March 3: The price of gold has declined by Rs 100 per tola (11.66 grams) on Friday and is being traded at Rs 102,500 per…
March 3: The price of gold has declined by Rs 100 per tola (11.66 grams) on Friday and is being traded at Rs 102,500 per…
Nepali tea producing companies have been awarded for their taste and quality in the international contest. Nepali tea companies won the gold and silver medals in “Second Tea Quality Competition in China” organized by China Tea Marketing Association from September 20 to 21,…
Laxmi Intercontinental, the authorised distributor of Hyundai vehicles in Nepal, has launched the face-lifted version of its popular model Grand i10 Nios, highlighted as 'More The…
March 3: Umbrella organisations of banks and financial institutions (BFIs) have expressed concerns towards public statements made by the debtors that they will not pay back the…
March 3: The locals of Bhajani Municipality of Kailali district have been dreaming of a concrete bridge for 12 years.…
March 3: Senior leader Ram Chandra Paudel of the Nepali Congress, the largest party in the House of Representatives, and Subas Chandra Nembang, the vice chairman of the second largest party, CPN-UML, are all set to contest in the presidential election on March…
March 3: The government has formed a high-level committee to prepare a comprehensive report on cyber security by incorporating issues related to policy, law, structure and process and making suggestions…
March 2: After the tight monetary policy adopted by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) reduced credit expansion, the credit-deposit ratio (CD ratio) of commercial banks finally started to…
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Narayan Kaji Shrestha will be leaving for Doha of Qatar to take part in the Conference of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) on…
March 2: The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) index fell for four consecutive days this…
March 2: India has given permission for the construction of a hydropower project near the Chinese border.…
March 2: Farmers of Chitwan district have been attracted to sunflower farming of late.…
March 2: The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has sent a revised price list of petroleum products to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) by reducing the fuel prices except that of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) or cooking…
March 2: Jazeera Airways has announced that it will resume its scheduled flights to and from Bhairahawa-based Gautam Buddha International Airport from next…
January 29: The currency in circulation in the market has declined by Rs 16 billion as of mid-January this year compared to the same period of last…
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The precious yellow metal was traded at Rs 102,600 per tola on the previous trading day (Thursday). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, price of worked gold has been fixed at Rs 102,000 per tola against Rs 102,100 on the previous trading day, according to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers Association. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, the price of silver has decreased Rs 5 per tola and is being traded at Rs 1,265 per tola, said the federation. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-03', 'modified' => '2023-03-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16909', 'image' => '20230303052144_gold.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-03 17:21:06', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17170', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Nepali Tea Companies Win Gold Medal in International Competition ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => ' Nepali tea producing companies have been awarded for their taste and quality in the international contest. Nepali tea companies won the gold and silver medals in “Second Tea Quality Competition in China” organized by China Tea Marketing Association from September 20 to 21, 2022.', 'content' => '<p><br /> <span style="font-size:18px">March 3: Nepali tea producing companies have been awarded for their taste and quality in the international contest. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">Nepali tea companies have won gold and silver medals in “Second Tea Quality Competition in China” organized by China Tea Marketing Association from September 20 to 21, 2022.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">At the programme organized by National Tea and Coffee Development Board in Kathmandu, the awards were distributed on Thursday. The board had collected 40 tea samples from across the country and sent 16 tea samples after test of their quality and taste to China for the competition. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">Tinjure Tea Farmer Cooperative Society Limited has bagged Pearl Golden Black tea award. Likewise, Farmer Tea Processing Industry’s FT Himalayn Gold, Himalayan Shangrila Tea Producers’ Shangrila gold, Gorkah Tea Estate Private Limited’s GTE Golden tea, Siddha Devi Tea Estate Private Limited’s Silver wings, and Kanchanjunga Organic Orthodox Tea Industry’s Golden Tips tea have won gold medals. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">In the same manner, Himalayan Shangrila Tea Producers’ Himlayan Sunrise Beauty, Shree Baraha Tea Industry’s Special black tea, Tinjure Farmer Cooperative Society Limited’s Normal Golden Black tea and Maina Pokhari Tea Processing Industry’s MP 10 Mirmire have won silver medals. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">Tea was planted in 16,917 hectares of the land and as many as 23,745 metric tons of tea was produced in the fiscal year of 2077/78 in Nepal. More than 17,000 tea farmers and over 60,000 workers are involved in the tea business at the moment.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">Nepal exported 11,920 metric tons of the tea worth Rs 3.79 billion in the last fiscal year, according to the Department of Customs. Tea farmers bemoan that they are selling their produce at low price despite its excellent quality. Nepal has a potential to export tea worth more than Rs 10 billion in a year. </span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-03', 'modified' => '2023-03-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16908', 'image' => '20230303045430_collage - 2023-03-03T165309.178.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-03 16:50:54', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17169', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Laxmi Intercontinental Launches Face-lifted Version of Grand i10 Nios,', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Laxmi Intercontinental, the authorised distributor of Hyundai vehicles in Nepal, has launched the face-lifted version of its popular model Grand i10 Nios, highlighted as 'More The Merrier'. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px">March 3: Laxmi Intercontinental, the authorised distributor of Hyundai vehicles in Nepal, has launched the face-lifted version of its popular model Grand i10 Nios, highlighted as 'More The Merrier'. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">This hatchback segment is set to take the automotive segment to a new height, due to its new and innovative irresistible combination of cutting-edge technology, high performance, attractive design, distinctive features, and thoughtful safety features that cater to the modern driver's needs, says the company in its press statement. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">With its new benchmark-setting features, the Grand i10 Nios is anticipated to become another best-selling car in the Nepali market. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">Lightbar connected by LED Tail Lights on the rear part of the car has given a distinctive looks to the car. Similarly, painted Black Radiator Grille and LED Daytime Running Lamps(DRLS) on the front of the Grand i10 Nios have made the car stylish and sporty. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">The all-new Grand i10 Nios is available in Era, Magna, and Sportz variants in MT option and Magna and Sportz in AMT option with a starting price of Rs 2.996 million.</span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-03', 'modified' => '2023-03-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16907', 'image' => '20230303040007_collage - 2023-03-03T155904.985.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-03 15:56:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17168', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Public Declaration of Defaulting on Loans is Objectionable: Bankers', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 3: Umbrella organisations of banks and financial institutions (BFIs) have expressed concerns towards public statements made by the debtors that they will not pay back the loans.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">March 3: Umbrella organisations of banks and financial institutions (BFIs) have expressed concerns towards public statements made by the debtors that they will not pay back the loans.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The BFIs have requested the government to check this troublesome trend on time.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Four umbrella organizations of BFIs issued a joint statement on Thursday and made such request to the government after attacks on bank employees and the formal declaration made by the defaulters that they will not pay back the loans.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Nepal Bankers Association, the umbrella organization of commercial banks, Development Bankers Association Nepal, the umbrella organization of development banks, Nepal Financial Institutions Association, the umbrella organization of finance companies, and Nepal Microfinance Bankers Association, the umbrella organization of microfinance companies, issued a joint statement and urged the government to control such chaotic activities.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The statement reads, “Recently, our attention has been drawn to the negative comments and agitation announced by some individuals against banks/financial and microfinance institutions and the threatening expressions and behavior to discourage bank employees. We are confident that the state's attention has gone towards controlling the incident in time.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Banks and financial institutions have collected more than Rs 5400 billion deposits from over 483 million customers’ deposit accounts and have mobilized loans of more than Rs 4800 billion through more than 1.8 million borrowers. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">This sector has created more than 530,00 direct jobs, paid more than Rs 34 billion in taxes to the state in the last fiscal year and have directly given more than Rs 10 billion to borrowers through interest rate discounts during the Covid-19 pandemic.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, in the remote areas of the country, microfinance institutions have provided services to more than 6 million depositors and more than 32 million borrowers, as well as created more than 23,000 direct jobs. Banks/financial and microfinance institutions are providing banking services subjected to the policies/instructions issued by the regulatory bodies and various laws and they are always aware of the rights and interests of their customers, added the statement.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">They say that if there is any problem, it would be beneficial to discuss with the related organizations and proceed accordingly. Similarly, by making the banking sector stronger, the associations said they are expecting the support and cooperation of all stakeholders to help the economic development of the country.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-03', 'modified' => '2023-03-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16906', 'image' => '20230303023829_Bad Loan.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-03 14:37:42', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17167', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'A Place Where Villagers have to Pay Money to Cross a River!', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 3: The locals of Bhajani Municipality of Kailali district have been dreaming of a concrete bridge for 12 years. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">March 3: The locals of Bhajani Municipality of Kailali district have been dreaming of a concrete bridge for 12 years. The locals are hopeful the once the construction of the motorable bridge gets complete, they will no longer have to pay the money just to cross a river.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">The local residents of this municipality have to pay money to cross the Kandra and other rivers. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">"One has to pay Rs 30 per day just to cross the river to visit the municipality for daily work. That means, an individual has to pay Rs 900 per month only to cross the river," said Rupak Saud, a local. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">He says that the locals will have to suffer until a concrete bridge comes into operation. Saud says that the municipality is giving them trouble by collecting money for crossing a river.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">He added that the construction company that was awarded the contract to build a bridge is making profit by delaying the construction work.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Big vehicles are made to cross the river instead of using the under-construction bridge. Another local Bhojraj Kafle says that the contractors in collusion with the local authorities collect money from vehicles while crossing the river. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">“It has been more than a decade since the construction of a concrete bridge over the Kandra River started. The middlemen are the reason why the bridge has not been built on time. There are people who collect hundreds of thousands of rupees annually in the name of river contracts," he says, "Otherwise, what is the reason that local stakeholders are not interested in the construction of the bridge?"</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">The distance between Tikapur and Dhangadhi via the Postal Highway is 75 kilometers. Traveling through Mahendra Highway (East-West Highway) takes a little longer. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Bintiram Chaudhury of Tikapur argues that the Postal Highway cannot be used right now due to the lack of a concrete bridge over the Kandra River. He said that he has to live in Kailari Rural Municipality because of his job and he has to pay for river crossing while returning home once a week.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">According to Chaudhary, the contractor says that they have paid money to the municipality to utilize the river under a contract.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Therefore, they have been charging the locals for crossing the river.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Bhajani Municipality has given Kandra River and its tributaries under a short-term contract. The contractor has been operating boats for fishing in the river. According to the municipality, the contract has been signed for one fiscal year and it has helped the municipality collect internal source of income. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Mayor Keval Chaudhary says that the situation where citizens have to pay money to cross the Kandra River will end within this year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">He said that the construction of a motorable bridge over the Kandra River along the Postal Highway is in the final stage and will come into operation in a few months. -- RSS</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-03', 'modified' => '2023-03-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16905', 'image' => '20230303012530_1677827539.कान्द्रा नदी पुल.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-03 13:24:52', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17166', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Nepali Congress in a Comfortable Position to Win Presidential Election', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 3: Senior leader Ram Chandra Paudel of the Nepali Congress, the largest party in the House of Representatives, and Subas Chandra Nembang, the vice chairman of the second largest party, CPN-UML, are all set to contest in the presidential election on March 9.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">March 3: Senior leader Ram Chandra Paudel of the Nepali Congress, the largest party in the House of Representatives, and Subas Chandra Nembang, the vice chairman of the second largest party, CPN-UML, are all set to contest in the presidential election on March 9.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">After the registration of nominees, UML has intensified attempts to canvass votes for the election. On the other hand, the Nepali Congress seems to be in a comfortable position to secure majority votes with the backup of eight political parties. A new eight-party alliance has formed under the initiative of chairman of CPN (Maoist Center) Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who is also the prime minister, after his party decided to back NC candidate instead of UML.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The victory of NC candidate Paudel in the presidential election seems certain after receiving the votes of the coalition partners.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">On the other hand, UML candidate Nembang is making attempts to turn the tide in his favour.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">As the date of the election approaches, Nembang is meeting the leaders of various parties to canvass votes. On Thursday, he met CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal and asked him to vote for him in the presidential election.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The CPN (Unified Socialist) is currently in the Nepali Congress-led eight-party alliance. The UML, which did not even want to recognize the party and did not even want to hear the name of the CPN United Socialist, sent a letter and asked for votes in favour of its candidate in the presidential election.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Similarly, Nembang also reached the office of Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) Nepal led by journalist-turned-politician Rabi Lamichhaneto to seek for votes. Not only Nembang, UML Chairman KP Oli is also asking for votes for his candidate. Oli asked National Assembly member Bamdev Gautam, who is also a former UML leader, to vote for Nembang in the presidential election.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">However, the Nepali Congress has not made much effort except to send a letter to the UML and ask for votes because the party is already enjoys majority support in parliament. Paudel, who is a strong candidate to win the presidential election with the support from eight parties, is also asking for votes. A few days ago, he met Rabi Lamichhane, chairman of the RSP Nepal and asked him to vote for him in the presidential election.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Poudel has written letters to all MPs asking for their votes. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Paudel is seeking for votes by expressing his commitment to institutionalize a democratic republic and inclusive democracy.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to the legal provisions regarding the election of the president and vice president, the presidential candidate must receive a majority of the total votes. In the event that no candidate gets the majority votes, there will be a voting again.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">How many votes with whom?</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">A total of 333 members of the Federal Parliament (House of Representatives and National Assembly) and 550 members of the Provincial Assembly will vote in the presidential election. According to the law, one vote of the federal MP will carry the weight of 79 votes. Based on this, the total vote share of 332 MPs of the Federal Parliament (the position of one MP has been vacant) will be 26,228. Rabi Lamichhane, chairman of the RSP, who was elected as a member of the House of Representatives from Chitwan-2, was suspended by the Supreme Court.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Similarly, the weight of votes of provincial assembly members is 48. Based on this, the total number of votes of the members of the provincial assembly is 26,400. That makes the total number of votes in the presidential election 52,628. On this basis, more than 26,314 votes are required to be elected as the president. The Congress-led eight-party alliance has 31,821 votes. In this situation, Nembang will get 20,807 votes even if he gets the votes of all the others parties outside the eight-party alliance.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-03', 'modified' => '2023-03-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16904', 'image' => '20230303113033_1677758905.President 1.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-03 11:29:54', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17165', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Forms High-Level Taskforce to Study Cyber Security', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 3: The government has formed a high-level committee to prepare a comprehensive report on cyber security by incorporating issues related to policy, law, structure and process and making suggestions accordingly. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">March 3: The government has formed a high-level committee to prepare a comprehensive report on cyber security by incorporating issues related to policy, law, structure and process and making suggestions accordingly. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The high-level taskforce was formed as per the decision of cabinet meeting on February 27 in response to the proposal presented by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. The taskforce has been given a month's time to submit the report. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Information Ministry Secretary Dr Baikuntha Aryal said on Thursday that IT expert Juddha Bahadur Gurung has been appointed as the coordinator of the committee.</span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Other members of the committee are Baburam Dawadi, Saroj Lamichhane, Mona Nyachchho, Prakash Rayamajhi and Bijay Gautam. Besides coordinator Gurung, all other members of the taskforce are from the Nepalese Army and the Nepal Police. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The taskforce was handed over the responsibility amidst a programme at the ministry on Thursday. Addressing the programme, Minister for Communications and Information Technology Rekha Sharma said the ministry took the initiative to prepare the law and policy on cyber security after the country faced series of threats on this subject. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">She argued that cyber security is in the state's priority list because the country lacks proper regulations despite the use of all sorts of technologies available. </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"">"If cyber security policy is formulated and put in place with budget allocation on time, it would be a significant achievement in the sector of cyber security," she said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Secretary Aryal shared that the committee will not just undertake a general study of the pertinent issue, but conduct a comprehensive analysis which could be incorporated in the government policy, programmes and budget. “So, the taskforce has been given a significant responsibility,” he stressed. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On February 27, the cabinet had decided to manage the data of all government bodies and IT systems in the integrated data centre. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The taskforce will carry out a thorough study on problems of data management in the integrated data centre, reasons behind problems, flaws and measures to solve the problems. It will make recommendations at technical, human and managerial levels. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-03', 'modified' => '2023-03-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16903', 'image' => '20230303104736_Cybersecurity-importance - Copy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-03 10:46:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17163', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'CD Ratio of Commercial Banks Start to Drop', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 2: After the tight monetary policy adopted by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) reduced credit expansion, the credit-deposit ratio (CD ratio) of commercial banks finally started to decline.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">March 2: After the tight monetary policy adopted by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) reduced credit expansion, the credit-deposit ratio (CD ratio) of commercial banks finally started to decline. After the ease in CD ratio of the banks, which have been facing liquidity problem since the last fiscal year, their additional credit expansion capacity has reached more than Rs 175 billion.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to NRB, the total deposits of banks and financial institutes (BFIs) have reached Rs 5377 billion as of Monday.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Out of this amount, commercial banks have deposits of Rs 4740 billion. With the average CD ratio of only 86.22 percent, they have the ability to extend loans of more than Rs 175 billion. As instructed by NRB, banks should maintain CD ratio within 90 percent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the data published up to the period of mid-January of the current FY by NRB, the CD ratio of most of the commercial banks looks good. Among the 22 commercial banks in operation during this period, only Kumari Bank's CD ratio is higher than the limit set by NRB. Similarly, the CD ratio of Global IME Bank and Nabil Bank is close to 90 percent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Standard Chartered Bank has the lowest CD ratio at 78.73 percent. Apart from this, NRB informed that the CD ratio of Rastriya Banijya Bank, Nepal Bank, Sanima Bank and SBI Bank is less than 85 percent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Sunil KC, president of Nepal Bankers Association and CEO of NMB Bank, the CD ratio of banks has eased because the banks have not disbursed loans despite to good deposits mainly because of remittance inflow. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> “Currently the CD ratio has eased as there is no demand for new loans in banks. Only small investments are being made to the customers and deposit growth rate is good as well. In recent times, loans have become expensive along with the lack of liquidity, deterring industrialists from taking new loans from banks. The industrialists are in a wait-and-watch state as there is also a movement against the banks’ interest rates,” said KC, adding, “Similarly, due to the impact of Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine tension, inflation has risen and economic activity has decreased, so the demand for loans in the market is low. However, since the rate of inflation has been decreasing recently and the economic indicators are easing, the bankers expect credit to expand gradually.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> KC says that the interest rates on bank deposits have started to decrease and borrowers will get relief by the next quarter. He said that the interest rate will also decrease due to the concession given by NRB by reducing the spread rate and bank rate.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">After much criticism over the high interest rates of banks, NRB announced to reduce the spread rate of the banks through the first quarter review of the monetary policy of the current fiscal year. It issued instructions mid-December and asked banks to reduce the spread rate in two stages. According to the instructions, commercial banks will have to reduce the spread rate to 4.2 percent from mid-March 2023 and development banks and finance companies will have to reduce it to 4.8 percent. From mid-June 2023, commercial banks have to apply 4 percent spread rate and development banks and finance companies have to apply 4.6 percent. By reducing the spread rate till mid-April, the interest rate on loan will decline from mid-April.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Likewise, NRB reduced the overnight repo interest rate by 1.5 percentage points to 7.5 percent from the half-yearly review of monetary policy. It is also expected that the cost of capital of banks will decrease and the interest rate will decrease to some extent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Anil Sharma, CEO of Bankers' Association said, “Now there is no room for banks' interest rates to go up. The policy concession given by NRB will also reduce the interest rate, but they will have to wait until the next quarter.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16901', 'image' => '20230302061305_Banks.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 18:12:24', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17162', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' DPM Shrestha to Leave for Doha to Participate in LDCs Conference on Friday ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Narayan Kaji Shrestha will be leaving for Doha of Qatar to take part in the Conference of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) on Friday. ', 'content' => '<p> </p> <p>March 3: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Narayan Kaji Shrestha will be leaving for Doha of Qatar to take part in the Conference of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) on Friday. </p> <p>According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Deputy Prime Minister will be leading the Nepali delegation to the Fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to be held in Doha, the State of Qatar, from 5 to 9 March, 2023. </p> <p>Prior to the event, the Deputy Prime Minister will address the Summit of the LDC Group to be held on the 4th of March, coordinated by Malawi, the current chair of the LDC group. </p> <p>Nepal is scheduled to take the chairmanship of the group of LDCs this year. In Doha, the Deputy Prime Minister Shrestha is scheduled to address the plenary session of the Conference and hold bilateral meetings with delegations from different countries and organizations. </p> <p>Minister Shrestha will also interact with the representatives of the organizations of Nepali diaspora. The Nepali delegation will include Dr. Min Bahadur Shrestha, Vice-chairman of National Planning Commission, lawmaker Jitendra Narayan Dev, government secretaries and the ambassador of Nepal to the State of Qatar and other senior officials. The Deputy Prime Minister will return from Doha on March 7. ---RSS <br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16900', 'image' => '20230302055454_collage - 2023-03-02T174415.054.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 17:52:35', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17161', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NEPSE Index Falls for Fourth Consecutive Day', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 2: The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) index fell for four consecutive days this week.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">March 2: The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) index fell for four consecutive days this week.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The market fell by 26.48 points on the last trading day of the week to close at 1,969.01 points. In the four trading days, the index dropped by 58.18 points. Lately there has been some instability in Nepali politics. With the exit of the UML from the coalition government, the finance minister, who was liked by investors, also quit. Investors are wondering whether the stock market has fallen due to political instability.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Experts say that the political influence on the stock market will be temporary. Although the liquidity in the financial system has improved in recent days, the interest rate on loans has not decreased. In a short period of time, the market rose from 1800 points to 2200 points and started to fall. During this period, traders made good fortune. Now, the traders plan to make investment in the stock market only when the market falls to the lowest point.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">A total of 3,657,154 units of shares of 256 companies were traded on Thursday. The daily turnover on Thursday stood at Rs 1.33 billion.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In the intra-day trading, 194 companies lost in their market values while 19 made gains.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">All the 13 trading sub groups lost in their market values on Thursday. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The index of microfinance group decreased the most by 2.64 percent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Among individual companies, Himalayan Distillery Limited had the largest transaction of its shares worth Rs 81.28 million. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Meanwhile, Global IME microfinance shareholders lost the most on Thursday. The share price of the company decreased by 7 percent. Buddha Bhumi Nepal Hydropower Company Limited gained the highest percent of its market value by 4.29 percent.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16899', 'image' => '20230302054129_1677749961.market down.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 17:40:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17159', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'India to Construct Big Hydropower Project near China', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 2: India has given permission for the construction of a hydropower project near the Chinese border. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">March 2: India has given permission for the construction of a hydropower project near the Chinese border. This project is India's largest hydropower project so far. To meet the growing demand for energy, India is trying to increase the production of hydropower, solar and other energies. Meanwhile, the Daibang project to be built in the northeastern Himalayan region of Arunachal Pradesh near the border with China has been approved by the Indian government. It is estimated that an investment of INR 319 billion (USD 3.90 billion) will be invested in this 2800 megawatt project entrusted to the state-owed hydropower company NHPC Limited.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">It is estimated that the project will take about nine years to complete. India, which is mainly dependent on coal for electricity, is trying to increase renewable energy sources. Due to occasional interruptions in the supply of electricity from solar and wind energy, it is seeking to increase renewable energy for stable supply. However, the project has been delayed due to the prospect of large-scale damage that the dam construction could cause to the environment and the fact that the community would have to be relocated.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">This project will be built in an area of more than 5000 hectares of forest. Therefore, like other projects, it seems that it has to face a lot of opposition. Due to local opposition and geographical difficulties, it can be hoped that the target will be achieved in nine years. Non-profit organizations have been saying that the cost of the project is very high but the profit is very low. In the Himalayan region of India, projects have been running for years as they are not completed within the stipulated time. There is ample room to doubt whether this hydroelectric project will be completed on time. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16897', 'image' => '20230302031613_hydro.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 15:14:25', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17157', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Farmers of Chitwan Attracted to Sunflower Farming ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 2: Farmers of Chitwan district have been attracted to sunflower farming of late. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">March 2: Farmers of Chitwan district have been attracted to sunflower farming of late. A group of farmers have collectively grown sunflowers on around three bighas of land at Sripur of Bharatpur Metropolitan City-15, said Chandra Prasad Adhikari, one of the farmers.</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 Agriculture Knowledge Centre (AKC), Chitwan has extended its support by providing seeds, fertilizers and irrigation facility, he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">They have also grown mustard in around two bighas of land. Adhikari started the farming 10 years ago with a break for some years in between. Again, we together started organic sunflower farming, he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"I started with carrot farming in 2032 BS. I quit agriculture some years in between. Carrot production is higher. But, it lacks market value," he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It does not require much investment for sunflower farming. So, the farmers here have been attracted to it, added Adhikari. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Farmers can supply healthier sunflower oil to consumers at a fair value, and it helps discourage inedible cooking oil in the market, he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The farming has also attracted tourists and TikTokers alike. </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"">"With sunflower blooming, tourists and TikTokers have visited here. We charge them Rs 100 each for the entry fee. We feel good to have them here," he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Around 65 beehives have been also kept in the sunflower field for honey production, he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The AKC's agriculture officer Suruchi Tripathi said the centre provided assistances in growing oil seeds on 100 hectares of land in Chitwan and Makawanpur districts. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"The farmers here are interested in the farming. So, the centre has encouraged them," she said. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16896', 'image' => '20230302101253_KA_Bharatpur-IMG_2923.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 10:11:07', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17156', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NOC to Keep Fuel Prices Unchanged', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 2: The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has sent a revised price list of petroleum products to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) by reducing the fuel prices except that of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) or cooking gas.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">March 2: The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has sent a revised price list of petroleum products to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) by reducing the fuel prices except that of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) or cooking gas.</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"">However, NOC is reluctant to reduce the fuel prices on the pretext of its accumulated losses. The NOC argued that its outstanding dues is Rs 15 billion and therefore it is not in a position to slash the fuel prices although it has adopted automatic pricing mechanism.</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"">Issuing a statement on Wednesday, NOC said that the state-owned oil monopoly has decided not to reduce the consumer price of petroleum products for the time being, even though the price of fuel except cooking gas has been reduced.</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"">NOC also made it clear that the price of cooking gas will not rise anytime soon.</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"">As per the new price sent by Indian Oil Corporation, the price of diesel has become cheaper by Rs 5 per litre, petrol by Rs 1.21 per litre, kerosene Oil by Rs 3.40 per litre and aviation fuel by Rs 7.3 per litre. On the other hand, the price of cooking gas has increased by Rs 339 per cylinder. But it will not have any impact on the general public as the NOC has decided to keep the prices unchanged. </span><br /> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16895', 'image' => '20230302100650_petroo - Copy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 10:06:07', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17158', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Jazeera Airways to Resume Regular Flights to GBIA', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 2: Jazeera Airways has announced that it will resume its scheduled flights to and from Bhairahawa-based Gautam Buddha International Airport from next week.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">March 2: Jazeera Airways has announced that it will resume its scheduled flights to and from Bhairahawa-based Gautam Buddha International Airport from next week. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Jazeera Airways is planning to operate three flights a week from Bhairahawa to Kuwait starting from March 9. The company informed that it will operate flights on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The one-way fare to Kuwait has been fixed at Rs 28,836.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Ravi Chandra Singh, general sales agent of Jazeera based in Nepal, said that the flights are going to be regularized according to Jazeera's commitment to support Gautam Buddha International Airport and the overall tourism of Nepal.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">He believes that this will help promote Lumbini as a spiritual destination, especially among Indian citizens living in the Middle East. "It will help to ensure maximum arrival at Gautam Buddha International Airport, promote tourism here and support the overall economic growth of the nation," he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">It maybe noted that Jazeera Airways was the first airlines company to start operation at the newly built airport of Nepal. However, it suspended flights during this winter citing lack of instrument landing system and poor visibility at the airport during the winter period.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16894', 'image' => '20230302102513_1677711565.4 Jajira.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 10:23:38', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17155', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Brisk Daily Walk Could Prevent One in 10 Early Deaths: Study', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 29: The currency in circulation in the market has declined by Rs 16 billion as of mid-January this year compared to the same period of last year.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Agencies</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">March 2: One in 10 early deaths could be averted if everyone engaged in a small amount of daily exercise such as a brisk 11-minute walk, according to a new study.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to AFP, physical activity is known to reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer and other leading causes of death, but exactly how much is needed to have an impact has been unclear.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“So an international team of researchers pooled together the results of 196 previous studies which included more than 30 million people to create one of the largest reviews conducted on the subject,” added the news agency.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the BBC, the research team looked at hundreds of previous studies on the benefits of physical activity and concluded that even doing half the recommended amount could prevent one in 20 cases of cardiovascular disease and nearly one in 30 cases of cancer.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">They calculated that around one in six early deaths would have been prevented if everyone in the studies had at least 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity physical activity, which is the level recommended by Britain's National Health Service. But even half that amount -- 75 minutes a week, or less than 11 minutes a day -- could prevent one in 10 of those deaths, according to the meta-analysis published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">That included a 17-percent reduction of heart disease and a seven-percent fall in cancer.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">For a person who engages in little to no physical activity, 11 minutes a day led to a 23-percent lower risk of early death.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“You don't have to be a runner or play sport to feel the benefits of exercise - fitting a brisk walk into your day is good enough,” the BBC reported referring to the suggestions made by the researchers.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Soren Brage, an expert on the epidemiology of physical activity at Britain's Cambridge University and a co-author of the study, told AFP that it was "exceptionally good news".</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"You should feel yourself moving, your heart will beat faster but you won't necessarily feel out of breath," BBC quoted Brage, who led the research, as saying.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Doing that amount is enough to reduce the risk of developing heart disease and stroke by 17% and cancer by 7%, the findings suggest.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Regular exercise reduces body fat and blood pressure while also improving fitness, sleep and heart health in the long run, added the BBC.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Meanwhile, AFP reported citing the World Health Organization that cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke killed 17.9 million people globally in 2019, while cancer accounted for nearly 10 million deaths the following year.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16893', 'image' => '20230302094823_brisk walk.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 09:46:54', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = falseinclude - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
Warning (2): simplexml_load_file() [<a href='http://php.net/function.simplexml-load-file'>function.simplexml-load-file</a>]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "" [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60]file not found!Code Context// $file = 'http://aabhiyan:QUVLg8Wzs2F7G9N7@nepalstock.com.np/api/indexdata.xml';if(!$xml = simplexml_load_file($file)){$viewFile = '/var/www/html/newbusinessage.com/app/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'articles' => array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ) ), 'current_user' => null, 'logged_in' => false ) $articles = array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17171', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Price of Gold Drops by Rs 100 Per Tola', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 3: The price of gold has declined by Rs 100 per tola (11.66 grams) on Friday and is being traded at Rs 102,500 per tola.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">March 3: The price of gold has declined by Rs 100 per tola (11.66 grams) on Friday and is being traded at Rs 102,500 per tola. The precious yellow metal was traded at Rs 102,600 per tola on the previous trading day (Thursday). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, price of worked gold has been fixed at Rs 102,000 per tola against Rs 102,100 on the previous trading day, according to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers Association. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, the price of silver has decreased Rs 5 per tola and is being traded at Rs 1,265 per tola, said the federation. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-03', 'modified' => '2023-03-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16909', 'image' => '20230303052144_gold.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-03 17:21:06', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17170', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Nepali Tea Companies Win Gold Medal in International Competition ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => ' Nepali tea producing companies have been awarded for their taste and quality in the international contest. Nepali tea companies won the gold and silver medals in “Second Tea Quality Competition in China” organized by China Tea Marketing Association from September 20 to 21, 2022.', 'content' => '<p><br /> <span style="font-size:18px">March 3: Nepali tea producing companies have been awarded for their taste and quality in the international contest. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">Nepali tea companies have won gold and silver medals in “Second Tea Quality Competition in China” organized by China Tea Marketing Association from September 20 to 21, 2022.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">At the programme organized by National Tea and Coffee Development Board in Kathmandu, the awards were distributed on Thursday. The board had collected 40 tea samples from across the country and sent 16 tea samples after test of their quality and taste to China for the competition. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">Tinjure Tea Farmer Cooperative Society Limited has bagged Pearl Golden Black tea award. Likewise, Farmer Tea Processing Industry’s FT Himalayn Gold, Himalayan Shangrila Tea Producers’ Shangrila gold, Gorkah Tea Estate Private Limited’s GTE Golden tea, Siddha Devi Tea Estate Private Limited’s Silver wings, and Kanchanjunga Organic Orthodox Tea Industry’s Golden Tips tea have won gold medals. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">In the same manner, Himalayan Shangrila Tea Producers’ Himlayan Sunrise Beauty, Shree Baraha Tea Industry’s Special black tea, Tinjure Farmer Cooperative Society Limited’s Normal Golden Black tea and Maina Pokhari Tea Processing Industry’s MP 10 Mirmire have won silver medals. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">Tea was planted in 16,917 hectares of the land and as many as 23,745 metric tons of tea was produced in the fiscal year of 2077/78 in Nepal. More than 17,000 tea farmers and over 60,000 workers are involved in the tea business at the moment.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">Nepal exported 11,920 metric tons of the tea worth Rs 3.79 billion in the last fiscal year, according to the Department of Customs. Tea farmers bemoan that they are selling their produce at low price despite its excellent quality. Nepal has a potential to export tea worth more than Rs 10 billion in a year. </span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-03', 'modified' => '2023-03-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16908', 'image' => '20230303045430_collage - 2023-03-03T165309.178.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-03 16:50:54', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17169', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Laxmi Intercontinental Launches Face-lifted Version of Grand i10 Nios,', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Laxmi Intercontinental, the authorised distributor of Hyundai vehicles in Nepal, has launched the face-lifted version of its popular model Grand i10 Nios, highlighted as 'More The Merrier'. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px">March 3: Laxmi Intercontinental, the authorised distributor of Hyundai vehicles in Nepal, has launched the face-lifted version of its popular model Grand i10 Nios, highlighted as 'More The Merrier'. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">This hatchback segment is set to take the automotive segment to a new height, due to its new and innovative irresistible combination of cutting-edge technology, high performance, attractive design, distinctive features, and thoughtful safety features that cater to the modern driver's needs, says the company in its press statement. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">With its new benchmark-setting features, the Grand i10 Nios is anticipated to become another best-selling car in the Nepali market. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">Lightbar connected by LED Tail Lights on the rear part of the car has given a distinctive looks to the car. Similarly, painted Black Radiator Grille and LED Daytime Running Lamps(DRLS) on the front of the Grand i10 Nios have made the car stylish and sporty. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">The all-new Grand i10 Nios is available in Era, Magna, and Sportz variants in MT option and Magna and Sportz in AMT option with a starting price of Rs 2.996 million.</span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-03', 'modified' => '2023-03-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16907', 'image' => '20230303040007_collage - 2023-03-03T155904.985.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-03 15:56:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17168', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Public Declaration of Defaulting on Loans is Objectionable: Bankers', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 3: Umbrella organisations of banks and financial institutions (BFIs) have expressed concerns towards public statements made by the debtors that they will not pay back the loans.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">March 3: Umbrella organisations of banks and financial institutions (BFIs) have expressed concerns towards public statements made by the debtors that they will not pay back the loans.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The BFIs have requested the government to check this troublesome trend on time.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Four umbrella organizations of BFIs issued a joint statement on Thursday and made such request to the government after attacks on bank employees and the formal declaration made by the defaulters that they will not pay back the loans.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Nepal Bankers Association, the umbrella organization of commercial banks, Development Bankers Association Nepal, the umbrella organization of development banks, Nepal Financial Institutions Association, the umbrella organization of finance companies, and Nepal Microfinance Bankers Association, the umbrella organization of microfinance companies, issued a joint statement and urged the government to control such chaotic activities.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The statement reads, “Recently, our attention has been drawn to the negative comments and agitation announced by some individuals against banks/financial and microfinance institutions and the threatening expressions and behavior to discourage bank employees. We are confident that the state's attention has gone towards controlling the incident in time.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Banks and financial institutions have collected more than Rs 5400 billion deposits from over 483 million customers’ deposit accounts and have mobilized loans of more than Rs 4800 billion through more than 1.8 million borrowers. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">This sector has created more than 530,00 direct jobs, paid more than Rs 34 billion in taxes to the state in the last fiscal year and have directly given more than Rs 10 billion to borrowers through interest rate discounts during the Covid-19 pandemic.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, in the remote areas of the country, microfinance institutions have provided services to more than 6 million depositors and more than 32 million borrowers, as well as created more than 23,000 direct jobs. Banks/financial and microfinance institutions are providing banking services subjected to the policies/instructions issued by the regulatory bodies and various laws and they are always aware of the rights and interests of their customers, added the statement.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">They say that if there is any problem, it would be beneficial to discuss with the related organizations and proceed accordingly. Similarly, by making the banking sector stronger, the associations said they are expecting the support and cooperation of all stakeholders to help the economic development of the country.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-03', 'modified' => '2023-03-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16906', 'image' => '20230303023829_Bad Loan.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-03 14:37:42', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17167', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'A Place Where Villagers have to Pay Money to Cross a River!', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 3: The locals of Bhajani Municipality of Kailali district have been dreaming of a concrete bridge for 12 years. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">March 3: The locals of Bhajani Municipality of Kailali district have been dreaming of a concrete bridge for 12 years. The locals are hopeful the once the construction of the motorable bridge gets complete, they will no longer have to pay the money just to cross a river.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">The local residents of this municipality have to pay money to cross the Kandra and other rivers. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">"One has to pay Rs 30 per day just to cross the river to visit the municipality for daily work. That means, an individual has to pay Rs 900 per month only to cross the river," said Rupak Saud, a local. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">He says that the locals will have to suffer until a concrete bridge comes into operation. Saud says that the municipality is giving them trouble by collecting money for crossing a river.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">He added that the construction company that was awarded the contract to build a bridge is making profit by delaying the construction work.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Big vehicles are made to cross the river instead of using the under-construction bridge. Another local Bhojraj Kafle says that the contractors in collusion with the local authorities collect money from vehicles while crossing the river. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">“It has been more than a decade since the construction of a concrete bridge over the Kandra River started. The middlemen are the reason why the bridge has not been built on time. There are people who collect hundreds of thousands of rupees annually in the name of river contracts," he says, "Otherwise, what is the reason that local stakeholders are not interested in the construction of the bridge?"</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">The distance between Tikapur and Dhangadhi via the Postal Highway is 75 kilometers. Traveling through Mahendra Highway (East-West Highway) takes a little longer. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Bintiram Chaudhury of Tikapur argues that the Postal Highway cannot be used right now due to the lack of a concrete bridge over the Kandra River. He said that he has to live in Kailari Rural Municipality because of his job and he has to pay for river crossing while returning home once a week.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">According to Chaudhary, the contractor says that they have paid money to the municipality to utilize the river under a contract.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Therefore, they have been charging the locals for crossing the river.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Bhajani Municipality has given Kandra River and its tributaries under a short-term contract. The contractor has been operating boats for fishing in the river. According to the municipality, the contract has been signed for one fiscal year and it has helped the municipality collect internal source of income. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Mayor Keval Chaudhary says that the situation where citizens have to pay money to cross the Kandra River will end within this year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">He said that the construction of a motorable bridge over the Kandra River along the Postal Highway is in the final stage and will come into operation in a few months. -- RSS</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-03', 'modified' => '2023-03-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16905', 'image' => '20230303012530_1677827539.कान्द्रा नदी पुल.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-03 13:24:52', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17166', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Nepali Congress in a Comfortable Position to Win Presidential Election', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 3: Senior leader Ram Chandra Paudel of the Nepali Congress, the largest party in the House of Representatives, and Subas Chandra Nembang, the vice chairman of the second largest party, CPN-UML, are all set to contest in the presidential election on March 9.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">March 3: Senior leader Ram Chandra Paudel of the Nepali Congress, the largest party in the House of Representatives, and Subas Chandra Nembang, the vice chairman of the second largest party, CPN-UML, are all set to contest in the presidential election on March 9.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">After the registration of nominees, UML has intensified attempts to canvass votes for the election. On the other hand, the Nepali Congress seems to be in a comfortable position to secure majority votes with the backup of eight political parties. A new eight-party alliance has formed under the initiative of chairman of CPN (Maoist Center) Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who is also the prime minister, after his party decided to back NC candidate instead of UML.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The victory of NC candidate Paudel in the presidential election seems certain after receiving the votes of the coalition partners.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">On the other hand, UML candidate Nembang is making attempts to turn the tide in his favour.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">As the date of the election approaches, Nembang is meeting the leaders of various parties to canvass votes. On Thursday, he met CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal and asked him to vote for him in the presidential election.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The CPN (Unified Socialist) is currently in the Nepali Congress-led eight-party alliance. The UML, which did not even want to recognize the party and did not even want to hear the name of the CPN United Socialist, sent a letter and asked for votes in favour of its candidate in the presidential election.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Similarly, Nembang also reached the office of Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) Nepal led by journalist-turned-politician Rabi Lamichhaneto to seek for votes. Not only Nembang, UML Chairman KP Oli is also asking for votes for his candidate. Oli asked National Assembly member Bamdev Gautam, who is also a former UML leader, to vote for Nembang in the presidential election.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">However, the Nepali Congress has not made much effort except to send a letter to the UML and ask for votes because the party is already enjoys majority support in parliament. Paudel, who is a strong candidate to win the presidential election with the support from eight parties, is also asking for votes. A few days ago, he met Rabi Lamichhane, chairman of the RSP Nepal and asked him to vote for him in the presidential election.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Poudel has written letters to all MPs asking for their votes. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Paudel is seeking for votes by expressing his commitment to institutionalize a democratic republic and inclusive democracy.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to the legal provisions regarding the election of the president and vice president, the presidential candidate must receive a majority of the total votes. In the event that no candidate gets the majority votes, there will be a voting again.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">How many votes with whom?</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">A total of 333 members of the Federal Parliament (House of Representatives and National Assembly) and 550 members of the Provincial Assembly will vote in the presidential election. According to the law, one vote of the federal MP will carry the weight of 79 votes. Based on this, the total vote share of 332 MPs of the Federal Parliament (the position of one MP has been vacant) will be 26,228. Rabi Lamichhane, chairman of the RSP, who was elected as a member of the House of Representatives from Chitwan-2, was suspended by the Supreme Court.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Similarly, the weight of votes of provincial assembly members is 48. Based on this, the total number of votes of the members of the provincial assembly is 26,400. That makes the total number of votes in the presidential election 52,628. On this basis, more than 26,314 votes are required to be elected as the president. The Congress-led eight-party alliance has 31,821 votes. In this situation, Nembang will get 20,807 votes even if he gets the votes of all the others parties outside the eight-party alliance.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-03', 'modified' => '2023-03-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16904', 'image' => '20230303113033_1677758905.President 1.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-03 11:29:54', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17165', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Forms High-Level Taskforce to Study Cyber Security', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 3: The government has formed a high-level committee to prepare a comprehensive report on cyber security by incorporating issues related to policy, law, structure and process and making suggestions accordingly. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">March 3: The government has formed a high-level committee to prepare a comprehensive report on cyber security by incorporating issues related to policy, law, structure and process and making suggestions accordingly. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The high-level taskforce was formed as per the decision of cabinet meeting on February 27 in response to the proposal presented by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. The taskforce has been given a month's time to submit the report. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Information Ministry Secretary Dr Baikuntha Aryal said on Thursday that IT expert Juddha Bahadur Gurung has been appointed as the coordinator of the committee.</span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Other members of the committee are Baburam Dawadi, Saroj Lamichhane, Mona Nyachchho, Prakash Rayamajhi and Bijay Gautam. Besides coordinator Gurung, all other members of the taskforce are from the Nepalese Army and the Nepal Police. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The taskforce was handed over the responsibility amidst a programme at the ministry on Thursday. Addressing the programme, Minister for Communications and Information Technology Rekha Sharma said the ministry took the initiative to prepare the law and policy on cyber security after the country faced series of threats on this subject. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">She argued that cyber security is in the state's priority list because the country lacks proper regulations despite the use of all sorts of technologies available. </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"">"If cyber security policy is formulated and put in place with budget allocation on time, it would be a significant achievement in the sector of cyber security," she said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Secretary Aryal shared that the committee will not just undertake a general study of the pertinent issue, but conduct a comprehensive analysis which could be incorporated in the government policy, programmes and budget. “So, the taskforce has been given a significant responsibility,” he stressed. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On February 27, the cabinet had decided to manage the data of all government bodies and IT systems in the integrated data centre. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The taskforce will carry out a thorough study on problems of data management in the integrated data centre, reasons behind problems, flaws and measures to solve the problems. It will make recommendations at technical, human and managerial levels. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-03', 'modified' => '2023-03-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16903', 'image' => '20230303104736_Cybersecurity-importance - Copy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-03 10:46:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17163', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'CD Ratio of Commercial Banks Start to Drop', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 2: After the tight monetary policy adopted by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) reduced credit expansion, the credit-deposit ratio (CD ratio) of commercial banks finally started to decline.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">March 2: After the tight monetary policy adopted by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) reduced credit expansion, the credit-deposit ratio (CD ratio) of commercial banks finally started to decline. After the ease in CD ratio of the banks, which have been facing liquidity problem since the last fiscal year, their additional credit expansion capacity has reached more than Rs 175 billion.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to NRB, the total deposits of banks and financial institutes (BFIs) have reached Rs 5377 billion as of Monday.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Out of this amount, commercial banks have deposits of Rs 4740 billion. With the average CD ratio of only 86.22 percent, they have the ability to extend loans of more than Rs 175 billion. As instructed by NRB, banks should maintain CD ratio within 90 percent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the data published up to the period of mid-January of the current FY by NRB, the CD ratio of most of the commercial banks looks good. Among the 22 commercial banks in operation during this period, only Kumari Bank's CD ratio is higher than the limit set by NRB. Similarly, the CD ratio of Global IME Bank and Nabil Bank is close to 90 percent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Standard Chartered Bank has the lowest CD ratio at 78.73 percent. Apart from this, NRB informed that the CD ratio of Rastriya Banijya Bank, Nepal Bank, Sanima Bank and SBI Bank is less than 85 percent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Sunil KC, president of Nepal Bankers Association and CEO of NMB Bank, the CD ratio of banks has eased because the banks have not disbursed loans despite to good deposits mainly because of remittance inflow. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> “Currently the CD ratio has eased as there is no demand for new loans in banks. Only small investments are being made to the customers and deposit growth rate is good as well. In recent times, loans have become expensive along with the lack of liquidity, deterring industrialists from taking new loans from banks. The industrialists are in a wait-and-watch state as there is also a movement against the banks’ interest rates,” said KC, adding, “Similarly, due to the impact of Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine tension, inflation has risen and economic activity has decreased, so the demand for loans in the market is low. However, since the rate of inflation has been decreasing recently and the economic indicators are easing, the bankers expect credit to expand gradually.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> KC says that the interest rates on bank deposits have started to decrease and borrowers will get relief by the next quarter. He said that the interest rate will also decrease due to the concession given by NRB by reducing the spread rate and bank rate.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">After much criticism over the high interest rates of banks, NRB announced to reduce the spread rate of the banks through the first quarter review of the monetary policy of the current fiscal year. It issued instructions mid-December and asked banks to reduce the spread rate in two stages. According to the instructions, commercial banks will have to reduce the spread rate to 4.2 percent from mid-March 2023 and development banks and finance companies will have to reduce it to 4.8 percent. From mid-June 2023, commercial banks have to apply 4 percent spread rate and development banks and finance companies have to apply 4.6 percent. By reducing the spread rate till mid-April, the interest rate on loan will decline from mid-April.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Likewise, NRB reduced the overnight repo interest rate by 1.5 percentage points to 7.5 percent from the half-yearly review of monetary policy. It is also expected that the cost of capital of banks will decrease and the interest rate will decrease to some extent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Anil Sharma, CEO of Bankers' Association said, “Now there is no room for banks' interest rates to go up. The policy concession given by NRB will also reduce the interest rate, but they will have to wait until the next quarter.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16901', 'image' => '20230302061305_Banks.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 18:12:24', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17162', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' DPM Shrestha to Leave for Doha to Participate in LDCs Conference on Friday ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Narayan Kaji Shrestha will be leaving for Doha of Qatar to take part in the Conference of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) on Friday. ', 'content' => '<p> </p> <p>March 3: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Narayan Kaji Shrestha will be leaving for Doha of Qatar to take part in the Conference of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) on Friday. </p> <p>According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Deputy Prime Minister will be leading the Nepali delegation to the Fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to be held in Doha, the State of Qatar, from 5 to 9 March, 2023. </p> <p>Prior to the event, the Deputy Prime Minister will address the Summit of the LDC Group to be held on the 4th of March, coordinated by Malawi, the current chair of the LDC group. </p> <p>Nepal is scheduled to take the chairmanship of the group of LDCs this year. In Doha, the Deputy Prime Minister Shrestha is scheduled to address the plenary session of the Conference and hold bilateral meetings with delegations from different countries and organizations. </p> <p>Minister Shrestha will also interact with the representatives of the organizations of Nepali diaspora. The Nepali delegation will include Dr. Min Bahadur Shrestha, Vice-chairman of National Planning Commission, lawmaker Jitendra Narayan Dev, government secretaries and the ambassador of Nepal to the State of Qatar and other senior officials. The Deputy Prime Minister will return from Doha on March 7. ---RSS <br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16900', 'image' => '20230302055454_collage - 2023-03-02T174415.054.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 17:52:35', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17161', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NEPSE Index Falls for Fourth Consecutive Day', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 2: The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) index fell for four consecutive days this week.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">March 2: The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) index fell for four consecutive days this week.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The market fell by 26.48 points on the last trading day of the week to close at 1,969.01 points. In the four trading days, the index dropped by 58.18 points. Lately there has been some instability in Nepali politics. With the exit of the UML from the coalition government, the finance minister, who was liked by investors, also quit. Investors are wondering whether the stock market has fallen due to political instability.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Experts say that the political influence on the stock market will be temporary. Although the liquidity in the financial system has improved in recent days, the interest rate on loans has not decreased. In a short period of time, the market rose from 1800 points to 2200 points and started to fall. During this period, traders made good fortune. Now, the traders plan to make investment in the stock market only when the market falls to the lowest point.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">A total of 3,657,154 units of shares of 256 companies were traded on Thursday. The daily turnover on Thursday stood at Rs 1.33 billion.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In the intra-day trading, 194 companies lost in their market values while 19 made gains.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">All the 13 trading sub groups lost in their market values on Thursday. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The index of microfinance group decreased the most by 2.64 percent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Among individual companies, Himalayan Distillery Limited had the largest transaction of its shares worth Rs 81.28 million. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Meanwhile, Global IME microfinance shareholders lost the most on Thursday. The share price of the company decreased by 7 percent. Buddha Bhumi Nepal Hydropower Company Limited gained the highest percent of its market value by 4.29 percent.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16899', 'image' => '20230302054129_1677749961.market down.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 17:40:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17159', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'India to Construct Big Hydropower Project near China', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 2: India has given permission for the construction of a hydropower project near the Chinese border. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">March 2: India has given permission for the construction of a hydropower project near the Chinese border. This project is India's largest hydropower project so far. To meet the growing demand for energy, India is trying to increase the production of hydropower, solar and other energies. Meanwhile, the Daibang project to be built in the northeastern Himalayan region of Arunachal Pradesh near the border with China has been approved by the Indian government. It is estimated that an investment of INR 319 billion (USD 3.90 billion) will be invested in this 2800 megawatt project entrusted to the state-owed hydropower company NHPC Limited.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">It is estimated that the project will take about nine years to complete. India, which is mainly dependent on coal for electricity, is trying to increase renewable energy sources. Due to occasional interruptions in the supply of electricity from solar and wind energy, it is seeking to increase renewable energy for stable supply. However, the project has been delayed due to the prospect of large-scale damage that the dam construction could cause to the environment and the fact that the community would have to be relocated.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">This project will be built in an area of more than 5000 hectares of forest. Therefore, like other projects, it seems that it has to face a lot of opposition. Due to local opposition and geographical difficulties, it can be hoped that the target will be achieved in nine years. Non-profit organizations have been saying that the cost of the project is very high but the profit is very low. In the Himalayan region of India, projects have been running for years as they are not completed within the stipulated time. There is ample room to doubt whether this hydroelectric project will be completed on time. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16897', 'image' => '20230302031613_hydro.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 15:14:25', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17157', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Farmers of Chitwan Attracted to Sunflower Farming ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 2: Farmers of Chitwan district have been attracted to sunflower farming of late. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">March 2: Farmers of Chitwan district have been attracted to sunflower farming of late. A group of farmers have collectively grown sunflowers on around three bighas of land at Sripur of Bharatpur Metropolitan City-15, said Chandra Prasad Adhikari, one of the farmers.</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 Agriculture Knowledge Centre (AKC), Chitwan has extended its support by providing seeds, fertilizers and irrigation facility, he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">They have also grown mustard in around two bighas of land. Adhikari started the farming 10 years ago with a break for some years in between. Again, we together started organic sunflower farming, he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"I started with carrot farming in 2032 BS. I quit agriculture some years in between. Carrot production is higher. But, it lacks market value," he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It does not require much investment for sunflower farming. So, the farmers here have been attracted to it, added Adhikari. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Farmers can supply healthier sunflower oil to consumers at a fair value, and it helps discourage inedible cooking oil in the market, he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The farming has also attracted tourists and TikTokers alike. </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"">"With sunflower blooming, tourists and TikTokers have visited here. We charge them Rs 100 each for the entry fee. We feel good to have them here," he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Around 65 beehives have been also kept in the sunflower field for honey production, he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The AKC's agriculture officer Suruchi Tripathi said the centre provided assistances in growing oil seeds on 100 hectares of land in Chitwan and Makawanpur districts. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"The farmers here are interested in the farming. So, the centre has encouraged them," she said. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16896', 'image' => '20230302101253_KA_Bharatpur-IMG_2923.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 10:11:07', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17156', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NOC to Keep Fuel Prices Unchanged', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 2: The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has sent a revised price list of petroleum products to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) by reducing the fuel prices except that of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) or cooking gas.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">March 2: The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has sent a revised price list of petroleum products to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) by reducing the fuel prices except that of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) or cooking gas.</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"">However, NOC is reluctant to reduce the fuel prices on the pretext of its accumulated losses. The NOC argued that its outstanding dues is Rs 15 billion and therefore it is not in a position to slash the fuel prices although it has adopted automatic pricing mechanism.</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"">Issuing a statement on Wednesday, NOC said that the state-owned oil monopoly has decided not to reduce the consumer price of petroleum products for the time being, even though the price of fuel except cooking gas has been reduced.</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"">NOC also made it clear that the price of cooking gas will not rise anytime soon.</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"">As per the new price sent by Indian Oil Corporation, the price of diesel has become cheaper by Rs 5 per litre, petrol by Rs 1.21 per litre, kerosene Oil by Rs 3.40 per litre and aviation fuel by Rs 7.3 per litre. On the other hand, the price of cooking gas has increased by Rs 339 per cylinder. But it will not have any impact on the general public as the NOC has decided to keep the prices unchanged. </span><br /> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16895', 'image' => '20230302100650_petroo - Copy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 10:06:07', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17158', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Jazeera Airways to Resume Regular Flights to GBIA', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 2: Jazeera Airways has announced that it will resume its scheduled flights to and from Bhairahawa-based Gautam Buddha International Airport from next week.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">March 2: Jazeera Airways has announced that it will resume its scheduled flights to and from Bhairahawa-based Gautam Buddha International Airport from next week. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Jazeera Airways is planning to operate three flights a week from Bhairahawa to Kuwait starting from March 9. The company informed that it will operate flights on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The one-way fare to Kuwait has been fixed at Rs 28,836.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Ravi Chandra Singh, general sales agent of Jazeera based in Nepal, said that the flights are going to be regularized according to Jazeera's commitment to support Gautam Buddha International Airport and the overall tourism of Nepal.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">He believes that this will help promote Lumbini as a spiritual destination, especially among Indian citizens living in the Middle East. "It will help to ensure maximum arrival at Gautam Buddha International Airport, promote tourism here and support the overall economic growth of the nation," he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">It maybe noted that Jazeera Airways was the first airlines company to start operation at the newly built airport of Nepal. However, it suspended flights during this winter citing lack of instrument landing system and poor visibility at the airport during the winter period.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16894', 'image' => '20230302102513_1677711565.4 Jajira.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 10:23:38', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17155', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Brisk Daily Walk Could Prevent One in 10 Early Deaths: Study', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 29: The currency in circulation in the market has declined by Rs 16 billion as of mid-January this year compared to the same period of last year.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Agencies</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">March 2: One in 10 early deaths could be averted if everyone engaged in a small amount of daily exercise such as a brisk 11-minute walk, according to a new study.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to AFP, physical activity is known to reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer and other leading causes of death, but exactly how much is needed to have an impact has been unclear.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“So an international team of researchers pooled together the results of 196 previous studies which included more than 30 million people to create one of the largest reviews conducted on the subject,” added the news agency.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the BBC, the research team looked at hundreds of previous studies on the benefits of physical activity and concluded that even doing half the recommended amount could prevent one in 20 cases of cardiovascular disease and nearly one in 30 cases of cancer.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">They calculated that around one in six early deaths would have been prevented if everyone in the studies had at least 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity physical activity, which is the level recommended by Britain's National Health Service. But even half that amount -- 75 minutes a week, or less than 11 minutes a day -- could prevent one in 10 of those deaths, according to the meta-analysis published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">That included a 17-percent reduction of heart disease and a seven-percent fall in cancer.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">For a person who engages in little to no physical activity, 11 minutes a day led to a 23-percent lower risk of early death.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“You don't have to be a runner or play sport to feel the benefits of exercise - fitting a brisk walk into your day is good enough,” the BBC reported referring to the suggestions made by the researchers.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Soren Brage, an expert on the epidemiology of physical activity at Britain's Cambridge University and a co-author of the study, told AFP that it was "exceptionally good news".</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"You should feel yourself moving, your heart will beat faster but you won't necessarily feel out of breath," BBC quoted Brage, who led the research, as saying.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Doing that amount is enough to reduce the risk of developing heart disease and stroke by 17% and cancer by 7%, the findings suggest.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Regular exercise reduces body fat and blood pressure while also improving fitness, sleep and heart health in the long run, added the BBC.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Meanwhile, AFP reported citing the World Health Organization that cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke killed 17.9 million people globally in 2019, while cancer accounted for nearly 10 million deaths the following year.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16893', 'image' => '20230302094823_brisk walk.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 09:46:54', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = falsesimplexml_load_file - [internal], line ?? include - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
Notice (8): Undefined variable: file [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133]Code Context// $file = 'http://aabhiyan:QUVLg8Wzs2F7G9N7@nepalstock.com.np/api/subindexdata.xml';if(!$xml = simplexml_load_file($file)){$viewFile = '/var/www/html/newbusinessage.com/app/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'articles' => array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ) ), 'current_user' => null, 'logged_in' => false ) $articles = array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17171', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Price of Gold Drops by Rs 100 Per Tola', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 3: The price of gold has declined by Rs 100 per tola (11.66 grams) on Friday and is being traded at Rs 102,500 per tola.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">March 3: The price of gold has declined by Rs 100 per tola (11.66 grams) on Friday and is being traded at Rs 102,500 per tola. The precious yellow metal was traded at Rs 102,600 per tola on the previous trading day (Thursday). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, price of worked gold has been fixed at Rs 102,000 per tola against Rs 102,100 on the previous trading day, according to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers Association. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, the price of silver has decreased Rs 5 per tola and is being traded at Rs 1,265 per tola, said the federation. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-03', 'modified' => '2023-03-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16909', 'image' => '20230303052144_gold.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-03 17:21:06', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17170', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Nepali Tea Companies Win Gold Medal in International Competition ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => ' Nepali tea producing companies have been awarded for their taste and quality in the international contest. Nepali tea companies won the gold and silver medals in “Second Tea Quality Competition in China” organized by China Tea Marketing Association from September 20 to 21, 2022.', 'content' => '<p><br /> <span style="font-size:18px">March 3: Nepali tea producing companies have been awarded for their taste and quality in the international contest. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">Nepali tea companies have won gold and silver medals in “Second Tea Quality Competition in China” organized by China Tea Marketing Association from September 20 to 21, 2022.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">At the programme organized by National Tea and Coffee Development Board in Kathmandu, the awards were distributed on Thursday. The board had collected 40 tea samples from across the country and sent 16 tea samples after test of their quality and taste to China for the competition. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">Tinjure Tea Farmer Cooperative Society Limited has bagged Pearl Golden Black tea award. Likewise, Farmer Tea Processing Industry’s FT Himalayn Gold, Himalayan Shangrila Tea Producers’ Shangrila gold, Gorkah Tea Estate Private Limited’s GTE Golden tea, Siddha Devi Tea Estate Private Limited’s Silver wings, and Kanchanjunga Organic Orthodox Tea Industry’s Golden Tips tea have won gold medals. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">In the same manner, Himalayan Shangrila Tea Producers’ Himlayan Sunrise Beauty, Shree Baraha Tea Industry’s Special black tea, Tinjure Farmer Cooperative Society Limited’s Normal Golden Black tea and Maina Pokhari Tea Processing Industry’s MP 10 Mirmire have won silver medals. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">Tea was planted in 16,917 hectares of the land and as many as 23,745 metric tons of tea was produced in the fiscal year of 2077/78 in Nepal. More than 17,000 tea farmers and over 60,000 workers are involved in the tea business at the moment.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">Nepal exported 11,920 metric tons of the tea worth Rs 3.79 billion in the last fiscal year, according to the Department of Customs. Tea farmers bemoan that they are selling their produce at low price despite its excellent quality. Nepal has a potential to export tea worth more than Rs 10 billion in a year. </span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-03', 'modified' => '2023-03-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16908', 'image' => '20230303045430_collage - 2023-03-03T165309.178.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-03 16:50:54', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17169', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Laxmi Intercontinental Launches Face-lifted Version of Grand i10 Nios,', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Laxmi Intercontinental, the authorised distributor of Hyundai vehicles in Nepal, has launched the face-lifted version of its popular model Grand i10 Nios, highlighted as 'More The Merrier'. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px">March 3: Laxmi Intercontinental, the authorised distributor of Hyundai vehicles in Nepal, has launched the face-lifted version of its popular model Grand i10 Nios, highlighted as 'More The Merrier'. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">This hatchback segment is set to take the automotive segment to a new height, due to its new and innovative irresistible combination of cutting-edge technology, high performance, attractive design, distinctive features, and thoughtful safety features that cater to the modern driver's needs, says the company in its press statement. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">With its new benchmark-setting features, the Grand i10 Nios is anticipated to become another best-selling car in the Nepali market. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">Lightbar connected by LED Tail Lights on the rear part of the car has given a distinctive looks to the car. Similarly, painted Black Radiator Grille and LED Daytime Running Lamps(DRLS) on the front of the Grand i10 Nios have made the car stylish and sporty. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">The all-new Grand i10 Nios is available in Era, Magna, and Sportz variants in MT option and Magna and Sportz in AMT option with a starting price of Rs 2.996 million.</span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-03', 'modified' => '2023-03-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16907', 'image' => '20230303040007_collage - 2023-03-03T155904.985.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-03 15:56:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17168', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Public Declaration of Defaulting on Loans is Objectionable: Bankers', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 3: Umbrella organisations of banks and financial institutions (BFIs) have expressed concerns towards public statements made by the debtors that they will not pay back the loans.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">March 3: Umbrella organisations of banks and financial institutions (BFIs) have expressed concerns towards public statements made by the debtors that they will not pay back the loans.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The BFIs have requested the government to check this troublesome trend on time.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Four umbrella organizations of BFIs issued a joint statement on Thursday and made such request to the government after attacks on bank employees and the formal declaration made by the defaulters that they will not pay back the loans.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Nepal Bankers Association, the umbrella organization of commercial banks, Development Bankers Association Nepal, the umbrella organization of development banks, Nepal Financial Institutions Association, the umbrella organization of finance companies, and Nepal Microfinance Bankers Association, the umbrella organization of microfinance companies, issued a joint statement and urged the government to control such chaotic activities.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The statement reads, “Recently, our attention has been drawn to the negative comments and agitation announced by some individuals against banks/financial and microfinance institutions and the threatening expressions and behavior to discourage bank employees. We are confident that the state's attention has gone towards controlling the incident in time.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Banks and financial institutions have collected more than Rs 5400 billion deposits from over 483 million customers’ deposit accounts and have mobilized loans of more than Rs 4800 billion through more than 1.8 million borrowers. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">This sector has created more than 530,00 direct jobs, paid more than Rs 34 billion in taxes to the state in the last fiscal year and have directly given more than Rs 10 billion to borrowers through interest rate discounts during the Covid-19 pandemic.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, in the remote areas of the country, microfinance institutions have provided services to more than 6 million depositors and more than 32 million borrowers, as well as created more than 23,000 direct jobs. Banks/financial and microfinance institutions are providing banking services subjected to the policies/instructions issued by the regulatory bodies and various laws and they are always aware of the rights and interests of their customers, added the statement.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">They say that if there is any problem, it would be beneficial to discuss with the related organizations and proceed accordingly. Similarly, by making the banking sector stronger, the associations said they are expecting the support and cooperation of all stakeholders to help the economic development of the country.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-03', 'modified' => '2023-03-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16906', 'image' => '20230303023829_Bad Loan.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-03 14:37:42', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17167', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'A Place Where Villagers have to Pay Money to Cross a River!', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 3: The locals of Bhajani Municipality of Kailali district have been dreaming of a concrete bridge for 12 years. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">March 3: The locals of Bhajani Municipality of Kailali district have been dreaming of a concrete bridge for 12 years. The locals are hopeful the once the construction of the motorable bridge gets complete, they will no longer have to pay the money just to cross a river.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">The local residents of this municipality have to pay money to cross the Kandra and other rivers. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">"One has to pay Rs 30 per day just to cross the river to visit the municipality for daily work. That means, an individual has to pay Rs 900 per month only to cross the river," said Rupak Saud, a local. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">He says that the locals will have to suffer until a concrete bridge comes into operation. Saud says that the municipality is giving them trouble by collecting money for crossing a river.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">He added that the construction company that was awarded the contract to build a bridge is making profit by delaying the construction work.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Big vehicles are made to cross the river instead of using the under-construction bridge. Another local Bhojraj Kafle says that the contractors in collusion with the local authorities collect money from vehicles while crossing the river. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">“It has been more than a decade since the construction of a concrete bridge over the Kandra River started. The middlemen are the reason why the bridge has not been built on time. There are people who collect hundreds of thousands of rupees annually in the name of river contracts," he says, "Otherwise, what is the reason that local stakeholders are not interested in the construction of the bridge?"</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">The distance between Tikapur and Dhangadhi via the Postal Highway is 75 kilometers. Traveling through Mahendra Highway (East-West Highway) takes a little longer. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Bintiram Chaudhury of Tikapur argues that the Postal Highway cannot be used right now due to the lack of a concrete bridge over the Kandra River. He said that he has to live in Kailari Rural Municipality because of his job and he has to pay for river crossing while returning home once a week.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">According to Chaudhary, the contractor says that they have paid money to the municipality to utilize the river under a contract.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Therefore, they have been charging the locals for crossing the river.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Bhajani Municipality has given Kandra River and its tributaries under a short-term contract. The contractor has been operating boats for fishing in the river. According to the municipality, the contract has been signed for one fiscal year and it has helped the municipality collect internal source of income. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Mayor Keval Chaudhary says that the situation where citizens have to pay money to cross the Kandra River will end within this year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">He said that the construction of a motorable bridge over the Kandra River along the Postal Highway is in the final stage and will come into operation in a few months. -- RSS</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-03', 'modified' => '2023-03-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16905', 'image' => '20230303012530_1677827539.कान्द्रा नदी पुल.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-03 13:24:52', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17166', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Nepali Congress in a Comfortable Position to Win Presidential Election', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 3: Senior leader Ram Chandra Paudel of the Nepali Congress, the largest party in the House of Representatives, and Subas Chandra Nembang, the vice chairman of the second largest party, CPN-UML, are all set to contest in the presidential election on March 9.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">March 3: Senior leader Ram Chandra Paudel of the Nepali Congress, the largest party in the House of Representatives, and Subas Chandra Nembang, the vice chairman of the second largest party, CPN-UML, are all set to contest in the presidential election on March 9.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">After the registration of nominees, UML has intensified attempts to canvass votes for the election. On the other hand, the Nepali Congress seems to be in a comfortable position to secure majority votes with the backup of eight political parties. A new eight-party alliance has formed under the initiative of chairman of CPN (Maoist Center) Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who is also the prime minister, after his party decided to back NC candidate instead of UML.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The victory of NC candidate Paudel in the presidential election seems certain after receiving the votes of the coalition partners.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">On the other hand, UML candidate Nembang is making attempts to turn the tide in his favour.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">As the date of the election approaches, Nembang is meeting the leaders of various parties to canvass votes. On Thursday, he met CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal and asked him to vote for him in the presidential election.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The CPN (Unified Socialist) is currently in the Nepali Congress-led eight-party alliance. The UML, which did not even want to recognize the party and did not even want to hear the name of the CPN United Socialist, sent a letter and asked for votes in favour of its candidate in the presidential election.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Similarly, Nembang also reached the office of Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) Nepal led by journalist-turned-politician Rabi Lamichhaneto to seek for votes. Not only Nembang, UML Chairman KP Oli is also asking for votes for his candidate. Oli asked National Assembly member Bamdev Gautam, who is also a former UML leader, to vote for Nembang in the presidential election.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">However, the Nepali Congress has not made much effort except to send a letter to the UML and ask for votes because the party is already enjoys majority support in parliament. Paudel, who is a strong candidate to win the presidential election with the support from eight parties, is also asking for votes. A few days ago, he met Rabi Lamichhane, chairman of the RSP Nepal and asked him to vote for him in the presidential election.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Poudel has written letters to all MPs asking for their votes. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Paudel is seeking for votes by expressing his commitment to institutionalize a democratic republic and inclusive democracy.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to the legal provisions regarding the election of the president and vice president, the presidential candidate must receive a majority of the total votes. In the event that no candidate gets the majority votes, there will be a voting again.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">How many votes with whom?</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">A total of 333 members of the Federal Parliament (House of Representatives and National Assembly) and 550 members of the Provincial Assembly will vote in the presidential election. According to the law, one vote of the federal MP will carry the weight of 79 votes. Based on this, the total vote share of 332 MPs of the Federal Parliament (the position of one MP has been vacant) will be 26,228. Rabi Lamichhane, chairman of the RSP, who was elected as a member of the House of Representatives from Chitwan-2, was suspended by the Supreme Court.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Similarly, the weight of votes of provincial assembly members is 48. Based on this, the total number of votes of the members of the provincial assembly is 26,400. That makes the total number of votes in the presidential election 52,628. On this basis, more than 26,314 votes are required to be elected as the president. The Congress-led eight-party alliance has 31,821 votes. In this situation, Nembang will get 20,807 votes even if he gets the votes of all the others parties outside the eight-party alliance.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-03', 'modified' => '2023-03-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16904', 'image' => '20230303113033_1677758905.President 1.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-03 11:29:54', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17165', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Forms High-Level Taskforce to Study Cyber Security', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 3: The government has formed a high-level committee to prepare a comprehensive report on cyber security by incorporating issues related to policy, law, structure and process and making suggestions accordingly. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">March 3: The government has formed a high-level committee to prepare a comprehensive report on cyber security by incorporating issues related to policy, law, structure and process and making suggestions accordingly. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The high-level taskforce was formed as per the decision of cabinet meeting on February 27 in response to the proposal presented by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. The taskforce has been given a month's time to submit the report. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Information Ministry Secretary Dr Baikuntha Aryal said on Thursday that IT expert Juddha Bahadur Gurung has been appointed as the coordinator of the committee.</span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Other members of the committee are Baburam Dawadi, Saroj Lamichhane, Mona Nyachchho, Prakash Rayamajhi and Bijay Gautam. Besides coordinator Gurung, all other members of the taskforce are from the Nepalese Army and the Nepal Police. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The taskforce was handed over the responsibility amidst a programme at the ministry on Thursday. Addressing the programme, Minister for Communications and Information Technology Rekha Sharma said the ministry took the initiative to prepare the law and policy on cyber security after the country faced series of threats on this subject. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">She argued that cyber security is in the state's priority list because the country lacks proper regulations despite the use of all sorts of technologies available. </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"">"If cyber security policy is formulated and put in place with budget allocation on time, it would be a significant achievement in the sector of cyber security," she said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Secretary Aryal shared that the committee will not just undertake a general study of the pertinent issue, but conduct a comprehensive analysis which could be incorporated in the government policy, programmes and budget. “So, the taskforce has been given a significant responsibility,” he stressed. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On February 27, the cabinet had decided to manage the data of all government bodies and IT systems in the integrated data centre. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The taskforce will carry out a thorough study on problems of data management in the integrated data centre, reasons behind problems, flaws and measures to solve the problems. It will make recommendations at technical, human and managerial levels. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-03', 'modified' => '2023-03-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16903', 'image' => '20230303104736_Cybersecurity-importance - Copy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-03 10:46:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17163', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'CD Ratio of Commercial Banks Start to Drop', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 2: After the tight monetary policy adopted by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) reduced credit expansion, the credit-deposit ratio (CD ratio) of commercial banks finally started to decline.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">March 2: After the tight monetary policy adopted by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) reduced credit expansion, the credit-deposit ratio (CD ratio) of commercial banks finally started to decline. After the ease in CD ratio of the banks, which have been facing liquidity problem since the last fiscal year, their additional credit expansion capacity has reached more than Rs 175 billion.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to NRB, the total deposits of banks and financial institutes (BFIs) have reached Rs 5377 billion as of Monday.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Out of this amount, commercial banks have deposits of Rs 4740 billion. With the average CD ratio of only 86.22 percent, they have the ability to extend loans of more than Rs 175 billion. As instructed by NRB, banks should maintain CD ratio within 90 percent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the data published up to the period of mid-January of the current FY by NRB, the CD ratio of most of the commercial banks looks good. Among the 22 commercial banks in operation during this period, only Kumari Bank's CD ratio is higher than the limit set by NRB. Similarly, the CD ratio of Global IME Bank and Nabil Bank is close to 90 percent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Standard Chartered Bank has the lowest CD ratio at 78.73 percent. Apart from this, NRB informed that the CD ratio of Rastriya Banijya Bank, Nepal Bank, Sanima Bank and SBI Bank is less than 85 percent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Sunil KC, president of Nepal Bankers Association and CEO of NMB Bank, the CD ratio of banks has eased because the banks have not disbursed loans despite to good deposits mainly because of remittance inflow. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> “Currently the CD ratio has eased as there is no demand for new loans in banks. Only small investments are being made to the customers and deposit growth rate is good as well. In recent times, loans have become expensive along with the lack of liquidity, deterring industrialists from taking new loans from banks. The industrialists are in a wait-and-watch state as there is also a movement against the banks’ interest rates,” said KC, adding, “Similarly, due to the impact of Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine tension, inflation has risen and economic activity has decreased, so the demand for loans in the market is low. However, since the rate of inflation has been decreasing recently and the economic indicators are easing, the bankers expect credit to expand gradually.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> KC says that the interest rates on bank deposits have started to decrease and borrowers will get relief by the next quarter. He said that the interest rate will also decrease due to the concession given by NRB by reducing the spread rate and bank rate.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">After much criticism over the high interest rates of banks, NRB announced to reduce the spread rate of the banks through the first quarter review of the monetary policy of the current fiscal year. It issued instructions mid-December and asked banks to reduce the spread rate in two stages. According to the instructions, commercial banks will have to reduce the spread rate to 4.2 percent from mid-March 2023 and development banks and finance companies will have to reduce it to 4.8 percent. From mid-June 2023, commercial banks have to apply 4 percent spread rate and development banks and finance companies have to apply 4.6 percent. By reducing the spread rate till mid-April, the interest rate on loan will decline from mid-April.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Likewise, NRB reduced the overnight repo interest rate by 1.5 percentage points to 7.5 percent from the half-yearly review of monetary policy. It is also expected that the cost of capital of banks will decrease and the interest rate will decrease to some extent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Anil Sharma, CEO of Bankers' Association said, “Now there is no room for banks' interest rates to go up. The policy concession given by NRB will also reduce the interest rate, but they will have to wait until the next quarter.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16901', 'image' => '20230302061305_Banks.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 18:12:24', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17162', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' DPM Shrestha to Leave for Doha to Participate in LDCs Conference on Friday ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Narayan Kaji Shrestha will be leaving for Doha of Qatar to take part in the Conference of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) on Friday. ', 'content' => '<p> </p> <p>March 3: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Narayan Kaji Shrestha will be leaving for Doha of Qatar to take part in the Conference of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) on Friday. </p> <p>According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Deputy Prime Minister will be leading the Nepali delegation to the Fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to be held in Doha, the State of Qatar, from 5 to 9 March, 2023. </p> <p>Prior to the event, the Deputy Prime Minister will address the Summit of the LDC Group to be held on the 4th of March, coordinated by Malawi, the current chair of the LDC group. </p> <p>Nepal is scheduled to take the chairmanship of the group of LDCs this year. In Doha, the Deputy Prime Minister Shrestha is scheduled to address the plenary session of the Conference and hold bilateral meetings with delegations from different countries and organizations. </p> <p>Minister Shrestha will also interact with the representatives of the organizations of Nepali diaspora. The Nepali delegation will include Dr. Min Bahadur Shrestha, Vice-chairman of National Planning Commission, lawmaker Jitendra Narayan Dev, government secretaries and the ambassador of Nepal to the State of Qatar and other senior officials. The Deputy Prime Minister will return from Doha on March 7. ---RSS <br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16900', 'image' => '20230302055454_collage - 2023-03-02T174415.054.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 17:52:35', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17161', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NEPSE Index Falls for Fourth Consecutive Day', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 2: The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) index fell for four consecutive days this week.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">March 2: The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) index fell for four consecutive days this week.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The market fell by 26.48 points on the last trading day of the week to close at 1,969.01 points. In the four trading days, the index dropped by 58.18 points. Lately there has been some instability in Nepali politics. With the exit of the UML from the coalition government, the finance minister, who was liked by investors, also quit. Investors are wondering whether the stock market has fallen due to political instability.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Experts say that the political influence on the stock market will be temporary. Although the liquidity in the financial system has improved in recent days, the interest rate on loans has not decreased. In a short period of time, the market rose from 1800 points to 2200 points and started to fall. During this period, traders made good fortune. Now, the traders plan to make investment in the stock market only when the market falls to the lowest point.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">A total of 3,657,154 units of shares of 256 companies were traded on Thursday. The daily turnover on Thursday stood at Rs 1.33 billion.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In the intra-day trading, 194 companies lost in their market values while 19 made gains.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">All the 13 trading sub groups lost in their market values on Thursday. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The index of microfinance group decreased the most by 2.64 percent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Among individual companies, Himalayan Distillery Limited had the largest transaction of its shares worth Rs 81.28 million. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Meanwhile, Global IME microfinance shareholders lost the most on Thursday. The share price of the company decreased by 7 percent. Buddha Bhumi Nepal Hydropower Company Limited gained the highest percent of its market value by 4.29 percent.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16899', 'image' => '20230302054129_1677749961.market down.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 17:40:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17159', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'India to Construct Big Hydropower Project near China', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 2: India has given permission for the construction of a hydropower project near the Chinese border. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">March 2: India has given permission for the construction of a hydropower project near the Chinese border. This project is India's largest hydropower project so far. To meet the growing demand for energy, India is trying to increase the production of hydropower, solar and other energies. Meanwhile, the Daibang project to be built in the northeastern Himalayan region of Arunachal Pradesh near the border with China has been approved by the Indian government. It is estimated that an investment of INR 319 billion (USD 3.90 billion) will be invested in this 2800 megawatt project entrusted to the state-owed hydropower company NHPC Limited.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">It is estimated that the project will take about nine years to complete. India, which is mainly dependent on coal for electricity, is trying to increase renewable energy sources. Due to occasional interruptions in the supply of electricity from solar and wind energy, it is seeking to increase renewable energy for stable supply. However, the project has been delayed due to the prospect of large-scale damage that the dam construction could cause to the environment and the fact that the community would have to be relocated.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">This project will be built in an area of more than 5000 hectares of forest. Therefore, like other projects, it seems that it has to face a lot of opposition. Due to local opposition and geographical difficulties, it can be hoped that the target will be achieved in nine years. Non-profit organizations have been saying that the cost of the project is very high but the profit is very low. In the Himalayan region of India, projects have been running for years as they are not completed within the stipulated time. There is ample room to doubt whether this hydroelectric project will be completed on time. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16897', 'image' => '20230302031613_hydro.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 15:14:25', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17157', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Farmers of Chitwan Attracted to Sunflower Farming ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 2: Farmers of Chitwan district have been attracted to sunflower farming of late. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">March 2: Farmers of Chitwan district have been attracted to sunflower farming of late. A group of farmers have collectively grown sunflowers on around three bighas of land at Sripur of Bharatpur Metropolitan City-15, said Chandra Prasad Adhikari, one of the farmers.</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 Agriculture Knowledge Centre (AKC), Chitwan has extended its support by providing seeds, fertilizers and irrigation facility, he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">They have also grown mustard in around two bighas of land. Adhikari started the farming 10 years ago with a break for some years in between. Again, we together started organic sunflower farming, he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"I started with carrot farming in 2032 BS. I quit agriculture some years in between. Carrot production is higher. But, it lacks market value," he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It does not require much investment for sunflower farming. So, the farmers here have been attracted to it, added Adhikari. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Farmers can supply healthier sunflower oil to consumers at a fair value, and it helps discourage inedible cooking oil in the market, he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The farming has also attracted tourists and TikTokers alike. </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"">"With sunflower blooming, tourists and TikTokers have visited here. We charge them Rs 100 each for the entry fee. We feel good to have them here," he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Around 65 beehives have been also kept in the sunflower field for honey production, he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The AKC's agriculture officer Suruchi Tripathi said the centre provided assistances in growing oil seeds on 100 hectares of land in Chitwan and Makawanpur districts. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"The farmers here are interested in the farming. So, the centre has encouraged them," she said. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16896', 'image' => '20230302101253_KA_Bharatpur-IMG_2923.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 10:11:07', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17156', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NOC to Keep Fuel Prices Unchanged', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 2: The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has sent a revised price list of petroleum products to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) by reducing the fuel prices except that of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) or cooking gas.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">March 2: The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has sent a revised price list of petroleum products to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) by reducing the fuel prices except that of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) or cooking gas.</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"">However, NOC is reluctant to reduce the fuel prices on the pretext of its accumulated losses. The NOC argued that its outstanding dues is Rs 15 billion and therefore it is not in a position to slash the fuel prices although it has adopted automatic pricing mechanism.</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"">Issuing a statement on Wednesday, NOC said that the state-owned oil monopoly has decided not to reduce the consumer price of petroleum products for the time being, even though the price of fuel except cooking gas has been reduced.</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"">NOC also made it clear that the price of cooking gas will not rise anytime soon.</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"">As per the new price sent by Indian Oil Corporation, the price of diesel has become cheaper by Rs 5 per litre, petrol by Rs 1.21 per litre, kerosene Oil by Rs 3.40 per litre and aviation fuel by Rs 7.3 per litre. On the other hand, the price of cooking gas has increased by Rs 339 per cylinder. But it will not have any impact on the general public as the NOC has decided to keep the prices unchanged. </span><br /> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16895', 'image' => '20230302100650_petroo - Copy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 10:06:07', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17158', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Jazeera Airways to Resume Regular Flights to GBIA', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 2: Jazeera Airways has announced that it will resume its scheduled flights to and from Bhairahawa-based Gautam Buddha International Airport from next week.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">March 2: Jazeera Airways has announced that it will resume its scheduled flights to and from Bhairahawa-based Gautam Buddha International Airport from next week. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Jazeera Airways is planning to operate three flights a week from Bhairahawa to Kuwait starting from March 9. The company informed that it will operate flights on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The one-way fare to Kuwait has been fixed at Rs 28,836.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Ravi Chandra Singh, general sales agent of Jazeera based in Nepal, said that the flights are going to be regularized according to Jazeera's commitment to support Gautam Buddha International Airport and the overall tourism of Nepal.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">He believes that this will help promote Lumbini as a spiritual destination, especially among Indian citizens living in the Middle East. "It will help to ensure maximum arrival at Gautam Buddha International Airport, promote tourism here and support the overall economic growth of the nation," he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">It maybe noted that Jazeera Airways was the first airlines company to start operation at the newly built airport of Nepal. However, it suspended flights during this winter citing lack of instrument landing system and poor visibility at the airport during the winter period.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16894', 'image' => '20230302102513_1677711565.4 Jajira.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 10:23:38', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17155', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Brisk Daily Walk Could Prevent One in 10 Early Deaths: Study', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 29: The currency in circulation in the market has declined by Rs 16 billion as of mid-January this year compared to the same period of last year.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Agencies</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">March 2: One in 10 early deaths could be averted if everyone engaged in a small amount of daily exercise such as a brisk 11-minute walk, according to a new study.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to AFP, physical activity is known to reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer and other leading causes of death, but exactly how much is needed to have an impact has been unclear.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“So an international team of researchers pooled together the results of 196 previous studies which included more than 30 million people to create one of the largest reviews conducted on the subject,” added the news agency.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the BBC, the research team looked at hundreds of previous studies on the benefits of physical activity and concluded that even doing half the recommended amount could prevent one in 20 cases of cardiovascular disease and nearly one in 30 cases of cancer.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">They calculated that around one in six early deaths would have been prevented if everyone in the studies had at least 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity physical activity, which is the level recommended by Britain's National Health Service. But even half that amount -- 75 minutes a week, or less than 11 minutes a day -- could prevent one in 10 of those deaths, according to the meta-analysis published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">That included a 17-percent reduction of heart disease and a seven-percent fall in cancer.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">For a person who engages in little to no physical activity, 11 minutes a day led to a 23-percent lower risk of early death.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“You don't have to be a runner or play sport to feel the benefits of exercise - fitting a brisk walk into your day is good enough,” the BBC reported referring to the suggestions made by the researchers.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Soren Brage, an expert on the epidemiology of physical activity at Britain's Cambridge University and a co-author of the study, told AFP that it was "exceptionally good news".</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"You should feel yourself moving, your heart will beat faster but you won't necessarily feel out of breath," BBC quoted Brage, who led the research, as saying.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Doing that amount is enough to reduce the risk of developing heart disease and stroke by 17% and cancer by 7%, the findings suggest.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Regular exercise reduces body fat and blood pressure while also improving fitness, sleep and heart health in the long run, added the BBC.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Meanwhile, AFP reported citing the World Health Organization that cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke killed 17.9 million people globally in 2019, while cancer accounted for nearly 10 million deaths the following year.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16893', 'image' => '20230302094823_brisk walk.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 09:46:54', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = false $xml = falseinclude - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
Warning (2): simplexml_load_file() [<a href='http://php.net/function.simplexml-load-file'>function.simplexml-load-file</a>]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "" [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133]file not found!Code Context// $file = 'http://aabhiyan:QUVLg8Wzs2F7G9N7@nepalstock.com.np/api/subindexdata.xml';if(!$xml = simplexml_load_file($file)){$viewFile = '/var/www/html/newbusinessage.com/app/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'articles' => array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ) ), 'current_user' => null, 'logged_in' => false ) $articles = array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17171', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Price of Gold Drops by Rs 100 Per Tola', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 3: The price of gold has declined by Rs 100 per tola (11.66 grams) on Friday and is being traded at Rs 102,500 per tola.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">March 3: The price of gold has declined by Rs 100 per tola (11.66 grams) on Friday and is being traded at Rs 102,500 per tola. The precious yellow metal was traded at Rs 102,600 per tola on the previous trading day (Thursday). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, price of worked gold has been fixed at Rs 102,000 per tola against Rs 102,100 on the previous trading day, according to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers Association. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, the price of silver has decreased Rs 5 per tola and is being traded at Rs 1,265 per tola, said the federation. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-03', 'modified' => '2023-03-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16909', 'image' => '20230303052144_gold.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-03 17:21:06', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17170', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Nepali Tea Companies Win Gold Medal in International Competition ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => ' Nepali tea producing companies have been awarded for their taste and quality in the international contest. Nepali tea companies won the gold and silver medals in “Second Tea Quality Competition in China” organized by China Tea Marketing Association from September 20 to 21, 2022.', 'content' => '<p><br /> <span style="font-size:18px">March 3: Nepali tea producing companies have been awarded for their taste and quality in the international contest. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">Nepali tea companies have won gold and silver medals in “Second Tea Quality Competition in China” organized by China Tea Marketing Association from September 20 to 21, 2022.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">At the programme organized by National Tea and Coffee Development Board in Kathmandu, the awards were distributed on Thursday. The board had collected 40 tea samples from across the country and sent 16 tea samples after test of their quality and taste to China for the competition. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">Tinjure Tea Farmer Cooperative Society Limited has bagged Pearl Golden Black tea award. Likewise, Farmer Tea Processing Industry’s FT Himalayn Gold, Himalayan Shangrila Tea Producers’ Shangrila gold, Gorkah Tea Estate Private Limited’s GTE Golden tea, Siddha Devi Tea Estate Private Limited’s Silver wings, and Kanchanjunga Organic Orthodox Tea Industry’s Golden Tips tea have won gold medals. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">In the same manner, Himalayan Shangrila Tea Producers’ Himlayan Sunrise Beauty, Shree Baraha Tea Industry’s Special black tea, Tinjure Farmer Cooperative Society Limited’s Normal Golden Black tea and Maina Pokhari Tea Processing Industry’s MP 10 Mirmire have won silver medals. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">Tea was planted in 16,917 hectares of the land and as many as 23,745 metric tons of tea was produced in the fiscal year of 2077/78 in Nepal. More than 17,000 tea farmers and over 60,000 workers are involved in the tea business at the moment.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">Nepal exported 11,920 metric tons of the tea worth Rs 3.79 billion in the last fiscal year, according to the Department of Customs. Tea farmers bemoan that they are selling their produce at low price despite its excellent quality. Nepal has a potential to export tea worth more than Rs 10 billion in a year. </span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-03', 'modified' => '2023-03-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16908', 'image' => '20230303045430_collage - 2023-03-03T165309.178.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-03 16:50:54', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17169', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Laxmi Intercontinental Launches Face-lifted Version of Grand i10 Nios,', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Laxmi Intercontinental, the authorised distributor of Hyundai vehicles in Nepal, has launched the face-lifted version of its popular model Grand i10 Nios, highlighted as 'More The Merrier'. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px">March 3: Laxmi Intercontinental, the authorised distributor of Hyundai vehicles in Nepal, has launched the face-lifted version of its popular model Grand i10 Nios, highlighted as 'More The Merrier'. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">This hatchback segment is set to take the automotive segment to a new height, due to its new and innovative irresistible combination of cutting-edge technology, high performance, attractive design, distinctive features, and thoughtful safety features that cater to the modern driver's needs, says the company in its press statement. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">With its new benchmark-setting features, the Grand i10 Nios is anticipated to become another best-selling car in the Nepali market. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">Lightbar connected by LED Tail Lights on the rear part of the car has given a distinctive looks to the car. Similarly, painted Black Radiator Grille and LED Daytime Running Lamps(DRLS) on the front of the Grand i10 Nios have made the car stylish and sporty. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px">The all-new Grand i10 Nios is available in Era, Magna, and Sportz variants in MT option and Magna and Sportz in AMT option with a starting price of Rs 2.996 million.</span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-03', 'modified' => '2023-03-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16907', 'image' => '20230303040007_collage - 2023-03-03T155904.985.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-03 15:56:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17168', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Public Declaration of Defaulting on Loans is Objectionable: Bankers', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 3: Umbrella organisations of banks and financial institutions (BFIs) have expressed concerns towards public statements made by the debtors that they will not pay back the loans.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">March 3: Umbrella organisations of banks and financial institutions (BFIs) have expressed concerns towards public statements made by the debtors that they will not pay back the loans.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The BFIs have requested the government to check this troublesome trend on time.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Four umbrella organizations of BFIs issued a joint statement on Thursday and made such request to the government after attacks on bank employees and the formal declaration made by the defaulters that they will not pay back the loans.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Nepal Bankers Association, the umbrella organization of commercial banks, Development Bankers Association Nepal, the umbrella organization of development banks, Nepal Financial Institutions Association, the umbrella organization of finance companies, and Nepal Microfinance Bankers Association, the umbrella organization of microfinance companies, issued a joint statement and urged the government to control such chaotic activities.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The statement reads, “Recently, our attention has been drawn to the negative comments and agitation announced by some individuals against banks/financial and microfinance institutions and the threatening expressions and behavior to discourage bank employees. We are confident that the state's attention has gone towards controlling the incident in time.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Banks and financial institutions have collected more than Rs 5400 billion deposits from over 483 million customers’ deposit accounts and have mobilized loans of more than Rs 4800 billion through more than 1.8 million borrowers. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">This sector has created more than 530,00 direct jobs, paid more than Rs 34 billion in taxes to the state in the last fiscal year and have directly given more than Rs 10 billion to borrowers through interest rate discounts during the Covid-19 pandemic.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, in the remote areas of the country, microfinance institutions have provided services to more than 6 million depositors and more than 32 million borrowers, as well as created more than 23,000 direct jobs. Banks/financial and microfinance institutions are providing banking services subjected to the policies/instructions issued by the regulatory bodies and various laws and they are always aware of the rights and interests of their customers, added the statement.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">They say that if there is any problem, it would be beneficial to discuss with the related organizations and proceed accordingly. Similarly, by making the banking sector stronger, the associations said they are expecting the support and cooperation of all stakeholders to help the economic development of the country.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-03', 'modified' => '2023-03-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16906', 'image' => '20230303023829_Bad Loan.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-03 14:37:42', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17167', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'A Place Where Villagers have to Pay Money to Cross a River!', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 3: The locals of Bhajani Municipality of Kailali district have been dreaming of a concrete bridge for 12 years. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">March 3: The locals of Bhajani Municipality of Kailali district have been dreaming of a concrete bridge for 12 years. The locals are hopeful the once the construction of the motorable bridge gets complete, they will no longer have to pay the money just to cross a river.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">The local residents of this municipality have to pay money to cross the Kandra and other rivers. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">"One has to pay Rs 30 per day just to cross the river to visit the municipality for daily work. That means, an individual has to pay Rs 900 per month only to cross the river," said Rupak Saud, a local. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">He says that the locals will have to suffer until a concrete bridge comes into operation. Saud says that the municipality is giving them trouble by collecting money for crossing a river.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">He added that the construction company that was awarded the contract to build a bridge is making profit by delaying the construction work.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Big vehicles are made to cross the river instead of using the under-construction bridge. Another local Bhojraj Kafle says that the contractors in collusion with the local authorities collect money from vehicles while crossing the river. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">“It has been more than a decade since the construction of a concrete bridge over the Kandra River started. The middlemen are the reason why the bridge has not been built on time. There are people who collect hundreds of thousands of rupees annually in the name of river contracts," he says, "Otherwise, what is the reason that local stakeholders are not interested in the construction of the bridge?"</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">The distance between Tikapur and Dhangadhi via the Postal Highway is 75 kilometers. Traveling through Mahendra Highway (East-West Highway) takes a little longer. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Bintiram Chaudhury of Tikapur argues that the Postal Highway cannot be used right now due to the lack of a concrete bridge over the Kandra River. He said that he has to live in Kailari Rural Municipality because of his job and he has to pay for river crossing while returning home once a week.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">According to Chaudhary, the contractor says that they have paid money to the municipality to utilize the river under a contract.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Therefore, they have been charging the locals for crossing the river.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Bhajani Municipality has given Kandra River and its tributaries under a short-term contract. The contractor has been operating boats for fishing in the river. According to the municipality, the contract has been signed for one fiscal year and it has helped the municipality collect internal source of income. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">Mayor Keval Chaudhary says that the situation where citizens have to pay money to cross the Kandra River will end within this year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI","sans-serif"">He said that the construction of a motorable bridge over the Kandra River along the Postal Highway is in the final stage and will come into operation in a few months. -- RSS</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-03', 'modified' => '2023-03-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16905', 'image' => '20230303012530_1677827539.कान्द्रा नदी पुल.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-03 13:24:52', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17166', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Nepali Congress in a Comfortable Position to Win Presidential Election', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 3: Senior leader Ram Chandra Paudel of the Nepali Congress, the largest party in the House of Representatives, and Subas Chandra Nembang, the vice chairman of the second largest party, CPN-UML, are all set to contest in the presidential election on March 9.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">March 3: Senior leader Ram Chandra Paudel of the Nepali Congress, the largest party in the House of Representatives, and Subas Chandra Nembang, the vice chairman of the second largest party, CPN-UML, are all set to contest in the presidential election on March 9.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">After the registration of nominees, UML has intensified attempts to canvass votes for the election. On the other hand, the Nepali Congress seems to be in a comfortable position to secure majority votes with the backup of eight political parties. A new eight-party alliance has formed under the initiative of chairman of CPN (Maoist Center) Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who is also the prime minister, after his party decided to back NC candidate instead of UML.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The victory of NC candidate Paudel in the presidential election seems certain after receiving the votes of the coalition partners.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">On the other hand, UML candidate Nembang is making attempts to turn the tide in his favour.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">As the date of the election approaches, Nembang is meeting the leaders of various parties to canvass votes. On Thursday, he met CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal and asked him to vote for him in the presidential election.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The CPN (Unified Socialist) is currently in the Nepali Congress-led eight-party alliance. The UML, which did not even want to recognize the party and did not even want to hear the name of the CPN United Socialist, sent a letter and asked for votes in favour of its candidate in the presidential election.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Similarly, Nembang also reached the office of Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) Nepal led by journalist-turned-politician Rabi Lamichhaneto to seek for votes. Not only Nembang, UML Chairman KP Oli is also asking for votes for his candidate. Oli asked National Assembly member Bamdev Gautam, who is also a former UML leader, to vote for Nembang in the presidential election.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">However, the Nepali Congress has not made much effort except to send a letter to the UML and ask for votes because the party is already enjoys majority support in parliament. Paudel, who is a strong candidate to win the presidential election with the support from eight parties, is also asking for votes. A few days ago, he met Rabi Lamichhane, chairman of the RSP Nepal and asked him to vote for him in the presidential election.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Poudel has written letters to all MPs asking for their votes. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Paudel is seeking for votes by expressing his commitment to institutionalize a democratic republic and inclusive democracy.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to the legal provisions regarding the election of the president and vice president, the presidential candidate must receive a majority of the total votes. In the event that no candidate gets the majority votes, there will be a voting again.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">How many votes with whom?</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">A total of 333 members of the Federal Parliament (House of Representatives and National Assembly) and 550 members of the Provincial Assembly will vote in the presidential election. According to the law, one vote of the federal MP will carry the weight of 79 votes. Based on this, the total vote share of 332 MPs of the Federal Parliament (the position of one MP has been vacant) will be 26,228. Rabi Lamichhane, chairman of the RSP, who was elected as a member of the House of Representatives from Chitwan-2, was suspended by the Supreme Court.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Similarly, the weight of votes of provincial assembly members is 48. Based on this, the total number of votes of the members of the provincial assembly is 26,400. That makes the total number of votes in the presidential election 52,628. On this basis, more than 26,314 votes are required to be elected as the president. The Congress-led eight-party alliance has 31,821 votes. In this situation, Nembang will get 20,807 votes even if he gets the votes of all the others parties outside the eight-party alliance.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-03', 'modified' => '2023-03-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16904', 'image' => '20230303113033_1677758905.President 1.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-03 11:29:54', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17165', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Forms High-Level Taskforce to Study Cyber Security', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 3: The government has formed a high-level committee to prepare a comprehensive report on cyber security by incorporating issues related to policy, law, structure and process and making suggestions accordingly. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">March 3: The government has formed a high-level committee to prepare a comprehensive report on cyber security by incorporating issues related to policy, law, structure and process and making suggestions accordingly. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The high-level taskforce was formed as per the decision of cabinet meeting on February 27 in response to the proposal presented by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. The taskforce has been given a month's time to submit the report. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Information Ministry Secretary Dr Baikuntha Aryal said on Thursday that IT expert Juddha Bahadur Gurung has been appointed as the coordinator of the committee.</span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Other members of the committee are Baburam Dawadi, Saroj Lamichhane, Mona Nyachchho, Prakash Rayamajhi and Bijay Gautam. Besides coordinator Gurung, all other members of the taskforce are from the Nepalese Army and the Nepal Police. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The taskforce was handed over the responsibility amidst a programme at the ministry on Thursday. Addressing the programme, Minister for Communications and Information Technology Rekha Sharma said the ministry took the initiative to prepare the law and policy on cyber security after the country faced series of threats on this subject. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">She argued that cyber security is in the state's priority list because the country lacks proper regulations despite the use of all sorts of technologies available. </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"">"If cyber security policy is formulated and put in place with budget allocation on time, it would be a significant achievement in the sector of cyber security," she said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Secretary Aryal shared that the committee will not just undertake a general study of the pertinent issue, but conduct a comprehensive analysis which could be incorporated in the government policy, programmes and budget. “So, the taskforce has been given a significant responsibility,” he stressed. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On February 27, the cabinet had decided to manage the data of all government bodies and IT systems in the integrated data centre. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The taskforce will carry out a thorough study on problems of data management in the integrated data centre, reasons behind problems, flaws and measures to solve the problems. It will make recommendations at technical, human and managerial levels. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-03', 'modified' => '2023-03-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16903', 'image' => '20230303104736_Cybersecurity-importance - Copy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-03 10:46:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17163', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'CD Ratio of Commercial Banks Start to Drop', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 2: After the tight monetary policy adopted by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) reduced credit expansion, the credit-deposit ratio (CD ratio) of commercial banks finally started to decline.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">March 2: After the tight monetary policy adopted by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) reduced credit expansion, the credit-deposit ratio (CD ratio) of commercial banks finally started to decline. After the ease in CD ratio of the banks, which have been facing liquidity problem since the last fiscal year, their additional credit expansion capacity has reached more than Rs 175 billion.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to NRB, the total deposits of banks and financial institutes (BFIs) have reached Rs 5377 billion as of Monday.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Out of this amount, commercial banks have deposits of Rs 4740 billion. With the average CD ratio of only 86.22 percent, they have the ability to extend loans of more than Rs 175 billion. As instructed by NRB, banks should maintain CD ratio within 90 percent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the data published up to the period of mid-January of the current FY by NRB, the CD ratio of most of the commercial banks looks good. Among the 22 commercial banks in operation during this period, only Kumari Bank's CD ratio is higher than the limit set by NRB. Similarly, the CD ratio of Global IME Bank and Nabil Bank is close to 90 percent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Standard Chartered Bank has the lowest CD ratio at 78.73 percent. Apart from this, NRB informed that the CD ratio of Rastriya Banijya Bank, Nepal Bank, Sanima Bank and SBI Bank is less than 85 percent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Sunil KC, president of Nepal Bankers Association and CEO of NMB Bank, the CD ratio of banks has eased because the banks have not disbursed loans despite to good deposits mainly because of remittance inflow. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> “Currently the CD ratio has eased as there is no demand for new loans in banks. Only small investments are being made to the customers and deposit growth rate is good as well. In recent times, loans have become expensive along with the lack of liquidity, deterring industrialists from taking new loans from banks. The industrialists are in a wait-and-watch state as there is also a movement against the banks’ interest rates,” said KC, adding, “Similarly, due to the impact of Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine tension, inflation has risen and economic activity has decreased, so the demand for loans in the market is low. However, since the rate of inflation has been decreasing recently and the economic indicators are easing, the bankers expect credit to expand gradually.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> KC says that the interest rates on bank deposits have started to decrease and borrowers will get relief by the next quarter. He said that the interest rate will also decrease due to the concession given by NRB by reducing the spread rate and bank rate.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">After much criticism over the high interest rates of banks, NRB announced to reduce the spread rate of the banks through the first quarter review of the monetary policy of the current fiscal year. It issued instructions mid-December and asked banks to reduce the spread rate in two stages. According to the instructions, commercial banks will have to reduce the spread rate to 4.2 percent from mid-March 2023 and development banks and finance companies will have to reduce it to 4.8 percent. From mid-June 2023, commercial banks have to apply 4 percent spread rate and development banks and finance companies have to apply 4.6 percent. By reducing the spread rate till mid-April, the interest rate on loan will decline from mid-April.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Likewise, NRB reduced the overnight repo interest rate by 1.5 percentage points to 7.5 percent from the half-yearly review of monetary policy. It is also expected that the cost of capital of banks will decrease and the interest rate will decrease to some extent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Anil Sharma, CEO of Bankers' Association said, “Now there is no room for banks' interest rates to go up. The policy concession given by NRB will also reduce the interest rate, but they will have to wait until the next quarter.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16901', 'image' => '20230302061305_Banks.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 18:12:24', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17162', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' DPM Shrestha to Leave for Doha to Participate in LDCs Conference on Friday ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Narayan Kaji Shrestha will be leaving for Doha of Qatar to take part in the Conference of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) on Friday. ', 'content' => '<p> </p> <p>March 3: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Narayan Kaji Shrestha will be leaving for Doha of Qatar to take part in the Conference of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) on Friday. </p> <p>According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Deputy Prime Minister will be leading the Nepali delegation to the Fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to be held in Doha, the State of Qatar, from 5 to 9 March, 2023. </p> <p>Prior to the event, the Deputy Prime Minister will address the Summit of the LDC Group to be held on the 4th of March, coordinated by Malawi, the current chair of the LDC group. </p> <p>Nepal is scheduled to take the chairmanship of the group of LDCs this year. In Doha, the Deputy Prime Minister Shrestha is scheduled to address the plenary session of the Conference and hold bilateral meetings with delegations from different countries and organizations. </p> <p>Minister Shrestha will also interact with the representatives of the organizations of Nepali diaspora. The Nepali delegation will include Dr. Min Bahadur Shrestha, Vice-chairman of National Planning Commission, lawmaker Jitendra Narayan Dev, government secretaries and the ambassador of Nepal to the State of Qatar and other senior officials. The Deputy Prime Minister will return from Doha on March 7. ---RSS <br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16900', 'image' => '20230302055454_collage - 2023-03-02T174415.054.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 17:52:35', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17161', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NEPSE Index Falls for Fourth Consecutive Day', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 2: The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) index fell for four consecutive days this week.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">March 2: The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) index fell for four consecutive days this week.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The market fell by 26.48 points on the last trading day of the week to close at 1,969.01 points. In the four trading days, the index dropped by 58.18 points. Lately there has been some instability in Nepali politics. With the exit of the UML from the coalition government, the finance minister, who was liked by investors, also quit. Investors are wondering whether the stock market has fallen due to political instability.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Experts say that the political influence on the stock market will be temporary. Although the liquidity in the financial system has improved in recent days, the interest rate on loans has not decreased. In a short period of time, the market rose from 1800 points to 2200 points and started to fall. During this period, traders made good fortune. Now, the traders plan to make investment in the stock market only when the market falls to the lowest point.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">A total of 3,657,154 units of shares of 256 companies were traded on Thursday. The daily turnover on Thursday stood at Rs 1.33 billion.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In the intra-day trading, 194 companies lost in their market values while 19 made gains.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">All the 13 trading sub groups lost in their market values on Thursday. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The index of microfinance group decreased the most by 2.64 percent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Among individual companies, Himalayan Distillery Limited had the largest transaction of its shares worth Rs 81.28 million. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Meanwhile, Global IME microfinance shareholders lost the most on Thursday. The share price of the company decreased by 7 percent. Buddha Bhumi Nepal Hydropower Company Limited gained the highest percent of its market value by 4.29 percent.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16899', 'image' => '20230302054129_1677749961.market down.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 17:40:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17159', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'India to Construct Big Hydropower Project near China', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 2: India has given permission for the construction of a hydropower project near the Chinese border. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">March 2: India has given permission for the construction of a hydropower project near the Chinese border. This project is India's largest hydropower project so far. To meet the growing demand for energy, India is trying to increase the production of hydropower, solar and other energies. Meanwhile, the Daibang project to be built in the northeastern Himalayan region of Arunachal Pradesh near the border with China has been approved by the Indian government. It is estimated that an investment of INR 319 billion (USD 3.90 billion) will be invested in this 2800 megawatt project entrusted to the state-owed hydropower company NHPC Limited.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">It is estimated that the project will take about nine years to complete. India, which is mainly dependent on coal for electricity, is trying to increase renewable energy sources. Due to occasional interruptions in the supply of electricity from solar and wind energy, it is seeking to increase renewable energy for stable supply. However, the project has been delayed due to the prospect of large-scale damage that the dam construction could cause to the environment and the fact that the community would have to be relocated.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">This project will be built in an area of more than 5000 hectares of forest. Therefore, like other projects, it seems that it has to face a lot of opposition. Due to local opposition and geographical difficulties, it can be hoped that the target will be achieved in nine years. Non-profit organizations have been saying that the cost of the project is very high but the profit is very low. In the Himalayan region of India, projects have been running for years as they are not completed within the stipulated time. There is ample room to doubt whether this hydroelectric project will be completed on time. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16897', 'image' => '20230302031613_hydro.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 15:14:25', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17157', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Farmers of Chitwan Attracted to Sunflower Farming ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 2: Farmers of Chitwan district have been attracted to sunflower farming of late. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">March 2: Farmers of Chitwan district have been attracted to sunflower farming of late. A group of farmers have collectively grown sunflowers on around three bighas of land at Sripur of Bharatpur Metropolitan City-15, said Chandra Prasad Adhikari, one of the farmers.</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 Agriculture Knowledge Centre (AKC), Chitwan has extended its support by providing seeds, fertilizers and irrigation facility, he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">They have also grown mustard in around two bighas of land. Adhikari started the farming 10 years ago with a break for some years in between. Again, we together started organic sunflower farming, he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"I started with carrot farming in 2032 BS. I quit agriculture some years in between. Carrot production is higher. But, it lacks market value," he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It does not require much investment for sunflower farming. So, the farmers here have been attracted to it, added Adhikari. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Farmers can supply healthier sunflower oil to consumers at a fair value, and it helps discourage inedible cooking oil in the market, he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The farming has also attracted tourists and TikTokers alike. </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"">"With sunflower blooming, tourists and TikTokers have visited here. We charge them Rs 100 each for the entry fee. We feel good to have them here," he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Around 65 beehives have been also kept in the sunflower field for honey production, he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The AKC's agriculture officer Suruchi Tripathi said the centre provided assistances in growing oil seeds on 100 hectares of land in Chitwan and Makawanpur districts. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"The farmers here are interested in the farming. So, the centre has encouraged them," she said. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16896', 'image' => '20230302101253_KA_Bharatpur-IMG_2923.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 10:11:07', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17156', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NOC to Keep Fuel Prices Unchanged', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 2: The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has sent a revised price list of petroleum products to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) by reducing the fuel prices except that of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) or cooking gas.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">March 2: The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has sent a revised price list of petroleum products to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) by reducing the fuel prices except that of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) or cooking gas.</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"">However, NOC is reluctant to reduce the fuel prices on the pretext of its accumulated losses. The NOC argued that its outstanding dues is Rs 15 billion and therefore it is not in a position to slash the fuel prices although it has adopted automatic pricing mechanism.</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"">Issuing a statement on Wednesday, NOC said that the state-owned oil monopoly has decided not to reduce the consumer price of petroleum products for the time being, even though the price of fuel except cooking gas has been reduced.</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"">NOC also made it clear that the price of cooking gas will not rise anytime soon.</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"">As per the new price sent by Indian Oil Corporation, the price of diesel has become cheaper by Rs 5 per litre, petrol by Rs 1.21 per litre, kerosene Oil by Rs 3.40 per litre and aviation fuel by Rs 7.3 per litre. On the other hand, the price of cooking gas has increased by Rs 339 per cylinder. But it will not have any impact on the general public as the NOC has decided to keep the prices unchanged. </span><br /> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16895', 'image' => '20230302100650_petroo - Copy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 10:06:07', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17158', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Jazeera Airways to Resume Regular Flights to GBIA', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 2: Jazeera Airways has announced that it will resume its scheduled flights to and from Bhairahawa-based Gautam Buddha International Airport from next week.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">March 2: Jazeera Airways has announced that it will resume its scheduled flights to and from Bhairahawa-based Gautam Buddha International Airport from next week. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Jazeera Airways is planning to operate three flights a week from Bhairahawa to Kuwait starting from March 9. The company informed that it will operate flights on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The one-way fare to Kuwait has been fixed at Rs 28,836.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Ravi Chandra Singh, general sales agent of Jazeera based in Nepal, said that the flights are going to be regularized according to Jazeera's commitment to support Gautam Buddha International Airport and the overall tourism of Nepal.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">He believes that this will help promote Lumbini as a spiritual destination, especially among Indian citizens living in the Middle East. "It will help to ensure maximum arrival at Gautam Buddha International Airport, promote tourism here and support the overall economic growth of the nation," he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">It maybe noted that Jazeera Airways was the first airlines company to start operation at the newly built airport of Nepal. However, it suspended flights during this winter citing lack of instrument landing system and poor visibility at the airport during the winter period.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16894', 'image' => '20230302102513_1677711565.4 Jajira.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 10:23:38', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '17155', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Brisk Daily Walk Could Prevent One in 10 Early Deaths: Study', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'January 29: The currency in circulation in the market has declined by Rs 16 billion as of mid-January this year compared to the same period of last year.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Agencies</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">March 2: One in 10 early deaths could be averted if everyone engaged in a small amount of daily exercise such as a brisk 11-minute walk, according to a new study.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to AFP, physical activity is known to reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer and other leading causes of death, but exactly how much is needed to have an impact has been unclear.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“So an international team of researchers pooled together the results of 196 previous studies which included more than 30 million people to create one of the largest reviews conducted on the subject,” added the news agency.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the BBC, the research team looked at hundreds of previous studies on the benefits of physical activity and concluded that even doing half the recommended amount could prevent one in 20 cases of cardiovascular disease and nearly one in 30 cases of cancer.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">They calculated that around one in six early deaths would have been prevented if everyone in the studies had at least 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity physical activity, which is the level recommended by Britain's National Health Service. But even half that amount -- 75 minutes a week, or less than 11 minutes a day -- could prevent one in 10 of those deaths, according to the meta-analysis published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">That included a 17-percent reduction of heart disease and a seven-percent fall in cancer.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">For a person who engages in little to no physical activity, 11 minutes a day led to a 23-percent lower risk of early death.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“You don't have to be a runner or play sport to feel the benefits of exercise - fitting a brisk walk into your day is good enough,” the BBC reported referring to the suggestions made by the researchers.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Soren Brage, an expert on the epidemiology of physical activity at Britain's Cambridge University and a co-author of the study, told AFP that it was "exceptionally good news".</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"You should feel yourself moving, your heart will beat faster but you won't necessarily feel out of breath," BBC quoted Brage, who led the research, as saying.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Doing that amount is enough to reduce the risk of developing heart disease and stroke by 17% and cancer by 7%, the findings suggest.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Regular exercise reduces body fat and blood pressure while also improving fitness, sleep and heart health in the long run, added the BBC.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Meanwhile, AFP reported citing the World Health Organization that cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke killed 17.9 million people globally in 2019, while cancer accounted for nearly 10 million deaths the following year.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-03-02', 'modified' => '2023-03-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16893', 'image' => '20230302094823_brisk walk.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-03-02 09:46:54', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = false $xml = falsesimplexml_load_file - [internal], line ?? include - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
| Currency | Unit |
Buy | Sell |
| U.S. Dollar | 1 | 121.23 | 121.83 |
| European Euro | 1 | 131.65 | 132.31 |
| UK Pound Sterling | 1 | 142.47 | 143.18 |
| Swiss Franc | 1 | 124.29 | 124.90 |
| Australian Dollar | 1 | 71.69 | 72.05 |
| Canadian Dollar | 1 | 83.90 | 84.32 |
| Japanese Yen | 10 | 10.94 | 11.00 |
| Chinese Yuan | 1 | 17.17 | 17.26 |
| Saudi Arabian Riyal | 1 | 32.27 | 32.43 |
| UAE Dirham | 1 | 33.01 | 33.17 |
| Malaysian Ringgit | 1 | 27.36 | 27.50 |
| South Korean Won | 100 | 9.77 | 9.82 |
Update: 2020-03-25 | Source: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB)
| Fine Gold | 1 tola | 77000.00 |
| Tejabi Gold | 1 tola | 76700.00 |
| Silver | 1 tola | 720.00 |
Update : 2020-03-25
Source: Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers' Association
| Petrol | 1 Liter | 106.00 |
| Diesel | 1 Liter | 95.00 |
| Kerosene | 1 Liter | 95.00 |
| LP Gas | 1 Cylinder | 1375.00 |
Update : 2020-03-25
