengers on Fridays.</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 statement added that passengers' demand was growing due to the subsided rate imposed in the wake of COVID-19. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The airfare for Kathmandu-Narita round-trip is Rs 152,000 including tax in business class and Rs 119,000 in economy class. </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-26', 'modified' => '2022-04-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14912', 'image' => '20220426105932_NAC.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-26 10:58:55', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15168', 'article_category_id' => '228', 'title' => 'NATTA Objects to Increase in Airport Charge ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 26: The Nepal Association of Tours and Travel Agents (NATTA) has expressed concerns regarding the government’s decision to increase the airport service charges. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 26: The Nepal Association of Tours and Travel Agents (NATTA) has expressed concerns regarding the government’s decision to increase the airport service charges. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Issuing a statement on Monday, NATTA President Ramesh Thapa objected to the government's decision to increase the airport tariff to Rs 3,000 per passenger. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">“</span></strong><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">This is likely to adversely affect the tourism business, which is gradually on the rise following the COVID-19 pandemic,” the state-owned national news agency RSS quoted Thapa as saying. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The NATTA is an umbrella organization of tourism entrepreneurs in the country. The association has demanded immediate reversal of the government's decision. It has also urged the government to take such decisions in coordination with the stakeholders. </span><br /> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-26', 'modified' => '2022-04-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14911', 'image' => '20220426035611_Tourist.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-26 10:37:31', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15170', 'article_category_id' => '277', 'title' => ' Food Management and Trading Company Fails to Meet its Target of Purchasing Paddy', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 26: The state-owned Food Management and Trading Company Limited (FMTCL) has yet again failed to procure paddy as per its target this year.', '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"">April 26: The state-owned Food Management and Trading Company Limited (FMTCL) has yet again failed to procure paddy as per its target this year.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Since the state-owned company has not been able to purchase even half of the paddy as per its target, questions have been raised about the minimum support price of paddy fixed by the government for the welfare of the farmers.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Stakeholders say that the government announces the minimum support price only for the sake of announcement.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Uddhav Adhikari, coordinator of the Agriculture Campaign for Food, said the government fixes the support prices but does not give much attention towards its implementation.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">After the government fixes the support price, the state-owned company sets the purchase target accordingly. However, the official said that it was a shame not to be able to buy even half of the target.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">The FMTCL had initially targeted to buy 30,000 metric tonnes of paddy from farmers in the current fiscal year. </span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Later, the company said it is not possible to buy in that quantity, and then revised the purchase target. This time the company set a target of purchasing 20,000 metric tons of paddy. But the company has not been able to purchase that amount of paddy. According to the latest data, the FMTCL has bought only 9,000 metric tonnes of paddy.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">The company has purchased 9,000 metric tonnes of paddy from nine offices, including Birtamod, Biratnagar, Rajapur and Dhangadhi.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">The company has procured 1600 metric tonnes of paddy from Birtamod, 1496 metric tonnes from Biratnagar, 1785 metric tonnes from Lahan, 1664 metric tonnes from Janakpur, 1783 metric tonnes from Birgunj, 225 metric tonnes from Nepalgunj, 780 metric tonnes from Rajapur, five metric tonnes from Dhangadhi and 116 metric tonnes from Mahendranagar.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">The company’s failure to buy paddy as per the target is not a new issue. Last year, it had set a target of purchasing 60,000 metric tonnes of paddy, but only 22,000 tonnes were procured. The company did not meet the target of buying wheat either.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-26', 'modified' => '2022-04-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14910', 'image' => '20220426112607_rice-paddy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-26 11:25:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15167', 'article_category_id' => '228', 'title' => 'Nepal Remains in EU Blacklist despite Improvement in Air Safety Rating', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 26: Nepal's air safety rating has increased significantly in the last five years, according to a safety audit conducted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">April 26: Nepal's air safety rating has increased significantly in the last five years, according to a safety audit conducted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The study conducted by ICAO states that Nepal’s air safety has increased by three percentage points in the last five years. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) informed that Nepal’s compliance rate is above average in the air safety audit list of ICAO.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">As per the audit, Nepal’s air safety compliance rate has climbed to 70.1 percent at present from 66.76 percent in 2017.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">A 10-member team of ICAO had arrived in Nepal on April 13 for the audit. The team prepared its report on April 22. CAAN made the report public amid a press conference on Monday (April 25).</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">ICAO has conducted such audits in the past in 2009, 2013, 2016 and 2017.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">ICAO’s audit looks into eight different parameters including legislation and regulation, orgnaisation and safety oversight function, personal licensing, flight operation, airworthiness of aircraft, accident and investigation, air navigation service and aerodrome and ground aids. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">CAAN Director-General Pradeep Adhikari said that the increase in air safety audit rating has given a message that Nepal’s sky is safe for aviation.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">However, the restriction imposed by the European Union on Nepali airlines has not been lifted despite Nepal’s progress in safety rating of ICAO audit. CAAN believes that this progress would surely help Nepal in coming days. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The EU has banned Nepali aircraft in European skies since 2014 citing air safety concerns.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-26', 'modified' => '2022-04-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14909', 'image' => '20220426100813_1650929561.Clipboard19.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-26 10:07:38', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15166', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Nepal's Land Classified into 11 Categories ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 25: The Forest Research and Training Centre (FRTC) announced the launch of Nepal’s National Land Cover Monitoring System (NLCMS) in collaboration with various stakeholders on the occasion of the Earth Day on April 22.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 25: The Forest Research and Training Centre (FRTC) announced the launch of Nepal’s National Land Cover Monitoring System (NLCMS) in collaboration with various stakeholders on the occasion of the Earth Day on April 22. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The system uses cloud computing and artificial intelligence to generate consistent data on how much of a region is covered by forests, wetlands, agriculture, and other land and water types, on an annual basis, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) said in a statement. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Based on the NLCMS, the government has classified Nepal’s land into 11 different categories including forest land, agriculture land, grassland, bush, marshland, snow land, glacier, rock, flood land, shelter land and vegetation-less land. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the state-owned national news agency RSS, the forests of Nepal covered 39.99 per cent of the total land in 2000 which increased to 41.69 per cent in 2019. Similarly, the agriculture area decreased from 26.31 per cent in 2000 to 24.21 per cent in 2019. . </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to ICIMOD, the NLCMS will improve reporting on forest cover change and support Nepali lawmakers in making evidence-based policies to improve related land management practices. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The FRTC developed the NLCMS with support from SERVIR-HKH, a joint initiative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-25', 'modified' => '2022-04-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14908', 'image' => '20220425081518_Jiten_220422_026A3027.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-25 20:14:24', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15165', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Energy Minister urges Army Chief Sharma to Increase Electricity Consumption ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 25: Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Pampha Bhusal held a meeting with the Chief of the Army Staff, General Prabhu Ram Sharma at her office in Singha Durbar on Sunday. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 25: Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Pampha Bhusal held a meeting with the Chief of the Army Staff, General Prabhu Ram Sharma at her office in Singha Durbar on Sunday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The meeting between the two focused on the development and consumption of electricity. On the occasion, minister Bhusal urged the Nepalese Army to increase consumption of electricity. </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 minister urged the army to replace other kinds of fuel used in the kitchen by electricity. “For this, the ministry is ready to provide required infrastructure," said the minister. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The minister also urged the army to use electric vehicles instead of petrol/diesel vehicle in the coming days. The minister was of the view that the national army must purchase electric vehicles in the future. </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"">Stating that the army has made vital contribution to the infrastructure development of the country, Minister Bhusal expressed the hope that the army would also contribute to the development of hydropower sector in the coming days. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the occasion, Army Chief Sharma said that the Nepalese Army has already moved ahead with the plan to electrify the kitchen and assured that the process will be fully implemented in the near future.</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"">“We have started using large steamers to cook food. We will start using electric stoves in all the barracks in coming days,” he said, adding that the army has already started converting petrol/diesel vehicles into electric vehicles.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-25', 'modified' => '2022-04-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14907', 'image' => '20220425063600_1650791164.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-25 18:35:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15164', 'article_category_id' => '270', 'title' => 'Offline Use of Ride-Sharing Apps Increases Security Risk', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 25: Sumi Tripathi, a permanent resident of Kavre currently living in Tripureshwor, has to urgently visit Ganga Lal Heart Care Centre in Kathmandu where her mother was admitted for treatment last Wednesday.', '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"">April 25: Sumi Tripathi, a permanent resident of Kavre currently living in Tripureshwor, has to urgently visit Ganga Lal Heart Care Centre in Kathmandu where her mother was admitted for treatment last Wednesday. Sumi rushed to the hospital to see her mother. It was already 7 pm, so she decided to use a ride-sharing application. </span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Upon reaching the road, she saw a man sitting on a bike. Assuming him to be a Tootle or Pathao rider, she asked him for a ride in a hurry. The biker agreed and took her to Ganga Lal as requested. As soon as he started the bike, the rider raced at a very high speed. Tripathi asked him to ride slowly, but the driver kept his speed. As Tripathi had taken the ride offline, she couldn't make her complaint with the company.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">The rise in offline use of ride-sharing service has heightened security risks. In recent times, ride-sharing companies have been making good business with the use of technology. </span></span></span></span></p> <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"">But due to the temptation of making more money, some riders have added security concerns when providing offline services.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Offline use of ride-sharing apps such as Pathao, Tootle, In driver and Lozoom, providing mobility services in Kathmandu Valley, has increased the security challenge. The offline use of ride-sharing apps has increased as riders can make more profit, and passengers can also travel at less expense.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Ahsimman Singh Basnet, managing director of Pathao Nepal Pvt, shared that his team cannot track riders when s/he takes passengers offline.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">“Therefore, he is not our employee at that time,” he said, adding, “If there is an accident, we cannot take responsibility for it. So passengers should not go offline just because they can save some money or they are in a hurry.”</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">He said that a law should be implemented at the state level to control the riders who use offline contact while sitting at the crossroads. He said that the ride-sharing platform has a provision to provide accidental insurance of Rs 100,000 and death insurance up to Rs 500,000 while using their service online.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">It is said that the number of riders and passengers using offline services is rising in Sundhara, Tripureshwor, Chabahil, Gongbu Bus Park, Koteshwor Chowk, Kalanki, Balkhu Chowk and other places during the evening and night.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">It has increased as the rider does not have to pay any commission to the concerned company for taking the passenger to the destination through offline means.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">"We drop passengers offline as we do not have to pay the commission," said a dispatched driver who did not want to be identified. For ride-sharing services, Pathao charges 20 per cent, Tootle and Lozoom charge 10 per cent, while In driver does not charge any commission.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Even though ride-sharing companies like Tootle and Pathao are registered with the company registrar's office, the government has been warning them to stop providing services.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Article 8 (1) of the Transportation Management Act states that private vehicles cannot be used a<strong>s</strong> public transport. Article 12 of the same act has made provision that vehicles registered for one purpose cannot be used for another purpose, due to which even the Department of Transport Management has been calling such action illegal.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><br /> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-25', 'modified' => '2022-04-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14906', 'image' => '20220425063624_1650843435.8.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-25 14:57:40', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15163', 'article_category_id' => '268', 'title' => 'Women Entrepreneurs Summit Concludes', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 25: The Nepalese Young Entrepreneurs Forum (NYEF) on Saturday organized the Young Entrepreneurs Summit Women (YESW) with the aim of promoting women entrepreneurship.', '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"">April 25: The Nepalese Young Entrepreneurs Forum (NYEF) on Saturday organized the Young Entrepreneurs Summit Women (YESW) with the aim of promoting women entrepreneurship.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">The forum has been organizing this summit since 2013. The summit was inaugurated by Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Pampha Bhusal and attended by young entrepreneurs involved in agriculture, construction, cottage and small business, physical exercise, consulting firms and research. The students who aspire to become entrepreneurs also attended the programme.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">The slogan of this year's summit was 'Beyond Barriers'. The conference was sponsored by the International Labor Organization (ILO), Rastriya Banijya Bank and United Insurance. The conference was attended by more than 150 entrepreneurs, experts, new entrepreneurs and students.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Entrepreneurs including Sangita Pandey from Aama Ko Achar, President of Federation of Women Entrepreneurs’ Association of Nepal Niru Rayamajhi Khatri, and Vidushi Rana from Kiran Shoes Manufacturer Pvt. Ltd. (Goldstar) attended the summit. Companies led by women and young entrepreneurs and new startups including Bihe-Nepal, Educase, Makkuse, Suiro also participated in the summit. The programme was coordinated by Sahara Joshi.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-25', 'modified' => '2022-04-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14905', 'image' => '20220425023845_1650844188.Clipboard10.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-25 14:37:50', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15162', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => 'MoF holds Budget Discussion with Education and Health Ministries', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 25: The Ministry of Finance held separate discussions with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the Ministry of Health and Population on Sunday regarding the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. ', '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"">April 25: The Ministry of Finance held separate discussions with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the Ministry of Health and Population on Sunday regarding the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The Ministry of Finance discussed the programmes proposed within budget ceiling with both the ministries.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Finance Minister Janardan Sharma suggested the concerned ministry to include such programmes in the budget that would prevent the tendency of school drop-out rate. </span></span></span></span></p> <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"">“Most of the students enrolled in grade 1 tend to drop out of school before even reaching grade 5. The number of students in higher classes is even lower,” said Minister Sharma, adding, “Let’s prepare the budget and introduce programs to determine the cause why students drop out of the school and create the environment for the students to not drop out.”</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">He also remarked that there is a need to move towards digital technology to change the way of learning with time. He instructed the concerned authorities to start a programmes to make use of digital technology for teaching in some schools from the upcoming fiscal year.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Stating that the establishment of IT colleges is necessary, Sharma said that a budget should be allocated for that as well. Sharma said, “There are many programmes that failed to show effective results despite continuous budget allocation. Therefore, we should prepare the budget by focusing on programmes that have good return.”</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">In the meeting, Minister for Education Devendra Poudel emphasized the need of programmess to ensure quality education, stating that there will be chaos everywhere if the education lags behind. He said that the development of the country will also be supported by better education.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Similarly, Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission, Biswo Nath Poudel, said that the compulsion for students to go to school by travelling a long distance should be removed. He said that the tendency to study with government’s money and going to work abroad after the completion of studies should also be discouraged. </span></span></span></span></p> <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"">During the meeting with the Ministry of Health and Population on Sunday, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma said that it is necessary to formulate the budget in such a way as that it would end the compulsion for poor people to live with diseases.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">He requested to propose budget and programmes to expand the services of Patan Institute of Health Sciences and Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, Maharajgunj to other places as well.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">He said the upcoming budget will address the issue of health insurance reaching out to the poor families, improving maternity services, creating a situation where people do not have to go abroad for treatment of complex diseases including kidney and liver diseases.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">During the discussion, Health Minister Birodh Khatiwada said that arrangements should be made for the posts of doctors and equipment in 500 to 1,500-bed hospitals.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-25', 'modified' => '2022-04-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14904', 'image' => '20220425020619_finance_ministry_copy1.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-25 14:05:24', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15161', 'article_category_id' => '268', 'title' => 'Nepal's Export Increases 69.44 Percent in Nine Months ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 25: Nepal witnessed an increase in export by 69.44 per cent in the first nine months of the current fiscal year (FY 2021/22) as compared to the corresponding period of the last year (FY 2020/21). ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 25: Nepal witnessed an increase in export by 69.44 per cent in the first nine months of the current fiscal year (FY 2021/22) as compared to the corresponding period of the last year (FY 2020/21). </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the data unveiled by the Department of Customs, the export of domestic products since mid-July, 2021 to mid-April was recorded at over Rs 160.57 billion against Rs 94.76 billion during the same period last year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, import has also increased by 31.97 per cent in the first nine months of the current fiscal year compared to last year. The imports during the review period this year stood at more than Rs 1466.66 billion against Rs 1,111.39 billion recorded during the same period of last fiscal year. </span><br /> Nepal's <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">trade deficit went up by 28.47 per cent to over Rs 1450 billion during the first nine months of the current fiscal year against Rs 1016.62 billion during the same period of last fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the trade data of the first nine months of the current fiscal unveiled by the Department, Nepal imported petroleum products including diesel, petrol and cooking gas worth Rs 200 billion. The country imported diesel worth Rs 105 billion followed by petrol worth Rs 47.23 billion. LPG (cooking gas) worth over Rs 45.34 billion was imported during the review period. </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"">Similarly, soybean oil worth Rs 45.58 billion, palm oil worth over Rs 32.4 billion, vaccines worth over Rs 31.85 billion and gold worth over Rs 28.54 billion were imported during the nine months. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">As per the data, goods worth over Rs 1,466 billion were imported from 162 countries during the first nine months of the current fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Nepal imported goods of highest amount worth Rs 917 billion from India while it exported goods worth Rs 127 billion during the nine months to the southern neighbour. Nepal's trade deficit with India during this period stood at Rs 773 billion. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">China is the second largest trade partner of Nepal. The country imported goods worth over Rs 211 billion from China whereas it exported goods worth Rs 628 million during the first nine months. Nepal has trade deficit amounting to Rs 210 billion with China. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-25', 'modified' => '2022-04-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14903', 'image' => '20220425102326_Trade.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-25 08:20:55', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15160', 'article_category_id' => '278', 'title' => 'FCAN Announces 'Construction Holiday'', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 25: The Federation of Contractors' Associations of Nepal (FCAN) has announced a 'construction holiday' arguing that there is lack of environment conducive for construction due to price hike of construction materials.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 25: The Federation of Contractors' Associations of Nepal (FCAN) has announced a 'construction holiday' arguing that there is lack of environment conducive for construction due to price hike of construction materials.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Excessive price hike of construction materials, some errors in the 11th amendment to the Public Procurement Regulation and provisions in the Insurance Directives, 2078 BS among others have made the matter worse, said the federation.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">As a result, approximately 3,500 projects have been halted in protest.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">FCAN President Rabi Singh confirmed that they have announced a construction holiday as the construction business is at risk of collapsing.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to Singh, over 17,000 contractors have been on the brink of quitting their business. Construction of around 1500 projects has continued however, he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Singh added that they will launch sit-ins at the district administration office of all 77 districts and the office of the Chief Minister of all seven provinces from April 26.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The FCAN in a statement urged the government to resolve the problems faced by the construction industry as they will have negative impacts on country's economy as a whole.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The statement said they had to resort to protest after their repeated calls to the government to address their problem went unheard.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">As part of their protest, they launched sit-in in front of the office of the Public Procurement and Monitoring Office and the Insurance Board last Thursday and Friday.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">They have demanded price adjustment of construction materials, amendment of inconsistent points in the 11th amendment to the Public Procurement Regulation, 2078 and to scrap the Insurance Directive, 2078. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The Independent Power Producers' Association, Nepal has also expressed its solidarity with the demand of scraping the Insurance Directive, 2078. -- RSS </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-25', 'modified' => '2022-04-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14902', 'image' => '20220425081021_-media1614582237.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-25 07:56:55', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15159', 'article_category_id' => '218', 'title' => 'Nabil Bank Aims to Promote Social Entrepreneurship for Social Transformation', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'There was a time when the private sector used to be described as a sector that focuses solely on profit making.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">There was a time when the private sector used to be described as a sector that focuses solely on profit making. Lately, the private sector is being considered globally as an important stakeholder in solving social problems as well. We can see instances of private sector enterprises and entrepreneurs involved in several social works in various countries in addition to their commercial success. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">In the mid-90s, the European corporate sector initiated collective campaigns to address the issues of unemployment and exclusion under the banner of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in response to the request made by the President of the European Union. As part of the campaign, a commission was formed in 2000 and it worked to make the CSR campaign wider, more systematic, and participatory. Various universities were brought on board as partner institutions for the purpose. This made a positive contribution to the society, the private sector, and the national economy. Now, CSR activities undertaken in European countries are considered exemplary across the world.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Lately, the participation of the private sector has been expanding in various sectors of the society. CSR activities have been carried out as charity and as a host of activities contributing to the upliftment of society. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil Bank is one of the leading institutions that has been carrying out various activities to develop social entrepreneurship and sustainable banking, which have emerged as different campaigns in the banking sector of the country. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-size:16.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil School of Social Entrepreneurship</span></span></strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil Bank insists that its recently-launched Nabil School of Social Entrepreneurship (Nabil SSE) is a different and new type of non-profit initiative which aims to expand social entrepreneurship nationwide. Under this initiative, the bank has started a Fellowship Programme commencing from the third week of March 2022. Under this programme, a public call was made to submit concepts on social entrepreneurship. From among 350 applicants, 20 of the most competitive applicants were selected, who are now being trained on social entrepreneurship for a year free of cost. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to Nabil Bank, this programme aims to link Nepal’s higher education with the country’s most prominent private-sector bank in order to create successful social entrepreneurs. Under this campaign, Nabil Bank said it is starting another Certificate Level Programme in all seven provinces of the country. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil SSE – Certificate Level Programme</span></span></strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil Bank informed that a curriculum is being prepared in coordination with various colleges from all seven provinces. Under this programme, an ambitious target of creating 700 entrepreneurs - 100 in each province, has been set. Nabil Bank has also set up an office in partnership with the Faculty of Management under Tribhuvan University to make this campaign systematic, sustainable, and institutionalized. The main objective of Nabil’s move to promote social entrepreneurship is to contribute to social transformation through the development of social entrepreneurship and to address social problems. This move of the bank aims to identify new ideas on social entrepreneurship from the community level and attract investment to materialize the idea into practices.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil SSE also aims to run social campaigns to develop new ideas, the bank further said adding, “With its own investment, Nabil SSE aims to develop social entrepreneurs and establish a tradition of solving social problems through social entrepreneurship.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil Bank said it has been involved in social work since a long time along with its commercial success. Nabil Bank claimed that it contributed Rs 60 billion to the government’s COVID-19 relief fund in 2020 and also helped establish an oxygen plant at Bir Hospital at a time when the entire nation was suffering from shortage of oxygen during the pandemic. Nabil Bank has been contributing to the society through such types of CSR interventions. But now, the bank says it has moved ahead with a new model of social service through social entrepreneurship development. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">It is a novel initiative in the banking sector. The bank believes that the success of this endeavor will help establish a new culture of entrepreneurship development in the country and in turn, solve social problems.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-size:16.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Sustainable Banking: A Distinct Initiative </span></span></strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“Sustainable Banking is a new identity of Nabil Bank,” says the bank. The bank has set up a new unit ‘Sustainable Banking’ and has carried out model work at several places in the country. The bank announced the programme regarding Sustainable Banking, which aims to enable excluded classes to receive loans at cheaper rates for their enterprises. This will contribute to developing an inclusive economy in the country.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">For this purpose, the bank says it has been investing in sustainable business development in coordination with various state agencies and development stakeholders. The bank aims to provide services to people deprived of access to finance, and to promote entrepreneurship in remote villages through sustainable banking initiatives. The bank has also been working on promoting micro-enterprises by aligning its works with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations. Under the Sustainable Banking initiative, a farmer can get a loan up to Rs 1.50 million personally, up to Rs 2.50 million institutionally, and up to Rs 500,000 collectively as a group, according to the bank.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Under the Nabil Entrepreneurship Credit Scheme, people aged 18-60 years can get loans in the range of Rs 100,000 to Rs 10 million. Dozens of people have already started new businesses by availing loans from Nabil Bank under this scheme. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">However, the scope of Nabil Bank’s Sustainable Banking is much larger. The bank has expanded financing under this scheme to achieve the SDGs. It has also commenced maintaining an account of carbon emissions to examine how the enterprises financed by the bank have contributed to reduce carbon dioxide emission. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The bank says it has been expanding its credits in areas of renewable energy in coordination with the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre. It is the bank’s initiative to minimize the impact of climate change in the country by supporting development of micro hydro projects and other sources of renewable energy. Nabil Bank is also a member of the UK-based Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), an institution that helps in keeping accounts of the contribution of the bank’s financing in the areas of climate and environment. Nabil Bank informed that it will also work in the area of carbon financing through this agency. The bank has also started a ‘Remit Forestation’ programme to highlight the contribution of remittances sent by Nepali migrant workers. This banking initiative is expected to help promote the spirit of sustainable development and minimize the impact of climate change. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-size:16.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Social Entrepreneurship for Achieving National Goals </span></span></strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The United Nations has already endorsed a proposal of graduating Nepal into a developing country from a least developed country in 2026. There are three criteria for graduation—per capita Gross National Income (GNI), Human Assets Index (HAI), and Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI). Nepal is yet to meet the criteria related to per capita GNI. In order to graduate into a developing country, an LDC should have per capita GNI of at least $1,230 but presently, it is tentatively $1,100 in the case of Nepal. The country is facing an additional challenge of meeting the GNI criterion because of the impact of the COVID-19 on people’s earnings, the bank further said. Therefore, it is not possible to meet the GNI target without the growth of economic activities through the development of new enterprises. “We need to take steps that help the State achieve sustainable and inclusive economic development,” said the bank.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Poverty alleviation, employment generation, and economic equality are the important pillars for national development, according to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). This is in line with the country’s 15th periodic plan (2019-20—2023-24) and 25-year Long-Term Vision Paper. The 8<sup>th</sup> Sustainable Development Goal emphasizes on enhancing people’s access to Banks and Financial Institutions for creating sustainable employment and promoting economic activities. According to the bank, the goal focuses on the need for enhancing the capacity of financial institutions as well as expanding their services. The new endeavors initiated by Nabil Bank for social entrepreneurship development and Sustainable Banking are aligned with the country’s national development goals and objectives. Nabil Bank informed that it has proactively taken initiatives in the banking sector, which has also inspired others to do the same to help achieve common national development goals. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Encouragement to Develop Small Enterprises</span></span></strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">As per the government’s statistics, more than 18 percent of the population are living below the poverty line. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic is estimated to have pushed more people under the poverty line. Unemployment rate in the country is over 11 percent. “Our national plan and SDGs have called for addressing these problems along with many other social issues through partnerships and coordinated efforts.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil Bank informed that it has adopted the policy of processing loans for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as quickly as possible to help promote such enterprises. It is part of the bank’s belief that inclusive banking is essential to promote an inclusive economy. The bank has forged partnerships with various agencies for this purpose. For instance, the bank has started a new banking access programme in coordination with the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) to connect youth and women entrepreneurs with the banking service. Under this scheme, the bank expects hundreds of thousands of women and youth entrepreneurs to be connected, thereby contributing to promote inclusive banking and economic development. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil Bank said it has also forged a partnership with Daraz, an online shopping site under which, the bank has started providing credits to small businesses as per the recommendation of Daraz. The bank has also been extending credit in the agriculture sector and helped develop </span></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">farming technology in the sector in coordination with various institutions and companies. In addition to this, the bank is also promoting gender equality by extending credit to women entrepreneurs based on the recommendation of the Federation of Women Entrepreneurs Associations of Nepal. These endeavors have emerged as win-win situations for both borrowers and the bank as they helped new people to engage in businesses and helped the bank diversify its investment portfolio.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">These are some of the instances whereby Nabil Bank has not confined its job to banking business alone, but has also been engaged in running social and economic campaigns. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">As Nepal's first private sector bank, Nabil Bank has continued to remain the leading bank in the country. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“Its focus on inclusive banking to promote economic development and development of enterprises, along with its emphasis on increasing people’s access to finance have enhanced the bank’s public image too. The new endeavors of Nabil Bank are also expected to inspire other banks to follow suit.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The bank says that the areas where Nabil Bank is expanding credit could be the areas where other banks can also find opportunities to expand their credit in the future. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil Bank believes that the wider programmes that the bank launched in coordination with the government, development partners, business enterprises, and professional organizations could stimulate other banks to find new areas of investments and ways to expand investment in social entrepreneurship. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“The multi-stakeholder partnership including universities, national and international agencies, has contributed to explore innovations in the banking sector, which has separated Nabil from the remaining banking institutions of the nation.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-24', 'modified' => '2022-04-24', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14901', 'image' => '20220424062828_Nabil.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-24 18:26:37', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, '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
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He returned back to office after the apex court issued the interim order to stay the government’s decision. </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-27', 'modified' => '2022-04-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14915', 'image' => '20220427095213_Supreme Court.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-27 09:51:30', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15172', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => 'IMF Projects Nepal’s Economy to Grow by 4.1 Percent in 2022', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 26: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected Nepal’s economy to grow by 4.1 percent in 2022.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 26: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected Nepal’s economy to grow by 4.1 percent in 2022.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The IMF published its report ‘World Economic Outlook’ which states that Nepal’s economy will grow by 4.1 percent in 2022 after suffering a slowdown to 2.1 percent in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The report further states that Nepal’s economy is projected to grow by 6.1 percent in 2023.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Economic growth in Asia and the Pacific is poised to slow more than previously estimated this year amid headwinds from the war in Ukraine, a resurgent pandemic, and tightening global financial conditions, according to IMF.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The war in Ukraine has triggered a costly humanitarian crisis that demands a peaceful resolution. At the same time, economic damage from the conflict will contribute to a significant slowdown in global growth in 2022 and add to inflation,” states the report. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to IMF, fuel and food prices have increased rapidly, hitting vulnerable populations in low-income countries hardest.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Interest rates are expected to rise as central banks tighten policy, exerting pressure on emerging market and developing economies. Moreover, many countries have limited fiscal policy space to cushion the impact of the war on their economies, IMF further said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Global growth is projected to slow from an estimated 6.1 percent in 2021 to 3.6 percent in 2022 and 2023. This is 0.8 and 0.2 percentage points lower for 2022 and 2023 than projected in January. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Beyond 2023, global growth is forecast to decline to about 3.3 percent over the medium term. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“War-induced commodity price increases and broadening price pressures have led to 2022 inflation projections of 5.7 percent in advanced economies and 8.7 percent in emerging market and developing economies—1.8 and 2.8 percentage points higher than projected last January.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Multilateral efforts to respond to the humanitarian crisis, prevent further economic fragmentation, maintain global liquidity, manage debt distress, tackle climate change, and end the pandemic are essential, the report added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">With a few exceptions, employment and output will typically remain below pre-pandemic trends through 2026. Scarring effects are expected to be much larger in emerging market and developing economies than in advanced economies—reflecting more limited policy support and generally slower vaccination—with output expected to remain below the pre-pandemic trend throughout the forecast horizon.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-26', 'modified' => '2022-04-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14914', 'image' => '20220426051733_imf.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-26 17:16:47', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15171', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Dealers Fined Rs 20,000 for Creating Artificial Shortage of Cooking Gas', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 26: The Department of Commerce and Supply and Consumer Protection took action against two traders for creating artificial shortage of cooking gas. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 26: The Department of Commerce and Supply and Consumer Protection took action against two traders for creating artificial shortage of cooking gas. The department’s Assistant information officer Dhaneshwor Poudel informed that action was taken against Raju Store located at Sankhamul, Lalitpur and S and JS Store, located at Prayag Pokhari for hoarding LPG.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Poudel said that the department booked the store owners after it was found that they were hiding the LPG from consumers while saying that there was no gas available. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Action was taken after we found Raju Store hiding 10 cylinders and S and JS store hiding 15 cylinders of LPG. Both the stores have been fined Rs 20,000 each,” Poudel said, adding that action was taken against both the stores for violating the Consumer Protection Act 2075 BS.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The market is facing shortage of cooking gas ever since the petroleum dealers, transport companies and LPG dealers began protest since March 20.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the dealers have withdrawn their protests and Nepal Oil Corporation has increased the supply of gas, consumers are still facing trouble to get the LPG. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As the price of crude oil continues to rise in the international market, the dealers allegedly started hiding gas in order to sell them at an increased price later when the NOC increases the price.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The department informed that it has increased monitoring, of gas depots and gas stores and will continue the monitoring in upcoming days to expose such irregularities.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-26', 'modified' => '2022-04-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14913', 'image' => '20220426042227_1650891800.gas.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-26 16:21:48', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15169', 'article_category_id' => '228', 'title' => 'Nepal Airlines to Operate 3 Flights a Week to Japan from May 1 ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 26: Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) has decided to operate three flights in a week to Japan’s Narita from Kathmandu starting from May 1.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 26: Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) has decided to operate three flights in a week to Japan’s Narita from Kathmandu starting from May 1. At present, the flag carrier of Nepal has been operating two flights a week to Narita. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The NAC will be operating the flights on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays, informed Karishma Shrestha, former spokesperson of NAC. </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 state-owned airline company of Nepal said in a statement that the flights conducted on Sundays and Tuesdays will carry 140 passengers while there will be only 120 passengers on Fridays.</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 statement added that passengers' demand was growing due to the subsided rate imposed in the wake of COVID-19. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The airfare for Kathmandu-Narita round-trip is Rs 152,000 including tax in business class and Rs 119,000 in economy class. </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-26', 'modified' => '2022-04-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14912', 'image' => '20220426105932_NAC.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-26 10:58:55', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15168', 'article_category_id' => '228', 'title' => 'NATTA Objects to Increase in Airport Charge ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 26: The Nepal Association of Tours and Travel Agents (NATTA) has expressed concerns regarding the government’s decision to increase the airport service charges. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 26: The Nepal Association of Tours and Travel Agents (NATTA) has expressed concerns regarding the government’s decision to increase the airport service charges. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Issuing a statement on Monday, NATTA President Ramesh Thapa objected to the government's decision to increase the airport tariff to Rs 3,000 per passenger. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">“</span></strong><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">This is likely to adversely affect the tourism business, which is gradually on the rise following the COVID-19 pandemic,” the state-owned national news agency RSS quoted Thapa as saying. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The NATTA is an umbrella organization of tourism entrepreneurs in the country. The association has demanded immediate reversal of the government's decision. It has also urged the government to take such decisions in coordination with the stakeholders. </span><br /> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-26', 'modified' => '2022-04-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14911', 'image' => '20220426035611_Tourist.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-26 10:37:31', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15170', 'article_category_id' => '277', 'title' => ' Food Management and Trading Company Fails to Meet its Target of Purchasing Paddy', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 26: The state-owned Food Management and Trading Company Limited (FMTCL) has yet again failed to procure paddy as per its target this year.', '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"">April 26: The state-owned Food Management and Trading Company Limited (FMTCL) has yet again failed to procure paddy as per its target this year.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Since the state-owned company has not been able to purchase even half of the paddy as per its target, questions have been raised about the minimum support price of paddy fixed by the government for the welfare of the farmers.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Stakeholders say that the government announces the minimum support price only for the sake of announcement.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Uddhav Adhikari, coordinator of the Agriculture Campaign for Food, said the government fixes the support prices but does not give much attention towards its implementation.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">After the government fixes the support price, the state-owned company sets the purchase target accordingly. However, the official said that it was a shame not to be able to buy even half of the target.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">The FMTCL had initially targeted to buy 30,000 metric tonnes of paddy from farmers in the current fiscal year. </span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Later, the company said it is not possible to buy in that quantity, and then revised the purchase target. This time the company set a target of purchasing 20,000 metric tons of paddy. But the company has not been able to purchase that amount of paddy. According to the latest data, the FMTCL has bought only 9,000 metric tonnes of paddy.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">The company has purchased 9,000 metric tonnes of paddy from nine offices, including Birtamod, Biratnagar, Rajapur and Dhangadhi.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">The company has procured 1600 metric tonnes of paddy from Birtamod, 1496 metric tonnes from Biratnagar, 1785 metric tonnes from Lahan, 1664 metric tonnes from Janakpur, 1783 metric tonnes from Birgunj, 225 metric tonnes from Nepalgunj, 780 metric tonnes from Rajapur, five metric tonnes from Dhangadhi and 116 metric tonnes from Mahendranagar.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">The company’s failure to buy paddy as per the target is not a new issue. Last year, it had set a target of purchasing 60,000 metric tonnes of paddy, but only 22,000 tonnes were procured. The company did not meet the target of buying wheat either.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-26', 'modified' => '2022-04-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14910', 'image' => '20220426112607_rice-paddy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-26 11:25:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15167', 'article_category_id' => '228', 'title' => 'Nepal Remains in EU Blacklist despite Improvement in Air Safety Rating', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 26: Nepal's air safety rating has increased significantly in the last five years, according to a safety audit conducted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">April 26: Nepal's air safety rating has increased significantly in the last five years, according to a safety audit conducted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The study conducted by ICAO states that Nepal’s air safety has increased by three percentage points in the last five years. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) informed that Nepal’s compliance rate is above average in the air safety audit list of ICAO.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">As per the audit, Nepal’s air safety compliance rate has climbed to 70.1 percent at present from 66.76 percent in 2017.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">A 10-member team of ICAO had arrived in Nepal on April 13 for the audit. The team prepared its report on April 22. CAAN made the report public amid a press conference on Monday (April 25).</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">ICAO has conducted such audits in the past in 2009, 2013, 2016 and 2017.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">ICAO’s audit looks into eight different parameters including legislation and regulation, orgnaisation and safety oversight function, personal licensing, flight operation, airworthiness of aircraft, accident and investigation, air navigation service and aerodrome and ground aids. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">CAAN Director-General Pradeep Adhikari said that the increase in air safety audit rating has given a message that Nepal’s sky is safe for aviation.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">However, the restriction imposed by the European Union on Nepali airlines has not been lifted despite Nepal’s progress in safety rating of ICAO audit. CAAN believes that this progress would surely help Nepal in coming days. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The EU has banned Nepali aircraft in European skies since 2014 citing air safety concerns.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-26', 'modified' => '2022-04-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14909', 'image' => '20220426100813_1650929561.Clipboard19.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-26 10:07:38', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15166', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Nepal's Land Classified into 11 Categories ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 25: The Forest Research and Training Centre (FRTC) announced the launch of Nepal’s National Land Cover Monitoring System (NLCMS) in collaboration with various stakeholders on the occasion of the Earth Day on April 22.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 25: The Forest Research and Training Centre (FRTC) announced the launch of Nepal’s National Land Cover Monitoring System (NLCMS) in collaboration with various stakeholders on the occasion of the Earth Day on April 22. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The system uses cloud computing and artificial intelligence to generate consistent data on how much of a region is covered by forests, wetlands, agriculture, and other land and water types, on an annual basis, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) said in a statement. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Based on the NLCMS, the government has classified Nepal’s land into 11 different categories including forest land, agriculture land, grassland, bush, marshland, snow land, glacier, rock, flood land, shelter land and vegetation-less land. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the state-owned national news agency RSS, the forests of Nepal covered 39.99 per cent of the total land in 2000 which increased to 41.69 per cent in 2019. Similarly, the agriculture area decreased from 26.31 per cent in 2000 to 24.21 per cent in 2019. . </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to ICIMOD, the NLCMS will improve reporting on forest cover change and support Nepali lawmakers in making evidence-based policies to improve related land management practices. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The FRTC developed the NLCMS with support from SERVIR-HKH, a joint initiative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-25', 'modified' => '2022-04-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14908', 'image' => '20220425081518_Jiten_220422_026A3027.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-25 20:14:24', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15165', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Energy Minister urges Army Chief Sharma to Increase Electricity Consumption ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 25: Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Pampha Bhusal held a meeting with the Chief of the Army Staff, General Prabhu Ram Sharma at her office in Singha Durbar on Sunday. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 25: Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Pampha Bhusal held a meeting with the Chief of the Army Staff, General Prabhu Ram Sharma at her office in Singha Durbar on Sunday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The meeting between the two focused on the development and consumption of electricity. On the occasion, minister Bhusal urged the Nepalese Army to increase consumption of electricity. </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 minister urged the army to replace other kinds of fuel used in the kitchen by electricity. “For this, the ministry is ready to provide required infrastructure," said the minister. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The minister also urged the army to use electric vehicles instead of petrol/diesel vehicle in the coming days. The minister was of the view that the national army must purchase electric vehicles in the future. </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"">Stating that the army has made vital contribution to the infrastructure development of the country, Minister Bhusal expressed the hope that the army would also contribute to the development of hydropower sector in the coming days. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the occasion, Army Chief Sharma said that the Nepalese Army has already moved ahead with the plan to electrify the kitchen and assured that the process will be fully implemented in the near future.</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"">“We have started using large steamers to cook food. We will start using electric stoves in all the barracks in coming days,” he said, adding that the army has already started converting petrol/diesel vehicles into electric vehicles.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-25', 'modified' => '2022-04-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14907', 'image' => '20220425063600_1650791164.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-25 18:35:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15164', 'article_category_id' => '270', 'title' => 'Offline Use of Ride-Sharing Apps Increases Security Risk', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 25: Sumi Tripathi, a permanent resident of Kavre currently living in Tripureshwor, has to urgently visit Ganga Lal Heart Care Centre in Kathmandu where her mother was admitted for treatment last Wednesday.', '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"">April 25: Sumi Tripathi, a permanent resident of Kavre currently living in Tripureshwor, has to urgently visit Ganga Lal Heart Care Centre in Kathmandu where her mother was admitted for treatment last Wednesday. Sumi rushed to the hospital to see her mother. It was already 7 pm, so she decided to use a ride-sharing application. </span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Upon reaching the road, she saw a man sitting on a bike. Assuming him to be a Tootle or Pathao rider, she asked him for a ride in a hurry. The biker agreed and took her to Ganga Lal as requested. As soon as he started the bike, the rider raced at a very high speed. Tripathi asked him to ride slowly, but the driver kept his speed. As Tripathi had taken the ride offline, she couldn't make her complaint with the company.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">The rise in offline use of ride-sharing service has heightened security risks. In recent times, ride-sharing companies have been making good business with the use of technology. </span></span></span></span></p> <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"">But due to the temptation of making more money, some riders have added security concerns when providing offline services.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Offline use of ride-sharing apps such as Pathao, Tootle, In driver and Lozoom, providing mobility services in Kathmandu Valley, has increased the security challenge. The offline use of ride-sharing apps has increased as riders can make more profit, and passengers can also travel at less expense.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Ahsimman Singh Basnet, managing director of Pathao Nepal Pvt, shared that his team cannot track riders when s/he takes passengers offline.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">“Therefore, he is not our employee at that time,” he said, adding, “If there is an accident, we cannot take responsibility for it. So passengers should not go offline just because they can save some money or they are in a hurry.”</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">He said that a law should be implemented at the state level to control the riders who use offline contact while sitting at the crossroads. He said that the ride-sharing platform has a provision to provide accidental insurance of Rs 100,000 and death insurance up to Rs 500,000 while using their service online.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">It is said that the number of riders and passengers using offline services is rising in Sundhara, Tripureshwor, Chabahil, Gongbu Bus Park, Koteshwor Chowk, Kalanki, Balkhu Chowk and other places during the evening and night.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">It has increased as the rider does not have to pay any commission to the concerned company for taking the passenger to the destination through offline means.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">"We drop passengers offline as we do not have to pay the commission," said a dispatched driver who did not want to be identified. For ride-sharing services, Pathao charges 20 per cent, Tootle and Lozoom charge 10 per cent, while In driver does not charge any commission.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Even though ride-sharing companies like Tootle and Pathao are registered with the company registrar's office, the government has been warning them to stop providing services.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Article 8 (1) of the Transportation Management Act states that private vehicles cannot be used a<strong>s</strong> public transport. Article 12 of the same act has made provision that vehicles registered for one purpose cannot be used for another purpose, due to which even the Department of Transport Management has been calling such action illegal.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><br /> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-25', 'modified' => '2022-04-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14906', 'image' => '20220425063624_1650843435.8.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-25 14:57:40', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15163', 'article_category_id' => '268', 'title' => 'Women Entrepreneurs Summit Concludes', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 25: The Nepalese Young Entrepreneurs Forum (NYEF) on Saturday organized the Young Entrepreneurs Summit Women (YESW) with the aim of promoting women entrepreneurship.', '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"">April 25: The Nepalese Young Entrepreneurs Forum (NYEF) on Saturday organized the Young Entrepreneurs Summit Women (YESW) with the aim of promoting women entrepreneurship.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">The forum has been organizing this summit since 2013. The summit was inaugurated by Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Pampha Bhusal and attended by young entrepreneurs involved in agriculture, construction, cottage and small business, physical exercise, consulting firms and research. The students who aspire to become entrepreneurs also attended the programme.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">The slogan of this year's summit was 'Beyond Barriers'. The conference was sponsored by the International Labor Organization (ILO), Rastriya Banijya Bank and United Insurance. The conference was attended by more than 150 entrepreneurs, experts, new entrepreneurs and students.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Entrepreneurs including Sangita Pandey from Aama Ko Achar, President of Federation of Women Entrepreneurs’ Association of Nepal Niru Rayamajhi Khatri, and Vidushi Rana from Kiran Shoes Manufacturer Pvt. Ltd. (Goldstar) attended the summit. Companies led by women and young entrepreneurs and new startups including Bihe-Nepal, Educase, Makkuse, Suiro also participated in the summit. The programme was coordinated by Sahara Joshi.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-25', 'modified' => '2022-04-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14905', 'image' => '20220425023845_1650844188.Clipboard10.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-25 14:37:50', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15162', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => 'MoF holds Budget Discussion with Education and Health Ministries', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 25: The Ministry of Finance held separate discussions with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the Ministry of Health and Population on Sunday regarding the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. ', '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"">April 25: The Ministry of Finance held separate discussions with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the Ministry of Health and Population on Sunday regarding the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The Ministry of Finance discussed the programmes proposed within budget ceiling with both the ministries.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Finance Minister Janardan Sharma suggested the concerned ministry to include such programmes in the budget that would prevent the tendency of school drop-out rate. </span></span></span></span></p> <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"">“Most of the students enrolled in grade 1 tend to drop out of school before even reaching grade 5. The number of students in higher classes is even lower,” said Minister Sharma, adding, “Let’s prepare the budget and introduce programs to determine the cause why students drop out of the school and create the environment for the students to not drop out.”</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">He also remarked that there is a need to move towards digital technology to change the way of learning with time. He instructed the concerned authorities to start a programmes to make use of digital technology for teaching in some schools from the upcoming fiscal year.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Stating that the establishment of IT colleges is necessary, Sharma said that a budget should be allocated for that as well. Sharma said, “There are many programmes that failed to show effective results despite continuous budget allocation. Therefore, we should prepare the budget by focusing on programmes that have good return.”</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">In the meeting, Minister for Education Devendra Poudel emphasized the need of programmess to ensure quality education, stating that there will be chaos everywhere if the education lags behind. He said that the development of the country will also be supported by better education.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Similarly, Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission, Biswo Nath Poudel, said that the compulsion for students to go to school by travelling a long distance should be removed. He said that the tendency to study with government’s money and going to work abroad after the completion of studies should also be discouraged. </span></span></span></span></p> <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"">During the meeting with the Ministry of Health and Population on Sunday, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma said that it is necessary to formulate the budget in such a way as that it would end the compulsion for poor people to live with diseases.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">He requested to propose budget and programmes to expand the services of Patan Institute of Health Sciences and Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, Maharajgunj to other places as well.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">He said the upcoming budget will address the issue of health insurance reaching out to the poor families, improving maternity services, creating a situation where people do not have to go abroad for treatment of complex diseases including kidney and liver diseases.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">During the discussion, Health Minister Birodh Khatiwada said that arrangements should be made for the posts of doctors and equipment in 500 to 1,500-bed hospitals.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-25', 'modified' => '2022-04-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14904', 'image' => '20220425020619_finance_ministry_copy1.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-25 14:05:24', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15161', 'article_category_id' => '268', 'title' => 'Nepal's Export Increases 69.44 Percent in Nine Months ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 25: Nepal witnessed an increase in export by 69.44 per cent in the first nine months of the current fiscal year (FY 2021/22) as compared to the corresponding period of the last year (FY 2020/21). ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 25: Nepal witnessed an increase in export by 69.44 per cent in the first nine months of the current fiscal year (FY 2021/22) as compared to the corresponding period of the last year (FY 2020/21). </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the data unveiled by the Department of Customs, the export of domestic products since mid-July, 2021 to mid-April was recorded at over Rs 160.57 billion against Rs 94.76 billion during the same period last year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, import has also increased by 31.97 per cent in the first nine months of the current fiscal year compared to last year. The imports during the review period this year stood at more than Rs 1466.66 billion against Rs 1,111.39 billion recorded during the same period of last fiscal year. </span><br /> Nepal's <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">trade deficit went up by 28.47 per cent to over Rs 1450 billion during the first nine months of the current fiscal year against Rs 1016.62 billion during the same period of last fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the trade data of the first nine months of the current fiscal unveiled by the Department, Nepal imported petroleum products including diesel, petrol and cooking gas worth Rs 200 billion. The country imported diesel worth Rs 105 billion followed by petrol worth Rs 47.23 billion. LPG (cooking gas) worth over Rs 45.34 billion was imported during the review period. </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"">Similarly, soybean oil worth Rs 45.58 billion, palm oil worth over Rs 32.4 billion, vaccines worth over Rs 31.85 billion and gold worth over Rs 28.54 billion were imported during the nine months. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">As per the data, goods worth over Rs 1,466 billion were imported from 162 countries during the first nine months of the current fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Nepal imported goods of highest amount worth Rs 917 billion from India while it exported goods worth Rs 127 billion during the nine months to the southern neighbour. Nepal's trade deficit with India during this period stood at Rs 773 billion. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">China is the second largest trade partner of Nepal. The country imported goods worth over Rs 211 billion from China whereas it exported goods worth Rs 628 million during the first nine months. Nepal has trade deficit amounting to Rs 210 billion with China. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-25', 'modified' => '2022-04-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14903', 'image' => '20220425102326_Trade.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-25 08:20:55', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15160', 'article_category_id' => '278', 'title' => 'FCAN Announces 'Construction Holiday'', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 25: The Federation of Contractors' Associations of Nepal (FCAN) has announced a 'construction holiday' arguing that there is lack of environment conducive for construction due to price hike of construction materials.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 25: The Federation of Contractors' Associations of Nepal (FCAN) has announced a 'construction holiday' arguing that there is lack of environment conducive for construction due to price hike of construction materials.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Excessive price hike of construction materials, some errors in the 11th amendment to the Public Procurement Regulation and provisions in the Insurance Directives, 2078 BS among others have made the matter worse, said the federation.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">As a result, approximately 3,500 projects have been halted in protest.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">FCAN President Rabi Singh confirmed that they have announced a construction holiday as the construction business is at risk of collapsing.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to Singh, over 17,000 contractors have been on the brink of quitting their business. Construction of around 1500 projects has continued however, he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Singh added that they will launch sit-ins at the district administration office of all 77 districts and the office of the Chief Minister of all seven provinces from April 26.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The FCAN in a statement urged the government to resolve the problems faced by the construction industry as they will have negative impacts on country's economy as a whole.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The statement said they had to resort to protest after their repeated calls to the government to address their problem went unheard.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">As part of their protest, they launched sit-in in front of the office of the Public Procurement and Monitoring Office and the Insurance Board last Thursday and Friday.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">They have demanded price adjustment of construction materials, amendment of inconsistent points in the 11th amendment to the Public Procurement Regulation, 2078 and to scrap the Insurance Directive, 2078. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The Independent Power Producers' Association, Nepal has also expressed its solidarity with the demand of scraping the Insurance Directive, 2078. -- RSS </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-25', 'modified' => '2022-04-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14902', 'image' => '20220425081021_-media1614582237.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-25 07:56:55', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15159', 'article_category_id' => '218', 'title' => 'Nabil Bank Aims to Promote Social Entrepreneurship for Social Transformation', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'There was a time when the private sector used to be described as a sector that focuses solely on profit making.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">There was a time when the private sector used to be described as a sector that focuses solely on profit making. Lately, the private sector is being considered globally as an important stakeholder in solving social problems as well. We can see instances of private sector enterprises and entrepreneurs involved in several social works in various countries in addition to their commercial success. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">In the mid-90s, the European corporate sector initiated collective campaigns to address the issues of unemployment and exclusion under the banner of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in response to the request made by the President of the European Union. As part of the campaign, a commission was formed in 2000 and it worked to make the CSR campaign wider, more systematic, and participatory. Various universities were brought on board as partner institutions for the purpose. This made a positive contribution to the society, the private sector, and the national economy. Now, CSR activities undertaken in European countries are considered exemplary across the world.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Lately, the participation of the private sector has been expanding in various sectors of the society. CSR activities have been carried out as charity and as a host of activities contributing to the upliftment of society. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil Bank is one of the leading institutions that has been carrying out various activities to develop social entrepreneurship and sustainable banking, which have emerged as different campaigns in the banking sector of the country. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-size:16.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil School of Social Entrepreneurship</span></span></strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil Bank insists that its recently-launched Nabil School of Social Entrepreneurship (Nabil SSE) is a different and new type of non-profit initiative which aims to expand social entrepreneurship nationwide. Under this initiative, the bank has started a Fellowship Programme commencing from the third week of March 2022. Under this programme, a public call was made to submit concepts on social entrepreneurship. From among 350 applicants, 20 of the most competitive applicants were selected, who are now being trained on social entrepreneurship for a year free of cost. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to Nabil Bank, this programme aims to link Nepal’s higher education with the country’s most prominent private-sector bank in order to create successful social entrepreneurs. Under this campaign, Nabil Bank said it is starting another Certificate Level Programme in all seven provinces of the country. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil SSE – Certificate Level Programme</span></span></strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil Bank informed that a curriculum is being prepared in coordination with various colleges from all seven provinces. Under this programme, an ambitious target of creating 700 entrepreneurs - 100 in each province, has been set. Nabil Bank has also set up an office in partnership with the Faculty of Management under Tribhuvan University to make this campaign systematic, sustainable, and institutionalized. The main objective of Nabil’s move to promote social entrepreneurship is to contribute to social transformation through the development of social entrepreneurship and to address social problems. This move of the bank aims to identify new ideas on social entrepreneurship from the community level and attract investment to materialize the idea into practices.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil SSE also aims to run social campaigns to develop new ideas, the bank further said adding, “With its own investment, Nabil SSE aims to develop social entrepreneurs and establish a tradition of solving social problems through social entrepreneurship.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil Bank said it has been involved in social work since a long time along with its commercial success. Nabil Bank claimed that it contributed Rs 60 billion to the government’s COVID-19 relief fund in 2020 and also helped establish an oxygen plant at Bir Hospital at a time when the entire nation was suffering from shortage of oxygen during the pandemic. Nabil Bank has been contributing to the society through such types of CSR interventions. But now, the bank says it has moved ahead with a new model of social service through social entrepreneurship development. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">It is a novel initiative in the banking sector. The bank believes that the success of this endeavor will help establish a new culture of entrepreneurship development in the country and in turn, solve social problems.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-size:16.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Sustainable Banking: A Distinct Initiative </span></span></strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“Sustainable Banking is a new identity of Nabil Bank,” says the bank. The bank has set up a new unit ‘Sustainable Banking’ and has carried out model work at several places in the country. The bank announced the programme regarding Sustainable Banking, which aims to enable excluded classes to receive loans at cheaper rates for their enterprises. This will contribute to developing an inclusive economy in the country.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">For this purpose, the bank says it has been investing in sustainable business development in coordination with various state agencies and development stakeholders. The bank aims to provide services to people deprived of access to finance, and to promote entrepreneurship in remote villages through sustainable banking initiatives. The bank has also been working on promoting micro-enterprises by aligning its works with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations. Under the Sustainable Banking initiative, a farmer can get a loan up to Rs 1.50 million personally, up to Rs 2.50 million institutionally, and up to Rs 500,000 collectively as a group, according to the bank.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Under the Nabil Entrepreneurship Credit Scheme, people aged 18-60 years can get loans in the range of Rs 100,000 to Rs 10 million. Dozens of people have already started new businesses by availing loans from Nabil Bank under this scheme. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">However, the scope of Nabil Bank’s Sustainable Banking is much larger. The bank has expanded financing under this scheme to achieve the SDGs. It has also commenced maintaining an account of carbon emissions to examine how the enterprises financed by the bank have contributed to reduce carbon dioxide emission. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The bank says it has been expanding its credits in areas of renewable energy in coordination with the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre. It is the bank’s initiative to minimize the impact of climate change in the country by supporting development of micro hydro projects and other sources of renewable energy. Nabil Bank is also a member of the UK-based Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), an institution that helps in keeping accounts of the contribution of the bank’s financing in the areas of climate and environment. Nabil Bank informed that it will also work in the area of carbon financing through this agency. The bank has also started a ‘Remit Forestation’ programme to highlight the contribution of remittances sent by Nepali migrant workers. This banking initiative is expected to help promote the spirit of sustainable development and minimize the impact of climate change. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-size:16.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Social Entrepreneurship for Achieving National Goals </span></span></strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The United Nations has already endorsed a proposal of graduating Nepal into a developing country from a least developed country in 2026. There are three criteria for graduation—per capita Gross National Income (GNI), Human Assets Index (HAI), and Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI). Nepal is yet to meet the criteria related to per capita GNI. In order to graduate into a developing country, an LDC should have per capita GNI of at least $1,230 but presently, it is tentatively $1,100 in the case of Nepal. The country is facing an additional challenge of meeting the GNI criterion because of the impact of the COVID-19 on people’s earnings, the bank further said. Therefore, it is not possible to meet the GNI target without the growth of economic activities through the development of new enterprises. “We need to take steps that help the State achieve sustainable and inclusive economic development,” said the bank.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Poverty alleviation, employment generation, and economic equality are the important pillars for national development, according to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). This is in line with the country’s 15th periodic plan (2019-20—2023-24) and 25-year Long-Term Vision Paper. The 8<sup>th</sup> Sustainable Development Goal emphasizes on enhancing people’s access to Banks and Financial Institutions for creating sustainable employment and promoting economic activities. According to the bank, the goal focuses on the need for enhancing the capacity of financial institutions as well as expanding their services. The new endeavors initiated by Nabil Bank for social entrepreneurship development and Sustainable Banking are aligned with the country’s national development goals and objectives. Nabil Bank informed that it has proactively taken initiatives in the banking sector, which has also inspired others to do the same to help achieve common national development goals. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Encouragement to Develop Small Enterprises</span></span></strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">As per the government’s statistics, more than 18 percent of the population are living below the poverty line. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic is estimated to have pushed more people under the poverty line. Unemployment rate in the country is over 11 percent. “Our national plan and SDGs have called for addressing these problems along with many other social issues through partnerships and coordinated efforts.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil Bank informed that it has adopted the policy of processing loans for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as quickly as possible to help promote such enterprises. It is part of the bank’s belief that inclusive banking is essential to promote an inclusive economy. The bank has forged partnerships with various agencies for this purpose. For instance, the bank has started a new banking access programme in coordination with the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) to connect youth and women entrepreneurs with the banking service. Under this scheme, the bank expects hundreds of thousands of women and youth entrepreneurs to be connected, thereby contributing to promote inclusive banking and economic development. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil Bank said it has also forged a partnership with Daraz, an online shopping site under which, the bank has started providing credits to small businesses as per the recommendation of Daraz. The bank has also been extending credit in the agriculture sector and helped develop </span></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">farming technology in the sector in coordination with various institutions and companies. In addition to this, the bank is also promoting gender equality by extending credit to women entrepreneurs based on the recommendation of the Federation of Women Entrepreneurs Associations of Nepal. These endeavors have emerged as win-win situations for both borrowers and the bank as they helped new people to engage in businesses and helped the bank diversify its investment portfolio.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">These are some of the instances whereby Nabil Bank has not confined its job to banking business alone, but has also been engaged in running social and economic campaigns. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">As Nepal's first private sector bank, Nabil Bank has continued to remain the leading bank in the country. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“Its focus on inclusive banking to promote economic development and development of enterprises, along with its emphasis on increasing people’s access to finance have enhanced the bank’s public image too. The new endeavors of Nabil Bank are also expected to inspire other banks to follow suit.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The bank says that the areas where Nabil Bank is expanding credit could be the areas where other banks can also find opportunities to expand their credit in the future. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil Bank believes that the wider programmes that the bank launched in coordination with the government, development partners, business enterprises, and professional organizations could stimulate other banks to find new areas of investments and ways to expand investment in social entrepreneurship. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“The multi-stakeholder partnership including universities, national and international agencies, has contributed to explore innovations in the banking sector, which has separated Nabil from the remaining banking institutions of the nation.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-24', 'modified' => '2022-04-24', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14901', 'image' => '20220424062828_Nabil.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-24 18:26:37', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, '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' => '15173', 'article_category_id' => '267', 'title' => 'Hearing on NRB Governor Case Deferred for Thursday', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 27: Hearing on the case filed by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari at the Supreme Court against the government could not be completed 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"">April 27: Hearing on the case filed by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari at the Supreme Court against the government could not be completed on Tuesday. </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"">Although a division bench of SC Justices Sapana Pradhan Malla and Tanka Bahadur Moktan started hearing on the case, it was postponed for Thursday due to time constraint. </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 apex court had called both sides for the hearing after a single bench of Justice Hari Prasad Phuyal last Tuesday issued an interim order to the government not to implement its decision to suspend the governor until the final verdict. </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"">Governor Adhikari was suspended from his post automatically after the government formed a probe committee to investigate against the governor on April 7.</span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Following the government’s decision, Governor Adhikari had filed a case at the SC on April 17 demanding the court to scrap such decision. He returned back to office after the apex court issued the interim order to stay the government’s decision. </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-27', 'modified' => '2022-04-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14915', 'image' => '20220427095213_Supreme Court.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-27 09:51:30', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15172', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => 'IMF Projects Nepal’s Economy to Grow by 4.1 Percent in 2022', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 26: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected Nepal’s economy to grow by 4.1 percent in 2022.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 26: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected Nepal’s economy to grow by 4.1 percent in 2022.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The IMF published its report ‘World Economic Outlook’ which states that Nepal’s economy will grow by 4.1 percent in 2022 after suffering a slowdown to 2.1 percent in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The report further states that Nepal’s economy is projected to grow by 6.1 percent in 2023.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Economic growth in Asia and the Pacific is poised to slow more than previously estimated this year amid headwinds from the war in Ukraine, a resurgent pandemic, and tightening global financial conditions, according to IMF.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The war in Ukraine has triggered a costly humanitarian crisis that demands a peaceful resolution. At the same time, economic damage from the conflict will contribute to a significant slowdown in global growth in 2022 and add to inflation,” states the report. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to IMF, fuel and food prices have increased rapidly, hitting vulnerable populations in low-income countries hardest.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Interest rates are expected to rise as central banks tighten policy, exerting pressure on emerging market and developing economies. Moreover, many countries have limited fiscal policy space to cushion the impact of the war on their economies, IMF further said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Global growth is projected to slow from an estimated 6.1 percent in 2021 to 3.6 percent in 2022 and 2023. This is 0.8 and 0.2 percentage points lower for 2022 and 2023 than projected in January. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Beyond 2023, global growth is forecast to decline to about 3.3 percent over the medium term. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“War-induced commodity price increases and broadening price pressures have led to 2022 inflation projections of 5.7 percent in advanced economies and 8.7 percent in emerging market and developing economies—1.8 and 2.8 percentage points higher than projected last January.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Multilateral efforts to respond to the humanitarian crisis, prevent further economic fragmentation, maintain global liquidity, manage debt distress, tackle climate change, and end the pandemic are essential, the report added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">With a few exceptions, employment and output will typically remain below pre-pandemic trends through 2026. Scarring effects are expected to be much larger in emerging market and developing economies than in advanced economies—reflecting more limited policy support and generally slower vaccination—with output expected to remain below the pre-pandemic trend throughout the forecast horizon.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-26', 'modified' => '2022-04-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14914', 'image' => '20220426051733_imf.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-26 17:16:47', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15171', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Dealers Fined Rs 20,000 for Creating Artificial Shortage of Cooking Gas', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 26: The Department of Commerce and Supply and Consumer Protection took action against two traders for creating artificial shortage of cooking gas. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 26: The Department of Commerce and Supply and Consumer Protection took action against two traders for creating artificial shortage of cooking gas. The department’s Assistant information officer Dhaneshwor Poudel informed that action was taken against Raju Store located at Sankhamul, Lalitpur and S and JS Store, located at Prayag Pokhari for hoarding LPG.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Poudel said that the department booked the store owners after it was found that they were hiding the LPG from consumers while saying that there was no gas available. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Action was taken after we found Raju Store hiding 10 cylinders and S and JS store hiding 15 cylinders of LPG. Both the stores have been fined Rs 20,000 each,” Poudel said, adding that action was taken against both the stores for violating the Consumer Protection Act 2075 BS.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The market is facing shortage of cooking gas ever since the petroleum dealers, transport companies and LPG dealers began protest since March 20.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the dealers have withdrawn their protests and Nepal Oil Corporation has increased the supply of gas, consumers are still facing trouble to get the LPG. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As the price of crude oil continues to rise in the international market, the dealers allegedly started hiding gas in order to sell them at an increased price later when the NOC increases the price.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The department informed that it has increased monitoring, of gas depots and gas stores and will continue the monitoring in upcoming days to expose such irregularities.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-26', 'modified' => '2022-04-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14913', 'image' => '20220426042227_1650891800.gas.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-26 16:21:48', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15169', 'article_category_id' => '228', 'title' => 'Nepal Airlines to Operate 3 Flights a Week to Japan from May 1 ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 26: Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) has decided to operate three flights in a week to Japan’s Narita from Kathmandu starting from May 1.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 26: Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) has decided to operate three flights in a week to Japan’s Narita from Kathmandu starting from May 1. At present, the flag carrier of Nepal has been operating two flights a week to Narita. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The NAC will be operating the flights on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays, informed Karishma Shrestha, former spokesperson of NAC. </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 state-owned airline company of Nepal said in a statement that the flights conducted on Sundays and Tuesdays will carry 140 passengers while there will be only 120 passengers on Fridays.</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 statement added that passengers' demand was growing due to the subsided rate imposed in the wake of COVID-19. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The airfare for Kathmandu-Narita round-trip is Rs 152,000 including tax in business class and Rs 119,000 in economy class. </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-26', 'modified' => '2022-04-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14912', 'image' => '20220426105932_NAC.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-26 10:58:55', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15168', 'article_category_id' => '228', 'title' => 'NATTA Objects to Increase in Airport Charge ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 26: The Nepal Association of Tours and Travel Agents (NATTA) has expressed concerns regarding the government’s decision to increase the airport service charges. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 26: The Nepal Association of Tours and Travel Agents (NATTA) has expressed concerns regarding the government’s decision to increase the airport service charges. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Issuing a statement on Monday, NATTA President Ramesh Thapa objected to the government's decision to increase the airport tariff to Rs 3,000 per passenger. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">“</span></strong><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">This is likely to adversely affect the tourism business, which is gradually on the rise following the COVID-19 pandemic,” the state-owned national news agency RSS quoted Thapa as saying. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The NATTA is an umbrella organization of tourism entrepreneurs in the country. The association has demanded immediate reversal of the government's decision. It has also urged the government to take such decisions in coordination with the stakeholders. </span><br /> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-26', 'modified' => '2022-04-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14911', 'image' => '20220426035611_Tourist.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-26 10:37:31', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15170', 'article_category_id' => '277', 'title' => ' Food Management and Trading Company Fails to Meet its Target of Purchasing Paddy', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 26: The state-owned Food Management and Trading Company Limited (FMTCL) has yet again failed to procure paddy as per its target this year.', '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"">April 26: The state-owned Food Management and Trading Company Limited (FMTCL) has yet again failed to procure paddy as per its target this year.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Since the state-owned company has not been able to purchase even half of the paddy as per its target, questions have been raised about the minimum support price of paddy fixed by the government for the welfare of the farmers.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Stakeholders say that the government announces the minimum support price only for the sake of announcement.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Uddhav Adhikari, coordinator of the Agriculture Campaign for Food, said the government fixes the support prices but does not give much attention towards its implementation.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">After the government fixes the support price, the state-owned company sets the purchase target accordingly. However, the official said that it was a shame not to be able to buy even half of the target.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">The FMTCL had initially targeted to buy 30,000 metric tonnes of paddy from farmers in the current fiscal year. </span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Later, the company said it is not possible to buy in that quantity, and then revised the purchase target. This time the company set a target of purchasing 20,000 metric tons of paddy. But the company has not been able to purchase that amount of paddy. According to the latest data, the FMTCL has bought only 9,000 metric tonnes of paddy.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">The company has purchased 9,000 metric tonnes of paddy from nine offices, including Birtamod, Biratnagar, Rajapur and Dhangadhi.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">The company has procured 1600 metric tonnes of paddy from Birtamod, 1496 metric tonnes from Biratnagar, 1785 metric tonnes from Lahan, 1664 metric tonnes from Janakpur, 1783 metric tonnes from Birgunj, 225 metric tonnes from Nepalgunj, 780 metric tonnes from Rajapur, five metric tonnes from Dhangadhi and 116 metric tonnes from Mahendranagar.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">The company’s failure to buy paddy as per the target is not a new issue. Last year, it had set a target of purchasing 60,000 metric tonnes of paddy, but only 22,000 tonnes were procured. The company did not meet the target of buying wheat either.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-26', 'modified' => '2022-04-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14910', 'image' => '20220426112607_rice-paddy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-26 11:25:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15167', 'article_category_id' => '228', 'title' => 'Nepal Remains in EU Blacklist despite Improvement in Air Safety Rating', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 26: Nepal's air safety rating has increased significantly in the last five years, according to a safety audit conducted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">April 26: Nepal's air safety rating has increased significantly in the last five years, according to a safety audit conducted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The study conducted by ICAO states that Nepal’s air safety has increased by three percentage points in the last five years. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) informed that Nepal’s compliance rate is above average in the air safety audit list of ICAO.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">As per the audit, Nepal’s air safety compliance rate has climbed to 70.1 percent at present from 66.76 percent in 2017.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">A 10-member team of ICAO had arrived in Nepal on April 13 for the audit. The team prepared its report on April 22. CAAN made the report public amid a press conference on Monday (April 25).</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">ICAO has conducted such audits in the past in 2009, 2013, 2016 and 2017.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">ICAO’s audit looks into eight different parameters including legislation and regulation, orgnaisation and safety oversight function, personal licensing, flight operation, airworthiness of aircraft, accident and investigation, air navigation service and aerodrome and ground aids. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">CAAN Director-General Pradeep Adhikari said that the increase in air safety audit rating has given a message that Nepal’s sky is safe for aviation.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">However, the restriction imposed by the European Union on Nepali airlines has not been lifted despite Nepal’s progress in safety rating of ICAO audit. CAAN believes that this progress would surely help Nepal in coming days. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The EU has banned Nepali aircraft in European skies since 2014 citing air safety concerns.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-26', 'modified' => '2022-04-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14909', 'image' => '20220426100813_1650929561.Clipboard19.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-26 10:07:38', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15166', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Nepal's Land Classified into 11 Categories ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 25: The Forest Research and Training Centre (FRTC) announced the launch of Nepal’s National Land Cover Monitoring System (NLCMS) in collaboration with various stakeholders on the occasion of the Earth Day on April 22.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 25: The Forest Research and Training Centre (FRTC) announced the launch of Nepal’s National Land Cover Monitoring System (NLCMS) in collaboration with various stakeholders on the occasion of the Earth Day on April 22. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The system uses cloud computing and artificial intelligence to generate consistent data on how much of a region is covered by forests, wetlands, agriculture, and other land and water types, on an annual basis, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) said in a statement. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Based on the NLCMS, the government has classified Nepal’s land into 11 different categories including forest land, agriculture land, grassland, bush, marshland, snow land, glacier, rock, flood land, shelter land and vegetation-less land. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the state-owned national news agency RSS, the forests of Nepal covered 39.99 per cent of the total land in 2000 which increased to 41.69 per cent in 2019. Similarly, the agriculture area decreased from 26.31 per cent in 2000 to 24.21 per cent in 2019. . </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to ICIMOD, the NLCMS will improve reporting on forest cover change and support Nepali lawmakers in making evidence-based policies to improve related land management practices. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The FRTC developed the NLCMS with support from SERVIR-HKH, a joint initiative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-25', 'modified' => '2022-04-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14908', 'image' => '20220425081518_Jiten_220422_026A3027.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-25 20:14:24', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15165', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Energy Minister urges Army Chief Sharma to Increase Electricity Consumption ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 25: Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Pampha Bhusal held a meeting with the Chief of the Army Staff, General Prabhu Ram Sharma at her office in Singha Durbar on Sunday. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 25: Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Pampha Bhusal held a meeting with the Chief of the Army Staff, General Prabhu Ram Sharma at her office in Singha Durbar on Sunday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The meeting between the two focused on the development and consumption of electricity. On the occasion, minister Bhusal urged the Nepalese Army to increase consumption of electricity. </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 minister urged the army to replace other kinds of fuel used in the kitchen by electricity. “For this, the ministry is ready to provide required infrastructure," said the minister. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The minister also urged the army to use electric vehicles instead of petrol/diesel vehicle in the coming days. The minister was of the view that the national army must purchase electric vehicles in the future. </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"">Stating that the army has made vital contribution to the infrastructure development of the country, Minister Bhusal expressed the hope that the army would also contribute to the development of hydropower sector in the coming days. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the occasion, Army Chief Sharma said that the Nepalese Army has already moved ahead with the plan to electrify the kitchen and assured that the process will be fully implemented in the near future.</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"">“We have started using large steamers to cook food. We will start using electric stoves in all the barracks in coming days,” he said, adding that the army has already started converting petrol/diesel vehicles into electric vehicles.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-25', 'modified' => '2022-04-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14907', 'image' => '20220425063600_1650791164.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-25 18:35:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15164', 'article_category_id' => '270', 'title' => 'Offline Use of Ride-Sharing Apps Increases Security Risk', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 25: Sumi Tripathi, a permanent resident of Kavre currently living in Tripureshwor, has to urgently visit Ganga Lal Heart Care Centre in Kathmandu where her mother was admitted for treatment last Wednesday.', '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"">April 25: Sumi Tripathi, a permanent resident of Kavre currently living in Tripureshwor, has to urgently visit Ganga Lal Heart Care Centre in Kathmandu where her mother was admitted for treatment last Wednesday. Sumi rushed to the hospital to see her mother. It was already 7 pm, so she decided to use a ride-sharing application. </span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Upon reaching the road, she saw a man sitting on a bike. Assuming him to be a Tootle or Pathao rider, she asked him for a ride in a hurry. The biker agreed and took her to Ganga Lal as requested. As soon as he started the bike, the rider raced at a very high speed. Tripathi asked him to ride slowly, but the driver kept his speed. As Tripathi had taken the ride offline, she couldn't make her complaint with the company.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">The rise in offline use of ride-sharing service has heightened security risks. In recent times, ride-sharing companies have been making good business with the use of technology. </span></span></span></span></p> <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"">But due to the temptation of making more money, some riders have added security concerns when providing offline services.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Offline use of ride-sharing apps such as Pathao, Tootle, In driver and Lozoom, providing mobility services in Kathmandu Valley, has increased the security challenge. The offline use of ride-sharing apps has increased as riders can make more profit, and passengers can also travel at less expense.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Ahsimman Singh Basnet, managing director of Pathao Nepal Pvt, shared that his team cannot track riders when s/he takes passengers offline.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">“Therefore, he is not our employee at that time,” he said, adding, “If there is an accident, we cannot take responsibility for it. So passengers should not go offline just because they can save some money or they are in a hurry.”</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">He said that a law should be implemented at the state level to control the riders who use offline contact while sitting at the crossroads. He said that the ride-sharing platform has a provision to provide accidental insurance of Rs 100,000 and death insurance up to Rs 500,000 while using their service online.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">It is said that the number of riders and passengers using offline services is rising in Sundhara, Tripureshwor, Chabahil, Gongbu Bus Park, Koteshwor Chowk, Kalanki, Balkhu Chowk and other places during the evening and night.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">It has increased as the rider does not have to pay any commission to the concerned company for taking the passenger to the destination through offline means.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">"We drop passengers offline as we do not have to pay the commission," said a dispatched driver who did not want to be identified. For ride-sharing services, Pathao charges 20 per cent, Tootle and Lozoom charge 10 per cent, while In driver does not charge any commission.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Even though ride-sharing companies like Tootle and Pathao are registered with the company registrar's office, the government has been warning them to stop providing services.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Article 8 (1) of the Transportation Management Act states that private vehicles cannot be used a<strong>s</strong> public transport. Article 12 of the same act has made provision that vehicles registered for one purpose cannot be used for another purpose, due to which even the Department of Transport Management has been calling such action illegal.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><br /> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-25', 'modified' => '2022-04-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14906', 'image' => '20220425063624_1650843435.8.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-25 14:57:40', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15163', 'article_category_id' => '268', 'title' => 'Women Entrepreneurs Summit Concludes', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 25: The Nepalese Young Entrepreneurs Forum (NYEF) on Saturday organized the Young Entrepreneurs Summit Women (YESW) with the aim of promoting women entrepreneurship.', '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"">April 25: The Nepalese Young Entrepreneurs Forum (NYEF) on Saturday organized the Young Entrepreneurs Summit Women (YESW) with the aim of promoting women entrepreneurship.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">The forum has been organizing this summit since 2013. The summit was inaugurated by Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Pampha Bhusal and attended by young entrepreneurs involved in agriculture, construction, cottage and small business, physical exercise, consulting firms and research. The students who aspire to become entrepreneurs also attended the programme.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">The slogan of this year's summit was 'Beyond Barriers'. The conference was sponsored by the International Labor Organization (ILO), Rastriya Banijya Bank and United Insurance. The conference was attended by more than 150 entrepreneurs, experts, new entrepreneurs and students.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Entrepreneurs including Sangita Pandey from Aama Ko Achar, President of Federation of Women Entrepreneurs’ Association of Nepal Niru Rayamajhi Khatri, and Vidushi Rana from Kiran Shoes Manufacturer Pvt. Ltd. (Goldstar) attended the summit. Companies led by women and young entrepreneurs and new startups including Bihe-Nepal, Educase, Makkuse, Suiro also participated in the summit. The programme was coordinated by Sahara Joshi.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-25', 'modified' => '2022-04-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14905', 'image' => '20220425023845_1650844188.Clipboard10.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-25 14:37:50', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15162', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => 'MoF holds Budget Discussion with Education and Health Ministries', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 25: The Ministry of Finance held separate discussions with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the Ministry of Health and Population on Sunday regarding the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. ', '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"">April 25: The Ministry of Finance held separate discussions with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the Ministry of Health and Population on Sunday regarding the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The Ministry of Finance discussed the programmes proposed within budget ceiling with both the ministries.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Finance Minister Janardan Sharma suggested the concerned ministry to include such programmes in the budget that would prevent the tendency of school drop-out rate. </span></span></span></span></p> <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"">“Most of the students enrolled in grade 1 tend to drop out of school before even reaching grade 5. The number of students in higher classes is even lower,” said Minister Sharma, adding, “Let’s prepare the budget and introduce programs to determine the cause why students drop out of the school and create the environment for the students to not drop out.”</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">He also remarked that there is a need to move towards digital technology to change the way of learning with time. He instructed the concerned authorities to start a programmes to make use of digital technology for teaching in some schools from the upcoming fiscal year.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Stating that the establishment of IT colleges is necessary, Sharma said that a budget should be allocated for that as well. Sharma said, “There are many programmes that failed to show effective results despite continuous budget allocation. Therefore, we should prepare the budget by focusing on programmes that have good return.”</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">In the meeting, Minister for Education Devendra Poudel emphasized the need of programmess to ensure quality education, stating that there will be chaos everywhere if the education lags behind. He said that the development of the country will also be supported by better education.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Similarly, Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission, Biswo Nath Poudel, said that the compulsion for students to go to school by travelling a long distance should be removed. He said that the tendency to study with government’s money and going to work abroad after the completion of studies should also be discouraged. </span></span></span></span></p> <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"">During the meeting with the Ministry of Health and Population on Sunday, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma said that it is necessary to formulate the budget in such a way as that it would end the compulsion for poor people to live with diseases.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">He requested to propose budget and programmes to expand the services of Patan Institute of Health Sciences and Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, Maharajgunj to other places as well.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">He said the upcoming budget will address the issue of health insurance reaching out to the poor families, improving maternity services, creating a situation where people do not have to go abroad for treatment of complex diseases including kidney and liver diseases.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">During the discussion, Health Minister Birodh Khatiwada said that arrangements should be made for the posts of doctors and equipment in 500 to 1,500-bed hospitals.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-25', 'modified' => '2022-04-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14904', 'image' => '20220425020619_finance_ministry_copy1.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-25 14:05:24', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15161', 'article_category_id' => '268', 'title' => 'Nepal's Export Increases 69.44 Percent in Nine Months ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 25: Nepal witnessed an increase in export by 69.44 per cent in the first nine months of the current fiscal year (FY 2021/22) as compared to the corresponding period of the last year (FY 2020/21). ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 25: Nepal witnessed an increase in export by 69.44 per cent in the first nine months of the current fiscal year (FY 2021/22) as compared to the corresponding period of the last year (FY 2020/21). </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the data unveiled by the Department of Customs, the export of domestic products since mid-July, 2021 to mid-April was recorded at over Rs 160.57 billion against Rs 94.76 billion during the same period last year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, import has also increased by 31.97 per cent in the first nine months of the current fiscal year compared to last year. The imports during the review period this year stood at more than Rs 1466.66 billion against Rs 1,111.39 billion recorded during the same period of last fiscal year. </span><br /> Nepal's <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">trade deficit went up by 28.47 per cent to over Rs 1450 billion during the first nine months of the current fiscal year against Rs 1016.62 billion during the same period of last fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the trade data of the first nine months of the current fiscal unveiled by the Department, Nepal imported petroleum products including diesel, petrol and cooking gas worth Rs 200 billion. The country imported diesel worth Rs 105 billion followed by petrol worth Rs 47.23 billion. LPG (cooking gas) worth over Rs 45.34 billion was imported during the review period. </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"">Similarly, soybean oil worth Rs 45.58 billion, palm oil worth over Rs 32.4 billion, vaccines worth over Rs 31.85 billion and gold worth over Rs 28.54 billion were imported during the nine months. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">As per the data, goods worth over Rs 1,466 billion were imported from 162 countries during the first nine months of the current fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Nepal imported goods of highest amount worth Rs 917 billion from India while it exported goods worth Rs 127 billion during the nine months to the southern neighbour. Nepal's trade deficit with India during this period stood at Rs 773 billion. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">China is the second largest trade partner of Nepal. The country imported goods worth over Rs 211 billion from China whereas it exported goods worth Rs 628 million during the first nine months. Nepal has trade deficit amounting to Rs 210 billion with China. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-25', 'modified' => '2022-04-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14903', 'image' => '20220425102326_Trade.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-25 08:20:55', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15160', 'article_category_id' => '278', 'title' => 'FCAN Announces 'Construction Holiday'', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 25: The Federation of Contractors' Associations of Nepal (FCAN) has announced a 'construction holiday' arguing that there is lack of environment conducive for construction due to price hike of construction materials.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 25: The Federation of Contractors' Associations of Nepal (FCAN) has announced a 'construction holiday' arguing that there is lack of environment conducive for construction due to price hike of construction materials.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Excessive price hike of construction materials, some errors in the 11th amendment to the Public Procurement Regulation and provisions in the Insurance Directives, 2078 BS among others have made the matter worse, said the federation.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">As a result, approximately 3,500 projects have been halted in protest.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">FCAN President Rabi Singh confirmed that they have announced a construction holiday as the construction business is at risk of collapsing.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to Singh, over 17,000 contractors have been on the brink of quitting their business. Construction of around 1500 projects has continued however, he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Singh added that they will launch sit-ins at the district administration office of all 77 districts and the office of the Chief Minister of all seven provinces from April 26.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The FCAN in a statement urged the government to resolve the problems faced by the construction industry as they will have negative impacts on country's economy as a whole.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The statement said they had to resort to protest after their repeated calls to the government to address their problem went unheard.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">As part of their protest, they launched sit-in in front of the office of the Public Procurement and Monitoring Office and the Insurance Board last Thursday and Friday.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">They have demanded price adjustment of construction materials, amendment of inconsistent points in the 11th amendment to the Public Procurement Regulation, 2078 and to scrap the Insurance Directive, 2078. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The Independent Power Producers' Association, Nepal has also expressed its solidarity with the demand of scraping the Insurance Directive, 2078. -- RSS </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-25', 'modified' => '2022-04-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14902', 'image' => '20220425081021_-media1614582237.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-25 07:56:55', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15159', 'article_category_id' => '218', 'title' => 'Nabil Bank Aims to Promote Social Entrepreneurship for Social Transformation', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'There was a time when the private sector used to be described as a sector that focuses solely on profit making.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">There was a time when the private sector used to be described as a sector that focuses solely on profit making. Lately, the private sector is being considered globally as an important stakeholder in solving social problems as well. We can see instances of private sector enterprises and entrepreneurs involved in several social works in various countries in addition to their commercial success. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">In the mid-90s, the European corporate sector initiated collective campaigns to address the issues of unemployment and exclusion under the banner of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in response to the request made by the President of the European Union. As part of the campaign, a commission was formed in 2000 and it worked to make the CSR campaign wider, more systematic, and participatory. Various universities were brought on board as partner institutions for the purpose. This made a positive contribution to the society, the private sector, and the national economy. Now, CSR activities undertaken in European countries are considered exemplary across the world.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Lately, the participation of the private sector has been expanding in various sectors of the society. CSR activities have been carried out as charity and as a host of activities contributing to the upliftment of society. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil Bank is one of the leading institutions that has been carrying out various activities to develop social entrepreneurship and sustainable banking, which have emerged as different campaigns in the banking sector of the country. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-size:16.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil School of Social Entrepreneurship</span></span></strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil Bank insists that its recently-launched Nabil School of Social Entrepreneurship (Nabil SSE) is a different and new type of non-profit initiative which aims to expand social entrepreneurship nationwide. Under this initiative, the bank has started a Fellowship Programme commencing from the third week of March 2022. Under this programme, a public call was made to submit concepts on social entrepreneurship. From among 350 applicants, 20 of the most competitive applicants were selected, who are now being trained on social entrepreneurship for a year free of cost. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to Nabil Bank, this programme aims to link Nepal’s higher education with the country’s most prominent private-sector bank in order to create successful social entrepreneurs. Under this campaign, Nabil Bank said it is starting another Certificate Level Programme in all seven provinces of the country. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil SSE – Certificate Level Programme</span></span></strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil Bank informed that a curriculum is being prepared in coordination with various colleges from all seven provinces. Under this programme, an ambitious target of creating 700 entrepreneurs - 100 in each province, has been set. Nabil Bank has also set up an office in partnership with the Faculty of Management under Tribhuvan University to make this campaign systematic, sustainable, and institutionalized. The main objective of Nabil’s move to promote social entrepreneurship is to contribute to social transformation through the development of social entrepreneurship and to address social problems. This move of the bank aims to identify new ideas on social entrepreneurship from the community level and attract investment to materialize the idea into practices.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil SSE also aims to run social campaigns to develop new ideas, the bank further said adding, “With its own investment, Nabil SSE aims to develop social entrepreneurs and establish a tradition of solving social problems through social entrepreneurship.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil Bank said it has been involved in social work since a long time along with its commercial success. Nabil Bank claimed that it contributed Rs 60 billion to the government’s COVID-19 relief fund in 2020 and also helped establish an oxygen plant at Bir Hospital at a time when the entire nation was suffering from shortage of oxygen during the pandemic. Nabil Bank has been contributing to the society through such types of CSR interventions. But now, the bank says it has moved ahead with a new model of social service through social entrepreneurship development. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">It is a novel initiative in the banking sector. The bank believes that the success of this endeavor will help establish a new culture of entrepreneurship development in the country and in turn, solve social problems.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-size:16.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Sustainable Banking: A Distinct Initiative </span></span></strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“Sustainable Banking is a new identity of Nabil Bank,” says the bank. The bank has set up a new unit ‘Sustainable Banking’ and has carried out model work at several places in the country. The bank announced the programme regarding Sustainable Banking, which aims to enable excluded classes to receive loans at cheaper rates for their enterprises. This will contribute to developing an inclusive economy in the country.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">For this purpose, the bank says it has been investing in sustainable business development in coordination with various state agencies and development stakeholders. The bank aims to provide services to people deprived of access to finance, and to promote entrepreneurship in remote villages through sustainable banking initiatives. The bank has also been working on promoting micro-enterprises by aligning its works with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations. Under the Sustainable Banking initiative, a farmer can get a loan up to Rs 1.50 million personally, up to Rs 2.50 million institutionally, and up to Rs 500,000 collectively as a group, according to the bank.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Under the Nabil Entrepreneurship Credit Scheme, people aged 18-60 years can get loans in the range of Rs 100,000 to Rs 10 million. Dozens of people have already started new businesses by availing loans from Nabil Bank under this scheme. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">However, the scope of Nabil Bank’s Sustainable Banking is much larger. The bank has expanded financing under this scheme to achieve the SDGs. It has also commenced maintaining an account of carbon emissions to examine how the enterprises financed by the bank have contributed to reduce carbon dioxide emission. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The bank says it has been expanding its credits in areas of renewable energy in coordination with the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre. It is the bank’s initiative to minimize the impact of climate change in the country by supporting development of micro hydro projects and other sources of renewable energy. Nabil Bank is also a member of the UK-based Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), an institution that helps in keeping accounts of the contribution of the bank’s financing in the areas of climate and environment. Nabil Bank informed that it will also work in the area of carbon financing through this agency. The bank has also started a ‘Remit Forestation’ programme to highlight the contribution of remittances sent by Nepali migrant workers. This banking initiative is expected to help promote the spirit of sustainable development and minimize the impact of climate change. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-size:16.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Social Entrepreneurship for Achieving National Goals </span></span></strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The United Nations has already endorsed a proposal of graduating Nepal into a developing country from a least developed country in 2026. There are three criteria for graduation—per capita Gross National Income (GNI), Human Assets Index (HAI), and Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI). Nepal is yet to meet the criteria related to per capita GNI. In order to graduate into a developing country, an LDC should have per capita GNI of at least $1,230 but presently, it is tentatively $1,100 in the case of Nepal. The country is facing an additional challenge of meeting the GNI criterion because of the impact of the COVID-19 on people’s earnings, the bank further said. Therefore, it is not possible to meet the GNI target without the growth of economic activities through the development of new enterprises. “We need to take steps that help the State achieve sustainable and inclusive economic development,” said the bank.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Poverty alleviation, employment generation, and economic equality are the important pillars for national development, according to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). This is in line with the country’s 15th periodic plan (2019-20—2023-24) and 25-year Long-Term Vision Paper. The 8<sup>th</sup> Sustainable Development Goal emphasizes on enhancing people’s access to Banks and Financial Institutions for creating sustainable employment and promoting economic activities. According to the bank, the goal focuses on the need for enhancing the capacity of financial institutions as well as expanding their services. The new endeavors initiated by Nabil Bank for social entrepreneurship development and Sustainable Banking are aligned with the country’s national development goals and objectives. Nabil Bank informed that it has proactively taken initiatives in the banking sector, which has also inspired others to do the same to help achieve common national development goals. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Encouragement to Develop Small Enterprises</span></span></strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">As per the government’s statistics, more than 18 percent of the population are living below the poverty line. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic is estimated to have pushed more people under the poverty line. Unemployment rate in the country is over 11 percent. “Our national plan and SDGs have called for addressing these problems along with many other social issues through partnerships and coordinated efforts.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil Bank informed that it has adopted the policy of processing loans for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as quickly as possible to help promote such enterprises. It is part of the bank’s belief that inclusive banking is essential to promote an inclusive economy. The bank has forged partnerships with various agencies for this purpose. For instance, the bank has started a new banking access programme in coordination with the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) to connect youth and women entrepreneurs with the banking service. Under this scheme, the bank expects hundreds of thousands of women and youth entrepreneurs to be connected, thereby contributing to promote inclusive banking and economic development. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil Bank said it has also forged a partnership with Daraz, an online shopping site under which, the bank has started providing credits to small businesses as per the recommendation of Daraz. The bank has also been extending credit in the agriculture sector and helped develop </span></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">farming technology in the sector in coordination with various institutions and companies. In addition to this, the bank is also promoting gender equality by extending credit to women entrepreneurs based on the recommendation of the Federation of Women Entrepreneurs Associations of Nepal. These endeavors have emerged as win-win situations for both borrowers and the bank as they helped new people to engage in businesses and helped the bank diversify its investment portfolio.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">These are some of the instances whereby Nabil Bank has not confined its job to banking business alone, but has also been engaged in running social and economic campaigns. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">As Nepal's first private sector bank, Nabil Bank has continued to remain the leading bank in the country. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“Its focus on inclusive banking to promote economic development and development of enterprises, along with its emphasis on increasing people’s access to finance have enhanced the bank’s public image too. The new endeavors of Nabil Bank are also expected to inspire other banks to follow suit.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The bank says that the areas where Nabil Bank is expanding credit could be the areas where other banks can also find opportunities to expand their credit in the future. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil Bank believes that the wider programmes that the bank launched in coordination with the government, development partners, business enterprises, and professional organizations could stimulate other banks to find new areas of investments and ways to expand investment in social entrepreneurship. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“The multi-stakeholder partnership including universities, national and international agencies, has contributed to explore innovations in the banking sector, which has separated Nabil from the remaining banking institutions of the nation.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-24', 'modified' => '2022-04-24', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14901', 'image' => '20220424062828_Nabil.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-24 18:26:37', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, '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' => '15173', 'article_category_id' => '267', 'title' => 'Hearing on NRB Governor Case Deferred for Thursday', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 27: Hearing on the case filed by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari at the Supreme Court against the government could not be completed 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"">April 27: Hearing on the case filed by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari at the Supreme Court against the government could not be completed on Tuesday. </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"">Although a division bench of SC Justices Sapana Pradhan Malla and Tanka Bahadur Moktan started hearing on the case, it was postponed for Thursday due to time constraint. </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 apex court had called both sides for the hearing after a single bench of Justice Hari Prasad Phuyal last Tuesday issued an interim order to the government not to implement its decision to suspend the governor until the final verdict. </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"">Governor Adhikari was suspended from his post automatically after the government formed a probe committee to investigate against the governor on April 7.</span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Following the government’s decision, Governor Adhikari had filed a case at the SC on April 17 demanding the court to scrap such decision. He returned back to office after the apex court issued the interim order to stay the government’s decision. </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-27', 'modified' => '2022-04-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14915', 'image' => '20220427095213_Supreme Court.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-27 09:51:30', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15172', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => 'IMF Projects Nepal’s Economy to Grow by 4.1 Percent in 2022', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 26: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected Nepal’s economy to grow by 4.1 percent in 2022.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 26: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected Nepal’s economy to grow by 4.1 percent in 2022.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The IMF published its report ‘World Economic Outlook’ which states that Nepal’s economy will grow by 4.1 percent in 2022 after suffering a slowdown to 2.1 percent in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The report further states that Nepal’s economy is projected to grow by 6.1 percent in 2023.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Economic growth in Asia and the Pacific is poised to slow more than previously estimated this year amid headwinds from the war in Ukraine, a resurgent pandemic, and tightening global financial conditions, according to IMF.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The war in Ukraine has triggered a costly humanitarian crisis that demands a peaceful resolution. At the same time, economic damage from the conflict will contribute to a significant slowdown in global growth in 2022 and add to inflation,” states the report. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to IMF, fuel and food prices have increased rapidly, hitting vulnerable populations in low-income countries hardest.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Interest rates are expected to rise as central banks tighten policy, exerting pressure on emerging market and developing economies. Moreover, many countries have limited fiscal policy space to cushion the impact of the war on their economies, IMF further said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Global growth is projected to slow from an estimated 6.1 percent in 2021 to 3.6 percent in 2022 and 2023. This is 0.8 and 0.2 percentage points lower for 2022 and 2023 than projected in January. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Beyond 2023, global growth is forecast to decline to about 3.3 percent over the medium term. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“War-induced commodity price increases and broadening price pressures have led to 2022 inflation projections of 5.7 percent in advanced economies and 8.7 percent in emerging market and developing economies—1.8 and 2.8 percentage points higher than projected last January.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Multilateral efforts to respond to the humanitarian crisis, prevent further economic fragmentation, maintain global liquidity, manage debt distress, tackle climate change, and end the pandemic are essential, the report added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">With a few exceptions, employment and output will typically remain below pre-pandemic trends through 2026. Scarring effects are expected to be much larger in emerging market and developing economies than in advanced economies—reflecting more limited policy support and generally slower vaccination—with output expected to remain below the pre-pandemic trend throughout the forecast horizon.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-26', 'modified' => '2022-04-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14914', 'image' => '20220426051733_imf.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-26 17:16:47', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15171', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Dealers Fined Rs 20,000 for Creating Artificial Shortage of Cooking Gas', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 26: The Department of Commerce and Supply and Consumer Protection took action against two traders for creating artificial shortage of cooking gas. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 26: The Department of Commerce and Supply and Consumer Protection took action against two traders for creating artificial shortage of cooking gas. The department’s Assistant information officer Dhaneshwor Poudel informed that action was taken against Raju Store located at Sankhamul, Lalitpur and S and JS Store, located at Prayag Pokhari for hoarding LPG.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Poudel said that the department booked the store owners after it was found that they were hiding the LPG from consumers while saying that there was no gas available. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Action was taken after we found Raju Store hiding 10 cylinders and S and JS store hiding 15 cylinders of LPG. Both the stores have been fined Rs 20,000 each,” Poudel said, adding that action was taken against both the stores for violating the Consumer Protection Act 2075 BS.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The market is facing shortage of cooking gas ever since the petroleum dealers, transport companies and LPG dealers began protest since March 20.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the dealers have withdrawn their protests and Nepal Oil Corporation has increased the supply of gas, consumers are still facing trouble to get the LPG. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As the price of crude oil continues to rise in the international market, the dealers allegedly started hiding gas in order to sell them at an increased price later when the NOC increases the price.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The department informed that it has increased monitoring, of gas depots and gas stores and will continue the monitoring in upcoming days to expose such irregularities.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-26', 'modified' => '2022-04-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14913', 'image' => '20220426042227_1650891800.gas.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-26 16:21:48', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15169', 'article_category_id' => '228', 'title' => 'Nepal Airlines to Operate 3 Flights a Week to Japan from May 1 ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 26: Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) has decided to operate three flights in a week to Japan’s Narita from Kathmandu starting from May 1.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 26: Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) has decided to operate three flights in a week to Japan’s Narita from Kathmandu starting from May 1. At present, the flag carrier of Nepal has been operating two flights a week to Narita. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The NAC will be operating the flights on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays, informed Karishma Shrestha, former spokesperson of NAC. </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 state-owned airline company of Nepal said in a statement that the flights conducted on Sundays and Tuesdays will carry 140 passengers while there will be only 120 passengers on Fridays.</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 statement added that passengers' demand was growing due to the subsided rate imposed in the wake of COVID-19. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The airfare for Kathmandu-Narita round-trip is Rs 152,000 including tax in business class and Rs 119,000 in economy class. </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-26', 'modified' => '2022-04-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14912', 'image' => '20220426105932_NAC.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-26 10:58:55', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15168', 'article_category_id' => '228', 'title' => 'NATTA Objects to Increase in Airport Charge ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 26: The Nepal Association of Tours and Travel Agents (NATTA) has expressed concerns regarding the government’s decision to increase the airport service charges. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 26: The Nepal Association of Tours and Travel Agents (NATTA) has expressed concerns regarding the government’s decision to increase the airport service charges. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Issuing a statement on Monday, NATTA President Ramesh Thapa objected to the government's decision to increase the airport tariff to Rs 3,000 per passenger. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">“</span></strong><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">This is likely to adversely affect the tourism business, which is gradually on the rise following the COVID-19 pandemic,” the state-owned national news agency RSS quoted Thapa as saying. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The NATTA is an umbrella organization of tourism entrepreneurs in the country. The association has demanded immediate reversal of the government's decision. It has also urged the government to take such decisions in coordination with the stakeholders. </span><br /> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-26', 'modified' => '2022-04-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14911', 'image' => '20220426035611_Tourist.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-26 10:37:31', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15170', 'article_category_id' => '277', 'title' => ' Food Management and Trading Company Fails to Meet its Target of Purchasing Paddy', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 26: The state-owned Food Management and Trading Company Limited (FMTCL) has yet again failed to procure paddy as per its target this year.', '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"">April 26: The state-owned Food Management and Trading Company Limited (FMTCL) has yet again failed to procure paddy as per its target this year.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Since the state-owned company has not been able to purchase even half of the paddy as per its target, questions have been raised about the minimum support price of paddy fixed by the government for the welfare of the farmers.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Stakeholders say that the government announces the minimum support price only for the sake of announcement.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Uddhav Adhikari, coordinator of the Agriculture Campaign for Food, said the government fixes the support prices but does not give much attention towards its implementation.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">After the government fixes the support price, the state-owned company sets the purchase target accordingly. However, the official said that it was a shame not to be able to buy even half of the target.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">The FMTCL had initially targeted to buy 30,000 metric tonnes of paddy from farmers in the current fiscal year. </span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Later, the company said it is not possible to buy in that quantity, and then revised the purchase target. This time the company set a target of purchasing 20,000 metric tons of paddy. But the company has not been able to purchase that amount of paddy. According to the latest data, the FMTCL has bought only 9,000 metric tonnes of paddy.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">The company has purchased 9,000 metric tonnes of paddy from nine offices, including Birtamod, Biratnagar, Rajapur and Dhangadhi.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">The company has procured 1600 metric tonnes of paddy from Birtamod, 1496 metric tonnes from Biratnagar, 1785 metric tonnes from Lahan, 1664 metric tonnes from Janakpur, 1783 metric tonnes from Birgunj, 225 metric tonnes from Nepalgunj, 780 metric tonnes from Rajapur, five metric tonnes from Dhangadhi and 116 metric tonnes from Mahendranagar.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">The company’s failure to buy paddy as per the target is not a new issue. Last year, it had set a target of purchasing 60,000 metric tonnes of paddy, but only 22,000 tonnes were procured. The company did not meet the target of buying wheat either.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-26', 'modified' => '2022-04-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14910', 'image' => '20220426112607_rice-paddy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-26 11:25:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15167', 'article_category_id' => '228', 'title' => 'Nepal Remains in EU Blacklist despite Improvement in Air Safety Rating', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 26: Nepal's air safety rating has increased significantly in the last five years, according to a safety audit conducted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">April 26: Nepal's air safety rating has increased significantly in the last five years, according to a safety audit conducted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The study conducted by ICAO states that Nepal’s air safety has increased by three percentage points in the last five years. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) informed that Nepal’s compliance rate is above average in the air safety audit list of ICAO.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">As per the audit, Nepal’s air safety compliance rate has climbed to 70.1 percent at present from 66.76 percent in 2017.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">A 10-member team of ICAO had arrived in Nepal on April 13 for the audit. The team prepared its report on April 22. CAAN made the report public amid a press conference on Monday (April 25).</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">ICAO has conducted such audits in the past in 2009, 2013, 2016 and 2017.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">ICAO’s audit looks into eight different parameters including legislation and regulation, orgnaisation and safety oversight function, personal licensing, flight operation, airworthiness of aircraft, accident and investigation, air navigation service and aerodrome and ground aids. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">CAAN Director-General Pradeep Adhikari said that the increase in air safety audit rating has given a message that Nepal’s sky is safe for aviation.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">However, the restriction imposed by the European Union on Nepali airlines has not been lifted despite Nepal’s progress in safety rating of ICAO audit. CAAN believes that this progress would surely help Nepal in coming days. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The EU has banned Nepali aircraft in European skies since 2014 citing air safety concerns.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-26', 'modified' => '2022-04-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14909', 'image' => '20220426100813_1650929561.Clipboard19.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-26 10:07:38', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15166', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Nepal's Land Classified into 11 Categories ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 25: The Forest Research and Training Centre (FRTC) announced the launch of Nepal’s National Land Cover Monitoring System (NLCMS) in collaboration with various stakeholders on the occasion of the Earth Day on April 22.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 25: The Forest Research and Training Centre (FRTC) announced the launch of Nepal’s National Land Cover Monitoring System (NLCMS) in collaboration with various stakeholders on the occasion of the Earth Day on April 22. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The system uses cloud computing and artificial intelligence to generate consistent data on how much of a region is covered by forests, wetlands, agriculture, and other land and water types, on an annual basis, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) said in a statement. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Based on the NLCMS, the government has classified Nepal’s land into 11 different categories including forest land, agriculture land, grassland, bush, marshland, snow land, glacier, rock, flood land, shelter land and vegetation-less land. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the state-owned national news agency RSS, the forests of Nepal covered 39.99 per cent of the total land in 2000 which increased to 41.69 per cent in 2019. Similarly, the agriculture area decreased from 26.31 per cent in 2000 to 24.21 per cent in 2019. . </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to ICIMOD, the NLCMS will improve reporting on forest cover change and support Nepali lawmakers in making evidence-based policies to improve related land management practices. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The FRTC developed the NLCMS with support from SERVIR-HKH, a joint initiative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-25', 'modified' => '2022-04-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14908', 'image' => '20220425081518_Jiten_220422_026A3027.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-25 20:14:24', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15165', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Energy Minister urges Army Chief Sharma to Increase Electricity Consumption ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 25: Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Pampha Bhusal held a meeting with the Chief of the Army Staff, General Prabhu Ram Sharma at her office in Singha Durbar on Sunday. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 25: Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Pampha Bhusal held a meeting with the Chief of the Army Staff, General Prabhu Ram Sharma at her office in Singha Durbar on Sunday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The meeting between the two focused on the development and consumption of electricity. On the occasion, minister Bhusal urged the Nepalese Army to increase consumption of electricity. </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 minister urged the army to replace other kinds of fuel used in the kitchen by electricity. “For this, the ministry is ready to provide required infrastructure," said the minister. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The minister also urged the army to use electric vehicles instead of petrol/diesel vehicle in the coming days. The minister was of the view that the national army must purchase electric vehicles in the future. </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"">Stating that the army has made vital contribution to the infrastructure development of the country, Minister Bhusal expressed the hope that the army would also contribute to the development of hydropower sector in the coming days. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the occasion, Army Chief Sharma said that the Nepalese Army has already moved ahead with the plan to electrify the kitchen and assured that the process will be fully implemented in the near future.</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"">“We have started using large steamers to cook food. We will start using electric stoves in all the barracks in coming days,” he said, adding that the army has already started converting petrol/diesel vehicles into electric vehicles.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-25', 'modified' => '2022-04-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14907', 'image' => '20220425063600_1650791164.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-25 18:35:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15164', 'article_category_id' => '270', 'title' => 'Offline Use of Ride-Sharing Apps Increases Security Risk', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 25: Sumi Tripathi, a permanent resident of Kavre currently living in Tripureshwor, has to urgently visit Ganga Lal Heart Care Centre in Kathmandu where her mother was admitted for treatment last Wednesday.', '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"">April 25: Sumi Tripathi, a permanent resident of Kavre currently living in Tripureshwor, has to urgently visit Ganga Lal Heart Care Centre in Kathmandu where her mother was admitted for treatment last Wednesday. Sumi rushed to the hospital to see her mother. It was already 7 pm, so she decided to use a ride-sharing application. </span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Upon reaching the road, she saw a man sitting on a bike. Assuming him to be a Tootle or Pathao rider, she asked him for a ride in a hurry. The biker agreed and took her to Ganga Lal as requested. As soon as he started the bike, the rider raced at a very high speed. Tripathi asked him to ride slowly, but the driver kept his speed. As Tripathi had taken the ride offline, she couldn't make her complaint with the company.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">The rise in offline use of ride-sharing service has heightened security risks. In recent times, ride-sharing companies have been making good business with the use of technology. </span></span></span></span></p> <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"">But due to the temptation of making more money, some riders have added security concerns when providing offline services.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Offline use of ride-sharing apps such as Pathao, Tootle, In driver and Lozoom, providing mobility services in Kathmandu Valley, has increased the security challenge. The offline use of ride-sharing apps has increased as riders can make more profit, and passengers can also travel at less expense.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Ahsimman Singh Basnet, managing director of Pathao Nepal Pvt, shared that his team cannot track riders when s/he takes passengers offline.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">“Therefore, he is not our employee at that time,” he said, adding, “If there is an accident, we cannot take responsibility for it. So passengers should not go offline just because they can save some money or they are in a hurry.”</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">He said that a law should be implemented at the state level to control the riders who use offline contact while sitting at the crossroads. He said that the ride-sharing platform has a provision to provide accidental insurance of Rs 100,000 and death insurance up to Rs 500,000 while using their service online.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">It is said that the number of riders and passengers using offline services is rising in Sundhara, Tripureshwor, Chabahil, Gongbu Bus Park, Koteshwor Chowk, Kalanki, Balkhu Chowk and other places during the evening and night.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">It has increased as the rider does not have to pay any commission to the concerned company for taking the passenger to the destination through offline means.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">"We drop passengers offline as we do not have to pay the commission," said a dispatched driver who did not want to be identified. For ride-sharing services, Pathao charges 20 per cent, Tootle and Lozoom charge 10 per cent, while In driver does not charge any commission.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Even though ride-sharing companies like Tootle and Pathao are registered with the company registrar's office, the government has been warning them to stop providing services.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Article 8 (1) of the Transportation Management Act states that private vehicles cannot be used a<strong>s</strong> public transport. Article 12 of the same act has made provision that vehicles registered for one purpose cannot be used for another purpose, due to which even the Department of Transport Management has been calling such action illegal.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><br /> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-25', 'modified' => '2022-04-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14906', 'image' => '20220425063624_1650843435.8.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-25 14:57:40', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15163', 'article_category_id' => '268', 'title' => 'Women Entrepreneurs Summit Concludes', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 25: The Nepalese Young Entrepreneurs Forum (NYEF) on Saturday organized the Young Entrepreneurs Summit Women (YESW) with the aim of promoting women entrepreneurship.', '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"">April 25: The Nepalese Young Entrepreneurs Forum (NYEF) on Saturday organized the Young Entrepreneurs Summit Women (YESW) with the aim of promoting women entrepreneurship.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">The forum has been organizing this summit since 2013. The summit was inaugurated by Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Pampha Bhusal and attended by young entrepreneurs involved in agriculture, construction, cottage and small business, physical exercise, consulting firms and research. The students who aspire to become entrepreneurs also attended the programme.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">The slogan of this year's summit was 'Beyond Barriers'. The conference was sponsored by the International Labor Organization (ILO), Rastriya Banijya Bank and United Insurance. The conference was attended by more than 150 entrepreneurs, experts, new entrepreneurs and students.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Entrepreneurs including Sangita Pandey from Aama Ko Achar, President of Federation of Women Entrepreneurs’ Association of Nepal Niru Rayamajhi Khatri, and Vidushi Rana from Kiran Shoes Manufacturer Pvt. Ltd. (Goldstar) attended the summit. Companies led by women and young entrepreneurs and new startups including Bihe-Nepal, Educase, Makkuse, Suiro also participated in the summit. The programme was coordinated by Sahara Joshi.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-25', 'modified' => '2022-04-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14905', 'image' => '20220425023845_1650844188.Clipboard10.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-25 14:37:50', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15162', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => 'MoF holds Budget Discussion with Education and Health Ministries', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 25: The Ministry of Finance held separate discussions with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the Ministry of Health and Population on Sunday regarding the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. ', '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"">April 25: The Ministry of Finance held separate discussions with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the Ministry of Health and Population on Sunday regarding the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The Ministry of Finance discussed the programmes proposed within budget ceiling with both the ministries.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Finance Minister Janardan Sharma suggested the concerned ministry to include such programmes in the budget that would prevent the tendency of school drop-out rate. </span></span></span></span></p> <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"">“Most of the students enrolled in grade 1 tend to drop out of school before even reaching grade 5. The number of students in higher classes is even lower,” said Minister Sharma, adding, “Let’s prepare the budget and introduce programs to determine the cause why students drop out of the school and create the environment for the students to not drop out.”</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">He also remarked that there is a need to move towards digital technology to change the way of learning with time. He instructed the concerned authorities to start a programmes to make use of digital technology for teaching in some schools from the upcoming fiscal year.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Stating that the establishment of IT colleges is necessary, Sharma said that a budget should be allocated for that as well. Sharma said, “There are many programmes that failed to show effective results despite continuous budget allocation. Therefore, we should prepare the budget by focusing on programmes that have good return.”</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">In the meeting, Minister for Education Devendra Poudel emphasized the need of programmess to ensure quality education, stating that there will be chaos everywhere if the education lags behind. He said that the development of the country will also be supported by better education.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">Similarly, Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission, Biswo Nath Poudel, said that the compulsion for students to go to school by travelling a long distance should be removed. He said that the tendency to study with government’s money and going to work abroad after the completion of studies should also be discouraged. </span></span></span></span></p> <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"">During the meeting with the Ministry of Health and Population on Sunday, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma said that it is necessary to formulate the budget in such a way as that it would end the compulsion for poor people to live with diseases.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">He requested to propose budget and programmes to expand the services of Patan Institute of Health Sciences and Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, Maharajgunj to other places as well.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">He said the upcoming budget will address the issue of health insurance reaching out to the poor families, improving maternity services, creating a situation where people do not have to go abroad for treatment of complex diseases including kidney and liver diseases.</span></span></span></span></p> <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"">During the discussion, Health Minister Birodh Khatiwada said that arrangements should be made for the posts of doctors and equipment in 500 to 1,500-bed hospitals.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-25', 'modified' => '2022-04-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14904', 'image' => '20220425020619_finance_ministry_copy1.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-25 14:05:24', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15161', 'article_category_id' => '268', 'title' => 'Nepal's Export Increases 69.44 Percent in Nine Months ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 25: Nepal witnessed an increase in export by 69.44 per cent in the first nine months of the current fiscal year (FY 2021/22) as compared to the corresponding period of the last year (FY 2020/21). ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 25: Nepal witnessed an increase in export by 69.44 per cent in the first nine months of the current fiscal year (FY 2021/22) as compared to the corresponding period of the last year (FY 2020/21). </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the data unveiled by the Department of Customs, the export of domestic products since mid-July, 2021 to mid-April was recorded at over Rs 160.57 billion against Rs 94.76 billion during the same period last year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, import has also increased by 31.97 per cent in the first nine months of the current fiscal year compared to last year. The imports during the review period this year stood at more than Rs 1466.66 billion against Rs 1,111.39 billion recorded during the same period of last fiscal year. </span><br /> Nepal's <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">trade deficit went up by 28.47 per cent to over Rs 1450 billion during the first nine months of the current fiscal year against Rs 1016.62 billion during the same period of last fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the trade data of the first nine months of the current fiscal unveiled by the Department, Nepal imported petroleum products including diesel, petrol and cooking gas worth Rs 200 billion. The country imported diesel worth Rs 105 billion followed by petrol worth Rs 47.23 billion. LPG (cooking gas) worth over Rs 45.34 billion was imported during the review period. </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"">Similarly, soybean oil worth Rs 45.58 billion, palm oil worth over Rs 32.4 billion, vaccines worth over Rs 31.85 billion and gold worth over Rs 28.54 billion were imported during the nine months. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">As per the data, goods worth over Rs 1,466 billion were imported from 162 countries during the first nine months of the current fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Nepal imported goods of highest amount worth Rs 917 billion from India while it exported goods worth Rs 127 billion during the nine months to the southern neighbour. Nepal's trade deficit with India during this period stood at Rs 773 billion. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">China is the second largest trade partner of Nepal. The country imported goods worth over Rs 211 billion from China whereas it exported goods worth Rs 628 million during the first nine months. Nepal has trade deficit amounting to Rs 210 billion with China. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-25', 'modified' => '2022-04-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14903', 'image' => '20220425102326_Trade.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-25 08:20:55', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15160', 'article_category_id' => '278', 'title' => 'FCAN Announces 'Construction Holiday'', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 25: The Federation of Contractors' Associations of Nepal (FCAN) has announced a 'construction holiday' arguing that there is lack of environment conducive for construction due to price hike of construction materials.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 25: The Federation of Contractors' Associations of Nepal (FCAN) has announced a 'construction holiday' arguing that there is lack of environment conducive for construction due to price hike of construction materials.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Excessive price hike of construction materials, some errors in the 11th amendment to the Public Procurement Regulation and provisions in the Insurance Directives, 2078 BS among others have made the matter worse, said the federation.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">As a result, approximately 3,500 projects have been halted in protest.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">FCAN President Rabi Singh confirmed that they have announced a construction holiday as the construction business is at risk of collapsing.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to Singh, over 17,000 contractors have been on the brink of quitting their business. Construction of around 1500 projects has continued however, he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Singh added that they will launch sit-ins at the district administration office of all 77 districts and the office of the Chief Minister of all seven provinces from April 26.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The FCAN in a statement urged the government to resolve the problems faced by the construction industry as they will have negative impacts on country's economy as a whole.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The statement said they had to resort to protest after their repeated calls to the government to address their problem went unheard.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">As part of their protest, they launched sit-in in front of the office of the Public Procurement and Monitoring Office and the Insurance Board last Thursday and Friday.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">They have demanded price adjustment of construction materials, amendment of inconsistent points in the 11th amendment to the Public Procurement Regulation, 2078 and to scrap the Insurance Directive, 2078. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The Independent Power Producers' Association, Nepal has also expressed its solidarity with the demand of scraping the Insurance Directive, 2078. -- RSS </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-25', 'modified' => '2022-04-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14902', 'image' => '20220425081021_-media1614582237.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-25 07:56:55', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15159', 'article_category_id' => '218', 'title' => 'Nabil Bank Aims to Promote Social Entrepreneurship for Social Transformation', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'There was a time when the private sector used to be described as a sector that focuses solely on profit making.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">There was a time when the private sector used to be described as a sector that focuses solely on profit making. Lately, the private sector is being considered globally as an important stakeholder in solving social problems as well. We can see instances of private sector enterprises and entrepreneurs involved in several social works in various countries in addition to their commercial success. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">In the mid-90s, the European corporate sector initiated collective campaigns to address the issues of unemployment and exclusion under the banner of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in response to the request made by the President of the European Union. As part of the campaign, a commission was formed in 2000 and it worked to make the CSR campaign wider, more systematic, and participatory. Various universities were brought on board as partner institutions for the purpose. This made a positive contribution to the society, the private sector, and the national economy. Now, CSR activities undertaken in European countries are considered exemplary across the world.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Lately, the participation of the private sector has been expanding in various sectors of the society. CSR activities have been carried out as charity and as a host of activities contributing to the upliftment of society. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil Bank is one of the leading institutions that has been carrying out various activities to develop social entrepreneurship and sustainable banking, which have emerged as different campaigns in the banking sector of the country. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-size:16.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil School of Social Entrepreneurship</span></span></strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil Bank insists that its recently-launched Nabil School of Social Entrepreneurship (Nabil SSE) is a different and new type of non-profit initiative which aims to expand social entrepreneurship nationwide. Under this initiative, the bank has started a Fellowship Programme commencing from the third week of March 2022. Under this programme, a public call was made to submit concepts on social entrepreneurship. From among 350 applicants, 20 of the most competitive applicants were selected, who are now being trained on social entrepreneurship for a year free of cost. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to Nabil Bank, this programme aims to link Nepal’s higher education with the country’s most prominent private-sector bank in order to create successful social entrepreneurs. Under this campaign, Nabil Bank said it is starting another Certificate Level Programme in all seven provinces of the country. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil SSE – Certificate Level Programme</span></span></strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil Bank informed that a curriculum is being prepared in coordination with various colleges from all seven provinces. Under this programme, an ambitious target of creating 700 entrepreneurs - 100 in each province, has been set. Nabil Bank has also set up an office in partnership with the Faculty of Management under Tribhuvan University to make this campaign systematic, sustainable, and institutionalized. The main objective of Nabil’s move to promote social entrepreneurship is to contribute to social transformation through the development of social entrepreneurship and to address social problems. This move of the bank aims to identify new ideas on social entrepreneurship from the community level and attract investment to materialize the idea into practices.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil SSE also aims to run social campaigns to develop new ideas, the bank further said adding, “With its own investment, Nabil SSE aims to develop social entrepreneurs and establish a tradition of solving social problems through social entrepreneurship.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil Bank said it has been involved in social work since a long time along with its commercial success. Nabil Bank claimed that it contributed Rs 60 billion to the government’s COVID-19 relief fund in 2020 and also helped establish an oxygen plant at Bir Hospital at a time when the entire nation was suffering from shortage of oxygen during the pandemic. Nabil Bank has been contributing to the society through such types of CSR interventions. But now, the bank says it has moved ahead with a new model of social service through social entrepreneurship development. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">It is a novel initiative in the banking sector. The bank believes that the success of this endeavor will help establish a new culture of entrepreneurship development in the country and in turn, solve social problems.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-size:16.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Sustainable Banking: A Distinct Initiative </span></span></strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“Sustainable Banking is a new identity of Nabil Bank,” says the bank. The bank has set up a new unit ‘Sustainable Banking’ and has carried out model work at several places in the country. The bank announced the programme regarding Sustainable Banking, which aims to enable excluded classes to receive loans at cheaper rates for their enterprises. This will contribute to developing an inclusive economy in the country.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">For this purpose, the bank says it has been investing in sustainable business development in coordination with various state agencies and development stakeholders. The bank aims to provide services to people deprived of access to finance, and to promote entrepreneurship in remote villages through sustainable banking initiatives. The bank has also been working on promoting micro-enterprises by aligning its works with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations. Under the Sustainable Banking initiative, a farmer can get a loan up to Rs 1.50 million personally, up to Rs 2.50 million institutionally, and up to Rs 500,000 collectively as a group, according to the bank.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Under the Nabil Entrepreneurship Credit Scheme, people aged 18-60 years can get loans in the range of Rs 100,000 to Rs 10 million. Dozens of people have already started new businesses by availing loans from Nabil Bank under this scheme. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">However, the scope of Nabil Bank’s Sustainable Banking is much larger. The bank has expanded financing under this scheme to achieve the SDGs. It has also commenced maintaining an account of carbon emissions to examine how the enterprises financed by the bank have contributed to reduce carbon dioxide emission. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The bank says it has been expanding its credits in areas of renewable energy in coordination with the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre. It is the bank’s initiative to minimize the impact of climate change in the country by supporting development of micro hydro projects and other sources of renewable energy. Nabil Bank is also a member of the UK-based Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), an institution that helps in keeping accounts of the contribution of the bank’s financing in the areas of climate and environment. Nabil Bank informed that it will also work in the area of carbon financing through this agency. The bank has also started a ‘Remit Forestation’ programme to highlight the contribution of remittances sent by Nepali migrant workers. This banking initiative is expected to help promote the spirit of sustainable development and minimize the impact of climate change. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-size:16.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Social Entrepreneurship for Achieving National Goals </span></span></strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The United Nations has already endorsed a proposal of graduating Nepal into a developing country from a least developed country in 2026. There are three criteria for graduation—per capita Gross National Income (GNI), Human Assets Index (HAI), and Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI). Nepal is yet to meet the criteria related to per capita GNI. In order to graduate into a developing country, an LDC should have per capita GNI of at least $1,230 but presently, it is tentatively $1,100 in the case of Nepal. The country is facing an additional challenge of meeting the GNI criterion because of the impact of the COVID-19 on people’s earnings, the bank further said. Therefore, it is not possible to meet the GNI target without the growth of economic activities through the development of new enterprises. “We need to take steps that help the State achieve sustainable and inclusive economic development,” said the bank.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Poverty alleviation, employment generation, and economic equality are the important pillars for national development, according to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). This is in line with the country’s 15th periodic plan (2019-20—2023-24) and 25-year Long-Term Vision Paper. The 8<sup>th</sup> Sustainable Development Goal emphasizes on enhancing people’s access to Banks and Financial Institutions for creating sustainable employment and promoting economic activities. According to the bank, the goal focuses on the need for enhancing the capacity of financial institutions as well as expanding their services. The new endeavors initiated by Nabil Bank for social entrepreneurship development and Sustainable Banking are aligned with the country’s national development goals and objectives. Nabil Bank informed that it has proactively taken initiatives in the banking sector, which has also inspired others to do the same to help achieve common national development goals. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Encouragement to Develop Small Enterprises</span></span></strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">As per the government’s statistics, more than 18 percent of the population are living below the poverty line. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic is estimated to have pushed more people under the poverty line. Unemployment rate in the country is over 11 percent. “Our national plan and SDGs have called for addressing these problems along with many other social issues through partnerships and coordinated efforts.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil Bank informed that it has adopted the policy of processing loans for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as quickly as possible to help promote such enterprises. It is part of the bank’s belief that inclusive banking is essential to promote an inclusive economy. The bank has forged partnerships with various agencies for this purpose. For instance, the bank has started a new banking access programme in coordination with the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) to connect youth and women entrepreneurs with the banking service. Under this scheme, the bank expects hundreds of thousands of women and youth entrepreneurs to be connected, thereby contributing to promote inclusive banking and economic development. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil Bank said it has also forged a partnership with Daraz, an online shopping site under which, the bank has started providing credits to small businesses as per the recommendation of Daraz. The bank has also been extending credit in the agriculture sector and helped develop </span></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">farming technology in the sector in coordination with various institutions and companies. In addition to this, the bank is also promoting gender equality by extending credit to women entrepreneurs based on the recommendation of the Federation of Women Entrepreneurs Associations of Nepal. These endeavors have emerged as win-win situations for both borrowers and the bank as they helped new people to engage in businesses and helped the bank diversify its investment portfolio.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">These are some of the instances whereby Nabil Bank has not confined its job to banking business alone, but has also been engaged in running social and economic campaigns. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">As Nepal's first private sector bank, Nabil Bank has continued to remain the leading bank in the country. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“Its focus on inclusive banking to promote economic development and development of enterprises, along with its emphasis on increasing people’s access to finance have enhanced the bank’s public image too. The new endeavors of Nabil Bank are also expected to inspire other banks to follow suit.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The bank says that the areas where Nabil Bank is expanding credit could be the areas where other banks can also find opportunities to expand their credit in the future. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Nabil Bank believes that the wider programmes that the bank launched in coordination with the government, development partners, business enterprises, and professional organizations could stimulate other banks to find new areas of investments and ways to expand investment in social entrepreneurship. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“The multi-stakeholder partnership including universities, national and international agencies, has contributed to explore innovations in the banking sector, which has separated Nabil from the remaining banking institutions of the nation.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-24', 'modified' => '2022-04-24', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14901', 'image' => '20220424062828_Nabil.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-24 18:26:37', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, '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
