April 18: A Pakistan High Court on Wednesday said the government must restore social media platform X within one week, a lawyer said, after more than two months of disruption ordered by the interior…
April 18: A Pakistan High Court on Wednesday said the government must restore social media platform X within one week, a lawyer said, after more than two months of disruption ordered by the interior…
April 18: The export of goods produced in Nepal to third countries from the Tribhuvan International Airport customs office has come to a…
…
April 17: The government is planning to provide concessional loans to 200 start-up projects in the current fiscal year.…
April 17: The Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), an umbrella organization of the private sector industries in Nepal, has urged the government to implement a multi-rate value-added tax (VAT) system.…
April 17: The Parliamentary Hearings Committee has cleared the way for the appointment of Toyam Raya as the Auditor…
…
April 17: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised its outlook for the global economy this year with a growth projected to reach 3.1 percent in…
April 16: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that the government’s collaboration with the private sector can make the economy…
April 16: Economists and experts have urged the government to introduce a practical budget for the upcoming fiscal…
The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) Index witnessed a loss of 14.81 points or 0.73%, closing at 1991.71 on the third trading day of the week,…
April 16: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has pointed out that credit risk is on the rise within commercial banks due to loans being issued without the completion of requisite…
April 16: In the wake of optimism and influence of artificial intelligence (AI), research and studies on AI have surged lately across the…
April 16: A total of 144,675 foreign tourists visited the world-famous Annapurna region for trekking in the first nine months of the current fiscal…
April 16: The price of gold on Tuesday increased by Rs 1,700 per tola (11.66 grams) to set a new record. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers Association, the price of gold has reached an all-time high of Rs…
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', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 18: A Pakistan High Court on Wednesday said the government must restore social media platform X within one week, a lawyer said, after more than two months of disruption ordered by the interior ministry. </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 platform, formerly known as Twitter, has been rarely accessible since February 17, when jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's party called for protests against a government official's admission of vote manipulation in February's election. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Pakistan's communications authority later admitted in court papers that it was ordered by the Interior Ministry to shut down the site. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"The Sindh High Court has given the government one week to withdraw the letter, failing which, on the next date, they will pass appropriate orders," Moiz Jaaferi, a lawyer challenging the ban, told AFP. – AFP/RSS</span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-18', 'modified' => '2024-04-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20477', 'image' => '20240418113305_X-reuters-file1713365023-0.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-18 11:32:30', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20749', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Export of Goods from Tribhuvan International Airport Comes to a Grinding Halt', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 18: The export of goods produced in Nepal to third countries from the Tribhuvan International Airport customs office has come to a standstill.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">April 18: The export of goods produced in Nepal to third countries from the Tribhuvan International Airport customs office has come to a standstill.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">The freight forwarders and government officials informed that there has been no export since Monday after the trade union of the loaders interrupted the loading of the goods saying that one of the two x-rays was damaged and only one of them was causing delay.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">According to the government officials, one machine for x-raying exported goods has been broken for one month.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Ishwar Bahadur Gurung, secretary of Nepal Freight Forwarders Association, said that checking the goods with only one x-ray was not enough. "We are also requesting to repair another x-ray machine immediately," he said.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Nepal Transport and Warehousing Company Limited has been assigned the responsibility of maintenance of the x-ray machines.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">“An important part of the machine is not operational due to damage. We cannot buy a new one without being sure that this part will work after maintenance. That's why there has been a delay in bringing it back into operation," said Tulsi Pokharel, acting head of 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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Pokharel informed that if they will first try to replace the broken parts from other machines and will start a new procurement process if that is not possible.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Pokharel added that it will take a few months if they have to purchase a new machine. According to Pokharel, even a single x-ray is sufficient to scan goods. Pokharel claims that one machine can x-ray 35-40 tons of goods daily and if the goods arrive on time, one machine will be enough.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">However, freight forwarders say one x-ray machine is not enough. According to them, since there is only one machine, the x-ray is being delayed and this has hindered the export on time.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">However, both sides are in talks. "We are trying to solve the problem through dialogue," Pokharel said.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-18', 'modified' => '2024-04-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20476', 'image' => '20240418110225_63cce5f4.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-18 11:00:45', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20748', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Altitude Sickness Emerges as Major Concern for Tourists Visiting Mustang', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => '', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">April 17: </span></span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">Altitude sickness is emerging as a growing concern among visitors in Mustang. The district also known as the district beyond the Himalaya is home to the famous Muktinath Temple which draws a large number of devotees mainly from home and India each year. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">In the past seven months, 11 tourists including three domestic citizens succumbed to high-altitude sickness in the district. The district recorded 29 fatalities in the past three years and 11 alone in the past seven months, according to the District Police Office, Mustang. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">The latest casualties include seven Indians, three Nepalis and one Ukrainian, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Bhojraj Pandey said. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">In the fiscal year 2078-29 BS (2021-22), six visitors – five females and one male – all from India died of altitude sickness. They were aged 45-73. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">According to the police records, they suffered high altitude-related health complications in Marfa, Mesokando Pass Trek, Muktinath Temple premises, Gharpajhong, Jomsom Airport, Lete, Tukuche, and Yara. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">Of the latest fatalities, six were reported in the month of Chaitra (mid-March to mid-April). The victims were aged 35-83. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">During the last fiscal year (2022-23), the district witnessed 12 deaths resulting from altitude sickness and they were from India (seven), Thailand (one), and Nepal (four) and aged 42-75. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">Altitude sickness is caused due to the body's inability to adjust to a low oxygen level at a higher altitude. This happens normally at an altitude above 2500 meters and its symptoms include headache, nausea, vomiting, breathing complications, insomnia, loss of appetite, fatigue, weakness, and so on. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-17', 'modified' => '2024-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20475', 'image' => '20240417062112_20230724112952_20220424035529_istockphoto-534638391-612x612.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-17 18:19:15', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20747', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Govt Preparing to Provide Concessional Loans to 200 Startups', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 17: The government is planning to provide concessional loans to 200 start-up projects in the current fiscal year. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 17: The government is planning to provide concessional loans to 200 start-up projects in the current fiscal year. The government has been promising concessional loans for start-up projects for the last few years but has not been able to implement its decision.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government has received applications from more than 1,600 entrepreneurs seeking the start-up loans.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"The target is to provide subsidized loans to around 200 projects from among those who have applied," said Umesh Kumar Gupta, executive director of the Industrial Enterprise Development Institute. The government has entrusted the institutute with the responsibility of collecting applications and selecting suitable candidates.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">To help those who want to begin start-up ventures, the government has come up with a plan to provide loans at 3 per cent interest by keeping the projects as mortgage.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government has also allocated a budget to involve people with the latest knowledge, thinking, skills and abilities in start-up enterprises. For such loans, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies has allocated Rs 250 million in the current fiscal year. The government has adopted a policy of providing concessional loans up to a maximum of Rs 2.5 million for a start-up enterprise.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Gupta said that after providing the first instalment, the officials would visit the site of the project to see if the loan had been utilized. Only then will the second installment be released. "Even the third instalment will be released after assessing that the progress is satisfactory," he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">For the implementation of this project, the institute issued a notice on February 2, inviting interested start-up entrepreneurs to submit proposals for the loan. In 21 days, 1,658 projects were registered with the institute seeking loans. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The institute has formed an evaluation committee and made 12 different criteria for providing loans. The committee will now conduct a preliminary study of the projects registered with the institute and invite the proponents to present their projects.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">As per the criteria, only the businesses registered at the Department of Industry, state bodies and local levels can obtain the loans.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Those who do not attach documents like industry registration, renewal, permanent account number, or copy of tax payment certificate will be removed from the project loan process.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">If an entrepreneur is found to have submitted more than one proposal, all proposals will be cancelled.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Projects that do not meet the specified criteria will not be included in the loan process. According to the institute, start-ups that do not appear for the presentation at the specified time will be automatically removed from the selection process. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to Gupta, the entrepreneur's project will get scores on the basis of presentation. Gupta also said that the institute will provide 15 minutes for the presentation. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Gupta, executive director of the institute, informed that start-up projects that meet the criteria will be selected within 1 week. He said that after completion of the work, the selected project proponents will be asked to give a presentation and the loan will be given from mid-May. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-17', 'modified' => '2024-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20474', 'image' => '20240417041054_20220217054410_startup.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-17 16:10:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20746', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'CNI Demands Multi-Rate VAT to Discourage Illegal Imports from India', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 17: The Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), an umbrella organization of the private sector industries in Nepal, has urged the government to implement a multi-rate value-added tax (VAT) system. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 17: The Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), an umbrella organization of the private sector industries in Nepal, has urged the government to implement a multi-rate value-added tax (VAT) system. They argue that aligning Nepal's VAT rates with those of India would help curb the smuggling of goods from across the border. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">A multi-rate VAT system involves applying different tax rates to different categories of goods or services. This approach can be effective in addressing the diverse needs of various industries and consumers while also potentially reducing tax evasion and promoting economic growth. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Speaking at the 21st Annual General Meeting of the CNI held in Kathmandu on Tuesday, President of the CNI Rajesh Kumar Agarwal said that illegal imports from India have thrived due to the high price of goods in Nepal because of the government’s decision to impose 13 percent VAT.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"As the same item is taxed only 5 percent in India and 13 percent in Nepal, goods are flowing illegally from India to Nepal due to the price difference," Agarwal said during the event which was attended by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The CNI has been advocating for multi-rate VAT since a long time. Other trade associations are also demanding multi-rate VAT.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">However, the government has been turning a deaf ear to this demand saying that it will be difficult for the current administrative mechanism to implement multi-rate VAT. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">A senior official of the Ministry of Finance had earlier told New Business Age that the high-level advisory committee on reforming the tax system, chaired by former minister and finance secretary Bidyadhar Mallik, had also suggested keeping the rate of VAT unchanged.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Stating that illegal trade is becoming another threat for domestic industries of Nepal and the government, Agarwal complained that the state is losing revenue while the domestic industries are being affected.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">During the program, CNI President Agarwal discussed about the economic downturn saying that the overall demand is not encouraging and the industries and businesses are on the verge of closure due to the unexpected slump in the economy. He added that the production cost of the industries has increased and the industries have resorted to cut down producing </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He also complained that the Nepal Electricity Authority has imposed load-shedding for 16 hours in the industrial area at such a crucial time. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Since April 1, India has reduced the amount of electricity it supplies to Nepal and started providing electricity only during the day. Subsequently, the NEA has increased the load shedding in the industrial sector.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The CNI also raised questions about political instability in the context of the frequent change of government. President Agarwal said that policy stability is necessary to increase investment within the country.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> "Irrespective of whether the investment is domestic or foreign, investors look for policy stability," he said. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">On that occasion, Prime Minister Dahal said that the government is committed to increasing the morale of the private sector. "Collaboration with the private sector is indispensable to improve the economy," he said. Prime Minister Dahal said that the government has intervened positively to make the economy dynamic and said that there is no need to panic anymore.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-17', 'modified' => '2024-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20473', 'image' => '20240417033622_20210226043111_20201119021010_20200907074520_1599400665.tax.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-17 15:35:41', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20745', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Parliamentary Hearings Committee Endorses Recommendation to Appoint Raya as Auditor General', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 17: The Parliamentary Hearings Committee has cleared the way for the appointment of Toyam Raya as the Auditor General.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 17: The Parliamentary Hearings Committee has cleared the way for the appointment of Toyam Raya as the Auditor General.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Chairman of the Parliamentary Hearings Committee, Pashupati Shamsher Rana told reporters that his name was unanimously approved by the committee's meeting held on Tuesday.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">A meeting of the Constitutional Council held on March 31 had decided to recommend Raya, who is the secretary of the National Statistics Office, for appointment to the post of Auditor General. There is a constitutional provision for the President to appoint the Auditor General upon the recommendation of the Council after approval by the Parliamentary Hearings Committee.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">After becoming the Auditor General, the responsibility of auditing all the expenses of the government in the last fiscal year and the current fiscal year will fall on his shoulders. Some stakeholders have criticized his appointment to the post due to a conflict of interest. As the secretary also has to audit the work done by himself, there will be a conflict of interest, say Transparency International and other organizations involved in anti-corruption watch. Transparency International has warned that this could disrupt good governance.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">However, the MPs ignored this argument and approved Raya's recommendation. The previous Auditor General Tankamani Sharma was also appointed to the post after resigning from the post of Secretary. Raya, who is considered to be close to the ruling CPN-UML, has been appointed for a 6-year term with just 5 months left for his retirement.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Presenting his plans in the parliamentary committee, Raya expressed his commitment to restructure the Auditor General's office according to the federal governance system.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He said that it is necessary to advance the organization of the Auditor General's office in accordance with the federal framework to make the work of audit easy, transparent and less expensive, so he will give this work as the first priority.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Raya said in the parliamentary committee, "I will proceed with consultation with experts while preparing the audit report." </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The use of information technology in auditing, internal governance, development of professionalism and institutional coordination are also in his action plan. Raya has also planned to use artificial intelligence in the audit, to develop a system that can monitor the implementation status of the audit recommendations. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-17', 'modified' => '2024-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20472', 'image' => '20240417025206_oag-building.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-17 14:51:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20744', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Fluctuation in the Capital Market having Direct Impact on Capital Gains Tax', 'sub_title' => 'Government collects CGT worth Rs 3.79 billion from share market in 9 months', 'summary' => '', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 17: The fluctuations in the capital market has influsnced the capital gains tax collected by the government from the market. As the last four months of the current fiscal year (FY) 2080/81 were relatively stable, data show that the government collected capital gains tax better than the previous months.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Segoe UI","sans-serif"">In the first nine months of the current fiscal year, the government collected Rs 3.79 billion in capital gains tax. Notably, during the last four months alone, approximately 70 percent of this total amount was collected</span>, according to the data provided by CDS and Clearing Limited (CDSC). </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Comparative analysis of the monthly review of the data shows that the government collected capital gains tax of Rs. 972.2 million in the Nepali month of Magh (mid-January to mid-February) of the current year. This is more than other months. In the same month, the Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) index soared to over 2, 200 points.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In the previous month of Poush (mid-December to mid-January), the government had also collected attractive capital gains tax. According to CDSC, the government collected more than Rs 743.9 million in capital gains tax was collected in the review month as the capital market index increased from 1,994.60 points to over 2,221 points.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the data, the share market index the dropped to 2,215 points in the following month. Despite the fluctuations in the two months, the market remained positive, so investors made profits.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the existing legal system, investors in the secondary market of securities have to pay capital gains tax up to a maximum of 10 percent if they make a profit. Institutional investors have to pay 10 percent tax and individual investors have to pay a maximum of 7.5 percent tax.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to CDSC, in the nine months of the current year, the government collected more than Rs 453.88 million from institutional investors and more than Rs 333.6 billion from individuals.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">While the government is collecting millions of rupees monthly in tax from the capital market, investors complained that the capital gains tax imposed by the government is quite high. They have also been urging the government to reduce the tax rate. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"To attract institutional investors to the capital market, there should be a discount on CGT," said Tara Prasad Fullel, acting president of the Share Investors Association, adding, "In the case of individual investors, 5 percent for short-term and 3 percent for long-term profit tax should be maintained." </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-17', 'modified' => '2024-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20471', 'image' => '20240417010307_20230320014508_1679273224.Clipboard03.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-17 13:02:26', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20743', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'IMF Projects Growth of Global Economy in 2024 but Risk of Geopolitical Shocks Persists', 'sub_title' => 'The risks to global growth are broadly balanced and a soft landing is a possibility: WEO', 'summary' => 'April 17: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised its outlook for the global economy this year with a growth projected to reach 3.1 percent in 2024.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">April 17: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised its outlook for the global economy this year with a growth projected to reach 3.1 percent in 2024.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) published by the IMF on Tuesday states that the 2024 forecast is 0.2 percentage point higher than the growth projected in October 2023 report.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The IMF said that the global economy is expected to grow on account of greater-than-expected resilience in the United States and several large emerging market and developing economies, as well as fiscal support in China. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The forecast for 2024–25 is, however, below the historical (2000–19) average of 3.8 percent, with elevated central bank policy rates to fight inflation, a withdrawal of fiscal support amid high debt weighing on economic activity, and low underlying productivity growth, the report states. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to the IMF, inflation is falling faster than expected in most regions, in the midst of unwinding supply-side issues and restrictive monetary policy. Global headline inflation is expected to fall to 5.8 percent in 2024 and to 4.4 percent in 2025, with the 2025 forecast revised down, added the report.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">“With disinflation and steady growth, the likelihood of a hard landing has receded, and risks to global growth are broadly balanced. On the upside, faster disinflation could lead to further easing of financial conditions.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Lax fiscal policy than necessary assumed in the projections could imply temporarily higher growth, but at the risk of a more costly adjustment later on, added the report. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to the IMF, stronger structural reform momentum could bolster productivity with positive cross-border spillovers. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">On the downside, new commodity price spikes from geopolitical shocks––including continued attacks in the Red Sea––and supply disruptions or more persistent underlying inflation could prolong tight monetary conditions. “Deepening property sector woes in China or, elsewhere, a disruptive turn to tax hikes and spending cuts could also cause growth disappointments.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Meanwhile, the IMF report has pointed out the need to curb the rise of public debt and emphasized on a renewed focus on fiscal consolidation to rebuild budgetary capacity to deal with future shocks as well as to raise revenue for new spending priorities in the context that many economies are better equipped to absorb effects of fiscal tightening with the decline in inflation.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The report suggests that targeted and carefully sequenced structural reforms would reinforce productivity growth and debt sustainability and accelerate convergence toward higher income levels. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">More efficient multilateral coordination is needed for, among other things, debt resolution, to avoid debt distress and create space for necessary investments, as well as to mitigate the effects of climate change, added the report.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-17', 'modified' => '2024-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20470', 'image' => '20240417112614_20200414115244_IMF.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-17 11:25:21', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20742', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'PM Dahal Pledges Collaboration with Private Sector to Make Economy Vibrant', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 16: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that the government’s collaboration with the private sector can make the economy vibrant. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 16: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that the government’s collaboration with the private sector can make the economy vibrant. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Speaking at a programme organized to mark the 21st anniversary of the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) in the capital on Tuesday, Prime Minister Dahal expressed the government's commitment to boost the confidence of the private sector. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"The government is serious about economic reforms," Dahal said, adding, "I am clear that the country's economy could be made dynamic in collaboration with private sector. The government has put positive interventions for economic reforms." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He clarified that the government was responsibly acting to boost the confidence of the private sector, enabling investment-friendly environment and creating incentives for result-oriented works. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government is preparing to focus its efforts on manufacturing and employment generation, as well as revitalizing people's optimism despite the pressure, he claimed, adding, "We will take ahead the monetary policy accordingly." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He further said the problem of private sector is the problem of the economy. "The government will put all-out efforts to fix the problems." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The economy lately has shown important signs of reforms, he said, expressing confidence that the current fiscal year would be optimistic year for the economy. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"We are hosting the third international investment summit at the onset of the New Year. Over a dozen laws are under the process of amendment to draw foreign direct investment," the PM said, adding, "The year 2081 could be taken as a hopeful year." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The export of goods such as electricity, zinc sheet and cement has also increased our hope to enable country's economy, he said. "Arrival of tourists has whopped and information technology sector has also rekindled our optimism,” PM Dahal noted, adding such activities would contribute to the national income and capital formation. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Also on the occasion, Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Damodar Bhandari said the government was ready to create environment conducive for promoting businesses and industries. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The event was attended by the chairpersons and representatives of umbrella organizations of businesspersons and industrialists. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-17', 'modified' => '2024-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20469', 'image' => '20240417105732_PRO_KTM-066A0771.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-17 10:56:52', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20741', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Experts Suggest Government to Bring Implementable Budget ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 16: Economists and experts have urged the government to introduce a practical budget for the upcoming fiscal year. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 16: Economists and experts have urged the government to introduce a practical budget for the upcoming fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Speaking at a meeting of the National Assembly's Committee on Development, Economic Affairs and Good Governance on Tuesday, the experts viewed that the new budget should be based on development and social justice along with being gender-responsive. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">They suggested that the government should focus on sustainable development of agriculture, energy and tourism sectors in the new budget. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the occasion, economist Dr Govinda Nepal said the big-size budget and its non-implementation have created fiscal imbalance and called for a practical budget. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He argued the new budget should accord priority for the modernization of agriculture, information technology, energy and tourism. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, Registrar of Kathmandu University Achyut Wagle said the structure of the economy should be made environment-friendly and the new budget should focus on the areas for sustainable development of agriculture and its production. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, social activist Bharati Silwal Giri said the budget should be gender-responsive and it should incorporate the issues of gender equality and women empowerment. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During the meeting, NA Vice Chairperson Bimala Ghimire expressed confidence that the feedback received from the experts would be instrumental in enriching the new budget. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Committee Chairperson Kamala Devi Pant said the new budget should address the issues of Dalits, underprivileged and marginalized communities. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-16', 'modified' => '2024-04-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20468', 'image' => '20240416070426_20230511021044_1683767264.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-16 19:03:59', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20740', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NEPSE Drops 14.81 Points, Closes at 1991.71', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) Index witnessed a loss of 14.81 points or 0.73%, closing at 1991.71 on the third trading day of the week, Tuesday.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 16: The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) Index witnessed a loss of 14.81 points or 0.73%, closing at 1991.71 on the third trading day of the week, Tuesday.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">During today’s trading session, 312 scrips were traded on the NEPSE through 39,476 transactions. A total of 5,471,068 shares changed hands, resulting in a total turnover of Rs 2.10 billion.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Gurkhas Finance Limited (GUFL) led the turnover amount with a total transaction of Rs 17 crores. The 10.75% SBL Debenture 2089 (SBLD89) saw the highest gain of 9.9%, closing at Rs 1,155 per share.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Ru Ru Jalbidhyut Pariyojana Limited (RURU) incurred the maximum loss of 10%, closing at a market price of Rs 560 per share.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In terms of sector indices, all sectors closed in the red territory. The HydroPower Index saw the highest loss at 1.31%, while the Mutual Fund Index experienced the least loss of 0.01%.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-16', 'modified' => '2024-04-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20467', 'image' => '20240416035507_collage (58).jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-16 15:53:47', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20739', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Banks Found Issuing New Loans to Cover Bad Debts: NRB Report', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 16: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has pointed out that credit risk is on the rise within commercial banks due to loans being issued without the completion of requisite procedures.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">April 16: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has pointed out that credit risk is on the rise within commercial banks due to loans being issued without the completion of requisite procedures.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Increasing bad loans of banks and financial institutions also indicate the rise in credit risk.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Based on both on-site and off-site monitoring of commercial banks conducted by the Bank Supervision Department of the central bank in the last fiscal year (FY 2022/23), the NRB has pointed out weaknesses in the banks' credit investment process, non-utilization of loans, giving more loans than their capacity, giving loans to pay off loans, etc.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to the supervision report published by NRB on Sunday, during the monitoring, some banks were found to have provided more loans than necessary without adequately assessing the needs of the borrowers. The central bank has stated that loans are given without maintaining a balance between the customer's assets and loan ratio. It also noted that the monitoring system after loan disbursement is weak.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Similarly, the NRB study found that banks have given new loans to pay off old loans. The central bank also pointed out that loans have been renewed without audit and verification of tax clearance certificate, firm renewal and business monitoring report. It is mentioned in the report that environmental and social risk assessment guidelines were not followed while giving project loans.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to Nepal Rastra Bank sources, the quality of banking service is deteriorating due to the competition among banks to extend loans after the Covid- 19 pandemic. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">"Banks are under pressure to increase their profits by increasing their loans," said an executive director of Nepal Rastra Bank on condition of anonymity. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">“Banks have even beached the law and NRB instructions while issuing loans in some cases. This has resulted in increasing bad loans,” he added. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">As of mid-March of the current fiscal year, the average bad loan ratio of 20 commercial banks has reached 3.63 percent. The bad debt ratio was 2.49 percent by mid-March of last fiscal year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to Nepal Rastra Bank, banks have given 88.75 percent of loans under mortgages. However, with the recent decrease in real estate transactions, banks are finding it difficult to recover loans even through mortgage auctions. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">In December, a delegation of the International Monetary Fund issued a statement expressing doubts about the credit quality of Nepali banks. In the context of increasing bad loans, the IMF issued a statement mentioning that there is a need for more monitoring and more supervision on the quality of banks' loans.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The government and the central bank have both admitted that bad loans may increase. A statement released by the IMF a few months ago said that the government and the central bank pledged to step up monitoring to ensure that the classification of loans is correct, provisioning is done and there is sufficient capital support. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Expressing doubts about the quality of loans provided by the banks of Nepal, the IMF has placed a condition that it will issue loans under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) to Nepal only after the loans of 10 big commercial banks are audited by an international organization.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The central bank has already called for a tender for auditing of the banks by an international organisation.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-16', 'modified' => '2024-04-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20466', 'image' => '20240416030118_Banks - Copy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-16 15:00:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20738', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'AI Still Behind Human on Complex Tasks like Competitive Mathematics: AI Index Report-2024 ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 16: In the wake of optimism and influence of artificial intelligence (AI), research and studies on AI have surged lately across the globe. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 16: In the wake of optimism and influence of artificial intelligence (AI), research and studies on AI have surged lately across the globe. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In this connection, the Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) at the Stanford University released an annual report on AI on Monday. The seventh edition report- 'Artificial Intelligence Index Report, 2024' has comprehensively studied the AI trend in multiple fronts ranging from education to accountability, research to development, and economy to medicine. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">One of the significant messages the report has underlined is: 'AI beats humans on some tasks, but not on all'. There are ten takeaways in the wide-ranging report fit in 500 plus pages with extensive use of data and comparative analyses. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In the first takeaway it wrote, "AI has surpassed human performance on several benchmarks, including some in image classification, visual reasoning, and English understanding. Yet it trails behind on more complex tasks like competition-level mathematics, visual commonsense reasoning and planning." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The report is dovetailed in nine chapters focusing- research and development, technical performance, responsible AI, economy, science and medicine, education, policy and governance, diversity, and public opinion. </span><br /> <strong><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">AI patent shifting from US to East Asia and Pacific</span></strong> <br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Taking reference from Centre for Security and Emerging Technology, 2023, the report has showed shifting AI patent. Comparing the data from 2010 to 2022, the report showed granted AI patent hugely concentrating in East Asia and Pacific – 75.2 percent, which is trailed by the North America with 21.2 percent. North America was leading the AI patent till 2011. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">However, the US leads the source of top AI model in the world. In the last year, 2023, the institutions based in the US produced 61 modes of AI while it is followed by European Union with 21 models and China 15 models. </span><br /> <strong><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Eightfold rise on AI investment</span></strong> <br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the report, the world has witnessed massive surge in investment in Generative AI. "Despite a decline in overall AI private investment last year, funding for generative AI surged, nearly octupling from 2022 to reach $25.2 billion. Major players in the generative AI space, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Hugging Face, and Inflection, reported substantial fundraising rounds," it stated. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The 'Economy' chapter of the report has brought forth information on investment, global AI labour demand, wages of computer scientists, adaptation of AI capabilities, corporate activity, robot installation and jobs. The report mentioned that China is dominating the installation of robots in industries. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"China dominates industrial robotics. Since surpassing Japan in 2013 as the leading installer of industrial robots, China has significantly widened the gap with the nearest competitor nation. In 2013, China’s installations accounted for 20.8% of the global total, a share that rose to 52.4% by 2022," it explained. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the AI governance initiatives are also on rise, especially in EU countries, the US and China. From AI policy to actions, these are painted as major players in AI governance. Policy makers in the world are not left untouched by the AI, the report argues. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It is also worth noting to have knowledge how the tech giants are investing huge chunk in designing multiple AI models and programmes in the world. The AI Index estimated, "Training costs of state-of-the-art AI models have reached unprecedented levels. For example, OpenAI’s GPT-4 used an estimated $78 million worth of compute to train, while Google’s Gemini Ultra cost $191 million for compute." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">At a time when many tout technology as a non-discriminatory front, the global tech sprint of 2023, ChatGPT, has been found politically biased. The Index has referenced the researchers and stated 'significant bias in ChatGPT toward Democrats in the US and the Labour Party in the UK.' </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Bearing this in mind, the report has alerted over hijacking of political views of users by the ChatGPT when 2024 is a global election year. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">So far, 80 countries have put in place the AI Strategies. They include the US, the UK, Bangladesh, India, Thailand, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Israel, among others. Canada was the first country to have AI strategy- in 2017. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It has argued that AI clinical knowledge has boosted in recent time. "Highly knowledgeable medical AI has arrived. Over the past few years, AI systems have shown remarkable improvement on the MedQA benchmark, a key test for assessing AI’s clinical knowledge," the Index asserts. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Index added that since the benchmark’s introduction in 2019, AI performance on MedQA has increased nearly threefold. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">AI hiring has also seen upward trends in the countries like Australia, Canada, Singapore, and India since 2023. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Co-Directors of AI Index, Ray Perrault and Jack Clark observed the report, saying, "As AI rapidly evolves, the AI Index aims to help the AI community, policymakers, business leaders, journalists, and the general public navigate this complex landscape. It provides ongoing, objective snapshots tracking several key areas: technical progress in AI capabilities, the community and investments driving AI development and deployment, public opinion on current and potential future impacts, and policy measures taken to stimulate AI innovation while managing its risks and challenges." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Several IT and AI experts provided information and expertise for the report where a dozen of tech organizations including GitHub, Linkedin, Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, Women in Machine Learning, Code.org, and International Federation of Robotics supplied data. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-16', 'modified' => '2024-04-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20465', 'image' => '20240416013648_20240303093044_Artificial-intelligence--scaled.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-16 13:35:53', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20737', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => '144K Foreign Tourists Visit Annapurna Region in Current Fiscal Year', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 16: A total of 144,675 foreign tourists visited the world-famous Annapurna region for trekking in the first nine months of the current fiscal year.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">April 16: A total of 144,675 foreign tourists visited the world-famous Annapurna region for trekking in the first nine months of the current fiscal year. According to the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP), altogether 59,939 tourists from South Asian countries and 84,736 tourists from other countries visited the Annapurna region from mid-July 2023 to mid-April 2024.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">During the last month (mid-March to mid-April) alone, a total of 35,265 foreign tourists including 16,969 from South Asian countries and 18,296 from other countries visited the Annapurna region, according to the head of ACAP, Dr Rabin Kadaria. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Similarly, in the Nepali month of Asoj (mid-September to mid-October), 28,705 tourists visited the Annapurna region.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">ACAP chief Dr Kadaria estimates that the number of tourists will increase this month (Baishakh or mid-April to mid-May). In Baishakh of last year, a total of 31,951 foreign tourists had visited the Annapurna region.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Autumn (mid-September to mid-November) and spring (mid-March to mid-May), are considered the best time for trekking in the Annapurna region.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">ACAP keeps the data of foreign tourists who visit the Annapurna Circuit, a renowned route that covers five districts – Lamjung, Mustang, Manang, Myagdi, and Kaski. It does not have the records of the number of domestic tourists entering the Annapurna region.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to ACAP, 191,558 tourists from 173 countries visited the Annapurna region in 2023. This number is the highest ever. Before that, in 2019, a total of 181,000 tourists visited the Annapurna region. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The Annapurna Circuit covers famous tourist destinations like the Annapurna Base Camp, Mardi Himal, Ghandruk, Tilicho Lake in Manang, Thorangla Pass, Upper Mustang, Muktinath area, Ghodepani in Myagdi among others.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">A total of 89 wards of 16 local levels of Lamjung, Manang, Mustang, Myagdi and Kaski fall under the Annapurna Conservation Area Project spread over 7,600 square kilometers.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Annapurna region is one of the most preferred choices of tourists due to its natural beauty, biological diversity, mountain life, civilization and culture. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Due to its attractive destinations with snow-capped peaks, tourism-friendly infrastructure, warm hospitality of locals and service facilities, Annapurna is considered to be the best destination in the world for trekking. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to ACAP, this region offers short, medium and long-distance trekking. </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-16', 'modified' => '2024-04-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20464', 'image' => '20240416013444_20240102031942_20220508080527_Annapurna circuit (3).jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-16 13:33:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20735', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Price of Gold Hits New Record at Rs 139,200 Per Tola', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 16: The price of gold on Tuesday increased by Rs 1,700 per tola (11.66 grams) to set a new record. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers Association, the price of gold has reached an all-time high of Rs 139,200.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 16: The price of gold on Tuesday increased by Rs 1,700 per tola (11.66 grams) to set a new record. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers Association, the price of gold has reached an all-time high of Rs 139,200.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Prior to this, the price of gold had set a record of Rs 139,000 per tola on April 12 but it fell to Rs 137,700 on Monday. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Similarly, the price of silver has also increased on Tuesday. The price of silver in the domestic market of Nepal has been fixed at Rs 1,750 per tola.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong>Why is the price increasing?</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The price of gold has been rising steadily in the past few weeks. In the Nepali month of Chaitra (mid-March to mid-April), the price of gold has increased eleven times in the domestic market of Nepal. The federation fixes the price of gold and silver based on the price in the international market.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The recent geopolitical tension due to the Israel’s offensive in Gaza and the Russia-Ukraine war have led to investors to invest in gold considering it as a safe haven in times of turmoil.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Businessmen complain that the gold and silver jewelry business has decreased due to the continuous rise in the price of gold. Gold and silver traders say that the business of the gold market is almost zero lately. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-16', 'modified' => '2024-04-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20462', 'image' => '20240416123314_20240412010233_gold newwww.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-16 12:32:36', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = falseinclude - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
Warning (2): simplexml_load_file() [<a href='http://php.net/function.simplexml-load-file'>function.simplexml-load-file</a>]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "" [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60]file not found!Code Context// $file = 'http://aabhiyan:QUVLg8Wzs2F7G9N7@nepalstock.com.np/api/indexdata.xml';if(!$xml = simplexml_load_file($file)){$viewFile = '/var/www/html/newbusinessage.com/app/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'articles' => array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ) ), 'current_user' => null, 'logged_in' => false ) $articles = array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20750', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Pakistan High Court Orders Government to Restore X in One Week', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 18: A Pakistan High Court on Wednesday said the government must restore social media platform X within one week, a lawyer said, after more than two months of disruption ordered by the interior ministry. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 18: A Pakistan High Court on Wednesday said the government must restore social media platform X within one week, a lawyer said, after more than two months of disruption ordered by the interior ministry. </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 platform, formerly known as Twitter, has been rarely accessible since February 17, when jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's party called for protests against a government official's admission of vote manipulation in February's election. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Pakistan's communications authority later admitted in court papers that it was ordered by the Interior Ministry to shut down the site. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"The Sindh High Court has given the government one week to withdraw the letter, failing which, on the next date, they will pass appropriate orders," Moiz Jaaferi, a lawyer challenging the ban, told AFP. – AFP/RSS</span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-18', 'modified' => '2024-04-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20477', 'image' => '20240418113305_X-reuters-file1713365023-0.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-18 11:32:30', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20749', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Export of Goods from Tribhuvan International Airport Comes to a Grinding Halt', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 18: The export of goods produced in Nepal to third countries from the Tribhuvan International Airport customs office has come to a standstill.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">April 18: The export of goods produced in Nepal to third countries from the Tribhuvan International Airport customs office has come to a standstill.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">The freight forwarders and government officials informed that there has been no export since Monday after the trade union of the loaders interrupted the loading of the goods saying that one of the two x-rays was damaged and only one of them was causing delay.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">According to the government officials, one machine for x-raying exported goods has been broken for one month.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Ishwar Bahadur Gurung, secretary of Nepal Freight Forwarders Association, said that checking the goods with only one x-ray was not enough. "We are also requesting to repair another x-ray machine immediately," he said.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Nepal Transport and Warehousing Company Limited has been assigned the responsibility of maintenance of the x-ray machines.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">“An important part of the machine is not operational due to damage. We cannot buy a new one without being sure that this part will work after maintenance. That's why there has been a delay in bringing it back into operation," said Tulsi Pokharel, acting head of 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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Pokharel informed that if they will first try to replace the broken parts from other machines and will start a new procurement process if that is not possible.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Pokharel added that it will take a few months if they have to purchase a new machine. According to Pokharel, even a single x-ray is sufficient to scan goods. Pokharel claims that one machine can x-ray 35-40 tons of goods daily and if the goods arrive on time, one machine will be enough.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">However, freight forwarders say one x-ray machine is not enough. According to them, since there is only one machine, the x-ray is being delayed and this has hindered the export on time.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">However, both sides are in talks. "We are trying to solve the problem through dialogue," Pokharel said.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-18', 'modified' => '2024-04-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20476', 'image' => '20240418110225_63cce5f4.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-18 11:00:45', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20748', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Altitude Sickness Emerges as Major Concern for Tourists Visiting Mustang', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => '', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">April 17: </span></span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">Altitude sickness is emerging as a growing concern among visitors in Mustang. The district also known as the district beyond the Himalaya is home to the famous Muktinath Temple which draws a large number of devotees mainly from home and India each year. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">In the past seven months, 11 tourists including three domestic citizens succumbed to high-altitude sickness in the district. The district recorded 29 fatalities in the past three years and 11 alone in the past seven months, according to the District Police Office, Mustang. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">The latest casualties include seven Indians, three Nepalis and one Ukrainian, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Bhojraj Pandey said. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">In the fiscal year 2078-29 BS (2021-22), six visitors – five females and one male – all from India died of altitude sickness. They were aged 45-73. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">According to the police records, they suffered high altitude-related health complications in Marfa, Mesokando Pass Trek, Muktinath Temple premises, Gharpajhong, Jomsom Airport, Lete, Tukuche, and Yara. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">Of the latest fatalities, six were reported in the month of Chaitra (mid-March to mid-April). The victims were aged 35-83. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">During the last fiscal year (2022-23), the district witnessed 12 deaths resulting from altitude sickness and they were from India (seven), Thailand (one), and Nepal (four) and aged 42-75. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">Altitude sickness is caused due to the body's inability to adjust to a low oxygen level at a higher altitude. This happens normally at an altitude above 2500 meters and its symptoms include headache, nausea, vomiting, breathing complications, insomnia, loss of appetite, fatigue, weakness, and so on. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-17', 'modified' => '2024-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20475', 'image' => '20240417062112_20230724112952_20220424035529_istockphoto-534638391-612x612.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-17 18:19:15', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20747', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Govt Preparing to Provide Concessional Loans to 200 Startups', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 17: The government is planning to provide concessional loans to 200 start-up projects in the current fiscal year. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 17: The government is planning to provide concessional loans to 200 start-up projects in the current fiscal year. The government has been promising concessional loans for start-up projects for the last few years but has not been able to implement its decision.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government has received applications from more than 1,600 entrepreneurs seeking the start-up loans.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"The target is to provide subsidized loans to around 200 projects from among those who have applied," said Umesh Kumar Gupta, executive director of the Industrial Enterprise Development Institute. The government has entrusted the institutute with the responsibility of collecting applications and selecting suitable candidates.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">To help those who want to begin start-up ventures, the government has come up with a plan to provide loans at 3 per cent interest by keeping the projects as mortgage.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government has also allocated a budget to involve people with the latest knowledge, thinking, skills and abilities in start-up enterprises. For such loans, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies has allocated Rs 250 million in the current fiscal year. The government has adopted a policy of providing concessional loans up to a maximum of Rs 2.5 million for a start-up enterprise.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Gupta said that after providing the first instalment, the officials would visit the site of the project to see if the loan had been utilized. Only then will the second installment be released. "Even the third instalment will be released after assessing that the progress is satisfactory," he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">For the implementation of this project, the institute issued a notice on February 2, inviting interested start-up entrepreneurs to submit proposals for the loan. In 21 days, 1,658 projects were registered with the institute seeking loans. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The institute has formed an evaluation committee and made 12 different criteria for providing loans. The committee will now conduct a preliminary study of the projects registered with the institute and invite the proponents to present their projects.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">As per the criteria, only the businesses registered at the Department of Industry, state bodies and local levels can obtain the loans.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Those who do not attach documents like industry registration, renewal, permanent account number, or copy of tax payment certificate will be removed from the project loan process.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">If an entrepreneur is found to have submitted more than one proposal, all proposals will be cancelled.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Projects that do not meet the specified criteria will not be included in the loan process. According to the institute, start-ups that do not appear for the presentation at the specified time will be automatically removed from the selection process. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to Gupta, the entrepreneur's project will get scores on the basis of presentation. Gupta also said that the institute will provide 15 minutes for the presentation. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Gupta, executive director of the institute, informed that start-up projects that meet the criteria will be selected within 1 week. He said that after completion of the work, the selected project proponents will be asked to give a presentation and the loan will be given from mid-May. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-17', 'modified' => '2024-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20474', 'image' => '20240417041054_20220217054410_startup.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-17 16:10:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20746', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'CNI Demands Multi-Rate VAT to Discourage Illegal Imports from India', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 17: The Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), an umbrella organization of the private sector industries in Nepal, has urged the government to implement a multi-rate value-added tax (VAT) system. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 17: The Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), an umbrella organization of the private sector industries in Nepal, has urged the government to implement a multi-rate value-added tax (VAT) system. They argue that aligning Nepal's VAT rates with those of India would help curb the smuggling of goods from across the border. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">A multi-rate VAT system involves applying different tax rates to different categories of goods or services. This approach can be effective in addressing the diverse needs of various industries and consumers while also potentially reducing tax evasion and promoting economic growth. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Speaking at the 21st Annual General Meeting of the CNI held in Kathmandu on Tuesday, President of the CNI Rajesh Kumar Agarwal said that illegal imports from India have thrived due to the high price of goods in Nepal because of the government’s decision to impose 13 percent VAT.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"As the same item is taxed only 5 percent in India and 13 percent in Nepal, goods are flowing illegally from India to Nepal due to the price difference," Agarwal said during the event which was attended by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The CNI has been advocating for multi-rate VAT since a long time. Other trade associations are also demanding multi-rate VAT.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">However, the government has been turning a deaf ear to this demand saying that it will be difficult for the current administrative mechanism to implement multi-rate VAT. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">A senior official of the Ministry of Finance had earlier told New Business Age that the high-level advisory committee on reforming the tax system, chaired by former minister and finance secretary Bidyadhar Mallik, had also suggested keeping the rate of VAT unchanged.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Stating that illegal trade is becoming another threat for domestic industries of Nepal and the government, Agarwal complained that the state is losing revenue while the domestic industries are being affected.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">During the program, CNI President Agarwal discussed about the economic downturn saying that the overall demand is not encouraging and the industries and businesses are on the verge of closure due to the unexpected slump in the economy. He added that the production cost of the industries has increased and the industries have resorted to cut down producing </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He also complained that the Nepal Electricity Authority has imposed load-shedding for 16 hours in the industrial area at such a crucial time. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Since April 1, India has reduced the amount of electricity it supplies to Nepal and started providing electricity only during the day. Subsequently, the NEA has increased the load shedding in the industrial sector.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The CNI also raised questions about political instability in the context of the frequent change of government. President Agarwal said that policy stability is necessary to increase investment within the country.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> "Irrespective of whether the investment is domestic or foreign, investors look for policy stability," he said. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">On that occasion, Prime Minister Dahal said that the government is committed to increasing the morale of the private sector. "Collaboration with the private sector is indispensable to improve the economy," he said. Prime Minister Dahal said that the government has intervened positively to make the economy dynamic and said that there is no need to panic anymore.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-17', 'modified' => '2024-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20473', 'image' => '20240417033622_20210226043111_20201119021010_20200907074520_1599400665.tax.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-17 15:35:41', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20745', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Parliamentary Hearings Committee Endorses Recommendation to Appoint Raya as Auditor General', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 17: The Parliamentary Hearings Committee has cleared the way for the appointment of Toyam Raya as the Auditor General.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 17: The Parliamentary Hearings Committee has cleared the way for the appointment of Toyam Raya as the Auditor General.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Chairman of the Parliamentary Hearings Committee, Pashupati Shamsher Rana told reporters that his name was unanimously approved by the committee's meeting held on Tuesday.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">A meeting of the Constitutional Council held on March 31 had decided to recommend Raya, who is the secretary of the National Statistics Office, for appointment to the post of Auditor General. There is a constitutional provision for the President to appoint the Auditor General upon the recommendation of the Council after approval by the Parliamentary Hearings Committee.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">After becoming the Auditor General, the responsibility of auditing all the expenses of the government in the last fiscal year and the current fiscal year will fall on his shoulders. Some stakeholders have criticized his appointment to the post due to a conflict of interest. As the secretary also has to audit the work done by himself, there will be a conflict of interest, say Transparency International and other organizations involved in anti-corruption watch. Transparency International has warned that this could disrupt good governance.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">However, the MPs ignored this argument and approved Raya's recommendation. The previous Auditor General Tankamani Sharma was also appointed to the post after resigning from the post of Secretary. Raya, who is considered to be close to the ruling CPN-UML, has been appointed for a 6-year term with just 5 months left for his retirement.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Presenting his plans in the parliamentary committee, Raya expressed his commitment to restructure the Auditor General's office according to the federal governance system.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He said that it is necessary to advance the organization of the Auditor General's office in accordance with the federal framework to make the work of audit easy, transparent and less expensive, so he will give this work as the first priority.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Raya said in the parliamentary committee, "I will proceed with consultation with experts while preparing the audit report." </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The use of information technology in auditing, internal governance, development of professionalism and institutional coordination are also in his action plan. Raya has also planned to use artificial intelligence in the audit, to develop a system that can monitor the implementation status of the audit recommendations. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-17', 'modified' => '2024-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20472', 'image' => '20240417025206_oag-building.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-17 14:51:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20744', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Fluctuation in the Capital Market having Direct Impact on Capital Gains Tax', 'sub_title' => 'Government collects CGT worth Rs 3.79 billion from share market in 9 months', 'summary' => '', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 17: The fluctuations in the capital market has influsnced the capital gains tax collected by the government from the market. As the last four months of the current fiscal year (FY) 2080/81 were relatively stable, data show that the government collected capital gains tax better than the previous months.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Segoe UI","sans-serif"">In the first nine months of the current fiscal year, the government collected Rs 3.79 billion in capital gains tax. Notably, during the last four months alone, approximately 70 percent of this total amount was collected</span>, according to the data provided by CDS and Clearing Limited (CDSC). </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Comparative analysis of the monthly review of the data shows that the government collected capital gains tax of Rs. 972.2 million in the Nepali month of Magh (mid-January to mid-February) of the current year. This is more than other months. In the same month, the Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) index soared to over 2, 200 points.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In the previous month of Poush (mid-December to mid-January), the government had also collected attractive capital gains tax. According to CDSC, the government collected more than Rs 743.9 million in capital gains tax was collected in the review month as the capital market index increased from 1,994.60 points to over 2,221 points.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the data, the share market index the dropped to 2,215 points in the following month. Despite the fluctuations in the two months, the market remained positive, so investors made profits.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the existing legal system, investors in the secondary market of securities have to pay capital gains tax up to a maximum of 10 percent if they make a profit. Institutional investors have to pay 10 percent tax and individual investors have to pay a maximum of 7.5 percent tax.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to CDSC, in the nine months of the current year, the government collected more than Rs 453.88 million from institutional investors and more than Rs 333.6 billion from individuals.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">While the government is collecting millions of rupees monthly in tax from the capital market, investors complained that the capital gains tax imposed by the government is quite high. They have also been urging the government to reduce the tax rate. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"To attract institutional investors to the capital market, there should be a discount on CGT," said Tara Prasad Fullel, acting president of the Share Investors Association, adding, "In the case of individual investors, 5 percent for short-term and 3 percent for long-term profit tax should be maintained." </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-17', 'modified' => '2024-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20471', 'image' => '20240417010307_20230320014508_1679273224.Clipboard03.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-17 13:02:26', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20743', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'IMF Projects Growth of Global Economy in 2024 but Risk of Geopolitical Shocks Persists', 'sub_title' => 'The risks to global growth are broadly balanced and a soft landing is a possibility: WEO', 'summary' => 'April 17: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised its outlook for the global economy this year with a growth projected to reach 3.1 percent in 2024.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">April 17: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised its outlook for the global economy this year with a growth projected to reach 3.1 percent in 2024.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) published by the IMF on Tuesday states that the 2024 forecast is 0.2 percentage point higher than the growth projected in October 2023 report.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The IMF said that the global economy is expected to grow on account of greater-than-expected resilience in the United States and several large emerging market and developing economies, as well as fiscal support in China. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The forecast for 2024–25 is, however, below the historical (2000–19) average of 3.8 percent, with elevated central bank policy rates to fight inflation, a withdrawal of fiscal support amid high debt weighing on economic activity, and low underlying productivity growth, the report states. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to the IMF, inflation is falling faster than expected in most regions, in the midst of unwinding supply-side issues and restrictive monetary policy. Global headline inflation is expected to fall to 5.8 percent in 2024 and to 4.4 percent in 2025, with the 2025 forecast revised down, added the report.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">“With disinflation and steady growth, the likelihood of a hard landing has receded, and risks to global growth are broadly balanced. On the upside, faster disinflation could lead to further easing of financial conditions.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Lax fiscal policy than necessary assumed in the projections could imply temporarily higher growth, but at the risk of a more costly adjustment later on, added the report. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to the IMF, stronger structural reform momentum could bolster productivity with positive cross-border spillovers. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">On the downside, new commodity price spikes from geopolitical shocks––including continued attacks in the Red Sea––and supply disruptions or more persistent underlying inflation could prolong tight monetary conditions. “Deepening property sector woes in China or, elsewhere, a disruptive turn to tax hikes and spending cuts could also cause growth disappointments.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Meanwhile, the IMF report has pointed out the need to curb the rise of public debt and emphasized on a renewed focus on fiscal consolidation to rebuild budgetary capacity to deal with future shocks as well as to raise revenue for new spending priorities in the context that many economies are better equipped to absorb effects of fiscal tightening with the decline in inflation.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The report suggests that targeted and carefully sequenced structural reforms would reinforce productivity growth and debt sustainability and accelerate convergence toward higher income levels. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">More efficient multilateral coordination is needed for, among other things, debt resolution, to avoid debt distress and create space for necessary investments, as well as to mitigate the effects of climate change, added the report.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-17', 'modified' => '2024-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20470', 'image' => '20240417112614_20200414115244_IMF.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-17 11:25:21', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20742', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'PM Dahal Pledges Collaboration with Private Sector to Make Economy Vibrant', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 16: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that the government’s collaboration with the private sector can make the economy vibrant. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 16: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that the government’s collaboration with the private sector can make the economy vibrant. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Speaking at a programme organized to mark the 21st anniversary of the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) in the capital on Tuesday, Prime Minister Dahal expressed the government's commitment to boost the confidence of the private sector. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"The government is serious about economic reforms," Dahal said, adding, "I am clear that the country's economy could be made dynamic in collaboration with private sector. The government has put positive interventions for economic reforms." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He clarified that the government was responsibly acting to boost the confidence of the private sector, enabling investment-friendly environment and creating incentives for result-oriented works. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government is preparing to focus its efforts on manufacturing and employment generation, as well as revitalizing people's optimism despite the pressure, he claimed, adding, "We will take ahead the monetary policy accordingly." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He further said the problem of private sector is the problem of the economy. "The government will put all-out efforts to fix the problems." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The economy lately has shown important signs of reforms, he said, expressing confidence that the current fiscal year would be optimistic year for the economy. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"We are hosting the third international investment summit at the onset of the New Year. Over a dozen laws are under the process of amendment to draw foreign direct investment," the PM said, adding, "The year 2081 could be taken as a hopeful year." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The export of goods such as electricity, zinc sheet and cement has also increased our hope to enable country's economy, he said. "Arrival of tourists has whopped and information technology sector has also rekindled our optimism,” PM Dahal noted, adding such activities would contribute to the national income and capital formation. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Also on the occasion, Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Damodar Bhandari said the government was ready to create environment conducive for promoting businesses and industries. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The event was attended by the chairpersons and representatives of umbrella organizations of businesspersons and industrialists. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-17', 'modified' => '2024-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20469', 'image' => '20240417105732_PRO_KTM-066A0771.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-17 10:56:52', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20741', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Experts Suggest Government to Bring Implementable Budget ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 16: Economists and experts have urged the government to introduce a practical budget for the upcoming fiscal year. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 16: Economists and experts have urged the government to introduce a practical budget for the upcoming fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Speaking at a meeting of the National Assembly's Committee on Development, Economic Affairs and Good Governance on Tuesday, the experts viewed that the new budget should be based on development and social justice along with being gender-responsive. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">They suggested that the government should focus on sustainable development of agriculture, energy and tourism sectors in the new budget. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the occasion, economist Dr Govinda Nepal said the big-size budget and its non-implementation have created fiscal imbalance and called for a practical budget. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He argued the new budget should accord priority for the modernization of agriculture, information technology, energy and tourism. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, Registrar of Kathmandu University Achyut Wagle said the structure of the economy should be made environment-friendly and the new budget should focus on the areas for sustainable development of agriculture and its production. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, social activist Bharati Silwal Giri said the budget should be gender-responsive and it should incorporate the issues of gender equality and women empowerment. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During the meeting, NA Vice Chairperson Bimala Ghimire expressed confidence that the feedback received from the experts would be instrumental in enriching the new budget. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Committee Chairperson Kamala Devi Pant said the new budget should address the issues of Dalits, underprivileged and marginalized communities. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-16', 'modified' => '2024-04-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20468', 'image' => '20240416070426_20230511021044_1683767264.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-16 19:03:59', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20740', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NEPSE Drops 14.81 Points, Closes at 1991.71', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) Index witnessed a loss of 14.81 points or 0.73%, closing at 1991.71 on the third trading day of the week, Tuesday.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 16: The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) Index witnessed a loss of 14.81 points or 0.73%, closing at 1991.71 on the third trading day of the week, Tuesday.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">During today’s trading session, 312 scrips were traded on the NEPSE through 39,476 transactions. A total of 5,471,068 shares changed hands, resulting in a total turnover of Rs 2.10 billion.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Gurkhas Finance Limited (GUFL) led the turnover amount with a total transaction of Rs 17 crores. The 10.75% SBL Debenture 2089 (SBLD89) saw the highest gain of 9.9%, closing at Rs 1,155 per share.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Ru Ru Jalbidhyut Pariyojana Limited (RURU) incurred the maximum loss of 10%, closing at a market price of Rs 560 per share.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In terms of sector indices, all sectors closed in the red territory. The HydroPower Index saw the highest loss at 1.31%, while the Mutual Fund Index experienced the least loss of 0.01%.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-16', 'modified' => '2024-04-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20467', 'image' => '20240416035507_collage (58).jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-16 15:53:47', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20739', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Banks Found Issuing New Loans to Cover Bad Debts: NRB Report', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 16: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has pointed out that credit risk is on the rise within commercial banks due to loans being issued without the completion of requisite procedures.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">April 16: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has pointed out that credit risk is on the rise within commercial banks due to loans being issued without the completion of requisite procedures.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Increasing bad loans of banks and financial institutions also indicate the rise in credit risk.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Based on both on-site and off-site monitoring of commercial banks conducted by the Bank Supervision Department of the central bank in the last fiscal year (FY 2022/23), the NRB has pointed out weaknesses in the banks' credit investment process, non-utilization of loans, giving more loans than their capacity, giving loans to pay off loans, etc.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to the supervision report published by NRB on Sunday, during the monitoring, some banks were found to have provided more loans than necessary without adequately assessing the needs of the borrowers. The central bank has stated that loans are given without maintaining a balance between the customer's assets and loan ratio. It also noted that the monitoring system after loan disbursement is weak.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Similarly, the NRB study found that banks have given new loans to pay off old loans. The central bank also pointed out that loans have been renewed without audit and verification of tax clearance certificate, firm renewal and business monitoring report. It is mentioned in the report that environmental and social risk assessment guidelines were not followed while giving project loans.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to Nepal Rastra Bank sources, the quality of banking service is deteriorating due to the competition among banks to extend loans after the Covid- 19 pandemic. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">"Banks are under pressure to increase their profits by increasing their loans," said an executive director of Nepal Rastra Bank on condition of anonymity. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">“Banks have even beached the law and NRB instructions while issuing loans in some cases. This has resulted in increasing bad loans,” he added. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">As of mid-March of the current fiscal year, the average bad loan ratio of 20 commercial banks has reached 3.63 percent. The bad debt ratio was 2.49 percent by mid-March of last fiscal year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to Nepal Rastra Bank, banks have given 88.75 percent of loans under mortgages. However, with the recent decrease in real estate transactions, banks are finding it difficult to recover loans even through mortgage auctions. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">In December, a delegation of the International Monetary Fund issued a statement expressing doubts about the credit quality of Nepali banks. In the context of increasing bad loans, the IMF issued a statement mentioning that there is a need for more monitoring and more supervision on the quality of banks' loans.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The government and the central bank have both admitted that bad loans may increase. A statement released by the IMF a few months ago said that the government and the central bank pledged to step up monitoring to ensure that the classification of loans is correct, provisioning is done and there is sufficient capital support. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Expressing doubts about the quality of loans provided by the banks of Nepal, the IMF has placed a condition that it will issue loans under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) to Nepal only after the loans of 10 big commercial banks are audited by an international organization.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The central bank has already called for a tender for auditing of the banks by an international organisation.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-16', 'modified' => '2024-04-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20466', 'image' => '20240416030118_Banks - Copy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-16 15:00:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20738', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'AI Still Behind Human on Complex Tasks like Competitive Mathematics: AI Index Report-2024 ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 16: In the wake of optimism and influence of artificial intelligence (AI), research and studies on AI have surged lately across the globe. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 16: In the wake of optimism and influence of artificial intelligence (AI), research and studies on AI have surged lately across the globe. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In this connection, the Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) at the Stanford University released an annual report on AI on Monday. The seventh edition report- 'Artificial Intelligence Index Report, 2024' has comprehensively studied the AI trend in multiple fronts ranging from education to accountability, research to development, and economy to medicine. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">One of the significant messages the report has underlined is: 'AI beats humans on some tasks, but not on all'. There are ten takeaways in the wide-ranging report fit in 500 plus pages with extensive use of data and comparative analyses. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In the first takeaway it wrote, "AI has surpassed human performance on several benchmarks, including some in image classification, visual reasoning, and English understanding. Yet it trails behind on more complex tasks like competition-level mathematics, visual commonsense reasoning and planning." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The report is dovetailed in nine chapters focusing- research and development, technical performance, responsible AI, economy, science and medicine, education, policy and governance, diversity, and public opinion. </span><br /> <strong><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">AI patent shifting from US to East Asia and Pacific</span></strong> <br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Taking reference from Centre for Security and Emerging Technology, 2023, the report has showed shifting AI patent. Comparing the data from 2010 to 2022, the report showed granted AI patent hugely concentrating in East Asia and Pacific – 75.2 percent, which is trailed by the North America with 21.2 percent. North America was leading the AI patent till 2011. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">However, the US leads the source of top AI model in the world. In the last year, 2023, the institutions based in the US produced 61 modes of AI while it is followed by European Union with 21 models and China 15 models. </span><br /> <strong><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Eightfold rise on AI investment</span></strong> <br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the report, the world has witnessed massive surge in investment in Generative AI. "Despite a decline in overall AI private investment last year, funding for generative AI surged, nearly octupling from 2022 to reach $25.2 billion. Major players in the generative AI space, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Hugging Face, and Inflection, reported substantial fundraising rounds," it stated. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The 'Economy' chapter of the report has brought forth information on investment, global AI labour demand, wages of computer scientists, adaptation of AI capabilities, corporate activity, robot installation and jobs. The report mentioned that China is dominating the installation of robots in industries. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"China dominates industrial robotics. Since surpassing Japan in 2013 as the leading installer of industrial robots, China has significantly widened the gap with the nearest competitor nation. In 2013, China’s installations accounted for 20.8% of the global total, a share that rose to 52.4% by 2022," it explained. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the AI governance initiatives are also on rise, especially in EU countries, the US and China. From AI policy to actions, these are painted as major players in AI governance. Policy makers in the world are not left untouched by the AI, the report argues. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It is also worth noting to have knowledge how the tech giants are investing huge chunk in designing multiple AI models and programmes in the world. The AI Index estimated, "Training costs of state-of-the-art AI models have reached unprecedented levels. For example, OpenAI’s GPT-4 used an estimated $78 million worth of compute to train, while Google’s Gemini Ultra cost $191 million for compute." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">At a time when many tout technology as a non-discriminatory front, the global tech sprint of 2023, ChatGPT, has been found politically biased. The Index has referenced the researchers and stated 'significant bias in ChatGPT toward Democrats in the US and the Labour Party in the UK.' </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Bearing this in mind, the report has alerted over hijacking of political views of users by the ChatGPT when 2024 is a global election year. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">So far, 80 countries have put in place the AI Strategies. They include the US, the UK, Bangladesh, India, Thailand, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Israel, among others. Canada was the first country to have AI strategy- in 2017. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It has argued that AI clinical knowledge has boosted in recent time. "Highly knowledgeable medical AI has arrived. Over the past few years, AI systems have shown remarkable improvement on the MedQA benchmark, a key test for assessing AI’s clinical knowledge," the Index asserts. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Index added that since the benchmark’s introduction in 2019, AI performance on MedQA has increased nearly threefold. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">AI hiring has also seen upward trends in the countries like Australia, Canada, Singapore, and India since 2023. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Co-Directors of AI Index, Ray Perrault and Jack Clark observed the report, saying, "As AI rapidly evolves, the AI Index aims to help the AI community, policymakers, business leaders, journalists, and the general public navigate this complex landscape. It provides ongoing, objective snapshots tracking several key areas: technical progress in AI capabilities, the community and investments driving AI development and deployment, public opinion on current and potential future impacts, and policy measures taken to stimulate AI innovation while managing its risks and challenges." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Several IT and AI experts provided information and expertise for the report where a dozen of tech organizations including GitHub, Linkedin, Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, Women in Machine Learning, Code.org, and International Federation of Robotics supplied data. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-16', 'modified' => '2024-04-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20465', 'image' => '20240416013648_20240303093044_Artificial-intelligence--scaled.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-16 13:35:53', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20737', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => '144K Foreign Tourists Visit Annapurna Region in Current Fiscal Year', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 16: A total of 144,675 foreign tourists visited the world-famous Annapurna region for trekking in the first nine months of the current fiscal year.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">April 16: A total of 144,675 foreign tourists visited the world-famous Annapurna region for trekking in the first nine months of the current fiscal year. According to the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP), altogether 59,939 tourists from South Asian countries and 84,736 tourists from other countries visited the Annapurna region from mid-July 2023 to mid-April 2024.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">During the last month (mid-March to mid-April) alone, a total of 35,265 foreign tourists including 16,969 from South Asian countries and 18,296 from other countries visited the Annapurna region, according to the head of ACAP, Dr Rabin Kadaria. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Similarly, in the Nepali month of Asoj (mid-September to mid-October), 28,705 tourists visited the Annapurna region.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">ACAP chief Dr Kadaria estimates that the number of tourists will increase this month (Baishakh or mid-April to mid-May). In Baishakh of last year, a total of 31,951 foreign tourists had visited the Annapurna region.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Autumn (mid-September to mid-November) and spring (mid-March to mid-May), are considered the best time for trekking in the Annapurna region.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">ACAP keeps the data of foreign tourists who visit the Annapurna Circuit, a renowned route that covers five districts – Lamjung, Mustang, Manang, Myagdi, and Kaski. It does not have the records of the number of domestic tourists entering the Annapurna region.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to ACAP, 191,558 tourists from 173 countries visited the Annapurna region in 2023. This number is the highest ever. Before that, in 2019, a total of 181,000 tourists visited the Annapurna region. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The Annapurna Circuit covers famous tourist destinations like the Annapurna Base Camp, Mardi Himal, Ghandruk, Tilicho Lake in Manang, Thorangla Pass, Upper Mustang, Muktinath area, Ghodepani in Myagdi among others.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">A total of 89 wards of 16 local levels of Lamjung, Manang, Mustang, Myagdi and Kaski fall under the Annapurna Conservation Area Project spread over 7,600 square kilometers.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Annapurna region is one of the most preferred choices of tourists due to its natural beauty, biological diversity, mountain life, civilization and culture. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Due to its attractive destinations with snow-capped peaks, tourism-friendly infrastructure, warm hospitality of locals and service facilities, Annapurna is considered to be the best destination in the world for trekking. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to ACAP, this region offers short, medium and long-distance trekking. </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-16', 'modified' => '2024-04-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20464', 'image' => '20240416013444_20240102031942_20220508080527_Annapurna circuit (3).jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-16 13:33:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20735', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Price of Gold Hits New Record at Rs 139,200 Per Tola', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 16: The price of gold on Tuesday increased by Rs 1,700 per tola (11.66 grams) to set a new record. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers Association, the price of gold has reached an all-time high of Rs 139,200.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 16: The price of gold on Tuesday increased by Rs 1,700 per tola (11.66 grams) to set a new record. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers Association, the price of gold has reached an all-time high of Rs 139,200.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Prior to this, the price of gold had set a record of Rs 139,000 per tola on April 12 but it fell to Rs 137,700 on Monday. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Similarly, the price of silver has also increased on Tuesday. The price of silver in the domestic market of Nepal has been fixed at Rs 1,750 per tola.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong>Why is the price increasing?</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The price of gold has been rising steadily in the past few weeks. In the Nepali month of Chaitra (mid-March to mid-April), the price of gold has increased eleven times in the domestic market of Nepal. The federation fixes the price of gold and silver based on the price in the international market.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The recent geopolitical tension due to the Israel’s offensive in Gaza and the Russia-Ukraine war have led to investors to invest in gold considering it as a safe haven in times of turmoil.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Businessmen complain that the gold and silver jewelry business has decreased due to the continuous rise in the price of gold. Gold and silver traders say that the business of the gold market is almost zero lately. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-16', 'modified' => '2024-04-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20462', 'image' => '20240416123314_20240412010233_gold newwww.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-16 12:32:36', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, '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' => '20750', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Pakistan High Court Orders Government to Restore X in One Week', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 18: A Pakistan High Court on Wednesday said the government must restore social media platform X within one week, a lawyer said, after more than two months of disruption ordered by the interior ministry. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 18: A Pakistan High Court on Wednesday said the government must restore social media platform X within one week, a lawyer said, after more than two months of disruption ordered by the interior ministry. </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 platform, formerly known as Twitter, has been rarely accessible since February 17, when jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's party called for protests against a government official's admission of vote manipulation in February's election. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Pakistan's communications authority later admitted in court papers that it was ordered by the Interior Ministry to shut down the site. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"The Sindh High Court has given the government one week to withdraw the letter, failing which, on the next date, they will pass appropriate orders," Moiz Jaaferi, a lawyer challenging the ban, told AFP. – AFP/RSS</span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-18', 'modified' => '2024-04-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20477', 'image' => '20240418113305_X-reuters-file1713365023-0.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-18 11:32:30', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20749', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Export of Goods from Tribhuvan International Airport Comes to a Grinding Halt', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 18: The export of goods produced in Nepal to third countries from the Tribhuvan International Airport customs office has come to a standstill.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">April 18: The export of goods produced in Nepal to third countries from the Tribhuvan International Airport customs office has come to a standstill.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">The freight forwarders and government officials informed that there has been no export since Monday after the trade union of the loaders interrupted the loading of the goods saying that one of the two x-rays was damaged and only one of them was causing delay.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">According to the government officials, one machine for x-raying exported goods has been broken for one month.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Ishwar Bahadur Gurung, secretary of Nepal Freight Forwarders Association, said that checking the goods with only one x-ray was not enough. "We are also requesting to repair another x-ray machine immediately," he said.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Nepal Transport and Warehousing Company Limited has been assigned the responsibility of maintenance of the x-ray machines.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">“An important part of the machine is not operational due to damage. We cannot buy a new one without being sure that this part will work after maintenance. That's why there has been a delay in bringing it back into operation," said Tulsi Pokharel, acting head of 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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Pokharel informed that if they will first try to replace the broken parts from other machines and will start a new procurement process if that is not possible.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Pokharel added that it will take a few months if they have to purchase a new machine. According to Pokharel, even a single x-ray is sufficient to scan goods. Pokharel claims that one machine can x-ray 35-40 tons of goods daily and if the goods arrive on time, one machine will be enough.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">However, freight forwarders say one x-ray machine is not enough. According to them, since there is only one machine, the x-ray is being delayed and this has hindered the export on time.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">However, both sides are in talks. "We are trying to solve the problem through dialogue," Pokharel said.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-18', 'modified' => '2024-04-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20476', 'image' => '20240418110225_63cce5f4.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-18 11:00:45', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20748', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Altitude Sickness Emerges as Major Concern for Tourists Visiting Mustang', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => '', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">April 17: </span></span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">Altitude sickness is emerging as a growing concern among visitors in Mustang. The district also known as the district beyond the Himalaya is home to the famous Muktinath Temple which draws a large number of devotees mainly from home and India each year. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">In the past seven months, 11 tourists including three domestic citizens succumbed to high-altitude sickness in the district. The district recorded 29 fatalities in the past three years and 11 alone in the past seven months, according to the District Police Office, Mustang. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">The latest casualties include seven Indians, three Nepalis and one Ukrainian, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Bhojraj Pandey said. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">In the fiscal year 2078-29 BS (2021-22), six visitors – five females and one male – all from India died of altitude sickness. They were aged 45-73. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">According to the police records, they suffered high altitude-related health complications in Marfa, Mesokando Pass Trek, Muktinath Temple premises, Gharpajhong, Jomsom Airport, Lete, Tukuche, and Yara. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">Of the latest fatalities, six were reported in the month of Chaitra (mid-March to mid-April). The victims were aged 35-83. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">During the last fiscal year (2022-23), the district witnessed 12 deaths resulting from altitude sickness and they were from India (seven), Thailand (one), and Nepal (four) and aged 42-75. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">Altitude sickness is caused due to the body's inability to adjust to a low oxygen level at a higher altitude. This happens normally at an altitude above 2500 meters and its symptoms include headache, nausea, vomiting, breathing complications, insomnia, loss of appetite, fatigue, weakness, and so on. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-17', 'modified' => '2024-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20475', 'image' => '20240417062112_20230724112952_20220424035529_istockphoto-534638391-612x612.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-17 18:19:15', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20747', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Govt Preparing to Provide Concessional Loans to 200 Startups', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 17: The government is planning to provide concessional loans to 200 start-up projects in the current fiscal year. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 17: The government is planning to provide concessional loans to 200 start-up projects in the current fiscal year. The government has been promising concessional loans for start-up projects for the last few years but has not been able to implement its decision.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government has received applications from more than 1,600 entrepreneurs seeking the start-up loans.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"The target is to provide subsidized loans to around 200 projects from among those who have applied," said Umesh Kumar Gupta, executive director of the Industrial Enterprise Development Institute. The government has entrusted the institutute with the responsibility of collecting applications and selecting suitable candidates.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">To help those who want to begin start-up ventures, the government has come up with a plan to provide loans at 3 per cent interest by keeping the projects as mortgage.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government has also allocated a budget to involve people with the latest knowledge, thinking, skills and abilities in start-up enterprises. For such loans, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies has allocated Rs 250 million in the current fiscal year. The government has adopted a policy of providing concessional loans up to a maximum of Rs 2.5 million for a start-up enterprise.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Gupta said that after providing the first instalment, the officials would visit the site of the project to see if the loan had been utilized. Only then will the second installment be released. "Even the third instalment will be released after assessing that the progress is satisfactory," he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">For the implementation of this project, the institute issued a notice on February 2, inviting interested start-up entrepreneurs to submit proposals for the loan. In 21 days, 1,658 projects were registered with the institute seeking loans. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The institute has formed an evaluation committee and made 12 different criteria for providing loans. The committee will now conduct a preliminary study of the projects registered with the institute and invite the proponents to present their projects.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">As per the criteria, only the businesses registered at the Department of Industry, state bodies and local levels can obtain the loans.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Those who do not attach documents like industry registration, renewal, permanent account number, or copy of tax payment certificate will be removed from the project loan process.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">If an entrepreneur is found to have submitted more than one proposal, all proposals will be cancelled.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Projects that do not meet the specified criteria will not be included in the loan process. According to the institute, start-ups that do not appear for the presentation at the specified time will be automatically removed from the selection process. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to Gupta, the entrepreneur's project will get scores on the basis of presentation. Gupta also said that the institute will provide 15 minutes for the presentation. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Gupta, executive director of the institute, informed that start-up projects that meet the criteria will be selected within 1 week. He said that after completion of the work, the selected project proponents will be asked to give a presentation and the loan will be given from mid-May. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-17', 'modified' => '2024-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20474', 'image' => '20240417041054_20220217054410_startup.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-17 16:10:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20746', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'CNI Demands Multi-Rate VAT to Discourage Illegal Imports from India', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 17: The Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), an umbrella organization of the private sector industries in Nepal, has urged the government to implement a multi-rate value-added tax (VAT) system. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 17: The Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), an umbrella organization of the private sector industries in Nepal, has urged the government to implement a multi-rate value-added tax (VAT) system. They argue that aligning Nepal's VAT rates with those of India would help curb the smuggling of goods from across the border. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">A multi-rate VAT system involves applying different tax rates to different categories of goods or services. This approach can be effective in addressing the diverse needs of various industries and consumers while also potentially reducing tax evasion and promoting economic growth. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Speaking at the 21st Annual General Meeting of the CNI held in Kathmandu on Tuesday, President of the CNI Rajesh Kumar Agarwal said that illegal imports from India have thrived due to the high price of goods in Nepal because of the government’s decision to impose 13 percent VAT.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"As the same item is taxed only 5 percent in India and 13 percent in Nepal, goods are flowing illegally from India to Nepal due to the price difference," Agarwal said during the event which was attended by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The CNI has been advocating for multi-rate VAT since a long time. Other trade associations are also demanding multi-rate VAT.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">However, the government has been turning a deaf ear to this demand saying that it will be difficult for the current administrative mechanism to implement multi-rate VAT. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">A senior official of the Ministry of Finance had earlier told New Business Age that the high-level advisory committee on reforming the tax system, chaired by former minister and finance secretary Bidyadhar Mallik, had also suggested keeping the rate of VAT unchanged.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Stating that illegal trade is becoming another threat for domestic industries of Nepal and the government, Agarwal complained that the state is losing revenue while the domestic industries are being affected.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">During the program, CNI President Agarwal discussed about the economic downturn saying that the overall demand is not encouraging and the industries and businesses are on the verge of closure due to the unexpected slump in the economy. He added that the production cost of the industries has increased and the industries have resorted to cut down producing </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He also complained that the Nepal Electricity Authority has imposed load-shedding for 16 hours in the industrial area at such a crucial time. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Since April 1, India has reduced the amount of electricity it supplies to Nepal and started providing electricity only during the day. Subsequently, the NEA has increased the load shedding in the industrial sector.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The CNI also raised questions about political instability in the context of the frequent change of government. President Agarwal said that policy stability is necessary to increase investment within the country.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> "Irrespective of whether the investment is domestic or foreign, investors look for policy stability," he said. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">On that occasion, Prime Minister Dahal said that the government is committed to increasing the morale of the private sector. "Collaboration with the private sector is indispensable to improve the economy," he said. Prime Minister Dahal said that the government has intervened positively to make the economy dynamic and said that there is no need to panic anymore.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-17', 'modified' => '2024-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20473', 'image' => '20240417033622_20210226043111_20201119021010_20200907074520_1599400665.tax.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-17 15:35:41', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20745', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Parliamentary Hearings Committee Endorses Recommendation to Appoint Raya as Auditor General', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 17: The Parliamentary Hearings Committee has cleared the way for the appointment of Toyam Raya as the Auditor General.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 17: The Parliamentary Hearings Committee has cleared the way for the appointment of Toyam Raya as the Auditor General.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Chairman of the Parliamentary Hearings Committee, Pashupati Shamsher Rana told reporters that his name was unanimously approved by the committee's meeting held on Tuesday.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">A meeting of the Constitutional Council held on March 31 had decided to recommend Raya, who is the secretary of the National Statistics Office, for appointment to the post of Auditor General. There is a constitutional provision for the President to appoint the Auditor General upon the recommendation of the Council after approval by the Parliamentary Hearings Committee.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">After becoming the Auditor General, the responsibility of auditing all the expenses of the government in the last fiscal year and the current fiscal year will fall on his shoulders. Some stakeholders have criticized his appointment to the post due to a conflict of interest. As the secretary also has to audit the work done by himself, there will be a conflict of interest, say Transparency International and other organizations involved in anti-corruption watch. Transparency International has warned that this could disrupt good governance.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">However, the MPs ignored this argument and approved Raya's recommendation. The previous Auditor General Tankamani Sharma was also appointed to the post after resigning from the post of Secretary. Raya, who is considered to be close to the ruling CPN-UML, has been appointed for a 6-year term with just 5 months left for his retirement.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Presenting his plans in the parliamentary committee, Raya expressed his commitment to restructure the Auditor General's office according to the federal governance system.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He said that it is necessary to advance the organization of the Auditor General's office in accordance with the federal framework to make the work of audit easy, transparent and less expensive, so he will give this work as the first priority.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Raya said in the parliamentary committee, "I will proceed with consultation with experts while preparing the audit report." </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The use of information technology in auditing, internal governance, development of professionalism and institutional coordination are also in his action plan. Raya has also planned to use artificial intelligence in the audit, to develop a system that can monitor the implementation status of the audit recommendations. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-17', 'modified' => '2024-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20472', 'image' => '20240417025206_oag-building.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-17 14:51:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20744', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Fluctuation in the Capital Market having Direct Impact on Capital Gains Tax', 'sub_title' => 'Government collects CGT worth Rs 3.79 billion from share market in 9 months', 'summary' => '', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 17: The fluctuations in the capital market has influsnced the capital gains tax collected by the government from the market. As the last four months of the current fiscal year (FY) 2080/81 were relatively stable, data show that the government collected capital gains tax better than the previous months.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Segoe UI","sans-serif"">In the first nine months of the current fiscal year, the government collected Rs 3.79 billion in capital gains tax. Notably, during the last four months alone, approximately 70 percent of this total amount was collected</span>, according to the data provided by CDS and Clearing Limited (CDSC). </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Comparative analysis of the monthly review of the data shows that the government collected capital gains tax of Rs. 972.2 million in the Nepali month of Magh (mid-January to mid-February) of the current year. This is more than other months. In the same month, the Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) index soared to over 2, 200 points.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In the previous month of Poush (mid-December to mid-January), the government had also collected attractive capital gains tax. According to CDSC, the government collected more than Rs 743.9 million in capital gains tax was collected in the review month as the capital market index increased from 1,994.60 points to over 2,221 points.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the data, the share market index the dropped to 2,215 points in the following month. Despite the fluctuations in the two months, the market remained positive, so investors made profits.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the existing legal system, investors in the secondary market of securities have to pay capital gains tax up to a maximum of 10 percent if they make a profit. Institutional investors have to pay 10 percent tax and individual investors have to pay a maximum of 7.5 percent tax.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to CDSC, in the nine months of the current year, the government collected more than Rs 453.88 million from institutional investors and more than Rs 333.6 billion from individuals.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">While the government is collecting millions of rupees monthly in tax from the capital market, investors complained that the capital gains tax imposed by the government is quite high. They have also been urging the government to reduce the tax rate. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"To attract institutional investors to the capital market, there should be a discount on CGT," said Tara Prasad Fullel, acting president of the Share Investors Association, adding, "In the case of individual investors, 5 percent for short-term and 3 percent for long-term profit tax should be maintained." </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-17', 'modified' => '2024-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20471', 'image' => '20240417010307_20230320014508_1679273224.Clipboard03.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-17 13:02:26', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20743', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'IMF Projects Growth of Global Economy in 2024 but Risk of Geopolitical Shocks Persists', 'sub_title' => 'The risks to global growth are broadly balanced and a soft landing is a possibility: WEO', 'summary' => 'April 17: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised its outlook for the global economy this year with a growth projected to reach 3.1 percent in 2024.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">April 17: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised its outlook for the global economy this year with a growth projected to reach 3.1 percent in 2024.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) published by the IMF on Tuesday states that the 2024 forecast is 0.2 percentage point higher than the growth projected in October 2023 report.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The IMF said that the global economy is expected to grow on account of greater-than-expected resilience in the United States and several large emerging market and developing economies, as well as fiscal support in China. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The forecast for 2024–25 is, however, below the historical (2000–19) average of 3.8 percent, with elevated central bank policy rates to fight inflation, a withdrawal of fiscal support amid high debt weighing on economic activity, and low underlying productivity growth, the report states. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to the IMF, inflation is falling faster than expected in most regions, in the midst of unwinding supply-side issues and restrictive monetary policy. Global headline inflation is expected to fall to 5.8 percent in 2024 and to 4.4 percent in 2025, with the 2025 forecast revised down, added the report.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">“With disinflation and steady growth, the likelihood of a hard landing has receded, and risks to global growth are broadly balanced. On the upside, faster disinflation could lead to further easing of financial conditions.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Lax fiscal policy than necessary assumed in the projections could imply temporarily higher growth, but at the risk of a more costly adjustment later on, added the report. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to the IMF, stronger structural reform momentum could bolster productivity with positive cross-border spillovers. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">On the downside, new commodity price spikes from geopolitical shocks––including continued attacks in the Red Sea––and supply disruptions or more persistent underlying inflation could prolong tight monetary conditions. “Deepening property sector woes in China or, elsewhere, a disruptive turn to tax hikes and spending cuts could also cause growth disappointments.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Meanwhile, the IMF report has pointed out the need to curb the rise of public debt and emphasized on a renewed focus on fiscal consolidation to rebuild budgetary capacity to deal with future shocks as well as to raise revenue for new spending priorities in the context that many economies are better equipped to absorb effects of fiscal tightening with the decline in inflation.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The report suggests that targeted and carefully sequenced structural reforms would reinforce productivity growth and debt sustainability and accelerate convergence toward higher income levels. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">More efficient multilateral coordination is needed for, among other things, debt resolution, to avoid debt distress and create space for necessary investments, as well as to mitigate the effects of climate change, added the report.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-17', 'modified' => '2024-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20470', 'image' => '20240417112614_20200414115244_IMF.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-17 11:25:21', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20742', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'PM Dahal Pledges Collaboration with Private Sector to Make Economy Vibrant', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 16: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that the government’s collaboration with the private sector can make the economy vibrant. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 16: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that the government’s collaboration with the private sector can make the economy vibrant. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Speaking at a programme organized to mark the 21st anniversary of the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) in the capital on Tuesday, Prime Minister Dahal expressed the government's commitment to boost the confidence of the private sector. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"The government is serious about economic reforms," Dahal said, adding, "I am clear that the country's economy could be made dynamic in collaboration with private sector. The government has put positive interventions for economic reforms." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He clarified that the government was responsibly acting to boost the confidence of the private sector, enabling investment-friendly environment and creating incentives for result-oriented works. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government is preparing to focus its efforts on manufacturing and employment generation, as well as revitalizing people's optimism despite the pressure, he claimed, adding, "We will take ahead the monetary policy accordingly." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He further said the problem of private sector is the problem of the economy. "The government will put all-out efforts to fix the problems." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The economy lately has shown important signs of reforms, he said, expressing confidence that the current fiscal year would be optimistic year for the economy. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"We are hosting the third international investment summit at the onset of the New Year. Over a dozen laws are under the process of amendment to draw foreign direct investment," the PM said, adding, "The year 2081 could be taken as a hopeful year." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The export of goods such as electricity, zinc sheet and cement has also increased our hope to enable country's economy, he said. "Arrival of tourists has whopped and information technology sector has also rekindled our optimism,” PM Dahal noted, adding such activities would contribute to the national income and capital formation. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Also on the occasion, Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Damodar Bhandari said the government was ready to create environment conducive for promoting businesses and industries. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The event was attended by the chairpersons and representatives of umbrella organizations of businesspersons and industrialists. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-17', 'modified' => '2024-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20469', 'image' => '20240417105732_PRO_KTM-066A0771.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-17 10:56:52', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20741', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Experts Suggest Government to Bring Implementable Budget ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 16: Economists and experts have urged the government to introduce a practical budget for the upcoming fiscal year. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 16: Economists and experts have urged the government to introduce a practical budget for the upcoming fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Speaking at a meeting of the National Assembly's Committee on Development, Economic Affairs and Good Governance on Tuesday, the experts viewed that the new budget should be based on development and social justice along with being gender-responsive. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">They suggested that the government should focus on sustainable development of agriculture, energy and tourism sectors in the new budget. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the occasion, economist Dr Govinda Nepal said the big-size budget and its non-implementation have created fiscal imbalance and called for a practical budget. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He argued the new budget should accord priority for the modernization of agriculture, information technology, energy and tourism. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, Registrar of Kathmandu University Achyut Wagle said the structure of the economy should be made environment-friendly and the new budget should focus on the areas for sustainable development of agriculture and its production. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, social activist Bharati Silwal Giri said the budget should be gender-responsive and it should incorporate the issues of gender equality and women empowerment. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During the meeting, NA Vice Chairperson Bimala Ghimire expressed confidence that the feedback received from the experts would be instrumental in enriching the new budget. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Committee Chairperson Kamala Devi Pant said the new budget should address the issues of Dalits, underprivileged and marginalized communities. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-16', 'modified' => '2024-04-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20468', 'image' => '20240416070426_20230511021044_1683767264.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-16 19:03:59', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20740', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NEPSE Drops 14.81 Points, Closes at 1991.71', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) Index witnessed a loss of 14.81 points or 0.73%, closing at 1991.71 on the third trading day of the week, Tuesday.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 16: The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) Index witnessed a loss of 14.81 points or 0.73%, closing at 1991.71 on the third trading day of the week, Tuesday.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">During today’s trading session, 312 scrips were traded on the NEPSE through 39,476 transactions. A total of 5,471,068 shares changed hands, resulting in a total turnover of Rs 2.10 billion.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Gurkhas Finance Limited (GUFL) led the turnover amount with a total transaction of Rs 17 crores. The 10.75% SBL Debenture 2089 (SBLD89) saw the highest gain of 9.9%, closing at Rs 1,155 per share.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Ru Ru Jalbidhyut Pariyojana Limited (RURU) incurred the maximum loss of 10%, closing at a market price of Rs 560 per share.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In terms of sector indices, all sectors closed in the red territory. The HydroPower Index saw the highest loss at 1.31%, while the Mutual Fund Index experienced the least loss of 0.01%.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-16', 'modified' => '2024-04-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20467', 'image' => '20240416035507_collage (58).jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-16 15:53:47', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20739', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Banks Found Issuing New Loans to Cover Bad Debts: NRB Report', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 16: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has pointed out that credit risk is on the rise within commercial banks due to loans being issued without the completion of requisite procedures.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">April 16: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has pointed out that credit risk is on the rise within commercial banks due to loans being issued without the completion of requisite procedures.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Increasing bad loans of banks and financial institutions also indicate the rise in credit risk.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Based on both on-site and off-site monitoring of commercial banks conducted by the Bank Supervision Department of the central bank in the last fiscal year (FY 2022/23), the NRB has pointed out weaknesses in the banks' credit investment process, non-utilization of loans, giving more loans than their capacity, giving loans to pay off loans, etc.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to the supervision report published by NRB on Sunday, during the monitoring, some banks were found to have provided more loans than necessary without adequately assessing the needs of the borrowers. The central bank has stated that loans are given without maintaining a balance between the customer's assets and loan ratio. It also noted that the monitoring system after loan disbursement is weak.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Similarly, the NRB study found that banks have given new loans to pay off old loans. The central bank also pointed out that loans have been renewed without audit and verification of tax clearance certificate, firm renewal and business monitoring report. It is mentioned in the report that environmental and social risk assessment guidelines were not followed while giving project loans.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to Nepal Rastra Bank sources, the quality of banking service is deteriorating due to the competition among banks to extend loans after the Covid- 19 pandemic. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">"Banks are under pressure to increase their profits by increasing their loans," said an executive director of Nepal Rastra Bank on condition of anonymity. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">“Banks have even beached the law and NRB instructions while issuing loans in some cases. This has resulted in increasing bad loans,” he added. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">As of mid-March of the current fiscal year, the average bad loan ratio of 20 commercial banks has reached 3.63 percent. The bad debt ratio was 2.49 percent by mid-March of last fiscal year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to Nepal Rastra Bank, banks have given 88.75 percent of loans under mortgages. However, with the recent decrease in real estate transactions, banks are finding it difficult to recover loans even through mortgage auctions. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">In December, a delegation of the International Monetary Fund issued a statement expressing doubts about the credit quality of Nepali banks. In the context of increasing bad loans, the IMF issued a statement mentioning that there is a need for more monitoring and more supervision on the quality of banks' loans.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The government and the central bank have both admitted that bad loans may increase. A statement released by the IMF a few months ago said that the government and the central bank pledged to step up monitoring to ensure that the classification of loans is correct, provisioning is done and there is sufficient capital support. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Expressing doubts about the quality of loans provided by the banks of Nepal, the IMF has placed a condition that it will issue loans under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) to Nepal only after the loans of 10 big commercial banks are audited by an international organization.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The central bank has already called for a tender for auditing of the banks by an international organisation.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-16', 'modified' => '2024-04-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20466', 'image' => '20240416030118_Banks - Copy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-16 15:00:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20738', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'AI Still Behind Human on Complex Tasks like Competitive Mathematics: AI Index Report-2024 ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 16: In the wake of optimism and influence of artificial intelligence (AI), research and studies on AI have surged lately across the globe. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 16: In the wake of optimism and influence of artificial intelligence (AI), research and studies on AI have surged lately across the globe. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In this connection, the Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) at the Stanford University released an annual report on AI on Monday. The seventh edition report- 'Artificial Intelligence Index Report, 2024' has comprehensively studied the AI trend in multiple fronts ranging from education to accountability, research to development, and economy to medicine. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">One of the significant messages the report has underlined is: 'AI beats humans on some tasks, but not on all'. There are ten takeaways in the wide-ranging report fit in 500 plus pages with extensive use of data and comparative analyses. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In the first takeaway it wrote, "AI has surpassed human performance on several benchmarks, including some in image classification, visual reasoning, and English understanding. Yet it trails behind on more complex tasks like competition-level mathematics, visual commonsense reasoning and planning." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The report is dovetailed in nine chapters focusing- research and development, technical performance, responsible AI, economy, science and medicine, education, policy and governance, diversity, and public opinion. </span><br /> <strong><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">AI patent shifting from US to East Asia and Pacific</span></strong> <br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Taking reference from Centre for Security and Emerging Technology, 2023, the report has showed shifting AI patent. Comparing the data from 2010 to 2022, the report showed granted AI patent hugely concentrating in East Asia and Pacific – 75.2 percent, which is trailed by the North America with 21.2 percent. North America was leading the AI patent till 2011. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">However, the US leads the source of top AI model in the world. In the last year, 2023, the institutions based in the US produced 61 modes of AI while it is followed by European Union with 21 models and China 15 models. </span><br /> <strong><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Eightfold rise on AI investment</span></strong> <br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the report, the world has witnessed massive surge in investment in Generative AI. "Despite a decline in overall AI private investment last year, funding for generative AI surged, nearly octupling from 2022 to reach $25.2 billion. Major players in the generative AI space, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Hugging Face, and Inflection, reported substantial fundraising rounds," it stated. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The 'Economy' chapter of the report has brought forth information on investment, global AI labour demand, wages of computer scientists, adaptation of AI capabilities, corporate activity, robot installation and jobs. The report mentioned that China is dominating the installation of robots in industries. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"China dominates industrial robotics. Since surpassing Japan in 2013 as the leading installer of industrial robots, China has significantly widened the gap with the nearest competitor nation. In 2013, China’s installations accounted for 20.8% of the global total, a share that rose to 52.4% by 2022," it explained. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the AI governance initiatives are also on rise, especially in EU countries, the US and China. From AI policy to actions, these are painted as major players in AI governance. Policy makers in the world are not left untouched by the AI, the report argues. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It is also worth noting to have knowledge how the tech giants are investing huge chunk in designing multiple AI models and programmes in the world. The AI Index estimated, "Training costs of state-of-the-art AI models have reached unprecedented levels. For example, OpenAI’s GPT-4 used an estimated $78 million worth of compute to train, while Google’s Gemini Ultra cost $191 million for compute." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">At a time when many tout technology as a non-discriminatory front, the global tech sprint of 2023, ChatGPT, has been found politically biased. The Index has referenced the researchers and stated 'significant bias in ChatGPT toward Democrats in the US and the Labour Party in the UK.' </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Bearing this in mind, the report has alerted over hijacking of political views of users by the ChatGPT when 2024 is a global election year. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">So far, 80 countries have put in place the AI Strategies. They include the US, the UK, Bangladesh, India, Thailand, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Israel, among others. Canada was the first country to have AI strategy- in 2017. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It has argued that AI clinical knowledge has boosted in recent time. "Highly knowledgeable medical AI has arrived. Over the past few years, AI systems have shown remarkable improvement on the MedQA benchmark, a key test for assessing AI’s clinical knowledge," the Index asserts. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Index added that since the benchmark’s introduction in 2019, AI performance on MedQA has increased nearly threefold. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">AI hiring has also seen upward trends in the countries like Australia, Canada, Singapore, and India since 2023. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Co-Directors of AI Index, Ray Perrault and Jack Clark observed the report, saying, "As AI rapidly evolves, the AI Index aims to help the AI community, policymakers, business leaders, journalists, and the general public navigate this complex landscape. It provides ongoing, objective snapshots tracking several key areas: technical progress in AI capabilities, the community and investments driving AI development and deployment, public opinion on current and potential future impacts, and policy measures taken to stimulate AI innovation while managing its risks and challenges." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Several IT and AI experts provided information and expertise for the report where a dozen of tech organizations including GitHub, Linkedin, Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, Women in Machine Learning, Code.org, and International Federation of Robotics supplied data. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-16', 'modified' => '2024-04-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20465', 'image' => '20240416013648_20240303093044_Artificial-intelligence--scaled.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-16 13:35:53', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20737', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => '144K Foreign Tourists Visit Annapurna Region in Current Fiscal Year', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 16: A total of 144,675 foreign tourists visited the world-famous Annapurna region for trekking in the first nine months of the current fiscal year.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">April 16: A total of 144,675 foreign tourists visited the world-famous Annapurna region for trekking in the first nine months of the current fiscal year. According to the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP), altogether 59,939 tourists from South Asian countries and 84,736 tourists from other countries visited the Annapurna region from mid-July 2023 to mid-April 2024.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">During the last month (mid-March to mid-April) alone, a total of 35,265 foreign tourists including 16,969 from South Asian countries and 18,296 from other countries visited the Annapurna region, according to the head of ACAP, Dr Rabin Kadaria. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Similarly, in the Nepali month of Asoj (mid-September to mid-October), 28,705 tourists visited the Annapurna region.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">ACAP chief Dr Kadaria estimates that the number of tourists will increase this month (Baishakh or mid-April to mid-May). In Baishakh of last year, a total of 31,951 foreign tourists had visited the Annapurna region.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Autumn (mid-September to mid-November) and spring (mid-March to mid-May), are considered the best time for trekking in the Annapurna region.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">ACAP keeps the data of foreign tourists who visit the Annapurna Circuit, a renowned route that covers five districts – Lamjung, Mustang, Manang, Myagdi, and Kaski. It does not have the records of the number of domestic tourists entering the Annapurna region.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to ACAP, 191,558 tourists from 173 countries visited the Annapurna region in 2023. This number is the highest ever. Before that, in 2019, a total of 181,000 tourists visited the Annapurna region. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The Annapurna Circuit covers famous tourist destinations like the Annapurna Base Camp, Mardi Himal, Ghandruk, Tilicho Lake in Manang, Thorangla Pass, Upper Mustang, Muktinath area, Ghodepani in Myagdi among others.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">A total of 89 wards of 16 local levels of Lamjung, Manang, Mustang, Myagdi and Kaski fall under the Annapurna Conservation Area Project spread over 7,600 square kilometers.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Annapurna region is one of the most preferred choices of tourists due to its natural beauty, biological diversity, mountain life, civilization and culture. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Due to its attractive destinations with snow-capped peaks, tourism-friendly infrastructure, warm hospitality of locals and service facilities, Annapurna is considered to be the best destination in the world for trekking. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to ACAP, this region offers short, medium and long-distance trekking. </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-16', 'modified' => '2024-04-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20464', 'image' => '20240416013444_20240102031942_20220508080527_Annapurna circuit (3).jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-16 13:33:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20735', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Price of Gold Hits New Record at Rs 139,200 Per Tola', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 16: The price of gold on Tuesday increased by Rs 1,700 per tola (11.66 grams) to set a new record. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers Association, the price of gold has reached an all-time high of Rs 139,200.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 16: The price of gold on Tuesday increased by Rs 1,700 per tola (11.66 grams) to set a new record. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers Association, the price of gold has reached an all-time high of Rs 139,200.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Prior to this, the price of gold had set a record of Rs 139,000 per tola on April 12 but it fell to Rs 137,700 on Monday. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Similarly, the price of silver has also increased on Tuesday. The price of silver in the domestic market of Nepal has been fixed at Rs 1,750 per tola.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong>Why is the price increasing?</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The price of gold has been rising steadily in the past few weeks. In the Nepali month of Chaitra (mid-March to mid-April), the price of gold has increased eleven times in the domestic market of Nepal. The federation fixes the price of gold and silver based on the price in the international market.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The recent geopolitical tension due to the Israel’s offensive in Gaza and the Russia-Ukraine war have led to investors to invest in gold considering it as a safe haven in times of turmoil.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Businessmen complain that the gold and silver jewelry business has decreased due to the continuous rise in the price of gold. Gold and silver traders say that the business of the gold market is almost zero lately. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-16', 'modified' => '2024-04-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20462', 'image' => '20240416123314_20240412010233_gold newwww.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-16 12:32:36', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, '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' => '20750', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Pakistan High Court Orders Government to Restore X in One Week', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 18: A Pakistan High Court on Wednesday said the government must restore social media platform X within one week, a lawyer said, after more than two months of disruption ordered by the interior ministry. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 18: A Pakistan High Court on Wednesday said the government must restore social media platform X within one week, a lawyer said, after more than two months of disruption ordered by the interior ministry. </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 platform, formerly known as Twitter, has been rarely accessible since February 17, when jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's party called for protests against a government official's admission of vote manipulation in February's election. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Pakistan's communications authority later admitted in court papers that it was ordered by the Interior Ministry to shut down the site. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"The Sindh High Court has given the government one week to withdraw the letter, failing which, on the next date, they will pass appropriate orders," Moiz Jaaferi, a lawyer challenging the ban, told AFP. – AFP/RSS</span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-18', 'modified' => '2024-04-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20477', 'image' => '20240418113305_X-reuters-file1713365023-0.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-18 11:32:30', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20749', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Export of Goods from Tribhuvan International Airport Comes to a Grinding Halt', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 18: The export of goods produced in Nepal to third countries from the Tribhuvan International Airport customs office has come to a standstill.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">April 18: The export of goods produced in Nepal to third countries from the Tribhuvan International Airport customs office has come to a standstill.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">The freight forwarders and government officials informed that there has been no export since Monday after the trade union of the loaders interrupted the loading of the goods saying that one of the two x-rays was damaged and only one of them was causing delay.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">According to the government officials, one machine for x-raying exported goods has been broken for one month.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Ishwar Bahadur Gurung, secretary of Nepal Freight Forwarders Association, said that checking the goods with only one x-ray was not enough. "We are also requesting to repair another x-ray machine immediately," he said.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Nepal Transport and Warehousing Company Limited has been assigned the responsibility of maintenance of the x-ray machines.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">“An important part of the machine is not operational due to damage. We cannot buy a new one without being sure that this part will work after maintenance. That's why there has been a delay in bringing it back into operation," said Tulsi Pokharel, acting head of 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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Pokharel informed that if they will first try to replace the broken parts from other machines and will start a new procurement process if that is not possible.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Pokharel added that it will take a few months if they have to purchase a new machine. According to Pokharel, even a single x-ray is sufficient to scan goods. Pokharel claims that one machine can x-ray 35-40 tons of goods daily and if the goods arrive on time, one machine will be enough.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">However, freight forwarders say one x-ray machine is not enough. According to them, since there is only one machine, the x-ray is being delayed and this has hindered the export on time.</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:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">However, both sides are in talks. "We are trying to solve the problem through dialogue," Pokharel said.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-18', 'modified' => '2024-04-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20476', 'image' => '20240418110225_63cce5f4.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-18 11:00:45', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20748', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Altitude Sickness Emerges as Major Concern for Tourists Visiting Mustang', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => '', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">April 17: </span></span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">Altitude sickness is emerging as a growing concern among visitors in Mustang. The district also known as the district beyond the Himalaya is home to the famous Muktinath Temple which draws a large number of devotees mainly from home and India each year. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">In the past seven months, 11 tourists including three domestic citizens succumbed to high-altitude sickness in the district. The district recorded 29 fatalities in the past three years and 11 alone in the past seven months, according to the District Police Office, Mustang. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">The latest casualties include seven Indians, three Nepalis and one Ukrainian, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Bhojraj Pandey said. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">In the fiscal year 2078-29 BS (2021-22), six visitors – five females and one male – all from India died of altitude sickness. They were aged 45-73. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">According to the police records, they suffered high altitude-related health complications in Marfa, Mesokando Pass Trek, Muktinath Temple premises, Gharpajhong, Jomsom Airport, Lete, Tukuche, and Yara. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">Of the latest fatalities, six were reported in the month of Chaitra (mid-March to mid-April). The victims were aged 35-83. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">During the last fiscal year (2022-23), the district witnessed 12 deaths resulting from altitude sickness and they were from India (seven), Thailand (one), and Nepal (four) and aged 42-75. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:16.0pt">Altitude sickness is caused due to the body's inability to adjust to a low oxygen level at a higher altitude. This happens normally at an altitude above 2500 meters and its symptoms include headache, nausea, vomiting, breathing complications, insomnia, loss of appetite, fatigue, weakness, and so on. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-17', 'modified' => '2024-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20475', 'image' => '20240417062112_20230724112952_20220424035529_istockphoto-534638391-612x612.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-17 18:19:15', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20747', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Govt Preparing to Provide Concessional Loans to 200 Startups', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 17: The government is planning to provide concessional loans to 200 start-up projects in the current fiscal year. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 17: The government is planning to provide concessional loans to 200 start-up projects in the current fiscal year. The government has been promising concessional loans for start-up projects for the last few years but has not been able to implement its decision.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government has received applications from more than 1,600 entrepreneurs seeking the start-up loans.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"The target is to provide subsidized loans to around 200 projects from among those who have applied," said Umesh Kumar Gupta, executive director of the Industrial Enterprise Development Institute. The government has entrusted the institutute with the responsibility of collecting applications and selecting suitable candidates.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">To help those who want to begin start-up ventures, the government has come up with a plan to provide loans at 3 per cent interest by keeping the projects as mortgage.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government has also allocated a budget to involve people with the latest knowledge, thinking, skills and abilities in start-up enterprises. For such loans, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies has allocated Rs 250 million in the current fiscal year. The government has adopted a policy of providing concessional loans up to a maximum of Rs 2.5 million for a start-up enterprise.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Gupta said that after providing the first instalment, the officials would visit the site of the project to see if the loan had been utilized. Only then will the second installment be released. "Even the third instalment will be released after assessing that the progress is satisfactory," he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">For the implementation of this project, the institute issued a notice on February 2, inviting interested start-up entrepreneurs to submit proposals for the loan. In 21 days, 1,658 projects were registered with the institute seeking loans. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The institute has formed an evaluation committee and made 12 different criteria for providing loans. The committee will now conduct a preliminary study of the projects registered with the institute and invite the proponents to present their projects.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">As per the criteria, only the businesses registered at the Department of Industry, state bodies and local levels can obtain the loans.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Those who do not attach documents like industry registration, renewal, permanent account number, or copy of tax payment certificate will be removed from the project loan process.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">If an entrepreneur is found to have submitted more than one proposal, all proposals will be cancelled.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Projects that do not meet the specified criteria will not be included in the loan process. According to the institute, start-ups that do not appear for the presentation at the specified time will be automatically removed from the selection process. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to Gupta, the entrepreneur's project will get scores on the basis of presentation. Gupta also said that the institute will provide 15 minutes for the presentation. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Gupta, executive director of the institute, informed that start-up projects that meet the criteria will be selected within 1 week. He said that after completion of the work, the selected project proponents will be asked to give a presentation and the loan will be given from mid-May. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-17', 'modified' => '2024-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20474', 'image' => '20240417041054_20220217054410_startup.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-17 16:10:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20746', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'CNI Demands Multi-Rate VAT to Discourage Illegal Imports from India', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 17: The Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), an umbrella organization of the private sector industries in Nepal, has urged the government to implement a multi-rate value-added tax (VAT) system. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 17: The Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), an umbrella organization of the private sector industries in Nepal, has urged the government to implement a multi-rate value-added tax (VAT) system. They argue that aligning Nepal's VAT rates with those of India would help curb the smuggling of goods from across the border. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">A multi-rate VAT system involves applying different tax rates to different categories of goods or services. This approach can be effective in addressing the diverse needs of various industries and consumers while also potentially reducing tax evasion and promoting economic growth. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Speaking at the 21st Annual General Meeting of the CNI held in Kathmandu on Tuesday, President of the CNI Rajesh Kumar Agarwal said that illegal imports from India have thrived due to the high price of goods in Nepal because of the government’s decision to impose 13 percent VAT.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"As the same item is taxed only 5 percent in India and 13 percent in Nepal, goods are flowing illegally from India to Nepal due to the price difference," Agarwal said during the event which was attended by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The CNI has been advocating for multi-rate VAT since a long time. Other trade associations are also demanding multi-rate VAT.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">However, the government has been turning a deaf ear to this demand saying that it will be difficult for the current administrative mechanism to implement multi-rate VAT. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">A senior official of the Ministry of Finance had earlier told New Business Age that the high-level advisory committee on reforming the tax system, chaired by former minister and finance secretary Bidyadhar Mallik, had also suggested keeping the rate of VAT unchanged.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Stating that illegal trade is becoming another threat for domestic industries of Nepal and the government, Agarwal complained that the state is losing revenue while the domestic industries are being affected.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">During the program, CNI President Agarwal discussed about the economic downturn saying that the overall demand is not encouraging and the industries and businesses are on the verge of closure due to the unexpected slump in the economy. He added that the production cost of the industries has increased and the industries have resorted to cut down producing </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He also complained that the Nepal Electricity Authority has imposed load-shedding for 16 hours in the industrial area at such a crucial time. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Since April 1, India has reduced the amount of electricity it supplies to Nepal and started providing electricity only during the day. Subsequently, the NEA has increased the load shedding in the industrial sector.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The CNI also raised questions about political instability in the context of the frequent change of government. President Agarwal said that policy stability is necessary to increase investment within the country.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> "Irrespective of whether the investment is domestic or foreign, investors look for policy stability," he said. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">On that occasion, Prime Minister Dahal said that the government is committed to increasing the morale of the private sector. "Collaboration with the private sector is indispensable to improve the economy," he said. Prime Minister Dahal said that the government has intervened positively to make the economy dynamic and said that there is no need to panic anymore.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-17', 'modified' => '2024-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20473', 'image' => '20240417033622_20210226043111_20201119021010_20200907074520_1599400665.tax.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-17 15:35:41', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20745', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Parliamentary Hearings Committee Endorses Recommendation to Appoint Raya as Auditor General', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 17: The Parliamentary Hearings Committee has cleared the way for the appointment of Toyam Raya as the Auditor General.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 17: The Parliamentary Hearings Committee has cleared the way for the appointment of Toyam Raya as the Auditor General.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Chairman of the Parliamentary Hearings Committee, Pashupati Shamsher Rana told reporters that his name was unanimously approved by the committee's meeting held on Tuesday.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">A meeting of the Constitutional Council held on March 31 had decided to recommend Raya, who is the secretary of the National Statistics Office, for appointment to the post of Auditor General. There is a constitutional provision for the President to appoint the Auditor General upon the recommendation of the Council after approval by the Parliamentary Hearings Committee.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">After becoming the Auditor General, the responsibility of auditing all the expenses of the government in the last fiscal year and the current fiscal year will fall on his shoulders. Some stakeholders have criticized his appointment to the post due to a conflict of interest. As the secretary also has to audit the work done by himself, there will be a conflict of interest, say Transparency International and other organizations involved in anti-corruption watch. Transparency International has warned that this could disrupt good governance.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">However, the MPs ignored this argument and approved Raya's recommendation. The previous Auditor General Tankamani Sharma was also appointed to the post after resigning from the post of Secretary. Raya, who is considered to be close to the ruling CPN-UML, has been appointed for a 6-year term with just 5 months left for his retirement.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Presenting his plans in the parliamentary committee, Raya expressed his commitment to restructure the Auditor General's office according to the federal governance system.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He said that it is necessary to advance the organization of the Auditor General's office in accordance with the federal framework to make the work of audit easy, transparent and less expensive, so he will give this work as the first priority.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Raya said in the parliamentary committee, "I will proceed with consultation with experts while preparing the audit report." </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The use of information technology in auditing, internal governance, development of professionalism and institutional coordination are also in his action plan. Raya has also planned to use artificial intelligence in the audit, to develop a system that can monitor the implementation status of the audit recommendations. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-17', 'modified' => '2024-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20472', 'image' => '20240417025206_oag-building.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-17 14:51:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20744', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Fluctuation in the Capital Market having Direct Impact on Capital Gains Tax', 'sub_title' => 'Government collects CGT worth Rs 3.79 billion from share market in 9 months', 'summary' => '', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 17: The fluctuations in the capital market has influsnced the capital gains tax collected by the government from the market. As the last four months of the current fiscal year (FY) 2080/81 were relatively stable, data show that the government collected capital gains tax better than the previous months.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Segoe UI","sans-serif"">In the first nine months of the current fiscal year, the government collected Rs 3.79 billion in capital gains tax. Notably, during the last four months alone, approximately 70 percent of this total amount was collected</span>, according to the data provided by CDS and Clearing Limited (CDSC). </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Comparative analysis of the monthly review of the data shows that the government collected capital gains tax of Rs. 972.2 million in the Nepali month of Magh (mid-January to mid-February) of the current year. This is more than other months. In the same month, the Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) index soared to over 2, 200 points.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In the previous month of Poush (mid-December to mid-January), the government had also collected attractive capital gains tax. According to CDSC, the government collected more than Rs 743.9 million in capital gains tax was collected in the review month as the capital market index increased from 1,994.60 points to over 2,221 points.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the data, the share market index the dropped to 2,215 points in the following month. Despite the fluctuations in the two months, the market remained positive, so investors made profits.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the existing legal system, investors in the secondary market of securities have to pay capital gains tax up to a maximum of 10 percent if they make a profit. Institutional investors have to pay 10 percent tax and individual investors have to pay a maximum of 7.5 percent tax.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to CDSC, in the nine months of the current year, the government collected more than Rs 453.88 million from institutional investors and more than Rs 333.6 billion from individuals.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">While the government is collecting millions of rupees monthly in tax from the capital market, investors complained that the capital gains tax imposed by the government is quite high. They have also been urging the government to reduce the tax rate. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"To attract institutional investors to the capital market, there should be a discount on CGT," said Tara Prasad Fullel, acting president of the Share Investors Association, adding, "In the case of individual investors, 5 percent for short-term and 3 percent for long-term profit tax should be maintained." </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-17', 'modified' => '2024-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20471', 'image' => '20240417010307_20230320014508_1679273224.Clipboard03.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-17 13:02:26', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20743', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'IMF Projects Growth of Global Economy in 2024 but Risk of Geopolitical Shocks Persists', 'sub_title' => 'The risks to global growth are broadly balanced and a soft landing is a possibility: WEO', 'summary' => 'April 17: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised its outlook for the global economy this year with a growth projected to reach 3.1 percent in 2024.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">April 17: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised its outlook for the global economy this year with a growth projected to reach 3.1 percent in 2024.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) published by the IMF on Tuesday states that the 2024 forecast is 0.2 percentage point higher than the growth projected in October 2023 report.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The IMF said that the global economy is expected to grow on account of greater-than-expected resilience in the United States and several large emerging market and developing economies, as well as fiscal support in China. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The forecast for 2024–25 is, however, below the historical (2000–19) average of 3.8 percent, with elevated central bank policy rates to fight inflation, a withdrawal of fiscal support amid high debt weighing on economic activity, and low underlying productivity growth, the report states. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to the IMF, inflation is falling faster than expected in most regions, in the midst of unwinding supply-side issues and restrictive monetary policy. Global headline inflation is expected to fall to 5.8 percent in 2024 and to 4.4 percent in 2025, with the 2025 forecast revised down, added the report.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">“With disinflation and steady growth, the likelihood of a hard landing has receded, and risks to global growth are broadly balanced. On the upside, faster disinflation could lead to further easing of financial conditions.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Lax fiscal policy than necessary assumed in the projections could imply temporarily higher growth, but at the risk of a more costly adjustment later on, added the report. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to the IMF, stronger structural reform momentum could bolster productivity with positive cross-border spillovers. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">On the downside, new commodity price spikes from geopolitical shocks––including continued attacks in the Red Sea––and supply disruptions or more persistent underlying inflation could prolong tight monetary conditions. “Deepening property sector woes in China or, elsewhere, a disruptive turn to tax hikes and spending cuts could also cause growth disappointments.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Meanwhile, the IMF report has pointed out the need to curb the rise of public debt and emphasized on a renewed focus on fiscal consolidation to rebuild budgetary capacity to deal with future shocks as well as to raise revenue for new spending priorities in the context that many economies are better equipped to absorb effects of fiscal tightening with the decline in inflation.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The report suggests that targeted and carefully sequenced structural reforms would reinforce productivity growth and debt sustainability and accelerate convergence toward higher income levels. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">More efficient multilateral coordination is needed for, among other things, debt resolution, to avoid debt distress and create space for necessary investments, as well as to mitigate the effects of climate change, added the report.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-17', 'modified' => '2024-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20470', 'image' => '20240417112614_20200414115244_IMF.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-17 11:25:21', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20742', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'PM Dahal Pledges Collaboration with Private Sector to Make Economy Vibrant', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 16: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that the government’s collaboration with the private sector can make the economy vibrant. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 16: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that the government’s collaboration with the private sector can make the economy vibrant. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Speaking at a programme organized to mark the 21st anniversary of the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) in the capital on Tuesday, Prime Minister Dahal expressed the government's commitment to boost the confidence of the private sector. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"The government is serious about economic reforms," Dahal said, adding, "I am clear that the country's economy could be made dynamic in collaboration with private sector. The government has put positive interventions for economic reforms." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He clarified that the government was responsibly acting to boost the confidence of the private sector, enabling investment-friendly environment and creating incentives for result-oriented works. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government is preparing to focus its efforts on manufacturing and employment generation, as well as revitalizing people's optimism despite the pressure, he claimed, adding, "We will take ahead the monetary policy accordingly." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He further said the problem of private sector is the problem of the economy. "The government will put all-out efforts to fix the problems." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The economy lately has shown important signs of reforms, he said, expressing confidence that the current fiscal year would be optimistic year for the economy. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"We are hosting the third international investment summit at the onset of the New Year. Over a dozen laws are under the process of amendment to draw foreign direct investment," the PM said, adding, "The year 2081 could be taken as a hopeful year." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The export of goods such as electricity, zinc sheet and cement has also increased our hope to enable country's economy, he said. "Arrival of tourists has whopped and information technology sector has also rekindled our optimism,” PM Dahal noted, adding such activities would contribute to the national income and capital formation. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Also on the occasion, Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Damodar Bhandari said the government was ready to create environment conducive for promoting businesses and industries. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The event was attended by the chairpersons and representatives of umbrella organizations of businesspersons and industrialists. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-17', 'modified' => '2024-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20469', 'image' => '20240417105732_PRO_KTM-066A0771.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-17 10:56:52', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20741', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Experts Suggest Government to Bring Implementable Budget ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 16: Economists and experts have urged the government to introduce a practical budget for the upcoming fiscal year. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 16: Economists and experts have urged the government to introduce a practical budget for the upcoming fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Speaking at a meeting of the National Assembly's Committee on Development, Economic Affairs and Good Governance on Tuesday, the experts viewed that the new budget should be based on development and social justice along with being gender-responsive. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">They suggested that the government should focus on sustainable development of agriculture, energy and tourism sectors in the new budget. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the occasion, economist Dr Govinda Nepal said the big-size budget and its non-implementation have created fiscal imbalance and called for a practical budget. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He argued the new budget should accord priority for the modernization of agriculture, information technology, energy and tourism. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, Registrar of Kathmandu University Achyut Wagle said the structure of the economy should be made environment-friendly and the new budget should focus on the areas for sustainable development of agriculture and its production. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, social activist Bharati Silwal Giri said the budget should be gender-responsive and it should incorporate the issues of gender equality and women empowerment. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During the meeting, NA Vice Chairperson Bimala Ghimire expressed confidence that the feedback received from the experts would be instrumental in enriching the new budget. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Committee Chairperson Kamala Devi Pant said the new budget should address the issues of Dalits, underprivileged and marginalized communities. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-16', 'modified' => '2024-04-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20468', 'image' => '20240416070426_20230511021044_1683767264.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-16 19:03:59', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20740', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NEPSE Drops 14.81 Points, Closes at 1991.71', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) Index witnessed a loss of 14.81 points or 0.73%, closing at 1991.71 on the third trading day of the week, Tuesday.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 16: The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) Index witnessed a loss of 14.81 points or 0.73%, closing at 1991.71 on the third trading day of the week, Tuesday.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">During today’s trading session, 312 scrips were traded on the NEPSE through 39,476 transactions. A total of 5,471,068 shares changed hands, resulting in a total turnover of Rs 2.10 billion.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Gurkhas Finance Limited (GUFL) led the turnover amount with a total transaction of Rs 17 crores. The 10.75% SBL Debenture 2089 (SBLD89) saw the highest gain of 9.9%, closing at Rs 1,155 per share.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Ru Ru Jalbidhyut Pariyojana Limited (RURU) incurred the maximum loss of 10%, closing at a market price of Rs 560 per share.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In terms of sector indices, all sectors closed in the red territory. The HydroPower Index saw the highest loss at 1.31%, while the Mutual Fund Index experienced the least loss of 0.01%.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-16', 'modified' => '2024-04-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20467', 'image' => '20240416035507_collage (58).jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-16 15:53:47', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20739', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Banks Found Issuing New Loans to Cover Bad Debts: NRB Report', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 16: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has pointed out that credit risk is on the rise within commercial banks due to loans being issued without the completion of requisite procedures.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">April 16: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has pointed out that credit risk is on the rise within commercial banks due to loans being issued without the completion of requisite procedures.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Increasing bad loans of banks and financial institutions also indicate the rise in credit risk.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Based on both on-site and off-site monitoring of commercial banks conducted by the Bank Supervision Department of the central bank in the last fiscal year (FY 2022/23), the NRB has pointed out weaknesses in the banks' credit investment process, non-utilization of loans, giving more loans than their capacity, giving loans to pay off loans, etc.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to the supervision report published by NRB on Sunday, during the monitoring, some banks were found to have provided more loans than necessary without adequately assessing the needs of the borrowers. The central bank has stated that loans are given without maintaining a balance between the customer's assets and loan ratio. It also noted that the monitoring system after loan disbursement is weak.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Similarly, the NRB study found that banks have given new loans to pay off old loans. The central bank also pointed out that loans have been renewed without audit and verification of tax clearance certificate, firm renewal and business monitoring report. It is mentioned in the report that environmental and social risk assessment guidelines were not followed while giving project loans.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to Nepal Rastra Bank sources, the quality of banking service is deteriorating due to the competition among banks to extend loans after the Covid- 19 pandemic. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">"Banks are under pressure to increase their profits by increasing their loans," said an executive director of Nepal Rastra Bank on condition of anonymity. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">“Banks have even beached the law and NRB instructions while issuing loans in some cases. This has resulted in increasing bad loans,” he added. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">As of mid-March of the current fiscal year, the average bad loan ratio of 20 commercial banks has reached 3.63 percent. The bad debt ratio was 2.49 percent by mid-March of last fiscal year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to Nepal Rastra Bank, banks have given 88.75 percent of loans under mortgages. However, with the recent decrease in real estate transactions, banks are finding it difficult to recover loans even through mortgage auctions. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">In December, a delegation of the International Monetary Fund issued a statement expressing doubts about the credit quality of Nepali banks. In the context of increasing bad loans, the IMF issued a statement mentioning that there is a need for more monitoring and more supervision on the quality of banks' loans.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The government and the central bank have both admitted that bad loans may increase. A statement released by the IMF a few months ago said that the government and the central bank pledged to step up monitoring to ensure that the classification of loans is correct, provisioning is done and there is sufficient capital support. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Expressing doubts about the quality of loans provided by the banks of Nepal, the IMF has placed a condition that it will issue loans under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) to Nepal only after the loans of 10 big commercial banks are audited by an international organization.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The central bank has already called for a tender for auditing of the banks by an international organisation.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-16', 'modified' => '2024-04-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20466', 'image' => '20240416030118_Banks - Copy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-16 15:00:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20738', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'AI Still Behind Human on Complex Tasks like Competitive Mathematics: AI Index Report-2024 ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 16: In the wake of optimism and influence of artificial intelligence (AI), research and studies on AI have surged lately across the globe. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 16: In the wake of optimism and influence of artificial intelligence (AI), research and studies on AI have surged lately across the globe. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In this connection, the Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) at the Stanford University released an annual report on AI on Monday. The seventh edition report- 'Artificial Intelligence Index Report, 2024' has comprehensively studied the AI trend in multiple fronts ranging from education to accountability, research to development, and economy to medicine. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">One of the significant messages the report has underlined is: 'AI beats humans on some tasks, but not on all'. There are ten takeaways in the wide-ranging report fit in 500 plus pages with extensive use of data and comparative analyses. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In the first takeaway it wrote, "AI has surpassed human performance on several benchmarks, including some in image classification, visual reasoning, and English understanding. Yet it trails behind on more complex tasks like competition-level mathematics, visual commonsense reasoning and planning." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The report is dovetailed in nine chapters focusing- research and development, technical performance, responsible AI, economy, science and medicine, education, policy and governance, diversity, and public opinion. </span><br /> <strong><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">AI patent shifting from US to East Asia and Pacific</span></strong> <br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Taking reference from Centre for Security and Emerging Technology, 2023, the report has showed shifting AI patent. Comparing the data from 2010 to 2022, the report showed granted AI patent hugely concentrating in East Asia and Pacific – 75.2 percent, which is trailed by the North America with 21.2 percent. North America was leading the AI patent till 2011. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">However, the US leads the source of top AI model in the world. In the last year, 2023, the institutions based in the US produced 61 modes of AI while it is followed by European Union with 21 models and China 15 models. </span><br /> <strong><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Eightfold rise on AI investment</span></strong> <br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the report, the world has witnessed massive surge in investment in Generative AI. "Despite a decline in overall AI private investment last year, funding for generative AI surged, nearly octupling from 2022 to reach $25.2 billion. Major players in the generative AI space, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Hugging Face, and Inflection, reported substantial fundraising rounds," it stated. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The 'Economy' chapter of the report has brought forth information on investment, global AI labour demand, wages of computer scientists, adaptation of AI capabilities, corporate activity, robot installation and jobs. The report mentioned that China is dominating the installation of robots in industries. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"China dominates industrial robotics. Since surpassing Japan in 2013 as the leading installer of industrial robots, China has significantly widened the gap with the nearest competitor nation. In 2013, China’s installations accounted for 20.8% of the global total, a share that rose to 52.4% by 2022," it explained. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the AI governance initiatives are also on rise, especially in EU countries, the US and China. From AI policy to actions, these are painted as major players in AI governance. Policy makers in the world are not left untouched by the AI, the report argues. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It is also worth noting to have knowledge how the tech giants are investing huge chunk in designing multiple AI models and programmes in the world. The AI Index estimated, "Training costs of state-of-the-art AI models have reached unprecedented levels. For example, OpenAI’s GPT-4 used an estimated $78 million worth of compute to train, while Google’s Gemini Ultra cost $191 million for compute." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">At a time when many tout technology as a non-discriminatory front, the global tech sprint of 2023, ChatGPT, has been found politically biased. The Index has referenced the researchers and stated 'significant bias in ChatGPT toward Democrats in the US and the Labour Party in the UK.' </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Bearing this in mind, the report has alerted over hijacking of political views of users by the ChatGPT when 2024 is a global election year. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">So far, 80 countries have put in place the AI Strategies. They include the US, the UK, Bangladesh, India, Thailand, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Israel, among others. Canada was the first country to have AI strategy- in 2017. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It has argued that AI clinical knowledge has boosted in recent time. "Highly knowledgeable medical AI has arrived. Over the past few years, AI systems have shown remarkable improvement on the MedQA benchmark, a key test for assessing AI’s clinical knowledge," the Index asserts. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Index added that since the benchmark’s introduction in 2019, AI performance on MedQA has increased nearly threefold. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">AI hiring has also seen upward trends in the countries like Australia, Canada, Singapore, and India since 2023. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Co-Directors of AI Index, Ray Perrault and Jack Clark observed the report, saying, "As AI rapidly evolves, the AI Index aims to help the AI community, policymakers, business leaders, journalists, and the general public navigate this complex landscape. It provides ongoing, objective snapshots tracking several key areas: technical progress in AI capabilities, the community and investments driving AI development and deployment, public opinion on current and potential future impacts, and policy measures taken to stimulate AI innovation while managing its risks and challenges." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Several IT and AI experts provided information and expertise for the report where a dozen of tech organizations including GitHub, Linkedin, Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, Women in Machine Learning, Code.org, and International Federation of Robotics supplied data. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-16', 'modified' => '2024-04-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20465', 'image' => '20240416013648_20240303093044_Artificial-intelligence--scaled.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-16 13:35:53', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20737', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => '144K Foreign Tourists Visit Annapurna Region in Current Fiscal Year', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 16: A total of 144,675 foreign tourists visited the world-famous Annapurna region for trekking in the first nine months of the current fiscal year.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">April 16: A total of 144,675 foreign tourists visited the world-famous Annapurna region for trekking in the first nine months of the current fiscal year. According to the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP), altogether 59,939 tourists from South Asian countries and 84,736 tourists from other countries visited the Annapurna region from mid-July 2023 to mid-April 2024.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">During the last month (mid-March to mid-April) alone, a total of 35,265 foreign tourists including 16,969 from South Asian countries and 18,296 from other countries visited the Annapurna region, according to the head of ACAP, Dr Rabin Kadaria. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Similarly, in the Nepali month of Asoj (mid-September to mid-October), 28,705 tourists visited the Annapurna region.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">ACAP chief Dr Kadaria estimates that the number of tourists will increase this month (Baishakh or mid-April to mid-May). In Baishakh of last year, a total of 31,951 foreign tourists had visited the Annapurna region.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Autumn (mid-September to mid-November) and spring (mid-March to mid-May), are considered the best time for trekking in the Annapurna region.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">ACAP keeps the data of foreign tourists who visit the Annapurna Circuit, a renowned route that covers five districts – Lamjung, Mustang, Manang, Myagdi, and Kaski. It does not have the records of the number of domestic tourists entering the Annapurna region.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to ACAP, 191,558 tourists from 173 countries visited the Annapurna region in 2023. This number is the highest ever. Before that, in 2019, a total of 181,000 tourists visited the Annapurna region. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The Annapurna Circuit covers famous tourist destinations like the Annapurna Base Camp, Mardi Himal, Ghandruk, Tilicho Lake in Manang, Thorangla Pass, Upper Mustang, Muktinath area, Ghodepani in Myagdi among others.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">A total of 89 wards of 16 local levels of Lamjung, Manang, Mustang, Myagdi and Kaski fall under the Annapurna Conservation Area Project spread over 7,600 square kilometers.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Annapurna region is one of the most preferred choices of tourists due to its natural beauty, biological diversity, mountain life, civilization and culture. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Due to its attractive destinations with snow-capped peaks, tourism-friendly infrastructure, warm hospitality of locals and service facilities, Annapurna is considered to be the best destination in the world for trekking. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to ACAP, this region offers short, medium and long-distance trekking. </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-16', 'modified' => '2024-04-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20464', 'image' => '20240416013444_20240102031942_20220508080527_Annapurna circuit (3).jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-16 13:33:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20735', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Price of Gold Hits New Record at Rs 139,200 Per Tola', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 16: The price of gold on Tuesday increased by Rs 1,700 per tola (11.66 grams) to set a new record. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers Association, the price of gold has reached an all-time high of Rs 139,200.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 16: The price of gold on Tuesday increased by Rs 1,700 per tola (11.66 grams) to set a new record. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers Association, the price of gold has reached an all-time high of Rs 139,200.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Prior to this, the price of gold had set a record of Rs 139,000 per tola on April 12 but it fell to Rs 137,700 on Monday. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Similarly, the price of silver has also increased on Tuesday. The price of silver in the domestic market of Nepal has been fixed at Rs 1,750 per tola.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong>Why is the price increasing?</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The price of gold has been rising steadily in the past few weeks. In the Nepali month of Chaitra (mid-March to mid-April), the price of gold has increased eleven times in the domestic market of Nepal. The federation fixes the price of gold and silver based on the price in the international market.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The recent geopolitical tension due to the Israel’s offensive in Gaza and the Russia-Ukraine war have led to investors to invest in gold considering it as a safe haven in times of turmoil.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Businessmen complain that the gold and silver jewelry business has decreased due to the continuous rise in the price of gold. Gold and silver traders say that the business of the gold market is almost zero lately. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-04-16', 'modified' => '2024-04-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20462', 'image' => '20240416123314_20240412010233_gold newwww.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-04-16 12:32:36', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, '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
