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			'title' => 'Business Click By Click',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<div>
		<em><span style="font-size: 14px;">The seeds of e-commerce were sown in Nepal about a decade and a half ago. It has taken a bit longer for the fruits to be borne, but today we can see some of them. Offline shopping is still the popular option, but a lot more Nepalis are buying online today. The total annual online business in Nepal is now estimated to be Rs 10 billion, according to industry insiders who attribute this growth to the rising Internet population, a growing middle class, increasing mobile penetration as well as low levels of e-commerce activities.&nbsp;</span></em></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;Compared to the developed countries, Nepal&rsquo;s e-commerce is still in its infancy. Its share in the national GDP is negligible at present but it has been growing,&rdquo; says Amrit Man Tuladhar, CEO of Muncha.com, one of the country&rsquo;s leading e-commerce websites which has been in operation since 2000. According to Tuladhar, the past couple of years have been particularly encouraging for e-commerce in the country. &ldquo;Some unique websites have come up over the past couple of years,&rdquo; he observes.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Thamel.com is perhaps the first e-commerce site in the country. It started online business in 1999 and today it is one of the major players. &ldquo;We are probably the first company in Nepal to start online business with a dot com company name registered as Thamel Dot Com Pvt Ltd,&rdquo; claims Rajesh Lal Joshi, CEO of Thamel.com. &nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		E-commerce in Nepal started through gift-sending and bill payment services through online portals. Today, it&rsquo;s possible to buy almost everything online - new clothes, books, mobile phones, laptops, second-hand goods, jewelleries, home appliances, fresh vegetables and what not. One can even order one&rsquo;s lunch online from home or office, thanks to the latest developments in e-commerce activities. There are a number of e-commerce companies offering these services. Airlines have started selling air-tickets online through these services. Banks are handling online transactions because people have started paying and receiving online, though the trend is low.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;In 2000, there were a couple of websites doing e-commerce. Today there are more than a hundred. Of them, over a dozen are active in the business,&rdquo; says Tuladhar. &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs4(1).JPG" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;width: 300px; height: 316px;" />Growing Popularity &amp; New Trends</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Today, the online market has expanded due to the increasing purchasing power of Nepali consumers. The trend is also on the rise because of the rise in the number of Internet users. &ldquo;Online business is on a progressive path and the trend is evolving high with many players coming in the arena with their unique business models,&rdquo; says Joshi.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		The domestic e-commerce market has now expanded into various segments such as online shopping, e-banking, mobile commerce, electronic cash transfers and e-ticketing. Online markets are attracting buyers (and sellers too!) because they are time- and money-saving and are hassle free.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;Lately, Nepal has graphed a swerving online presence. The proliferation of various online business portals in recent years is enough to valibate the claim that &nbsp;the presence of e-commerce is encouraging in Nepal,&rdquo; says Asgar Ali, CEO of eSewa Fonepay.com.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Annual online transactions in Nepal are estimated to be around Rs 10 billion, although an official figure is not available. Dozens of online shopping websites have emerged since the inception of e-commerce in Nepal. Muncha.com, Thamel.com, Harilo.com, YesKantipur.com, Metrotarkari.com, Foodmandu.com, Bhatbhatenionline.com, etc. are some of the popular websites among Nepali online shoppers (see Box). Some of them sell their own products whereas others deliver from global sites such as eBay and Amazon.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		According to industry insiders, Nepalis of the middle- and upper-middle class who have access to faster Internet have started enjoying shopping online. &nbsp;They find it easy because on the one hand it saves time, on the other, it&rsquo;s easy and reliable. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t need to hang around shopping stores and malls wondering where a particular product is. With online shopping, all you need to do is find a product online, fill-in payment details and submit. That&rsquo;s all to get your stuffs delivered at your home,&rdquo; says Manish Shrestha, portal chief of Bhatbhatenionline.com.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>E-banking</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Lately, electronic banking or e-banking, as it is more popularly known, is getting popular in Nepal. According to the stakeholders, the use of e-banking has been increasing with the rising competition among the banks and financial institutions. &ldquo;The trend of e-banking is growing,&rdquo; says NRB Spokesperson Bhaskar Mani Gyawali, &ldquo;The situation of e-banking in the country is satisfactory at present.&rdquo;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Instead of opening a new branch, banks have started focusing on e-banking which is a cost-effective way to expand their services. For this, banks have adopted modern banking technologies such as branch-less banking, mobile banking etc. According to NRB, all 32 commercial banks in the country have started branch-less banking and mobile banking by mid-January 2014.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Banks&rsquo; customers are, however, yet to adopt online payment for the goods or services they buy on the Internet. Most online shoppers still prefer cash on delivery (COD) though all commercial banks provide e-banking services. &ldquo;There is a lack of awareness among Nepalis about e-banking. An overwhelming majority still prefers COD though they have bank accounts,&rdquo; shares Stebin Bajracharya of Harilo.com.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs1.JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 412px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>E-ticketing</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Nepali air travelers are gradually getting used to e-ticketing, a good evidence of growing e-commerce in the country. Today, all private sector airlines currently operational in Nepal are selling their tickets online. According to the Airline Operators Association of Nepal (AOAN), all air travellers who have access to the Internet have started buying tickets online. &ldquo;E-ticketing has become popular because it saves time,&rdquo; says AOAN Spokesperson Ghanashyam Acharya, &ldquo;Very few people reach the airline&rsquo;s office to buy tickets these days.&rdquo;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Agrees Prajwal Thapa, marketing director at Simrik Air. &ldquo;Both foreigners and Nepali travellers buy tickets online for domestic flights.&rdquo;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC), the state-owned airline which is the only airline in Nepal that doesn&rsquo;t offer e-ticketing has started preparations to start providing the service within 2071 BS (by mid-April 2015), according to an NAC official. &ldquo;E-ticketing is one of NAC priorities for the new year,&rdquo; he said.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs5(2).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;width: 300px; height: 281px;" />Payment Options&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		In the past, Nepali online shoppers were dependent on international payment mechanisms and merchants to purchase online. However, today there are few, but enough for the time being, online payment processing companies in Nepal, which allow online shoppers to pay their bills online, without any processing fees, in most of the cases.</div>
	<div>
		Most of these companies allow the customers to send and receive money online, buy air tickets, pay utility bills, purchase mobile recharge cards, pay school college bills, Internet bills, subscribe to newspapers and magazines online; Some of these companies are eSewa and PayWay.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		People can also pay for the goods they buy online through e-banking and debit cards. This trend has started but it is negligible at present. A majority of online shoppers still prefer paying cash on delivery.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;The online payment structure in Nepal is still being developed so we still do a lot of cash business. &nbsp;We encourage our customers to pay online as much as possible given the options in Nepal which are basically bank to bank transfers or payment gateways who are tied to your bank account,&rdquo; says Akshay Sthapit, CEO of Harilo.com.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Problems &amp; Limitations</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Though an Internet-based business, e-commerce in Nepal seems to be limited to the Capital valley. Some online business activities have been reported in places like Pokhara and Dharan but such activities are few and far between.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;There are e-commerce websites which provide their services across the country. But may be because of the lack of awareness, the online customers are mainly from the Kathmandu valley, mainly Kathmandu and Lalitpur. However, we do have customers from a few other cities as well,&rdquo; shares Stebin Bajracharya of Harilo.com.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Lack of a clear policy is another problem and according to people in the online business, it is hindering the growth of online markets in the country. &ldquo;There is no clear policy. The government has neither helped the domestic e-commerce market nor obstructed it,&rdquo; says Joshi of Thamel.com. We don&#39;t have any act, law or regulation or government directives which allows conducting legal online financial transactions. Critics say that the Electronic Transaction Act without a single word on online payment is only half done.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		According to Tuladhar of Muncha.com, Nepal&rsquo;s e-commerce market is facing problems in the bill payment system. &ldquo;The government can facilitate by establishing a central payment gateway. The central bank and concerned authorities should look into this issue,&rdquo; he advises.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Lack of a regulator is another problem. At present, all one needs to do to run an e-commerce site is register a company at the Company Registrar&rsquo;s Office. Once the company is registered, one can start the business. No one knows which agency is responsible for regulating the e-commerce business &ndash; Ministry of Finance, Nepal Rastra Bank, Ministry of Science and Technology, High level Commission for Information Technology or National Information Technology Centre?&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs2.JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 337px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>The Issue of Digital Signature</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Although online transactions are on the rise in the country, the trend of acquiring authorized digital signature, which is essential for the business, has not started. According to Electronic Transaction Act 2008, all companies, which carry out electronic transactions must acquire digital signature from the Certified Authority (CA) licensed by the Office of the Controller of Certification (OCC). &ldquo;Banks and financial institutions, remittance companies, and e-commerce companies among others are the kind of companies which should acquire a digital signature from a CA licensed by the OCC,&rdquo; said Manish Bhattarai, deputy controller of the OCC, an agency under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (MoSTE).&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		So far, only one company, Nepal Certifying Authority (NCA), has acquired the license for CA from the OCC. &ldquo;Though one company has been issued the license of CA, no company or individual has acquired a digital signature so far in Nepal from the CA licensed by the OCC. Electronic transactions carried out without a digital signature from a CA licensed by the OCC do not have legal validity,&rdquo; claims Bhattarai. He also informed NewBiz that the OCC has drawn the attention of Nepal Rastra Bank regarding the issue of the BFIs not acquiring authorized digital signature.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Biplav Man Singh of NCA, however, claims that the issuance of digital signature has not started in Nepal because of the government&rsquo;s negligence. &ldquo;The government has issued the CA license to NCA but it has not provided the Root Certificate to us. Therefore, we have not been able to issue any digital signature. It has been a year since we have been issued the license,&rdquo; laments Singh.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Digital signature is like an electronic locking system, which facilitates and regulate the authenticity of electronic transactions. It cannot be stolen or copied by any fraud, authenticates the identity of the sender of a message or signatory of a document and ensures that the document is unchanged. Nepal government introduced digital signature in financial transactions from February 2012. The MoSTE established the OCC to manage electronic transactions and use technology to reduce electronic crimes.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;Online transactions have been getting popular lately, but the question of security has always been there. A digital signature ensures secured, authentic and non-repudiation electronic transactions such as e-mail, e-commerce, e-banking and e-governance,&rdquo; shares Bhattarai.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Bhattarai informed NewBiz that OCC has already drawn the attention of the NRB to take action against BFIs for using digital signatures from unauthorized firms. At present, companies based in India and America are issuing digital signatures to local online transaction service providers, which is against the Electronic Transaction Act 2008. &ldquo;Sadly, all BFIs providing internet banking service are using digital signatures issued by unauthorized licensors,&rdquo; said Bhattarai.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs6(2).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;width: 300px; height: 566px;" />Digital Agencies</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		With living standards and costs going up in developed nations, digital agencies and online business marketers from there gradually made headways into third world countries including Nepal looking for avenues to establish their offshore units. Today, there are many digital agencies or IT companies, as they are known in Nepal.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		While outsourcing their software to clients from developed nations, many of these digital agencies also tried to educate Nepali entrepreneurs for taking their businesses online. &ldquo;It was very hard to find business persons who were willing to take their businesses online. My team struggled for a couple of years but our continuous efforts in educating entrepreneurs for going online bore fruits,&rdquo; says Deepak Bhandari, Founder of Radiant Infotech Nepal&mdash;a digital agency that has been in the software production business for more than a decade now.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		With the operational costs relatively lower and prospects much brighter, Bhandari shares that small investment, consistency in work quality coupled with good communicative and technical skills and a willingness to adapt and upgrade to technological advances is all that is needed to thrive in the digital agency business.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Along with taking Nepali businesses online, Nepali digital agencies compete in the global freelance market. &ldquo;Competing in the global market is not an easy task unless you are ready to deliver outstanding products at relatively modest prices,&rdquo; says Sanjeev Singh, Co-founder of Catmandu- a startup Nepali digital agency that mostly outsources its products.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		It&rsquo;s not just Nepalis who are materializing their dreams via the Silicon Valley revolution offshoot; many digital agencies with foreign roots and international foot prints have established their offshore production in Nepal. India has been a major destination for software outsourcing in South Asia, but still Nepal has its own attributes to win over some share of it.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;I took a fortunate trip just over a decade ago to India and other countries, looking for ways to reduce my growing software development requirements for clients in Melbourne. Even though it was a challenging time in Nepal, with the UN assisting in the path to a new democracy, I felt Nepal offered a unique opportunity. It was not saturating like India&rsquo;s IT industry,&rdquo; says Michael Simonetti, founder of AndMine, an Australian digital agency that has its offshore production unit in Nepal.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Though the growing inflation and corresponding increase in the operational and other costs have been testing the offshore model, Simonetti still sees future in the model. Complimenting his view, Bhandari says that Nepal has bright scope in the digital agency business. He quotes an online report: &ldquo;Over the coming years, outsourcers are expected to expand their operations quite substantially. Different survey reports have claimed that the growth of outsourcing will remain strong. Like India and other nations there is huge potential for Nepal also to grow in IT service outsourcing business&rdquo;.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		While Internet connectivity, working hours, political instability and power cut are the concerns of this sector, Deepak finds lack of any state mechanism to bring all financial transactions made by freelancer software manufacturer as a major problem for the growth of IT service outsourcing business. &ldquo;Many freelancers are involved in this business without any legal registration. The government should seriously implement the plans it has made so far for the development of this sector along with bringing freelancers within the boundary of taxation.&rdquo;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs3(3).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 375px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Brighter Prospects</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		E-commerce has brighter prospects in the country, according to industry insiders. The access of Nepalis to the Internet has been increasing. The new generation is very keen about online activities. &ldquo;It seems the stage has been set for a rapid growth in online shopping as people find less and less time for physical shopping,&rdquo; observes Tuladhar.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;We will soon see a Cambrian moment with online shopping and services once proper payment systems and delivery infrastructures are in place which is already happening. &nbsp;When that happens, the change will be swift just like it was with mobile phones in Nepal,&rdquo; concludes Akshay Sthapit, CEO, Harilo.com.</div>
	<div>
		(With inputs from Chitra Raj Bhandari)</div>
</div>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
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			'description' => 'The seeds of e-commerce were sown in Nepal about a decade and a half ago. It has taken a bit longer for the fruits to be borne, but today we can see some of them. Offline shopping is still the popular option, but a lot more Nepalis are buying online today. The total annual online business in Nepal is now estimated to be Rs 10 billion, according to industry insiders who attribute this growth to the rising Internet population, a growing middle class, increasing mobile penetration as well as low levels of e-commerce activities.',
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			'title' => 'Political Process: Tardy, Taxing And Tattered',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The leaders of all major political parties, including the Prime Minister Sushil Koirala are artlessly repeating the same statement: &#39;We will complete the drafting of the new constitution within a year&#39;; as if it is just the next day of the second Constituent Assembly (CA II) elections. They do not seem to realize a bare fact that exactly a good half of the year since these elections in the November last has elapsed without scoring any success in any front -- governance, diplomacy, legislation or constitution writing. The worst of all, lately things are hopelessly falling apart so as to making both the government and the CA once again hostage to essentially unnecessary bickering at the highest political level. Thanks to dysfunctional prime minister, over-bullying major coalition partner CPN-UML and non-cooperative, ever-apprehensive and confused main opposition UCPN Maoist.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Every possible executive decision is postponed without any tangible reason. In six months, the cabinet couldn&#39;t pick up twenty-six names to be appointed as CA members from among putatively the national &#39;elite&#39; personalities. The process of appointing of more than one and half dozen of ambassadors in important missions including New Delhi and Washington DC couldn&#39;t even begin. In absence of timely decision of Constitutional Council headed by the prime minister himself, the Supreme Court is left with mere five judges out of almost normally functional twenty positions. Ironically, the appointments in the prime minister&#39;s secretariat and National Planning Commission were not made in time. Almost all constitutional bodies too remain vacant. The advertisements published to fill in those constitutional positions like the commissioners in the Public Service Commission, National Human Rights Commission and the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority, by a sort of free competition is not attracting any dignified figures. They are most likely to be filled by typically clerical minded ex-bureaucrats rendering these crucial institutions, once again, retrograde.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The government is backtracking from the vowed commitments like holding local elections by this month (May). The parliamentary party leader of the major coalition partner CPN-UML, K P Oli from the hospital bed in New Delhi in mid-April declared that the local body elections will be held only after &#39;promulgating the new constitution&#39;. Apparently, his statement didn&#39;t come in consultation with the prime minister who still reiterates, though not convincingly, to hold these elections, may be by June end. The reasons cited not to hold the polls are clearly unpalatable. &#39;There is not enough time now to hold them before monsoon,&#39; said Oli. But nothing had stopped the government announcing it right after taking the oath of office. Clearly, there was no political will to take-up this issue in the right earnest. The second argument, which is abetted by the UCPN (Maoist) too, is that the concentration in the local elections would take the focus off the constitution writing process. It sounds as if the CA proceedings are now going at the right direction as per the popular expectation. Unfortunately, this is not the case, which, thus for all practical purposes smells rat in very faith of democracy of these leaders.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	And, more importantly, it will not be as easy to hold local elections immediately after completing the draft of the constitution as claimed by the UML and UCPN Maoists. The reasons to it are obvious. First, it is highly unlikely that the constitution drafting process will be completed anytime soon. Even some form of draft is agreed upon, say in a year from now, the most likely scenario is that it cannot be promulgated without going into more costly exercises like referendum. Therefore, postponing local elections now means that they are postponed again for an unforeseeable future, which indeed is highly unfortunate. The common people now need the local democratic institutions in place far more than the constitution, which indeed is the largely esoteric proposition for them compared to the elected local government next door. Once again the democracy has been ditched.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The public speeches of the Deputy Prime Minister Bamdev Gautam from UML sound as if his party is not a junior partner but a majority government that has &#39;mercifully&#39; appended the Nepali Congress to be its partner. In all these orchestra of fools, the Prime Minister Koirala remains as faceless as ever. When the country desperately awaits his bold and speedy decisions in more than one front, he seems to have chosen to cover his absolute non-performance by cheap publicity stunts of forsaking some allowances and perks and avoiding five-star hotel accommodations. Such tantrums cannot be substitute to the aspired effective delivery of goods from the chief executive of the nation. If Koirala had real intentions of giving a clean and effective government to the nation and upholding the democratic practice, he should have guts to tell his coalition partners not to nominate ministers that were not the elected members of parliament and those who are the kiths and kins of the influential leaders of the fringe parties.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Both the CA and legislature parliament have been rendered equally non-functional. In over four months, CA has failed to elect the subject committee conveners that are supposed to be key to formulate and moot respective constitutional provisions for discussion in the House. The chair of the crucial constitutional committee in CA remains vacant as of these lines were written. The CA virtually has not been given any business. Attendance in the scheduled meetings is so low that many of scheduled House sessions are often cancelled for lack of presence of minimum required number of members known as &#39;quota&#39;. Even the orientation of the (new) CA members about their roles, responsibilities and duties was not thought necessary.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The legislature parliament too is equally ineffective. Not only it has fallen short to ponder over the bottlenecks that the country is faced with in absence of laws in many spheres, it has also failed to pass a number of important bills that are gathering dust in wait of votes for years. The new bill on Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has further estranged the Maoists from supposedly collaborative political process. The former jungle warfare Maoist guerrillas who are in favour of nothing less than blanket amnesty to them in the guise of &#39;wartime issues&#39; are highly apprehensive of legal action on many of them if the bill is allowed to pass as proposed by the joint committee of political parties. If the bill is made law as in the spirit spelt out by UML leader Oli, the Maoists&#39; rank and file may crumble like house of cards in legal battle on crime against humanity. &#39;Except for the deaths at the frontline, those involved in killings by dragging out persons from their beds at the midnight, killing them by plucking out the eyes, amputating the body parts and hanging or burying them alive cannot be put off the legal purview&#39;, he thundered a few weeks ago. He sounds fairly reasonable. But will that bring about solution to the political stalemate? Or, will this bill actually become an Act and implemented accordingly? These however are more pressing questions altogether.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Maoists have already begun their non-cooperation by boycotting even entirely unrelated political processes in protest of the current form of the TRC bill. It may be recalled that such a commission was part of the Comprehensive Peace Accord of 2006, thus a crucial part of the peace process. The formation of it was deliberately avoided during the past CA tenure of four years when the country saw two Maoist prime ministers in the period.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The another bone of contention has become the so called High Level Political Committee (HLPC) that was in existence during the last CA, and was considered largely responsible for derailing the due CA process; making it hostage to ever-elusive political consensus. Interestingly, the three major parties -the Congress, UML and Maoists did appeared to have agreed about a couple of months ago to revive it. But, when the UCPN (Maoist) supremo Pushpa Kamal Dahal insisted on being the convener of it, other parties took it as his ambition to be a &#39;super&#39; prime minister and wanted to thwart the process. The constitutionality of this mechanism has always been under the interrogation mark and its actions in the past surely undermined the elected House.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	All forms of slackness, inactions, procrastinations, machinations and squabbles have been highly taxing for the country. The perils are pronounced. The economy is in absolute tatters. New investment is not even trickling in. Governance and public service delivery have collapsed. People are exasperated for unnecessarily prolonged political transition. The hope of at least relative consolidation of democratic institutors after the Congress and UML jointly got majority in the House is now waning rapidly. The constitution writing process is still precariously fragile. Only solution to all these ailments is to act and act fast. The lead should unquestionably be taken by the ruling alliance and the prime minister in particular.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</em></div>',
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			'description' => 'Thanks to dysfunctional prime minister, over-bullying major coalition partner CPN-UML and non-cooperative, ever-apprehensive and confused main opposition UCPN Maoist.',
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			'id' => '2779',
			'article_category_id' => '215',
			'title' => 'Ukraine Crisis: Russian Economy In Peril',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<div>
		<strong>--By Sanjeev Sharma</strong></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		As the crisis in Ukraine continues to drag on, Russian economy is increasingly showing signs of sliding into recession. The annexation of Crimean peninsula and unrest in eastern Ukraine - termed by many as the adventurism of Russian President Vladimir Putin - also brought severe economic costs to the northern Eurasian giant. The worst standoff between Russia and the west since the end of cold war has sparked outflow of foreign investments from the Russian economy. Official data suggest that Russia witnessed net capital outflow amounting to USD 63 billion in the first quarter of 2014, more than double from the same period of last year. Similarly, GDP projections for this year also points to the fact that the country is swiftly descending into recession. Last month Russian finance minister Anton Siluanov warned the country is facing &#39;most difficult economic circumstances since the 2008 crisis.&#39; Siluanov in a government briefing estimated GDP growth to be 0.5 per cent or perhaps around zero in 2014. He was echoed by economy minister Alexei Ulyukayev who informed the parliament that national output contracted by 0.5 per cent in the first quarter this year compared to the fourth quarter of 2013.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		The unfolding of new chapters in Ukraine crisis and alleged Russian involvement is also affecting the sentiments of Russian investors very badly. After the ouster of Ukraine&#39;s pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych in February, the country&#39;s stock market plunged to multi-year lows. Amid the political turmoil in Ukraine and western sanctions placed against some influential people close to president Putin, Russia&#39;s heavyweight stock indicator, the RTS Index has lost its value by more than 21 percent in 2014. The Ruble is also in deep trouble as the currency weakened by capital flight has devalued by almost 10 per cent since mid-January. Meanwhile, in the wake of newly erupted geo-political tensions yields of long-term Russian government bonds have sky rocketed increasing the cost of public borrowing. The fear of investors seems to be driven by escalation of chaos in Ukraine which could further lead Russia into tighter sanctions or start of armed conflict in the region.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Russia enjoyed a healthy economic growth in the 2000s. In between 1999-2010 the country saw average GDP growth at 5.42 per cent. Despite the turbulence in Europe and United States alongside bleak global macroeconomic scenario, Russia was able to achieve respectable growth rates- 4.2 per cent in 2011 and 3.4 per cent in 2012- compared to its western peers. The country after experiencing a tumultuous decade following the collapse of Soviet Union in the early 90s largely benefitted from the era of &#39;commodity super cycle.&#39; Gas, oil, coal, timber and metals along with precious metals and stones topped Russia&#39;s exports led by the rise in demand especially in emerging markets as well as the concerns over the long-term supply availability. This resulted in the double-digit spike in commodity prices in the last decade and exporting nations accumulated substantial amount of wealth. The vast natural reserves of such minerals in Ural Mountains, Siberia and the Far East gave the country an edge to rise to the spot of top supplier. Before the US toppled down Russia in oil exports in 2013, the nation was the largest non-OPEC oil exporter in the world. Similarly, Russia is the world&#39;s largest natural gas exporter accounting 20 per cent of the total production in the world. Likewise, services sector also boomed in 90s and 2000s, ultimately becoming the largest sector which accounts for 58 per cent of the country&#39;s GDP. Apart from these, traditional exports of arms and military hardware also played vital role in the Russian economy.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/wf1.JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 303px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		The sound economic growth was made possible by political stability. Vladimir Putin, who came to the center stage of Russian power play in the late 90s was hailed for ending chaotic economic and social environment. After crushing Islamic insurgencies in Chechnya and Dagestan,the strongman gained widespread popularity among ordinary Russians and quickly turned into an influential figure in global politics. Under Putin&#39;s leadership, the fragile economy stabilized resulting in huge inflow of foreign investments in the former communist nation. Russian economy wasn&#39;t seen much affected by the crises in US and Europe due to effective integration of short-term macroeconomic policies.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		However, for the time being, good times seem to have passed away for Russia in the post-crisis world. The success story did not last long as the country&#39;s GDP growth slumped to 1.3 per cent in 2013. Sluggish demand in Europe and US coupled with slowing economic activities in emerging markets has asserted considerable pressure in the nation&#39;s economy. Amid the sovereign debt crisis, energy demand in Europe fell significantly- mainly caused by decline in factory activities- hurting the major Russian export. Investments from US and elsewhere also turned away due to macroeconomic uncertainties and depressed domestic demand. The slump in domestic demand, as per a report by a reputed global research firm Capital Economics, clearly indicates weakening growth in Russia&#39;s industrial production and retail sales in the first quarter of 2014. The economic sluggishness and ongoing Ukraine crisis has exposed long-term structural problems within the Russian economy, including low labour productivity, heavy reliance on energy exports and state-dominance of private sector.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		If the current turmoil continues for long time, the associated political risks are more likely to hamper the country economically. The long time Russian power card of energy exports is unlikely to help in this scenario. In case of broader western sanctions, if Kremlin opts to close or taper the gas supply to Europe, the first victim will be Russia itself as the nation&#39;s major income source dry out. Apart from that, the annexation of Crimea and Ukraine crisis has raised urgency among European nations to reduce their energy dependency on Russia. In the past several weeks, EU lawmakers have discussed to find long-term solutions for fulfill their countries energy demands. Like the shale oil and gas boom in US and North America, Europe is also looking forward to exploit the new energy source. Likewise, more punitive measures by US could include stopping of American investments which will further deplete the Russian forex reserves leaving the country into cash strapped situation. In this event, surge in inflation due to further devaluation of Ruble will add more pain to the country&#39;s fragile economy.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Nevertheless, Russia won&#39;t be left alone to be affected by this. The one time superpower will exert its force to retaliate the western sanctions which will undoubtedly have spiral effects in the global economy. Europe, the main consumer of Russian gas is likely to take the major punch in an event of supply closure. Starved of energy, European industrial production will come to a grinding halt which is gradually picking up speed after years of severe stagnation. Likewise, energy prices will shoot upward affecting every country in the world. US will also feel strong reverberations of the sanctions against Russia and its counter by the Kremlin. US companies operating in Russia- banking, manufacturing, mining, retail stores and restaurant chains in particular- are seen as the most vulnerable to the negative geopolitical developments. The Ukraine crisis has unfolded in a time when global economy is trying to get back on its feet. However, the newly erupted geopolitical tension is seriously threatening the global recovery to get down on its knees again.</div>
</div>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
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			'description' => 'The worst standoff between Russia and the west since the end of cold war has sparked outflow of foreign investments from the Russian economy.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2789',
			'article_category_id' => '31',
			'title' => '‘‘We Will Definitely Grow In Nepal’’',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>J.S. Rathore</strong>&nbsp;is the zonal manager of sales for northern India at Suzuki Motorcycle India Limited. Rathore was recently in Nepal for the launch of Suzuki Let&rsquo;s scooter. He says that the Let&rsquo;s was launched a month ago in India and is performing well in Indian market. Suzuki motorcycles are imported and distributed in Nepal by VG Automobiles and the company is planning to expand its network throughout the country.In an interview with&nbsp;<strong>Gaurav Aryal</strong>&nbsp;of New Business Age, Rathore talks about Nepal as a market for Suzuki two wheelers.<strong>&nbsp;Excerpts:</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>What brings you to Nepal this time?</strong></div>
<div>
	I am here for introducing our new product, &lsquo;Let&rsquo;s 110 scooter, to the Nepali market. This product has good potential here.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>How do you see the market for two wheelers like Let&rsquo;s in Nepal?</strong></div>
<div>
	Nepal is a good market for two wheelers. With annual sales of around 150 thousands two wheelers, this market sells 12, 500 two wheelers every month. The 110 CC scooters segment has potentials to occupy 23 percent of these sales. We are looking forward to tap this segment of the market, which is a growing market in Nepal. At present, Honda Dio is the highest selling scooter in Nepal and it does not have any major competitor.Let&rsquo;s will compete with it. We believe that we can get a good market share and grow quite well in this market.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>What is your expected sales and gain in market share?&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	We are expecting to sell four to five thousands vehicles in a year. Once the product is established in the market, we will definitely sell five thousands vehicles by next year. Initially, we will grab the market share and after its success, if Nepali market chooses that type of performance, we will tryto beat the sales of Dio.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>How do you see Nepal as a market for Suzuki products?</strong></div>
<div>
	It is a good market. This is basically a scooter market and motorcycles in 150 and 125 CC segment. Currently we are not present much in those segments. We are coming with those products and we will definitely grow in Nepal.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Are there any particular challenges that you face in this market?</strong></div>
<div>
	The main challenge for us is to compete against established brands such as Dio and Pulsar. These products are established in the market whereas we are new and under pressure to grow. The dealer and distributor are also new. Distributor, dealer network as well as the product has to be established. These are the major challenges for us.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>What is Suzuki planning especially for the Nepali market?</strong></div>
<div>
	In next two to three months, we will be launching product that will compete with Pulsar and Yamaha. Our plan is to expand and provide our services from every corners of Nepal. At present, we have 28 dealers and we are expanding the dealer network under VG Group. Then, we will expand to small towns through sub-dealers. We have already started working on it because after sales service is as important as primary sales.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Nepal is a budget conscious market and some of your competitors already have a strong market presence. What are the advantages of your products?</strong></div>
<div>
	The market still has further growth potentials. If we see in terms of pricing, we have offered a competitive pricing, less than Dio. And, consumers will get additional features, power and increased mileage with less investment. Compared to competitors we are offering more features and facilities at even better price.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-07-30',
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			'description' => 'J.S. Rathore is the zonal manager of sales for northern India at Suzuki Motorcycle India Limited. Rathore was recently in Nepal for the launch of Suzuki Let’s scooter. He says that the Let’s was launched a month ago in India and is performing well in Indian market. Suzuki motorcycles are imported and distributed in Nepal by VG Automobiles and the company is planning to expand its network throughout the country.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2777',
			'article_category_id' => '48',
			'title' => 'Lords Of Economy',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<strong>--By Madan Lamsal</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are bunch of worried people who constantly think that Nepali economy is sinking, rather sooner. This indeed is absolutely unnecessary concern. Because, first, Nepali economy is not a ship as we happen to be a land-locked country. Second, even if it were a ship we have had not a herd but a fleet of captains to save or rescue it from capsizing; present in every bit of history in different guise, which I shall elaborate further. And, if none of them happened to be at the deck, there will be our own ever-present Pashupatinath to steer clear the whole Nepal out of the danger zone, let alone economy. At least, that is what we Nepalis have believed for generations and still have the largest faith on the Lord at the banks of Bagmati than the banks owned by the lords &ndash; feudal-lords, warlords or landlords.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Our business community understands at which point of time, who can save the Nepali economy best from absolute melt down. In other countries, the business leaders and related organizations first take responsibility of captaining the ship of economy and look for support on whatever is not adequate in them. Our case is just opposite. Nepali brand of business leaders keep on changing the captain, express confidence on a particular one and shift to new one according to changing tide of time.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	When democracy was reinstated in 1990 and the Nepali Congress government adopted the &#39;free market&#39; economic policy, everybody thought that free market means freedom to do anything one can imagine&ndash; hoarding, black marketing, tax evasion, carteling and forged invoicing. Even in the political circles, impact of free market was so huge that the system produced billionaire overnight. Not only likes of Khum Bahadur and Chiranjivi Wagle who turned out to be the most unfortunate among the lot, so to be behind the bars, others who are moving freely are no different in amassing assets as the gift of free market, read freedom to corruption. Look at bulging bank accounts of incumbent ministers under a beggar prime minister. So, in all those years, GP Koirala was assigned captaincy to save economic ship, which he did. You can test its calibre by looking the total amount saved by his daughter Sujata during these two decades.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Then came the Sher Bahadur, Madhav Nepal and so on as new captains and our business community unfailingly expressed confidence in their captaincy. They did save the economy. Whether the economy of their own or that of the nation is irrelevant here. The point here is: there should be an economy and it had to be saved. That was done, without fail.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	That followed the direct rule of King Gyanendra. The queue of business people to bow to him, as the newfound captain was always longer than any wide-angle zoom of television/movie camera could capture in a single shot. He did save our economy. He is still the one single person in Nepal who has got the largest amount of saved assets in the country, or, may be outside too. He indeed made our business people most jubilant when he picked-up a former FNCCI president to help him in this &#39;save economy&#39; mission. &nbsp;One of the techniques in saving is not to let it decay or decompose by letting it remain cool. So this entrepreneur was asked by the King to launch an ice-cream factory. A brilliant idea of saving the economy.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The ability of the Maoist brigade of captains can make an epic. They in fact manned the economic ship in multiple ways. They had multiple captains who wanted to steer the economy in different directions. So it was first saved from moving into any direction. When the ship was not at all leaving the dock, it automatically got saved from sinking. Secondly, they had all fist-raising comrades with red band on their heads. Whoever else thought of moving this ship called economy, they used all tactics possible -thrashing, chasing, extorting and even killing if required. They were practically the real saviours.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	At present, all these forces are together, represented in the Constituent Assembly. Some great captains are with their entire family &ndash; spouse, son, cousin or in-laws. So, there is no question Nepali economy will ever sink. That is the reason even our newly elected FNCCI executives have more faith in political lords than on those who elected them.</div>',
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			'description' => 'There are bunch of worried people who constantly think that Nepali economy is sinking, rather sooner. This indeed is absolutely unnecessary concern. Because, first, Nepali economy is not a ship as we happen to be a land-locked country.',
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			'id' => '2781',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Mirage Of A New Force',
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			'content' => '<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On May 15th, 2014, the senior deputy prime minister and, at that point in time, acting president of the ruling major coalition CPN-UML, Bam Dev Gautam, was happily dancing on a folk tune at a public function. On the same day, Nepal Human Development Report was released in another public function in a five-star hotel that ranked Nepal the lowest in the Human Development Index (HDI) even among the South Asian countries; let alone the global rank. The next day, the so called mainstream media placed Gautam&#39;s news on the front page with picture as if it were a major national happening while the HDI news was pushed asa routine filler to 9th or 17th page as if it were amere ritual.This is Nepal&#39;s eco-political reality personified, reflecting the degree of (in) sensitivity of both politics and media to the development and prosperity related issues of the country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	What is it that makes politicians like Gautam so happy while country is at absolute political mess and economic stagnation, if not recession, for decades? It is unambiguously sheer apathy and ignorance of gravity of the situation that is coupled with vested interests and remnants of feudal psyche of a ruler. The current set of Nepal&#39;s all influential politicians, generally all across the parties, were indoctrinated during late 60s or early 70s. Their last philosophical reorientation had taken place perhaps in the 1990, for the movement to reinstate the multi-party democracy by toppling the panchayat oligarchy. This 60-above generation has been left far behind in updating the knowledge required to run a country. They have been untouched by mesmerizing revolution mainly in information and communication technology, transportation and emerging new world order in power politics. For this reason, these leaders have failed to understand the aspirations of time and the generation that represents here-and-now. They have not even learnt the art to dream for the better future of the country and her people.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	All these realities together, the persistent poverty and backwardness and apparent vacuum in leadership that is still willing to strive for ameliorating them, warrants a new political force that hopefully possesses desirable qualities like right kind of motive, integrity, energy, vision and willingness to serve the nation. Until such a new force replaces the existing parochial order, things too are obvious not to change for the better.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The need for such a force was acutely realized when the first constituent assembly (CA) despite its four year-long tenure ended without delivering a draft for a new constitution. The incessant blame game among the parties for the failures and their uniform adamancy to transform themselves with time multiplied the public disenchantment on them. The need of displacing these parties was more intensely felt after the current incumbent government formed even after the second CA elections appears completely dysfunctional and, mostly averse to the democratic norms in whatever little move sit is making. Prime Minister Sushil Koirala&#39;s unwanted &#39;lobbying&#39; to save the Judicial Council&#39;s controversial nominations to Supreme Court Judges is one of glaring examples of such aberrations. On fulfilling his own responsibility he has miserably failed, not even able to nominate 26 CA members through a cabinet decision.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In fact, Nepal&#39;s political history has witnessed literally hundreds of incidents of leaders or would-be leaders trying to form &#39;new&#39; political force at different junctures of time. But all of them in due course proved to be either protest outcomes to the mother partyby a dissenter or a newer interest group serving to a small circle of its constituents. Dozens of breakaways of communist parties and recent similar divisions in Terai-based parties may be everything as they claim but surely not the political parties of the quality that the country is desperately looking for, for long time now.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Lately, the UCPN Maoist leader Dr. Baburam Bhattarai took the debate on the topic to newer heights by proposing a &#39;need of a new political force to address the new challenges the new Nepal faces.&#39; This initially appeared to be a statement aimed to fill the overarching gap of the national political vacuum by establishing a new, forward-looking, dynamic and democratic outfit. It created ripples too, at least among the left ideologues. But eventually, after much ado, Baburam&#39;s proposition of new force, at least for now,turned out to be nothing more than a trump-card to bargain barely some more space within the party from his party chief Puspa Kamal Dahal.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The current series of debate also revealed a philosophical dichotomy in articulation of needs of such a new force. The more aggressive advocacy, or to some extent endeavours to form such a force from the communist ideologues, borne out of worries to contextualize their own existence in multi-party competitive politics that is inevitably going to be the political mainstay for the future. This sphere of debate therefore has focused more on rewriting archaic communist dogmas and replacing arcane vocabularies like &#39;power only from the barrel of the gun,&#39; &lsquo;dictatorship of the proletariat,&#39; &#39;class elimination&#39; etc. with more contemporaneous political jargons. Clearly, for those indoctrinated under Marx, Lenin or Mao-developed literatures, this simple departure has been difficult and piecemeal, yet inadequate to democratize themselves even at par of existing, relatively democratic forces like Nepali Congress. Therefore, birth of a true new force that is capable of addressing nation&#39;s overall governance and deemed prosperity considerations, through this slanted process is absolutely unlikely. However, if this process at least could transform some of communist outfits to reasonable democratic forces that too would be a desirable outcome.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Another sphere of the debate is, rather should have been, to explore the possibility of creating such a force that has some blueprint to address Nepal&#39;s multi-faceted problems which have rendered the country to a virtual brink of becoming a failed-state. Crisis of governance, deficit of democracy, bleeding economy and pervasive hopelessness of the common masses are some of the immediate concerns which, if not addressed soon, may in fact degrade the country to anarchy, unmanageable even in the long run. But, the current expanse and depth of the debate do not seem enough to give rise to such an all-encompassing political force. Surely, some of rational thinkers from academia and media tried to take the current discourse beyond the cocoons of the communist jargonism, but the triggerers of it from the Left band seemed unwilling to step out of Marxist philosophical umbrella.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Coming back to Bhattarai again, he appears to be less-than-ready to completely forsakethe UCPN Maoist at present. Understandably, it is difficult to desert political Alma Mater. But, at times it is more difficult to mould it to fit to the contemporary need, which justifies conception of the new force. Despite hiccups, Bhattarai has been reiterating the need of such a force. &#39;It may take a few years for such a force to take a shape&#39;, he said in an interaction in the third week of May. His recent China visit was also reported to be to gauge the pulse of Beijing on his plan, without jeopardizing his &#39;warm&#39; relations with New Delhi. For this reason, he dubbed his visit as &#39;pilgrimage to Mansarovar&#39; and chose to set the travel camp not in Beijing but Lhasa, the capital of Tibet autonomous region of China. But, the Chinese authorities left no stone unturned to accord his visit an official status fitting to a former prime minister of a neighbouring country. A number of high officials made a point to travel from Beijing for political discussions with him.With change in guards in New Delhi, he probably has to strike a different chord to attract attention from India&#39;s ruling rightwing Bharatiya Janta Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. If Modi could prevail over India&#39;s bureaucracy, he would perhaps like to see Nepal still a Hindu state, in contrary to Bhattarai&#39;s brandishing of Nepal as a secular state. This may need further fine-tuning of his new plans.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&lsquo;Why should only Bhattarai be at the centre of discussion for this new political force under consideration&rsquo; is a valid question. The common masses still consider him perhaps the most talented persona currently active in Nepali politics. While in government, particularly when he was the finance minister, he came out untainted in shady financial dealings. And, he is the one who is now unambiguously advocating of the need to transform the communist forces to democratic ones, which indeed is crucial component for the democratic future of Nepal. But, Bhattarai doesn&#39;t fully seem to realizehis strengths and perhaps lacks confidence to renounce the ideology that he has so far kept so close to his chest. But, still he could be the best choice to lead such a force if he dares to drop the old cloak and readies himself to lead a new Nepal.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Again, regardless of whether Bhattarai can exhibit enough courage to spear head a new force or not, the relevance and importance of it has been realized more intensely than ever before. The rampant criminalization of politics by the existing parties, their out of date &nbsp;- out of place leadership, sheer apathy to the needs and priorities of the country, widespread corruption on public resources and increasing culture of impunity, among many other malaises, are unlikely to be corrected by the existing forces. Or, just correction may not be enough. The culture of irresponsibility has become the norm in exercising, misusing to be precise, the state power.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For a rational and functional political force to come into being, Nepal undoubtedly needed a more systematic discourse on the topic involving all ideologies and all possible identities. For last seven decades, Nepal as a nation has chased the dream of such a nationalist democratic force, but it still remains a game of chasing a mirage. The current debate has reignited hope, but just hope is not enough. Therefore, we only have leaders dancing in a wrong tune at the wrong time.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>(The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.)</em></div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-06-08',
			'modified' => '2014-07-30',
			'keywords' => 'new business age  nepal politics news & articles, nepal politics news & articles from new business age nepal, nepal politics headlines from nepal,  current and latest nepal politics news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali nepal politics economic news and events,  ongoing  nepal politics ne',
			'description' => 'The current set of Nepal's all influential politicians, generally all across the parties, were indoctrinated during late 60s or early 70s.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2784',
			'article_category_id' => '40',
			'title' => 'Rising Stars Of The Economy',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	--By Akhilesh Tripathi and Sanjeev Sharma</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em><span style="font-size:14px;">Despite obstacles, some sectors of the economy have progressed and their future looks bright. We could call them the &ldquo;rising stars&rdquo; of the economy. In this issue, NewBiz has tried to highlight some of these rising stars, which include: Hotels, Hydropower, Construction Material, ICT, Education, and Banking Sector.&nbsp;</span></em></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	We all know that all is not well with the Nepali economy. Insecurity, much-aggravated industrial atmosphere, power shortage, transport obstacles, strikes and closures and labour unrest stand as barriers in the path to Republic Nepal&rsquo;s economic progress. The country&rsquo;s economic growth rate, according to official government estimate is below four per cent at present as there is lack of political commitment on a common economic agenda, investment-friendly environment, energy and physical infrastructure in the country.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But despite these obstacles, some sectors of the economy have progressed and their future looks bright. We could call them the &ldquo;rising stars&rdquo; of the economy. In this issue, NewBiz has tried to highlight some of these rising stars, which include: Hotels, Hydropower, Construction Material, ICT, Education, and Banking Sector. The entry of the Nepali private sector into these areas, especially after the liberalization of the economy post 1990, has resulted in significant growth in these sectors.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, the continuity of the economic liberalization policy in republican Nepal has produced a significant group of entrepreneurs and businesspersons who are now successful in these areas. This breed of entrepreneurs and business persons thinks that if there is political will and stability, adequate power supply, supportive policy and peaceful industrial environment, then these rising stars will rise even higher.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;However, political stability is the first condition for economic development. Political parties do have their respective ideologies and differences too, but there needs to be a minimum understanding on common issues of economic development, which would help build atmosphere conducive to investment and trust. This would help the rising stars of the economy to attain newer heights.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Construction Materials: Market Picking Up&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Construction Material" src="/userfiles/images/cs(2).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 266px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The construction industry is a growing industry in Nepal. It contributes around 10 &nbsp;to 12 per cent to the national GDP and uses around 35 per cent of the government&rsquo;s annual budget. As the country plans to invest more in infrastructure such as roads, railways, airports, bridges, and irrigation and hydropower projects and as the housing sector shows sign of improvement, the prospects for the construction industry in the country look brighter.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is estimated that the construction sector has created employment opportunities to more than one million people in the country. When it comes to development of any physical infrastructure, construction materials are the major components. With the growth in the construction industry, the demand for construction materials too has risen.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In the last one decade, over 150 construction material factories from cement, paint and bricks to steel factories have been established with an eye on the realty sector and the government&rsquo;s infrastructure development projects. These factories have helped reduce import of construction materials. The country has also become almost self-reliant in bricks, steel and paint; cement production is also on an encouraging trend. The price of construction materials is growing by 20 to 22 per cent every year.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The realty sector, which is one of the major buyers of construction materials in the country, has shown some signs of improvement. According to Ichchha Raj Tamang, president of Nepal Land and Housing Developers&rsquo; Association, the sector has started taking a turn for the better. &ldquo;In the recent couple of years, the realty sector has been improving by over 30 per cent annually,&rdquo; claims Tamang.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Lately, according to construction material dealers, the demand from housing developers and the general public that had slowed down a couple of years ago, has shown some progress. &ldquo;A couple of years ago, the demand went down by around 50 percent due to the government&rsquo;s failure to release the budget on time,&rdquo; said Manik Tuladhar of the Kathmandu Construction Materials&rsquo; Dealers Association. With the situation in the housing sector showing indications of improvement, developers have been speeding up work at their projects.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Meanwhile, construction material dealers said that with demand for construction materials slowly picking up, prices too have increased. Shil Ratna Tamrakar, proprietor of Shristina Traders, which deals in paints, said that the demand had increased remarkably compared to last year and that prices had risen by up to 10 percent depending on the brand.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is estimated that around 90 percent of the country&rsquo;s requirement of paints is fulfilled by domestic products. Along with a growth in housing activities in the past one decade, the number of paint factories too has gone up. There are 32 paint factories in the country with a combined investment of around Rs 6.5 billion.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Nepal Steel Rolling Mills&rsquo; Association said that local steel factories had been able to exist mainly due to the demand from housing developers. There are around three dozen steel plants in the country, and of them, 12 are run in full-fledged operation. All these factories produce 400,000 tonnes of iron rods annually.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, there are more than 70 cement factories that have obtained operating permits from the Department of Industry. The cement industry already has an investment of around Rs 30 billion. Pashupati Murarka, senior vice-president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), said that even though the number of companies receiving government permits has gone up, only around 40 plants are in regular operation.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The country&rsquo;s annual requirement of cement amounts to 3 million tonnes, of which nearly 80 percent is being met by local products. &ldquo;There are no authentic records, however, most of the production is going for construction of private houses and commercial buildings of housing developers,&rdquo; said Murarka. He added that if construction of physical infrastructure receives a boost, the country would be self-reliant in cement too.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is estimated that the construction sector is creating employment opportunities to about one million people. That means it generates employment next to the agriculture sector in the country. Similarly, about 60 percent of the nation&#39;s development budget is spent through the use of contractors. From this, it is clearly seen that construction is a major sector and any productivity enhancement activity in this sector will have a positive impact on the overall improvement of the national economy.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
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	<table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%">
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						<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Government Efforts</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						Realizing the need for enhancement of the construction industry, Construction Business Act 2055 was promulgated and came into force from April 14, 1999. This is an effort made to institutionalize and systematize the construction sector. The Act has defined the procedures and requirements relating to issues and renewal of license and classification of and obligations of construction entrepreneurs. The law has established Construction Business Development Council (CBDC) under the chairpersonship of the Minister for Physical Planning and Works, and Construction Business Development &amp; Implementation Committee (CBDIC) under the chairpersonship of Joint Secretary (technical) designated by the Ministry for Physical Planning and Works. These both are regarded as the apex institutions to develop the Nepali construction industry. Establishment of the CBDC and CBDIC is the important step taken by the government to promote the country&rsquo;s construction industry.</div>
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				</td>
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		</tbody>
	</table>
</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Education: On Private Sector Shoulders</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Education" src="/userfiles/images/cs1(3).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 381px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	With private investment standing at nearly Rs29 billion at present, the education sector is well on the path of evolving into a lucrative service sector business in Nepal. Nobody needs to frown at the idea of education being compared with business. It has done much more good than bad. Even big business houses have started to invest in education.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Private investment in the education sector has grown consistently over the past few years. It now stands at more than Rs29billion, including the investments in schools, colleges, educational consultancies and training institutes. Out of this investment, nearly Rs25 billion is in private schools and colleges, according to the statistics maintained by the Company Registrar&rsquo;s Office (CRO).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs7(1).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 130px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Statistics also reveal that the investment has been increasing since 2006, the year when the government decided to register privately-owned educational institutions as companies. New private investment in schools and colleges stood at more than five billion rupees and six billion rupees in 2010 and 2011, respectively. Similarly, private investors have committed an investment of Rs 2.53 billion in the first three months of 2014.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<p>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs8(1).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; width: 200px; height: 345px;" />According to Umesh Shrestha, president of the Higher Secondary School Association Nepal (HISSAN), private investment in the education sector has increased because it provides good return. &ldquo;This is why even big business houses have pitched into the sector lately,&rdquo; he explains &ldquo;Leading Nepali industrialists and entrepreneurs have launched huge education projects. There will be more such projects in the future.&rdquo; Population growth and increasing demand for quality education are the other major factors behind the increase in private investment in education, he adds.</p>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Educational expert Mana Prasad Wagle credits it to the hype of the phasing out of the Proficiency Certificate Level (PCL) in the year 2010 that invited high investment in &lsquo;Plus Two&rsquo; colleges. In 2009, five new colleges with an authorized capital of more than Rs 100 million each were established. Since then, on an average, more than half a dozen such colleges have been established every year. In the eyes of education experts, an investment of Rs 100 million should be more than enough to ensure quality education.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The number of private educational institutions with massive investment is also increasing every year in the major cities, especially in Kathmandu. &ldquo;The number of students leaving the country after SLC for higher studies has drastically decreased now. This is because they find quality education within the country, thanks to a number of good private colleges. This has also prevented millions of rupees from going abroad,&rdquo; says Shrestha.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It would not be an exaggeration to say that higher secondary (HS) education rests (and grows) on the strong shoulders of the private sector. Let&rsquo;s consider the following numbers: more than 60 per cent of the nearly a million HS students in the country get their education from private institutions; more than 80 per cent of the students who pass the HS level every year are from private institutions.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are around 3600 HS schools in Nepal at present. Out of them 291 are 0+2 colleges, which run classes for only the 11th and 12th grades. The remaining are 10+2 colleges, which run classes from grade 1 to 12.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Private sector institutions have not only played a vital role in boosting Nepal&rsquo;s educational capacity but have also brought along a whole new market dimension. Consider these facts: The annual business transaction of private educational institutions amounts to Rs 22 billion &ndash; Rs 11 billion at school level, five billion rupees at HS level and six billion rupees at university level education.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;The private sector has been helping the government by a great deal by making such a huge investment in the education sector,&rdquo; says Rajendra Baral, Chief Executive Officer at Caspian Valley College.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On the other hand, HISSAN chief Shrestha sees an immense possibility of educational tourism in the country. &ldquo;Nepal&rsquo;s naturally air-conditioned climate makes it a good educational destination for international students, if we can establish schools and colleges of international standard or open affiliates of internationally recognized universities here,&rdquo; he says.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
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					<div style="text-align: center;">
						<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Government Efforts</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<div>
							The government&rsquo;s efforts in education are mainly focused on primary and secondary level education. The government has been increasing the budget allocated for the education sector year on year. The government has earmarked Rs 80.95 billion to this sector for the current fiscal year - up by Rs 60.13 billion of current fiscal year&rsquo;s revised allocation. Similarly, Nepal&rsquo;s education budget increased by more than double in just four years reaching Rs 63.91 billion in fiscal year 2011/12 from Rs 27.06 billion in 2007/08.&nbsp;</div>
						<div>
							&nbsp;</div>
						<div>
							Nepal allocates 3.4 percent of its GDP and almost 17 percent of the national budget to the education sector. The country, however, does not meet the global standard of allocating at least 5 percent of GDP and 20 percent of the total budget to the education sector. Only 9.92 percent of the total education budget has been allocated for higher education, and merely 7.85 percent for university education.&nbsp;</div>
						<div>
							&nbsp;</div>
						<div>
							Government investment in higher secondary education is even less&mdash;two percent of the total education budget&mdash;despite having around one million enrolments a year. Education expert Dr Tirtha Khaniya observes that there is scope for private sector investment and growth in higher study institutions. &ldquo;The government&rsquo;s negligence to the higher secondary level education provided an opportunity for the private sector which cashed in on the opportunity. A similar opportunity lies there for the private sector in university level education too. We will gradually see more private sector investment in this category,&rdquo; he says.</div>
					</div>
				</td>
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		</tbody>
	</table>
</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Banking sector: Time for Consolidation</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs2(3).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 350px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Starting from the government-owned Nepal Bank in 1937, the banking industry in Nepal has come a long way. The industry grew tremendously, especially after the entry of the private sector after 1990. It is one of the sectors of the economy that have grown significantly over the past one decade. &nbsp;The sector has immense growth prospects as nearly 60 per cent of the population is still out of the range of formal financial channels. Today, the banking sector is more liberalized and modernized, systematic and managed.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are various types of banks and financial institutions (BFIs) working under the modern banking system in Nepal. It includes central (1), commercial (30), development (87), finance companies (59), co-operatives (15), NGOs (30) and others (3). Technology is changing day by day. And the use of new technologies has affected the traditional method of the service of banks. Banking software, ATM, E-banking, Mobile Banking, Debit Card, Credit Card, Prepaid Card etc., services are available in banking system in Nepal. Nepal&rsquo;s banking sector has flourished over the years despite numerous challenges and is trying to be at par with international standards.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Today, there are ample opportunities for the banking sector to explore the small and medium enterprises and rural markets in Nepal via innovative products such as microfinance, mobile banking etc.,&rdquo; says Anil Shah, CEO of Mega Bank.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs10.JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 348px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Nepal is an agro-based economy with nearly 84 percent of the population in the rural areas. The BFIs need to develop ingenious products and adopt new technologies to cater to the rural sector. By reaching remote locations, BFIs could contribute towards poverty alleviation as well,&rdquo; observes Nepal Rastra Bank Spokesperson Bhaskar Mani Gyawali.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The public is gradually turning to the organized financial service providers i.e. the BFIs. At present, only 15.1 percent of the total households in Nepal borrow from local money-lenders, while 10 years ago some 40 per cent households were indebted to money lenders, according to the latest Nepal Living Standard Survey (NLSS) released by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Today, nearly 40 per cent households have access to commercial banks&rsquo; branch within 30 minutes walking distance. This was merely 22 percent a decade ago. Similarly, the presence of co-operatives within 30 minute walk radius has also increased from 25.9 per cent to 53.9 per cent during the same period.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Though the growing number of financial intermediaries is not as successful as expected in increasing the financial accessibility, the expansion has definitely helped in general population&rsquo;s access to finance,&rdquo; says Gyanwali.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Going through the trends seen over the past few years, the country&rsquo;s financial sector seems heading for consolidation through mergers and acquisitions. According to experts, the number of banking and financial institutions (BFIs) will reduce by half over the next one decade. Statistics support this fact. Forty-three BFIs have merged with each other to become 18 over the past three years. According to NRB, another 25 BFIs are in the final stage of merger to become 10. NRB sources say that the central bank will continue with its merger campaign in the new Nepali Year.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As a part of this campaign, the NRB is soon going to introduce the Acquisition Bylaws and there are signs that the minimum capital required to run banks could be increased significantly.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Apart from banking, other financial sectors, too, are coming up. Credit rating, portfolio management, mutual funds and central depository system companies have already come into operation. This has opened new opportunities for investment.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Due to stiff competition, banks are trying to provide specialized services such as investing in hydropower, infrastructure and agriculture. The trend is low at present but it has started. Similarly, expansion of branches of BFIs, especially in the urban areas, has reached almost a saturation stage. Now the banks are looking at cheaper ways to increase their outreach; so they are attracted towards branch-less banking, e-banking and mobile banking.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs11.JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 258px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The last one decade has been significant for the banking sector. Many good things happened. As a result, financial access increased by five times over the past one decade, according to statistics maintained by the CBS. Similarly, the statistics maintained by NRB reveal that 40 per cent of Nepalis have access to formal banking channels. These statistics incorporate only the A, B, C and D class BFIs licensed by the NRB. There are nearly 20,000 Savings and Credit Cooperatives operating throughout the country. Similarly, there is a large number of women&rsquo;s groups, farmers&rsquo; groups etc., which also provide banking services. If we consider these institutions, the number of Nepalis having access to financial services will increase significantly. This doesn&rsquo;t mean that the situation of financial access is great in Nepal; what it means is what has been achieved over the past one decade is more than satisfactory.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Increasing access to finance is one of the main roles of the central bank so that central bank is also encouraging the BFIs to venture into unbanked areas through its policy measures,&rdquo; informs Gyawali. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The achievement made by the banking sector over the past one decade can be broadly categorized into three parts: growth in financial access, expansion of loans and development of corporate culture. The rate of financial access increase is high for this period. Similarly, new areas for investment have been discovered. Today, banks have started investing in specialized long-term projects such as hydropower. Likewise, there has been development of corporate culture in the banking sector over this period. This has made the banking sector more transparent, credible and professional. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<div>
		<table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%">
			<tbody>
				<tr>
					<td bgcolor="#E5E4E2">
						<div>
							<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Weaker Side:</strong></span></div>
						<div>
							- All kinds of BFIs are allowed to mobilize deposits</div>
						<div>
							- Lack of adequate financial literacy</div>
						<div>
							- Increasing operational risks of BFIs</div>
						<div>
							- Failure to identify new areas for investment</div>
						<div>
							- Inadequate supervision capacity of NRB</div>
					</td>
				</tr>
			</tbody>
		</table>
	</div>
</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Hotels: More Room for Growth</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs3(4).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 397px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepali hotel industry is rapidly heading towards booming growth. After sluggishness for about a decade, during the conflict years, the country&#39;s hospitality sector is now looking more and more lucrative with hoteliers- both domestic and foreign- investing into multi-billion projects. Surge in visitor numbers with Nepal becoming a prime destination for international, regional and domestic tourists is leaving the country&#39;s hotels sector without much room. Recent tourism rankings published by reputed institutions points out that the country is gaining significant attention from travelers and visitors across the globe.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Industry leaders estimate the size of Nepali hotel sector- ranging from five star hotels to lodges- has reached about Rs 300 billion. &quot;It is one of the fastest growing sector which is providing considerable number of employment,&quot; says Madhav Om Shrestha, executive director of Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN). According to him, the sector is providing direct employment to over 3, 00,000 people and indirectly benefitting around one million. &quot;With big international hotel chains entering Nepal, the industry is treading on to track to healthy revival.&quot;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepal, which has witnessed the departure of some big hotel chains in the past, is again set to become a rewarding market for renowned international hoteliers. Last year saw the US-based multinational hotel chains Marriott and Sheraton announce their entry into the Nepali market. In May 2013, Nepal Hospitality Group (NHG), a company under Nepal&#39;s leading conglomerate Maliram Shivakumar (MS) Group, signed an agreement with Marriott International to open a four-star hotel with an investment of around Rs 650 million. Dubbed as &quot;Fairfield by Marriott Kathmandu&quot;, the 10-storey business hotel with 108 rooms is under-construction at Thamel, a prime tourist and commercial location in Kathmandu.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The hotel targeted towards mid-income guests will start its commercial service by the beginning of 2016. Fairfield is a brand of hotels franchised by Marriott International. NHG is also constructing a 250-room, four-star luxury hotel in Naxal, as a joint venture with the Marriot International.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;In this foray, Sheraton Hotels and Resorts announced its re-entry into Nepal. Shesh Ghale, the Nepal born Australian millionaire businessman, has come up with a joint venture with Sheraton to operate a five-star hotel in Kathmandu. In April 2013, Ghale&#39;s investment company, MIT Group Holding Nepal set the project rolling by signing an agreement with Sheraton&#39;s owner Starwood Hotels and Resort Worldwide Inc.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Slated to open in February 2018, the cost of 225-room Sheraton Kathmandu project is expected to be around Rs 7 billion. Sheraton, the largest brand of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide has history of managing five-star hotel in Nepal. The chain in 1980s&#39; and 90s&#39; managed the Hotel Everest Sheraton in Kathmandu.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Meanwhile, Indian hotel chain Lord Hotels and Resorts has already started its operation in Nepal. The company opened its first international hotel in Kathmandu, the Mirage Lords Inn at Battisputali with an investment of Rs 200 million. The 40-room budget hotel is targeted to serve domestic and international guests ranging from religious visitors to adventure seekers.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs12.JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 398px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:12px;"><strong>Investment Hotspot</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The hotel investment frenzy has also wrapped Nepali business community. Many have announced to open new hotels while some have already opened doors to welcome guests into their newly built auberge. The Hotel Shambala, a 65-room, four-star Tibetan- styled boutique hotel, located at Bansbari started its operations few months ago. Similarly, construction of the Chhaya Center at Thamel is in full swing. The structure upon its completion will accommodate a 200-room four-star hotel along with an exclusive shopping mall. Likewise, The Centurion Group has been constructing a 120-room hotel in Biratnagar.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Meanwhile, Muktishree Group, Vaidya&#39;s Organization, Non-Resident Nepalese Association (NRNA) and Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) have made their announcements to establish five-star hotels. &nbsp;In the meantime, other major tourist destinations such as Pokhara, Lumbini, Biratnagarand Nepalgunj are also experiencing rising investments in the sector.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This sector is becoming a center of attraction for Nepali banks and financial institutions (BFIs) as well. According to recent Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) data, total investment of BFIs in the sector reached an estimated amount of Rs 21 billion by the end of April. The central bank also notes that in the first nine months of current fiscal year (FY), the sector welcomed an investment of Rs 3.16 billion, up by 20.8 percent from last FY&#39;s 2.30 billion.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%">
		<tbody>
			<tr>
				<td bgcolor="#E5E4E2">
					<div>
						<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Time to be Cautious</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Despite the significantly increasing activities in the hotel sector there are also cautionary calls arising within the industry itself. &quot;The overall trend in investment and the growth in infrastructure is satisfactory, but marketing of Nepal in international arena is lacking,&quot; opines Binayak Shah, vice president of Summit Group of Hotels. Shah, who is also the Managing Director of Airport Hotel, said that as the sector will have more than enough infrastructures amid the rise in number of international hotel chains coming to Nepal and growing domestic investments. &quot;In addition, unsold apartments are also being converted in to hotels. If we cannot market our resources innovatively, in a few years time, we will have more supply than demand,&quot; he says. &quot;This has to be balanced.&quot;</div>
				</td>
			</tr>
		</tbody>
	</table>
</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong style="font-size: 14px;">ICT: Explosive Growth</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs4(2).JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 271px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) sector has grown in a geometric proportion over the last few years bringing speedy transformation. The explosive growth and rapid infrastructure developments led the sector, nascent only some years ago, to around Rs 50 billion worth strong sector in a year.</div>
<div>
	Nepal has been enjoying remarkable growth in ICT sector due to expanding telecom sector, increasing use of email/internet, emerging social media and steady growth in the use of state-of-art gadgets.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs121.jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 656px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The pace of mobile phone adoption in the country was surprising in the last couple of years as nearly two third households have access to telephone facility. The overall teledensity has increased to 87.20 per cent by mid-March, according to the telecom regulator Nepal Telecommunications Authority.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is likely that the transaction of overall ICT products will double in the next few years. Internet penetration rate increased to around 30.99 per cent till mid- March, and the rise of Internet users will have a direct impact on the trade of computers, claims Computer Association of Nepal (CAN).&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	High competition among world class brands including HP, Samsung, Dell, Asus, Compaq, MAC, Sony, Lenovo and Acer have not only contributed to lower the price, due to hard competition, but also have provided quality products to Nepali customers.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Along with hardware parts, the software market is also experiencing a steady growth in the country. Experts and professionals involved in this business are taking this growth as a positive aspect of developing awareness related to information technology.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;The overall trade of software has increased in the domestic market though there is not actual data available from concerned authority. Amrit Kumar Pant, General Secretary of CAN, said, the market and activities related to this business have been increasing as the people have been using software and application as necessity while it was used in the form of luxury till some years ago.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	ICT has provided enormous opportunities from various aspects, according to the regulator Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA). Nepal&rsquo;s telecom sector has created employment opportunities for at least 50,000 people and contributed more than Rs 20 billion as revenues every year to the national coffer.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Even the government has come up with some ambitious plan including that of connecting east and west via Optical Fibre network. For the purpose, the government has planned to utilise the Rural Telecom Development Fund (RTDF), the fund collected by Nepal Telecommunications Authority from telcos.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, the sector is not without problem. According to telcos, there are many problems in the policy front. The telecom sector has been witnessing government&rsquo;s dillydally in bringing relevant laws and policies.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, there are still room to improve in terms of quality. On the one hand, telcos and internet service providers need to ensure quality of service. On the other, Nepal should not become trading hub for low quality ICT goods. In such situation, the government need to bring policies ensuring consumers&rsquo; rights. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	ICT is still an untapped market in Nepal, an expert told New Business Age. &ldquo;All concerned stakeholders need to put sincere effort to take this sector to the next level.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Hydropower: From Deficit to Export Considerations</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs6.JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 342px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Forced to live under electricity cut averaging 10 hours a day during dry seasons, Nepal is gradually developing its hydropower projects to escape the long-standing power crisis. Things have changed positively in the recent years as the dust of political uncertainty is finally showing signs of settling down. 87 hydel projects totalling 2,345 megawatts are under construction. Both the government and private sector have ramped up their investments in these projects. The projects, upon completion, are expected to add electricity into the national power grid within the next seven years. Similarly, the Investment Board Nepal (IBN) has also taken initiatives to construct five mega-hydel projects of 3,750 MWs. IBN, which was formed four years ago to fast-track mega projects, is said to be involved with promoters for power development agreement (PDA). The promoters have assured to start the construction of projects immediately after the finalization of PDAs.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This indicates the increasing involvement of private sector in the country&#39;s hydropower development. Nepali private sector has thus far managed to produce 232 MWs electricity after the electricity act of 1992 came into effect. According to Independent Power Producers Association, Nepal (IPPAN), the private sector has invested Rs 55 billion in 25 hydro projects till date since the establishment of the first private power plant in 2000.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Increasingly positive tones of bilateral donors have also raised hopes in this sector. The World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) are planning to raise their stakes in Nepal&#39;s hydropower development. The World Bank (WB),which has already provided development related financial assistance worth Rs 200 billion to Nepal is further adding investments in hydropower projects. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group has recently agreed to provide USD 84.6 million for the 37 MW Kabeli-&#39;A&#39; project. The electricity output from the run-of-river project situated in Panchthar district will be then connected to the national grid through the 132 KVA Kabeli Corridor Transmission line. The transmission line, which is jointly financed by the WB and Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) is in the construction phase. Likewise, IFC has also expressed readiness in Arun III (900 MW), Upper Marsyangdi (600 MW), Upper Karnali (900 MW) and Upper Trishuli (213 MW). During his visit to a WB program in US and Mexico in April, Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat received commitment from the IFC for investing for Rs 600 billion in developing hydropower projects of 3,000 MWs. Similarly, ADB is also stepping up to invest in the country&#39;s big hydel projects. Last year the bank agreed to provide soft loan of Rs 13 billion for 140 MW Tanahu Hydropower Project. Likewise, the European Investment Bank (EIB) which also agreed to loan Rs 1.5 billion for the above mentioned project has also committed to provide Rs 12 billion to build the Kaligandaki and Marsyangdi Transmission line along with another Rs 3 billion to build the Trishuli Corridor Transmission Line.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The sector is also grabbing significant attention from foreign investors. Official data shows that hydropower sector has attracted highest FDI commitments in the recent months. According to data published by Department of Industry (DoI), foreign investors pledged Rs 11.8 billion worth FDI commitments in the first nine months of the current fiscal year against Rs 2.65 billion during the same period, last year.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Rising Export Potential</strong></span></div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs13.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; width: 250px; height: 435px;" />Few years back it was almost unimaginable for power crisis marred Nepal to even think of supplying electricity to neighbouring countries. The scenario, however, is looking more and more real for Nepal to make its way forward to become a net power exporter. Nepal after producing 2,345 MW by 2018-19, will have surplus energy after consuming its annual demand of estimated 1,700 MW by that time. In this circumstance, India will be the most likely market of Nepali electricity as the energy hungry southern neighbour is increasingly looking to import power from its himalayan proximate.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The construction and installation of countrywide and cross-border high capacity transmission lines indicates the rising power trade potential between India and Nepal. The tower installations in Nepal section of 400 KVA Dhalkebar-Muzzafarpur Cross-Border Transmission line has started earlier this year. The construction of the project, which started in January is scheduled to be completed within 16 months of its commencement. Similarly, feasibility study of 400 KVA Bardaghat-Gorakhpur Transmission Line has also begun. The high capacity cross-border transmission lines would facilitate power transmission between the two countries. A secretary-level agreement between Nepal and India has already paved way to build the framework for power trading.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Private power producers say that both countries should look into effective modalities of power trading. &quot;Energy banking agreement model is the best option,&quot; says Er Gyanendra Lal Pradhan, Chairman of FNCCI&#39;s Energy Committee. According to Pradhan, if the model is adopted, Nepal can send surplus power to India in rainy season and bring back the same amount of electricity in dry seasons. He said that countries across the world are adopting this model owing to its flexibility and practical approach. &quot;The model is being effectively practiced by New York Electricity Exchange of United States and Hydro Quebec of Canada, they do banking up to 90 per cent of electricity they trade and remaining 10 per cent is priced.&quot; Pradhan stressed the need for building strong network of nationwide transmission lines as it would further help if Nepal and India engage in energy banking.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, absence of clear policies and other problems such as inefficient bureaucracy, rampant corruption, lack of nationwide transmission grid, issues related to infrastructure and land compensation are regarded as the bottlenecks in Nepal&#39;s hydropower development efforts. For instance, the draft of electricity bill, 2065 introduced in the parliament has seen little or no progress over the past five years. Similarly, issues related to power purchase agreement (PPA), higher bank lending rates in hydropower projects, value added tax (VAT) levied to private producers and low allocation of national budget are also seen as problems hindering the sector&#39;s overall development.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-06-09',
			'modified' => '2014-07-30',
			'keywords' => 'new business age cover story news & articles, cover story news & articles from new business age nepal, cover story headlines from nepal,  current and latest cover story news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali cover story economic news and events,  ongoing  cover story news of nepal',
			'description' => 'Despite obstacles, some sectors of the economy have progressed and their future looks bright. We could call them the “rising stars” of the economy. In this issue, NewBiz has tried to highlight some of these rising stars, which include: Hotels, Hydropower, Construction Material, ICT, Education, and Banking Sector.',
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	(int) 7 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2780',
			'article_category_id' => '52',
			'title' => 'Fallen Prey To Politics',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	When Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) was created, it was dubbed as the first truly functional model of public-private partnership (PPP) in Nepal. When it delivered some encouraging results for Nepal&#39;s tourism industry, the model&#39;s replicability potentials formed chapters of many books like of Karna Sakya and provided basis for a large number of business working papers and case studies. But, unfortunately, the same NTB has now become the test case of alleged embezzlement of resources and sit-in protest against the same by the country&#39;s tourism entrepreneurs. Thanks to all-pervasiveness of our albatross politics.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	While penning these words, it had almost been a month that the protesting entrepreneurswere demanding an impartial probe into financial irregularities by the acting CEO of the Board, Subash Nirola. But nothing was moving ahead primarily because it was a PPP. The Board headed by the secretary in the Ministry of Tourism as the ex-officio Chairman is expressing government&#39;s inability to take unilateral action, as it is the &#39;private&#39; organization while the entrepreneurs too do not have the legal power to oust the CEO.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	A few months ago, the NTB made a policy decision to organize the tourism fairs in the districts &#39;to promote the domestic tourism&#39;. This has panicked the traditional entrepreneurs that their income would be shared by the district level hospitality and amenities industries. The government sees no flaws in the Board&#39;s decision. &nbsp;The entrepreneurs argue that the money spent for such fairs in domestic markets should instead be spent in international publicity so as to attract the foreign tourists. This is no doubt a valid reason. But, just spending some money for promotion of domestic tourist market can hardly be established as an evidence for corruption.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The fuss is beyond these allegations of misappropriation of funds. The fact is, the protesting organizations of the entrepreneurs are affiliated to Deuba faction of the Nepali Congress, Oli faction of CPN-UML and Bhattarai faction of UCPN Maoists while the CEO is considered close to Khanal faction of the UML or, a chameleon, who also sometimes claims to be a Koirala Congress. And, for every political party, it was a matter of great pain that a newly emerged reputable organization like the NTB was functioning independent of political interference for more than a decade. And appointment of CEO is also not based on one&rsquo;s political loyalty. &nbsp;Therefore, every political party perhaps feels that if the current CEO is ousted through a political move, then it can set a trend and every next Tourism Minister can pick a new CEO along with each change in the government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The protest of the entrepreneurs wore a grotesque look when so called senior leaders of all three major parties reached at the sit-in site to &lsquo;express solidarity&rsquo; to the demands, without going into the merits of the allegations. If there are irregularities, there are related legal and quasi-legal institutions to investigate and prosecute the guilty. &nbsp;Why would leaders need to meddle in this process? Only plausible answer is that every party is keen to make the NTB a new political prey, which is deplorable.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The problem in the NTB began long ago when the Board failed to pick-up a professional CEO in a transparent and timely manner. The &lsquo;Acting&rsquo; position is always an incentive for the incumbent to look for quick bucks from all possible means including kickbacks. And, as allegations are already labelled to Nirola, he should either make public all the details of procurement as soon as possible proving his integrity or step aside until proven innocent allowing for an independent probe. &nbsp;The prolonged stand-off between the Board and the entrepreneurs is putting the entire Nepal tourism sector in bad light. And, the government must step in to solve it than being a party to a side.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-06-08',
			'modified' => '2014-07-30',
			'keywords' => 'new business age  from the editor news & articles, from the editor news & articles from new business age nepal, from the editor headlines from nepal,  current and latest from the editor news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali from the editor economic news and events,  ongoing  from the edi',
			'description' => 'When Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) was created, it was dubbed as the first truly functional model of public-private partnership (PPP) in Nepal. When it delivered some encouraging results for Nepal's tourism industry, the model's replicability potentials formed chapters of many books like of Karna Sakya and provided basis for a large number of business working papers and case studies.',
			'sortorder' => '2625',
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	(int) 8 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2775',
			'article_category_id' => '41',
			'title' => 'CEOs Exit: Nepali Banking Sector Faces New Problem',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Sanjeev Sharma</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The once lucrative Nepali banking industry is now being deserted by long serving CEOs as they head on to start their own business or shift to other areas. The latest bank CEO who left is Suman Joshi of Laxmi Bank. Nearly a month ago, Grand Bank CEO Sudhir Khatri had resigned from his post. While some insiders claim that Joshi left the job as the main promoter of the bank stopped liking him and Khatri laid his papers to avoid actions from the central bank, banking sectors analysts have also started wondering if a new trend of CEOs leaving the banking sector has set in. This concern is based on the fact that some bank CEOs who resigned from their post have left banking career altogether. One such prominent example is Parshuram Kunwar Chhetri, who resigned when Bank of Asia that he was leading went to merge with NIC Bank to form NIC Asia Bank. One prominent exception to this is Kumar Lamsal who left Sanima Bank and joined Kist Bank as the CEO. &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This trend has triggered other concerns as well in the sector. Does this indicate the start of a new trend in the Nepali banking sector or is it just a momentary occurrence? Will the departure of experienced hands affect the overall stability of the country&#39;s financial sector? With long serving CEOs leaving the institutions, are BFIs losing opportunities to hire good executives? &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It&#39;s been more than two-and-half years since the Nepali banking authority issued directive and guidelines on the executive compensation system for BFIs. This 2011 policy mandates that the annual salary and perks of a bank&rsquo;s CEOs cannot exceed more than five percent of the average staff expenditure of the respective institution over the period of three years or 0.025 percent of the total assets registered during the previous year, whichever is lower. This provision comes into action only while appointing new CEOs and spares the existing ones. With such a provision in place, the bank CEOs are left with three choices - work with present bank, join another bank on lower perks and salary or abandon the sector and look out for new avenues.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Defending this cap, the central bank argued that it was aimed at discouraging banks from getting involved into unnecessary risk taking activities. &quot;The executive compensation structure was widely regarded as one of the causes of the global financial crisis as it encouraged banks and financial institutions to get involved into high risk taking manoeuvres to increase short-term profit, eventually inviting long-term systematic risks,&quot; the NRB directive and guidelines states. The policy was introduced in the wake of rising fears of real estate bubble that followed the liquidity crunch of 2011. After the commencement of peace process in 2006, house and land prices soared to record high levels in major cities across the country forcing the NRB to tighten the provisions of bank lending into the real estate sector.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, merger of BFIs is also seen as another reason to reduce the number of CEOs in the banking sector. Since only one CEO leads a bank, the CEO of one of the merging BFI is required to leave the institution during or after the merger process completes. NRB issued Merger Bylaws on May 2011, stating that it would strengthen the financial system and raise trust of public towards the banking sector. The main aim of the merger policy is to expand the capital base of BFIs and thereby strengthen their financial position to withstand various risks in the future. Following the policy rollout, 43 BFIs went for merger and resulted in the formation of 18 BFIs, official NRB data as of mid-March says. Of them two were &#39;A&#39; class banks and 41 were &#39;B&#39;, &#39;C&#39; and &#39;D&#39; class institutions. NIC Bank and Bank of Asia were the first commercial banks to go for merger that resulted in the formation of NIC Asia. Recently the Global IME Bank and the Commerz and Trust Bank have also submitted their merger proposal to the central bank for final approval. Remaining 25 BFIs of all classes have received Letter of Intent (LoI) from the NRB to merge and form 10 BFIs. These mergers have resulted in 25 CEOs resigning from their posts as of March 2014. Commerz and Trust Bank CEO Anal Raj Bhattarai is said to be leaving his post following the the merger process. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	NRB stands quite firm to its decision to put cap on perks and salaries of bank CEOs. &quot;It is wrong to say that supply of experienced chief executives have declined due to our directive and guidelines. We made the decision after evaluating various factors,&quot; says NRB Spokesperson, Bhaskar Mani Gyawali. &quot;The factors include per capita income of the country and average pay scale in various sectors,&quot; he elaborated while claiming that introduction of the policy is making the Nepali banking sector more efficient as chief executives receive compensations according to the income of their respective institutions. &quot;Bankers are now required to perform in more effective manner. &nbsp;This ensures stability of the financial sector,&quot; he said.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="CEO" src="/userfiles/images/sect1.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; width: 350px; height: 100px;" />The departure of long serving CEOs has provided opportunity to second-layer bank officials to rise to the top spot. The second-tier officials can now groom themselves to grasp the chair of chief executive. Nevertheless, this has raised concerns regarding the risk taking appetite and the overall performance of banks as less experienced people come to the lead role.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	NRB&#39;s argument has generated mixed views from experts. &quot;CEOs who hold long experience in the sector are the essential part of the banking system. The sector as we know is all about experience. Long serving chief executives know the core of banking which gives the institutions edge to get ahead with proficient business strategies,&quot; says a former CEO of a commercial bank under the condition of anonymity. &quot;They also have risk taking appetite to expand the bank&rsquo;s business areas further.&quot;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Sanjeev Subba, the CEO of National Banking Training Institute (NBTI) shared different view. &quot;I think the departure of long serving CEOs won&#39;t affect adversely after all. The second and third tier officers are capable as they have come up with experience in different layers,&quot; he said. &quot;This has provided them with significant experience over the years.&quot; Subba mentioned that Nepali commercial banking sector, which has been running for the past three decades has produced sufficient number of experienced manpower. For the perks and salaries part he opines, &quot;Salary cap won&#39;t affect bank CEOs to renew employment contract within the same institutions. This will only affect those who are willing to join other organizations.&quot;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Suman Joshi, Laxmi Bank&#39;s former CEO expressed his perspective close to Subba. &quot;Departure of experienced chief executives is unlikely to have overall adverse impact on the banking sector. Exit of the old and entry of new should be taken as two sides of a coin,&quot; he said. Joshi, however, cautioned that banks might see performance related issues as less experienced people take over the executive post. He also mentioned that Nepali banking sector has started to follow international trend. &quot;If we look the international scenario, CEOs don&#39;t stay in the same responsibility for long time,&quot; he opines.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Lack of motivational factor seems to be another reason for the CEOs to leave their jobs. &quot;Bank CEOs get more salary compared to other sectors. However, working regularly for a long time without increment in salary creates an environment of de-motivation,&quot; says Bank of Asia&rsquo;s former chief executive, Parshuram Kunwar Chhetri. According to him, many chief executives are facing the problem of stagnant salary levels and have to work under pressures of media, investors, shareholders and rising day-by-day business risks. &quot;Nevertheless, financial institutions are run and governed by particular system, so a significant negative impact is unlikely in an event of a CEO leaving his post,&quot; Chhetri said. &nbsp;</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-04-11',
			'modified' => '2014-06-09',
			'keywords' => 'new business age sectoral news & articles, sectoral news & articles from new business age nepal, sectoral headlines from nepal,  current and latest sectoral news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali sectoral economic news and events,  ongoing  sectoral news of nepal',
			'description' => 'The departure of long serving CEOs has raised concern in the Nepali banking sector. Does this indicate the start of a new trend in the banking sector or is it just a momentary occurrence?',
			'sortorder' => '2624',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2774',
			'article_category_id' => '169',
			'title' => 'Do Not Count Your Chickens Before They Are Hatched',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Everyone gets excited by a new job offer and for valid reasons off course. A person seeking change always thinks that he has done well but somehow not been duly rewarded. We sometimes feel that our bosses are aliens without any idea how the modern world works and always hassle us from their ivory tower. Thus frustrated, when we receive a new offer, we feel like being in heaven. It is quite natural to get excited and believe that the opening, longed for so long, has arrived at last.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But beware; all that glitters is not gold. Your current job may not be that great but you would egress from your comfort zone while accepting a new one. A known devil is always better than an unknown friend. Since you would be spending close to 50 hours per week on the job, it is always better to be cautious, even when the offer is from a big corporate.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	So, before accepting, make sure you have a thorough background check. Here are seven key questions you must answer before deciding. Even when the salary seem to be godsend and the perks seem to be out of the world; even when you have mentally spent half of your extra salary; do not rush and resign till you have answered these questions satisfactorily.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>1. Are you clear what you are expected to accomplish on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Probe long and hard to understand what is expected from you. Job description and designation sometimes can be very vague. I have once come across a job title stating &ldquo;Conversation Architect&rdquo; which means &ldquo;Digital Marketing Manager&rdquo;. How about &ldquo;Director Storytelling&rdquo;? This is a Microsoft PR guy managing their blog &ldquo;Next at Microsoft&rdquo;. &nbsp;So what is your employer&rsquo;s expectation? Ask this and observe the body language. If it is a new position where you are not succeeding anybody and if you see hesitancy while answering; be cautious. The person might have got a dictate from top about certain initiative without any clue on how to proceed. You might end up being the fall guy.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>2. Do you know how your success will be judged?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Understand what are those achievements which will define your performance as success and below what level the result will be seen as failure. A performance management form with Performance Indicators duly charted out in black and white may be of great help but sometimes it may not be sufficient. So when you get clarity on your success matrix, determine whether the organization has measurement tools or not. For example: your job description can state &ndash; &ldquo;ensure within 1% deviation on production specification&rdquo; but you may end up discovering there is no accurate measurement equipment which can predict below 2% deviation. Then during performance appraisal you would be at the mercy of your boss and his mood on that day.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>3. Will you be able to do well in the new role?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	It is nice to be confident and one can always bluff into a job but you have to be true to yourself on your actual ability and qualification to perform. Each one of us has certain strength or weakness. While MBA degree claims to create super monster or efficient robotic humanoid who can perform at any Industry at all levels; in reality it does not happen that way. If the new job does not play to your strength then you may eventually end up losing everything. So, ask yourself this question about your actual suitability and fitment and answer as honestly as possible; if the answer is ambiguous or negative then refrain from accepting.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>4. Do you know the culture of the company and the team you will be working with?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	It is very important for you to be fully aware about the culture of the place. This has a huge impact on comfort and quality of life on the job. This in turn decides workplace happiness. For example; if you thrive in an informal culture with open door policy and end up in a hierarchical and formal place or in a corporate where aggression and hostility is the order of the day, you may end up regretting your decision. Likewise, if you inherit a team with a veteran who aspired your position but could not get it due to self inability, he may disparately pray for your failure even at the cost of the team being termed as non-performing.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>5. Do you know your Boss?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Do you know his working style and expectation? There is an old saying that &ldquo;People leave bosses, not job&rdquo;. There is also another school of thought that &ldquo;No people are allowed to select their bosses&rdquo;. But both are actually different sides of the same coin. In nutshell, the dynamics and equation between two persons are extremely important for both of them to succeed. It is better to have a thorough understanding between you and your boss about each other&rsquo;s management style and his expectation from you to have a flying start. At least try to answer this question as best as possible. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>6. Are you clear about the entire compensation package including details of various perks?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Do not focus on exactly what will be your CTC (Cost-to-company) salary but also take a look at others perks like House Rent, Car, Utility, Telephone, Education or Medical allowance. CTC may look bigger but what you are getting net at the end of each month is also important. There is nothing wrong to ask your employer about bonus and other annual facility and detail eligibility of the same. It is better to make them as part of their offer letter. Do not be in a hurry but nail down those details before affirming.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>7. How does this job fit in your overall career related goal?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Will it be in line with what you have planned or will you regret this decision two to three years down the line? Sometimes people take a short-term decision knowingly to achieve something bigger. You may decide to take on an assignment not fitting into your long-term strategy due to some short-term tactical goal like flexible timing to pursue higher education or to be in a specific town for some period. But make sure that you decide after due deliberation and not take a blind call. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	So the bottom-line is clear. Do not rush into decision. Sleep over it and take more than three to four days &ndash; preferably a week-end before you decide. Try to envision your future two, three or five years down the line. Answer those seven questions. Answer them diligently, as best as you can. Remember the word of Confucius &ndash; &ldquo;the expectation of life depend upon Diligence; the mechanic that would perfect his work must sharpen his tools first&rdquo;. So, for a perfect future, do a proper homework on how to sharpen the tools.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-04-10',
			'modified' => '2014-06-08',
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			'description' => 'All that glitters is not gold. Your current job may not be that great but you would egress from your comfort zone while accepting a new one.',
			'sortorder' => '2623',
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	(int) 10 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2772',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Undemocratic Overtures',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The national debate on holding the local body elections -- for the Village Development Committees (VDCs), Municipalities and District Development Committees (DDCs) -- is at its high after one and half decades, but the very prospect of the same actually taking place still whirls in the rough waters. No doubt, one of the most positive outcomes of the Nepali Congress (NC)-CPN UML coalition government is that it moved positively to hold the local body elections. But there is still doubt on the possibility of these elections being held by end of June this year. It has been sixteen years since these elections were held last and the term of the office bearers expired some twelve years ago. In the absence of democratically elected local bodies, the public service delivery, grassroots public works and institution of democracy have faltered to the hilt. The consequences are apparent -- the capital expenditure for years has been far less than the allocated targets, the GDP growth has stagnated at yearly average of 3.5 percent for last eight years despite the fact that country has enjoyed relative political peace during this period, and the emergence of new generation of leadership in any possible political formation has been nipped in the bud.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Even now, the dampener to the call to these crucial polls comes as a single voice of both factions of the Maoist parties that parted ways some three years ago, led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Mohan Vaidya respectively. From the ideological prism, the opposition to the polls by the Maoists looks all natural. And, it was expected from the Vaidya group given the fact that it remained out of the second Constituent Assembly (CA) elections held in last November. But, by contrast, the move appears rather anachronistic for Dahal and his party (UCPN Maoist) that has vowed to remain in competitive politics of ballots despite all odds. The political plunder the Party is now venturing into may well turn out to be a mammoth blunder not only for Dahal and Co. but for the entire country and the democratic process itself.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is not difficult to decipher Dahal&#39;s calculations to oppose these polls. He is apprehensive of poor outcome for his party if it goes to polls without uniting the Vaidya faction. On top of it, not only Maoists, every party other than UML is fearful of the local polls conducted when Bamdev Gautam is at the helm of Ministry of Home Affairs. However, the opposition to these polls from Vaidya comes as entirely different reason: this group is determined to go against any proposition made by the parties in CA and under the present scheme of political arrangements. It is in fact Vaidya&#39;s chosen plank since it separated from the mother party UCPN Maoist.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But to hide real shortcomings, Dahal has adopted a new but unambiguously anti-democratic stance in the form of opposing these polls. &nbsp;His formal premise of this opposition is: the inevitable engagement of the government and political parties in the local elections would divert the focus away from the constitution writing. He has also trained his party rank and file to rant out that the poll competition among the parties would bitter the differences that could be reflected in constitution writing. &#39;It hardly causes any grave damage if we defer the polls by seven or eight months for these local bodies that have remained vacant for last sixteen years,&#39; Dahal has unequivocally said.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Apparently, Dahal&#39;s statement lacks creativity and craftsmanship. Every politician who wanted to procrastinate on the local elections through all these years has used the same platitude, pointing to some larger political urgency or priority to be addressed before these &#39;trivial&#39; polls. When the term of the local office-bearers expired, the Maoist insurgency had swept the country. The priority was &#39;saving democracy from terrorism&#39;. When the peace deal was sealed in 2006, agenda of saving the peace process overshadowed the local polls. Then, in 2008, the CA elections were natural priority. The Interim Constitution 2007 didn&#39;t even incorporate a provision for local elections, which is a real shame on our constitutionalism and so-called experts who drafted it. When the first CA came into existence, influencing experts had a take, &#39;since entire nation were to be federalised, the local elections would only be a nuisance in the larger process of restructuring the state.&#39; When the extended tenure of the first CA expired without writing the constitution, sense of national loss was so overwhelming; no leader had time to ponder over these &#39;unimportant&#39; local elections. Then came the second CA elections and existence. The change in political equations gave birth to NC-UML coalition in government that fortunately has begun at least the talk of these polls. But, unfortunately, efforts are already on to stall them.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The crucial questions here are: Were all those cited reasons both necessary and sufficient conditions to procrastinate the local elections at different political turning points? Were these &#39;local&#39; elections so unimportant at the face of other &#39;national&#39; agenda? And, do they still deserve to be pushed further away in this or that pretext? Answer to all these questions is one big NO, but the background that leads to this simple NO is excruciatingly painful and treacherous.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The first and perhaps the most powerful of all explanations is that the central leadership of any party strongly hated these elections. After 1992 local elections, the NC and UML saw that many articulate, learned young cadres elected as local leaders attracted national and international attention. They were the first to woo the public confidence as they had resources, public position and closest contact to the grassroots population. This created a very real threat of displacement to the national leadership if such a &#39;mass manufacturing&#39; of young breed of leaders were continued. A simple example to vindicate it could be enough to compute the proportion of members in current or past CAs that were elected in those local bodies during 1990s. The best way to allay this threat of &#39;big&#39; leaders was to stop this practice altogether wherever and whenever possible. The Maoist who came to mainstream through Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) 2006, were no different from NC or UML in this regard.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	If that were not the case, there was not any convincing reason to not hold the local polls at least after the CPA. Had local bodies come into existence then, it could have been a great vehicle to bring the local political leadership of different parties at the same political platform. It could also have been the most effective mechanism to deliver the putative &#39;peace dividend&#39; to the people in general. These polls could have been conducted at the sidelines of both CA elections without much additional logistical and security costs. But, to repeat, leadership of no major party was honestly interested to hold these elections. Even the CA members were (still are) against it. Their naive complaint used to be &#39;DDC chairman, or a mayor, with all facilities and resources at his disposal is more powerful than a member of CA or legislature.&#39; These are real impediments&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	to these polls than any fabricated political logic.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Otherwise, these local elections on their own merit are very important from every possible paradigm of democracy, development, decentralization and true devolution of power. One can also convincingly argue that inputs to the constitution writing, state restructuring and political reconciliation would have come in more institutionalized fashion had these local bodies with elected representatives remained functional.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The argument that the local elections would derail or deviate the constitution writing process is extremely preposterous to say the least. First, the CA couldn&#39;t draft a constitution in four years of last CA where such polls were not even contemplated. And, there is no real trade-off between these two goals - namely, the constitution writing and holding the local polls. The CA can without aberration continue the process of writing the constitution. The Election Commission (EC) and the government can handle the logistics and other preparations for the local polls. The argument that local elections impair the possible political cooperation among the political parties is outright unpolitical. All the forces who believe in the rules of democracy cannot harbour animosity just for the fact that people voted for one party against other.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On the contrary, local polls and the constitution writing, if managed wisely, can be mutually reinforcing and complementary processes. It is repeated in uncountable instances that without a framework of state restructuring incorporated, the constitution writing process cannot be completed. These local democratic bodies can serve as the real feedback institutions for delineations of the provinces and other administrative and electoral units. More importantly, these institutions will be the real tool to manage unrealistically spiraling ambitions of people with largely misrepresented notions of rights, inclusiveness and reservations, among many other.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It appears that all contentious issues on constitution writing will not be resolved by the sitting CA and all major leaders have categorically said that these issues will be resolved through a referendum if required. This is a clear hint that completion of constitution writing may take several years. If such a scenario is imminent, it is illogical to stop the local elections from taking place now. Suppose, even if this CA completes the constitution drafting process, the promulgation of the same is not going to be easy. But, if these legitimate institutions are in place, they can help to create an atmosphere for relatively smoother promulgation. An elected political leader is far more responsible apparatus of the state mechanism than the one left in the streets just to protest on every petty issue.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Even in the worst case scenario, say, the local elections delay the constitution writing by a few months; it is still a risk worth to be taken. With the local bodies in operation, people can feel the real strength and utility of the democracy than the distant CA or a vague constitution. It is however not to mean to undermine the importance of the constitution.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is good to know that EC has reportedly started preparation for all required legal backdrop, including the amendment in the Interim Constitution 2007 to include the provisions for local polls.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Everyone should be convinced that no democratic exercise of any fashion would weaken the democracy. A pragmatic rethinking is required on the part of the Maoists and real courage in government to translate its own promise of holding local elections into reality, sooner.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
	<em>The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</em></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>',
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			'created' => '2014-04-09',
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			'description' => 'The national debate on holding the local body elections -- for the Village Development Committees (VDCs), Municipalities and District Development Committees (DDCs) -- is at its high after one and half decades, but the very prospect of the same actually taking place still whirls in the rough waters. No doubt, one of the most positive outcomes of the Nepali Congress (NC)-CPN UML coalition government is that it moved positively to hold the local body elections.',
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	(int) 11 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2771',
			'article_category_id' => '52',
			'title' => 'Agenda: Economic Restructuring',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Finance Minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat created ripples of a sort in mid-March when he pointed to the need of restructuring the economy. No doubt, this is a long pending agenda given the fact that Nepali economy is faced with stagflation-like trap for decades. But, Dr. Mahat&#39;s proposition has come so suddenly that it gives rise to two natural questions. Have we done adequate homework for such a massive restructuring? Is there enough political will to embrace the agenda of restructuring, going beyond barely managing it? And, the direction of such restructuring will equally be crucial as will be the sustainability of the transformed structure.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Prioritization of the tasks in such restructuring agenda and garnering political support for the same, are two sets of groundwork that any restructuring agenda cannot perhaps bypass. To both ends, Dr. Mahat as the finance minister has a couple of rare strengths. He understands the Nepali economy thoroughly -- its cracks and crevasses-and has a pro-private sector image. Also, he carries equally strong weaknesses; that he carries a big baggage of self-righteousness, doesn&#39;t have a professional team and hardly trusts anyone and, he is a bad politician, at least at the negotiation table.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Needless to reemphasize here, restructuring of a mixed economy that is chronically mismanaged is sure to be a daunting, painstakingly long-term process. If this is not a mere political gimmick that Dr. Mahat has no reason to indulge into, the homework needs to commence at least in two parallel fronts of the economy -- technical and political. On the technical side, there must be a dispassionate assessment of the loss incurred and persistent underperformance of the economy due to over-involvement of the government in planning, production and distribution systems. On the political front, to reduce the state involvement in functional aspects of the economy, a great deal of reorientation is imperative mainly in those political forces who are indoctrinated as communists or ardent socialists.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	A great amount of misgivings about the &#39;inevitability of state intervention and activism in economy&#39; must be dispelled, both at political or people&#39;s levels. Dr. Mahat himself needs enough courage to declare the institutions like the National Planning Commission obsolete, at least in the present form. In their present form, they act as omniscient of the needs and priorities of the populace at the grassroots. The decision on liquidating about three dozen state-owned enterprises that have acted as hungry sharks for years in the exchequer is long overdue. Only way to create public awareness on the futility to maintain status quo in these public institutions depends largely on the effective factual communication of the maladies and recurrent losses, year after year. One stroke of liquidating or privatizing the Nepal Oil Corporation would be enough to test Dr. Mahat&#39;s sincerity and courage to take-up really meaningful restructuring of Nepal&#39;s public economy.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The economy is under stress from more than one quarter. The ballooning imbalance in the country&#39;s foreign trade, dwindling absorption capacity of the financial resources and mass-migration of the working age population for low-earning jobs abroad creating labour-market distortion at home are three prominent areas that warrant top priority in the restructuring agenda.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The structural imbalances too are looming large. We spent decades lamenting on the lower-than-demand production of energy, mainly hydropower. But, despite all odds, the energy sector attracted a substantial investment and there are indications that the supply would be doubled in next four to five years. But, we became oblivious of the fact that we needed to develop adequate transmission lines to connect this power to individual houses. There are concerns of this power being wasted for lack of alternative arrangements, for example, replacing LPG cooking stoves with the electric ones to create market for the added power generation, or if possible export to India.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There is a sort of political consensus on the need of a tangible restructuring of the state when it hopefully gets federalized. The proposed agenda of economic restructuring must be a complementary process to that larger goal of spatial restructuring of the state. The restructuring of even larger scale is also required in the private sector to transform it from a mere a trade-margin capitalizer, like from gold smuggling, to employment-generator and export-promoter. Therefore, the restructuring agenda must not fizzle out as seasonal political hyperbole. It deserves more nuanced treatment to make it a fruit-bearing proposition.</div>',
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			'description' => 'Finance Minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat created ripples of a sort in mid-March when he pointed to the need of restructuring the economy. No doubt, this is a long pending agenda given the fact that Nepali economy is faced with stagflation-like trap for decades.',
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	(int) 12 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2773',
			'article_category_id' => '40',
			'title' => 'The Business For Social Benefit',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<em><span style="font-size:16px;">Social entrepreneurship in Nepal is on the way of gaining its ground over the last few years. Despite its varied aspects and differences in its definition, entrepreneurs agree it to be a form of business that helps in promoting social causes and better changes in society. &quot;Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid&quot;, a phrase coined by the late Indian academic CK Prahalad, has become popular among social entrepreneurs. But the question is: are we heading towards ensuring benefit to the bottom billions or not? In this issue, we focus on scope, opportunities and motivation for social entrepreneurs and the way forward.&nbsp;</span></em></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Siromani Dhungana</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Those at the &#39;bottom of the pyramid&rsquo; have been neglected since decades and it is time to change perceptions through which they are perceived. They should not be perceived only as recipients of aid.They are agents of development and they can be partner in entrepreneurship, says Catrin Frohlich, co-founder of Hidden Journeys who is involved in promotion of social entrepreneurship in Nepal for the last couple of years. She opines that acceptance of bottom billion as business partner opens avenue to set up social enterprises.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Social entrepreneurship embraces market-based approach as social enterprise is about innovation and making profit along with makingimpact on development of the society, she argues. It is not the rejection of profit but rather is about sharing of profit with target groups and there by helping them in enhancing their living standards, Frohlich adds.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepal needs to create jobs and job creation is not possible without enterprises. Social entrepreneurship is all about leading country towards prosperity through sustainable approaches.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong><img alt="Catrin Frohlich" src="/userfiles/images/cs1(2).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;width: 300px; height: 144px;" />Scenario of Social Entrepreneurship</strong></span></div>
<div>
	A large number of population is reeling under acute poverty despite the fact that massive resources at the local level remain unused.In such a scenario, Nepal can be a very appropriate country for venturing into social enterprises.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, it is again not an easy task to venture into social enterprises, especially in a country with relative absence of entrepreneurial aptitude. Social entrepreneurship is comparatively new phenomenon but it is gaining momentum, says Vidhan Rana of Biruwa Ventures. We have good understanding of the word social but less understanding of the word entrepreneurship, he opines. &ldquo;Social entrepreneurshipis not about establishing NGOs and distributing aid money to people in need,&rdquo; he says, adding, &ldquo;Innovative ideas to venture into business is a must to start enterprise.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Many people perceive the term social enterprise as a connotation of not-for-profit organization. The not-for-profit mantra is out-dated now, says Rana adding, &ldquo;Make profit but involve the bottom billions in business and share the profit with them. This is the philosophy behind the concept of social entrepreneurship.&rdquo; Social entrepreneurship has become a buzz word and Rana fears that this hypemight be misused by not genuine social enterprises.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This is a new domain and there is a corresponding dilemma at the policy level. While a debate on what is genuine social entrepreneurship has started, Sadhana Shrestha, executive director at TEWA and former Country Representative, in Nepal at Ashoka, accepts the prevalence of dilemma about the termamong businessmen also. While attempting to correct the prevailing notion that perceives both types of organizations synonymously, she says that NGOs and social enterprises are different. Nepal does not have laws specific to social entrepreneurship but it certainly has a category in the Company Act, which describes such companies as those that do not distribute profits (though they makes profits).&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The most encouraging part in this is the increasing involvement of young generation. Youth led organizations such as Biruwa Ventures, Entrepreneurs for Nepal (E4N), Udhyami Nepali, Hidden Journeys and ChangeFusion Nepal have been working to promote entrepreneurship including that of social entrepreneurship.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong><img alt="Sadhana Shrestha" src="/userfiles/images/cs2(2).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;width: 300px; height: 144px;" />Fight Poverty with Profitability</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&ldquo;The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits,&rdquo; by C.K. Prahalad, professor of corporate strategy at the Ross School of Business of the University of Michigan is considered as a seminal work on social entrepreneurship. The concept of &lsquo;The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid&rsquo; provided new business models targeted at providing goods and services to the poorest people in the world. Prahalad&rsquo;s concept seeks to solve global poverty by turning the bottom of the socioeconomic pyramid from victims of globalization into its beneficiaries through consumerism.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The book combined a pragmatic framework with inspirational case studies to show companies how they could develop innovative business models and find new profits by serving the world&rsquo;s five billion poorest people at the bottom of the economic pyramid (or BOP).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Prof Prahalad was in favour of private-sector led social enterprises. Responding to a question &ldquo;What are the big lessons learned since the book was first published?&rdquo; by Triple Pundit, a new-media company for highly conscious business leaders, Prahalad said:&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	First, the thesis of the book that the private sector is an integral part of the poverty alleviation process is well accepted by multilaterals, aid agencies, many NGOs and large private sector firms as well. &nbsp;Second, there is now a growing belief that the bottom of the pyramid provides an opportunity for business to &ldquo;do good and do well.&rdquo; Third, we recognize that the BOP is more than micro-consumers. &nbsp;It also represents micro producers and micro investors who can be connected to national and global markets. And the BOP can also be the source of major innovations that affect us all. &nbsp;These ideas were in the original book but have been confirmed and amplified.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Reviewing the book, Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software Architect, Microsoft says: &quot;C. K. Prahalad argues that companies must revolutionize how they do business in developing countries if both sides of that economic equation are to prosper. Drawing on a wealth of case studies, his compelling new book offers an intriguing blueprint for how to fight poverty with profitability.&quot; This book is considered a hallmark in introducing discourse and practices of private sector led social enterprises.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong><img alt="Vidhan Rana" src="/userfiles/images/cs3(2).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;width: 300px; height: 144px;" />Evolution of the Concept &amp; Growing Concern&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Many believe that business philanthropy and social involvement of business community is linked with long rooted concept of &ldquo;Sewa Hi Paramo Dharma&rdquo; [Social Service is the Ultimate Religion]. Historical evidences suggest that not all business leaders have been content in simply performing a commercial role in society. Numerous businesspersons, industrialists and entrepreneurs have made significant contributions to their local communities.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Earlier, there were notable efforts to engage business in society via charity or social welfare activities. These were mainly inspired by religious affiliation and cultural inspirations. From mid-1970s onwards general interest in corporate social responsibility grew and this is reflected in the involvement of Nepali corporate sector in CSR activities. &nbsp;This interest was consolidated in the 1980s. As part of the general redefinition of state functions in this period, the role of business in addressing social problems became more prominent. Such political and policy developments, it is argued, have made a significant contribution towards enhancing social roles of businesses.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Social Enterprises: Sustainable Approach of Development&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Sadhana Shrestha, while stating that NGO workers should not be considered as social entrepreneurs, claims that social entrepreneurship should have some basic qualities: innovation, breakthrough ideas, sustainable and replicable model and system changing ideas.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Social entrepreneurs should give enough attention to the sustainability of their business and generally do not distribute dividend rather inject it in the business to ensure sustainability of the enterprise, she claims.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Social enterprises are businesses whose primary purpose is the common good. The main characteristics that distinguish a social enterprise from other types of businesses, non-profits and the government agencies is its sustainable approach, opines Mahabir Pun, the winner of the Ramon Magsaysay Award 2007 for his project that brought wireless Internet to rural Nepal.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Social enterprise directly addresses a difficult social need and serves the common good, either through its products and services or through the number of disadvantaged people it employs.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Challenges in Social Entrepreneurship&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The social enterprise movement was connected mainly with non-profits that used business models and earned income strategies to pursue their mission in the early days of social entrepreneurship. The understanding has become clearer now. Enterprises, whose sole purpose is to make social impact, are now considered as social enterprises. The sector, however, is not out of challenges.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Identification of business model:</strong> Business is often linked with profit in Nepal. And even the image of non-profits is not very positive. In such a situation, building positive image for social enterprises is a challenging task, says Catrin Frohlich.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Capacity building: </strong>Building capacity of aspirant social entrepreneurs is another challenge for Nepal&rsquo;s social entrepreneurial world. Capacity building initiatives should not be limited to launch of businesses, but should be continued when it comes at scaling up level, addsFrohlich.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Financing:</strong> A real social entrepreneurship is about innovation but traditional financing institutions do not always believe in innovative ideas and may deny lending money, opines Frohlich while pointing to the challenge of acquiring financial assistance for social enterprises.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Legal provision:</strong> Policy and regulatory frameworks have many grey areas. In such a context, it is feared that the word social entrepreneurship could be easily misused by non-profits and others institutions to gain undeserving reputation, says VidhanRana.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Opportunities&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The concept of social entrepreneurship is an outcome of the realization that aid recipients cannot make tremendous progress in their life compared to entrepreneurs, says Vidhan Rana. In the same vein, Frohlich also opines that despite some good works, NGO-model of development is not always in favour of the bottom billion. Despite challenges, social entrepreneurship field in Nepal is recently witnessing positive trends and receiving new opportunities as it is the best model for optimum and sustainable use of resources.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	If analysed from the perspective of national development, social entrepreneurship does not put the national economy at risk. It is a beautiful aspect of social entrepreneurship that while an individual takes all the risk of innovation, all members of the target community share the benefit.Similarly, social entrepreneurship is even more inclusiveforwomen entrepreneurs and adopting this approach can assist in making the entire development process more inclusive. Considering the present trend, it is obvious that in the coming years we&rsquo;ll see social entrepreneurship woven into the very fabric of existing disciplines and become an integral lens through which we will understand all sectors and fields of study.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Corporate Houses for Social Cause&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to a business practice that involves participating in initiatives that will have positive impact in the society. Generally, CSR activities are carried out using profit amount. CSR is a process with the aim to embrace responsibility for the company&#39;s actions and encourage a positive impact through its activities on the environment, consumers, employees and communities.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Though companies are not directly involved in social entrepreneurship, their involvement in social issues has been increasing in one or another form. In Nepal, many companies have been involved in many social activities such as Coke for water conservation, Unilever for hand washing promotion, Yeti Air tree plantation etc.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Involvement of business community in social activities is not new phenomenon. Some renowned business houses have been involved in some traditional CSR activities. Operation of eye hospital from Golchha and donation to Briddhashram (old age home) from some business families can be taken as examples to this end.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Further, some business houses have been involved in special CSR initiatives as annual events such as Asha Awards, Sports Tourism promotion, and health awareness program being carried out by Surya Nepal. There also are some companies such as NCELL that provide direct charity (e.g. school building, sukumbasi house roofing etc.) that is linked directly with their business promotion. Chaudhary Group has established a separate unit Yunus Centre to promote social entrepreneurship though it is yet to start work effectively.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Besides, recruitment of deaf staffs in the Nanglo restaurant can be taken as a good example of social entrepreneurship business. Dabur is also involved in social business as it provides help to farmers in herbal cultivation.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Future Outlook</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Positive impact made by existing social enterprises on target communities and in making profit has triggered enthusiasm in aspiring entrepreneurs. Numbers of aspirant social entrepreneurs are increasing and their conviction show that they can make money and can do things differently in the entrepreneurial world. &nbsp;Social enterprises will prove that enterprises can be financially sustainable, even profitable.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs4(2).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 512px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>',
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			'created' => '2014-04-10',
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			'description' => 'Social entrepreneurship in Nepal is on the way of gaining its ground over the last few years. Despite its varied aspects and differences in its definition, entrepreneurs agree it to be a form of business that helps in promoting social causes and better changes in society.',
			'sortorder' => '2620',
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	(int) 13 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2768',
			'article_category_id' => '169',
			'title' => 'The Right To Reject!',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Last September, Supreme Court of India passed a landmark judgment by opining that &quot;If right to vote is statutory, right to reject candidate is also a fundamental right of expression under Constitution&quot;. Court declared that Democracy is all about choice and if dejected with the candidates, one has every right to express displeasure by rejecting the entire lot and send a clear, unambiguous signal to Political Parties to find better alternatives. Henceforth, &ldquo;None of the above&rdquo; as an option will appear mandatorily in every ballot and voters can exercise that if needed. When Voters proclaim blanket dislikes for all, there will be re-election. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This sets my imagination flying; suppose we decree that if 50% of the turned out voters cast their vote on &ldquo;None of the above&rdquo;, parties must recall earlier candidates and sent new ones for re-election? Moreover, what if those recalled candidates would be barred from contesting for another three years? Not only that, suppose somebody stands from multiple constituency and gets expunged in one, he would be automatically disqualified even if he emerges as winner in the other? What a revolutionary power it will bestow on the common man.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	We shout about People&rsquo;s power, People&rsquo;s Democracy but ultimately, in present context, common man is nothing but a puppet dancing to the tunes of various political parties. With this option, the true power will be with us, the common man. If we dislike the candidates, all we have to do is to cast our vote on &ldquo;None of the above&rdquo; option.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In any Election, normally voter turnout varies from 50% to 65%. 50% of that is only 30% of the total voting population. So, if 30% of awakened populations are unhappy with the choices given by the Political parties, they can bring down the political parties on their knees. Taking one step forward, what if we mandate that the cost of reelection will be borne by those parties? What a shame will that be!&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Just imagine the impact. Each political party will put in candidates without any blemish. Re-election will be solely on the basis of good work. All indicted criminals, murderers, fraudsters will not be able to contest because no political party will take chance. People contesting from Multiple Electorate will be equally cautious. If they win in one constituency and Rejection verdict came in the other then they face disqualification for three years. Trend of senior leaders standing up from multiple constituencies will reduce dramatically which will bring in more honest and&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	young politicians.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Democracy is about choice and choosing to &ldquo;Reject&rdquo; is the biggest reward democracy can offer to people. In Nepal too the supreme court has already given the right to reject election candidates. Now, all the political parties of Nepal will need serious introspection and Civil Society will emerge stronger. In right democracy, freedom has to be universally upheld and protected, as Scot Howard Phillips stated aptly &ndash; &ldquo;One can&rsquo;t pick and chose which type of freedom one wants to defend. Either one defends all or against all such freedom.&rdquo;</div>',
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			'created' => '2014-03-24',
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			'description' => 'All the political parties of Nepal will need serious introspection and Civil Society will emerge stronger. In right democracy, freedom has to be universally upheld and protected.',
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			'title' => 'Designing Your Dreams',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Upashana Neupane</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<table align="right" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;" width="25">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>
				<img alt="Shailaja Adhikary, Managing Director, IEC College of Art and Fashion" src="/userfiles/images/be3%20(Copy).jpg" style="border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; width: 200px; height: 237px;" /></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
				<div align="center">
					<div>
						<strong>Shailaja Adhikary</strong></div>
					<div>
						Managing Director</div>
					<div>
						IEC College of Art and Fashion</div>
				</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<div>
	If &nbsp;you are passionate about designing your own imagination and flaunting the trendy designs, you can get the route by pursuing a career in the same world. IEC (Indian Education Centre) College of Art and Fashion, the pioneer in the country to introduce the course in fashion designing is providing you two courses where you can scribble your mind creatively and artistically: Bachelors in Fashion Design and Bachelors in Interior Design.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Recognising the need and addressing the passion for fashion design course in Nepal, Shailaja Adhikary, started the institution on her sole initiation. Adhikary, who is the Managing Director at the college, shares that her step to introduce a new course and that too of fashion in Nepal was not easy but says it was worth the effort. Adhikary shares she was only 21, when she started IEC realising the need in the country to set up the institution for professional fashion designing training.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	IEC was started as an institution for computer trainings and fashion designing initially. Adhikary had to include the computer courses in her institution as people then were not so much willing to join the tailoring courses as it was attributed with the negative stereotypes. &ldquo;I turned down the computer courses, when Ifelt the craze for fashion design increasing and computer slowing down&rdquo;, she recalls, &ldquo;That was the right time to gear up for the Fashion Designing course in Nepal.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>The Courses Offered</strong></span></div>
<div>
	IEC Offers Bachelors degree in two courses: Fashion Design and Interior Design. The three-year Bachelor degree is segregated into six semesters.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Fashion Designing course helps students learn draping, patternmaking, and sewing techniques in detail. Students are also provided with the opportunity to interact with the top designers of the country and abroad as they visit the college as guest speakers helping student understand and create designs that can be made public through on campus exhibitions.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Interior Designing course provides student in-depth knowledge about field and gets opportunities to collaborate and interact with leading practitioners too. The college arranges field visits to the places with interior spaces like hotels and restaurants, hospitals, residences, stores and so on. Students are also provided with internship facilities in their last semester. &ldquo;We are soon planning to send our students to India for internship&rdquo;, she shares, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a bigger platform and exposure there.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>After Graduation</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Graduates of both the courses get ample career choices. Adhikary shares that there is a huge market for the graduates and they can be consumed very fast and easy. &ldquo;Not only domestic market, students have to compete in the international arena too,&rdquo; she shares.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Adhikary who herself believe in making your own identity always suggests her students to start entrepreneurship. &ldquo;You shouldn&rsquo;t give your hard work to somebody else,&rdquo; she opines, &ldquo;Have the experience of 2-3 years to work under other organisation and then start your own business.&rdquo; Fashion Design graduates can pursue their career as costume designer, fashion consultants, fashion designer, fashion entrepreneurs, fashion photography coordinators, fashion show coordinators, fashion stylists, production supervisors, accessory designers, jewellery designers and so on.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Meanwhile, Interior Design Graduates can pursue their career as CAD (Computer-Aided Designs) designers, commercial interior designers, designer consultants, exhibition organizers, furniture designers, institutional interior designers, fashion show coordinators, lighting designers, and residential interior designers etc.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Likewise, IEC has been supporting various fashion shows and beauty contest in Nepal which is a plus point for the students. It was also the joint organiser of first Fashion Week which was first of its kind in Nepal. &ldquo;These kinds of shows provide bigger exposure to the designers&rdquo; Adhikary opines, &ldquo;They give bigger platforms to the new and talented designers in the country andneeded to be encouraged more.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Business Education" src="/userfiles/images/be1%20(Copy)(1).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 468px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Eligibility</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Those who have passed their +2 level in any faculty are eligible for the entrance exams taken by the college. And one must pass the entrance test to get the admission. The College is affiliated to the Vinayaka Missions University, India.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Started from 13 students, Adhikary recollects the memory of her initial days where she only had been able to make 35 students throughout the year.&ldquo;The scenario now has thoroughly changed and the fashion designing course or fashion itself is not viewed with the stereotypes&rdquo;, she shares.The college now is over flooded with the focused and determined studentswilling to pursue the courses and Adhikary is positive that the scenario will still get better.</div>',
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			'description' => 'IEC, the pioneer in the country to introduce the course in fashion designing is providing you with the opportunity to scribble your mind creatively.',
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			'title' => 'Business Click By Click',
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	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<div>
		<em><span style="font-size: 14px;">The seeds of e-commerce were sown in Nepal about a decade and a half ago. It has taken a bit longer for the fruits to be borne, but today we can see some of them. Offline shopping is still the popular option, but a lot more Nepalis are buying online today. The total annual online business in Nepal is now estimated to be Rs 10 billion, according to industry insiders who attribute this growth to the rising Internet population, a growing middle class, increasing mobile penetration as well as low levels of e-commerce activities.&nbsp;</span></em></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;Compared to the developed countries, Nepal&rsquo;s e-commerce is still in its infancy. Its share in the national GDP is negligible at present but it has been growing,&rdquo; says Amrit Man Tuladhar, CEO of Muncha.com, one of the country&rsquo;s leading e-commerce websites which has been in operation since 2000. According to Tuladhar, the past couple of years have been particularly encouraging for e-commerce in the country. &ldquo;Some unique websites have come up over the past couple of years,&rdquo; he observes.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Thamel.com is perhaps the first e-commerce site in the country. It started online business in 1999 and today it is one of the major players. &ldquo;We are probably the first company in Nepal to start online business with a dot com company name registered as Thamel Dot Com Pvt Ltd,&rdquo; claims Rajesh Lal Joshi, CEO of Thamel.com. &nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		E-commerce in Nepal started through gift-sending and bill payment services through online portals. Today, it&rsquo;s possible to buy almost everything online - new clothes, books, mobile phones, laptops, second-hand goods, jewelleries, home appliances, fresh vegetables and what not. One can even order one&rsquo;s lunch online from home or office, thanks to the latest developments in e-commerce activities. There are a number of e-commerce companies offering these services. Airlines have started selling air-tickets online through these services. Banks are handling online transactions because people have started paying and receiving online, though the trend is low.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;In 2000, there were a couple of websites doing e-commerce. Today there are more than a hundred. Of them, over a dozen are active in the business,&rdquo; says Tuladhar. &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs4(1).JPG" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;width: 300px; height: 316px;" />Growing Popularity &amp; New Trends</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Today, the online market has expanded due to the increasing purchasing power of Nepali consumers. The trend is also on the rise because of the rise in the number of Internet users. &ldquo;Online business is on a progressive path and the trend is evolving high with many players coming in the arena with their unique business models,&rdquo; says Joshi.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		The domestic e-commerce market has now expanded into various segments such as online shopping, e-banking, mobile commerce, electronic cash transfers and e-ticketing. Online markets are attracting buyers (and sellers too!) because they are time- and money-saving and are hassle free.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;Lately, Nepal has graphed a swerving online presence. The proliferation of various online business portals in recent years is enough to valibate the claim that &nbsp;the presence of e-commerce is encouraging in Nepal,&rdquo; says Asgar Ali, CEO of eSewa Fonepay.com.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Annual online transactions in Nepal are estimated to be around Rs 10 billion, although an official figure is not available. Dozens of online shopping websites have emerged since the inception of e-commerce in Nepal. Muncha.com, Thamel.com, Harilo.com, YesKantipur.com, Metrotarkari.com, Foodmandu.com, Bhatbhatenionline.com, etc. are some of the popular websites among Nepali online shoppers (see Box). Some of them sell their own products whereas others deliver from global sites such as eBay and Amazon.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		According to industry insiders, Nepalis of the middle- and upper-middle class who have access to faster Internet have started enjoying shopping online. &nbsp;They find it easy because on the one hand it saves time, on the other, it&rsquo;s easy and reliable. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t need to hang around shopping stores and malls wondering where a particular product is. With online shopping, all you need to do is find a product online, fill-in payment details and submit. That&rsquo;s all to get your stuffs delivered at your home,&rdquo; says Manish Shrestha, portal chief of Bhatbhatenionline.com.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>E-banking</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Lately, electronic banking or e-banking, as it is more popularly known, is getting popular in Nepal. According to the stakeholders, the use of e-banking has been increasing with the rising competition among the banks and financial institutions. &ldquo;The trend of e-banking is growing,&rdquo; says NRB Spokesperson Bhaskar Mani Gyawali, &ldquo;The situation of e-banking in the country is satisfactory at present.&rdquo;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Instead of opening a new branch, banks have started focusing on e-banking which is a cost-effective way to expand their services. For this, banks have adopted modern banking technologies such as branch-less banking, mobile banking etc. According to NRB, all 32 commercial banks in the country have started branch-less banking and mobile banking by mid-January 2014.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Banks&rsquo; customers are, however, yet to adopt online payment for the goods or services they buy on the Internet. Most online shoppers still prefer cash on delivery (COD) though all commercial banks provide e-banking services. &ldquo;There is a lack of awareness among Nepalis about e-banking. An overwhelming majority still prefers COD though they have bank accounts,&rdquo; shares Stebin Bajracharya of Harilo.com.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs1.JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 412px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>E-ticketing</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Nepali air travelers are gradually getting used to e-ticketing, a good evidence of growing e-commerce in the country. Today, all private sector airlines currently operational in Nepal are selling their tickets online. According to the Airline Operators Association of Nepal (AOAN), all air travellers who have access to the Internet have started buying tickets online. &ldquo;E-ticketing has become popular because it saves time,&rdquo; says AOAN Spokesperson Ghanashyam Acharya, &ldquo;Very few people reach the airline&rsquo;s office to buy tickets these days.&rdquo;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Agrees Prajwal Thapa, marketing director at Simrik Air. &ldquo;Both foreigners and Nepali travellers buy tickets online for domestic flights.&rdquo;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC), the state-owned airline which is the only airline in Nepal that doesn&rsquo;t offer e-ticketing has started preparations to start providing the service within 2071 BS (by mid-April 2015), according to an NAC official. &ldquo;E-ticketing is one of NAC priorities for the new year,&rdquo; he said.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs5(2).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;width: 300px; height: 281px;" />Payment Options&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		In the past, Nepali online shoppers were dependent on international payment mechanisms and merchants to purchase online. However, today there are few, but enough for the time being, online payment processing companies in Nepal, which allow online shoppers to pay their bills online, without any processing fees, in most of the cases.</div>
	<div>
		Most of these companies allow the customers to send and receive money online, buy air tickets, pay utility bills, purchase mobile recharge cards, pay school college bills, Internet bills, subscribe to newspapers and magazines online; Some of these companies are eSewa and PayWay.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		People can also pay for the goods they buy online through e-banking and debit cards. This trend has started but it is negligible at present. A majority of online shoppers still prefer paying cash on delivery.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;The online payment structure in Nepal is still being developed so we still do a lot of cash business. &nbsp;We encourage our customers to pay online as much as possible given the options in Nepal which are basically bank to bank transfers or payment gateways who are tied to your bank account,&rdquo; says Akshay Sthapit, CEO of Harilo.com.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Problems &amp; Limitations</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Though an Internet-based business, e-commerce in Nepal seems to be limited to the Capital valley. Some online business activities have been reported in places like Pokhara and Dharan but such activities are few and far between.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;There are e-commerce websites which provide their services across the country. But may be because of the lack of awareness, the online customers are mainly from the Kathmandu valley, mainly Kathmandu and Lalitpur. However, we do have customers from a few other cities as well,&rdquo; shares Stebin Bajracharya of Harilo.com.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Lack of a clear policy is another problem and according to people in the online business, it is hindering the growth of online markets in the country. &ldquo;There is no clear policy. The government has neither helped the domestic e-commerce market nor obstructed it,&rdquo; says Joshi of Thamel.com. We don&#39;t have any act, law or regulation or government directives which allows conducting legal online financial transactions. Critics say that the Electronic Transaction Act without a single word on online payment is only half done.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		According to Tuladhar of Muncha.com, Nepal&rsquo;s e-commerce market is facing problems in the bill payment system. &ldquo;The government can facilitate by establishing a central payment gateway. The central bank and concerned authorities should look into this issue,&rdquo; he advises.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Lack of a regulator is another problem. At present, all one needs to do to run an e-commerce site is register a company at the Company Registrar&rsquo;s Office. Once the company is registered, one can start the business. No one knows which agency is responsible for regulating the e-commerce business &ndash; Ministry of Finance, Nepal Rastra Bank, Ministry of Science and Technology, High level Commission for Information Technology or National Information Technology Centre?&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs2.JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 337px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>The Issue of Digital Signature</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Although online transactions are on the rise in the country, the trend of acquiring authorized digital signature, which is essential for the business, has not started. According to Electronic Transaction Act 2008, all companies, which carry out electronic transactions must acquire digital signature from the Certified Authority (CA) licensed by the Office of the Controller of Certification (OCC). &ldquo;Banks and financial institutions, remittance companies, and e-commerce companies among others are the kind of companies which should acquire a digital signature from a CA licensed by the OCC,&rdquo; said Manish Bhattarai, deputy controller of the OCC, an agency under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (MoSTE).&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		So far, only one company, Nepal Certifying Authority (NCA), has acquired the license for CA from the OCC. &ldquo;Though one company has been issued the license of CA, no company or individual has acquired a digital signature so far in Nepal from the CA licensed by the OCC. Electronic transactions carried out without a digital signature from a CA licensed by the OCC do not have legal validity,&rdquo; claims Bhattarai. He also informed NewBiz that the OCC has drawn the attention of Nepal Rastra Bank regarding the issue of the BFIs not acquiring authorized digital signature.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Biplav Man Singh of NCA, however, claims that the issuance of digital signature has not started in Nepal because of the government&rsquo;s negligence. &ldquo;The government has issued the CA license to NCA but it has not provided the Root Certificate to us. Therefore, we have not been able to issue any digital signature. It has been a year since we have been issued the license,&rdquo; laments Singh.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Digital signature is like an electronic locking system, which facilitates and regulate the authenticity of electronic transactions. It cannot be stolen or copied by any fraud, authenticates the identity of the sender of a message or signatory of a document and ensures that the document is unchanged. Nepal government introduced digital signature in financial transactions from February 2012. The MoSTE established the OCC to manage electronic transactions and use technology to reduce electronic crimes.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;Online transactions have been getting popular lately, but the question of security has always been there. A digital signature ensures secured, authentic and non-repudiation electronic transactions such as e-mail, e-commerce, e-banking and e-governance,&rdquo; shares Bhattarai.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Bhattarai informed NewBiz that OCC has already drawn the attention of the NRB to take action against BFIs for using digital signatures from unauthorized firms. At present, companies based in India and America are issuing digital signatures to local online transaction service providers, which is against the Electronic Transaction Act 2008. &ldquo;Sadly, all BFIs providing internet banking service are using digital signatures issued by unauthorized licensors,&rdquo; said Bhattarai.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs6(2).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;width: 300px; height: 566px;" />Digital Agencies</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		With living standards and costs going up in developed nations, digital agencies and online business marketers from there gradually made headways into third world countries including Nepal looking for avenues to establish their offshore units. Today, there are many digital agencies or IT companies, as they are known in Nepal.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		While outsourcing their software to clients from developed nations, many of these digital agencies also tried to educate Nepali entrepreneurs for taking their businesses online. &ldquo;It was very hard to find business persons who were willing to take their businesses online. My team struggled for a couple of years but our continuous efforts in educating entrepreneurs for going online bore fruits,&rdquo; says Deepak Bhandari, Founder of Radiant Infotech Nepal&mdash;a digital agency that has been in the software production business for more than a decade now.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		With the operational costs relatively lower and prospects much brighter, Bhandari shares that small investment, consistency in work quality coupled with good communicative and technical skills and a willingness to adapt and upgrade to technological advances is all that is needed to thrive in the digital agency business.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Along with taking Nepali businesses online, Nepali digital agencies compete in the global freelance market. &ldquo;Competing in the global market is not an easy task unless you are ready to deliver outstanding products at relatively modest prices,&rdquo; says Sanjeev Singh, Co-founder of Catmandu- a startup Nepali digital agency that mostly outsources its products.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		It&rsquo;s not just Nepalis who are materializing their dreams via the Silicon Valley revolution offshoot; many digital agencies with foreign roots and international foot prints have established their offshore production in Nepal. India has been a major destination for software outsourcing in South Asia, but still Nepal has its own attributes to win over some share of it.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;I took a fortunate trip just over a decade ago to India and other countries, looking for ways to reduce my growing software development requirements for clients in Melbourne. Even though it was a challenging time in Nepal, with the UN assisting in the path to a new democracy, I felt Nepal offered a unique opportunity. It was not saturating like India&rsquo;s IT industry,&rdquo; says Michael Simonetti, founder of AndMine, an Australian digital agency that has its offshore production unit in Nepal.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Though the growing inflation and corresponding increase in the operational and other costs have been testing the offshore model, Simonetti still sees future in the model. Complimenting his view, Bhandari says that Nepal has bright scope in the digital agency business. He quotes an online report: &ldquo;Over the coming years, outsourcers are expected to expand their operations quite substantially. Different survey reports have claimed that the growth of outsourcing will remain strong. Like India and other nations there is huge potential for Nepal also to grow in IT service outsourcing business&rdquo;.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		While Internet connectivity, working hours, political instability and power cut are the concerns of this sector, Deepak finds lack of any state mechanism to bring all financial transactions made by freelancer software manufacturer as a major problem for the growth of IT service outsourcing business. &ldquo;Many freelancers are involved in this business without any legal registration. The government should seriously implement the plans it has made so far for the development of this sector along with bringing freelancers within the boundary of taxation.&rdquo;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs3(3).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 375px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Brighter Prospects</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		E-commerce has brighter prospects in the country, according to industry insiders. The access of Nepalis to the Internet has been increasing. The new generation is very keen about online activities. &ldquo;It seems the stage has been set for a rapid growth in online shopping as people find less and less time for physical shopping,&rdquo; observes Tuladhar.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;We will soon see a Cambrian moment with online shopping and services once proper payment systems and delivery infrastructures are in place which is already happening. &nbsp;When that happens, the change will be swift just like it was with mobile phones in Nepal,&rdquo; concludes Akshay Sthapit, CEO, Harilo.com.</div>
	<div>
		(With inputs from Chitra Raj Bhandari)</div>
</div>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-05-07',
			'modified' => '2014-09-08',
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			'description' => 'The seeds of e-commerce were sown in Nepal about a decade and a half ago. It has taken a bit longer for the fruits to be borne, but today we can see some of them. Offline shopping is still the popular option, but a lot more Nepalis are buying online today. The total annual online business in Nepal is now estimated to be Rs 10 billion, according to industry insiders who attribute this growth to the rising Internet population, a growing middle class, increasing mobile penetration as well as low levels of e-commerce activities.',
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			'id' => '2778',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Political Process: Tardy, Taxing And Tattered',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The leaders of all major political parties, including the Prime Minister Sushil Koirala are artlessly repeating the same statement: &#39;We will complete the drafting of the new constitution within a year&#39;; as if it is just the next day of the second Constituent Assembly (CA II) elections. They do not seem to realize a bare fact that exactly a good half of the year since these elections in the November last has elapsed without scoring any success in any front -- governance, diplomacy, legislation or constitution writing. The worst of all, lately things are hopelessly falling apart so as to making both the government and the CA once again hostage to essentially unnecessary bickering at the highest political level. Thanks to dysfunctional prime minister, over-bullying major coalition partner CPN-UML and non-cooperative, ever-apprehensive and confused main opposition UCPN Maoist.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Every possible executive decision is postponed without any tangible reason. In six months, the cabinet couldn&#39;t pick up twenty-six names to be appointed as CA members from among putatively the national &#39;elite&#39; personalities. The process of appointing of more than one and half dozen of ambassadors in important missions including New Delhi and Washington DC couldn&#39;t even begin. In absence of timely decision of Constitutional Council headed by the prime minister himself, the Supreme Court is left with mere five judges out of almost normally functional twenty positions. Ironically, the appointments in the prime minister&#39;s secretariat and National Planning Commission were not made in time. Almost all constitutional bodies too remain vacant. The advertisements published to fill in those constitutional positions like the commissioners in the Public Service Commission, National Human Rights Commission and the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority, by a sort of free competition is not attracting any dignified figures. They are most likely to be filled by typically clerical minded ex-bureaucrats rendering these crucial institutions, once again, retrograde.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The government is backtracking from the vowed commitments like holding local elections by this month (May). The parliamentary party leader of the major coalition partner CPN-UML, K P Oli from the hospital bed in New Delhi in mid-April declared that the local body elections will be held only after &#39;promulgating the new constitution&#39;. Apparently, his statement didn&#39;t come in consultation with the prime minister who still reiterates, though not convincingly, to hold these elections, may be by June end. The reasons cited not to hold the polls are clearly unpalatable. &#39;There is not enough time now to hold them before monsoon,&#39; said Oli. But nothing had stopped the government announcing it right after taking the oath of office. Clearly, there was no political will to take-up this issue in the right earnest. The second argument, which is abetted by the UCPN (Maoist) too, is that the concentration in the local elections would take the focus off the constitution writing process. It sounds as if the CA proceedings are now going at the right direction as per the popular expectation. Unfortunately, this is not the case, which, thus for all practical purposes smells rat in very faith of democracy of these leaders.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	And, more importantly, it will not be as easy to hold local elections immediately after completing the draft of the constitution as claimed by the UML and UCPN Maoists. The reasons to it are obvious. First, it is highly unlikely that the constitution drafting process will be completed anytime soon. Even some form of draft is agreed upon, say in a year from now, the most likely scenario is that it cannot be promulgated without going into more costly exercises like referendum. Therefore, postponing local elections now means that they are postponed again for an unforeseeable future, which indeed is highly unfortunate. The common people now need the local democratic institutions in place far more than the constitution, which indeed is the largely esoteric proposition for them compared to the elected local government next door. Once again the democracy has been ditched.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The public speeches of the Deputy Prime Minister Bamdev Gautam from UML sound as if his party is not a junior partner but a majority government that has &#39;mercifully&#39; appended the Nepali Congress to be its partner. In all these orchestra of fools, the Prime Minister Koirala remains as faceless as ever. When the country desperately awaits his bold and speedy decisions in more than one front, he seems to have chosen to cover his absolute non-performance by cheap publicity stunts of forsaking some allowances and perks and avoiding five-star hotel accommodations. Such tantrums cannot be substitute to the aspired effective delivery of goods from the chief executive of the nation. If Koirala had real intentions of giving a clean and effective government to the nation and upholding the democratic practice, he should have guts to tell his coalition partners not to nominate ministers that were not the elected members of parliament and those who are the kiths and kins of the influential leaders of the fringe parties.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Both the CA and legislature parliament have been rendered equally non-functional. In over four months, CA has failed to elect the subject committee conveners that are supposed to be key to formulate and moot respective constitutional provisions for discussion in the House. The chair of the crucial constitutional committee in CA remains vacant as of these lines were written. The CA virtually has not been given any business. Attendance in the scheduled meetings is so low that many of scheduled House sessions are often cancelled for lack of presence of minimum required number of members known as &#39;quota&#39;. Even the orientation of the (new) CA members about their roles, responsibilities and duties was not thought necessary.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The legislature parliament too is equally ineffective. Not only it has fallen short to ponder over the bottlenecks that the country is faced with in absence of laws in many spheres, it has also failed to pass a number of important bills that are gathering dust in wait of votes for years. The new bill on Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has further estranged the Maoists from supposedly collaborative political process. The former jungle warfare Maoist guerrillas who are in favour of nothing less than blanket amnesty to them in the guise of &#39;wartime issues&#39; are highly apprehensive of legal action on many of them if the bill is allowed to pass as proposed by the joint committee of political parties. If the bill is made law as in the spirit spelt out by UML leader Oli, the Maoists&#39; rank and file may crumble like house of cards in legal battle on crime against humanity. &#39;Except for the deaths at the frontline, those involved in killings by dragging out persons from their beds at the midnight, killing them by plucking out the eyes, amputating the body parts and hanging or burying them alive cannot be put off the legal purview&#39;, he thundered a few weeks ago. He sounds fairly reasonable. But will that bring about solution to the political stalemate? Or, will this bill actually become an Act and implemented accordingly? These however are more pressing questions altogether.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Maoists have already begun their non-cooperation by boycotting even entirely unrelated political processes in protest of the current form of the TRC bill. It may be recalled that such a commission was part of the Comprehensive Peace Accord of 2006, thus a crucial part of the peace process. The formation of it was deliberately avoided during the past CA tenure of four years when the country saw two Maoist prime ministers in the period.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The another bone of contention has become the so called High Level Political Committee (HLPC) that was in existence during the last CA, and was considered largely responsible for derailing the due CA process; making it hostage to ever-elusive political consensus. Interestingly, the three major parties -the Congress, UML and Maoists did appeared to have agreed about a couple of months ago to revive it. But, when the UCPN (Maoist) supremo Pushpa Kamal Dahal insisted on being the convener of it, other parties took it as his ambition to be a &#39;super&#39; prime minister and wanted to thwart the process. The constitutionality of this mechanism has always been under the interrogation mark and its actions in the past surely undermined the elected House.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	All forms of slackness, inactions, procrastinations, machinations and squabbles have been highly taxing for the country. The perils are pronounced. The economy is in absolute tatters. New investment is not even trickling in. Governance and public service delivery have collapsed. People are exasperated for unnecessarily prolonged political transition. The hope of at least relative consolidation of democratic institutors after the Congress and UML jointly got majority in the House is now waning rapidly. The constitution writing process is still precariously fragile. Only solution to all these ailments is to act and act fast. The lead should unquestionably be taken by the ruling alliance and the prime minister in particular.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</em></div>',
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			'created' => '2014-05-07',
			'modified' => '2014-09-08',
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			'description' => 'Thanks to dysfunctional prime minister, over-bullying major coalition partner CPN-UML and non-cooperative, ever-apprehensive and confused main opposition UCPN Maoist.',
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			'title' => 'Ukraine Crisis: Russian Economy In Peril',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<div>
		<strong>--By Sanjeev Sharma</strong></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		As the crisis in Ukraine continues to drag on, Russian economy is increasingly showing signs of sliding into recession. The annexation of Crimean peninsula and unrest in eastern Ukraine - termed by many as the adventurism of Russian President Vladimir Putin - also brought severe economic costs to the northern Eurasian giant. The worst standoff between Russia and the west since the end of cold war has sparked outflow of foreign investments from the Russian economy. Official data suggest that Russia witnessed net capital outflow amounting to USD 63 billion in the first quarter of 2014, more than double from the same period of last year. Similarly, GDP projections for this year also points to the fact that the country is swiftly descending into recession. Last month Russian finance minister Anton Siluanov warned the country is facing &#39;most difficult economic circumstances since the 2008 crisis.&#39; Siluanov in a government briefing estimated GDP growth to be 0.5 per cent or perhaps around zero in 2014. He was echoed by economy minister Alexei Ulyukayev who informed the parliament that national output contracted by 0.5 per cent in the first quarter this year compared to the fourth quarter of 2013.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		The unfolding of new chapters in Ukraine crisis and alleged Russian involvement is also affecting the sentiments of Russian investors very badly. After the ouster of Ukraine&#39;s pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych in February, the country&#39;s stock market plunged to multi-year lows. Amid the political turmoil in Ukraine and western sanctions placed against some influential people close to president Putin, Russia&#39;s heavyweight stock indicator, the RTS Index has lost its value by more than 21 percent in 2014. The Ruble is also in deep trouble as the currency weakened by capital flight has devalued by almost 10 per cent since mid-January. Meanwhile, in the wake of newly erupted geo-political tensions yields of long-term Russian government bonds have sky rocketed increasing the cost of public borrowing. The fear of investors seems to be driven by escalation of chaos in Ukraine which could further lead Russia into tighter sanctions or start of armed conflict in the region.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Russia enjoyed a healthy economic growth in the 2000s. In between 1999-2010 the country saw average GDP growth at 5.42 per cent. Despite the turbulence in Europe and United States alongside bleak global macroeconomic scenario, Russia was able to achieve respectable growth rates- 4.2 per cent in 2011 and 3.4 per cent in 2012- compared to its western peers. The country after experiencing a tumultuous decade following the collapse of Soviet Union in the early 90s largely benefitted from the era of &#39;commodity super cycle.&#39; Gas, oil, coal, timber and metals along with precious metals and stones topped Russia&#39;s exports led by the rise in demand especially in emerging markets as well as the concerns over the long-term supply availability. This resulted in the double-digit spike in commodity prices in the last decade and exporting nations accumulated substantial amount of wealth. The vast natural reserves of such minerals in Ural Mountains, Siberia and the Far East gave the country an edge to rise to the spot of top supplier. Before the US toppled down Russia in oil exports in 2013, the nation was the largest non-OPEC oil exporter in the world. Similarly, Russia is the world&#39;s largest natural gas exporter accounting 20 per cent of the total production in the world. Likewise, services sector also boomed in 90s and 2000s, ultimately becoming the largest sector which accounts for 58 per cent of the country&#39;s GDP. Apart from these, traditional exports of arms and military hardware also played vital role in the Russian economy.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/wf1.JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 303px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		The sound economic growth was made possible by political stability. Vladimir Putin, who came to the center stage of Russian power play in the late 90s was hailed for ending chaotic economic and social environment. After crushing Islamic insurgencies in Chechnya and Dagestan,the strongman gained widespread popularity among ordinary Russians and quickly turned into an influential figure in global politics. Under Putin&#39;s leadership, the fragile economy stabilized resulting in huge inflow of foreign investments in the former communist nation. Russian economy wasn&#39;t seen much affected by the crises in US and Europe due to effective integration of short-term macroeconomic policies.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		However, for the time being, good times seem to have passed away for Russia in the post-crisis world. The success story did not last long as the country&#39;s GDP growth slumped to 1.3 per cent in 2013. Sluggish demand in Europe and US coupled with slowing economic activities in emerging markets has asserted considerable pressure in the nation&#39;s economy. Amid the sovereign debt crisis, energy demand in Europe fell significantly- mainly caused by decline in factory activities- hurting the major Russian export. Investments from US and elsewhere also turned away due to macroeconomic uncertainties and depressed domestic demand. The slump in domestic demand, as per a report by a reputed global research firm Capital Economics, clearly indicates weakening growth in Russia&#39;s industrial production and retail sales in the first quarter of 2014. The economic sluggishness and ongoing Ukraine crisis has exposed long-term structural problems within the Russian economy, including low labour productivity, heavy reliance on energy exports and state-dominance of private sector.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		If the current turmoil continues for long time, the associated political risks are more likely to hamper the country economically. The long time Russian power card of energy exports is unlikely to help in this scenario. In case of broader western sanctions, if Kremlin opts to close or taper the gas supply to Europe, the first victim will be Russia itself as the nation&#39;s major income source dry out. Apart from that, the annexation of Crimea and Ukraine crisis has raised urgency among European nations to reduce their energy dependency on Russia. In the past several weeks, EU lawmakers have discussed to find long-term solutions for fulfill their countries energy demands. Like the shale oil and gas boom in US and North America, Europe is also looking forward to exploit the new energy source. Likewise, more punitive measures by US could include stopping of American investments which will further deplete the Russian forex reserves leaving the country into cash strapped situation. In this event, surge in inflation due to further devaluation of Ruble will add more pain to the country&#39;s fragile economy.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Nevertheless, Russia won&#39;t be left alone to be affected by this. The one time superpower will exert its force to retaliate the western sanctions which will undoubtedly have spiral effects in the global economy. Europe, the main consumer of Russian gas is likely to take the major punch in an event of supply closure. Starved of energy, European industrial production will come to a grinding halt which is gradually picking up speed after years of severe stagnation. Likewise, energy prices will shoot upward affecting every country in the world. US will also feel strong reverberations of the sanctions against Russia and its counter by the Kremlin. US companies operating in Russia- banking, manufacturing, mining, retail stores and restaurant chains in particular- are seen as the most vulnerable to the negative geopolitical developments. The Ukraine crisis has unfolded in a time when global economy is trying to get back on its feet. However, the newly erupted geopolitical tension is seriously threatening the global recovery to get down on its knees again.</div>
</div>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
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			'created' => '2014-05-07',
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			'description' => 'The worst standoff between Russia and the west since the end of cold war has sparked outflow of foreign investments from the Russian economy.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2789',
			'article_category_id' => '31',
			'title' => '‘‘We Will Definitely Grow In Nepal’’',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>J.S. Rathore</strong>&nbsp;is the zonal manager of sales for northern India at Suzuki Motorcycle India Limited. Rathore was recently in Nepal for the launch of Suzuki Let&rsquo;s scooter. He says that the Let&rsquo;s was launched a month ago in India and is performing well in Indian market. Suzuki motorcycles are imported and distributed in Nepal by VG Automobiles and the company is planning to expand its network throughout the country.In an interview with&nbsp;<strong>Gaurav Aryal</strong>&nbsp;of New Business Age, Rathore talks about Nepal as a market for Suzuki two wheelers.<strong>&nbsp;Excerpts:</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>What brings you to Nepal this time?</strong></div>
<div>
	I am here for introducing our new product, &lsquo;Let&rsquo;s 110 scooter, to the Nepali market. This product has good potential here.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>How do you see the market for two wheelers like Let&rsquo;s in Nepal?</strong></div>
<div>
	Nepal is a good market for two wheelers. With annual sales of around 150 thousands two wheelers, this market sells 12, 500 two wheelers every month. The 110 CC scooters segment has potentials to occupy 23 percent of these sales. We are looking forward to tap this segment of the market, which is a growing market in Nepal. At present, Honda Dio is the highest selling scooter in Nepal and it does not have any major competitor.Let&rsquo;s will compete with it. We believe that we can get a good market share and grow quite well in this market.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>What is your expected sales and gain in market share?&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	We are expecting to sell four to five thousands vehicles in a year. Once the product is established in the market, we will definitely sell five thousands vehicles by next year. Initially, we will grab the market share and after its success, if Nepali market chooses that type of performance, we will tryto beat the sales of Dio.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>How do you see Nepal as a market for Suzuki products?</strong></div>
<div>
	It is a good market. This is basically a scooter market and motorcycles in 150 and 125 CC segment. Currently we are not present much in those segments. We are coming with those products and we will definitely grow in Nepal.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Are there any particular challenges that you face in this market?</strong></div>
<div>
	The main challenge for us is to compete against established brands such as Dio and Pulsar. These products are established in the market whereas we are new and under pressure to grow. The dealer and distributor are also new. Distributor, dealer network as well as the product has to be established. These are the major challenges for us.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>What is Suzuki planning especially for the Nepali market?</strong></div>
<div>
	In next two to three months, we will be launching product that will compete with Pulsar and Yamaha. Our plan is to expand and provide our services from every corners of Nepal. At present, we have 28 dealers and we are expanding the dealer network under VG Group. Then, we will expand to small towns through sub-dealers. We have already started working on it because after sales service is as important as primary sales.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Nepal is a budget conscious market and some of your competitors already have a strong market presence. What are the advantages of your products?</strong></div>
<div>
	The market still has further growth potentials. If we see in terms of pricing, we have offered a competitive pricing, less than Dio. And, consumers will get additional features, power and increased mileage with less investment. Compared to competitors we are offering more features and facilities at even better price.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-07-30',
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			'description' => 'J.S. Rathore is the zonal manager of sales for northern India at Suzuki Motorcycle India Limited. Rathore was recently in Nepal for the launch of Suzuki Let’s scooter. He says that the Let’s was launched a month ago in India and is performing well in Indian market. Suzuki motorcycles are imported and distributed in Nepal by VG Automobiles and the company is planning to expand its network throughout the country.',
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			'id' => '2777',
			'article_category_id' => '48',
			'title' => 'Lords Of Economy',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<strong>--By Madan Lamsal</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are bunch of worried people who constantly think that Nepali economy is sinking, rather sooner. This indeed is absolutely unnecessary concern. Because, first, Nepali economy is not a ship as we happen to be a land-locked country. Second, even if it were a ship we have had not a herd but a fleet of captains to save or rescue it from capsizing; present in every bit of history in different guise, which I shall elaborate further. And, if none of them happened to be at the deck, there will be our own ever-present Pashupatinath to steer clear the whole Nepal out of the danger zone, let alone economy. At least, that is what we Nepalis have believed for generations and still have the largest faith on the Lord at the banks of Bagmati than the banks owned by the lords &ndash; feudal-lords, warlords or landlords.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Our business community understands at which point of time, who can save the Nepali economy best from absolute melt down. In other countries, the business leaders and related organizations first take responsibility of captaining the ship of economy and look for support on whatever is not adequate in them. Our case is just opposite. Nepali brand of business leaders keep on changing the captain, express confidence on a particular one and shift to new one according to changing tide of time.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	When democracy was reinstated in 1990 and the Nepali Congress government adopted the &#39;free market&#39; economic policy, everybody thought that free market means freedom to do anything one can imagine&ndash; hoarding, black marketing, tax evasion, carteling and forged invoicing. Even in the political circles, impact of free market was so huge that the system produced billionaire overnight. Not only likes of Khum Bahadur and Chiranjivi Wagle who turned out to be the most unfortunate among the lot, so to be behind the bars, others who are moving freely are no different in amassing assets as the gift of free market, read freedom to corruption. Look at bulging bank accounts of incumbent ministers under a beggar prime minister. So, in all those years, GP Koirala was assigned captaincy to save economic ship, which he did. You can test its calibre by looking the total amount saved by his daughter Sujata during these two decades.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Then came the Sher Bahadur, Madhav Nepal and so on as new captains and our business community unfailingly expressed confidence in their captaincy. They did save the economy. Whether the economy of their own or that of the nation is irrelevant here. The point here is: there should be an economy and it had to be saved. That was done, without fail.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	That followed the direct rule of King Gyanendra. The queue of business people to bow to him, as the newfound captain was always longer than any wide-angle zoom of television/movie camera could capture in a single shot. He did save our economy. He is still the one single person in Nepal who has got the largest amount of saved assets in the country, or, may be outside too. He indeed made our business people most jubilant when he picked-up a former FNCCI president to help him in this &#39;save economy&#39; mission. &nbsp;One of the techniques in saving is not to let it decay or decompose by letting it remain cool. So this entrepreneur was asked by the King to launch an ice-cream factory. A brilliant idea of saving the economy.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The ability of the Maoist brigade of captains can make an epic. They in fact manned the economic ship in multiple ways. They had multiple captains who wanted to steer the economy in different directions. So it was first saved from moving into any direction. When the ship was not at all leaving the dock, it automatically got saved from sinking. Secondly, they had all fist-raising comrades with red band on their heads. Whoever else thought of moving this ship called economy, they used all tactics possible -thrashing, chasing, extorting and even killing if required. They were practically the real saviours.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	At present, all these forces are together, represented in the Constituent Assembly. Some great captains are with their entire family &ndash; spouse, son, cousin or in-laws. So, there is no question Nepali economy will ever sink. That is the reason even our newly elected FNCCI executives have more faith in political lords than on those who elected them.</div>',
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			'modified' => '2014-07-30',
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			'description' => 'There are bunch of worried people who constantly think that Nepali economy is sinking, rather sooner. This indeed is absolutely unnecessary concern. Because, first, Nepali economy is not a ship as we happen to be a land-locked country.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2781',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Mirage Of A New Force',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On May 15th, 2014, the senior deputy prime minister and, at that point in time, acting president of the ruling major coalition CPN-UML, Bam Dev Gautam, was happily dancing on a folk tune at a public function. On the same day, Nepal Human Development Report was released in another public function in a five-star hotel that ranked Nepal the lowest in the Human Development Index (HDI) even among the South Asian countries; let alone the global rank. The next day, the so called mainstream media placed Gautam&#39;s news on the front page with picture as if it were a major national happening while the HDI news was pushed asa routine filler to 9th or 17th page as if it were amere ritual.This is Nepal&#39;s eco-political reality personified, reflecting the degree of (in) sensitivity of both politics and media to the development and prosperity related issues of the country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	What is it that makes politicians like Gautam so happy while country is at absolute political mess and economic stagnation, if not recession, for decades? It is unambiguously sheer apathy and ignorance of gravity of the situation that is coupled with vested interests and remnants of feudal psyche of a ruler. The current set of Nepal&#39;s all influential politicians, generally all across the parties, were indoctrinated during late 60s or early 70s. Their last philosophical reorientation had taken place perhaps in the 1990, for the movement to reinstate the multi-party democracy by toppling the panchayat oligarchy. This 60-above generation has been left far behind in updating the knowledge required to run a country. They have been untouched by mesmerizing revolution mainly in information and communication technology, transportation and emerging new world order in power politics. For this reason, these leaders have failed to understand the aspirations of time and the generation that represents here-and-now. They have not even learnt the art to dream for the better future of the country and her people.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	All these realities together, the persistent poverty and backwardness and apparent vacuum in leadership that is still willing to strive for ameliorating them, warrants a new political force that hopefully possesses desirable qualities like right kind of motive, integrity, energy, vision and willingness to serve the nation. Until such a new force replaces the existing parochial order, things too are obvious not to change for the better.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The need for such a force was acutely realized when the first constituent assembly (CA) despite its four year-long tenure ended without delivering a draft for a new constitution. The incessant blame game among the parties for the failures and their uniform adamancy to transform themselves with time multiplied the public disenchantment on them. The need of displacing these parties was more intensely felt after the current incumbent government formed even after the second CA elections appears completely dysfunctional and, mostly averse to the democratic norms in whatever little move sit is making. Prime Minister Sushil Koirala&#39;s unwanted &#39;lobbying&#39; to save the Judicial Council&#39;s controversial nominations to Supreme Court Judges is one of glaring examples of such aberrations. On fulfilling his own responsibility he has miserably failed, not even able to nominate 26 CA members through a cabinet decision.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In fact, Nepal&#39;s political history has witnessed literally hundreds of incidents of leaders or would-be leaders trying to form &#39;new&#39; political force at different junctures of time. But all of them in due course proved to be either protest outcomes to the mother partyby a dissenter or a newer interest group serving to a small circle of its constituents. Dozens of breakaways of communist parties and recent similar divisions in Terai-based parties may be everything as they claim but surely not the political parties of the quality that the country is desperately looking for, for long time now.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Lately, the UCPN Maoist leader Dr. Baburam Bhattarai took the debate on the topic to newer heights by proposing a &#39;need of a new political force to address the new challenges the new Nepal faces.&#39; This initially appeared to be a statement aimed to fill the overarching gap of the national political vacuum by establishing a new, forward-looking, dynamic and democratic outfit. It created ripples too, at least among the left ideologues. But eventually, after much ado, Baburam&#39;s proposition of new force, at least for now,turned out to be nothing more than a trump-card to bargain barely some more space within the party from his party chief Puspa Kamal Dahal.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The current series of debate also revealed a philosophical dichotomy in articulation of needs of such a new force. The more aggressive advocacy, or to some extent endeavours to form such a force from the communist ideologues, borne out of worries to contextualize their own existence in multi-party competitive politics that is inevitably going to be the political mainstay for the future. This sphere of debate therefore has focused more on rewriting archaic communist dogmas and replacing arcane vocabularies like &#39;power only from the barrel of the gun,&#39; &lsquo;dictatorship of the proletariat,&#39; &#39;class elimination&#39; etc. with more contemporaneous political jargons. Clearly, for those indoctrinated under Marx, Lenin or Mao-developed literatures, this simple departure has been difficult and piecemeal, yet inadequate to democratize themselves even at par of existing, relatively democratic forces like Nepali Congress. Therefore, birth of a true new force that is capable of addressing nation&#39;s overall governance and deemed prosperity considerations, through this slanted process is absolutely unlikely. However, if this process at least could transform some of communist outfits to reasonable democratic forces that too would be a desirable outcome.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Another sphere of the debate is, rather should have been, to explore the possibility of creating such a force that has some blueprint to address Nepal&#39;s multi-faceted problems which have rendered the country to a virtual brink of becoming a failed-state. Crisis of governance, deficit of democracy, bleeding economy and pervasive hopelessness of the common masses are some of the immediate concerns which, if not addressed soon, may in fact degrade the country to anarchy, unmanageable even in the long run. But, the current expanse and depth of the debate do not seem enough to give rise to such an all-encompassing political force. Surely, some of rational thinkers from academia and media tried to take the current discourse beyond the cocoons of the communist jargonism, but the triggerers of it from the Left band seemed unwilling to step out of Marxist philosophical umbrella.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Coming back to Bhattarai again, he appears to be less-than-ready to completely forsakethe UCPN Maoist at present. Understandably, it is difficult to desert political Alma Mater. But, at times it is more difficult to mould it to fit to the contemporary need, which justifies conception of the new force. Despite hiccups, Bhattarai has been reiterating the need of such a force. &#39;It may take a few years for such a force to take a shape&#39;, he said in an interaction in the third week of May. His recent China visit was also reported to be to gauge the pulse of Beijing on his plan, without jeopardizing his &#39;warm&#39; relations with New Delhi. For this reason, he dubbed his visit as &#39;pilgrimage to Mansarovar&#39; and chose to set the travel camp not in Beijing but Lhasa, the capital of Tibet autonomous region of China. But, the Chinese authorities left no stone unturned to accord his visit an official status fitting to a former prime minister of a neighbouring country. A number of high officials made a point to travel from Beijing for political discussions with him.With change in guards in New Delhi, he probably has to strike a different chord to attract attention from India&#39;s ruling rightwing Bharatiya Janta Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. If Modi could prevail over India&#39;s bureaucracy, he would perhaps like to see Nepal still a Hindu state, in contrary to Bhattarai&#39;s brandishing of Nepal as a secular state. This may need further fine-tuning of his new plans.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&lsquo;Why should only Bhattarai be at the centre of discussion for this new political force under consideration&rsquo; is a valid question. The common masses still consider him perhaps the most talented persona currently active in Nepali politics. While in government, particularly when he was the finance minister, he came out untainted in shady financial dealings. And, he is the one who is now unambiguously advocating of the need to transform the communist forces to democratic ones, which indeed is crucial component for the democratic future of Nepal. But, Bhattarai doesn&#39;t fully seem to realizehis strengths and perhaps lacks confidence to renounce the ideology that he has so far kept so close to his chest. But, still he could be the best choice to lead such a force if he dares to drop the old cloak and readies himself to lead a new Nepal.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Again, regardless of whether Bhattarai can exhibit enough courage to spear head a new force or not, the relevance and importance of it has been realized more intensely than ever before. The rampant criminalization of politics by the existing parties, their out of date &nbsp;- out of place leadership, sheer apathy to the needs and priorities of the country, widespread corruption on public resources and increasing culture of impunity, among many other malaises, are unlikely to be corrected by the existing forces. Or, just correction may not be enough. The culture of irresponsibility has become the norm in exercising, misusing to be precise, the state power.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For a rational and functional political force to come into being, Nepal undoubtedly needed a more systematic discourse on the topic involving all ideologies and all possible identities. For last seven decades, Nepal as a nation has chased the dream of such a nationalist democratic force, but it still remains a game of chasing a mirage. The current debate has reignited hope, but just hope is not enough. Therefore, we only have leaders dancing in a wrong tune at the wrong time.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>(The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.)</em></div>',
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			'description' => 'The current set of Nepal's all influential politicians, generally all across the parties, were indoctrinated during late 60s or early 70s.',
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			'id' => '2784',
			'article_category_id' => '40',
			'title' => 'Rising Stars Of The Economy',
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			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	--By Akhilesh Tripathi and Sanjeev Sharma</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em><span style="font-size:14px;">Despite obstacles, some sectors of the economy have progressed and their future looks bright. We could call them the &ldquo;rising stars&rdquo; of the economy. In this issue, NewBiz has tried to highlight some of these rising stars, which include: Hotels, Hydropower, Construction Material, ICT, Education, and Banking Sector.&nbsp;</span></em></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	We all know that all is not well with the Nepali economy. Insecurity, much-aggravated industrial atmosphere, power shortage, transport obstacles, strikes and closures and labour unrest stand as barriers in the path to Republic Nepal&rsquo;s economic progress. The country&rsquo;s economic growth rate, according to official government estimate is below four per cent at present as there is lack of political commitment on a common economic agenda, investment-friendly environment, energy and physical infrastructure in the country.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But despite these obstacles, some sectors of the economy have progressed and their future looks bright. We could call them the &ldquo;rising stars&rdquo; of the economy. In this issue, NewBiz has tried to highlight some of these rising stars, which include: Hotels, Hydropower, Construction Material, ICT, Education, and Banking Sector. The entry of the Nepali private sector into these areas, especially after the liberalization of the economy post 1990, has resulted in significant growth in these sectors.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, the continuity of the economic liberalization policy in republican Nepal has produced a significant group of entrepreneurs and businesspersons who are now successful in these areas. This breed of entrepreneurs and business persons thinks that if there is political will and stability, adequate power supply, supportive policy and peaceful industrial environment, then these rising stars will rise even higher.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;However, political stability is the first condition for economic development. Political parties do have their respective ideologies and differences too, but there needs to be a minimum understanding on common issues of economic development, which would help build atmosphere conducive to investment and trust. This would help the rising stars of the economy to attain newer heights.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Construction Materials: Market Picking Up&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Construction Material" src="/userfiles/images/cs(2).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 266px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The construction industry is a growing industry in Nepal. It contributes around 10 &nbsp;to 12 per cent to the national GDP and uses around 35 per cent of the government&rsquo;s annual budget. As the country plans to invest more in infrastructure such as roads, railways, airports, bridges, and irrigation and hydropower projects and as the housing sector shows sign of improvement, the prospects for the construction industry in the country look brighter.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is estimated that the construction sector has created employment opportunities to more than one million people in the country. When it comes to development of any physical infrastructure, construction materials are the major components. With the growth in the construction industry, the demand for construction materials too has risen.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In the last one decade, over 150 construction material factories from cement, paint and bricks to steel factories have been established with an eye on the realty sector and the government&rsquo;s infrastructure development projects. These factories have helped reduce import of construction materials. The country has also become almost self-reliant in bricks, steel and paint; cement production is also on an encouraging trend. The price of construction materials is growing by 20 to 22 per cent every year.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The realty sector, which is one of the major buyers of construction materials in the country, has shown some signs of improvement. According to Ichchha Raj Tamang, president of Nepal Land and Housing Developers&rsquo; Association, the sector has started taking a turn for the better. &ldquo;In the recent couple of years, the realty sector has been improving by over 30 per cent annually,&rdquo; claims Tamang.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Lately, according to construction material dealers, the demand from housing developers and the general public that had slowed down a couple of years ago, has shown some progress. &ldquo;A couple of years ago, the demand went down by around 50 percent due to the government&rsquo;s failure to release the budget on time,&rdquo; said Manik Tuladhar of the Kathmandu Construction Materials&rsquo; Dealers Association. With the situation in the housing sector showing indications of improvement, developers have been speeding up work at their projects.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Meanwhile, construction material dealers said that with demand for construction materials slowly picking up, prices too have increased. Shil Ratna Tamrakar, proprietor of Shristina Traders, which deals in paints, said that the demand had increased remarkably compared to last year and that prices had risen by up to 10 percent depending on the brand.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is estimated that around 90 percent of the country&rsquo;s requirement of paints is fulfilled by domestic products. Along with a growth in housing activities in the past one decade, the number of paint factories too has gone up. There are 32 paint factories in the country with a combined investment of around Rs 6.5 billion.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Nepal Steel Rolling Mills&rsquo; Association said that local steel factories had been able to exist mainly due to the demand from housing developers. There are around three dozen steel plants in the country, and of them, 12 are run in full-fledged operation. All these factories produce 400,000 tonnes of iron rods annually.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, there are more than 70 cement factories that have obtained operating permits from the Department of Industry. The cement industry already has an investment of around Rs 30 billion. Pashupati Murarka, senior vice-president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), said that even though the number of companies receiving government permits has gone up, only around 40 plants are in regular operation.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The country&rsquo;s annual requirement of cement amounts to 3 million tonnes, of which nearly 80 percent is being met by local products. &ldquo;There are no authentic records, however, most of the production is going for construction of private houses and commercial buildings of housing developers,&rdquo; said Murarka. He added that if construction of physical infrastructure receives a boost, the country would be self-reliant in cement too.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is estimated that the construction sector is creating employment opportunities to about one million people. That means it generates employment next to the agriculture sector in the country. Similarly, about 60 percent of the nation&#39;s development budget is spent through the use of contractors. From this, it is clearly seen that construction is a major sector and any productivity enhancement activity in this sector will have a positive impact on the overall improvement of the national economy.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
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						<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Government Efforts</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						Realizing the need for enhancement of the construction industry, Construction Business Act 2055 was promulgated and came into force from April 14, 1999. This is an effort made to institutionalize and systematize the construction sector. The Act has defined the procedures and requirements relating to issues and renewal of license and classification of and obligations of construction entrepreneurs. The law has established Construction Business Development Council (CBDC) under the chairpersonship of the Minister for Physical Planning and Works, and Construction Business Development &amp; Implementation Committee (CBDIC) under the chairpersonship of Joint Secretary (technical) designated by the Ministry for Physical Planning and Works. These both are regarded as the apex institutions to develop the Nepali construction industry. Establishment of the CBDC and CBDIC is the important step taken by the government to promote the country&rsquo;s construction industry.</div>
					<div>
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<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Education: On Private Sector Shoulders</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Education" src="/userfiles/images/cs1(3).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 381px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	With private investment standing at nearly Rs29 billion at present, the education sector is well on the path of evolving into a lucrative service sector business in Nepal. Nobody needs to frown at the idea of education being compared with business. It has done much more good than bad. Even big business houses have started to invest in education.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Private investment in the education sector has grown consistently over the past few years. It now stands at more than Rs29billion, including the investments in schools, colleges, educational consultancies and training institutes. Out of this investment, nearly Rs25 billion is in private schools and colleges, according to the statistics maintained by the Company Registrar&rsquo;s Office (CRO).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs7(1).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 130px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Statistics also reveal that the investment has been increasing since 2006, the year when the government decided to register privately-owned educational institutions as companies. New private investment in schools and colleges stood at more than five billion rupees and six billion rupees in 2010 and 2011, respectively. Similarly, private investors have committed an investment of Rs 2.53 billion in the first three months of 2014.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<p>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs8(1).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; width: 200px; height: 345px;" />According to Umesh Shrestha, president of the Higher Secondary School Association Nepal (HISSAN), private investment in the education sector has increased because it provides good return. &ldquo;This is why even big business houses have pitched into the sector lately,&rdquo; he explains &ldquo;Leading Nepali industrialists and entrepreneurs have launched huge education projects. There will be more such projects in the future.&rdquo; Population growth and increasing demand for quality education are the other major factors behind the increase in private investment in education, he adds.</p>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Educational expert Mana Prasad Wagle credits it to the hype of the phasing out of the Proficiency Certificate Level (PCL) in the year 2010 that invited high investment in &lsquo;Plus Two&rsquo; colleges. In 2009, five new colleges with an authorized capital of more than Rs 100 million each were established. Since then, on an average, more than half a dozen such colleges have been established every year. In the eyes of education experts, an investment of Rs 100 million should be more than enough to ensure quality education.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The number of private educational institutions with massive investment is also increasing every year in the major cities, especially in Kathmandu. &ldquo;The number of students leaving the country after SLC for higher studies has drastically decreased now. This is because they find quality education within the country, thanks to a number of good private colleges. This has also prevented millions of rupees from going abroad,&rdquo; says Shrestha.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It would not be an exaggeration to say that higher secondary (HS) education rests (and grows) on the strong shoulders of the private sector. Let&rsquo;s consider the following numbers: more than 60 per cent of the nearly a million HS students in the country get their education from private institutions; more than 80 per cent of the students who pass the HS level every year are from private institutions.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are around 3600 HS schools in Nepal at present. Out of them 291 are 0+2 colleges, which run classes for only the 11th and 12th grades. The remaining are 10+2 colleges, which run classes from grade 1 to 12.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Private sector institutions have not only played a vital role in boosting Nepal&rsquo;s educational capacity but have also brought along a whole new market dimension. Consider these facts: The annual business transaction of private educational institutions amounts to Rs 22 billion &ndash; Rs 11 billion at school level, five billion rupees at HS level and six billion rupees at university level education.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;The private sector has been helping the government by a great deal by making such a huge investment in the education sector,&rdquo; says Rajendra Baral, Chief Executive Officer at Caspian Valley College.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On the other hand, HISSAN chief Shrestha sees an immense possibility of educational tourism in the country. &ldquo;Nepal&rsquo;s naturally air-conditioned climate makes it a good educational destination for international students, if we can establish schools and colleges of international standard or open affiliates of internationally recognized universities here,&rdquo; he says.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
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						<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Government Efforts</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<div>
							The government&rsquo;s efforts in education are mainly focused on primary and secondary level education. The government has been increasing the budget allocated for the education sector year on year. The government has earmarked Rs 80.95 billion to this sector for the current fiscal year - up by Rs 60.13 billion of current fiscal year&rsquo;s revised allocation. Similarly, Nepal&rsquo;s education budget increased by more than double in just four years reaching Rs 63.91 billion in fiscal year 2011/12 from Rs 27.06 billion in 2007/08.&nbsp;</div>
						<div>
							&nbsp;</div>
						<div>
							Nepal allocates 3.4 percent of its GDP and almost 17 percent of the national budget to the education sector. The country, however, does not meet the global standard of allocating at least 5 percent of GDP and 20 percent of the total budget to the education sector. Only 9.92 percent of the total education budget has been allocated for higher education, and merely 7.85 percent for university education.&nbsp;</div>
						<div>
							&nbsp;</div>
						<div>
							Government investment in higher secondary education is even less&mdash;two percent of the total education budget&mdash;despite having around one million enrolments a year. Education expert Dr Tirtha Khaniya observes that there is scope for private sector investment and growth in higher study institutions. &ldquo;The government&rsquo;s negligence to the higher secondary level education provided an opportunity for the private sector which cashed in on the opportunity. A similar opportunity lies there for the private sector in university level education too. We will gradually see more private sector investment in this category,&rdquo; he says.</div>
					</div>
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</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Banking sector: Time for Consolidation</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs2(3).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 350px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Starting from the government-owned Nepal Bank in 1937, the banking industry in Nepal has come a long way. The industry grew tremendously, especially after the entry of the private sector after 1990. It is one of the sectors of the economy that have grown significantly over the past one decade. &nbsp;The sector has immense growth prospects as nearly 60 per cent of the population is still out of the range of formal financial channels. Today, the banking sector is more liberalized and modernized, systematic and managed.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are various types of banks and financial institutions (BFIs) working under the modern banking system in Nepal. It includes central (1), commercial (30), development (87), finance companies (59), co-operatives (15), NGOs (30) and others (3). Technology is changing day by day. And the use of new technologies has affected the traditional method of the service of banks. Banking software, ATM, E-banking, Mobile Banking, Debit Card, Credit Card, Prepaid Card etc., services are available in banking system in Nepal. Nepal&rsquo;s banking sector has flourished over the years despite numerous challenges and is trying to be at par with international standards.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Today, there are ample opportunities for the banking sector to explore the small and medium enterprises and rural markets in Nepal via innovative products such as microfinance, mobile banking etc.,&rdquo; says Anil Shah, CEO of Mega Bank.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs10.JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 348px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Nepal is an agro-based economy with nearly 84 percent of the population in the rural areas. The BFIs need to develop ingenious products and adopt new technologies to cater to the rural sector. By reaching remote locations, BFIs could contribute towards poverty alleviation as well,&rdquo; observes Nepal Rastra Bank Spokesperson Bhaskar Mani Gyawali.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The public is gradually turning to the organized financial service providers i.e. the BFIs. At present, only 15.1 percent of the total households in Nepal borrow from local money-lenders, while 10 years ago some 40 per cent households were indebted to money lenders, according to the latest Nepal Living Standard Survey (NLSS) released by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Today, nearly 40 per cent households have access to commercial banks&rsquo; branch within 30 minutes walking distance. This was merely 22 percent a decade ago. Similarly, the presence of co-operatives within 30 minute walk radius has also increased from 25.9 per cent to 53.9 per cent during the same period.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Though the growing number of financial intermediaries is not as successful as expected in increasing the financial accessibility, the expansion has definitely helped in general population&rsquo;s access to finance,&rdquo; says Gyanwali.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Going through the trends seen over the past few years, the country&rsquo;s financial sector seems heading for consolidation through mergers and acquisitions. According to experts, the number of banking and financial institutions (BFIs) will reduce by half over the next one decade. Statistics support this fact. Forty-three BFIs have merged with each other to become 18 over the past three years. According to NRB, another 25 BFIs are in the final stage of merger to become 10. NRB sources say that the central bank will continue with its merger campaign in the new Nepali Year.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As a part of this campaign, the NRB is soon going to introduce the Acquisition Bylaws and there are signs that the minimum capital required to run banks could be increased significantly.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Apart from banking, other financial sectors, too, are coming up. Credit rating, portfolio management, mutual funds and central depository system companies have already come into operation. This has opened new opportunities for investment.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Due to stiff competition, banks are trying to provide specialized services such as investing in hydropower, infrastructure and agriculture. The trend is low at present but it has started. Similarly, expansion of branches of BFIs, especially in the urban areas, has reached almost a saturation stage. Now the banks are looking at cheaper ways to increase their outreach; so they are attracted towards branch-less banking, e-banking and mobile banking.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs11.JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 258px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The last one decade has been significant for the banking sector. Many good things happened. As a result, financial access increased by five times over the past one decade, according to statistics maintained by the CBS. Similarly, the statistics maintained by NRB reveal that 40 per cent of Nepalis have access to formal banking channels. These statistics incorporate only the A, B, C and D class BFIs licensed by the NRB. There are nearly 20,000 Savings and Credit Cooperatives operating throughout the country. Similarly, there is a large number of women&rsquo;s groups, farmers&rsquo; groups etc., which also provide banking services. If we consider these institutions, the number of Nepalis having access to financial services will increase significantly. This doesn&rsquo;t mean that the situation of financial access is great in Nepal; what it means is what has been achieved over the past one decade is more than satisfactory.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Increasing access to finance is one of the main roles of the central bank so that central bank is also encouraging the BFIs to venture into unbanked areas through its policy measures,&rdquo; informs Gyawali. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The achievement made by the banking sector over the past one decade can be broadly categorized into three parts: growth in financial access, expansion of loans and development of corporate culture. The rate of financial access increase is high for this period. Similarly, new areas for investment have been discovered. Today, banks have started investing in specialized long-term projects such as hydropower. Likewise, there has been development of corporate culture in the banking sector over this period. This has made the banking sector more transparent, credible and professional. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<div>
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					<td bgcolor="#E5E4E2">
						<div>
							<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Weaker Side:</strong></span></div>
						<div>
							- All kinds of BFIs are allowed to mobilize deposits</div>
						<div>
							- Lack of adequate financial literacy</div>
						<div>
							- Increasing operational risks of BFIs</div>
						<div>
							- Failure to identify new areas for investment</div>
						<div>
							- Inadequate supervision capacity of NRB</div>
					</td>
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			</tbody>
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<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Hotels: More Room for Growth</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs3(4).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 397px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepali hotel industry is rapidly heading towards booming growth. After sluggishness for about a decade, during the conflict years, the country&#39;s hospitality sector is now looking more and more lucrative with hoteliers- both domestic and foreign- investing into multi-billion projects. Surge in visitor numbers with Nepal becoming a prime destination for international, regional and domestic tourists is leaving the country&#39;s hotels sector without much room. Recent tourism rankings published by reputed institutions points out that the country is gaining significant attention from travelers and visitors across the globe.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Industry leaders estimate the size of Nepali hotel sector- ranging from five star hotels to lodges- has reached about Rs 300 billion. &quot;It is one of the fastest growing sector which is providing considerable number of employment,&quot; says Madhav Om Shrestha, executive director of Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN). According to him, the sector is providing direct employment to over 3, 00,000 people and indirectly benefitting around one million. &quot;With big international hotel chains entering Nepal, the industry is treading on to track to healthy revival.&quot;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepal, which has witnessed the departure of some big hotel chains in the past, is again set to become a rewarding market for renowned international hoteliers. Last year saw the US-based multinational hotel chains Marriott and Sheraton announce their entry into the Nepali market. In May 2013, Nepal Hospitality Group (NHG), a company under Nepal&#39;s leading conglomerate Maliram Shivakumar (MS) Group, signed an agreement with Marriott International to open a four-star hotel with an investment of around Rs 650 million. Dubbed as &quot;Fairfield by Marriott Kathmandu&quot;, the 10-storey business hotel with 108 rooms is under-construction at Thamel, a prime tourist and commercial location in Kathmandu.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The hotel targeted towards mid-income guests will start its commercial service by the beginning of 2016. Fairfield is a brand of hotels franchised by Marriott International. NHG is also constructing a 250-room, four-star luxury hotel in Naxal, as a joint venture with the Marriot International.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;In this foray, Sheraton Hotels and Resorts announced its re-entry into Nepal. Shesh Ghale, the Nepal born Australian millionaire businessman, has come up with a joint venture with Sheraton to operate a five-star hotel in Kathmandu. In April 2013, Ghale&#39;s investment company, MIT Group Holding Nepal set the project rolling by signing an agreement with Sheraton&#39;s owner Starwood Hotels and Resort Worldwide Inc.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Slated to open in February 2018, the cost of 225-room Sheraton Kathmandu project is expected to be around Rs 7 billion. Sheraton, the largest brand of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide has history of managing five-star hotel in Nepal. The chain in 1980s&#39; and 90s&#39; managed the Hotel Everest Sheraton in Kathmandu.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Meanwhile, Indian hotel chain Lord Hotels and Resorts has already started its operation in Nepal. The company opened its first international hotel in Kathmandu, the Mirage Lords Inn at Battisputali with an investment of Rs 200 million. The 40-room budget hotel is targeted to serve domestic and international guests ranging from religious visitors to adventure seekers.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs12.JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 398px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:12px;"><strong>Investment Hotspot</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The hotel investment frenzy has also wrapped Nepali business community. Many have announced to open new hotels while some have already opened doors to welcome guests into their newly built auberge. The Hotel Shambala, a 65-room, four-star Tibetan- styled boutique hotel, located at Bansbari started its operations few months ago. Similarly, construction of the Chhaya Center at Thamel is in full swing. The structure upon its completion will accommodate a 200-room four-star hotel along with an exclusive shopping mall. Likewise, The Centurion Group has been constructing a 120-room hotel in Biratnagar.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Meanwhile, Muktishree Group, Vaidya&#39;s Organization, Non-Resident Nepalese Association (NRNA) and Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) have made their announcements to establish five-star hotels. &nbsp;In the meantime, other major tourist destinations such as Pokhara, Lumbini, Biratnagarand Nepalgunj are also experiencing rising investments in the sector.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This sector is becoming a center of attraction for Nepali banks and financial institutions (BFIs) as well. According to recent Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) data, total investment of BFIs in the sector reached an estimated amount of Rs 21 billion by the end of April. The central bank also notes that in the first nine months of current fiscal year (FY), the sector welcomed an investment of Rs 3.16 billion, up by 20.8 percent from last FY&#39;s 2.30 billion.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
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						<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Time to be Cautious</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Despite the significantly increasing activities in the hotel sector there are also cautionary calls arising within the industry itself. &quot;The overall trend in investment and the growth in infrastructure is satisfactory, but marketing of Nepal in international arena is lacking,&quot; opines Binayak Shah, vice president of Summit Group of Hotels. Shah, who is also the Managing Director of Airport Hotel, said that as the sector will have more than enough infrastructures amid the rise in number of international hotel chains coming to Nepal and growing domestic investments. &quot;In addition, unsold apartments are also being converted in to hotels. If we cannot market our resources innovatively, in a few years time, we will have more supply than demand,&quot; he says. &quot;This has to be balanced.&quot;</div>
				</td>
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<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong style="font-size: 14px;">ICT: Explosive Growth</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs4(2).JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 271px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) sector has grown in a geometric proportion over the last few years bringing speedy transformation. The explosive growth and rapid infrastructure developments led the sector, nascent only some years ago, to around Rs 50 billion worth strong sector in a year.</div>
<div>
	Nepal has been enjoying remarkable growth in ICT sector due to expanding telecom sector, increasing use of email/internet, emerging social media and steady growth in the use of state-of-art gadgets.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs121.jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 656px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The pace of mobile phone adoption in the country was surprising in the last couple of years as nearly two third households have access to telephone facility. The overall teledensity has increased to 87.20 per cent by mid-March, according to the telecom regulator Nepal Telecommunications Authority.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is likely that the transaction of overall ICT products will double in the next few years. Internet penetration rate increased to around 30.99 per cent till mid- March, and the rise of Internet users will have a direct impact on the trade of computers, claims Computer Association of Nepal (CAN).&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	High competition among world class brands including HP, Samsung, Dell, Asus, Compaq, MAC, Sony, Lenovo and Acer have not only contributed to lower the price, due to hard competition, but also have provided quality products to Nepali customers.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Along with hardware parts, the software market is also experiencing a steady growth in the country. Experts and professionals involved in this business are taking this growth as a positive aspect of developing awareness related to information technology.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;The overall trade of software has increased in the domestic market though there is not actual data available from concerned authority. Amrit Kumar Pant, General Secretary of CAN, said, the market and activities related to this business have been increasing as the people have been using software and application as necessity while it was used in the form of luxury till some years ago.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	ICT has provided enormous opportunities from various aspects, according to the regulator Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA). Nepal&rsquo;s telecom sector has created employment opportunities for at least 50,000 people and contributed more than Rs 20 billion as revenues every year to the national coffer.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Even the government has come up with some ambitious plan including that of connecting east and west via Optical Fibre network. For the purpose, the government has planned to utilise the Rural Telecom Development Fund (RTDF), the fund collected by Nepal Telecommunications Authority from telcos.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, the sector is not without problem. According to telcos, there are many problems in the policy front. The telecom sector has been witnessing government&rsquo;s dillydally in bringing relevant laws and policies.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, there are still room to improve in terms of quality. On the one hand, telcos and internet service providers need to ensure quality of service. On the other, Nepal should not become trading hub for low quality ICT goods. In such situation, the government need to bring policies ensuring consumers&rsquo; rights. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	ICT is still an untapped market in Nepal, an expert told New Business Age. &ldquo;All concerned stakeholders need to put sincere effort to take this sector to the next level.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Hydropower: From Deficit to Export Considerations</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs6.JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 342px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Forced to live under electricity cut averaging 10 hours a day during dry seasons, Nepal is gradually developing its hydropower projects to escape the long-standing power crisis. Things have changed positively in the recent years as the dust of political uncertainty is finally showing signs of settling down. 87 hydel projects totalling 2,345 megawatts are under construction. Both the government and private sector have ramped up their investments in these projects. The projects, upon completion, are expected to add electricity into the national power grid within the next seven years. Similarly, the Investment Board Nepal (IBN) has also taken initiatives to construct five mega-hydel projects of 3,750 MWs. IBN, which was formed four years ago to fast-track mega projects, is said to be involved with promoters for power development agreement (PDA). The promoters have assured to start the construction of projects immediately after the finalization of PDAs.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This indicates the increasing involvement of private sector in the country&#39;s hydropower development. Nepali private sector has thus far managed to produce 232 MWs electricity after the electricity act of 1992 came into effect. According to Independent Power Producers Association, Nepal (IPPAN), the private sector has invested Rs 55 billion in 25 hydro projects till date since the establishment of the first private power plant in 2000.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Increasingly positive tones of bilateral donors have also raised hopes in this sector. The World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) are planning to raise their stakes in Nepal&#39;s hydropower development. The World Bank (WB),which has already provided development related financial assistance worth Rs 200 billion to Nepal is further adding investments in hydropower projects. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group has recently agreed to provide USD 84.6 million for the 37 MW Kabeli-&#39;A&#39; project. The electricity output from the run-of-river project situated in Panchthar district will be then connected to the national grid through the 132 KVA Kabeli Corridor Transmission line. The transmission line, which is jointly financed by the WB and Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) is in the construction phase. Likewise, IFC has also expressed readiness in Arun III (900 MW), Upper Marsyangdi (600 MW), Upper Karnali (900 MW) and Upper Trishuli (213 MW). During his visit to a WB program in US and Mexico in April, Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat received commitment from the IFC for investing for Rs 600 billion in developing hydropower projects of 3,000 MWs. Similarly, ADB is also stepping up to invest in the country&#39;s big hydel projects. Last year the bank agreed to provide soft loan of Rs 13 billion for 140 MW Tanahu Hydropower Project. Likewise, the European Investment Bank (EIB) which also agreed to loan Rs 1.5 billion for the above mentioned project has also committed to provide Rs 12 billion to build the Kaligandaki and Marsyangdi Transmission line along with another Rs 3 billion to build the Trishuli Corridor Transmission Line.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The sector is also grabbing significant attention from foreign investors. Official data shows that hydropower sector has attracted highest FDI commitments in the recent months. According to data published by Department of Industry (DoI), foreign investors pledged Rs 11.8 billion worth FDI commitments in the first nine months of the current fiscal year against Rs 2.65 billion during the same period, last year.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Rising Export Potential</strong></span></div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs13.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; width: 250px; height: 435px;" />Few years back it was almost unimaginable for power crisis marred Nepal to even think of supplying electricity to neighbouring countries. The scenario, however, is looking more and more real for Nepal to make its way forward to become a net power exporter. Nepal after producing 2,345 MW by 2018-19, will have surplus energy after consuming its annual demand of estimated 1,700 MW by that time. In this circumstance, India will be the most likely market of Nepali electricity as the energy hungry southern neighbour is increasingly looking to import power from its himalayan proximate.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The construction and installation of countrywide and cross-border high capacity transmission lines indicates the rising power trade potential between India and Nepal. The tower installations in Nepal section of 400 KVA Dhalkebar-Muzzafarpur Cross-Border Transmission line has started earlier this year. The construction of the project, which started in January is scheduled to be completed within 16 months of its commencement. Similarly, feasibility study of 400 KVA Bardaghat-Gorakhpur Transmission Line has also begun. The high capacity cross-border transmission lines would facilitate power transmission between the two countries. A secretary-level agreement between Nepal and India has already paved way to build the framework for power trading.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Private power producers say that both countries should look into effective modalities of power trading. &quot;Energy banking agreement model is the best option,&quot; says Er Gyanendra Lal Pradhan, Chairman of FNCCI&#39;s Energy Committee. According to Pradhan, if the model is adopted, Nepal can send surplus power to India in rainy season and bring back the same amount of electricity in dry seasons. He said that countries across the world are adopting this model owing to its flexibility and practical approach. &quot;The model is being effectively practiced by New York Electricity Exchange of United States and Hydro Quebec of Canada, they do banking up to 90 per cent of electricity they trade and remaining 10 per cent is priced.&quot; Pradhan stressed the need for building strong network of nationwide transmission lines as it would further help if Nepal and India engage in energy banking.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, absence of clear policies and other problems such as inefficient bureaucracy, rampant corruption, lack of nationwide transmission grid, issues related to infrastructure and land compensation are regarded as the bottlenecks in Nepal&#39;s hydropower development efforts. For instance, the draft of electricity bill, 2065 introduced in the parliament has seen little or no progress over the past five years. Similarly, issues related to power purchase agreement (PPA), higher bank lending rates in hydropower projects, value added tax (VAT) levied to private producers and low allocation of national budget are also seen as problems hindering the sector&#39;s overall development.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-06-09',
			'modified' => '2014-07-30',
			'keywords' => 'new business age cover story news & articles, cover story news & articles from new business age nepal, cover story headlines from nepal,  current and latest cover story news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali cover story economic news and events,  ongoing  cover story news of nepal',
			'description' => 'Despite obstacles, some sectors of the economy have progressed and their future looks bright. We could call them the “rising stars” of the economy. In this issue, NewBiz has tried to highlight some of these rising stars, which include: Hotels, Hydropower, Construction Material, ICT, Education, and Banking Sector.',
			'sortorder' => '2626',
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			'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00',
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		)
	),
	(int) 7 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2780',
			'article_category_id' => '52',
			'title' => 'Fallen Prey To Politics',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	When Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) was created, it was dubbed as the first truly functional model of public-private partnership (PPP) in Nepal. When it delivered some encouraging results for Nepal&#39;s tourism industry, the model&#39;s replicability potentials formed chapters of many books like of Karna Sakya and provided basis for a large number of business working papers and case studies. But, unfortunately, the same NTB has now become the test case of alleged embezzlement of resources and sit-in protest against the same by the country&#39;s tourism entrepreneurs. Thanks to all-pervasiveness of our albatross politics.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	While penning these words, it had almost been a month that the protesting entrepreneurswere demanding an impartial probe into financial irregularities by the acting CEO of the Board, Subash Nirola. But nothing was moving ahead primarily because it was a PPP. The Board headed by the secretary in the Ministry of Tourism as the ex-officio Chairman is expressing government&#39;s inability to take unilateral action, as it is the &#39;private&#39; organization while the entrepreneurs too do not have the legal power to oust the CEO.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	A few months ago, the NTB made a policy decision to organize the tourism fairs in the districts &#39;to promote the domestic tourism&#39;. This has panicked the traditional entrepreneurs that their income would be shared by the district level hospitality and amenities industries. The government sees no flaws in the Board&#39;s decision. &nbsp;The entrepreneurs argue that the money spent for such fairs in domestic markets should instead be spent in international publicity so as to attract the foreign tourists. This is no doubt a valid reason. But, just spending some money for promotion of domestic tourist market can hardly be established as an evidence for corruption.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The fuss is beyond these allegations of misappropriation of funds. The fact is, the protesting organizations of the entrepreneurs are affiliated to Deuba faction of the Nepali Congress, Oli faction of CPN-UML and Bhattarai faction of UCPN Maoists while the CEO is considered close to Khanal faction of the UML or, a chameleon, who also sometimes claims to be a Koirala Congress. And, for every political party, it was a matter of great pain that a newly emerged reputable organization like the NTB was functioning independent of political interference for more than a decade. And appointment of CEO is also not based on one&rsquo;s political loyalty. &nbsp;Therefore, every political party perhaps feels that if the current CEO is ousted through a political move, then it can set a trend and every next Tourism Minister can pick a new CEO along with each change in the government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The protest of the entrepreneurs wore a grotesque look when so called senior leaders of all three major parties reached at the sit-in site to &lsquo;express solidarity&rsquo; to the demands, without going into the merits of the allegations. If there are irregularities, there are related legal and quasi-legal institutions to investigate and prosecute the guilty. &nbsp;Why would leaders need to meddle in this process? Only plausible answer is that every party is keen to make the NTB a new political prey, which is deplorable.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The problem in the NTB began long ago when the Board failed to pick-up a professional CEO in a transparent and timely manner. The &lsquo;Acting&rsquo; position is always an incentive for the incumbent to look for quick bucks from all possible means including kickbacks. And, as allegations are already labelled to Nirola, he should either make public all the details of procurement as soon as possible proving his integrity or step aside until proven innocent allowing for an independent probe. &nbsp;The prolonged stand-off between the Board and the entrepreneurs is putting the entire Nepal tourism sector in bad light. And, the government must step in to solve it than being a party to a side.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-06-08',
			'modified' => '2014-07-30',
			'keywords' => 'new business age  from the editor news & articles, from the editor news & articles from new business age nepal, from the editor headlines from nepal,  current and latest from the editor news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali from the editor economic news and events,  ongoing  from the edi',
			'description' => 'When Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) was created, it was dubbed as the first truly functional model of public-private partnership (PPP) in Nepal. When it delivered some encouraging results for Nepal's tourism industry, the model's replicability potentials formed chapters of many books like of Karna Sakya and provided basis for a large number of business working papers and case studies.',
			'sortorder' => '2625',
			'image' => null,
			'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00',
			'homepage' => false,
			'breaking_news' => false,
			'main_news' => false,
			'in_scroller' => false,
			'user_id' => '0'
		)
	),
	(int) 8 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2775',
			'article_category_id' => '41',
			'title' => 'CEOs Exit: Nepali Banking Sector Faces New Problem',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Sanjeev Sharma</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The once lucrative Nepali banking industry is now being deserted by long serving CEOs as they head on to start their own business or shift to other areas. The latest bank CEO who left is Suman Joshi of Laxmi Bank. Nearly a month ago, Grand Bank CEO Sudhir Khatri had resigned from his post. While some insiders claim that Joshi left the job as the main promoter of the bank stopped liking him and Khatri laid his papers to avoid actions from the central bank, banking sectors analysts have also started wondering if a new trend of CEOs leaving the banking sector has set in. This concern is based on the fact that some bank CEOs who resigned from their post have left banking career altogether. One such prominent example is Parshuram Kunwar Chhetri, who resigned when Bank of Asia that he was leading went to merge with NIC Bank to form NIC Asia Bank. One prominent exception to this is Kumar Lamsal who left Sanima Bank and joined Kist Bank as the CEO. &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This trend has triggered other concerns as well in the sector. Does this indicate the start of a new trend in the Nepali banking sector or is it just a momentary occurrence? Will the departure of experienced hands affect the overall stability of the country&#39;s financial sector? With long serving CEOs leaving the institutions, are BFIs losing opportunities to hire good executives? &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It&#39;s been more than two-and-half years since the Nepali banking authority issued directive and guidelines on the executive compensation system for BFIs. This 2011 policy mandates that the annual salary and perks of a bank&rsquo;s CEOs cannot exceed more than five percent of the average staff expenditure of the respective institution over the period of three years or 0.025 percent of the total assets registered during the previous year, whichever is lower. This provision comes into action only while appointing new CEOs and spares the existing ones. With such a provision in place, the bank CEOs are left with three choices - work with present bank, join another bank on lower perks and salary or abandon the sector and look out for new avenues.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Defending this cap, the central bank argued that it was aimed at discouraging banks from getting involved into unnecessary risk taking activities. &quot;The executive compensation structure was widely regarded as one of the causes of the global financial crisis as it encouraged banks and financial institutions to get involved into high risk taking manoeuvres to increase short-term profit, eventually inviting long-term systematic risks,&quot; the NRB directive and guidelines states. The policy was introduced in the wake of rising fears of real estate bubble that followed the liquidity crunch of 2011. After the commencement of peace process in 2006, house and land prices soared to record high levels in major cities across the country forcing the NRB to tighten the provisions of bank lending into the real estate sector.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, merger of BFIs is also seen as another reason to reduce the number of CEOs in the banking sector. Since only one CEO leads a bank, the CEO of one of the merging BFI is required to leave the institution during or after the merger process completes. NRB issued Merger Bylaws on May 2011, stating that it would strengthen the financial system and raise trust of public towards the banking sector. The main aim of the merger policy is to expand the capital base of BFIs and thereby strengthen their financial position to withstand various risks in the future. Following the policy rollout, 43 BFIs went for merger and resulted in the formation of 18 BFIs, official NRB data as of mid-March says. Of them two were &#39;A&#39; class banks and 41 were &#39;B&#39;, &#39;C&#39; and &#39;D&#39; class institutions. NIC Bank and Bank of Asia were the first commercial banks to go for merger that resulted in the formation of NIC Asia. Recently the Global IME Bank and the Commerz and Trust Bank have also submitted their merger proposal to the central bank for final approval. Remaining 25 BFIs of all classes have received Letter of Intent (LoI) from the NRB to merge and form 10 BFIs. These mergers have resulted in 25 CEOs resigning from their posts as of March 2014. Commerz and Trust Bank CEO Anal Raj Bhattarai is said to be leaving his post following the the merger process. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	NRB stands quite firm to its decision to put cap on perks and salaries of bank CEOs. &quot;It is wrong to say that supply of experienced chief executives have declined due to our directive and guidelines. We made the decision after evaluating various factors,&quot; says NRB Spokesperson, Bhaskar Mani Gyawali. &quot;The factors include per capita income of the country and average pay scale in various sectors,&quot; he elaborated while claiming that introduction of the policy is making the Nepali banking sector more efficient as chief executives receive compensations according to the income of their respective institutions. &quot;Bankers are now required to perform in more effective manner. &nbsp;This ensures stability of the financial sector,&quot; he said.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="CEO" src="/userfiles/images/sect1.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; width: 350px; height: 100px;" />The departure of long serving CEOs has provided opportunity to second-layer bank officials to rise to the top spot. The second-tier officials can now groom themselves to grasp the chair of chief executive. Nevertheless, this has raised concerns regarding the risk taking appetite and the overall performance of banks as less experienced people come to the lead role.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	NRB&#39;s argument has generated mixed views from experts. &quot;CEOs who hold long experience in the sector are the essential part of the banking system. The sector as we know is all about experience. Long serving chief executives know the core of banking which gives the institutions edge to get ahead with proficient business strategies,&quot; says a former CEO of a commercial bank under the condition of anonymity. &quot;They also have risk taking appetite to expand the bank&rsquo;s business areas further.&quot;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Sanjeev Subba, the CEO of National Banking Training Institute (NBTI) shared different view. &quot;I think the departure of long serving CEOs won&#39;t affect adversely after all. The second and third tier officers are capable as they have come up with experience in different layers,&quot; he said. &quot;This has provided them with significant experience over the years.&quot; Subba mentioned that Nepali commercial banking sector, which has been running for the past three decades has produced sufficient number of experienced manpower. For the perks and salaries part he opines, &quot;Salary cap won&#39;t affect bank CEOs to renew employment contract within the same institutions. This will only affect those who are willing to join other organizations.&quot;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Suman Joshi, Laxmi Bank&#39;s former CEO expressed his perspective close to Subba. &quot;Departure of experienced chief executives is unlikely to have overall adverse impact on the banking sector. Exit of the old and entry of new should be taken as two sides of a coin,&quot; he said. Joshi, however, cautioned that banks might see performance related issues as less experienced people take over the executive post. He also mentioned that Nepali banking sector has started to follow international trend. &quot;If we look the international scenario, CEOs don&#39;t stay in the same responsibility for long time,&quot; he opines.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Lack of motivational factor seems to be another reason for the CEOs to leave their jobs. &quot;Bank CEOs get more salary compared to other sectors. However, working regularly for a long time without increment in salary creates an environment of de-motivation,&quot; says Bank of Asia&rsquo;s former chief executive, Parshuram Kunwar Chhetri. According to him, many chief executives are facing the problem of stagnant salary levels and have to work under pressures of media, investors, shareholders and rising day-by-day business risks. &quot;Nevertheless, financial institutions are run and governed by particular system, so a significant negative impact is unlikely in an event of a CEO leaving his post,&quot; Chhetri said. &nbsp;</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-04-11',
			'modified' => '2014-06-09',
			'keywords' => 'new business age sectoral news & articles, sectoral news & articles from new business age nepal, sectoral headlines from nepal,  current and latest sectoral news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali sectoral economic news and events,  ongoing  sectoral news of nepal',
			'description' => 'The departure of long serving CEOs has raised concern in the Nepali banking sector. Does this indicate the start of a new trend in the banking sector or is it just a momentary occurrence?',
			'sortorder' => '2624',
			'image' => null,
			'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00',
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	(int) 9 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2774',
			'article_category_id' => '169',
			'title' => 'Do Not Count Your Chickens Before They Are Hatched',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Everyone gets excited by a new job offer and for valid reasons off course. A person seeking change always thinks that he has done well but somehow not been duly rewarded. We sometimes feel that our bosses are aliens without any idea how the modern world works and always hassle us from their ivory tower. Thus frustrated, when we receive a new offer, we feel like being in heaven. It is quite natural to get excited and believe that the opening, longed for so long, has arrived at last.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But beware; all that glitters is not gold. Your current job may not be that great but you would egress from your comfort zone while accepting a new one. A known devil is always better than an unknown friend. Since you would be spending close to 50 hours per week on the job, it is always better to be cautious, even when the offer is from a big corporate.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	So, before accepting, make sure you have a thorough background check. Here are seven key questions you must answer before deciding. Even when the salary seem to be godsend and the perks seem to be out of the world; even when you have mentally spent half of your extra salary; do not rush and resign till you have answered these questions satisfactorily.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>1. Are you clear what you are expected to accomplish on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Probe long and hard to understand what is expected from you. Job description and designation sometimes can be very vague. I have once come across a job title stating &ldquo;Conversation Architect&rdquo; which means &ldquo;Digital Marketing Manager&rdquo;. How about &ldquo;Director Storytelling&rdquo;? This is a Microsoft PR guy managing their blog &ldquo;Next at Microsoft&rdquo;. &nbsp;So what is your employer&rsquo;s expectation? Ask this and observe the body language. If it is a new position where you are not succeeding anybody and if you see hesitancy while answering; be cautious. The person might have got a dictate from top about certain initiative without any clue on how to proceed. You might end up being the fall guy.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>2. Do you know how your success will be judged?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Understand what are those achievements which will define your performance as success and below what level the result will be seen as failure. A performance management form with Performance Indicators duly charted out in black and white may be of great help but sometimes it may not be sufficient. So when you get clarity on your success matrix, determine whether the organization has measurement tools or not. For example: your job description can state &ndash; &ldquo;ensure within 1% deviation on production specification&rdquo; but you may end up discovering there is no accurate measurement equipment which can predict below 2% deviation. Then during performance appraisal you would be at the mercy of your boss and his mood on that day.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>3. Will you be able to do well in the new role?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	It is nice to be confident and one can always bluff into a job but you have to be true to yourself on your actual ability and qualification to perform. Each one of us has certain strength or weakness. While MBA degree claims to create super monster or efficient robotic humanoid who can perform at any Industry at all levels; in reality it does not happen that way. If the new job does not play to your strength then you may eventually end up losing everything. So, ask yourself this question about your actual suitability and fitment and answer as honestly as possible; if the answer is ambiguous or negative then refrain from accepting.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>4. Do you know the culture of the company and the team you will be working with?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	It is very important for you to be fully aware about the culture of the place. This has a huge impact on comfort and quality of life on the job. This in turn decides workplace happiness. For example; if you thrive in an informal culture with open door policy and end up in a hierarchical and formal place or in a corporate where aggression and hostility is the order of the day, you may end up regretting your decision. Likewise, if you inherit a team with a veteran who aspired your position but could not get it due to self inability, he may disparately pray for your failure even at the cost of the team being termed as non-performing.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>5. Do you know your Boss?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Do you know his working style and expectation? There is an old saying that &ldquo;People leave bosses, not job&rdquo;. There is also another school of thought that &ldquo;No people are allowed to select their bosses&rdquo;. But both are actually different sides of the same coin. In nutshell, the dynamics and equation between two persons are extremely important for both of them to succeed. It is better to have a thorough understanding between you and your boss about each other&rsquo;s management style and his expectation from you to have a flying start. At least try to answer this question as best as possible. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>6. Are you clear about the entire compensation package including details of various perks?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Do not focus on exactly what will be your CTC (Cost-to-company) salary but also take a look at others perks like House Rent, Car, Utility, Telephone, Education or Medical allowance. CTC may look bigger but what you are getting net at the end of each month is also important. There is nothing wrong to ask your employer about bonus and other annual facility and detail eligibility of the same. It is better to make them as part of their offer letter. Do not be in a hurry but nail down those details before affirming.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>7. How does this job fit in your overall career related goal?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Will it be in line with what you have planned or will you regret this decision two to three years down the line? Sometimes people take a short-term decision knowingly to achieve something bigger. You may decide to take on an assignment not fitting into your long-term strategy due to some short-term tactical goal like flexible timing to pursue higher education or to be in a specific town for some period. But make sure that you decide after due deliberation and not take a blind call. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	So the bottom-line is clear. Do not rush into decision. Sleep over it and take more than three to four days &ndash; preferably a week-end before you decide. Try to envision your future two, three or five years down the line. Answer those seven questions. Answer them diligently, as best as you can. Remember the word of Confucius &ndash; &ldquo;the expectation of life depend upon Diligence; the mechanic that would perfect his work must sharpen his tools first&rdquo;. So, for a perfect future, do a proper homework on how to sharpen the tools.</div>',
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			'description' => 'All that glitters is not gold. Your current job may not be that great but you would egress from your comfort zone while accepting a new one.',
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	(int) 10 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2772',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Undemocratic Overtures',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The national debate on holding the local body elections -- for the Village Development Committees (VDCs), Municipalities and District Development Committees (DDCs) -- is at its high after one and half decades, but the very prospect of the same actually taking place still whirls in the rough waters. No doubt, one of the most positive outcomes of the Nepali Congress (NC)-CPN UML coalition government is that it moved positively to hold the local body elections. But there is still doubt on the possibility of these elections being held by end of June this year. It has been sixteen years since these elections were held last and the term of the office bearers expired some twelve years ago. In the absence of democratically elected local bodies, the public service delivery, grassroots public works and institution of democracy have faltered to the hilt. The consequences are apparent -- the capital expenditure for years has been far less than the allocated targets, the GDP growth has stagnated at yearly average of 3.5 percent for last eight years despite the fact that country has enjoyed relative political peace during this period, and the emergence of new generation of leadership in any possible political formation has been nipped in the bud.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Even now, the dampener to the call to these crucial polls comes as a single voice of both factions of the Maoist parties that parted ways some three years ago, led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Mohan Vaidya respectively. From the ideological prism, the opposition to the polls by the Maoists looks all natural. And, it was expected from the Vaidya group given the fact that it remained out of the second Constituent Assembly (CA) elections held in last November. But, by contrast, the move appears rather anachronistic for Dahal and his party (UCPN Maoist) that has vowed to remain in competitive politics of ballots despite all odds. The political plunder the Party is now venturing into may well turn out to be a mammoth blunder not only for Dahal and Co. but for the entire country and the democratic process itself.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is not difficult to decipher Dahal&#39;s calculations to oppose these polls. He is apprehensive of poor outcome for his party if it goes to polls without uniting the Vaidya faction. On top of it, not only Maoists, every party other than UML is fearful of the local polls conducted when Bamdev Gautam is at the helm of Ministry of Home Affairs. However, the opposition to these polls from Vaidya comes as entirely different reason: this group is determined to go against any proposition made by the parties in CA and under the present scheme of political arrangements. It is in fact Vaidya&#39;s chosen plank since it separated from the mother party UCPN Maoist.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But to hide real shortcomings, Dahal has adopted a new but unambiguously anti-democratic stance in the form of opposing these polls. &nbsp;His formal premise of this opposition is: the inevitable engagement of the government and political parties in the local elections would divert the focus away from the constitution writing. He has also trained his party rank and file to rant out that the poll competition among the parties would bitter the differences that could be reflected in constitution writing. &#39;It hardly causes any grave damage if we defer the polls by seven or eight months for these local bodies that have remained vacant for last sixteen years,&#39; Dahal has unequivocally said.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Apparently, Dahal&#39;s statement lacks creativity and craftsmanship. Every politician who wanted to procrastinate on the local elections through all these years has used the same platitude, pointing to some larger political urgency or priority to be addressed before these &#39;trivial&#39; polls. When the term of the local office-bearers expired, the Maoist insurgency had swept the country. The priority was &#39;saving democracy from terrorism&#39;. When the peace deal was sealed in 2006, agenda of saving the peace process overshadowed the local polls. Then, in 2008, the CA elections were natural priority. The Interim Constitution 2007 didn&#39;t even incorporate a provision for local elections, which is a real shame on our constitutionalism and so-called experts who drafted it. When the first CA came into existence, influencing experts had a take, &#39;since entire nation were to be federalised, the local elections would only be a nuisance in the larger process of restructuring the state.&#39; When the extended tenure of the first CA expired without writing the constitution, sense of national loss was so overwhelming; no leader had time to ponder over these &#39;unimportant&#39; local elections. Then came the second CA elections and existence. The change in political equations gave birth to NC-UML coalition in government that fortunately has begun at least the talk of these polls. But, unfortunately, efforts are already on to stall them.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The crucial questions here are: Were all those cited reasons both necessary and sufficient conditions to procrastinate the local elections at different political turning points? Were these &#39;local&#39; elections so unimportant at the face of other &#39;national&#39; agenda? And, do they still deserve to be pushed further away in this or that pretext? Answer to all these questions is one big NO, but the background that leads to this simple NO is excruciatingly painful and treacherous.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The first and perhaps the most powerful of all explanations is that the central leadership of any party strongly hated these elections. After 1992 local elections, the NC and UML saw that many articulate, learned young cadres elected as local leaders attracted national and international attention. They were the first to woo the public confidence as they had resources, public position and closest contact to the grassroots population. This created a very real threat of displacement to the national leadership if such a &#39;mass manufacturing&#39; of young breed of leaders were continued. A simple example to vindicate it could be enough to compute the proportion of members in current or past CAs that were elected in those local bodies during 1990s. The best way to allay this threat of &#39;big&#39; leaders was to stop this practice altogether wherever and whenever possible. The Maoist who came to mainstream through Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) 2006, were no different from NC or UML in this regard.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	If that were not the case, there was not any convincing reason to not hold the local polls at least after the CPA. Had local bodies come into existence then, it could have been a great vehicle to bring the local political leadership of different parties at the same political platform. It could also have been the most effective mechanism to deliver the putative &#39;peace dividend&#39; to the people in general. These polls could have been conducted at the sidelines of both CA elections without much additional logistical and security costs. But, to repeat, leadership of no major party was honestly interested to hold these elections. Even the CA members were (still are) against it. Their naive complaint used to be &#39;DDC chairman, or a mayor, with all facilities and resources at his disposal is more powerful than a member of CA or legislature.&#39; These are real impediments&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	to these polls than any fabricated political logic.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Otherwise, these local elections on their own merit are very important from every possible paradigm of democracy, development, decentralization and true devolution of power. One can also convincingly argue that inputs to the constitution writing, state restructuring and political reconciliation would have come in more institutionalized fashion had these local bodies with elected representatives remained functional.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The argument that the local elections would derail or deviate the constitution writing process is extremely preposterous to say the least. First, the CA couldn&#39;t draft a constitution in four years of last CA where such polls were not even contemplated. And, there is no real trade-off between these two goals - namely, the constitution writing and holding the local polls. The CA can without aberration continue the process of writing the constitution. The Election Commission (EC) and the government can handle the logistics and other preparations for the local polls. The argument that local elections impair the possible political cooperation among the political parties is outright unpolitical. All the forces who believe in the rules of democracy cannot harbour animosity just for the fact that people voted for one party against other.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On the contrary, local polls and the constitution writing, if managed wisely, can be mutually reinforcing and complementary processes. It is repeated in uncountable instances that without a framework of state restructuring incorporated, the constitution writing process cannot be completed. These local democratic bodies can serve as the real feedback institutions for delineations of the provinces and other administrative and electoral units. More importantly, these institutions will be the real tool to manage unrealistically spiraling ambitions of people with largely misrepresented notions of rights, inclusiveness and reservations, among many other.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It appears that all contentious issues on constitution writing will not be resolved by the sitting CA and all major leaders have categorically said that these issues will be resolved through a referendum if required. This is a clear hint that completion of constitution writing may take several years. If such a scenario is imminent, it is illogical to stop the local elections from taking place now. Suppose, even if this CA completes the constitution drafting process, the promulgation of the same is not going to be easy. But, if these legitimate institutions are in place, they can help to create an atmosphere for relatively smoother promulgation. An elected political leader is far more responsible apparatus of the state mechanism than the one left in the streets just to protest on every petty issue.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Even in the worst case scenario, say, the local elections delay the constitution writing by a few months; it is still a risk worth to be taken. With the local bodies in operation, people can feel the real strength and utility of the democracy than the distant CA or a vague constitution. It is however not to mean to undermine the importance of the constitution.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is good to know that EC has reportedly started preparation for all required legal backdrop, including the amendment in the Interim Constitution 2007 to include the provisions for local polls.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Everyone should be convinced that no democratic exercise of any fashion would weaken the democracy. A pragmatic rethinking is required on the part of the Maoists and real courage in government to translate its own promise of holding local elections into reality, sooner.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
	<em>The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</em></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>',
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			'description' => 'The national debate on holding the local body elections -- for the Village Development Committees (VDCs), Municipalities and District Development Committees (DDCs) -- is at its high after one and half decades, but the very prospect of the same actually taking place still whirls in the rough waters. No doubt, one of the most positive outcomes of the Nepali Congress (NC)-CPN UML coalition government is that it moved positively to hold the local body elections.',
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	(int) 11 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2771',
			'article_category_id' => '52',
			'title' => 'Agenda: Economic Restructuring',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Finance Minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat created ripples of a sort in mid-March when he pointed to the need of restructuring the economy. No doubt, this is a long pending agenda given the fact that Nepali economy is faced with stagflation-like trap for decades. But, Dr. Mahat&#39;s proposition has come so suddenly that it gives rise to two natural questions. Have we done adequate homework for such a massive restructuring? Is there enough political will to embrace the agenda of restructuring, going beyond barely managing it? And, the direction of such restructuring will equally be crucial as will be the sustainability of the transformed structure.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Prioritization of the tasks in such restructuring agenda and garnering political support for the same, are two sets of groundwork that any restructuring agenda cannot perhaps bypass. To both ends, Dr. Mahat as the finance minister has a couple of rare strengths. He understands the Nepali economy thoroughly -- its cracks and crevasses-and has a pro-private sector image. Also, he carries equally strong weaknesses; that he carries a big baggage of self-righteousness, doesn&#39;t have a professional team and hardly trusts anyone and, he is a bad politician, at least at the negotiation table.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Needless to reemphasize here, restructuring of a mixed economy that is chronically mismanaged is sure to be a daunting, painstakingly long-term process. If this is not a mere political gimmick that Dr. Mahat has no reason to indulge into, the homework needs to commence at least in two parallel fronts of the economy -- technical and political. On the technical side, there must be a dispassionate assessment of the loss incurred and persistent underperformance of the economy due to over-involvement of the government in planning, production and distribution systems. On the political front, to reduce the state involvement in functional aspects of the economy, a great deal of reorientation is imperative mainly in those political forces who are indoctrinated as communists or ardent socialists.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	A great amount of misgivings about the &#39;inevitability of state intervention and activism in economy&#39; must be dispelled, both at political or people&#39;s levels. Dr. Mahat himself needs enough courage to declare the institutions like the National Planning Commission obsolete, at least in the present form. In their present form, they act as omniscient of the needs and priorities of the populace at the grassroots. The decision on liquidating about three dozen state-owned enterprises that have acted as hungry sharks for years in the exchequer is long overdue. Only way to create public awareness on the futility to maintain status quo in these public institutions depends largely on the effective factual communication of the maladies and recurrent losses, year after year. One stroke of liquidating or privatizing the Nepal Oil Corporation would be enough to test Dr. Mahat&#39;s sincerity and courage to take-up really meaningful restructuring of Nepal&#39;s public economy.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The economy is under stress from more than one quarter. The ballooning imbalance in the country&#39;s foreign trade, dwindling absorption capacity of the financial resources and mass-migration of the working age population for low-earning jobs abroad creating labour-market distortion at home are three prominent areas that warrant top priority in the restructuring agenda.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The structural imbalances too are looming large. We spent decades lamenting on the lower-than-demand production of energy, mainly hydropower. But, despite all odds, the energy sector attracted a substantial investment and there are indications that the supply would be doubled in next four to five years. But, we became oblivious of the fact that we needed to develop adequate transmission lines to connect this power to individual houses. There are concerns of this power being wasted for lack of alternative arrangements, for example, replacing LPG cooking stoves with the electric ones to create market for the added power generation, or if possible export to India.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There is a sort of political consensus on the need of a tangible restructuring of the state when it hopefully gets federalized. The proposed agenda of economic restructuring must be a complementary process to that larger goal of spatial restructuring of the state. The restructuring of even larger scale is also required in the private sector to transform it from a mere a trade-margin capitalizer, like from gold smuggling, to employment-generator and export-promoter. Therefore, the restructuring agenda must not fizzle out as seasonal political hyperbole. It deserves more nuanced treatment to make it a fruit-bearing proposition.</div>',
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			'description' => 'Finance Minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat created ripples of a sort in mid-March when he pointed to the need of restructuring the economy. No doubt, this is a long pending agenda given the fact that Nepali economy is faced with stagflation-like trap for decades.',
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	(int) 12 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2773',
			'article_category_id' => '40',
			'title' => 'The Business For Social Benefit',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<em><span style="font-size:16px;">Social entrepreneurship in Nepal is on the way of gaining its ground over the last few years. Despite its varied aspects and differences in its definition, entrepreneurs agree it to be a form of business that helps in promoting social causes and better changes in society. &quot;Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid&quot;, a phrase coined by the late Indian academic CK Prahalad, has become popular among social entrepreneurs. But the question is: are we heading towards ensuring benefit to the bottom billions or not? In this issue, we focus on scope, opportunities and motivation for social entrepreneurs and the way forward.&nbsp;</span></em></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Siromani Dhungana</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Those at the &#39;bottom of the pyramid&rsquo; have been neglected since decades and it is time to change perceptions through which they are perceived. They should not be perceived only as recipients of aid.They are agents of development and they can be partner in entrepreneurship, says Catrin Frohlich, co-founder of Hidden Journeys who is involved in promotion of social entrepreneurship in Nepal for the last couple of years. She opines that acceptance of bottom billion as business partner opens avenue to set up social enterprises.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Social entrepreneurship embraces market-based approach as social enterprise is about innovation and making profit along with makingimpact on development of the society, she argues. It is not the rejection of profit but rather is about sharing of profit with target groups and there by helping them in enhancing their living standards, Frohlich adds.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepal needs to create jobs and job creation is not possible without enterprises. Social entrepreneurship is all about leading country towards prosperity through sustainable approaches.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong><img alt="Catrin Frohlich" src="/userfiles/images/cs1(2).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;width: 300px; height: 144px;" />Scenario of Social Entrepreneurship</strong></span></div>
<div>
	A large number of population is reeling under acute poverty despite the fact that massive resources at the local level remain unused.In such a scenario, Nepal can be a very appropriate country for venturing into social enterprises.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, it is again not an easy task to venture into social enterprises, especially in a country with relative absence of entrepreneurial aptitude. Social entrepreneurship is comparatively new phenomenon but it is gaining momentum, says Vidhan Rana of Biruwa Ventures. We have good understanding of the word social but less understanding of the word entrepreneurship, he opines. &ldquo;Social entrepreneurshipis not about establishing NGOs and distributing aid money to people in need,&rdquo; he says, adding, &ldquo;Innovative ideas to venture into business is a must to start enterprise.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Many people perceive the term social enterprise as a connotation of not-for-profit organization. The not-for-profit mantra is out-dated now, says Rana adding, &ldquo;Make profit but involve the bottom billions in business and share the profit with them. This is the philosophy behind the concept of social entrepreneurship.&rdquo; Social entrepreneurship has become a buzz word and Rana fears that this hypemight be misused by not genuine social enterprises.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This is a new domain and there is a corresponding dilemma at the policy level. While a debate on what is genuine social entrepreneurship has started, Sadhana Shrestha, executive director at TEWA and former Country Representative, in Nepal at Ashoka, accepts the prevalence of dilemma about the termamong businessmen also. While attempting to correct the prevailing notion that perceives both types of organizations synonymously, she says that NGOs and social enterprises are different. Nepal does not have laws specific to social entrepreneurship but it certainly has a category in the Company Act, which describes such companies as those that do not distribute profits (though they makes profits).&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The most encouraging part in this is the increasing involvement of young generation. Youth led organizations such as Biruwa Ventures, Entrepreneurs for Nepal (E4N), Udhyami Nepali, Hidden Journeys and ChangeFusion Nepal have been working to promote entrepreneurship including that of social entrepreneurship.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong><img alt="Sadhana Shrestha" src="/userfiles/images/cs2(2).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;width: 300px; height: 144px;" />Fight Poverty with Profitability</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&ldquo;The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits,&rdquo; by C.K. Prahalad, professor of corporate strategy at the Ross School of Business of the University of Michigan is considered as a seminal work on social entrepreneurship. The concept of &lsquo;The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid&rsquo; provided new business models targeted at providing goods and services to the poorest people in the world. Prahalad&rsquo;s concept seeks to solve global poverty by turning the bottom of the socioeconomic pyramid from victims of globalization into its beneficiaries through consumerism.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The book combined a pragmatic framework with inspirational case studies to show companies how they could develop innovative business models and find new profits by serving the world&rsquo;s five billion poorest people at the bottom of the economic pyramid (or BOP).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Prof Prahalad was in favour of private-sector led social enterprises. Responding to a question &ldquo;What are the big lessons learned since the book was first published?&rdquo; by Triple Pundit, a new-media company for highly conscious business leaders, Prahalad said:&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	First, the thesis of the book that the private sector is an integral part of the poverty alleviation process is well accepted by multilaterals, aid agencies, many NGOs and large private sector firms as well. &nbsp;Second, there is now a growing belief that the bottom of the pyramid provides an opportunity for business to &ldquo;do good and do well.&rdquo; Third, we recognize that the BOP is more than micro-consumers. &nbsp;It also represents micro producers and micro investors who can be connected to national and global markets. And the BOP can also be the source of major innovations that affect us all. &nbsp;These ideas were in the original book but have been confirmed and amplified.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Reviewing the book, Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software Architect, Microsoft says: &quot;C. K. Prahalad argues that companies must revolutionize how they do business in developing countries if both sides of that economic equation are to prosper. Drawing on a wealth of case studies, his compelling new book offers an intriguing blueprint for how to fight poverty with profitability.&quot; This book is considered a hallmark in introducing discourse and practices of private sector led social enterprises.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong><img alt="Vidhan Rana" src="/userfiles/images/cs3(2).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;width: 300px; height: 144px;" />Evolution of the Concept &amp; Growing Concern&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Many believe that business philanthropy and social involvement of business community is linked with long rooted concept of &ldquo;Sewa Hi Paramo Dharma&rdquo; [Social Service is the Ultimate Religion]. Historical evidences suggest that not all business leaders have been content in simply performing a commercial role in society. Numerous businesspersons, industrialists and entrepreneurs have made significant contributions to their local communities.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Earlier, there were notable efforts to engage business in society via charity or social welfare activities. These were mainly inspired by religious affiliation and cultural inspirations. From mid-1970s onwards general interest in corporate social responsibility grew and this is reflected in the involvement of Nepali corporate sector in CSR activities. &nbsp;This interest was consolidated in the 1980s. As part of the general redefinition of state functions in this period, the role of business in addressing social problems became more prominent. Such political and policy developments, it is argued, have made a significant contribution towards enhancing social roles of businesses.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Social Enterprises: Sustainable Approach of Development&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Sadhana Shrestha, while stating that NGO workers should not be considered as social entrepreneurs, claims that social entrepreneurship should have some basic qualities: innovation, breakthrough ideas, sustainable and replicable model and system changing ideas.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Social entrepreneurs should give enough attention to the sustainability of their business and generally do not distribute dividend rather inject it in the business to ensure sustainability of the enterprise, she claims.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Social enterprises are businesses whose primary purpose is the common good. The main characteristics that distinguish a social enterprise from other types of businesses, non-profits and the government agencies is its sustainable approach, opines Mahabir Pun, the winner of the Ramon Magsaysay Award 2007 for his project that brought wireless Internet to rural Nepal.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Social enterprise directly addresses a difficult social need and serves the common good, either through its products and services or through the number of disadvantaged people it employs.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Challenges in Social Entrepreneurship&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The social enterprise movement was connected mainly with non-profits that used business models and earned income strategies to pursue their mission in the early days of social entrepreneurship. The understanding has become clearer now. Enterprises, whose sole purpose is to make social impact, are now considered as social enterprises. The sector, however, is not out of challenges.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Identification of business model:</strong> Business is often linked with profit in Nepal. And even the image of non-profits is not very positive. In such a situation, building positive image for social enterprises is a challenging task, says Catrin Frohlich.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Capacity building: </strong>Building capacity of aspirant social entrepreneurs is another challenge for Nepal&rsquo;s social entrepreneurial world. Capacity building initiatives should not be limited to launch of businesses, but should be continued when it comes at scaling up level, addsFrohlich.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Financing:</strong> A real social entrepreneurship is about innovation but traditional financing institutions do not always believe in innovative ideas and may deny lending money, opines Frohlich while pointing to the challenge of acquiring financial assistance for social enterprises.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Legal provision:</strong> Policy and regulatory frameworks have many grey areas. In such a context, it is feared that the word social entrepreneurship could be easily misused by non-profits and others institutions to gain undeserving reputation, says VidhanRana.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Opportunities&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The concept of social entrepreneurship is an outcome of the realization that aid recipients cannot make tremendous progress in their life compared to entrepreneurs, says Vidhan Rana. In the same vein, Frohlich also opines that despite some good works, NGO-model of development is not always in favour of the bottom billion. Despite challenges, social entrepreneurship field in Nepal is recently witnessing positive trends and receiving new opportunities as it is the best model for optimum and sustainable use of resources.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	If analysed from the perspective of national development, social entrepreneurship does not put the national economy at risk. It is a beautiful aspect of social entrepreneurship that while an individual takes all the risk of innovation, all members of the target community share the benefit.Similarly, social entrepreneurship is even more inclusiveforwomen entrepreneurs and adopting this approach can assist in making the entire development process more inclusive. Considering the present trend, it is obvious that in the coming years we&rsquo;ll see social entrepreneurship woven into the very fabric of existing disciplines and become an integral lens through which we will understand all sectors and fields of study.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Corporate Houses for Social Cause&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to a business practice that involves participating in initiatives that will have positive impact in the society. Generally, CSR activities are carried out using profit amount. CSR is a process with the aim to embrace responsibility for the company&#39;s actions and encourage a positive impact through its activities on the environment, consumers, employees and communities.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Though companies are not directly involved in social entrepreneurship, their involvement in social issues has been increasing in one or another form. In Nepal, many companies have been involved in many social activities such as Coke for water conservation, Unilever for hand washing promotion, Yeti Air tree plantation etc.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Involvement of business community in social activities is not new phenomenon. Some renowned business houses have been involved in some traditional CSR activities. Operation of eye hospital from Golchha and donation to Briddhashram (old age home) from some business families can be taken as examples to this end.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Further, some business houses have been involved in special CSR initiatives as annual events such as Asha Awards, Sports Tourism promotion, and health awareness program being carried out by Surya Nepal. There also are some companies such as NCELL that provide direct charity (e.g. school building, sukumbasi house roofing etc.) that is linked directly with their business promotion. Chaudhary Group has established a separate unit Yunus Centre to promote social entrepreneurship though it is yet to start work effectively.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Besides, recruitment of deaf staffs in the Nanglo restaurant can be taken as a good example of social entrepreneurship business. Dabur is also involved in social business as it provides help to farmers in herbal cultivation.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Future Outlook</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Positive impact made by existing social enterprises on target communities and in making profit has triggered enthusiasm in aspiring entrepreneurs. Numbers of aspirant social entrepreneurs are increasing and their conviction show that they can make money and can do things differently in the entrepreneurial world. &nbsp;Social enterprises will prove that enterprises can be financially sustainable, even profitable.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs4(2).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 512px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>',
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			'created' => '2014-04-10',
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			'description' => 'Social entrepreneurship in Nepal is on the way of gaining its ground over the last few years. Despite its varied aspects and differences in its definition, entrepreneurs agree it to be a form of business that helps in promoting social causes and better changes in society.',
			'sortorder' => '2620',
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	(int) 13 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2768',
			'article_category_id' => '169',
			'title' => 'The Right To Reject!',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Last September, Supreme Court of India passed a landmark judgment by opining that &quot;If right to vote is statutory, right to reject candidate is also a fundamental right of expression under Constitution&quot;. Court declared that Democracy is all about choice and if dejected with the candidates, one has every right to express displeasure by rejecting the entire lot and send a clear, unambiguous signal to Political Parties to find better alternatives. Henceforth, &ldquo;None of the above&rdquo; as an option will appear mandatorily in every ballot and voters can exercise that if needed. When Voters proclaim blanket dislikes for all, there will be re-election. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This sets my imagination flying; suppose we decree that if 50% of the turned out voters cast their vote on &ldquo;None of the above&rdquo;, parties must recall earlier candidates and sent new ones for re-election? Moreover, what if those recalled candidates would be barred from contesting for another three years? Not only that, suppose somebody stands from multiple constituency and gets expunged in one, he would be automatically disqualified even if he emerges as winner in the other? What a revolutionary power it will bestow on the common man.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	We shout about People&rsquo;s power, People&rsquo;s Democracy but ultimately, in present context, common man is nothing but a puppet dancing to the tunes of various political parties. With this option, the true power will be with us, the common man. If we dislike the candidates, all we have to do is to cast our vote on &ldquo;None of the above&rdquo; option.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In any Election, normally voter turnout varies from 50% to 65%. 50% of that is only 30% of the total voting population. So, if 30% of awakened populations are unhappy with the choices given by the Political parties, they can bring down the political parties on their knees. Taking one step forward, what if we mandate that the cost of reelection will be borne by those parties? What a shame will that be!&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Just imagine the impact. Each political party will put in candidates without any blemish. Re-election will be solely on the basis of good work. All indicted criminals, murderers, fraudsters will not be able to contest because no political party will take chance. People contesting from Multiple Electorate will be equally cautious. If they win in one constituency and Rejection verdict came in the other then they face disqualification for three years. Trend of senior leaders standing up from multiple constituencies will reduce dramatically which will bring in more honest and&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	young politicians.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Democracy is about choice and choosing to &ldquo;Reject&rdquo; is the biggest reward democracy can offer to people. In Nepal too the supreme court has already given the right to reject election candidates. Now, all the political parties of Nepal will need serious introspection and Civil Society will emerge stronger. In right democracy, freedom has to be universally upheld and protected, as Scot Howard Phillips stated aptly &ndash; &ldquo;One can&rsquo;t pick and chose which type of freedom one wants to defend. Either one defends all or against all such freedom.&rdquo;</div>',
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			'created' => '2014-03-24',
			'modified' => '2014-05-07',
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			'description' => 'All the political parties of Nepal will need serious introspection and Civil Society will emerge stronger. In right democracy, freedom has to be universally upheld and protected.',
			'sortorder' => '2619',
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			'id' => '2769',
			'article_category_id' => '168',
			'title' => 'Designing Your Dreams',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Upashana Neupane</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<table align="right" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;" width="25">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>
				<img alt="Shailaja Adhikary, Managing Director, IEC College of Art and Fashion" src="/userfiles/images/be3%20(Copy).jpg" style="border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; width: 200px; height: 237px;" /></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
				<div align="center">
					<div>
						<strong>Shailaja Adhikary</strong></div>
					<div>
						Managing Director</div>
					<div>
						IEC College of Art and Fashion</div>
				</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<div>
	If &nbsp;you are passionate about designing your own imagination and flaunting the trendy designs, you can get the route by pursuing a career in the same world. IEC (Indian Education Centre) College of Art and Fashion, the pioneer in the country to introduce the course in fashion designing is providing you two courses where you can scribble your mind creatively and artistically: Bachelors in Fashion Design and Bachelors in Interior Design.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Recognising the need and addressing the passion for fashion design course in Nepal, Shailaja Adhikary, started the institution on her sole initiation. Adhikary, who is the Managing Director at the college, shares that her step to introduce a new course and that too of fashion in Nepal was not easy but says it was worth the effort. Adhikary shares she was only 21, when she started IEC realising the need in the country to set up the institution for professional fashion designing training.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	IEC was started as an institution for computer trainings and fashion designing initially. Adhikary had to include the computer courses in her institution as people then were not so much willing to join the tailoring courses as it was attributed with the negative stereotypes. &ldquo;I turned down the computer courses, when Ifelt the craze for fashion design increasing and computer slowing down&rdquo;, she recalls, &ldquo;That was the right time to gear up for the Fashion Designing course in Nepal.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>The Courses Offered</strong></span></div>
<div>
	IEC Offers Bachelors degree in two courses: Fashion Design and Interior Design. The three-year Bachelor degree is segregated into six semesters.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Fashion Designing course helps students learn draping, patternmaking, and sewing techniques in detail. Students are also provided with the opportunity to interact with the top designers of the country and abroad as they visit the college as guest speakers helping student understand and create designs that can be made public through on campus exhibitions.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Interior Designing course provides student in-depth knowledge about field and gets opportunities to collaborate and interact with leading practitioners too. The college arranges field visits to the places with interior spaces like hotels and restaurants, hospitals, residences, stores and so on. Students are also provided with internship facilities in their last semester. &ldquo;We are soon planning to send our students to India for internship&rdquo;, she shares, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a bigger platform and exposure there.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>After Graduation</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Graduates of both the courses get ample career choices. Adhikary shares that there is a huge market for the graduates and they can be consumed very fast and easy. &ldquo;Not only domestic market, students have to compete in the international arena too,&rdquo; she shares.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Adhikary who herself believe in making your own identity always suggests her students to start entrepreneurship. &ldquo;You shouldn&rsquo;t give your hard work to somebody else,&rdquo; she opines, &ldquo;Have the experience of 2-3 years to work under other organisation and then start your own business.&rdquo; Fashion Design graduates can pursue their career as costume designer, fashion consultants, fashion designer, fashion entrepreneurs, fashion photography coordinators, fashion show coordinators, fashion stylists, production supervisors, accessory designers, jewellery designers and so on.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Meanwhile, Interior Design Graduates can pursue their career as CAD (Computer-Aided Designs) designers, commercial interior designers, designer consultants, exhibition organizers, furniture designers, institutional interior designers, fashion show coordinators, lighting designers, and residential interior designers etc.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Likewise, IEC has been supporting various fashion shows and beauty contest in Nepal which is a plus point for the students. It was also the joint organiser of first Fashion Week which was first of its kind in Nepal. &ldquo;These kinds of shows provide bigger exposure to the designers&rdquo; Adhikary opines, &ldquo;They give bigger platforms to the new and talented designers in the country andneeded to be encouraged more.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Business Education" src="/userfiles/images/be1%20(Copy)(1).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 468px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Eligibility</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Those who have passed their +2 level in any faculty are eligible for the entrance exams taken by the college. And one must pass the entrance test to get the admission. The College is affiliated to the Vinayaka Missions University, India.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Started from 13 students, Adhikary recollects the memory of her initial days where she only had been able to make 35 students throughout the year.&ldquo;The scenario now has thoroughly changed and the fashion designing course or fashion itself is not viewed with the stereotypes&rdquo;, she shares.The college now is over flooded with the focused and determined studentswilling to pursue the courses and Adhikary is positive that the scenario will still get better.</div>',
			'published' => true,
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			'description' => 'IEC, the pioneer in the country to introduce the course in fashion designing is providing you with the opportunity to scribble your mind creatively.',
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			'title' => 'Business Click By Click',
			'sub_title' => '',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<div>
		<em><span style="font-size: 14px;">The seeds of e-commerce were sown in Nepal about a decade and a half ago. It has taken a bit longer for the fruits to be borne, but today we can see some of them. Offline shopping is still the popular option, but a lot more Nepalis are buying online today. The total annual online business in Nepal is now estimated to be Rs 10 billion, according to industry insiders who attribute this growth to the rising Internet population, a growing middle class, increasing mobile penetration as well as low levels of e-commerce activities.&nbsp;</span></em></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;Compared to the developed countries, Nepal&rsquo;s e-commerce is still in its infancy. Its share in the national GDP is negligible at present but it has been growing,&rdquo; says Amrit Man Tuladhar, CEO of Muncha.com, one of the country&rsquo;s leading e-commerce websites which has been in operation since 2000. According to Tuladhar, the past couple of years have been particularly encouraging for e-commerce in the country. &ldquo;Some unique websites have come up over the past couple of years,&rdquo; he observes.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Thamel.com is perhaps the first e-commerce site in the country. It started online business in 1999 and today it is one of the major players. &ldquo;We are probably the first company in Nepal to start online business with a dot com company name registered as Thamel Dot Com Pvt Ltd,&rdquo; claims Rajesh Lal Joshi, CEO of Thamel.com. &nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		E-commerce in Nepal started through gift-sending and bill payment services through online portals. Today, it&rsquo;s possible to buy almost everything online - new clothes, books, mobile phones, laptops, second-hand goods, jewelleries, home appliances, fresh vegetables and what not. One can even order one&rsquo;s lunch online from home or office, thanks to the latest developments in e-commerce activities. There are a number of e-commerce companies offering these services. Airlines have started selling air-tickets online through these services. Banks are handling online transactions because people have started paying and receiving online, though the trend is low.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;In 2000, there were a couple of websites doing e-commerce. Today there are more than a hundred. Of them, over a dozen are active in the business,&rdquo; says Tuladhar. &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs4(1).JPG" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;width: 300px; height: 316px;" />Growing Popularity &amp; New Trends</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Today, the online market has expanded due to the increasing purchasing power of Nepali consumers. The trend is also on the rise because of the rise in the number of Internet users. &ldquo;Online business is on a progressive path and the trend is evolving high with many players coming in the arena with their unique business models,&rdquo; says Joshi.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		The domestic e-commerce market has now expanded into various segments such as online shopping, e-banking, mobile commerce, electronic cash transfers and e-ticketing. Online markets are attracting buyers (and sellers too!) because they are time- and money-saving and are hassle free.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;Lately, Nepal has graphed a swerving online presence. The proliferation of various online business portals in recent years is enough to valibate the claim that &nbsp;the presence of e-commerce is encouraging in Nepal,&rdquo; says Asgar Ali, CEO of eSewa Fonepay.com.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Annual online transactions in Nepal are estimated to be around Rs 10 billion, although an official figure is not available. Dozens of online shopping websites have emerged since the inception of e-commerce in Nepal. Muncha.com, Thamel.com, Harilo.com, YesKantipur.com, Metrotarkari.com, Foodmandu.com, Bhatbhatenionline.com, etc. are some of the popular websites among Nepali online shoppers (see Box). Some of them sell their own products whereas others deliver from global sites such as eBay and Amazon.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		According to industry insiders, Nepalis of the middle- and upper-middle class who have access to faster Internet have started enjoying shopping online. &nbsp;They find it easy because on the one hand it saves time, on the other, it&rsquo;s easy and reliable. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t need to hang around shopping stores and malls wondering where a particular product is. With online shopping, all you need to do is find a product online, fill-in payment details and submit. That&rsquo;s all to get your stuffs delivered at your home,&rdquo; says Manish Shrestha, portal chief of Bhatbhatenionline.com.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>E-banking</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Lately, electronic banking or e-banking, as it is more popularly known, is getting popular in Nepal. According to the stakeholders, the use of e-banking has been increasing with the rising competition among the banks and financial institutions. &ldquo;The trend of e-banking is growing,&rdquo; says NRB Spokesperson Bhaskar Mani Gyawali, &ldquo;The situation of e-banking in the country is satisfactory at present.&rdquo;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Instead of opening a new branch, banks have started focusing on e-banking which is a cost-effective way to expand their services. For this, banks have adopted modern banking technologies such as branch-less banking, mobile banking etc. According to NRB, all 32 commercial banks in the country have started branch-less banking and mobile banking by mid-January 2014.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Banks&rsquo; customers are, however, yet to adopt online payment for the goods or services they buy on the Internet. Most online shoppers still prefer cash on delivery (COD) though all commercial banks provide e-banking services. &ldquo;There is a lack of awareness among Nepalis about e-banking. An overwhelming majority still prefers COD though they have bank accounts,&rdquo; shares Stebin Bajracharya of Harilo.com.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs1.JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 412px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>E-ticketing</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Nepali air travelers are gradually getting used to e-ticketing, a good evidence of growing e-commerce in the country. Today, all private sector airlines currently operational in Nepal are selling their tickets online. According to the Airline Operators Association of Nepal (AOAN), all air travellers who have access to the Internet have started buying tickets online. &ldquo;E-ticketing has become popular because it saves time,&rdquo; says AOAN Spokesperson Ghanashyam Acharya, &ldquo;Very few people reach the airline&rsquo;s office to buy tickets these days.&rdquo;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Agrees Prajwal Thapa, marketing director at Simrik Air. &ldquo;Both foreigners and Nepali travellers buy tickets online for domestic flights.&rdquo;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC), the state-owned airline which is the only airline in Nepal that doesn&rsquo;t offer e-ticketing has started preparations to start providing the service within 2071 BS (by mid-April 2015), according to an NAC official. &ldquo;E-ticketing is one of NAC priorities for the new year,&rdquo; he said.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs5(2).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;width: 300px; height: 281px;" />Payment Options&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		In the past, Nepali online shoppers were dependent on international payment mechanisms and merchants to purchase online. However, today there are few, but enough for the time being, online payment processing companies in Nepal, which allow online shoppers to pay their bills online, without any processing fees, in most of the cases.</div>
	<div>
		Most of these companies allow the customers to send and receive money online, buy air tickets, pay utility bills, purchase mobile recharge cards, pay school college bills, Internet bills, subscribe to newspapers and magazines online; Some of these companies are eSewa and PayWay.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		People can also pay for the goods they buy online through e-banking and debit cards. This trend has started but it is negligible at present. A majority of online shoppers still prefer paying cash on delivery.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;The online payment structure in Nepal is still being developed so we still do a lot of cash business. &nbsp;We encourage our customers to pay online as much as possible given the options in Nepal which are basically bank to bank transfers or payment gateways who are tied to your bank account,&rdquo; says Akshay Sthapit, CEO of Harilo.com.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Problems &amp; Limitations</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Though an Internet-based business, e-commerce in Nepal seems to be limited to the Capital valley. Some online business activities have been reported in places like Pokhara and Dharan but such activities are few and far between.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;There are e-commerce websites which provide their services across the country. But may be because of the lack of awareness, the online customers are mainly from the Kathmandu valley, mainly Kathmandu and Lalitpur. However, we do have customers from a few other cities as well,&rdquo; shares Stebin Bajracharya of Harilo.com.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Lack of a clear policy is another problem and according to people in the online business, it is hindering the growth of online markets in the country. &ldquo;There is no clear policy. The government has neither helped the domestic e-commerce market nor obstructed it,&rdquo; says Joshi of Thamel.com. We don&#39;t have any act, law or regulation or government directives which allows conducting legal online financial transactions. Critics say that the Electronic Transaction Act without a single word on online payment is only half done.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		According to Tuladhar of Muncha.com, Nepal&rsquo;s e-commerce market is facing problems in the bill payment system. &ldquo;The government can facilitate by establishing a central payment gateway. The central bank and concerned authorities should look into this issue,&rdquo; he advises.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Lack of a regulator is another problem. At present, all one needs to do to run an e-commerce site is register a company at the Company Registrar&rsquo;s Office. Once the company is registered, one can start the business. No one knows which agency is responsible for regulating the e-commerce business &ndash; Ministry of Finance, Nepal Rastra Bank, Ministry of Science and Technology, High level Commission for Information Technology or National Information Technology Centre?&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs2.JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 337px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>The Issue of Digital Signature</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Although online transactions are on the rise in the country, the trend of acquiring authorized digital signature, which is essential for the business, has not started. According to Electronic Transaction Act 2008, all companies, which carry out electronic transactions must acquire digital signature from the Certified Authority (CA) licensed by the Office of the Controller of Certification (OCC). &ldquo;Banks and financial institutions, remittance companies, and e-commerce companies among others are the kind of companies which should acquire a digital signature from a CA licensed by the OCC,&rdquo; said Manish Bhattarai, deputy controller of the OCC, an agency under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (MoSTE).&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		So far, only one company, Nepal Certifying Authority (NCA), has acquired the license for CA from the OCC. &ldquo;Though one company has been issued the license of CA, no company or individual has acquired a digital signature so far in Nepal from the CA licensed by the OCC. Electronic transactions carried out without a digital signature from a CA licensed by the OCC do not have legal validity,&rdquo; claims Bhattarai. He also informed NewBiz that the OCC has drawn the attention of Nepal Rastra Bank regarding the issue of the BFIs not acquiring authorized digital signature.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Biplav Man Singh of NCA, however, claims that the issuance of digital signature has not started in Nepal because of the government&rsquo;s negligence. &ldquo;The government has issued the CA license to NCA but it has not provided the Root Certificate to us. Therefore, we have not been able to issue any digital signature. It has been a year since we have been issued the license,&rdquo; laments Singh.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Digital signature is like an electronic locking system, which facilitates and regulate the authenticity of electronic transactions. It cannot be stolen or copied by any fraud, authenticates the identity of the sender of a message or signatory of a document and ensures that the document is unchanged. Nepal government introduced digital signature in financial transactions from February 2012. The MoSTE established the OCC to manage electronic transactions and use technology to reduce electronic crimes.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;Online transactions have been getting popular lately, but the question of security has always been there. A digital signature ensures secured, authentic and non-repudiation electronic transactions such as e-mail, e-commerce, e-banking and e-governance,&rdquo; shares Bhattarai.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Bhattarai informed NewBiz that OCC has already drawn the attention of the NRB to take action against BFIs for using digital signatures from unauthorized firms. At present, companies based in India and America are issuing digital signatures to local online transaction service providers, which is against the Electronic Transaction Act 2008. &ldquo;Sadly, all BFIs providing internet banking service are using digital signatures issued by unauthorized licensors,&rdquo; said Bhattarai.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs6(2).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;width: 300px; height: 566px;" />Digital Agencies</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		With living standards and costs going up in developed nations, digital agencies and online business marketers from there gradually made headways into third world countries including Nepal looking for avenues to establish their offshore units. Today, there are many digital agencies or IT companies, as they are known in Nepal.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		While outsourcing their software to clients from developed nations, many of these digital agencies also tried to educate Nepali entrepreneurs for taking their businesses online. &ldquo;It was very hard to find business persons who were willing to take their businesses online. My team struggled for a couple of years but our continuous efforts in educating entrepreneurs for going online bore fruits,&rdquo; says Deepak Bhandari, Founder of Radiant Infotech Nepal&mdash;a digital agency that has been in the software production business for more than a decade now.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		With the operational costs relatively lower and prospects much brighter, Bhandari shares that small investment, consistency in work quality coupled with good communicative and technical skills and a willingness to adapt and upgrade to technological advances is all that is needed to thrive in the digital agency business.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Along with taking Nepali businesses online, Nepali digital agencies compete in the global freelance market. &ldquo;Competing in the global market is not an easy task unless you are ready to deliver outstanding products at relatively modest prices,&rdquo; says Sanjeev Singh, Co-founder of Catmandu- a startup Nepali digital agency that mostly outsources its products.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		It&rsquo;s not just Nepalis who are materializing their dreams via the Silicon Valley revolution offshoot; many digital agencies with foreign roots and international foot prints have established their offshore production in Nepal. India has been a major destination for software outsourcing in South Asia, but still Nepal has its own attributes to win over some share of it.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;I took a fortunate trip just over a decade ago to India and other countries, looking for ways to reduce my growing software development requirements for clients in Melbourne. Even though it was a challenging time in Nepal, with the UN assisting in the path to a new democracy, I felt Nepal offered a unique opportunity. It was not saturating like India&rsquo;s IT industry,&rdquo; says Michael Simonetti, founder of AndMine, an Australian digital agency that has its offshore production unit in Nepal.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Though the growing inflation and corresponding increase in the operational and other costs have been testing the offshore model, Simonetti still sees future in the model. Complimenting his view, Bhandari says that Nepal has bright scope in the digital agency business. He quotes an online report: &ldquo;Over the coming years, outsourcers are expected to expand their operations quite substantially. Different survey reports have claimed that the growth of outsourcing will remain strong. Like India and other nations there is huge potential for Nepal also to grow in IT service outsourcing business&rdquo;.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		While Internet connectivity, working hours, political instability and power cut are the concerns of this sector, Deepak finds lack of any state mechanism to bring all financial transactions made by freelancer software manufacturer as a major problem for the growth of IT service outsourcing business. &ldquo;Many freelancers are involved in this business without any legal registration. The government should seriously implement the plans it has made so far for the development of this sector along with bringing freelancers within the boundary of taxation.&rdquo;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs3(3).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 375px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Brighter Prospects</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		E-commerce has brighter prospects in the country, according to industry insiders. The access of Nepalis to the Internet has been increasing. The new generation is very keen about online activities. &ldquo;It seems the stage has been set for a rapid growth in online shopping as people find less and less time for physical shopping,&rdquo; observes Tuladhar.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;We will soon see a Cambrian moment with online shopping and services once proper payment systems and delivery infrastructures are in place which is already happening. &nbsp;When that happens, the change will be swift just like it was with mobile phones in Nepal,&rdquo; concludes Akshay Sthapit, CEO, Harilo.com.</div>
	<div>
		(With inputs from Chitra Raj Bhandari)</div>
</div>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-05-07',
			'modified' => '2014-09-08',
			'keywords' => 'new business age cover story news & articles, cover story news & articles from new business age nepal, cover story headlines from nepal,  current and latest cover story news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali cover story economic news and events,  ongoing  cover story news of nepal',
			'description' => 'The seeds of e-commerce were sown in Nepal about a decade and a half ago. It has taken a bit longer for the fruits to be borne, but today we can see some of them. Offline shopping is still the popular option, but a lot more Nepalis are buying online today. The total annual online business in Nepal is now estimated to be Rs 10 billion, according to industry insiders who attribute this growth to the rising Internet population, a growing middle class, increasing mobile penetration as well as low levels of e-commerce activities.',
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	(int) 1 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2778',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Political Process: Tardy, Taxing And Tattered',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The leaders of all major political parties, including the Prime Minister Sushil Koirala are artlessly repeating the same statement: &#39;We will complete the drafting of the new constitution within a year&#39;; as if it is just the next day of the second Constituent Assembly (CA II) elections. They do not seem to realize a bare fact that exactly a good half of the year since these elections in the November last has elapsed without scoring any success in any front -- governance, diplomacy, legislation or constitution writing. The worst of all, lately things are hopelessly falling apart so as to making both the government and the CA once again hostage to essentially unnecessary bickering at the highest political level. Thanks to dysfunctional prime minister, over-bullying major coalition partner CPN-UML and non-cooperative, ever-apprehensive and confused main opposition UCPN Maoist.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Every possible executive decision is postponed without any tangible reason. In six months, the cabinet couldn&#39;t pick up twenty-six names to be appointed as CA members from among putatively the national &#39;elite&#39; personalities. The process of appointing of more than one and half dozen of ambassadors in important missions including New Delhi and Washington DC couldn&#39;t even begin. In absence of timely decision of Constitutional Council headed by the prime minister himself, the Supreme Court is left with mere five judges out of almost normally functional twenty positions. Ironically, the appointments in the prime minister&#39;s secretariat and National Planning Commission were not made in time. Almost all constitutional bodies too remain vacant. The advertisements published to fill in those constitutional positions like the commissioners in the Public Service Commission, National Human Rights Commission and the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority, by a sort of free competition is not attracting any dignified figures. They are most likely to be filled by typically clerical minded ex-bureaucrats rendering these crucial institutions, once again, retrograde.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The government is backtracking from the vowed commitments like holding local elections by this month (May). The parliamentary party leader of the major coalition partner CPN-UML, K P Oli from the hospital bed in New Delhi in mid-April declared that the local body elections will be held only after &#39;promulgating the new constitution&#39;. Apparently, his statement didn&#39;t come in consultation with the prime minister who still reiterates, though not convincingly, to hold these elections, may be by June end. The reasons cited not to hold the polls are clearly unpalatable. &#39;There is not enough time now to hold them before monsoon,&#39; said Oli. But nothing had stopped the government announcing it right after taking the oath of office. Clearly, there was no political will to take-up this issue in the right earnest. The second argument, which is abetted by the UCPN (Maoist) too, is that the concentration in the local elections would take the focus off the constitution writing process. It sounds as if the CA proceedings are now going at the right direction as per the popular expectation. Unfortunately, this is not the case, which, thus for all practical purposes smells rat in very faith of democracy of these leaders.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	And, more importantly, it will not be as easy to hold local elections immediately after completing the draft of the constitution as claimed by the UML and UCPN Maoists. The reasons to it are obvious. First, it is highly unlikely that the constitution drafting process will be completed anytime soon. Even some form of draft is agreed upon, say in a year from now, the most likely scenario is that it cannot be promulgated without going into more costly exercises like referendum. Therefore, postponing local elections now means that they are postponed again for an unforeseeable future, which indeed is highly unfortunate. The common people now need the local democratic institutions in place far more than the constitution, which indeed is the largely esoteric proposition for them compared to the elected local government next door. Once again the democracy has been ditched.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The public speeches of the Deputy Prime Minister Bamdev Gautam from UML sound as if his party is not a junior partner but a majority government that has &#39;mercifully&#39; appended the Nepali Congress to be its partner. In all these orchestra of fools, the Prime Minister Koirala remains as faceless as ever. When the country desperately awaits his bold and speedy decisions in more than one front, he seems to have chosen to cover his absolute non-performance by cheap publicity stunts of forsaking some allowances and perks and avoiding five-star hotel accommodations. Such tantrums cannot be substitute to the aspired effective delivery of goods from the chief executive of the nation. If Koirala had real intentions of giving a clean and effective government to the nation and upholding the democratic practice, he should have guts to tell his coalition partners not to nominate ministers that were not the elected members of parliament and those who are the kiths and kins of the influential leaders of the fringe parties.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Both the CA and legislature parliament have been rendered equally non-functional. In over four months, CA has failed to elect the subject committee conveners that are supposed to be key to formulate and moot respective constitutional provisions for discussion in the House. The chair of the crucial constitutional committee in CA remains vacant as of these lines were written. The CA virtually has not been given any business. Attendance in the scheduled meetings is so low that many of scheduled House sessions are often cancelled for lack of presence of minimum required number of members known as &#39;quota&#39;. Even the orientation of the (new) CA members about their roles, responsibilities and duties was not thought necessary.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The legislature parliament too is equally ineffective. Not only it has fallen short to ponder over the bottlenecks that the country is faced with in absence of laws in many spheres, it has also failed to pass a number of important bills that are gathering dust in wait of votes for years. The new bill on Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has further estranged the Maoists from supposedly collaborative political process. The former jungle warfare Maoist guerrillas who are in favour of nothing less than blanket amnesty to them in the guise of &#39;wartime issues&#39; are highly apprehensive of legal action on many of them if the bill is allowed to pass as proposed by the joint committee of political parties. If the bill is made law as in the spirit spelt out by UML leader Oli, the Maoists&#39; rank and file may crumble like house of cards in legal battle on crime against humanity. &#39;Except for the deaths at the frontline, those involved in killings by dragging out persons from their beds at the midnight, killing them by plucking out the eyes, amputating the body parts and hanging or burying them alive cannot be put off the legal purview&#39;, he thundered a few weeks ago. He sounds fairly reasonable. But will that bring about solution to the political stalemate? Or, will this bill actually become an Act and implemented accordingly? These however are more pressing questions altogether.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Maoists have already begun their non-cooperation by boycotting even entirely unrelated political processes in protest of the current form of the TRC bill. It may be recalled that such a commission was part of the Comprehensive Peace Accord of 2006, thus a crucial part of the peace process. The formation of it was deliberately avoided during the past CA tenure of four years when the country saw two Maoist prime ministers in the period.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The another bone of contention has become the so called High Level Political Committee (HLPC) that was in existence during the last CA, and was considered largely responsible for derailing the due CA process; making it hostage to ever-elusive political consensus. Interestingly, the three major parties -the Congress, UML and Maoists did appeared to have agreed about a couple of months ago to revive it. But, when the UCPN (Maoist) supremo Pushpa Kamal Dahal insisted on being the convener of it, other parties took it as his ambition to be a &#39;super&#39; prime minister and wanted to thwart the process. The constitutionality of this mechanism has always been under the interrogation mark and its actions in the past surely undermined the elected House.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	All forms of slackness, inactions, procrastinations, machinations and squabbles have been highly taxing for the country. The perils are pronounced. The economy is in absolute tatters. New investment is not even trickling in. Governance and public service delivery have collapsed. People are exasperated for unnecessarily prolonged political transition. The hope of at least relative consolidation of democratic institutors after the Congress and UML jointly got majority in the House is now waning rapidly. The constitution writing process is still precariously fragile. Only solution to all these ailments is to act and act fast. The lead should unquestionably be taken by the ruling alliance and the prime minister in particular.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</em></div>',
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			'created' => '2014-05-07',
			'modified' => '2014-09-08',
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			'description' => 'Thanks to dysfunctional prime minister, over-bullying major coalition partner CPN-UML and non-cooperative, ever-apprehensive and confused main opposition UCPN Maoist.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2779',
			'article_category_id' => '215',
			'title' => 'Ukraine Crisis: Russian Economy In Peril',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<div>
		<strong>--By Sanjeev Sharma</strong></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		As the crisis in Ukraine continues to drag on, Russian economy is increasingly showing signs of sliding into recession. The annexation of Crimean peninsula and unrest in eastern Ukraine - termed by many as the adventurism of Russian President Vladimir Putin - also brought severe economic costs to the northern Eurasian giant. The worst standoff between Russia and the west since the end of cold war has sparked outflow of foreign investments from the Russian economy. Official data suggest that Russia witnessed net capital outflow amounting to USD 63 billion in the first quarter of 2014, more than double from the same period of last year. Similarly, GDP projections for this year also points to the fact that the country is swiftly descending into recession. Last month Russian finance minister Anton Siluanov warned the country is facing &#39;most difficult economic circumstances since the 2008 crisis.&#39; Siluanov in a government briefing estimated GDP growth to be 0.5 per cent or perhaps around zero in 2014. He was echoed by economy minister Alexei Ulyukayev who informed the parliament that national output contracted by 0.5 per cent in the first quarter this year compared to the fourth quarter of 2013.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		The unfolding of new chapters in Ukraine crisis and alleged Russian involvement is also affecting the sentiments of Russian investors very badly. After the ouster of Ukraine&#39;s pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych in February, the country&#39;s stock market plunged to multi-year lows. Amid the political turmoil in Ukraine and western sanctions placed against some influential people close to president Putin, Russia&#39;s heavyweight stock indicator, the RTS Index has lost its value by more than 21 percent in 2014. The Ruble is also in deep trouble as the currency weakened by capital flight has devalued by almost 10 per cent since mid-January. Meanwhile, in the wake of newly erupted geo-political tensions yields of long-term Russian government bonds have sky rocketed increasing the cost of public borrowing. The fear of investors seems to be driven by escalation of chaos in Ukraine which could further lead Russia into tighter sanctions or start of armed conflict in the region.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Russia enjoyed a healthy economic growth in the 2000s. In between 1999-2010 the country saw average GDP growth at 5.42 per cent. Despite the turbulence in Europe and United States alongside bleak global macroeconomic scenario, Russia was able to achieve respectable growth rates- 4.2 per cent in 2011 and 3.4 per cent in 2012- compared to its western peers. The country after experiencing a tumultuous decade following the collapse of Soviet Union in the early 90s largely benefitted from the era of &#39;commodity super cycle.&#39; Gas, oil, coal, timber and metals along with precious metals and stones topped Russia&#39;s exports led by the rise in demand especially in emerging markets as well as the concerns over the long-term supply availability. This resulted in the double-digit spike in commodity prices in the last decade and exporting nations accumulated substantial amount of wealth. The vast natural reserves of such minerals in Ural Mountains, Siberia and the Far East gave the country an edge to rise to the spot of top supplier. Before the US toppled down Russia in oil exports in 2013, the nation was the largest non-OPEC oil exporter in the world. Similarly, Russia is the world&#39;s largest natural gas exporter accounting 20 per cent of the total production in the world. Likewise, services sector also boomed in 90s and 2000s, ultimately becoming the largest sector which accounts for 58 per cent of the country&#39;s GDP. Apart from these, traditional exports of arms and military hardware also played vital role in the Russian economy.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/wf1.JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 303px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		The sound economic growth was made possible by political stability. Vladimir Putin, who came to the center stage of Russian power play in the late 90s was hailed for ending chaotic economic and social environment. After crushing Islamic insurgencies in Chechnya and Dagestan,the strongman gained widespread popularity among ordinary Russians and quickly turned into an influential figure in global politics. Under Putin&#39;s leadership, the fragile economy stabilized resulting in huge inflow of foreign investments in the former communist nation. Russian economy wasn&#39;t seen much affected by the crises in US and Europe due to effective integration of short-term macroeconomic policies.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		However, for the time being, good times seem to have passed away for Russia in the post-crisis world. The success story did not last long as the country&#39;s GDP growth slumped to 1.3 per cent in 2013. Sluggish demand in Europe and US coupled with slowing economic activities in emerging markets has asserted considerable pressure in the nation&#39;s economy. Amid the sovereign debt crisis, energy demand in Europe fell significantly- mainly caused by decline in factory activities- hurting the major Russian export. Investments from US and elsewhere also turned away due to macroeconomic uncertainties and depressed domestic demand. The slump in domestic demand, as per a report by a reputed global research firm Capital Economics, clearly indicates weakening growth in Russia&#39;s industrial production and retail sales in the first quarter of 2014. The economic sluggishness and ongoing Ukraine crisis has exposed long-term structural problems within the Russian economy, including low labour productivity, heavy reliance on energy exports and state-dominance of private sector.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		If the current turmoil continues for long time, the associated political risks are more likely to hamper the country economically. The long time Russian power card of energy exports is unlikely to help in this scenario. In case of broader western sanctions, if Kremlin opts to close or taper the gas supply to Europe, the first victim will be Russia itself as the nation&#39;s major income source dry out. Apart from that, the annexation of Crimea and Ukraine crisis has raised urgency among European nations to reduce their energy dependency on Russia. In the past several weeks, EU lawmakers have discussed to find long-term solutions for fulfill their countries energy demands. Like the shale oil and gas boom in US and North America, Europe is also looking forward to exploit the new energy source. Likewise, more punitive measures by US could include stopping of American investments which will further deplete the Russian forex reserves leaving the country into cash strapped situation. In this event, surge in inflation due to further devaluation of Ruble will add more pain to the country&#39;s fragile economy.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Nevertheless, Russia won&#39;t be left alone to be affected by this. The one time superpower will exert its force to retaliate the western sanctions which will undoubtedly have spiral effects in the global economy. Europe, the main consumer of Russian gas is likely to take the major punch in an event of supply closure. Starved of energy, European industrial production will come to a grinding halt which is gradually picking up speed after years of severe stagnation. Likewise, energy prices will shoot upward affecting every country in the world. US will also feel strong reverberations of the sanctions against Russia and its counter by the Kremlin. US companies operating in Russia- banking, manufacturing, mining, retail stores and restaurant chains in particular- are seen as the most vulnerable to the negative geopolitical developments. The Ukraine crisis has unfolded in a time when global economy is trying to get back on its feet. However, the newly erupted geopolitical tension is seriously threatening the global recovery to get down on its knees again.</div>
</div>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
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			'description' => 'The worst standoff between Russia and the west since the end of cold war has sparked outflow of foreign investments from the Russian economy.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2789',
			'article_category_id' => '31',
			'title' => '‘‘We Will Definitely Grow In Nepal’’',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>J.S. Rathore</strong>&nbsp;is the zonal manager of sales for northern India at Suzuki Motorcycle India Limited. Rathore was recently in Nepal for the launch of Suzuki Let&rsquo;s scooter. He says that the Let&rsquo;s was launched a month ago in India and is performing well in Indian market. Suzuki motorcycles are imported and distributed in Nepal by VG Automobiles and the company is planning to expand its network throughout the country.In an interview with&nbsp;<strong>Gaurav Aryal</strong>&nbsp;of New Business Age, Rathore talks about Nepal as a market for Suzuki two wheelers.<strong>&nbsp;Excerpts:</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>What brings you to Nepal this time?</strong></div>
<div>
	I am here for introducing our new product, &lsquo;Let&rsquo;s 110 scooter, to the Nepali market. This product has good potential here.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>How do you see the market for two wheelers like Let&rsquo;s in Nepal?</strong></div>
<div>
	Nepal is a good market for two wheelers. With annual sales of around 150 thousands two wheelers, this market sells 12, 500 two wheelers every month. The 110 CC scooters segment has potentials to occupy 23 percent of these sales. We are looking forward to tap this segment of the market, which is a growing market in Nepal. At present, Honda Dio is the highest selling scooter in Nepal and it does not have any major competitor.Let&rsquo;s will compete with it. We believe that we can get a good market share and grow quite well in this market.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>What is your expected sales and gain in market share?&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	We are expecting to sell four to five thousands vehicles in a year. Once the product is established in the market, we will definitely sell five thousands vehicles by next year. Initially, we will grab the market share and after its success, if Nepali market chooses that type of performance, we will tryto beat the sales of Dio.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>How do you see Nepal as a market for Suzuki products?</strong></div>
<div>
	It is a good market. This is basically a scooter market and motorcycles in 150 and 125 CC segment. Currently we are not present much in those segments. We are coming with those products and we will definitely grow in Nepal.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Are there any particular challenges that you face in this market?</strong></div>
<div>
	The main challenge for us is to compete against established brands such as Dio and Pulsar. These products are established in the market whereas we are new and under pressure to grow. The dealer and distributor are also new. Distributor, dealer network as well as the product has to be established. These are the major challenges for us.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>What is Suzuki planning especially for the Nepali market?</strong></div>
<div>
	In next two to three months, we will be launching product that will compete with Pulsar and Yamaha. Our plan is to expand and provide our services from every corners of Nepal. At present, we have 28 dealers and we are expanding the dealer network under VG Group. Then, we will expand to small towns through sub-dealers. We have already started working on it because after sales service is as important as primary sales.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Nepal is a budget conscious market and some of your competitors already have a strong market presence. What are the advantages of your products?</strong></div>
<div>
	The market still has further growth potentials. If we see in terms of pricing, we have offered a competitive pricing, less than Dio. And, consumers will get additional features, power and increased mileage with less investment. Compared to competitors we are offering more features and facilities at even better price.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-07-30',
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			'description' => 'J.S. Rathore is the zonal manager of sales for northern India at Suzuki Motorcycle India Limited. Rathore was recently in Nepal for the launch of Suzuki Let’s scooter. He says that the Let’s was launched a month ago in India and is performing well in Indian market. Suzuki motorcycles are imported and distributed in Nepal by VG Automobiles and the company is planning to expand its network throughout the country.',
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			'id' => '2777',
			'article_category_id' => '48',
			'title' => 'Lords Of Economy',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<strong>--By Madan Lamsal</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are bunch of worried people who constantly think that Nepali economy is sinking, rather sooner. This indeed is absolutely unnecessary concern. Because, first, Nepali economy is not a ship as we happen to be a land-locked country. Second, even if it were a ship we have had not a herd but a fleet of captains to save or rescue it from capsizing; present in every bit of history in different guise, which I shall elaborate further. And, if none of them happened to be at the deck, there will be our own ever-present Pashupatinath to steer clear the whole Nepal out of the danger zone, let alone economy. At least, that is what we Nepalis have believed for generations and still have the largest faith on the Lord at the banks of Bagmati than the banks owned by the lords &ndash; feudal-lords, warlords or landlords.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Our business community understands at which point of time, who can save the Nepali economy best from absolute melt down. In other countries, the business leaders and related organizations first take responsibility of captaining the ship of economy and look for support on whatever is not adequate in them. Our case is just opposite. Nepali brand of business leaders keep on changing the captain, express confidence on a particular one and shift to new one according to changing tide of time.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	When democracy was reinstated in 1990 and the Nepali Congress government adopted the &#39;free market&#39; economic policy, everybody thought that free market means freedom to do anything one can imagine&ndash; hoarding, black marketing, tax evasion, carteling and forged invoicing. Even in the political circles, impact of free market was so huge that the system produced billionaire overnight. Not only likes of Khum Bahadur and Chiranjivi Wagle who turned out to be the most unfortunate among the lot, so to be behind the bars, others who are moving freely are no different in amassing assets as the gift of free market, read freedom to corruption. Look at bulging bank accounts of incumbent ministers under a beggar prime minister. So, in all those years, GP Koirala was assigned captaincy to save economic ship, which he did. You can test its calibre by looking the total amount saved by his daughter Sujata during these two decades.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Then came the Sher Bahadur, Madhav Nepal and so on as new captains and our business community unfailingly expressed confidence in their captaincy. They did save the economy. Whether the economy of their own or that of the nation is irrelevant here. The point here is: there should be an economy and it had to be saved. That was done, without fail.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	That followed the direct rule of King Gyanendra. The queue of business people to bow to him, as the newfound captain was always longer than any wide-angle zoom of television/movie camera could capture in a single shot. He did save our economy. He is still the one single person in Nepal who has got the largest amount of saved assets in the country, or, may be outside too. He indeed made our business people most jubilant when he picked-up a former FNCCI president to help him in this &#39;save economy&#39; mission. &nbsp;One of the techniques in saving is not to let it decay or decompose by letting it remain cool. So this entrepreneur was asked by the King to launch an ice-cream factory. A brilliant idea of saving the economy.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The ability of the Maoist brigade of captains can make an epic. They in fact manned the economic ship in multiple ways. They had multiple captains who wanted to steer the economy in different directions. So it was first saved from moving into any direction. When the ship was not at all leaving the dock, it automatically got saved from sinking. Secondly, they had all fist-raising comrades with red band on their heads. Whoever else thought of moving this ship called economy, they used all tactics possible -thrashing, chasing, extorting and even killing if required. They were practically the real saviours.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	At present, all these forces are together, represented in the Constituent Assembly. Some great captains are with their entire family &ndash; spouse, son, cousin or in-laws. So, there is no question Nepali economy will ever sink. That is the reason even our newly elected FNCCI executives have more faith in political lords than on those who elected them.</div>',
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			'description' => 'There are bunch of worried people who constantly think that Nepali economy is sinking, rather sooner. This indeed is absolutely unnecessary concern. Because, first, Nepali economy is not a ship as we happen to be a land-locked country.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2781',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Mirage Of A New Force',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On May 15th, 2014, the senior deputy prime minister and, at that point in time, acting president of the ruling major coalition CPN-UML, Bam Dev Gautam, was happily dancing on a folk tune at a public function. On the same day, Nepal Human Development Report was released in another public function in a five-star hotel that ranked Nepal the lowest in the Human Development Index (HDI) even among the South Asian countries; let alone the global rank. The next day, the so called mainstream media placed Gautam&#39;s news on the front page with picture as if it were a major national happening while the HDI news was pushed asa routine filler to 9th or 17th page as if it were amere ritual.This is Nepal&#39;s eco-political reality personified, reflecting the degree of (in) sensitivity of both politics and media to the development and prosperity related issues of the country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	What is it that makes politicians like Gautam so happy while country is at absolute political mess and economic stagnation, if not recession, for decades? It is unambiguously sheer apathy and ignorance of gravity of the situation that is coupled with vested interests and remnants of feudal psyche of a ruler. The current set of Nepal&#39;s all influential politicians, generally all across the parties, were indoctrinated during late 60s or early 70s. Their last philosophical reorientation had taken place perhaps in the 1990, for the movement to reinstate the multi-party democracy by toppling the panchayat oligarchy. This 60-above generation has been left far behind in updating the knowledge required to run a country. They have been untouched by mesmerizing revolution mainly in information and communication technology, transportation and emerging new world order in power politics. For this reason, these leaders have failed to understand the aspirations of time and the generation that represents here-and-now. They have not even learnt the art to dream for the better future of the country and her people.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	All these realities together, the persistent poverty and backwardness and apparent vacuum in leadership that is still willing to strive for ameliorating them, warrants a new political force that hopefully possesses desirable qualities like right kind of motive, integrity, energy, vision and willingness to serve the nation. Until such a new force replaces the existing parochial order, things too are obvious not to change for the better.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The need for such a force was acutely realized when the first constituent assembly (CA) despite its four year-long tenure ended without delivering a draft for a new constitution. The incessant blame game among the parties for the failures and their uniform adamancy to transform themselves with time multiplied the public disenchantment on them. The need of displacing these parties was more intensely felt after the current incumbent government formed even after the second CA elections appears completely dysfunctional and, mostly averse to the democratic norms in whatever little move sit is making. Prime Minister Sushil Koirala&#39;s unwanted &#39;lobbying&#39; to save the Judicial Council&#39;s controversial nominations to Supreme Court Judges is one of glaring examples of such aberrations. On fulfilling his own responsibility he has miserably failed, not even able to nominate 26 CA members through a cabinet decision.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In fact, Nepal&#39;s political history has witnessed literally hundreds of incidents of leaders or would-be leaders trying to form &#39;new&#39; political force at different junctures of time. But all of them in due course proved to be either protest outcomes to the mother partyby a dissenter or a newer interest group serving to a small circle of its constituents. Dozens of breakaways of communist parties and recent similar divisions in Terai-based parties may be everything as they claim but surely not the political parties of the quality that the country is desperately looking for, for long time now.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Lately, the UCPN Maoist leader Dr. Baburam Bhattarai took the debate on the topic to newer heights by proposing a &#39;need of a new political force to address the new challenges the new Nepal faces.&#39; This initially appeared to be a statement aimed to fill the overarching gap of the national political vacuum by establishing a new, forward-looking, dynamic and democratic outfit. It created ripples too, at least among the left ideologues. But eventually, after much ado, Baburam&#39;s proposition of new force, at least for now,turned out to be nothing more than a trump-card to bargain barely some more space within the party from his party chief Puspa Kamal Dahal.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The current series of debate also revealed a philosophical dichotomy in articulation of needs of such a new force. The more aggressive advocacy, or to some extent endeavours to form such a force from the communist ideologues, borne out of worries to contextualize their own existence in multi-party competitive politics that is inevitably going to be the political mainstay for the future. This sphere of debate therefore has focused more on rewriting archaic communist dogmas and replacing arcane vocabularies like &#39;power only from the barrel of the gun,&#39; &lsquo;dictatorship of the proletariat,&#39; &#39;class elimination&#39; etc. with more contemporaneous political jargons. Clearly, for those indoctrinated under Marx, Lenin or Mao-developed literatures, this simple departure has been difficult and piecemeal, yet inadequate to democratize themselves even at par of existing, relatively democratic forces like Nepali Congress. Therefore, birth of a true new force that is capable of addressing nation&#39;s overall governance and deemed prosperity considerations, through this slanted process is absolutely unlikely. However, if this process at least could transform some of communist outfits to reasonable democratic forces that too would be a desirable outcome.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Another sphere of the debate is, rather should have been, to explore the possibility of creating such a force that has some blueprint to address Nepal&#39;s multi-faceted problems which have rendered the country to a virtual brink of becoming a failed-state. Crisis of governance, deficit of democracy, bleeding economy and pervasive hopelessness of the common masses are some of the immediate concerns which, if not addressed soon, may in fact degrade the country to anarchy, unmanageable even in the long run. But, the current expanse and depth of the debate do not seem enough to give rise to such an all-encompassing political force. Surely, some of rational thinkers from academia and media tried to take the current discourse beyond the cocoons of the communist jargonism, but the triggerers of it from the Left band seemed unwilling to step out of Marxist philosophical umbrella.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Coming back to Bhattarai again, he appears to be less-than-ready to completely forsakethe UCPN Maoist at present. Understandably, it is difficult to desert political Alma Mater. But, at times it is more difficult to mould it to fit to the contemporary need, which justifies conception of the new force. Despite hiccups, Bhattarai has been reiterating the need of such a force. &#39;It may take a few years for such a force to take a shape&#39;, he said in an interaction in the third week of May. His recent China visit was also reported to be to gauge the pulse of Beijing on his plan, without jeopardizing his &#39;warm&#39; relations with New Delhi. For this reason, he dubbed his visit as &#39;pilgrimage to Mansarovar&#39; and chose to set the travel camp not in Beijing but Lhasa, the capital of Tibet autonomous region of China. But, the Chinese authorities left no stone unturned to accord his visit an official status fitting to a former prime minister of a neighbouring country. A number of high officials made a point to travel from Beijing for political discussions with him.With change in guards in New Delhi, he probably has to strike a different chord to attract attention from India&#39;s ruling rightwing Bharatiya Janta Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. If Modi could prevail over India&#39;s bureaucracy, he would perhaps like to see Nepal still a Hindu state, in contrary to Bhattarai&#39;s brandishing of Nepal as a secular state. This may need further fine-tuning of his new plans.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&lsquo;Why should only Bhattarai be at the centre of discussion for this new political force under consideration&rsquo; is a valid question. The common masses still consider him perhaps the most talented persona currently active in Nepali politics. While in government, particularly when he was the finance minister, he came out untainted in shady financial dealings. And, he is the one who is now unambiguously advocating of the need to transform the communist forces to democratic ones, which indeed is crucial component for the democratic future of Nepal. But, Bhattarai doesn&#39;t fully seem to realizehis strengths and perhaps lacks confidence to renounce the ideology that he has so far kept so close to his chest. But, still he could be the best choice to lead such a force if he dares to drop the old cloak and readies himself to lead a new Nepal.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Again, regardless of whether Bhattarai can exhibit enough courage to spear head a new force or not, the relevance and importance of it has been realized more intensely than ever before. The rampant criminalization of politics by the existing parties, their out of date &nbsp;- out of place leadership, sheer apathy to the needs and priorities of the country, widespread corruption on public resources and increasing culture of impunity, among many other malaises, are unlikely to be corrected by the existing forces. Or, just correction may not be enough. The culture of irresponsibility has become the norm in exercising, misusing to be precise, the state power.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For a rational and functional political force to come into being, Nepal undoubtedly needed a more systematic discourse on the topic involving all ideologies and all possible identities. For last seven decades, Nepal as a nation has chased the dream of such a nationalist democratic force, but it still remains a game of chasing a mirage. The current debate has reignited hope, but just hope is not enough. Therefore, we only have leaders dancing in a wrong tune at the wrong time.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>(The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.)</em></div>',
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			'description' => 'The current set of Nepal's all influential politicians, generally all across the parties, were indoctrinated during late 60s or early 70s.',
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			'id' => '2784',
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			'title' => 'Rising Stars Of The Economy',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	--By Akhilesh Tripathi and Sanjeev Sharma</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em><span style="font-size:14px;">Despite obstacles, some sectors of the economy have progressed and their future looks bright. We could call them the &ldquo;rising stars&rdquo; of the economy. In this issue, NewBiz has tried to highlight some of these rising stars, which include: Hotels, Hydropower, Construction Material, ICT, Education, and Banking Sector.&nbsp;</span></em></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	We all know that all is not well with the Nepali economy. Insecurity, much-aggravated industrial atmosphere, power shortage, transport obstacles, strikes and closures and labour unrest stand as barriers in the path to Republic Nepal&rsquo;s economic progress. The country&rsquo;s economic growth rate, according to official government estimate is below four per cent at present as there is lack of political commitment on a common economic agenda, investment-friendly environment, energy and physical infrastructure in the country.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But despite these obstacles, some sectors of the economy have progressed and their future looks bright. We could call them the &ldquo;rising stars&rdquo; of the economy. In this issue, NewBiz has tried to highlight some of these rising stars, which include: Hotels, Hydropower, Construction Material, ICT, Education, and Banking Sector. The entry of the Nepali private sector into these areas, especially after the liberalization of the economy post 1990, has resulted in significant growth in these sectors.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, the continuity of the economic liberalization policy in republican Nepal has produced a significant group of entrepreneurs and businesspersons who are now successful in these areas. This breed of entrepreneurs and business persons thinks that if there is political will and stability, adequate power supply, supportive policy and peaceful industrial environment, then these rising stars will rise even higher.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;However, political stability is the first condition for economic development. Political parties do have their respective ideologies and differences too, but there needs to be a minimum understanding on common issues of economic development, which would help build atmosphere conducive to investment and trust. This would help the rising stars of the economy to attain newer heights.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Construction Materials: Market Picking Up&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Construction Material" src="/userfiles/images/cs(2).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 266px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The construction industry is a growing industry in Nepal. It contributes around 10 &nbsp;to 12 per cent to the national GDP and uses around 35 per cent of the government&rsquo;s annual budget. As the country plans to invest more in infrastructure such as roads, railways, airports, bridges, and irrigation and hydropower projects and as the housing sector shows sign of improvement, the prospects for the construction industry in the country look brighter.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is estimated that the construction sector has created employment opportunities to more than one million people in the country. When it comes to development of any physical infrastructure, construction materials are the major components. With the growth in the construction industry, the demand for construction materials too has risen.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In the last one decade, over 150 construction material factories from cement, paint and bricks to steel factories have been established with an eye on the realty sector and the government&rsquo;s infrastructure development projects. These factories have helped reduce import of construction materials. The country has also become almost self-reliant in bricks, steel and paint; cement production is also on an encouraging trend. The price of construction materials is growing by 20 to 22 per cent every year.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The realty sector, which is one of the major buyers of construction materials in the country, has shown some signs of improvement. According to Ichchha Raj Tamang, president of Nepal Land and Housing Developers&rsquo; Association, the sector has started taking a turn for the better. &ldquo;In the recent couple of years, the realty sector has been improving by over 30 per cent annually,&rdquo; claims Tamang.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Lately, according to construction material dealers, the demand from housing developers and the general public that had slowed down a couple of years ago, has shown some progress. &ldquo;A couple of years ago, the demand went down by around 50 percent due to the government&rsquo;s failure to release the budget on time,&rdquo; said Manik Tuladhar of the Kathmandu Construction Materials&rsquo; Dealers Association. With the situation in the housing sector showing indications of improvement, developers have been speeding up work at their projects.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Meanwhile, construction material dealers said that with demand for construction materials slowly picking up, prices too have increased. Shil Ratna Tamrakar, proprietor of Shristina Traders, which deals in paints, said that the demand had increased remarkably compared to last year and that prices had risen by up to 10 percent depending on the brand.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is estimated that around 90 percent of the country&rsquo;s requirement of paints is fulfilled by domestic products. Along with a growth in housing activities in the past one decade, the number of paint factories too has gone up. There are 32 paint factories in the country with a combined investment of around Rs 6.5 billion.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Nepal Steel Rolling Mills&rsquo; Association said that local steel factories had been able to exist mainly due to the demand from housing developers. There are around three dozen steel plants in the country, and of them, 12 are run in full-fledged operation. All these factories produce 400,000 tonnes of iron rods annually.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, there are more than 70 cement factories that have obtained operating permits from the Department of Industry. The cement industry already has an investment of around Rs 30 billion. Pashupati Murarka, senior vice-president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), said that even though the number of companies receiving government permits has gone up, only around 40 plants are in regular operation.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The country&rsquo;s annual requirement of cement amounts to 3 million tonnes, of which nearly 80 percent is being met by local products. &ldquo;There are no authentic records, however, most of the production is going for construction of private houses and commercial buildings of housing developers,&rdquo; said Murarka. He added that if construction of physical infrastructure receives a boost, the country would be self-reliant in cement too.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is estimated that the construction sector is creating employment opportunities to about one million people. That means it generates employment next to the agriculture sector in the country. Similarly, about 60 percent of the nation&#39;s development budget is spent through the use of contractors. From this, it is clearly seen that construction is a major sector and any productivity enhancement activity in this sector will have a positive impact on the overall improvement of the national economy.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%">
		<tbody>
			<tr>
				<td bgcolor="#E5E4E2">
					<div style="text-align: center;">
						<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Government Efforts</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						Realizing the need for enhancement of the construction industry, Construction Business Act 2055 was promulgated and came into force from April 14, 1999. This is an effort made to institutionalize and systematize the construction sector. The Act has defined the procedures and requirements relating to issues and renewal of license and classification of and obligations of construction entrepreneurs. The law has established Construction Business Development Council (CBDC) under the chairpersonship of the Minister for Physical Planning and Works, and Construction Business Development &amp; Implementation Committee (CBDIC) under the chairpersonship of Joint Secretary (technical) designated by the Ministry for Physical Planning and Works. These both are regarded as the apex institutions to develop the Nepali construction industry. Establishment of the CBDC and CBDIC is the important step taken by the government to promote the country&rsquo;s construction industry.</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
				</td>
			</tr>
		</tbody>
	</table>
</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Education: On Private Sector Shoulders</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Education" src="/userfiles/images/cs1(3).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 381px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	With private investment standing at nearly Rs29 billion at present, the education sector is well on the path of evolving into a lucrative service sector business in Nepal. Nobody needs to frown at the idea of education being compared with business. It has done much more good than bad. Even big business houses have started to invest in education.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Private investment in the education sector has grown consistently over the past few years. It now stands at more than Rs29billion, including the investments in schools, colleges, educational consultancies and training institutes. Out of this investment, nearly Rs25 billion is in private schools and colleges, according to the statistics maintained by the Company Registrar&rsquo;s Office (CRO).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs7(1).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 130px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Statistics also reveal that the investment has been increasing since 2006, the year when the government decided to register privately-owned educational institutions as companies. New private investment in schools and colleges stood at more than five billion rupees and six billion rupees in 2010 and 2011, respectively. Similarly, private investors have committed an investment of Rs 2.53 billion in the first three months of 2014.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<p>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs8(1).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; width: 200px; height: 345px;" />According to Umesh Shrestha, president of the Higher Secondary School Association Nepal (HISSAN), private investment in the education sector has increased because it provides good return. &ldquo;This is why even big business houses have pitched into the sector lately,&rdquo; he explains &ldquo;Leading Nepali industrialists and entrepreneurs have launched huge education projects. There will be more such projects in the future.&rdquo; Population growth and increasing demand for quality education are the other major factors behind the increase in private investment in education, he adds.</p>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Educational expert Mana Prasad Wagle credits it to the hype of the phasing out of the Proficiency Certificate Level (PCL) in the year 2010 that invited high investment in &lsquo;Plus Two&rsquo; colleges. In 2009, five new colleges with an authorized capital of more than Rs 100 million each were established. Since then, on an average, more than half a dozen such colleges have been established every year. In the eyes of education experts, an investment of Rs 100 million should be more than enough to ensure quality education.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The number of private educational institutions with massive investment is also increasing every year in the major cities, especially in Kathmandu. &ldquo;The number of students leaving the country after SLC for higher studies has drastically decreased now. This is because they find quality education within the country, thanks to a number of good private colleges. This has also prevented millions of rupees from going abroad,&rdquo; says Shrestha.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It would not be an exaggeration to say that higher secondary (HS) education rests (and grows) on the strong shoulders of the private sector. Let&rsquo;s consider the following numbers: more than 60 per cent of the nearly a million HS students in the country get their education from private institutions; more than 80 per cent of the students who pass the HS level every year are from private institutions.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are around 3600 HS schools in Nepal at present. Out of them 291 are 0+2 colleges, which run classes for only the 11th and 12th grades. The remaining are 10+2 colleges, which run classes from grade 1 to 12.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Private sector institutions have not only played a vital role in boosting Nepal&rsquo;s educational capacity but have also brought along a whole new market dimension. Consider these facts: The annual business transaction of private educational institutions amounts to Rs 22 billion &ndash; Rs 11 billion at school level, five billion rupees at HS level and six billion rupees at university level education.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;The private sector has been helping the government by a great deal by making such a huge investment in the education sector,&rdquo; says Rajendra Baral, Chief Executive Officer at Caspian Valley College.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On the other hand, HISSAN chief Shrestha sees an immense possibility of educational tourism in the country. &ldquo;Nepal&rsquo;s naturally air-conditioned climate makes it a good educational destination for international students, if we can establish schools and colleges of international standard or open affiliates of internationally recognized universities here,&rdquo; he says.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%">
		<tbody>
			<tr>
				<td bgcolor="#E5E4E2">
					<div style="text-align: center;">
						<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Government Efforts</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<div>
							The government&rsquo;s efforts in education are mainly focused on primary and secondary level education. The government has been increasing the budget allocated for the education sector year on year. The government has earmarked Rs 80.95 billion to this sector for the current fiscal year - up by Rs 60.13 billion of current fiscal year&rsquo;s revised allocation. Similarly, Nepal&rsquo;s education budget increased by more than double in just four years reaching Rs 63.91 billion in fiscal year 2011/12 from Rs 27.06 billion in 2007/08.&nbsp;</div>
						<div>
							&nbsp;</div>
						<div>
							Nepal allocates 3.4 percent of its GDP and almost 17 percent of the national budget to the education sector. The country, however, does not meet the global standard of allocating at least 5 percent of GDP and 20 percent of the total budget to the education sector. Only 9.92 percent of the total education budget has been allocated for higher education, and merely 7.85 percent for university education.&nbsp;</div>
						<div>
							&nbsp;</div>
						<div>
							Government investment in higher secondary education is even less&mdash;two percent of the total education budget&mdash;despite having around one million enrolments a year. Education expert Dr Tirtha Khaniya observes that there is scope for private sector investment and growth in higher study institutions. &ldquo;The government&rsquo;s negligence to the higher secondary level education provided an opportunity for the private sector which cashed in on the opportunity. A similar opportunity lies there for the private sector in university level education too. We will gradually see more private sector investment in this category,&rdquo; he says.</div>
					</div>
				</td>
			</tr>
		</tbody>
	</table>
</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Banking sector: Time for Consolidation</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs2(3).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 350px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Starting from the government-owned Nepal Bank in 1937, the banking industry in Nepal has come a long way. The industry grew tremendously, especially after the entry of the private sector after 1990. It is one of the sectors of the economy that have grown significantly over the past one decade. &nbsp;The sector has immense growth prospects as nearly 60 per cent of the population is still out of the range of formal financial channels. Today, the banking sector is more liberalized and modernized, systematic and managed.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are various types of banks and financial institutions (BFIs) working under the modern banking system in Nepal. It includes central (1), commercial (30), development (87), finance companies (59), co-operatives (15), NGOs (30) and others (3). Technology is changing day by day. And the use of new technologies has affected the traditional method of the service of banks. Banking software, ATM, E-banking, Mobile Banking, Debit Card, Credit Card, Prepaid Card etc., services are available in banking system in Nepal. Nepal&rsquo;s banking sector has flourished over the years despite numerous challenges and is trying to be at par with international standards.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Today, there are ample opportunities for the banking sector to explore the small and medium enterprises and rural markets in Nepal via innovative products such as microfinance, mobile banking etc.,&rdquo; says Anil Shah, CEO of Mega Bank.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs10.JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 348px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Nepal is an agro-based economy with nearly 84 percent of the population in the rural areas. The BFIs need to develop ingenious products and adopt new technologies to cater to the rural sector. By reaching remote locations, BFIs could contribute towards poverty alleviation as well,&rdquo; observes Nepal Rastra Bank Spokesperson Bhaskar Mani Gyawali.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The public is gradually turning to the organized financial service providers i.e. the BFIs. At present, only 15.1 percent of the total households in Nepal borrow from local money-lenders, while 10 years ago some 40 per cent households were indebted to money lenders, according to the latest Nepal Living Standard Survey (NLSS) released by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Today, nearly 40 per cent households have access to commercial banks&rsquo; branch within 30 minutes walking distance. This was merely 22 percent a decade ago. Similarly, the presence of co-operatives within 30 minute walk radius has also increased from 25.9 per cent to 53.9 per cent during the same period.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Though the growing number of financial intermediaries is not as successful as expected in increasing the financial accessibility, the expansion has definitely helped in general population&rsquo;s access to finance,&rdquo; says Gyanwali.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Going through the trends seen over the past few years, the country&rsquo;s financial sector seems heading for consolidation through mergers and acquisitions. According to experts, the number of banking and financial institutions (BFIs) will reduce by half over the next one decade. Statistics support this fact. Forty-three BFIs have merged with each other to become 18 over the past three years. According to NRB, another 25 BFIs are in the final stage of merger to become 10. NRB sources say that the central bank will continue with its merger campaign in the new Nepali Year.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As a part of this campaign, the NRB is soon going to introduce the Acquisition Bylaws and there are signs that the minimum capital required to run banks could be increased significantly.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Apart from banking, other financial sectors, too, are coming up. Credit rating, portfolio management, mutual funds and central depository system companies have already come into operation. This has opened new opportunities for investment.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Due to stiff competition, banks are trying to provide specialized services such as investing in hydropower, infrastructure and agriculture. The trend is low at present but it has started. Similarly, expansion of branches of BFIs, especially in the urban areas, has reached almost a saturation stage. Now the banks are looking at cheaper ways to increase their outreach; so they are attracted towards branch-less banking, e-banking and mobile banking.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs11.JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 258px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The last one decade has been significant for the banking sector. Many good things happened. As a result, financial access increased by five times over the past one decade, according to statistics maintained by the CBS. Similarly, the statistics maintained by NRB reveal that 40 per cent of Nepalis have access to formal banking channels. These statistics incorporate only the A, B, C and D class BFIs licensed by the NRB. There are nearly 20,000 Savings and Credit Cooperatives operating throughout the country. Similarly, there is a large number of women&rsquo;s groups, farmers&rsquo; groups etc., which also provide banking services. If we consider these institutions, the number of Nepalis having access to financial services will increase significantly. This doesn&rsquo;t mean that the situation of financial access is great in Nepal; what it means is what has been achieved over the past one decade is more than satisfactory.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Increasing access to finance is one of the main roles of the central bank so that central bank is also encouraging the BFIs to venture into unbanked areas through its policy measures,&rdquo; informs Gyawali. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The achievement made by the banking sector over the past one decade can be broadly categorized into three parts: growth in financial access, expansion of loans and development of corporate culture. The rate of financial access increase is high for this period. Similarly, new areas for investment have been discovered. Today, banks have started investing in specialized long-term projects such as hydropower. Likewise, there has been development of corporate culture in the banking sector over this period. This has made the banking sector more transparent, credible and professional. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<div>
		<table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%">
			<tbody>
				<tr>
					<td bgcolor="#E5E4E2">
						<div>
							<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Weaker Side:</strong></span></div>
						<div>
							- All kinds of BFIs are allowed to mobilize deposits</div>
						<div>
							- Lack of adequate financial literacy</div>
						<div>
							- Increasing operational risks of BFIs</div>
						<div>
							- Failure to identify new areas for investment</div>
						<div>
							- Inadequate supervision capacity of NRB</div>
					</td>
				</tr>
			</tbody>
		</table>
	</div>
</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Hotels: More Room for Growth</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs3(4).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 397px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepali hotel industry is rapidly heading towards booming growth. After sluggishness for about a decade, during the conflict years, the country&#39;s hospitality sector is now looking more and more lucrative with hoteliers- both domestic and foreign- investing into multi-billion projects. Surge in visitor numbers with Nepal becoming a prime destination for international, regional and domestic tourists is leaving the country&#39;s hotels sector without much room. Recent tourism rankings published by reputed institutions points out that the country is gaining significant attention from travelers and visitors across the globe.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Industry leaders estimate the size of Nepali hotel sector- ranging from five star hotels to lodges- has reached about Rs 300 billion. &quot;It is one of the fastest growing sector which is providing considerable number of employment,&quot; says Madhav Om Shrestha, executive director of Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN). According to him, the sector is providing direct employment to over 3, 00,000 people and indirectly benefitting around one million. &quot;With big international hotel chains entering Nepal, the industry is treading on to track to healthy revival.&quot;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepal, which has witnessed the departure of some big hotel chains in the past, is again set to become a rewarding market for renowned international hoteliers. Last year saw the US-based multinational hotel chains Marriott and Sheraton announce their entry into the Nepali market. In May 2013, Nepal Hospitality Group (NHG), a company under Nepal&#39;s leading conglomerate Maliram Shivakumar (MS) Group, signed an agreement with Marriott International to open a four-star hotel with an investment of around Rs 650 million. Dubbed as &quot;Fairfield by Marriott Kathmandu&quot;, the 10-storey business hotel with 108 rooms is under-construction at Thamel, a prime tourist and commercial location in Kathmandu.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The hotel targeted towards mid-income guests will start its commercial service by the beginning of 2016. Fairfield is a brand of hotels franchised by Marriott International. NHG is also constructing a 250-room, four-star luxury hotel in Naxal, as a joint venture with the Marriot International.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;In this foray, Sheraton Hotels and Resorts announced its re-entry into Nepal. Shesh Ghale, the Nepal born Australian millionaire businessman, has come up with a joint venture with Sheraton to operate a five-star hotel in Kathmandu. In April 2013, Ghale&#39;s investment company, MIT Group Holding Nepal set the project rolling by signing an agreement with Sheraton&#39;s owner Starwood Hotels and Resort Worldwide Inc.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Slated to open in February 2018, the cost of 225-room Sheraton Kathmandu project is expected to be around Rs 7 billion. Sheraton, the largest brand of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide has history of managing five-star hotel in Nepal. The chain in 1980s&#39; and 90s&#39; managed the Hotel Everest Sheraton in Kathmandu.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Meanwhile, Indian hotel chain Lord Hotels and Resorts has already started its operation in Nepal. The company opened its first international hotel in Kathmandu, the Mirage Lords Inn at Battisputali with an investment of Rs 200 million. The 40-room budget hotel is targeted to serve domestic and international guests ranging from religious visitors to adventure seekers.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs12.JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 398px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:12px;"><strong>Investment Hotspot</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The hotel investment frenzy has also wrapped Nepali business community. Many have announced to open new hotels while some have already opened doors to welcome guests into their newly built auberge. The Hotel Shambala, a 65-room, four-star Tibetan- styled boutique hotel, located at Bansbari started its operations few months ago. Similarly, construction of the Chhaya Center at Thamel is in full swing. The structure upon its completion will accommodate a 200-room four-star hotel along with an exclusive shopping mall. Likewise, The Centurion Group has been constructing a 120-room hotel in Biratnagar.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Meanwhile, Muktishree Group, Vaidya&#39;s Organization, Non-Resident Nepalese Association (NRNA) and Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) have made their announcements to establish five-star hotels. &nbsp;In the meantime, other major tourist destinations such as Pokhara, Lumbini, Biratnagarand Nepalgunj are also experiencing rising investments in the sector.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This sector is becoming a center of attraction for Nepali banks and financial institutions (BFIs) as well. According to recent Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) data, total investment of BFIs in the sector reached an estimated amount of Rs 21 billion by the end of April. The central bank also notes that in the first nine months of current fiscal year (FY), the sector welcomed an investment of Rs 3.16 billion, up by 20.8 percent from last FY&#39;s 2.30 billion.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%">
		<tbody>
			<tr>
				<td bgcolor="#E5E4E2">
					<div>
						<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Time to be Cautious</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Despite the significantly increasing activities in the hotel sector there are also cautionary calls arising within the industry itself. &quot;The overall trend in investment and the growth in infrastructure is satisfactory, but marketing of Nepal in international arena is lacking,&quot; opines Binayak Shah, vice president of Summit Group of Hotels. Shah, who is also the Managing Director of Airport Hotel, said that as the sector will have more than enough infrastructures amid the rise in number of international hotel chains coming to Nepal and growing domestic investments. &quot;In addition, unsold apartments are also being converted in to hotels. If we cannot market our resources innovatively, in a few years time, we will have more supply than demand,&quot; he says. &quot;This has to be balanced.&quot;</div>
				</td>
			</tr>
		</tbody>
	</table>
</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong style="font-size: 14px;">ICT: Explosive Growth</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs4(2).JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 271px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) sector has grown in a geometric proportion over the last few years bringing speedy transformation. The explosive growth and rapid infrastructure developments led the sector, nascent only some years ago, to around Rs 50 billion worth strong sector in a year.</div>
<div>
	Nepal has been enjoying remarkable growth in ICT sector due to expanding telecom sector, increasing use of email/internet, emerging social media and steady growth in the use of state-of-art gadgets.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs121.jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 656px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The pace of mobile phone adoption in the country was surprising in the last couple of years as nearly two third households have access to telephone facility. The overall teledensity has increased to 87.20 per cent by mid-March, according to the telecom regulator Nepal Telecommunications Authority.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is likely that the transaction of overall ICT products will double in the next few years. Internet penetration rate increased to around 30.99 per cent till mid- March, and the rise of Internet users will have a direct impact on the trade of computers, claims Computer Association of Nepal (CAN).&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	High competition among world class brands including HP, Samsung, Dell, Asus, Compaq, MAC, Sony, Lenovo and Acer have not only contributed to lower the price, due to hard competition, but also have provided quality products to Nepali customers.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Along with hardware parts, the software market is also experiencing a steady growth in the country. Experts and professionals involved in this business are taking this growth as a positive aspect of developing awareness related to information technology.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;The overall trade of software has increased in the domestic market though there is not actual data available from concerned authority. Amrit Kumar Pant, General Secretary of CAN, said, the market and activities related to this business have been increasing as the people have been using software and application as necessity while it was used in the form of luxury till some years ago.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	ICT has provided enormous opportunities from various aspects, according to the regulator Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA). Nepal&rsquo;s telecom sector has created employment opportunities for at least 50,000 people and contributed more than Rs 20 billion as revenues every year to the national coffer.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Even the government has come up with some ambitious plan including that of connecting east and west via Optical Fibre network. For the purpose, the government has planned to utilise the Rural Telecom Development Fund (RTDF), the fund collected by Nepal Telecommunications Authority from telcos.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, the sector is not without problem. According to telcos, there are many problems in the policy front. The telecom sector has been witnessing government&rsquo;s dillydally in bringing relevant laws and policies.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, there are still room to improve in terms of quality. On the one hand, telcos and internet service providers need to ensure quality of service. On the other, Nepal should not become trading hub for low quality ICT goods. In such situation, the government need to bring policies ensuring consumers&rsquo; rights. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	ICT is still an untapped market in Nepal, an expert told New Business Age. &ldquo;All concerned stakeholders need to put sincere effort to take this sector to the next level.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Hydropower: From Deficit to Export Considerations</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs6.JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 342px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Forced to live under electricity cut averaging 10 hours a day during dry seasons, Nepal is gradually developing its hydropower projects to escape the long-standing power crisis. Things have changed positively in the recent years as the dust of political uncertainty is finally showing signs of settling down. 87 hydel projects totalling 2,345 megawatts are under construction. Both the government and private sector have ramped up their investments in these projects. The projects, upon completion, are expected to add electricity into the national power grid within the next seven years. Similarly, the Investment Board Nepal (IBN) has also taken initiatives to construct five mega-hydel projects of 3,750 MWs. IBN, which was formed four years ago to fast-track mega projects, is said to be involved with promoters for power development agreement (PDA). The promoters have assured to start the construction of projects immediately after the finalization of PDAs.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This indicates the increasing involvement of private sector in the country&#39;s hydropower development. Nepali private sector has thus far managed to produce 232 MWs electricity after the electricity act of 1992 came into effect. According to Independent Power Producers Association, Nepal (IPPAN), the private sector has invested Rs 55 billion in 25 hydro projects till date since the establishment of the first private power plant in 2000.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Increasingly positive tones of bilateral donors have also raised hopes in this sector. The World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) are planning to raise their stakes in Nepal&#39;s hydropower development. The World Bank (WB),which has already provided development related financial assistance worth Rs 200 billion to Nepal is further adding investments in hydropower projects. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group has recently agreed to provide USD 84.6 million for the 37 MW Kabeli-&#39;A&#39; project. The electricity output from the run-of-river project situated in Panchthar district will be then connected to the national grid through the 132 KVA Kabeli Corridor Transmission line. The transmission line, which is jointly financed by the WB and Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) is in the construction phase. Likewise, IFC has also expressed readiness in Arun III (900 MW), Upper Marsyangdi (600 MW), Upper Karnali (900 MW) and Upper Trishuli (213 MW). During his visit to a WB program in US and Mexico in April, Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat received commitment from the IFC for investing for Rs 600 billion in developing hydropower projects of 3,000 MWs. Similarly, ADB is also stepping up to invest in the country&#39;s big hydel projects. Last year the bank agreed to provide soft loan of Rs 13 billion for 140 MW Tanahu Hydropower Project. Likewise, the European Investment Bank (EIB) which also agreed to loan Rs 1.5 billion for the above mentioned project has also committed to provide Rs 12 billion to build the Kaligandaki and Marsyangdi Transmission line along with another Rs 3 billion to build the Trishuli Corridor Transmission Line.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The sector is also grabbing significant attention from foreign investors. Official data shows that hydropower sector has attracted highest FDI commitments in the recent months. According to data published by Department of Industry (DoI), foreign investors pledged Rs 11.8 billion worth FDI commitments in the first nine months of the current fiscal year against Rs 2.65 billion during the same period, last year.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Rising Export Potential</strong></span></div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs13.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; width: 250px; height: 435px;" />Few years back it was almost unimaginable for power crisis marred Nepal to even think of supplying electricity to neighbouring countries. The scenario, however, is looking more and more real for Nepal to make its way forward to become a net power exporter. Nepal after producing 2,345 MW by 2018-19, will have surplus energy after consuming its annual demand of estimated 1,700 MW by that time. In this circumstance, India will be the most likely market of Nepali electricity as the energy hungry southern neighbour is increasingly looking to import power from its himalayan proximate.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The construction and installation of countrywide and cross-border high capacity transmission lines indicates the rising power trade potential between India and Nepal. The tower installations in Nepal section of 400 KVA Dhalkebar-Muzzafarpur Cross-Border Transmission line has started earlier this year. The construction of the project, which started in January is scheduled to be completed within 16 months of its commencement. Similarly, feasibility study of 400 KVA Bardaghat-Gorakhpur Transmission Line has also begun. The high capacity cross-border transmission lines would facilitate power transmission between the two countries. A secretary-level agreement between Nepal and India has already paved way to build the framework for power trading.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Private power producers say that both countries should look into effective modalities of power trading. &quot;Energy banking agreement model is the best option,&quot; says Er Gyanendra Lal Pradhan, Chairman of FNCCI&#39;s Energy Committee. According to Pradhan, if the model is adopted, Nepal can send surplus power to India in rainy season and bring back the same amount of electricity in dry seasons. He said that countries across the world are adopting this model owing to its flexibility and practical approach. &quot;The model is being effectively practiced by New York Electricity Exchange of United States and Hydro Quebec of Canada, they do banking up to 90 per cent of electricity they trade and remaining 10 per cent is priced.&quot; Pradhan stressed the need for building strong network of nationwide transmission lines as it would further help if Nepal and India engage in energy banking.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, absence of clear policies and other problems such as inefficient bureaucracy, rampant corruption, lack of nationwide transmission grid, issues related to infrastructure and land compensation are regarded as the bottlenecks in Nepal&#39;s hydropower development efforts. For instance, the draft of electricity bill, 2065 introduced in the parliament has seen little or no progress over the past five years. Similarly, issues related to power purchase agreement (PPA), higher bank lending rates in hydropower projects, value added tax (VAT) levied to private producers and low allocation of national budget are also seen as problems hindering the sector&#39;s overall development.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-06-09',
			'modified' => '2014-07-30',
			'keywords' => 'new business age cover story news & articles, cover story news & articles from new business age nepal, cover story headlines from nepal,  current and latest cover story news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali cover story economic news and events,  ongoing  cover story news of nepal',
			'description' => 'Despite obstacles, some sectors of the economy have progressed and their future looks bright. We could call them the “rising stars” of the economy. In this issue, NewBiz has tried to highlight some of these rising stars, which include: Hotels, Hydropower, Construction Material, ICT, Education, and Banking Sector.',
			'sortorder' => '2626',
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	(int) 7 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2780',
			'article_category_id' => '52',
			'title' => 'Fallen Prey To Politics',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	When Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) was created, it was dubbed as the first truly functional model of public-private partnership (PPP) in Nepal. When it delivered some encouraging results for Nepal&#39;s tourism industry, the model&#39;s replicability potentials formed chapters of many books like of Karna Sakya and provided basis for a large number of business working papers and case studies. But, unfortunately, the same NTB has now become the test case of alleged embezzlement of resources and sit-in protest against the same by the country&#39;s tourism entrepreneurs. Thanks to all-pervasiveness of our albatross politics.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	While penning these words, it had almost been a month that the protesting entrepreneurswere demanding an impartial probe into financial irregularities by the acting CEO of the Board, Subash Nirola. But nothing was moving ahead primarily because it was a PPP. The Board headed by the secretary in the Ministry of Tourism as the ex-officio Chairman is expressing government&#39;s inability to take unilateral action, as it is the &#39;private&#39; organization while the entrepreneurs too do not have the legal power to oust the CEO.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	A few months ago, the NTB made a policy decision to organize the tourism fairs in the districts &#39;to promote the domestic tourism&#39;. This has panicked the traditional entrepreneurs that their income would be shared by the district level hospitality and amenities industries. The government sees no flaws in the Board&#39;s decision. &nbsp;The entrepreneurs argue that the money spent for such fairs in domestic markets should instead be spent in international publicity so as to attract the foreign tourists. This is no doubt a valid reason. But, just spending some money for promotion of domestic tourist market can hardly be established as an evidence for corruption.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The fuss is beyond these allegations of misappropriation of funds. The fact is, the protesting organizations of the entrepreneurs are affiliated to Deuba faction of the Nepali Congress, Oli faction of CPN-UML and Bhattarai faction of UCPN Maoists while the CEO is considered close to Khanal faction of the UML or, a chameleon, who also sometimes claims to be a Koirala Congress. And, for every political party, it was a matter of great pain that a newly emerged reputable organization like the NTB was functioning independent of political interference for more than a decade. And appointment of CEO is also not based on one&rsquo;s political loyalty. &nbsp;Therefore, every political party perhaps feels that if the current CEO is ousted through a political move, then it can set a trend and every next Tourism Minister can pick a new CEO along with each change in the government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The protest of the entrepreneurs wore a grotesque look when so called senior leaders of all three major parties reached at the sit-in site to &lsquo;express solidarity&rsquo; to the demands, without going into the merits of the allegations. If there are irregularities, there are related legal and quasi-legal institutions to investigate and prosecute the guilty. &nbsp;Why would leaders need to meddle in this process? Only plausible answer is that every party is keen to make the NTB a new political prey, which is deplorable.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The problem in the NTB began long ago when the Board failed to pick-up a professional CEO in a transparent and timely manner. The &lsquo;Acting&rsquo; position is always an incentive for the incumbent to look for quick bucks from all possible means including kickbacks. And, as allegations are already labelled to Nirola, he should either make public all the details of procurement as soon as possible proving his integrity or step aside until proven innocent allowing for an independent probe. &nbsp;The prolonged stand-off between the Board and the entrepreneurs is putting the entire Nepal tourism sector in bad light. And, the government must step in to solve it than being a party to a side.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-06-08',
			'modified' => '2014-07-30',
			'keywords' => 'new business age  from the editor news & articles, from the editor news & articles from new business age nepal, from the editor headlines from nepal,  current and latest from the editor news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali from the editor economic news and events,  ongoing  from the edi',
			'description' => 'When Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) was created, it was dubbed as the first truly functional model of public-private partnership (PPP) in Nepal. When it delivered some encouraging results for Nepal's tourism industry, the model's replicability potentials formed chapters of many books like of Karna Sakya and provided basis for a large number of business working papers and case studies.',
			'sortorder' => '2625',
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			'main_news' => false,
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			'user_id' => '0'
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	(int) 8 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2775',
			'article_category_id' => '41',
			'title' => 'CEOs Exit: Nepali Banking Sector Faces New Problem',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Sanjeev Sharma</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The once lucrative Nepali banking industry is now being deserted by long serving CEOs as they head on to start their own business or shift to other areas. The latest bank CEO who left is Suman Joshi of Laxmi Bank. Nearly a month ago, Grand Bank CEO Sudhir Khatri had resigned from his post. While some insiders claim that Joshi left the job as the main promoter of the bank stopped liking him and Khatri laid his papers to avoid actions from the central bank, banking sectors analysts have also started wondering if a new trend of CEOs leaving the banking sector has set in. This concern is based on the fact that some bank CEOs who resigned from their post have left banking career altogether. One such prominent example is Parshuram Kunwar Chhetri, who resigned when Bank of Asia that he was leading went to merge with NIC Bank to form NIC Asia Bank. One prominent exception to this is Kumar Lamsal who left Sanima Bank and joined Kist Bank as the CEO. &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This trend has triggered other concerns as well in the sector. Does this indicate the start of a new trend in the Nepali banking sector or is it just a momentary occurrence? Will the departure of experienced hands affect the overall stability of the country&#39;s financial sector? With long serving CEOs leaving the institutions, are BFIs losing opportunities to hire good executives? &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It&#39;s been more than two-and-half years since the Nepali banking authority issued directive and guidelines on the executive compensation system for BFIs. This 2011 policy mandates that the annual salary and perks of a bank&rsquo;s CEOs cannot exceed more than five percent of the average staff expenditure of the respective institution over the period of three years or 0.025 percent of the total assets registered during the previous year, whichever is lower. This provision comes into action only while appointing new CEOs and spares the existing ones. With such a provision in place, the bank CEOs are left with three choices - work with present bank, join another bank on lower perks and salary or abandon the sector and look out for new avenues.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Defending this cap, the central bank argued that it was aimed at discouraging banks from getting involved into unnecessary risk taking activities. &quot;The executive compensation structure was widely regarded as one of the causes of the global financial crisis as it encouraged banks and financial institutions to get involved into high risk taking manoeuvres to increase short-term profit, eventually inviting long-term systematic risks,&quot; the NRB directive and guidelines states. The policy was introduced in the wake of rising fears of real estate bubble that followed the liquidity crunch of 2011. After the commencement of peace process in 2006, house and land prices soared to record high levels in major cities across the country forcing the NRB to tighten the provisions of bank lending into the real estate sector.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, merger of BFIs is also seen as another reason to reduce the number of CEOs in the banking sector. Since only one CEO leads a bank, the CEO of one of the merging BFI is required to leave the institution during or after the merger process completes. NRB issued Merger Bylaws on May 2011, stating that it would strengthen the financial system and raise trust of public towards the banking sector. The main aim of the merger policy is to expand the capital base of BFIs and thereby strengthen their financial position to withstand various risks in the future. Following the policy rollout, 43 BFIs went for merger and resulted in the formation of 18 BFIs, official NRB data as of mid-March says. Of them two were &#39;A&#39; class banks and 41 were &#39;B&#39;, &#39;C&#39; and &#39;D&#39; class institutions. NIC Bank and Bank of Asia were the first commercial banks to go for merger that resulted in the formation of NIC Asia. Recently the Global IME Bank and the Commerz and Trust Bank have also submitted their merger proposal to the central bank for final approval. Remaining 25 BFIs of all classes have received Letter of Intent (LoI) from the NRB to merge and form 10 BFIs. These mergers have resulted in 25 CEOs resigning from their posts as of March 2014. Commerz and Trust Bank CEO Anal Raj Bhattarai is said to be leaving his post following the the merger process. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	NRB stands quite firm to its decision to put cap on perks and salaries of bank CEOs. &quot;It is wrong to say that supply of experienced chief executives have declined due to our directive and guidelines. We made the decision after evaluating various factors,&quot; says NRB Spokesperson, Bhaskar Mani Gyawali. &quot;The factors include per capita income of the country and average pay scale in various sectors,&quot; he elaborated while claiming that introduction of the policy is making the Nepali banking sector more efficient as chief executives receive compensations according to the income of their respective institutions. &quot;Bankers are now required to perform in more effective manner. &nbsp;This ensures stability of the financial sector,&quot; he said.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="CEO" src="/userfiles/images/sect1.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; width: 350px; height: 100px;" />The departure of long serving CEOs has provided opportunity to second-layer bank officials to rise to the top spot. The second-tier officials can now groom themselves to grasp the chair of chief executive. Nevertheless, this has raised concerns regarding the risk taking appetite and the overall performance of banks as less experienced people come to the lead role.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	NRB&#39;s argument has generated mixed views from experts. &quot;CEOs who hold long experience in the sector are the essential part of the banking system. The sector as we know is all about experience. Long serving chief executives know the core of banking which gives the institutions edge to get ahead with proficient business strategies,&quot; says a former CEO of a commercial bank under the condition of anonymity. &quot;They also have risk taking appetite to expand the bank&rsquo;s business areas further.&quot;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Sanjeev Subba, the CEO of National Banking Training Institute (NBTI) shared different view. &quot;I think the departure of long serving CEOs won&#39;t affect adversely after all. The second and third tier officers are capable as they have come up with experience in different layers,&quot; he said. &quot;This has provided them with significant experience over the years.&quot; Subba mentioned that Nepali commercial banking sector, which has been running for the past three decades has produced sufficient number of experienced manpower. For the perks and salaries part he opines, &quot;Salary cap won&#39;t affect bank CEOs to renew employment contract within the same institutions. This will only affect those who are willing to join other organizations.&quot;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Suman Joshi, Laxmi Bank&#39;s former CEO expressed his perspective close to Subba. &quot;Departure of experienced chief executives is unlikely to have overall adverse impact on the banking sector. Exit of the old and entry of new should be taken as two sides of a coin,&quot; he said. Joshi, however, cautioned that banks might see performance related issues as less experienced people take over the executive post. He also mentioned that Nepali banking sector has started to follow international trend. &quot;If we look the international scenario, CEOs don&#39;t stay in the same responsibility for long time,&quot; he opines.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Lack of motivational factor seems to be another reason for the CEOs to leave their jobs. &quot;Bank CEOs get more salary compared to other sectors. However, working regularly for a long time without increment in salary creates an environment of de-motivation,&quot; says Bank of Asia&rsquo;s former chief executive, Parshuram Kunwar Chhetri. According to him, many chief executives are facing the problem of stagnant salary levels and have to work under pressures of media, investors, shareholders and rising day-by-day business risks. &quot;Nevertheless, financial institutions are run and governed by particular system, so a significant negative impact is unlikely in an event of a CEO leaving his post,&quot; Chhetri said. &nbsp;</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-04-11',
			'modified' => '2014-06-09',
			'keywords' => 'new business age sectoral news & articles, sectoral news & articles from new business age nepal, sectoral headlines from nepal,  current and latest sectoral news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali sectoral economic news and events,  ongoing  sectoral news of nepal',
			'description' => 'The departure of long serving CEOs has raised concern in the Nepali banking sector. Does this indicate the start of a new trend in the banking sector or is it just a momentary occurrence?',
			'sortorder' => '2624',
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	(int) 9 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2774',
			'article_category_id' => '169',
			'title' => 'Do Not Count Your Chickens Before They Are Hatched',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Everyone gets excited by a new job offer and for valid reasons off course. A person seeking change always thinks that he has done well but somehow not been duly rewarded. We sometimes feel that our bosses are aliens without any idea how the modern world works and always hassle us from their ivory tower. Thus frustrated, when we receive a new offer, we feel like being in heaven. It is quite natural to get excited and believe that the opening, longed for so long, has arrived at last.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But beware; all that glitters is not gold. Your current job may not be that great but you would egress from your comfort zone while accepting a new one. A known devil is always better than an unknown friend. Since you would be spending close to 50 hours per week on the job, it is always better to be cautious, even when the offer is from a big corporate.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	So, before accepting, make sure you have a thorough background check. Here are seven key questions you must answer before deciding. Even when the salary seem to be godsend and the perks seem to be out of the world; even when you have mentally spent half of your extra salary; do not rush and resign till you have answered these questions satisfactorily.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>1. Are you clear what you are expected to accomplish on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Probe long and hard to understand what is expected from you. Job description and designation sometimes can be very vague. I have once come across a job title stating &ldquo;Conversation Architect&rdquo; which means &ldquo;Digital Marketing Manager&rdquo;. How about &ldquo;Director Storytelling&rdquo;? This is a Microsoft PR guy managing their blog &ldquo;Next at Microsoft&rdquo;. &nbsp;So what is your employer&rsquo;s expectation? Ask this and observe the body language. If it is a new position where you are not succeeding anybody and if you see hesitancy while answering; be cautious. The person might have got a dictate from top about certain initiative without any clue on how to proceed. You might end up being the fall guy.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>2. Do you know how your success will be judged?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Understand what are those achievements which will define your performance as success and below what level the result will be seen as failure. A performance management form with Performance Indicators duly charted out in black and white may be of great help but sometimes it may not be sufficient. So when you get clarity on your success matrix, determine whether the organization has measurement tools or not. For example: your job description can state &ndash; &ldquo;ensure within 1% deviation on production specification&rdquo; but you may end up discovering there is no accurate measurement equipment which can predict below 2% deviation. Then during performance appraisal you would be at the mercy of your boss and his mood on that day.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>3. Will you be able to do well in the new role?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	It is nice to be confident and one can always bluff into a job but you have to be true to yourself on your actual ability and qualification to perform. Each one of us has certain strength or weakness. While MBA degree claims to create super monster or efficient robotic humanoid who can perform at any Industry at all levels; in reality it does not happen that way. If the new job does not play to your strength then you may eventually end up losing everything. So, ask yourself this question about your actual suitability and fitment and answer as honestly as possible; if the answer is ambiguous or negative then refrain from accepting.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>4. Do you know the culture of the company and the team you will be working with?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	It is very important for you to be fully aware about the culture of the place. This has a huge impact on comfort and quality of life on the job. This in turn decides workplace happiness. For example; if you thrive in an informal culture with open door policy and end up in a hierarchical and formal place or in a corporate where aggression and hostility is the order of the day, you may end up regretting your decision. Likewise, if you inherit a team with a veteran who aspired your position but could not get it due to self inability, he may disparately pray for your failure even at the cost of the team being termed as non-performing.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>5. Do you know your Boss?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Do you know his working style and expectation? There is an old saying that &ldquo;People leave bosses, not job&rdquo;. There is also another school of thought that &ldquo;No people are allowed to select their bosses&rdquo;. But both are actually different sides of the same coin. In nutshell, the dynamics and equation between two persons are extremely important for both of them to succeed. It is better to have a thorough understanding between you and your boss about each other&rsquo;s management style and his expectation from you to have a flying start. At least try to answer this question as best as possible. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>6. Are you clear about the entire compensation package including details of various perks?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Do not focus on exactly what will be your CTC (Cost-to-company) salary but also take a look at others perks like House Rent, Car, Utility, Telephone, Education or Medical allowance. CTC may look bigger but what you are getting net at the end of each month is also important. There is nothing wrong to ask your employer about bonus and other annual facility and detail eligibility of the same. It is better to make them as part of their offer letter. Do not be in a hurry but nail down those details before affirming.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>7. How does this job fit in your overall career related goal?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Will it be in line with what you have planned or will you regret this decision two to three years down the line? Sometimes people take a short-term decision knowingly to achieve something bigger. You may decide to take on an assignment not fitting into your long-term strategy due to some short-term tactical goal like flexible timing to pursue higher education or to be in a specific town for some period. But make sure that you decide after due deliberation and not take a blind call. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	So the bottom-line is clear. Do not rush into decision. Sleep over it and take more than three to four days &ndash; preferably a week-end before you decide. Try to envision your future two, three or five years down the line. Answer those seven questions. Answer them diligently, as best as you can. Remember the word of Confucius &ndash; &ldquo;the expectation of life depend upon Diligence; the mechanic that would perfect his work must sharpen his tools first&rdquo;. So, for a perfect future, do a proper homework on how to sharpen the tools.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-04-10',
			'modified' => '2014-06-08',
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			'description' => 'All that glitters is not gold. Your current job may not be that great but you would egress from your comfort zone while accepting a new one.',
			'sortorder' => '2623',
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	(int) 10 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2772',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Undemocratic Overtures',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The national debate on holding the local body elections -- for the Village Development Committees (VDCs), Municipalities and District Development Committees (DDCs) -- is at its high after one and half decades, but the very prospect of the same actually taking place still whirls in the rough waters. No doubt, one of the most positive outcomes of the Nepali Congress (NC)-CPN UML coalition government is that it moved positively to hold the local body elections. But there is still doubt on the possibility of these elections being held by end of June this year. It has been sixteen years since these elections were held last and the term of the office bearers expired some twelve years ago. In the absence of democratically elected local bodies, the public service delivery, grassroots public works and institution of democracy have faltered to the hilt. The consequences are apparent -- the capital expenditure for years has been far less than the allocated targets, the GDP growth has stagnated at yearly average of 3.5 percent for last eight years despite the fact that country has enjoyed relative political peace during this period, and the emergence of new generation of leadership in any possible political formation has been nipped in the bud.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Even now, the dampener to the call to these crucial polls comes as a single voice of both factions of the Maoist parties that parted ways some three years ago, led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Mohan Vaidya respectively. From the ideological prism, the opposition to the polls by the Maoists looks all natural. And, it was expected from the Vaidya group given the fact that it remained out of the second Constituent Assembly (CA) elections held in last November. But, by contrast, the move appears rather anachronistic for Dahal and his party (UCPN Maoist) that has vowed to remain in competitive politics of ballots despite all odds. The political plunder the Party is now venturing into may well turn out to be a mammoth blunder not only for Dahal and Co. but for the entire country and the democratic process itself.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is not difficult to decipher Dahal&#39;s calculations to oppose these polls. He is apprehensive of poor outcome for his party if it goes to polls without uniting the Vaidya faction. On top of it, not only Maoists, every party other than UML is fearful of the local polls conducted when Bamdev Gautam is at the helm of Ministry of Home Affairs. However, the opposition to these polls from Vaidya comes as entirely different reason: this group is determined to go against any proposition made by the parties in CA and under the present scheme of political arrangements. It is in fact Vaidya&#39;s chosen plank since it separated from the mother party UCPN Maoist.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But to hide real shortcomings, Dahal has adopted a new but unambiguously anti-democratic stance in the form of opposing these polls. &nbsp;His formal premise of this opposition is: the inevitable engagement of the government and political parties in the local elections would divert the focus away from the constitution writing. He has also trained his party rank and file to rant out that the poll competition among the parties would bitter the differences that could be reflected in constitution writing. &#39;It hardly causes any grave damage if we defer the polls by seven or eight months for these local bodies that have remained vacant for last sixteen years,&#39; Dahal has unequivocally said.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Apparently, Dahal&#39;s statement lacks creativity and craftsmanship. Every politician who wanted to procrastinate on the local elections through all these years has used the same platitude, pointing to some larger political urgency or priority to be addressed before these &#39;trivial&#39; polls. When the term of the local office-bearers expired, the Maoist insurgency had swept the country. The priority was &#39;saving democracy from terrorism&#39;. When the peace deal was sealed in 2006, agenda of saving the peace process overshadowed the local polls. Then, in 2008, the CA elections were natural priority. The Interim Constitution 2007 didn&#39;t even incorporate a provision for local elections, which is a real shame on our constitutionalism and so-called experts who drafted it. When the first CA came into existence, influencing experts had a take, &#39;since entire nation were to be federalised, the local elections would only be a nuisance in the larger process of restructuring the state.&#39; When the extended tenure of the first CA expired without writing the constitution, sense of national loss was so overwhelming; no leader had time to ponder over these &#39;unimportant&#39; local elections. Then came the second CA elections and existence. The change in political equations gave birth to NC-UML coalition in government that fortunately has begun at least the talk of these polls. But, unfortunately, efforts are already on to stall them.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The crucial questions here are: Were all those cited reasons both necessary and sufficient conditions to procrastinate the local elections at different political turning points? Were these &#39;local&#39; elections so unimportant at the face of other &#39;national&#39; agenda? And, do they still deserve to be pushed further away in this or that pretext? Answer to all these questions is one big NO, but the background that leads to this simple NO is excruciatingly painful and treacherous.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The first and perhaps the most powerful of all explanations is that the central leadership of any party strongly hated these elections. After 1992 local elections, the NC and UML saw that many articulate, learned young cadres elected as local leaders attracted national and international attention. They were the first to woo the public confidence as they had resources, public position and closest contact to the grassroots population. This created a very real threat of displacement to the national leadership if such a &#39;mass manufacturing&#39; of young breed of leaders were continued. A simple example to vindicate it could be enough to compute the proportion of members in current or past CAs that were elected in those local bodies during 1990s. The best way to allay this threat of &#39;big&#39; leaders was to stop this practice altogether wherever and whenever possible. The Maoist who came to mainstream through Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) 2006, were no different from NC or UML in this regard.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	If that were not the case, there was not any convincing reason to not hold the local polls at least after the CPA. Had local bodies come into existence then, it could have been a great vehicle to bring the local political leadership of different parties at the same political platform. It could also have been the most effective mechanism to deliver the putative &#39;peace dividend&#39; to the people in general. These polls could have been conducted at the sidelines of both CA elections without much additional logistical and security costs. But, to repeat, leadership of no major party was honestly interested to hold these elections. Even the CA members were (still are) against it. Their naive complaint used to be &#39;DDC chairman, or a mayor, with all facilities and resources at his disposal is more powerful than a member of CA or legislature.&#39; These are real impediments&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	to these polls than any fabricated political logic.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Otherwise, these local elections on their own merit are very important from every possible paradigm of democracy, development, decentralization and true devolution of power. One can also convincingly argue that inputs to the constitution writing, state restructuring and political reconciliation would have come in more institutionalized fashion had these local bodies with elected representatives remained functional.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The argument that the local elections would derail or deviate the constitution writing process is extremely preposterous to say the least. First, the CA couldn&#39;t draft a constitution in four years of last CA where such polls were not even contemplated. And, there is no real trade-off between these two goals - namely, the constitution writing and holding the local polls. The CA can without aberration continue the process of writing the constitution. The Election Commission (EC) and the government can handle the logistics and other preparations for the local polls. The argument that local elections impair the possible political cooperation among the political parties is outright unpolitical. All the forces who believe in the rules of democracy cannot harbour animosity just for the fact that people voted for one party against other.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On the contrary, local polls and the constitution writing, if managed wisely, can be mutually reinforcing and complementary processes. It is repeated in uncountable instances that without a framework of state restructuring incorporated, the constitution writing process cannot be completed. These local democratic bodies can serve as the real feedback institutions for delineations of the provinces and other administrative and electoral units. More importantly, these institutions will be the real tool to manage unrealistically spiraling ambitions of people with largely misrepresented notions of rights, inclusiveness and reservations, among many other.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It appears that all contentious issues on constitution writing will not be resolved by the sitting CA and all major leaders have categorically said that these issues will be resolved through a referendum if required. This is a clear hint that completion of constitution writing may take several years. If such a scenario is imminent, it is illogical to stop the local elections from taking place now. Suppose, even if this CA completes the constitution drafting process, the promulgation of the same is not going to be easy. But, if these legitimate institutions are in place, they can help to create an atmosphere for relatively smoother promulgation. An elected political leader is far more responsible apparatus of the state mechanism than the one left in the streets just to protest on every petty issue.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Even in the worst case scenario, say, the local elections delay the constitution writing by a few months; it is still a risk worth to be taken. With the local bodies in operation, people can feel the real strength and utility of the democracy than the distant CA or a vague constitution. It is however not to mean to undermine the importance of the constitution.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is good to know that EC has reportedly started preparation for all required legal backdrop, including the amendment in the Interim Constitution 2007 to include the provisions for local polls.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Everyone should be convinced that no democratic exercise of any fashion would weaken the democracy. A pragmatic rethinking is required on the part of the Maoists and real courage in government to translate its own promise of holding local elections into reality, sooner.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
	<em>The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</em></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-04-09',
			'modified' => '2014-06-08',
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			'description' => 'The national debate on holding the local body elections -- for the Village Development Committees (VDCs), Municipalities and District Development Committees (DDCs) -- is at its high after one and half decades, but the very prospect of the same actually taking place still whirls in the rough waters. No doubt, one of the most positive outcomes of the Nepali Congress (NC)-CPN UML coalition government is that it moved positively to hold the local body elections.',
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	(int) 11 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2771',
			'article_category_id' => '52',
			'title' => 'Agenda: Economic Restructuring',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Finance Minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat created ripples of a sort in mid-March when he pointed to the need of restructuring the economy. No doubt, this is a long pending agenda given the fact that Nepali economy is faced with stagflation-like trap for decades. But, Dr. Mahat&#39;s proposition has come so suddenly that it gives rise to two natural questions. Have we done adequate homework for such a massive restructuring? Is there enough political will to embrace the agenda of restructuring, going beyond barely managing it? And, the direction of such restructuring will equally be crucial as will be the sustainability of the transformed structure.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Prioritization of the tasks in such restructuring agenda and garnering political support for the same, are two sets of groundwork that any restructuring agenda cannot perhaps bypass. To both ends, Dr. Mahat as the finance minister has a couple of rare strengths. He understands the Nepali economy thoroughly -- its cracks and crevasses-and has a pro-private sector image. Also, he carries equally strong weaknesses; that he carries a big baggage of self-righteousness, doesn&#39;t have a professional team and hardly trusts anyone and, he is a bad politician, at least at the negotiation table.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Needless to reemphasize here, restructuring of a mixed economy that is chronically mismanaged is sure to be a daunting, painstakingly long-term process. If this is not a mere political gimmick that Dr. Mahat has no reason to indulge into, the homework needs to commence at least in two parallel fronts of the economy -- technical and political. On the technical side, there must be a dispassionate assessment of the loss incurred and persistent underperformance of the economy due to over-involvement of the government in planning, production and distribution systems. On the political front, to reduce the state involvement in functional aspects of the economy, a great deal of reorientation is imperative mainly in those political forces who are indoctrinated as communists or ardent socialists.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	A great amount of misgivings about the &#39;inevitability of state intervention and activism in economy&#39; must be dispelled, both at political or people&#39;s levels. Dr. Mahat himself needs enough courage to declare the institutions like the National Planning Commission obsolete, at least in the present form. In their present form, they act as omniscient of the needs and priorities of the populace at the grassroots. The decision on liquidating about three dozen state-owned enterprises that have acted as hungry sharks for years in the exchequer is long overdue. Only way to create public awareness on the futility to maintain status quo in these public institutions depends largely on the effective factual communication of the maladies and recurrent losses, year after year. One stroke of liquidating or privatizing the Nepal Oil Corporation would be enough to test Dr. Mahat&#39;s sincerity and courage to take-up really meaningful restructuring of Nepal&#39;s public economy.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The economy is under stress from more than one quarter. The ballooning imbalance in the country&#39;s foreign trade, dwindling absorption capacity of the financial resources and mass-migration of the working age population for low-earning jobs abroad creating labour-market distortion at home are three prominent areas that warrant top priority in the restructuring agenda.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The structural imbalances too are looming large. We spent decades lamenting on the lower-than-demand production of energy, mainly hydropower. But, despite all odds, the energy sector attracted a substantial investment and there are indications that the supply would be doubled in next four to five years. But, we became oblivious of the fact that we needed to develop adequate transmission lines to connect this power to individual houses. There are concerns of this power being wasted for lack of alternative arrangements, for example, replacing LPG cooking stoves with the electric ones to create market for the added power generation, or if possible export to India.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There is a sort of political consensus on the need of a tangible restructuring of the state when it hopefully gets federalized. The proposed agenda of economic restructuring must be a complementary process to that larger goal of spatial restructuring of the state. The restructuring of even larger scale is also required in the private sector to transform it from a mere a trade-margin capitalizer, like from gold smuggling, to employment-generator and export-promoter. Therefore, the restructuring agenda must not fizzle out as seasonal political hyperbole. It deserves more nuanced treatment to make it a fruit-bearing proposition.</div>',
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			'description' => 'Finance Minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat created ripples of a sort in mid-March when he pointed to the need of restructuring the economy. No doubt, this is a long pending agenda given the fact that Nepali economy is faced with stagflation-like trap for decades.',
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	(int) 12 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2773',
			'article_category_id' => '40',
			'title' => 'The Business For Social Benefit',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<em><span style="font-size:16px;">Social entrepreneurship in Nepal is on the way of gaining its ground over the last few years. Despite its varied aspects and differences in its definition, entrepreneurs agree it to be a form of business that helps in promoting social causes and better changes in society. &quot;Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid&quot;, a phrase coined by the late Indian academic CK Prahalad, has become popular among social entrepreneurs. But the question is: are we heading towards ensuring benefit to the bottom billions or not? In this issue, we focus on scope, opportunities and motivation for social entrepreneurs and the way forward.&nbsp;</span></em></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Siromani Dhungana</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Those at the &#39;bottom of the pyramid&rsquo; have been neglected since decades and it is time to change perceptions through which they are perceived. They should not be perceived only as recipients of aid.They are agents of development and they can be partner in entrepreneurship, says Catrin Frohlich, co-founder of Hidden Journeys who is involved in promotion of social entrepreneurship in Nepal for the last couple of years. She opines that acceptance of bottom billion as business partner opens avenue to set up social enterprises.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Social entrepreneurship embraces market-based approach as social enterprise is about innovation and making profit along with makingimpact on development of the society, she argues. It is not the rejection of profit but rather is about sharing of profit with target groups and there by helping them in enhancing their living standards, Frohlich adds.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepal needs to create jobs and job creation is not possible without enterprises. Social entrepreneurship is all about leading country towards prosperity through sustainable approaches.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong><img alt="Catrin Frohlich" src="/userfiles/images/cs1(2).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;width: 300px; height: 144px;" />Scenario of Social Entrepreneurship</strong></span></div>
<div>
	A large number of population is reeling under acute poverty despite the fact that massive resources at the local level remain unused.In such a scenario, Nepal can be a very appropriate country for venturing into social enterprises.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, it is again not an easy task to venture into social enterprises, especially in a country with relative absence of entrepreneurial aptitude. Social entrepreneurship is comparatively new phenomenon but it is gaining momentum, says Vidhan Rana of Biruwa Ventures. We have good understanding of the word social but less understanding of the word entrepreneurship, he opines. &ldquo;Social entrepreneurshipis not about establishing NGOs and distributing aid money to people in need,&rdquo; he says, adding, &ldquo;Innovative ideas to venture into business is a must to start enterprise.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Many people perceive the term social enterprise as a connotation of not-for-profit organization. The not-for-profit mantra is out-dated now, says Rana adding, &ldquo;Make profit but involve the bottom billions in business and share the profit with them. This is the philosophy behind the concept of social entrepreneurship.&rdquo; Social entrepreneurship has become a buzz word and Rana fears that this hypemight be misused by not genuine social enterprises.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This is a new domain and there is a corresponding dilemma at the policy level. While a debate on what is genuine social entrepreneurship has started, Sadhana Shrestha, executive director at TEWA and former Country Representative, in Nepal at Ashoka, accepts the prevalence of dilemma about the termamong businessmen also. While attempting to correct the prevailing notion that perceives both types of organizations synonymously, she says that NGOs and social enterprises are different. Nepal does not have laws specific to social entrepreneurship but it certainly has a category in the Company Act, which describes such companies as those that do not distribute profits (though they makes profits).&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The most encouraging part in this is the increasing involvement of young generation. Youth led organizations such as Biruwa Ventures, Entrepreneurs for Nepal (E4N), Udhyami Nepali, Hidden Journeys and ChangeFusion Nepal have been working to promote entrepreneurship including that of social entrepreneurship.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong><img alt="Sadhana Shrestha" src="/userfiles/images/cs2(2).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;width: 300px; height: 144px;" />Fight Poverty with Profitability</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&ldquo;The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits,&rdquo; by C.K. Prahalad, professor of corporate strategy at the Ross School of Business of the University of Michigan is considered as a seminal work on social entrepreneurship. The concept of &lsquo;The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid&rsquo; provided new business models targeted at providing goods and services to the poorest people in the world. Prahalad&rsquo;s concept seeks to solve global poverty by turning the bottom of the socioeconomic pyramid from victims of globalization into its beneficiaries through consumerism.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The book combined a pragmatic framework with inspirational case studies to show companies how they could develop innovative business models and find new profits by serving the world&rsquo;s five billion poorest people at the bottom of the economic pyramid (or BOP).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Prof Prahalad was in favour of private-sector led social enterprises. Responding to a question &ldquo;What are the big lessons learned since the book was first published?&rdquo; by Triple Pundit, a new-media company for highly conscious business leaders, Prahalad said:&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	First, the thesis of the book that the private sector is an integral part of the poverty alleviation process is well accepted by multilaterals, aid agencies, many NGOs and large private sector firms as well. &nbsp;Second, there is now a growing belief that the bottom of the pyramid provides an opportunity for business to &ldquo;do good and do well.&rdquo; Third, we recognize that the BOP is more than micro-consumers. &nbsp;It also represents micro producers and micro investors who can be connected to national and global markets. And the BOP can also be the source of major innovations that affect us all. &nbsp;These ideas were in the original book but have been confirmed and amplified.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Reviewing the book, Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software Architect, Microsoft says: &quot;C. K. Prahalad argues that companies must revolutionize how they do business in developing countries if both sides of that economic equation are to prosper. Drawing on a wealth of case studies, his compelling new book offers an intriguing blueprint for how to fight poverty with profitability.&quot; This book is considered a hallmark in introducing discourse and practices of private sector led social enterprises.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong><img alt="Vidhan Rana" src="/userfiles/images/cs3(2).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;width: 300px; height: 144px;" />Evolution of the Concept &amp; Growing Concern&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Many believe that business philanthropy and social involvement of business community is linked with long rooted concept of &ldquo;Sewa Hi Paramo Dharma&rdquo; [Social Service is the Ultimate Religion]. Historical evidences suggest that not all business leaders have been content in simply performing a commercial role in society. Numerous businesspersons, industrialists and entrepreneurs have made significant contributions to their local communities.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Earlier, there were notable efforts to engage business in society via charity or social welfare activities. These were mainly inspired by religious affiliation and cultural inspirations. From mid-1970s onwards general interest in corporate social responsibility grew and this is reflected in the involvement of Nepali corporate sector in CSR activities. &nbsp;This interest was consolidated in the 1980s. As part of the general redefinition of state functions in this period, the role of business in addressing social problems became more prominent. Such political and policy developments, it is argued, have made a significant contribution towards enhancing social roles of businesses.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Social Enterprises: Sustainable Approach of Development&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Sadhana Shrestha, while stating that NGO workers should not be considered as social entrepreneurs, claims that social entrepreneurship should have some basic qualities: innovation, breakthrough ideas, sustainable and replicable model and system changing ideas.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Social entrepreneurs should give enough attention to the sustainability of their business and generally do not distribute dividend rather inject it in the business to ensure sustainability of the enterprise, she claims.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Social enterprises are businesses whose primary purpose is the common good. The main characteristics that distinguish a social enterprise from other types of businesses, non-profits and the government agencies is its sustainable approach, opines Mahabir Pun, the winner of the Ramon Magsaysay Award 2007 for his project that brought wireless Internet to rural Nepal.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Social enterprise directly addresses a difficult social need and serves the common good, either through its products and services or through the number of disadvantaged people it employs.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Challenges in Social Entrepreneurship&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The social enterprise movement was connected mainly with non-profits that used business models and earned income strategies to pursue their mission in the early days of social entrepreneurship. The understanding has become clearer now. Enterprises, whose sole purpose is to make social impact, are now considered as social enterprises. The sector, however, is not out of challenges.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Identification of business model:</strong> Business is often linked with profit in Nepal. And even the image of non-profits is not very positive. In such a situation, building positive image for social enterprises is a challenging task, says Catrin Frohlich.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Capacity building: </strong>Building capacity of aspirant social entrepreneurs is another challenge for Nepal&rsquo;s social entrepreneurial world. Capacity building initiatives should not be limited to launch of businesses, but should be continued when it comes at scaling up level, addsFrohlich.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Financing:</strong> A real social entrepreneurship is about innovation but traditional financing institutions do not always believe in innovative ideas and may deny lending money, opines Frohlich while pointing to the challenge of acquiring financial assistance for social enterprises.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Legal provision:</strong> Policy and regulatory frameworks have many grey areas. In such a context, it is feared that the word social entrepreneurship could be easily misused by non-profits and others institutions to gain undeserving reputation, says VidhanRana.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Opportunities&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The concept of social entrepreneurship is an outcome of the realization that aid recipients cannot make tremendous progress in their life compared to entrepreneurs, says Vidhan Rana. In the same vein, Frohlich also opines that despite some good works, NGO-model of development is not always in favour of the bottom billion. Despite challenges, social entrepreneurship field in Nepal is recently witnessing positive trends and receiving new opportunities as it is the best model for optimum and sustainable use of resources.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	If analysed from the perspective of national development, social entrepreneurship does not put the national economy at risk. It is a beautiful aspect of social entrepreneurship that while an individual takes all the risk of innovation, all members of the target community share the benefit.Similarly, social entrepreneurship is even more inclusiveforwomen entrepreneurs and adopting this approach can assist in making the entire development process more inclusive. Considering the present trend, it is obvious that in the coming years we&rsquo;ll see social entrepreneurship woven into the very fabric of existing disciplines and become an integral lens through which we will understand all sectors and fields of study.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Corporate Houses for Social Cause&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to a business practice that involves participating in initiatives that will have positive impact in the society. Generally, CSR activities are carried out using profit amount. CSR is a process with the aim to embrace responsibility for the company&#39;s actions and encourage a positive impact through its activities on the environment, consumers, employees and communities.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Though companies are not directly involved in social entrepreneurship, their involvement in social issues has been increasing in one or another form. In Nepal, many companies have been involved in many social activities such as Coke for water conservation, Unilever for hand washing promotion, Yeti Air tree plantation etc.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Involvement of business community in social activities is not new phenomenon. Some renowned business houses have been involved in some traditional CSR activities. Operation of eye hospital from Golchha and donation to Briddhashram (old age home) from some business families can be taken as examples to this end.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Further, some business houses have been involved in special CSR initiatives as annual events such as Asha Awards, Sports Tourism promotion, and health awareness program being carried out by Surya Nepal. There also are some companies such as NCELL that provide direct charity (e.g. school building, sukumbasi house roofing etc.) that is linked directly with their business promotion. Chaudhary Group has established a separate unit Yunus Centre to promote social entrepreneurship though it is yet to start work effectively.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Besides, recruitment of deaf staffs in the Nanglo restaurant can be taken as a good example of social entrepreneurship business. Dabur is also involved in social business as it provides help to farmers in herbal cultivation.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Future Outlook</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Positive impact made by existing social enterprises on target communities and in making profit has triggered enthusiasm in aspiring entrepreneurs. Numbers of aspirant social entrepreneurs are increasing and their conviction show that they can make money and can do things differently in the entrepreneurial world. &nbsp;Social enterprises will prove that enterprises can be financially sustainable, even profitable.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs4(2).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 512px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>',
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			'created' => '2014-04-10',
			'modified' => '2014-05-07',
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			'description' => 'Social entrepreneurship in Nepal is on the way of gaining its ground over the last few years. Despite its varied aspects and differences in its definition, entrepreneurs agree it to be a form of business that helps in promoting social causes and better changes in society.',
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	(int) 13 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2768',
			'article_category_id' => '169',
			'title' => 'The Right To Reject!',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Last September, Supreme Court of India passed a landmark judgment by opining that &quot;If right to vote is statutory, right to reject candidate is also a fundamental right of expression under Constitution&quot;. Court declared that Democracy is all about choice and if dejected with the candidates, one has every right to express displeasure by rejecting the entire lot and send a clear, unambiguous signal to Political Parties to find better alternatives. Henceforth, &ldquo;None of the above&rdquo; as an option will appear mandatorily in every ballot and voters can exercise that if needed. When Voters proclaim blanket dislikes for all, there will be re-election. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This sets my imagination flying; suppose we decree that if 50% of the turned out voters cast their vote on &ldquo;None of the above&rdquo;, parties must recall earlier candidates and sent new ones for re-election? Moreover, what if those recalled candidates would be barred from contesting for another three years? Not only that, suppose somebody stands from multiple constituency and gets expunged in one, he would be automatically disqualified even if he emerges as winner in the other? What a revolutionary power it will bestow on the common man.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	We shout about People&rsquo;s power, People&rsquo;s Democracy but ultimately, in present context, common man is nothing but a puppet dancing to the tunes of various political parties. With this option, the true power will be with us, the common man. If we dislike the candidates, all we have to do is to cast our vote on &ldquo;None of the above&rdquo; option.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In any Election, normally voter turnout varies from 50% to 65%. 50% of that is only 30% of the total voting population. So, if 30% of awakened populations are unhappy with the choices given by the Political parties, they can bring down the political parties on their knees. Taking one step forward, what if we mandate that the cost of reelection will be borne by those parties? What a shame will that be!&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Just imagine the impact. Each political party will put in candidates without any blemish. Re-election will be solely on the basis of good work. All indicted criminals, murderers, fraudsters will not be able to contest because no political party will take chance. People contesting from Multiple Electorate will be equally cautious. If they win in one constituency and Rejection verdict came in the other then they face disqualification for three years. Trend of senior leaders standing up from multiple constituencies will reduce dramatically which will bring in more honest and&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	young politicians.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Democracy is about choice and choosing to &ldquo;Reject&rdquo; is the biggest reward democracy can offer to people. In Nepal too the supreme court has already given the right to reject election candidates. Now, all the political parties of Nepal will need serious introspection and Civil Society will emerge stronger. In right democracy, freedom has to be universally upheld and protected, as Scot Howard Phillips stated aptly &ndash; &ldquo;One can&rsquo;t pick and chose which type of freedom one wants to defend. Either one defends all or against all such freedom.&rdquo;</div>',
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	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Upashana Neupane</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<table align="right" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;" width="25">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>
				<img alt="Shailaja Adhikary, Managing Director, IEC College of Art and Fashion" src="/userfiles/images/be3%20(Copy).jpg" style="border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; width: 200px; height: 237px;" /></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
				<div align="center">
					<div>
						<strong>Shailaja Adhikary</strong></div>
					<div>
						Managing Director</div>
					<div>
						IEC College of Art and Fashion</div>
				</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<div>
	If &nbsp;you are passionate about designing your own imagination and flaunting the trendy designs, you can get the route by pursuing a career in the same world. IEC (Indian Education Centre) College of Art and Fashion, the pioneer in the country to introduce the course in fashion designing is providing you two courses where you can scribble your mind creatively and artistically: Bachelors in Fashion Design and Bachelors in Interior Design.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Recognising the need and addressing the passion for fashion design course in Nepal, Shailaja Adhikary, started the institution on her sole initiation. Adhikary, who is the Managing Director at the college, shares that her step to introduce a new course and that too of fashion in Nepal was not easy but says it was worth the effort. Adhikary shares she was only 21, when she started IEC realising the need in the country to set up the institution for professional fashion designing training.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	IEC was started as an institution for computer trainings and fashion designing initially. Adhikary had to include the computer courses in her institution as people then were not so much willing to join the tailoring courses as it was attributed with the negative stereotypes. &ldquo;I turned down the computer courses, when Ifelt the craze for fashion design increasing and computer slowing down&rdquo;, she recalls, &ldquo;That was the right time to gear up for the Fashion Designing course in Nepal.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>The Courses Offered</strong></span></div>
<div>
	IEC Offers Bachelors degree in two courses: Fashion Design and Interior Design. The three-year Bachelor degree is segregated into six semesters.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Fashion Designing course helps students learn draping, patternmaking, and sewing techniques in detail. Students are also provided with the opportunity to interact with the top designers of the country and abroad as they visit the college as guest speakers helping student understand and create designs that can be made public through on campus exhibitions.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Interior Designing course provides student in-depth knowledge about field and gets opportunities to collaborate and interact with leading practitioners too. The college arranges field visits to the places with interior spaces like hotels and restaurants, hospitals, residences, stores and so on. Students are also provided with internship facilities in their last semester. &ldquo;We are soon planning to send our students to India for internship&rdquo;, she shares, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a bigger platform and exposure there.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>After Graduation</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Graduates of both the courses get ample career choices. Adhikary shares that there is a huge market for the graduates and they can be consumed very fast and easy. &ldquo;Not only domestic market, students have to compete in the international arena too,&rdquo; she shares.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Adhikary who herself believe in making your own identity always suggests her students to start entrepreneurship. &ldquo;You shouldn&rsquo;t give your hard work to somebody else,&rdquo; she opines, &ldquo;Have the experience of 2-3 years to work under other organisation and then start your own business.&rdquo; Fashion Design graduates can pursue their career as costume designer, fashion consultants, fashion designer, fashion entrepreneurs, fashion photography coordinators, fashion show coordinators, fashion stylists, production supervisors, accessory designers, jewellery designers and so on.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Meanwhile, Interior Design Graduates can pursue their career as CAD (Computer-Aided Designs) designers, commercial interior designers, designer consultants, exhibition organizers, furniture designers, institutional interior designers, fashion show coordinators, lighting designers, and residential interior designers etc.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Likewise, IEC has been supporting various fashion shows and beauty contest in Nepal which is a plus point for the students. It was also the joint organiser of first Fashion Week which was first of its kind in Nepal. &ldquo;These kinds of shows provide bigger exposure to the designers&rdquo; Adhikary opines, &ldquo;They give bigger platforms to the new and talented designers in the country andneeded to be encouraged more.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Business Education" src="/userfiles/images/be1%20(Copy)(1).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 468px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Eligibility</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Those who have passed their +2 level in any faculty are eligible for the entrance exams taken by the college. And one must pass the entrance test to get the admission. The College is affiliated to the Vinayaka Missions University, India.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Started from 13 students, Adhikary recollects the memory of her initial days where she only had been able to make 35 students throughout the year.&ldquo;The scenario now has thoroughly changed and the fashion designing course or fashion itself is not viewed with the stereotypes&rdquo;, she shares.The college now is over flooded with the focused and determined studentswilling to pursue the courses and Adhikary is positive that the scenario will still get better.</div>',
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			'description' => 'IEC, the pioneer in the country to introduce the course in fashion designing is providing you with the opportunity to scribble your mind creatively.',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<div>
		<em><span style="font-size: 14px;">The seeds of e-commerce were sown in Nepal about a decade and a half ago. It has taken a bit longer for the fruits to be borne, but today we can see some of them. Offline shopping is still the popular option, but a lot more Nepalis are buying online today. The total annual online business in Nepal is now estimated to be Rs 10 billion, according to industry insiders who attribute this growth to the rising Internet population, a growing middle class, increasing mobile penetration as well as low levels of e-commerce activities.&nbsp;</span></em></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;Compared to the developed countries, Nepal&rsquo;s e-commerce is still in its infancy. Its share in the national GDP is negligible at present but it has been growing,&rdquo; says Amrit Man Tuladhar, CEO of Muncha.com, one of the country&rsquo;s leading e-commerce websites which has been in operation since 2000. According to Tuladhar, the past couple of years have been particularly encouraging for e-commerce in the country. &ldquo;Some unique websites have come up over the past couple of years,&rdquo; he observes.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Thamel.com is perhaps the first e-commerce site in the country. It started online business in 1999 and today it is one of the major players. &ldquo;We are probably the first company in Nepal to start online business with a dot com company name registered as Thamel Dot Com Pvt Ltd,&rdquo; claims Rajesh Lal Joshi, CEO of Thamel.com. &nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		E-commerce in Nepal started through gift-sending and bill payment services through online portals. Today, it&rsquo;s possible to buy almost everything online - new clothes, books, mobile phones, laptops, second-hand goods, jewelleries, home appliances, fresh vegetables and what not. One can even order one&rsquo;s lunch online from home or office, thanks to the latest developments in e-commerce activities. There are a number of e-commerce companies offering these services. Airlines have started selling air-tickets online through these services. Banks are handling online transactions because people have started paying and receiving online, though the trend is low.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;In 2000, there were a couple of websites doing e-commerce. Today there are more than a hundred. Of them, over a dozen are active in the business,&rdquo; says Tuladhar. &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs4(1).JPG" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;width: 300px; height: 316px;" />Growing Popularity &amp; New Trends</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Today, the online market has expanded due to the increasing purchasing power of Nepali consumers. The trend is also on the rise because of the rise in the number of Internet users. &ldquo;Online business is on a progressive path and the trend is evolving high with many players coming in the arena with their unique business models,&rdquo; says Joshi.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		The domestic e-commerce market has now expanded into various segments such as online shopping, e-banking, mobile commerce, electronic cash transfers and e-ticketing. Online markets are attracting buyers (and sellers too!) because they are time- and money-saving and are hassle free.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;Lately, Nepal has graphed a swerving online presence. The proliferation of various online business portals in recent years is enough to valibate the claim that &nbsp;the presence of e-commerce is encouraging in Nepal,&rdquo; says Asgar Ali, CEO of eSewa Fonepay.com.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Annual online transactions in Nepal are estimated to be around Rs 10 billion, although an official figure is not available. Dozens of online shopping websites have emerged since the inception of e-commerce in Nepal. Muncha.com, Thamel.com, Harilo.com, YesKantipur.com, Metrotarkari.com, Foodmandu.com, Bhatbhatenionline.com, etc. are some of the popular websites among Nepali online shoppers (see Box). Some of them sell their own products whereas others deliver from global sites such as eBay and Amazon.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		According to industry insiders, Nepalis of the middle- and upper-middle class who have access to faster Internet have started enjoying shopping online. &nbsp;They find it easy because on the one hand it saves time, on the other, it&rsquo;s easy and reliable. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t need to hang around shopping stores and malls wondering where a particular product is. With online shopping, all you need to do is find a product online, fill-in payment details and submit. That&rsquo;s all to get your stuffs delivered at your home,&rdquo; says Manish Shrestha, portal chief of Bhatbhatenionline.com.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>E-banking</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Lately, electronic banking or e-banking, as it is more popularly known, is getting popular in Nepal. According to the stakeholders, the use of e-banking has been increasing with the rising competition among the banks and financial institutions. &ldquo;The trend of e-banking is growing,&rdquo; says NRB Spokesperson Bhaskar Mani Gyawali, &ldquo;The situation of e-banking in the country is satisfactory at present.&rdquo;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Instead of opening a new branch, banks have started focusing on e-banking which is a cost-effective way to expand their services. For this, banks have adopted modern banking technologies such as branch-less banking, mobile banking etc. According to NRB, all 32 commercial banks in the country have started branch-less banking and mobile banking by mid-January 2014.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Banks&rsquo; customers are, however, yet to adopt online payment for the goods or services they buy on the Internet. Most online shoppers still prefer cash on delivery (COD) though all commercial banks provide e-banking services. &ldquo;There is a lack of awareness among Nepalis about e-banking. An overwhelming majority still prefers COD though they have bank accounts,&rdquo; shares Stebin Bajracharya of Harilo.com.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs1.JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 412px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>E-ticketing</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Nepali air travelers are gradually getting used to e-ticketing, a good evidence of growing e-commerce in the country. Today, all private sector airlines currently operational in Nepal are selling their tickets online. According to the Airline Operators Association of Nepal (AOAN), all air travellers who have access to the Internet have started buying tickets online. &ldquo;E-ticketing has become popular because it saves time,&rdquo; says AOAN Spokesperson Ghanashyam Acharya, &ldquo;Very few people reach the airline&rsquo;s office to buy tickets these days.&rdquo;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Agrees Prajwal Thapa, marketing director at Simrik Air. &ldquo;Both foreigners and Nepali travellers buy tickets online for domestic flights.&rdquo;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC), the state-owned airline which is the only airline in Nepal that doesn&rsquo;t offer e-ticketing has started preparations to start providing the service within 2071 BS (by mid-April 2015), according to an NAC official. &ldquo;E-ticketing is one of NAC priorities for the new year,&rdquo; he said.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs5(2).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;width: 300px; height: 281px;" />Payment Options&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		In the past, Nepali online shoppers were dependent on international payment mechanisms and merchants to purchase online. However, today there are few, but enough for the time being, online payment processing companies in Nepal, which allow online shoppers to pay their bills online, without any processing fees, in most of the cases.</div>
	<div>
		Most of these companies allow the customers to send and receive money online, buy air tickets, pay utility bills, purchase mobile recharge cards, pay school college bills, Internet bills, subscribe to newspapers and magazines online; Some of these companies are eSewa and PayWay.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		People can also pay for the goods they buy online through e-banking and debit cards. This trend has started but it is negligible at present. A majority of online shoppers still prefer paying cash on delivery.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;The online payment structure in Nepal is still being developed so we still do a lot of cash business. &nbsp;We encourage our customers to pay online as much as possible given the options in Nepal which are basically bank to bank transfers or payment gateways who are tied to your bank account,&rdquo; says Akshay Sthapit, CEO of Harilo.com.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Problems &amp; Limitations</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Though an Internet-based business, e-commerce in Nepal seems to be limited to the Capital valley. Some online business activities have been reported in places like Pokhara and Dharan but such activities are few and far between.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;There are e-commerce websites which provide their services across the country. But may be because of the lack of awareness, the online customers are mainly from the Kathmandu valley, mainly Kathmandu and Lalitpur. However, we do have customers from a few other cities as well,&rdquo; shares Stebin Bajracharya of Harilo.com.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Lack of a clear policy is another problem and according to people in the online business, it is hindering the growth of online markets in the country. &ldquo;There is no clear policy. The government has neither helped the domestic e-commerce market nor obstructed it,&rdquo; says Joshi of Thamel.com. We don&#39;t have any act, law or regulation or government directives which allows conducting legal online financial transactions. Critics say that the Electronic Transaction Act without a single word on online payment is only half done.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		According to Tuladhar of Muncha.com, Nepal&rsquo;s e-commerce market is facing problems in the bill payment system. &ldquo;The government can facilitate by establishing a central payment gateway. The central bank and concerned authorities should look into this issue,&rdquo; he advises.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Lack of a regulator is another problem. At present, all one needs to do to run an e-commerce site is register a company at the Company Registrar&rsquo;s Office. Once the company is registered, one can start the business. No one knows which agency is responsible for regulating the e-commerce business &ndash; Ministry of Finance, Nepal Rastra Bank, Ministry of Science and Technology, High level Commission for Information Technology or National Information Technology Centre?&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs2.JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 337px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>The Issue of Digital Signature</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		Although online transactions are on the rise in the country, the trend of acquiring authorized digital signature, which is essential for the business, has not started. According to Electronic Transaction Act 2008, all companies, which carry out electronic transactions must acquire digital signature from the Certified Authority (CA) licensed by the Office of the Controller of Certification (OCC). &ldquo;Banks and financial institutions, remittance companies, and e-commerce companies among others are the kind of companies which should acquire a digital signature from a CA licensed by the OCC,&rdquo; said Manish Bhattarai, deputy controller of the OCC, an agency under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (MoSTE).&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		So far, only one company, Nepal Certifying Authority (NCA), has acquired the license for CA from the OCC. &ldquo;Though one company has been issued the license of CA, no company or individual has acquired a digital signature so far in Nepal from the CA licensed by the OCC. Electronic transactions carried out without a digital signature from a CA licensed by the OCC do not have legal validity,&rdquo; claims Bhattarai. He also informed NewBiz that the OCC has drawn the attention of Nepal Rastra Bank regarding the issue of the BFIs not acquiring authorized digital signature.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Biplav Man Singh of NCA, however, claims that the issuance of digital signature has not started in Nepal because of the government&rsquo;s negligence. &ldquo;The government has issued the CA license to NCA but it has not provided the Root Certificate to us. Therefore, we have not been able to issue any digital signature. It has been a year since we have been issued the license,&rdquo; laments Singh.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Digital signature is like an electronic locking system, which facilitates and regulate the authenticity of electronic transactions. It cannot be stolen or copied by any fraud, authenticates the identity of the sender of a message or signatory of a document and ensures that the document is unchanged. Nepal government introduced digital signature in financial transactions from February 2012. The MoSTE established the OCC to manage electronic transactions and use technology to reduce electronic crimes.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;Online transactions have been getting popular lately, but the question of security has always been there. A digital signature ensures secured, authentic and non-repudiation electronic transactions such as e-mail, e-commerce, e-banking and e-governance,&rdquo; shares Bhattarai.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Bhattarai informed NewBiz that OCC has already drawn the attention of the NRB to take action against BFIs for using digital signatures from unauthorized firms. At present, companies based in India and America are issuing digital signatures to local online transaction service providers, which is against the Electronic Transaction Act 2008. &ldquo;Sadly, all BFIs providing internet banking service are using digital signatures issued by unauthorized licensors,&rdquo; said Bhattarai.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong><img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs6(2).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;width: 300px; height: 566px;" />Digital Agencies</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		With living standards and costs going up in developed nations, digital agencies and online business marketers from there gradually made headways into third world countries including Nepal looking for avenues to establish their offshore units. Today, there are many digital agencies or IT companies, as they are known in Nepal.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		While outsourcing their software to clients from developed nations, many of these digital agencies also tried to educate Nepali entrepreneurs for taking their businesses online. &ldquo;It was very hard to find business persons who were willing to take their businesses online. My team struggled for a couple of years but our continuous efforts in educating entrepreneurs for going online bore fruits,&rdquo; says Deepak Bhandari, Founder of Radiant Infotech Nepal&mdash;a digital agency that has been in the software production business for more than a decade now.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		With the operational costs relatively lower and prospects much brighter, Bhandari shares that small investment, consistency in work quality coupled with good communicative and technical skills and a willingness to adapt and upgrade to technological advances is all that is needed to thrive in the digital agency business.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Along with taking Nepali businesses online, Nepali digital agencies compete in the global freelance market. &ldquo;Competing in the global market is not an easy task unless you are ready to deliver outstanding products at relatively modest prices,&rdquo; says Sanjeev Singh, Co-founder of Catmandu- a startup Nepali digital agency that mostly outsources its products.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		It&rsquo;s not just Nepalis who are materializing their dreams via the Silicon Valley revolution offshoot; many digital agencies with foreign roots and international foot prints have established their offshore production in Nepal. India has been a major destination for software outsourcing in South Asia, but still Nepal has its own attributes to win over some share of it.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;I took a fortunate trip just over a decade ago to India and other countries, looking for ways to reduce my growing software development requirements for clients in Melbourne. Even though it was a challenging time in Nepal, with the UN assisting in the path to a new democracy, I felt Nepal offered a unique opportunity. It was not saturating like India&rsquo;s IT industry,&rdquo; says Michael Simonetti, founder of AndMine, an Australian digital agency that has its offshore production unit in Nepal.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Though the growing inflation and corresponding increase in the operational and other costs have been testing the offshore model, Simonetti still sees future in the model. Complimenting his view, Bhandari says that Nepal has bright scope in the digital agency business. He quotes an online report: &ldquo;Over the coming years, outsourcers are expected to expand their operations quite substantially. Different survey reports have claimed that the growth of outsourcing will remain strong. Like India and other nations there is huge potential for Nepal also to grow in IT service outsourcing business&rdquo;.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		While Internet connectivity, working hours, political instability and power cut are the concerns of this sector, Deepak finds lack of any state mechanism to bring all financial transactions made by freelancer software manufacturer as a major problem for the growth of IT service outsourcing business. &ldquo;Many freelancers are involved in this business without any legal registration. The government should seriously implement the plans it has made so far for the development of this sector along with bringing freelancers within the boundary of taxation.&rdquo;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs3(3).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 375px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Brighter Prospects</strong></span></div>
	<div>
		E-commerce has brighter prospects in the country, according to industry insiders. The access of Nepalis to the Internet has been increasing. The new generation is very keen about online activities. &ldquo;It seems the stage has been set for a rapid growth in online shopping as people find less and less time for physical shopping,&rdquo; observes Tuladhar.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&ldquo;We will soon see a Cambrian moment with online shopping and services once proper payment systems and delivery infrastructures are in place which is already happening. &nbsp;When that happens, the change will be swift just like it was with mobile phones in Nepal,&rdquo; concludes Akshay Sthapit, CEO, Harilo.com.</div>
	<div>
		(With inputs from Chitra Raj Bhandari)</div>
</div>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-05-07',
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			'description' => 'The seeds of e-commerce were sown in Nepal about a decade and a half ago. It has taken a bit longer for the fruits to be borne, but today we can see some of them. Offline shopping is still the popular option, but a lot more Nepalis are buying online today. The total annual online business in Nepal is now estimated to be Rs 10 billion, according to industry insiders who attribute this growth to the rising Internet population, a growing middle class, increasing mobile penetration as well as low levels of e-commerce activities.',
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	(int) 1 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2778',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Political Process: Tardy, Taxing And Tattered',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The leaders of all major political parties, including the Prime Minister Sushil Koirala are artlessly repeating the same statement: &#39;We will complete the drafting of the new constitution within a year&#39;; as if it is just the next day of the second Constituent Assembly (CA II) elections. They do not seem to realize a bare fact that exactly a good half of the year since these elections in the November last has elapsed without scoring any success in any front -- governance, diplomacy, legislation or constitution writing. The worst of all, lately things are hopelessly falling apart so as to making both the government and the CA once again hostage to essentially unnecessary bickering at the highest political level. Thanks to dysfunctional prime minister, over-bullying major coalition partner CPN-UML and non-cooperative, ever-apprehensive and confused main opposition UCPN Maoist.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Every possible executive decision is postponed without any tangible reason. In six months, the cabinet couldn&#39;t pick up twenty-six names to be appointed as CA members from among putatively the national &#39;elite&#39; personalities. The process of appointing of more than one and half dozen of ambassadors in important missions including New Delhi and Washington DC couldn&#39;t even begin. In absence of timely decision of Constitutional Council headed by the prime minister himself, the Supreme Court is left with mere five judges out of almost normally functional twenty positions. Ironically, the appointments in the prime minister&#39;s secretariat and National Planning Commission were not made in time. Almost all constitutional bodies too remain vacant. The advertisements published to fill in those constitutional positions like the commissioners in the Public Service Commission, National Human Rights Commission and the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority, by a sort of free competition is not attracting any dignified figures. They are most likely to be filled by typically clerical minded ex-bureaucrats rendering these crucial institutions, once again, retrograde.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The government is backtracking from the vowed commitments like holding local elections by this month (May). The parliamentary party leader of the major coalition partner CPN-UML, K P Oli from the hospital bed in New Delhi in mid-April declared that the local body elections will be held only after &#39;promulgating the new constitution&#39;. Apparently, his statement didn&#39;t come in consultation with the prime minister who still reiterates, though not convincingly, to hold these elections, may be by June end. The reasons cited not to hold the polls are clearly unpalatable. &#39;There is not enough time now to hold them before monsoon,&#39; said Oli. But nothing had stopped the government announcing it right after taking the oath of office. Clearly, there was no political will to take-up this issue in the right earnest. The second argument, which is abetted by the UCPN (Maoist) too, is that the concentration in the local elections would take the focus off the constitution writing process. It sounds as if the CA proceedings are now going at the right direction as per the popular expectation. Unfortunately, this is not the case, which, thus for all practical purposes smells rat in very faith of democracy of these leaders.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	And, more importantly, it will not be as easy to hold local elections immediately after completing the draft of the constitution as claimed by the UML and UCPN Maoists. The reasons to it are obvious. First, it is highly unlikely that the constitution drafting process will be completed anytime soon. Even some form of draft is agreed upon, say in a year from now, the most likely scenario is that it cannot be promulgated without going into more costly exercises like referendum. Therefore, postponing local elections now means that they are postponed again for an unforeseeable future, which indeed is highly unfortunate. The common people now need the local democratic institutions in place far more than the constitution, which indeed is the largely esoteric proposition for them compared to the elected local government next door. Once again the democracy has been ditched.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The public speeches of the Deputy Prime Minister Bamdev Gautam from UML sound as if his party is not a junior partner but a majority government that has &#39;mercifully&#39; appended the Nepali Congress to be its partner. In all these orchestra of fools, the Prime Minister Koirala remains as faceless as ever. When the country desperately awaits his bold and speedy decisions in more than one front, he seems to have chosen to cover his absolute non-performance by cheap publicity stunts of forsaking some allowances and perks and avoiding five-star hotel accommodations. Such tantrums cannot be substitute to the aspired effective delivery of goods from the chief executive of the nation. If Koirala had real intentions of giving a clean and effective government to the nation and upholding the democratic practice, he should have guts to tell his coalition partners not to nominate ministers that were not the elected members of parliament and those who are the kiths and kins of the influential leaders of the fringe parties.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Both the CA and legislature parliament have been rendered equally non-functional. In over four months, CA has failed to elect the subject committee conveners that are supposed to be key to formulate and moot respective constitutional provisions for discussion in the House. The chair of the crucial constitutional committee in CA remains vacant as of these lines were written. The CA virtually has not been given any business. Attendance in the scheduled meetings is so low that many of scheduled House sessions are often cancelled for lack of presence of minimum required number of members known as &#39;quota&#39;. Even the orientation of the (new) CA members about their roles, responsibilities and duties was not thought necessary.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The legislature parliament too is equally ineffective. Not only it has fallen short to ponder over the bottlenecks that the country is faced with in absence of laws in many spheres, it has also failed to pass a number of important bills that are gathering dust in wait of votes for years. The new bill on Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has further estranged the Maoists from supposedly collaborative political process. The former jungle warfare Maoist guerrillas who are in favour of nothing less than blanket amnesty to them in the guise of &#39;wartime issues&#39; are highly apprehensive of legal action on many of them if the bill is allowed to pass as proposed by the joint committee of political parties. If the bill is made law as in the spirit spelt out by UML leader Oli, the Maoists&#39; rank and file may crumble like house of cards in legal battle on crime against humanity. &#39;Except for the deaths at the frontline, those involved in killings by dragging out persons from their beds at the midnight, killing them by plucking out the eyes, amputating the body parts and hanging or burying them alive cannot be put off the legal purview&#39;, he thundered a few weeks ago. He sounds fairly reasonable. But will that bring about solution to the political stalemate? Or, will this bill actually become an Act and implemented accordingly? These however are more pressing questions altogether.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Maoists have already begun their non-cooperation by boycotting even entirely unrelated political processes in protest of the current form of the TRC bill. It may be recalled that such a commission was part of the Comprehensive Peace Accord of 2006, thus a crucial part of the peace process. The formation of it was deliberately avoided during the past CA tenure of four years when the country saw two Maoist prime ministers in the period.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The another bone of contention has become the so called High Level Political Committee (HLPC) that was in existence during the last CA, and was considered largely responsible for derailing the due CA process; making it hostage to ever-elusive political consensus. Interestingly, the three major parties -the Congress, UML and Maoists did appeared to have agreed about a couple of months ago to revive it. But, when the UCPN (Maoist) supremo Pushpa Kamal Dahal insisted on being the convener of it, other parties took it as his ambition to be a &#39;super&#39; prime minister and wanted to thwart the process. The constitutionality of this mechanism has always been under the interrogation mark and its actions in the past surely undermined the elected House.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	All forms of slackness, inactions, procrastinations, machinations and squabbles have been highly taxing for the country. The perils are pronounced. The economy is in absolute tatters. New investment is not even trickling in. Governance and public service delivery have collapsed. People are exasperated for unnecessarily prolonged political transition. The hope of at least relative consolidation of democratic institutors after the Congress and UML jointly got majority in the House is now waning rapidly. The constitution writing process is still precariously fragile. Only solution to all these ailments is to act and act fast. The lead should unquestionably be taken by the ruling alliance and the prime minister in particular.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</em></div>',
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			'description' => 'Thanks to dysfunctional prime minister, over-bullying major coalition partner CPN-UML and non-cooperative, ever-apprehensive and confused main opposition UCPN Maoist.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2779',
			'article_category_id' => '215',
			'title' => 'Ukraine Crisis: Russian Economy In Peril',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<div>
		<strong>--By Sanjeev Sharma</strong></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		As the crisis in Ukraine continues to drag on, Russian economy is increasingly showing signs of sliding into recession. The annexation of Crimean peninsula and unrest in eastern Ukraine - termed by many as the adventurism of Russian President Vladimir Putin - also brought severe economic costs to the northern Eurasian giant. The worst standoff between Russia and the west since the end of cold war has sparked outflow of foreign investments from the Russian economy. Official data suggest that Russia witnessed net capital outflow amounting to USD 63 billion in the first quarter of 2014, more than double from the same period of last year. Similarly, GDP projections for this year also points to the fact that the country is swiftly descending into recession. Last month Russian finance minister Anton Siluanov warned the country is facing &#39;most difficult economic circumstances since the 2008 crisis.&#39; Siluanov in a government briefing estimated GDP growth to be 0.5 per cent or perhaps around zero in 2014. He was echoed by economy minister Alexei Ulyukayev who informed the parliament that national output contracted by 0.5 per cent in the first quarter this year compared to the fourth quarter of 2013.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		The unfolding of new chapters in Ukraine crisis and alleged Russian involvement is also affecting the sentiments of Russian investors very badly. After the ouster of Ukraine&#39;s pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych in February, the country&#39;s stock market plunged to multi-year lows. Amid the political turmoil in Ukraine and western sanctions placed against some influential people close to president Putin, Russia&#39;s heavyweight stock indicator, the RTS Index has lost its value by more than 21 percent in 2014. The Ruble is also in deep trouble as the currency weakened by capital flight has devalued by almost 10 per cent since mid-January. Meanwhile, in the wake of newly erupted geo-political tensions yields of long-term Russian government bonds have sky rocketed increasing the cost of public borrowing. The fear of investors seems to be driven by escalation of chaos in Ukraine which could further lead Russia into tighter sanctions or start of armed conflict in the region.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Russia enjoyed a healthy economic growth in the 2000s. In between 1999-2010 the country saw average GDP growth at 5.42 per cent. Despite the turbulence in Europe and United States alongside bleak global macroeconomic scenario, Russia was able to achieve respectable growth rates- 4.2 per cent in 2011 and 3.4 per cent in 2012- compared to its western peers. The country after experiencing a tumultuous decade following the collapse of Soviet Union in the early 90s largely benefitted from the era of &#39;commodity super cycle.&#39; Gas, oil, coal, timber and metals along with precious metals and stones topped Russia&#39;s exports led by the rise in demand especially in emerging markets as well as the concerns over the long-term supply availability. This resulted in the double-digit spike in commodity prices in the last decade and exporting nations accumulated substantial amount of wealth. The vast natural reserves of such minerals in Ural Mountains, Siberia and the Far East gave the country an edge to rise to the spot of top supplier. Before the US toppled down Russia in oil exports in 2013, the nation was the largest non-OPEC oil exporter in the world. Similarly, Russia is the world&#39;s largest natural gas exporter accounting 20 per cent of the total production in the world. Likewise, services sector also boomed in 90s and 2000s, ultimately becoming the largest sector which accounts for 58 per cent of the country&#39;s GDP. Apart from these, traditional exports of arms and military hardware also played vital role in the Russian economy.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/wf1.JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 303px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		The sound economic growth was made possible by political stability. Vladimir Putin, who came to the center stage of Russian power play in the late 90s was hailed for ending chaotic economic and social environment. After crushing Islamic insurgencies in Chechnya and Dagestan,the strongman gained widespread popularity among ordinary Russians and quickly turned into an influential figure in global politics. Under Putin&#39;s leadership, the fragile economy stabilized resulting in huge inflow of foreign investments in the former communist nation. Russian economy wasn&#39;t seen much affected by the crises in US and Europe due to effective integration of short-term macroeconomic policies.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		However, for the time being, good times seem to have passed away for Russia in the post-crisis world. The success story did not last long as the country&#39;s GDP growth slumped to 1.3 per cent in 2013. Sluggish demand in Europe and US coupled with slowing economic activities in emerging markets has asserted considerable pressure in the nation&#39;s economy. Amid the sovereign debt crisis, energy demand in Europe fell significantly- mainly caused by decline in factory activities- hurting the major Russian export. Investments from US and elsewhere also turned away due to macroeconomic uncertainties and depressed domestic demand. The slump in domestic demand, as per a report by a reputed global research firm Capital Economics, clearly indicates weakening growth in Russia&#39;s industrial production and retail sales in the first quarter of 2014. The economic sluggishness and ongoing Ukraine crisis has exposed long-term structural problems within the Russian economy, including low labour productivity, heavy reliance on energy exports and state-dominance of private sector.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		If the current turmoil continues for long time, the associated political risks are more likely to hamper the country economically. The long time Russian power card of energy exports is unlikely to help in this scenario. In case of broader western sanctions, if Kremlin opts to close or taper the gas supply to Europe, the first victim will be Russia itself as the nation&#39;s major income source dry out. Apart from that, the annexation of Crimea and Ukraine crisis has raised urgency among European nations to reduce their energy dependency on Russia. In the past several weeks, EU lawmakers have discussed to find long-term solutions for fulfill their countries energy demands. Like the shale oil and gas boom in US and North America, Europe is also looking forward to exploit the new energy source. Likewise, more punitive measures by US could include stopping of American investments which will further deplete the Russian forex reserves leaving the country into cash strapped situation. In this event, surge in inflation due to further devaluation of Ruble will add more pain to the country&#39;s fragile economy.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Nevertheless, Russia won&#39;t be left alone to be affected by this. The one time superpower will exert its force to retaliate the western sanctions which will undoubtedly have spiral effects in the global economy. Europe, the main consumer of Russian gas is likely to take the major punch in an event of supply closure. Starved of energy, European industrial production will come to a grinding halt which is gradually picking up speed after years of severe stagnation. Likewise, energy prices will shoot upward affecting every country in the world. US will also feel strong reverberations of the sanctions against Russia and its counter by the Kremlin. US companies operating in Russia- banking, manufacturing, mining, retail stores and restaurant chains in particular- are seen as the most vulnerable to the negative geopolitical developments. The Ukraine crisis has unfolded in a time when global economy is trying to get back on its feet. However, the newly erupted geopolitical tension is seriously threatening the global recovery to get down on its knees again.</div>
</div>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
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			'description' => 'The worst standoff between Russia and the west since the end of cold war has sparked outflow of foreign investments from the Russian economy.',
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	(int) 3 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2789',
			'article_category_id' => '31',
			'title' => '‘‘We Will Definitely Grow In Nepal’’',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 16px;"><strong>J.S. Rathore</strong>&nbsp;is the zonal manager of sales for northern India at Suzuki Motorcycle India Limited. Rathore was recently in Nepal for the launch of Suzuki Let&rsquo;s scooter. He says that the Let&rsquo;s was launched a month ago in India and is performing well in Indian market. Suzuki motorcycles are imported and distributed in Nepal by VG Automobiles and the company is planning to expand its network throughout the country.In an interview with&nbsp;<strong>Gaurav Aryal</strong>&nbsp;of New Business Age, Rathore talks about Nepal as a market for Suzuki two wheelers.<strong>&nbsp;Excerpts:</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>What brings you to Nepal this time?</strong></div>
<div>
	I am here for introducing our new product, &lsquo;Let&rsquo;s 110 scooter, to the Nepali market. This product has good potential here.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>How do you see the market for two wheelers like Let&rsquo;s in Nepal?</strong></div>
<div>
	Nepal is a good market for two wheelers. With annual sales of around 150 thousands two wheelers, this market sells 12, 500 two wheelers every month. The 110 CC scooters segment has potentials to occupy 23 percent of these sales. We are looking forward to tap this segment of the market, which is a growing market in Nepal. At present, Honda Dio is the highest selling scooter in Nepal and it does not have any major competitor.Let&rsquo;s will compete with it. We believe that we can get a good market share and grow quite well in this market.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>What is your expected sales and gain in market share?&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	We are expecting to sell four to five thousands vehicles in a year. Once the product is established in the market, we will definitely sell five thousands vehicles by next year. Initially, we will grab the market share and after its success, if Nepali market chooses that type of performance, we will tryto beat the sales of Dio.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>How do you see Nepal as a market for Suzuki products?</strong></div>
<div>
	It is a good market. This is basically a scooter market and motorcycles in 150 and 125 CC segment. Currently we are not present much in those segments. We are coming with those products and we will definitely grow in Nepal.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Are there any particular challenges that you face in this market?</strong></div>
<div>
	The main challenge for us is to compete against established brands such as Dio and Pulsar. These products are established in the market whereas we are new and under pressure to grow. The dealer and distributor are also new. Distributor, dealer network as well as the product has to be established. These are the major challenges for us.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>What is Suzuki planning especially for the Nepali market?</strong></div>
<div>
	In next two to three months, we will be launching product that will compete with Pulsar and Yamaha. Our plan is to expand and provide our services from every corners of Nepal. At present, we have 28 dealers and we are expanding the dealer network under VG Group. Then, we will expand to small towns through sub-dealers. We have already started working on it because after sales service is as important as primary sales.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Nepal is a budget conscious market and some of your competitors already have a strong market presence. What are the advantages of your products?</strong></div>
<div>
	The market still has further growth potentials. If we see in terms of pricing, we have offered a competitive pricing, less than Dio. And, consumers will get additional features, power and increased mileage with less investment. Compared to competitors we are offering more features and facilities at even better price.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-07-30',
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			'description' => 'J.S. Rathore is the zonal manager of sales for northern India at Suzuki Motorcycle India Limited. Rathore was recently in Nepal for the launch of Suzuki Let’s scooter. He says that the Let’s was launched a month ago in India and is performing well in Indian market. Suzuki motorcycles are imported and distributed in Nepal by VG Automobiles and the company is planning to expand its network throughout the country.',
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			'id' => '2777',
			'article_category_id' => '48',
			'title' => 'Lords Of Economy',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<strong>--By Madan Lamsal</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are bunch of worried people who constantly think that Nepali economy is sinking, rather sooner. This indeed is absolutely unnecessary concern. Because, first, Nepali economy is not a ship as we happen to be a land-locked country. Second, even if it were a ship we have had not a herd but a fleet of captains to save or rescue it from capsizing; present in every bit of history in different guise, which I shall elaborate further. And, if none of them happened to be at the deck, there will be our own ever-present Pashupatinath to steer clear the whole Nepal out of the danger zone, let alone economy. At least, that is what we Nepalis have believed for generations and still have the largest faith on the Lord at the banks of Bagmati than the banks owned by the lords &ndash; feudal-lords, warlords or landlords.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Our business community understands at which point of time, who can save the Nepali economy best from absolute melt down. In other countries, the business leaders and related organizations first take responsibility of captaining the ship of economy and look for support on whatever is not adequate in them. Our case is just opposite. Nepali brand of business leaders keep on changing the captain, express confidence on a particular one and shift to new one according to changing tide of time.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	When democracy was reinstated in 1990 and the Nepali Congress government adopted the &#39;free market&#39; economic policy, everybody thought that free market means freedom to do anything one can imagine&ndash; hoarding, black marketing, tax evasion, carteling and forged invoicing. Even in the political circles, impact of free market was so huge that the system produced billionaire overnight. Not only likes of Khum Bahadur and Chiranjivi Wagle who turned out to be the most unfortunate among the lot, so to be behind the bars, others who are moving freely are no different in amassing assets as the gift of free market, read freedom to corruption. Look at bulging bank accounts of incumbent ministers under a beggar prime minister. So, in all those years, GP Koirala was assigned captaincy to save economic ship, which he did. You can test its calibre by looking the total amount saved by his daughter Sujata during these two decades.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Then came the Sher Bahadur, Madhav Nepal and so on as new captains and our business community unfailingly expressed confidence in their captaincy. They did save the economy. Whether the economy of their own or that of the nation is irrelevant here. The point here is: there should be an economy and it had to be saved. That was done, without fail.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	That followed the direct rule of King Gyanendra. The queue of business people to bow to him, as the newfound captain was always longer than any wide-angle zoom of television/movie camera could capture in a single shot. He did save our economy. He is still the one single person in Nepal who has got the largest amount of saved assets in the country, or, may be outside too. He indeed made our business people most jubilant when he picked-up a former FNCCI president to help him in this &#39;save economy&#39; mission. &nbsp;One of the techniques in saving is not to let it decay or decompose by letting it remain cool. So this entrepreneur was asked by the King to launch an ice-cream factory. A brilliant idea of saving the economy.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The ability of the Maoist brigade of captains can make an epic. They in fact manned the economic ship in multiple ways. They had multiple captains who wanted to steer the economy in different directions. So it was first saved from moving into any direction. When the ship was not at all leaving the dock, it automatically got saved from sinking. Secondly, they had all fist-raising comrades with red band on their heads. Whoever else thought of moving this ship called economy, they used all tactics possible -thrashing, chasing, extorting and even killing if required. They were practically the real saviours.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	At present, all these forces are together, represented in the Constituent Assembly. Some great captains are with their entire family &ndash; spouse, son, cousin or in-laws. So, there is no question Nepali economy will ever sink. That is the reason even our newly elected FNCCI executives have more faith in political lords than on those who elected them.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-05-07',
			'modified' => '2014-07-30',
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			'description' => 'There are bunch of worried people who constantly think that Nepali economy is sinking, rather sooner. This indeed is absolutely unnecessary concern. Because, first, Nepali economy is not a ship as we happen to be a land-locked country.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2781',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Mirage Of A New Force',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On May 15th, 2014, the senior deputy prime minister and, at that point in time, acting president of the ruling major coalition CPN-UML, Bam Dev Gautam, was happily dancing on a folk tune at a public function. On the same day, Nepal Human Development Report was released in another public function in a five-star hotel that ranked Nepal the lowest in the Human Development Index (HDI) even among the South Asian countries; let alone the global rank. The next day, the so called mainstream media placed Gautam&#39;s news on the front page with picture as if it were a major national happening while the HDI news was pushed asa routine filler to 9th or 17th page as if it were amere ritual.This is Nepal&#39;s eco-political reality personified, reflecting the degree of (in) sensitivity of both politics and media to the development and prosperity related issues of the country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	What is it that makes politicians like Gautam so happy while country is at absolute political mess and economic stagnation, if not recession, for decades? It is unambiguously sheer apathy and ignorance of gravity of the situation that is coupled with vested interests and remnants of feudal psyche of a ruler. The current set of Nepal&#39;s all influential politicians, generally all across the parties, were indoctrinated during late 60s or early 70s. Their last philosophical reorientation had taken place perhaps in the 1990, for the movement to reinstate the multi-party democracy by toppling the panchayat oligarchy. This 60-above generation has been left far behind in updating the knowledge required to run a country. They have been untouched by mesmerizing revolution mainly in information and communication technology, transportation and emerging new world order in power politics. For this reason, these leaders have failed to understand the aspirations of time and the generation that represents here-and-now. They have not even learnt the art to dream for the better future of the country and her people.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	All these realities together, the persistent poverty and backwardness and apparent vacuum in leadership that is still willing to strive for ameliorating them, warrants a new political force that hopefully possesses desirable qualities like right kind of motive, integrity, energy, vision and willingness to serve the nation. Until such a new force replaces the existing parochial order, things too are obvious not to change for the better.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The need for such a force was acutely realized when the first constituent assembly (CA) despite its four year-long tenure ended without delivering a draft for a new constitution. The incessant blame game among the parties for the failures and their uniform adamancy to transform themselves with time multiplied the public disenchantment on them. The need of displacing these parties was more intensely felt after the current incumbent government formed even after the second CA elections appears completely dysfunctional and, mostly averse to the democratic norms in whatever little move sit is making. Prime Minister Sushil Koirala&#39;s unwanted &#39;lobbying&#39; to save the Judicial Council&#39;s controversial nominations to Supreme Court Judges is one of glaring examples of such aberrations. On fulfilling his own responsibility he has miserably failed, not even able to nominate 26 CA members through a cabinet decision.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In fact, Nepal&#39;s political history has witnessed literally hundreds of incidents of leaders or would-be leaders trying to form &#39;new&#39; political force at different junctures of time. But all of them in due course proved to be either protest outcomes to the mother partyby a dissenter or a newer interest group serving to a small circle of its constituents. Dozens of breakaways of communist parties and recent similar divisions in Terai-based parties may be everything as they claim but surely not the political parties of the quality that the country is desperately looking for, for long time now.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Lately, the UCPN Maoist leader Dr. Baburam Bhattarai took the debate on the topic to newer heights by proposing a &#39;need of a new political force to address the new challenges the new Nepal faces.&#39; This initially appeared to be a statement aimed to fill the overarching gap of the national political vacuum by establishing a new, forward-looking, dynamic and democratic outfit. It created ripples too, at least among the left ideologues. But eventually, after much ado, Baburam&#39;s proposition of new force, at least for now,turned out to be nothing more than a trump-card to bargain barely some more space within the party from his party chief Puspa Kamal Dahal.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The current series of debate also revealed a philosophical dichotomy in articulation of needs of such a new force. The more aggressive advocacy, or to some extent endeavours to form such a force from the communist ideologues, borne out of worries to contextualize their own existence in multi-party competitive politics that is inevitably going to be the political mainstay for the future. This sphere of debate therefore has focused more on rewriting archaic communist dogmas and replacing arcane vocabularies like &#39;power only from the barrel of the gun,&#39; &lsquo;dictatorship of the proletariat,&#39; &#39;class elimination&#39; etc. with more contemporaneous political jargons. Clearly, for those indoctrinated under Marx, Lenin or Mao-developed literatures, this simple departure has been difficult and piecemeal, yet inadequate to democratize themselves even at par of existing, relatively democratic forces like Nepali Congress. Therefore, birth of a true new force that is capable of addressing nation&#39;s overall governance and deemed prosperity considerations, through this slanted process is absolutely unlikely. However, if this process at least could transform some of communist outfits to reasonable democratic forces that too would be a desirable outcome.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Another sphere of the debate is, rather should have been, to explore the possibility of creating such a force that has some blueprint to address Nepal&#39;s multi-faceted problems which have rendered the country to a virtual brink of becoming a failed-state. Crisis of governance, deficit of democracy, bleeding economy and pervasive hopelessness of the common masses are some of the immediate concerns which, if not addressed soon, may in fact degrade the country to anarchy, unmanageable even in the long run. But, the current expanse and depth of the debate do not seem enough to give rise to such an all-encompassing political force. Surely, some of rational thinkers from academia and media tried to take the current discourse beyond the cocoons of the communist jargonism, but the triggerers of it from the Left band seemed unwilling to step out of Marxist philosophical umbrella.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Coming back to Bhattarai again, he appears to be less-than-ready to completely forsakethe UCPN Maoist at present. Understandably, it is difficult to desert political Alma Mater. But, at times it is more difficult to mould it to fit to the contemporary need, which justifies conception of the new force. Despite hiccups, Bhattarai has been reiterating the need of such a force. &#39;It may take a few years for such a force to take a shape&#39;, he said in an interaction in the third week of May. His recent China visit was also reported to be to gauge the pulse of Beijing on his plan, without jeopardizing his &#39;warm&#39; relations with New Delhi. For this reason, he dubbed his visit as &#39;pilgrimage to Mansarovar&#39; and chose to set the travel camp not in Beijing but Lhasa, the capital of Tibet autonomous region of China. But, the Chinese authorities left no stone unturned to accord his visit an official status fitting to a former prime minister of a neighbouring country. A number of high officials made a point to travel from Beijing for political discussions with him.With change in guards in New Delhi, he probably has to strike a different chord to attract attention from India&#39;s ruling rightwing Bharatiya Janta Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. If Modi could prevail over India&#39;s bureaucracy, he would perhaps like to see Nepal still a Hindu state, in contrary to Bhattarai&#39;s brandishing of Nepal as a secular state. This may need further fine-tuning of his new plans.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&lsquo;Why should only Bhattarai be at the centre of discussion for this new political force under consideration&rsquo; is a valid question. The common masses still consider him perhaps the most talented persona currently active in Nepali politics. While in government, particularly when he was the finance minister, he came out untainted in shady financial dealings. And, he is the one who is now unambiguously advocating of the need to transform the communist forces to democratic ones, which indeed is crucial component for the democratic future of Nepal. But, Bhattarai doesn&#39;t fully seem to realizehis strengths and perhaps lacks confidence to renounce the ideology that he has so far kept so close to his chest. But, still he could be the best choice to lead such a force if he dares to drop the old cloak and readies himself to lead a new Nepal.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Again, regardless of whether Bhattarai can exhibit enough courage to spear head a new force or not, the relevance and importance of it has been realized more intensely than ever before. The rampant criminalization of politics by the existing parties, their out of date &nbsp;- out of place leadership, sheer apathy to the needs and priorities of the country, widespread corruption on public resources and increasing culture of impunity, among many other malaises, are unlikely to be corrected by the existing forces. Or, just correction may not be enough. The culture of irresponsibility has become the norm in exercising, misusing to be precise, the state power.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For a rational and functional political force to come into being, Nepal undoubtedly needed a more systematic discourse on the topic involving all ideologies and all possible identities. For last seven decades, Nepal as a nation has chased the dream of such a nationalist democratic force, but it still remains a game of chasing a mirage. The current debate has reignited hope, but just hope is not enough. Therefore, we only have leaders dancing in a wrong tune at the wrong time.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>(The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.)</em></div>',
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			'description' => 'The current set of Nepal's all influential politicians, generally all across the parties, were indoctrinated during late 60s or early 70s.',
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	(int) 6 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2784',
			'article_category_id' => '40',
			'title' => 'Rising Stars Of The Economy',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	--By Akhilesh Tripathi and Sanjeev Sharma</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em><span style="font-size:14px;">Despite obstacles, some sectors of the economy have progressed and their future looks bright. We could call them the &ldquo;rising stars&rdquo; of the economy. In this issue, NewBiz has tried to highlight some of these rising stars, which include: Hotels, Hydropower, Construction Material, ICT, Education, and Banking Sector.&nbsp;</span></em></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	We all know that all is not well with the Nepali economy. Insecurity, much-aggravated industrial atmosphere, power shortage, transport obstacles, strikes and closures and labour unrest stand as barriers in the path to Republic Nepal&rsquo;s economic progress. The country&rsquo;s economic growth rate, according to official government estimate is below four per cent at present as there is lack of political commitment on a common economic agenda, investment-friendly environment, energy and physical infrastructure in the country.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But despite these obstacles, some sectors of the economy have progressed and their future looks bright. We could call them the &ldquo;rising stars&rdquo; of the economy. In this issue, NewBiz has tried to highlight some of these rising stars, which include: Hotels, Hydropower, Construction Material, ICT, Education, and Banking Sector. The entry of the Nepali private sector into these areas, especially after the liberalization of the economy post 1990, has resulted in significant growth in these sectors.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, the continuity of the economic liberalization policy in republican Nepal has produced a significant group of entrepreneurs and businesspersons who are now successful in these areas. This breed of entrepreneurs and business persons thinks that if there is political will and stability, adequate power supply, supportive policy and peaceful industrial environment, then these rising stars will rise even higher.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;However, political stability is the first condition for economic development. Political parties do have their respective ideologies and differences too, but there needs to be a minimum understanding on common issues of economic development, which would help build atmosphere conducive to investment and trust. This would help the rising stars of the economy to attain newer heights.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Construction Materials: Market Picking Up&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Construction Material" src="/userfiles/images/cs(2).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 266px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The construction industry is a growing industry in Nepal. It contributes around 10 &nbsp;to 12 per cent to the national GDP and uses around 35 per cent of the government&rsquo;s annual budget. As the country plans to invest more in infrastructure such as roads, railways, airports, bridges, and irrigation and hydropower projects and as the housing sector shows sign of improvement, the prospects for the construction industry in the country look brighter.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is estimated that the construction sector has created employment opportunities to more than one million people in the country. When it comes to development of any physical infrastructure, construction materials are the major components. With the growth in the construction industry, the demand for construction materials too has risen.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In the last one decade, over 150 construction material factories from cement, paint and bricks to steel factories have been established with an eye on the realty sector and the government&rsquo;s infrastructure development projects. These factories have helped reduce import of construction materials. The country has also become almost self-reliant in bricks, steel and paint; cement production is also on an encouraging trend. The price of construction materials is growing by 20 to 22 per cent every year.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The realty sector, which is one of the major buyers of construction materials in the country, has shown some signs of improvement. According to Ichchha Raj Tamang, president of Nepal Land and Housing Developers&rsquo; Association, the sector has started taking a turn for the better. &ldquo;In the recent couple of years, the realty sector has been improving by over 30 per cent annually,&rdquo; claims Tamang.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Lately, according to construction material dealers, the demand from housing developers and the general public that had slowed down a couple of years ago, has shown some progress. &ldquo;A couple of years ago, the demand went down by around 50 percent due to the government&rsquo;s failure to release the budget on time,&rdquo; said Manik Tuladhar of the Kathmandu Construction Materials&rsquo; Dealers Association. With the situation in the housing sector showing indications of improvement, developers have been speeding up work at their projects.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Meanwhile, construction material dealers said that with demand for construction materials slowly picking up, prices too have increased. Shil Ratna Tamrakar, proprietor of Shristina Traders, which deals in paints, said that the demand had increased remarkably compared to last year and that prices had risen by up to 10 percent depending on the brand.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is estimated that around 90 percent of the country&rsquo;s requirement of paints is fulfilled by domestic products. Along with a growth in housing activities in the past one decade, the number of paint factories too has gone up. There are 32 paint factories in the country with a combined investment of around Rs 6.5 billion.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Nepal Steel Rolling Mills&rsquo; Association said that local steel factories had been able to exist mainly due to the demand from housing developers. There are around three dozen steel plants in the country, and of them, 12 are run in full-fledged operation. All these factories produce 400,000 tonnes of iron rods annually.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, there are more than 70 cement factories that have obtained operating permits from the Department of Industry. The cement industry already has an investment of around Rs 30 billion. Pashupati Murarka, senior vice-president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), said that even though the number of companies receiving government permits has gone up, only around 40 plants are in regular operation.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The country&rsquo;s annual requirement of cement amounts to 3 million tonnes, of which nearly 80 percent is being met by local products. &ldquo;There are no authentic records, however, most of the production is going for construction of private houses and commercial buildings of housing developers,&rdquo; said Murarka. He added that if construction of physical infrastructure receives a boost, the country would be self-reliant in cement too.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is estimated that the construction sector is creating employment opportunities to about one million people. That means it generates employment next to the agriculture sector in the country. Similarly, about 60 percent of the nation&#39;s development budget is spent through the use of contractors. From this, it is clearly seen that construction is a major sector and any productivity enhancement activity in this sector will have a positive impact on the overall improvement of the national economy.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%">
		<tbody>
			<tr>
				<td bgcolor="#E5E4E2">
					<div style="text-align: center;">
						<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Government Efforts</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						Realizing the need for enhancement of the construction industry, Construction Business Act 2055 was promulgated and came into force from April 14, 1999. This is an effort made to institutionalize and systematize the construction sector. The Act has defined the procedures and requirements relating to issues and renewal of license and classification of and obligations of construction entrepreneurs. The law has established Construction Business Development Council (CBDC) under the chairpersonship of the Minister for Physical Planning and Works, and Construction Business Development &amp; Implementation Committee (CBDIC) under the chairpersonship of Joint Secretary (technical) designated by the Ministry for Physical Planning and Works. These both are regarded as the apex institutions to develop the Nepali construction industry. Establishment of the CBDC and CBDIC is the important step taken by the government to promote the country&rsquo;s construction industry.</div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
				</td>
			</tr>
		</tbody>
	</table>
</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Education: On Private Sector Shoulders</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Education" src="/userfiles/images/cs1(3).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 381px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	With private investment standing at nearly Rs29 billion at present, the education sector is well on the path of evolving into a lucrative service sector business in Nepal. Nobody needs to frown at the idea of education being compared with business. It has done much more good than bad. Even big business houses have started to invest in education.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Private investment in the education sector has grown consistently over the past few years. It now stands at more than Rs29billion, including the investments in schools, colleges, educational consultancies and training institutes. Out of this investment, nearly Rs25 billion is in private schools and colleges, according to the statistics maintained by the Company Registrar&rsquo;s Office (CRO).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs7(1).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 130px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Statistics also reveal that the investment has been increasing since 2006, the year when the government decided to register privately-owned educational institutions as companies. New private investment in schools and colleges stood at more than five billion rupees and six billion rupees in 2010 and 2011, respectively. Similarly, private investors have committed an investment of Rs 2.53 billion in the first three months of 2014.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<p>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs8(1).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; width: 200px; height: 345px;" />According to Umesh Shrestha, president of the Higher Secondary School Association Nepal (HISSAN), private investment in the education sector has increased because it provides good return. &ldquo;This is why even big business houses have pitched into the sector lately,&rdquo; he explains &ldquo;Leading Nepali industrialists and entrepreneurs have launched huge education projects. There will be more such projects in the future.&rdquo; Population growth and increasing demand for quality education are the other major factors behind the increase in private investment in education, he adds.</p>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Educational expert Mana Prasad Wagle credits it to the hype of the phasing out of the Proficiency Certificate Level (PCL) in the year 2010 that invited high investment in &lsquo;Plus Two&rsquo; colleges. In 2009, five new colleges with an authorized capital of more than Rs 100 million each were established. Since then, on an average, more than half a dozen such colleges have been established every year. In the eyes of education experts, an investment of Rs 100 million should be more than enough to ensure quality education.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The number of private educational institutions with massive investment is also increasing every year in the major cities, especially in Kathmandu. &ldquo;The number of students leaving the country after SLC for higher studies has drastically decreased now. This is because they find quality education within the country, thanks to a number of good private colleges. This has also prevented millions of rupees from going abroad,&rdquo; says Shrestha.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It would not be an exaggeration to say that higher secondary (HS) education rests (and grows) on the strong shoulders of the private sector. Let&rsquo;s consider the following numbers: more than 60 per cent of the nearly a million HS students in the country get their education from private institutions; more than 80 per cent of the students who pass the HS level every year are from private institutions.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are around 3600 HS schools in Nepal at present. Out of them 291 are 0+2 colleges, which run classes for only the 11th and 12th grades. The remaining are 10+2 colleges, which run classes from grade 1 to 12.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Private sector institutions have not only played a vital role in boosting Nepal&rsquo;s educational capacity but have also brought along a whole new market dimension. Consider these facts: The annual business transaction of private educational institutions amounts to Rs 22 billion &ndash; Rs 11 billion at school level, five billion rupees at HS level and six billion rupees at university level education.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;The private sector has been helping the government by a great deal by making such a huge investment in the education sector,&rdquo; says Rajendra Baral, Chief Executive Officer at Caspian Valley College.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On the other hand, HISSAN chief Shrestha sees an immense possibility of educational tourism in the country. &ldquo;Nepal&rsquo;s naturally air-conditioned climate makes it a good educational destination for international students, if we can establish schools and colleges of international standard or open affiliates of internationally recognized universities here,&rdquo; he says.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%">
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						<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Government Efforts</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						&nbsp;</div>
					<div>
						<div>
							The government&rsquo;s efforts in education are mainly focused on primary and secondary level education. The government has been increasing the budget allocated for the education sector year on year. The government has earmarked Rs 80.95 billion to this sector for the current fiscal year - up by Rs 60.13 billion of current fiscal year&rsquo;s revised allocation. Similarly, Nepal&rsquo;s education budget increased by more than double in just four years reaching Rs 63.91 billion in fiscal year 2011/12 from Rs 27.06 billion in 2007/08.&nbsp;</div>
						<div>
							&nbsp;</div>
						<div>
							Nepal allocates 3.4 percent of its GDP and almost 17 percent of the national budget to the education sector. The country, however, does not meet the global standard of allocating at least 5 percent of GDP and 20 percent of the total budget to the education sector. Only 9.92 percent of the total education budget has been allocated for higher education, and merely 7.85 percent for university education.&nbsp;</div>
						<div>
							&nbsp;</div>
						<div>
							Government investment in higher secondary education is even less&mdash;two percent of the total education budget&mdash;despite having around one million enrolments a year. Education expert Dr Tirtha Khaniya observes that there is scope for private sector investment and growth in higher study institutions. &ldquo;The government&rsquo;s negligence to the higher secondary level education provided an opportunity for the private sector which cashed in on the opportunity. A similar opportunity lies there for the private sector in university level education too. We will gradually see more private sector investment in this category,&rdquo; he says.</div>
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<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Banking sector: Time for Consolidation</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs2(3).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 350px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Starting from the government-owned Nepal Bank in 1937, the banking industry in Nepal has come a long way. The industry grew tremendously, especially after the entry of the private sector after 1990. It is one of the sectors of the economy that have grown significantly over the past one decade. &nbsp;The sector has immense growth prospects as nearly 60 per cent of the population is still out of the range of formal financial channels. Today, the banking sector is more liberalized and modernized, systematic and managed.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are various types of banks and financial institutions (BFIs) working under the modern banking system in Nepal. It includes central (1), commercial (30), development (87), finance companies (59), co-operatives (15), NGOs (30) and others (3). Technology is changing day by day. And the use of new technologies has affected the traditional method of the service of banks. Banking software, ATM, E-banking, Mobile Banking, Debit Card, Credit Card, Prepaid Card etc., services are available in banking system in Nepal. Nepal&rsquo;s banking sector has flourished over the years despite numerous challenges and is trying to be at par with international standards.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Today, there are ample opportunities for the banking sector to explore the small and medium enterprises and rural markets in Nepal via innovative products such as microfinance, mobile banking etc.,&rdquo; says Anil Shah, CEO of Mega Bank.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs10.JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 348px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Nepal is an agro-based economy with nearly 84 percent of the population in the rural areas. The BFIs need to develop ingenious products and adopt new technologies to cater to the rural sector. By reaching remote locations, BFIs could contribute towards poverty alleviation as well,&rdquo; observes Nepal Rastra Bank Spokesperson Bhaskar Mani Gyawali.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The public is gradually turning to the organized financial service providers i.e. the BFIs. At present, only 15.1 percent of the total households in Nepal borrow from local money-lenders, while 10 years ago some 40 per cent households were indebted to money lenders, according to the latest Nepal Living Standard Survey (NLSS) released by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Today, nearly 40 per cent households have access to commercial banks&rsquo; branch within 30 minutes walking distance. This was merely 22 percent a decade ago. Similarly, the presence of co-operatives within 30 minute walk radius has also increased from 25.9 per cent to 53.9 per cent during the same period.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Though the growing number of financial intermediaries is not as successful as expected in increasing the financial accessibility, the expansion has definitely helped in general population&rsquo;s access to finance,&rdquo; says Gyanwali.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Going through the trends seen over the past few years, the country&rsquo;s financial sector seems heading for consolidation through mergers and acquisitions. According to experts, the number of banking and financial institutions (BFIs) will reduce by half over the next one decade. Statistics support this fact. Forty-three BFIs have merged with each other to become 18 over the past three years. According to NRB, another 25 BFIs are in the final stage of merger to become 10. NRB sources say that the central bank will continue with its merger campaign in the new Nepali Year.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As a part of this campaign, the NRB is soon going to introduce the Acquisition Bylaws and there are signs that the minimum capital required to run banks could be increased significantly.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Apart from banking, other financial sectors, too, are coming up. Credit rating, portfolio management, mutual funds and central depository system companies have already come into operation. This has opened new opportunities for investment.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Due to stiff competition, banks are trying to provide specialized services such as investing in hydropower, infrastructure and agriculture. The trend is low at present but it has started. Similarly, expansion of branches of BFIs, especially in the urban areas, has reached almost a saturation stage. Now the banks are looking at cheaper ways to increase their outreach; so they are attracted towards branch-less banking, e-banking and mobile banking.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs11.JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 258px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The last one decade has been significant for the banking sector. Many good things happened. As a result, financial access increased by five times over the past one decade, according to statistics maintained by the CBS. Similarly, the statistics maintained by NRB reveal that 40 per cent of Nepalis have access to formal banking channels. These statistics incorporate only the A, B, C and D class BFIs licensed by the NRB. There are nearly 20,000 Savings and Credit Cooperatives operating throughout the country. Similarly, there is a large number of women&rsquo;s groups, farmers&rsquo; groups etc., which also provide banking services. If we consider these institutions, the number of Nepalis having access to financial services will increase significantly. This doesn&rsquo;t mean that the situation of financial access is great in Nepal; what it means is what has been achieved over the past one decade is more than satisfactory.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Increasing access to finance is one of the main roles of the central bank so that central bank is also encouraging the BFIs to venture into unbanked areas through its policy measures,&rdquo; informs Gyawali. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The achievement made by the banking sector over the past one decade can be broadly categorized into three parts: growth in financial access, expansion of loans and development of corporate culture. The rate of financial access increase is high for this period. Similarly, new areas for investment have been discovered. Today, banks have started investing in specialized long-term projects such as hydropower. Likewise, there has been development of corporate culture in the banking sector over this period. This has made the banking sector more transparent, credible and professional. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<div>
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			<tbody>
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					<td bgcolor="#E5E4E2">
						<div>
							<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Weaker Side:</strong></span></div>
						<div>
							- All kinds of BFIs are allowed to mobilize deposits</div>
						<div>
							- Lack of adequate financial literacy</div>
						<div>
							- Increasing operational risks of BFIs</div>
						<div>
							- Failure to identify new areas for investment</div>
						<div>
							- Inadequate supervision capacity of NRB</div>
					</td>
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	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Hotels: More Room for Growth</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs3(4).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 397px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepali hotel industry is rapidly heading towards booming growth. After sluggishness for about a decade, during the conflict years, the country&#39;s hospitality sector is now looking more and more lucrative with hoteliers- both domestic and foreign- investing into multi-billion projects. Surge in visitor numbers with Nepal becoming a prime destination for international, regional and domestic tourists is leaving the country&#39;s hotels sector without much room. Recent tourism rankings published by reputed institutions points out that the country is gaining significant attention from travelers and visitors across the globe.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Industry leaders estimate the size of Nepali hotel sector- ranging from five star hotels to lodges- has reached about Rs 300 billion. &quot;It is one of the fastest growing sector which is providing considerable number of employment,&quot; says Madhav Om Shrestha, executive director of Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN). According to him, the sector is providing direct employment to over 3, 00,000 people and indirectly benefitting around one million. &quot;With big international hotel chains entering Nepal, the industry is treading on to track to healthy revival.&quot;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepal, which has witnessed the departure of some big hotel chains in the past, is again set to become a rewarding market for renowned international hoteliers. Last year saw the US-based multinational hotel chains Marriott and Sheraton announce their entry into the Nepali market. In May 2013, Nepal Hospitality Group (NHG), a company under Nepal&#39;s leading conglomerate Maliram Shivakumar (MS) Group, signed an agreement with Marriott International to open a four-star hotel with an investment of around Rs 650 million. Dubbed as &quot;Fairfield by Marriott Kathmandu&quot;, the 10-storey business hotel with 108 rooms is under-construction at Thamel, a prime tourist and commercial location in Kathmandu.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The hotel targeted towards mid-income guests will start its commercial service by the beginning of 2016. Fairfield is a brand of hotels franchised by Marriott International. NHG is also constructing a 250-room, four-star luxury hotel in Naxal, as a joint venture with the Marriot International.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;In this foray, Sheraton Hotels and Resorts announced its re-entry into Nepal. Shesh Ghale, the Nepal born Australian millionaire businessman, has come up with a joint venture with Sheraton to operate a five-star hotel in Kathmandu. In April 2013, Ghale&#39;s investment company, MIT Group Holding Nepal set the project rolling by signing an agreement with Sheraton&#39;s owner Starwood Hotels and Resort Worldwide Inc.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Slated to open in February 2018, the cost of 225-room Sheraton Kathmandu project is expected to be around Rs 7 billion. Sheraton, the largest brand of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide has history of managing five-star hotel in Nepal. The chain in 1980s&#39; and 90s&#39; managed the Hotel Everest Sheraton in Kathmandu.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Meanwhile, Indian hotel chain Lord Hotels and Resorts has already started its operation in Nepal. The company opened its first international hotel in Kathmandu, the Mirage Lords Inn at Battisputali with an investment of Rs 200 million. The 40-room budget hotel is targeted to serve domestic and international guests ranging from religious visitors to adventure seekers.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs12.JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 398px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:12px;"><strong>Investment Hotspot</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The hotel investment frenzy has also wrapped Nepali business community. Many have announced to open new hotels while some have already opened doors to welcome guests into their newly built auberge. The Hotel Shambala, a 65-room, four-star Tibetan- styled boutique hotel, located at Bansbari started its operations few months ago. Similarly, construction of the Chhaya Center at Thamel is in full swing. The structure upon its completion will accommodate a 200-room four-star hotel along with an exclusive shopping mall. Likewise, The Centurion Group has been constructing a 120-room hotel in Biratnagar.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Meanwhile, Muktishree Group, Vaidya&#39;s Organization, Non-Resident Nepalese Association (NRNA) and Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) have made their announcements to establish five-star hotels. &nbsp;In the meantime, other major tourist destinations such as Pokhara, Lumbini, Biratnagarand Nepalgunj are also experiencing rising investments in the sector.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This sector is becoming a center of attraction for Nepali banks and financial institutions (BFIs) as well. According to recent Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) data, total investment of BFIs in the sector reached an estimated amount of Rs 21 billion by the end of April. The central bank also notes that in the first nine months of current fiscal year (FY), the sector welcomed an investment of Rs 3.16 billion, up by 20.8 percent from last FY&#39;s 2.30 billion.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
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					<div>
						<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Time to be Cautious</strong></span></div>
					<div>
						Despite the significantly increasing activities in the hotel sector there are also cautionary calls arising within the industry itself. &quot;The overall trend in investment and the growth in infrastructure is satisfactory, but marketing of Nepal in international arena is lacking,&quot; opines Binayak Shah, vice president of Summit Group of Hotels. Shah, who is also the Managing Director of Airport Hotel, said that as the sector will have more than enough infrastructures amid the rise in number of international hotel chains coming to Nepal and growing domestic investments. &quot;In addition, unsold apartments are also being converted in to hotels. If we cannot market our resources innovatively, in a few years time, we will have more supply than demand,&quot; he says. &quot;This has to be balanced.&quot;</div>
				</td>
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		</tbody>
	</table>
</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong style="font-size: 14px;">ICT: Explosive Growth</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs4(2).JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 271px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) sector has grown in a geometric proportion over the last few years bringing speedy transformation. The explosive growth and rapid infrastructure developments led the sector, nascent only some years ago, to around Rs 50 billion worth strong sector in a year.</div>
<div>
	Nepal has been enjoying remarkable growth in ICT sector due to expanding telecom sector, increasing use of email/internet, emerging social media and steady growth in the use of state-of-art gadgets.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs121.jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 656px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The pace of mobile phone adoption in the country was surprising in the last couple of years as nearly two third households have access to telephone facility. The overall teledensity has increased to 87.20 per cent by mid-March, according to the telecom regulator Nepal Telecommunications Authority.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is likely that the transaction of overall ICT products will double in the next few years. Internet penetration rate increased to around 30.99 per cent till mid- March, and the rise of Internet users will have a direct impact on the trade of computers, claims Computer Association of Nepal (CAN).&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	High competition among world class brands including HP, Samsung, Dell, Asus, Compaq, MAC, Sony, Lenovo and Acer have not only contributed to lower the price, due to hard competition, but also have provided quality products to Nepali customers.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Along with hardware parts, the software market is also experiencing a steady growth in the country. Experts and professionals involved in this business are taking this growth as a positive aspect of developing awareness related to information technology.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;The overall trade of software has increased in the domestic market though there is not actual data available from concerned authority. Amrit Kumar Pant, General Secretary of CAN, said, the market and activities related to this business have been increasing as the people have been using software and application as necessity while it was used in the form of luxury till some years ago.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	ICT has provided enormous opportunities from various aspects, according to the regulator Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA). Nepal&rsquo;s telecom sector has created employment opportunities for at least 50,000 people and contributed more than Rs 20 billion as revenues every year to the national coffer.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Even the government has come up with some ambitious plan including that of connecting east and west via Optical Fibre network. For the purpose, the government has planned to utilise the Rural Telecom Development Fund (RTDF), the fund collected by Nepal Telecommunications Authority from telcos.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, the sector is not without problem. According to telcos, there are many problems in the policy front. The telecom sector has been witnessing government&rsquo;s dillydally in bringing relevant laws and policies.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, there are still room to improve in terms of quality. On the one hand, telcos and internet service providers need to ensure quality of service. On the other, Nepal should not become trading hub for low quality ICT goods. In such situation, the government need to bring policies ensuring consumers&rsquo; rights. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	ICT is still an untapped market in Nepal, an expert told New Business Age. &ldquo;All concerned stakeholders need to put sincere effort to take this sector to the next level.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Hydropower: From Deficit to Export Considerations</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs6.JPG" style="width: 550px; height: 342px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Forced to live under electricity cut averaging 10 hours a day during dry seasons, Nepal is gradually developing its hydropower projects to escape the long-standing power crisis. Things have changed positively in the recent years as the dust of political uncertainty is finally showing signs of settling down. 87 hydel projects totalling 2,345 megawatts are under construction. Both the government and private sector have ramped up their investments in these projects. The projects, upon completion, are expected to add electricity into the national power grid within the next seven years. Similarly, the Investment Board Nepal (IBN) has also taken initiatives to construct five mega-hydel projects of 3,750 MWs. IBN, which was formed four years ago to fast-track mega projects, is said to be involved with promoters for power development agreement (PDA). The promoters have assured to start the construction of projects immediately after the finalization of PDAs.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This indicates the increasing involvement of private sector in the country&#39;s hydropower development. Nepali private sector has thus far managed to produce 232 MWs electricity after the electricity act of 1992 came into effect. According to Independent Power Producers Association, Nepal (IPPAN), the private sector has invested Rs 55 billion in 25 hydro projects till date since the establishment of the first private power plant in 2000.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Increasingly positive tones of bilateral donors have also raised hopes in this sector. The World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) are planning to raise their stakes in Nepal&#39;s hydropower development. The World Bank (WB),which has already provided development related financial assistance worth Rs 200 billion to Nepal is further adding investments in hydropower projects. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group has recently agreed to provide USD 84.6 million for the 37 MW Kabeli-&#39;A&#39; project. The electricity output from the run-of-river project situated in Panchthar district will be then connected to the national grid through the 132 KVA Kabeli Corridor Transmission line. The transmission line, which is jointly financed by the WB and Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) is in the construction phase. Likewise, IFC has also expressed readiness in Arun III (900 MW), Upper Marsyangdi (600 MW), Upper Karnali (900 MW) and Upper Trishuli (213 MW). During his visit to a WB program in US and Mexico in April, Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat received commitment from the IFC for investing for Rs 600 billion in developing hydropower projects of 3,000 MWs. Similarly, ADB is also stepping up to invest in the country&#39;s big hydel projects. Last year the bank agreed to provide soft loan of Rs 13 billion for 140 MW Tanahu Hydropower Project. Likewise, the European Investment Bank (EIB) which also agreed to loan Rs 1.5 billion for the above mentioned project has also committed to provide Rs 12 billion to build the Kaligandaki and Marsyangdi Transmission line along with another Rs 3 billion to build the Trishuli Corridor Transmission Line.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The sector is also grabbing significant attention from foreign investors. Official data shows that hydropower sector has attracted highest FDI commitments in the recent months. According to data published by Department of Industry (DoI), foreign investors pledged Rs 11.8 billion worth FDI commitments in the first nine months of the current fiscal year against Rs 2.65 billion during the same period, last year.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Rising Export Potential</strong></span></div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs13.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; width: 250px; height: 435px;" />Few years back it was almost unimaginable for power crisis marred Nepal to even think of supplying electricity to neighbouring countries. The scenario, however, is looking more and more real for Nepal to make its way forward to become a net power exporter. Nepal after producing 2,345 MW by 2018-19, will have surplus energy after consuming its annual demand of estimated 1,700 MW by that time. In this circumstance, India will be the most likely market of Nepali electricity as the energy hungry southern neighbour is increasingly looking to import power from its himalayan proximate.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The construction and installation of countrywide and cross-border high capacity transmission lines indicates the rising power trade potential between India and Nepal. The tower installations in Nepal section of 400 KVA Dhalkebar-Muzzafarpur Cross-Border Transmission line has started earlier this year. The construction of the project, which started in January is scheduled to be completed within 16 months of its commencement. Similarly, feasibility study of 400 KVA Bardaghat-Gorakhpur Transmission Line has also begun. The high capacity cross-border transmission lines would facilitate power transmission between the two countries. A secretary-level agreement between Nepal and India has already paved way to build the framework for power trading.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Private power producers say that both countries should look into effective modalities of power trading. &quot;Energy banking agreement model is the best option,&quot; says Er Gyanendra Lal Pradhan, Chairman of FNCCI&#39;s Energy Committee. According to Pradhan, if the model is adopted, Nepal can send surplus power to India in rainy season and bring back the same amount of electricity in dry seasons. He said that countries across the world are adopting this model owing to its flexibility and practical approach. &quot;The model is being effectively practiced by New York Electricity Exchange of United States and Hydro Quebec of Canada, they do banking up to 90 per cent of electricity they trade and remaining 10 per cent is priced.&quot; Pradhan stressed the need for building strong network of nationwide transmission lines as it would further help if Nepal and India engage in energy banking.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, absence of clear policies and other problems such as inefficient bureaucracy, rampant corruption, lack of nationwide transmission grid, issues related to infrastructure and land compensation are regarded as the bottlenecks in Nepal&#39;s hydropower development efforts. For instance, the draft of electricity bill, 2065 introduced in the parliament has seen little or no progress over the past five years. Similarly, issues related to power purchase agreement (PPA), higher bank lending rates in hydropower projects, value added tax (VAT) levied to private producers and low allocation of national budget are also seen as problems hindering the sector&#39;s overall development.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-06-09',
			'modified' => '2014-07-30',
			'keywords' => 'new business age cover story news & articles, cover story news & articles from new business age nepal, cover story headlines from nepal,  current and latest cover story news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali cover story economic news and events,  ongoing  cover story news of nepal',
			'description' => 'Despite obstacles, some sectors of the economy have progressed and their future looks bright. We could call them the “rising stars” of the economy. In this issue, NewBiz has tried to highlight some of these rising stars, which include: Hotels, Hydropower, Construction Material, ICT, Education, and Banking Sector.',
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	(int) 7 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2780',
			'article_category_id' => '52',
			'title' => 'Fallen Prey To Politics',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	When Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) was created, it was dubbed as the first truly functional model of public-private partnership (PPP) in Nepal. When it delivered some encouraging results for Nepal&#39;s tourism industry, the model&#39;s replicability potentials formed chapters of many books like of Karna Sakya and provided basis for a large number of business working papers and case studies. But, unfortunately, the same NTB has now become the test case of alleged embezzlement of resources and sit-in protest against the same by the country&#39;s tourism entrepreneurs. Thanks to all-pervasiveness of our albatross politics.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	While penning these words, it had almost been a month that the protesting entrepreneurswere demanding an impartial probe into financial irregularities by the acting CEO of the Board, Subash Nirola. But nothing was moving ahead primarily because it was a PPP. The Board headed by the secretary in the Ministry of Tourism as the ex-officio Chairman is expressing government&#39;s inability to take unilateral action, as it is the &#39;private&#39; organization while the entrepreneurs too do not have the legal power to oust the CEO.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	A few months ago, the NTB made a policy decision to organize the tourism fairs in the districts &#39;to promote the domestic tourism&#39;. This has panicked the traditional entrepreneurs that their income would be shared by the district level hospitality and amenities industries. The government sees no flaws in the Board&#39;s decision. &nbsp;The entrepreneurs argue that the money spent for such fairs in domestic markets should instead be spent in international publicity so as to attract the foreign tourists. This is no doubt a valid reason. But, just spending some money for promotion of domestic tourist market can hardly be established as an evidence for corruption.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The fuss is beyond these allegations of misappropriation of funds. The fact is, the protesting organizations of the entrepreneurs are affiliated to Deuba faction of the Nepali Congress, Oli faction of CPN-UML and Bhattarai faction of UCPN Maoists while the CEO is considered close to Khanal faction of the UML or, a chameleon, who also sometimes claims to be a Koirala Congress. And, for every political party, it was a matter of great pain that a newly emerged reputable organization like the NTB was functioning independent of political interference for more than a decade. And appointment of CEO is also not based on one&rsquo;s political loyalty. &nbsp;Therefore, every political party perhaps feels that if the current CEO is ousted through a political move, then it can set a trend and every next Tourism Minister can pick a new CEO along with each change in the government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The protest of the entrepreneurs wore a grotesque look when so called senior leaders of all three major parties reached at the sit-in site to &lsquo;express solidarity&rsquo; to the demands, without going into the merits of the allegations. If there are irregularities, there are related legal and quasi-legal institutions to investigate and prosecute the guilty. &nbsp;Why would leaders need to meddle in this process? Only plausible answer is that every party is keen to make the NTB a new political prey, which is deplorable.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The problem in the NTB began long ago when the Board failed to pick-up a professional CEO in a transparent and timely manner. The &lsquo;Acting&rsquo; position is always an incentive for the incumbent to look for quick bucks from all possible means including kickbacks. And, as allegations are already labelled to Nirola, he should either make public all the details of procurement as soon as possible proving his integrity or step aside until proven innocent allowing for an independent probe. &nbsp;The prolonged stand-off between the Board and the entrepreneurs is putting the entire Nepal tourism sector in bad light. And, the government must step in to solve it than being a party to a side.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-06-08',
			'modified' => '2014-07-30',
			'keywords' => 'new business age  from the editor news & articles, from the editor news & articles from new business age nepal, from the editor headlines from nepal,  current and latest from the editor news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali from the editor economic news and events,  ongoing  from the edi',
			'description' => 'When Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) was created, it was dubbed as the first truly functional model of public-private partnership (PPP) in Nepal. When it delivered some encouraging results for Nepal's tourism industry, the model's replicability potentials formed chapters of many books like of Karna Sakya and provided basis for a large number of business working papers and case studies.',
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	(int) 8 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2775',
			'article_category_id' => '41',
			'title' => 'CEOs Exit: Nepali Banking Sector Faces New Problem',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Sanjeev Sharma</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The once lucrative Nepali banking industry is now being deserted by long serving CEOs as they head on to start their own business or shift to other areas. The latest bank CEO who left is Suman Joshi of Laxmi Bank. Nearly a month ago, Grand Bank CEO Sudhir Khatri had resigned from his post. While some insiders claim that Joshi left the job as the main promoter of the bank stopped liking him and Khatri laid his papers to avoid actions from the central bank, banking sectors analysts have also started wondering if a new trend of CEOs leaving the banking sector has set in. This concern is based on the fact that some bank CEOs who resigned from their post have left banking career altogether. One such prominent example is Parshuram Kunwar Chhetri, who resigned when Bank of Asia that he was leading went to merge with NIC Bank to form NIC Asia Bank. One prominent exception to this is Kumar Lamsal who left Sanima Bank and joined Kist Bank as the CEO. &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This trend has triggered other concerns as well in the sector. Does this indicate the start of a new trend in the Nepali banking sector or is it just a momentary occurrence? Will the departure of experienced hands affect the overall stability of the country&#39;s financial sector? With long serving CEOs leaving the institutions, are BFIs losing opportunities to hire good executives? &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It&#39;s been more than two-and-half years since the Nepali banking authority issued directive and guidelines on the executive compensation system for BFIs. This 2011 policy mandates that the annual salary and perks of a bank&rsquo;s CEOs cannot exceed more than five percent of the average staff expenditure of the respective institution over the period of three years or 0.025 percent of the total assets registered during the previous year, whichever is lower. This provision comes into action only while appointing new CEOs and spares the existing ones. With such a provision in place, the bank CEOs are left with three choices - work with present bank, join another bank on lower perks and salary or abandon the sector and look out for new avenues.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Defending this cap, the central bank argued that it was aimed at discouraging banks from getting involved into unnecessary risk taking activities. &quot;The executive compensation structure was widely regarded as one of the causes of the global financial crisis as it encouraged banks and financial institutions to get involved into high risk taking manoeuvres to increase short-term profit, eventually inviting long-term systematic risks,&quot; the NRB directive and guidelines states. The policy was introduced in the wake of rising fears of real estate bubble that followed the liquidity crunch of 2011. After the commencement of peace process in 2006, house and land prices soared to record high levels in major cities across the country forcing the NRB to tighten the provisions of bank lending into the real estate sector.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Similarly, merger of BFIs is also seen as another reason to reduce the number of CEOs in the banking sector. Since only one CEO leads a bank, the CEO of one of the merging BFI is required to leave the institution during or after the merger process completes. NRB issued Merger Bylaws on May 2011, stating that it would strengthen the financial system and raise trust of public towards the banking sector. The main aim of the merger policy is to expand the capital base of BFIs and thereby strengthen their financial position to withstand various risks in the future. Following the policy rollout, 43 BFIs went for merger and resulted in the formation of 18 BFIs, official NRB data as of mid-March says. Of them two were &#39;A&#39; class banks and 41 were &#39;B&#39;, &#39;C&#39; and &#39;D&#39; class institutions. NIC Bank and Bank of Asia were the first commercial banks to go for merger that resulted in the formation of NIC Asia. Recently the Global IME Bank and the Commerz and Trust Bank have also submitted their merger proposal to the central bank for final approval. Remaining 25 BFIs of all classes have received Letter of Intent (LoI) from the NRB to merge and form 10 BFIs. These mergers have resulted in 25 CEOs resigning from their posts as of March 2014. Commerz and Trust Bank CEO Anal Raj Bhattarai is said to be leaving his post following the the merger process. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	NRB stands quite firm to its decision to put cap on perks and salaries of bank CEOs. &quot;It is wrong to say that supply of experienced chief executives have declined due to our directive and guidelines. We made the decision after evaluating various factors,&quot; says NRB Spokesperson, Bhaskar Mani Gyawali. &quot;The factors include per capita income of the country and average pay scale in various sectors,&quot; he elaborated while claiming that introduction of the policy is making the Nepali banking sector more efficient as chief executives receive compensations according to the income of their respective institutions. &quot;Bankers are now required to perform in more effective manner. &nbsp;This ensures stability of the financial sector,&quot; he said.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="CEO" src="/userfiles/images/sect1.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; width: 350px; height: 100px;" />The departure of long serving CEOs has provided opportunity to second-layer bank officials to rise to the top spot. The second-tier officials can now groom themselves to grasp the chair of chief executive. Nevertheless, this has raised concerns regarding the risk taking appetite and the overall performance of banks as less experienced people come to the lead role.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	NRB&#39;s argument has generated mixed views from experts. &quot;CEOs who hold long experience in the sector are the essential part of the banking system. The sector as we know is all about experience. Long serving chief executives know the core of banking which gives the institutions edge to get ahead with proficient business strategies,&quot; says a former CEO of a commercial bank under the condition of anonymity. &quot;They also have risk taking appetite to expand the bank&rsquo;s business areas further.&quot;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Sanjeev Subba, the CEO of National Banking Training Institute (NBTI) shared different view. &quot;I think the departure of long serving CEOs won&#39;t affect adversely after all. The second and third tier officers are capable as they have come up with experience in different layers,&quot; he said. &quot;This has provided them with significant experience over the years.&quot; Subba mentioned that Nepali commercial banking sector, which has been running for the past three decades has produced sufficient number of experienced manpower. For the perks and salaries part he opines, &quot;Salary cap won&#39;t affect bank CEOs to renew employment contract within the same institutions. This will only affect those who are willing to join other organizations.&quot;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Suman Joshi, Laxmi Bank&#39;s former CEO expressed his perspective close to Subba. &quot;Departure of experienced chief executives is unlikely to have overall adverse impact on the banking sector. Exit of the old and entry of new should be taken as two sides of a coin,&quot; he said. Joshi, however, cautioned that banks might see performance related issues as less experienced people take over the executive post. He also mentioned that Nepali banking sector has started to follow international trend. &quot;If we look the international scenario, CEOs don&#39;t stay in the same responsibility for long time,&quot; he opines.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Lack of motivational factor seems to be another reason for the CEOs to leave their jobs. &quot;Bank CEOs get more salary compared to other sectors. However, working regularly for a long time without increment in salary creates an environment of de-motivation,&quot; says Bank of Asia&rsquo;s former chief executive, Parshuram Kunwar Chhetri. According to him, many chief executives are facing the problem of stagnant salary levels and have to work under pressures of media, investors, shareholders and rising day-by-day business risks. &quot;Nevertheless, financial institutions are run and governed by particular system, so a significant negative impact is unlikely in an event of a CEO leaving his post,&quot; Chhetri said. &nbsp;</div>',
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			'created' => '2014-04-11',
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			'description' => 'The departure of long serving CEOs has raised concern in the Nepali banking sector. Does this indicate the start of a new trend in the banking sector or is it just a momentary occurrence?',
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	(int) 9 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2774',
			'article_category_id' => '169',
			'title' => 'Do Not Count Your Chickens Before They Are Hatched',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Everyone gets excited by a new job offer and for valid reasons off course. A person seeking change always thinks that he has done well but somehow not been duly rewarded. We sometimes feel that our bosses are aliens without any idea how the modern world works and always hassle us from their ivory tower. Thus frustrated, when we receive a new offer, we feel like being in heaven. It is quite natural to get excited and believe that the opening, longed for so long, has arrived at last.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But beware; all that glitters is not gold. Your current job may not be that great but you would egress from your comfort zone while accepting a new one. A known devil is always better than an unknown friend. Since you would be spending close to 50 hours per week on the job, it is always better to be cautious, even when the offer is from a big corporate.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	So, before accepting, make sure you have a thorough background check. Here are seven key questions you must answer before deciding. Even when the salary seem to be godsend and the perks seem to be out of the world; even when you have mentally spent half of your extra salary; do not rush and resign till you have answered these questions satisfactorily.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>1. Are you clear what you are expected to accomplish on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Probe long and hard to understand what is expected from you. Job description and designation sometimes can be very vague. I have once come across a job title stating &ldquo;Conversation Architect&rdquo; which means &ldquo;Digital Marketing Manager&rdquo;. How about &ldquo;Director Storytelling&rdquo;? This is a Microsoft PR guy managing their blog &ldquo;Next at Microsoft&rdquo;. &nbsp;So what is your employer&rsquo;s expectation? Ask this and observe the body language. If it is a new position where you are not succeeding anybody and if you see hesitancy while answering; be cautious. The person might have got a dictate from top about certain initiative without any clue on how to proceed. You might end up being the fall guy.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>2. Do you know how your success will be judged?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Understand what are those achievements which will define your performance as success and below what level the result will be seen as failure. A performance management form with Performance Indicators duly charted out in black and white may be of great help but sometimes it may not be sufficient. So when you get clarity on your success matrix, determine whether the organization has measurement tools or not. For example: your job description can state &ndash; &ldquo;ensure within 1% deviation on production specification&rdquo; but you may end up discovering there is no accurate measurement equipment which can predict below 2% deviation. Then during performance appraisal you would be at the mercy of your boss and his mood on that day.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>3. Will you be able to do well in the new role?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	It is nice to be confident and one can always bluff into a job but you have to be true to yourself on your actual ability and qualification to perform. Each one of us has certain strength or weakness. While MBA degree claims to create super monster or efficient robotic humanoid who can perform at any Industry at all levels; in reality it does not happen that way. If the new job does not play to your strength then you may eventually end up losing everything. So, ask yourself this question about your actual suitability and fitment and answer as honestly as possible; if the answer is ambiguous or negative then refrain from accepting.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>4. Do you know the culture of the company and the team you will be working with?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	It is very important for you to be fully aware about the culture of the place. This has a huge impact on comfort and quality of life on the job. This in turn decides workplace happiness. For example; if you thrive in an informal culture with open door policy and end up in a hierarchical and formal place or in a corporate where aggression and hostility is the order of the day, you may end up regretting your decision. Likewise, if you inherit a team with a veteran who aspired your position but could not get it due to self inability, he may disparately pray for your failure even at the cost of the team being termed as non-performing.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>5. Do you know your Boss?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Do you know his working style and expectation? There is an old saying that &ldquo;People leave bosses, not job&rdquo;. There is also another school of thought that &ldquo;No people are allowed to select their bosses&rdquo;. But both are actually different sides of the same coin. In nutshell, the dynamics and equation between two persons are extremely important for both of them to succeed. It is better to have a thorough understanding between you and your boss about each other&rsquo;s management style and his expectation from you to have a flying start. At least try to answer this question as best as possible. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>6. Are you clear about the entire compensation package including details of various perks?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Do not focus on exactly what will be your CTC (Cost-to-company) salary but also take a look at others perks like House Rent, Car, Utility, Telephone, Education or Medical allowance. CTC may look bigger but what you are getting net at the end of each month is also important. There is nothing wrong to ask your employer about bonus and other annual facility and detail eligibility of the same. It is better to make them as part of their offer letter. Do not be in a hurry but nail down those details before affirming.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>7. How does this job fit in your overall career related goal?&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Will it be in line with what you have planned or will you regret this decision two to three years down the line? Sometimes people take a short-term decision knowingly to achieve something bigger. You may decide to take on an assignment not fitting into your long-term strategy due to some short-term tactical goal like flexible timing to pursue higher education or to be in a specific town for some period. But make sure that you decide after due deliberation and not take a blind call. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	So the bottom-line is clear. Do not rush into decision. Sleep over it and take more than three to four days &ndash; preferably a week-end before you decide. Try to envision your future two, three or five years down the line. Answer those seven questions. Answer them diligently, as best as you can. Remember the word of Confucius &ndash; &ldquo;the expectation of life depend upon Diligence; the mechanic that would perfect his work must sharpen his tools first&rdquo;. So, for a perfect future, do a proper homework on how to sharpen the tools.</div>',
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			'description' => 'All that glitters is not gold. Your current job may not be that great but you would egress from your comfort zone while accepting a new one.',
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	(int) 10 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2772',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Undemocratic Overtures',
			'sub_title' => '',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The national debate on holding the local body elections -- for the Village Development Committees (VDCs), Municipalities and District Development Committees (DDCs) -- is at its high after one and half decades, but the very prospect of the same actually taking place still whirls in the rough waters. No doubt, one of the most positive outcomes of the Nepali Congress (NC)-CPN UML coalition government is that it moved positively to hold the local body elections. But there is still doubt on the possibility of these elections being held by end of June this year. It has been sixteen years since these elections were held last and the term of the office bearers expired some twelve years ago. In the absence of democratically elected local bodies, the public service delivery, grassroots public works and institution of democracy have faltered to the hilt. The consequences are apparent -- the capital expenditure for years has been far less than the allocated targets, the GDP growth has stagnated at yearly average of 3.5 percent for last eight years despite the fact that country has enjoyed relative political peace during this period, and the emergence of new generation of leadership in any possible political formation has been nipped in the bud.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Even now, the dampener to the call to these crucial polls comes as a single voice of both factions of the Maoist parties that parted ways some three years ago, led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Mohan Vaidya respectively. From the ideological prism, the opposition to the polls by the Maoists looks all natural. And, it was expected from the Vaidya group given the fact that it remained out of the second Constituent Assembly (CA) elections held in last November. But, by contrast, the move appears rather anachronistic for Dahal and his party (UCPN Maoist) that has vowed to remain in competitive politics of ballots despite all odds. The political plunder the Party is now venturing into may well turn out to be a mammoth blunder not only for Dahal and Co. but for the entire country and the democratic process itself.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is not difficult to decipher Dahal&#39;s calculations to oppose these polls. He is apprehensive of poor outcome for his party if it goes to polls without uniting the Vaidya faction. On top of it, not only Maoists, every party other than UML is fearful of the local polls conducted when Bamdev Gautam is at the helm of Ministry of Home Affairs. However, the opposition to these polls from Vaidya comes as entirely different reason: this group is determined to go against any proposition made by the parties in CA and under the present scheme of political arrangements. It is in fact Vaidya&#39;s chosen plank since it separated from the mother party UCPN Maoist.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But to hide real shortcomings, Dahal has adopted a new but unambiguously anti-democratic stance in the form of opposing these polls. &nbsp;His formal premise of this opposition is: the inevitable engagement of the government and political parties in the local elections would divert the focus away from the constitution writing. He has also trained his party rank and file to rant out that the poll competition among the parties would bitter the differences that could be reflected in constitution writing. &#39;It hardly causes any grave damage if we defer the polls by seven or eight months for these local bodies that have remained vacant for last sixteen years,&#39; Dahal has unequivocally said.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Apparently, Dahal&#39;s statement lacks creativity and craftsmanship. Every politician who wanted to procrastinate on the local elections through all these years has used the same platitude, pointing to some larger political urgency or priority to be addressed before these &#39;trivial&#39; polls. When the term of the local office-bearers expired, the Maoist insurgency had swept the country. The priority was &#39;saving democracy from terrorism&#39;. When the peace deal was sealed in 2006, agenda of saving the peace process overshadowed the local polls. Then, in 2008, the CA elections were natural priority. The Interim Constitution 2007 didn&#39;t even incorporate a provision for local elections, which is a real shame on our constitutionalism and so-called experts who drafted it. When the first CA came into existence, influencing experts had a take, &#39;since entire nation were to be federalised, the local elections would only be a nuisance in the larger process of restructuring the state.&#39; When the extended tenure of the first CA expired without writing the constitution, sense of national loss was so overwhelming; no leader had time to ponder over these &#39;unimportant&#39; local elections. Then came the second CA elections and existence. The change in political equations gave birth to NC-UML coalition in government that fortunately has begun at least the talk of these polls. But, unfortunately, efforts are already on to stall them.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The crucial questions here are: Were all those cited reasons both necessary and sufficient conditions to procrastinate the local elections at different political turning points? Were these &#39;local&#39; elections so unimportant at the face of other &#39;national&#39; agenda? And, do they still deserve to be pushed further away in this or that pretext? Answer to all these questions is one big NO, but the background that leads to this simple NO is excruciatingly painful and treacherous.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The first and perhaps the most powerful of all explanations is that the central leadership of any party strongly hated these elections. After 1992 local elections, the NC and UML saw that many articulate, learned young cadres elected as local leaders attracted national and international attention. They were the first to woo the public confidence as they had resources, public position and closest contact to the grassroots population. This created a very real threat of displacement to the national leadership if such a &#39;mass manufacturing&#39; of young breed of leaders were continued. A simple example to vindicate it could be enough to compute the proportion of members in current or past CAs that were elected in those local bodies during 1990s. The best way to allay this threat of &#39;big&#39; leaders was to stop this practice altogether wherever and whenever possible. The Maoist who came to mainstream through Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) 2006, were no different from NC or UML in this regard.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	If that were not the case, there was not any convincing reason to not hold the local polls at least after the CPA. Had local bodies come into existence then, it could have been a great vehicle to bring the local political leadership of different parties at the same political platform. It could also have been the most effective mechanism to deliver the putative &#39;peace dividend&#39; to the people in general. These polls could have been conducted at the sidelines of both CA elections without much additional logistical and security costs. But, to repeat, leadership of no major party was honestly interested to hold these elections. Even the CA members were (still are) against it. Their naive complaint used to be &#39;DDC chairman, or a mayor, with all facilities and resources at his disposal is more powerful than a member of CA or legislature.&#39; These are real impediments&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	to these polls than any fabricated political logic.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Otherwise, these local elections on their own merit are very important from every possible paradigm of democracy, development, decentralization and true devolution of power. One can also convincingly argue that inputs to the constitution writing, state restructuring and political reconciliation would have come in more institutionalized fashion had these local bodies with elected representatives remained functional.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The argument that the local elections would derail or deviate the constitution writing process is extremely preposterous to say the least. First, the CA couldn&#39;t draft a constitution in four years of last CA where such polls were not even contemplated. And, there is no real trade-off between these two goals - namely, the constitution writing and holding the local polls. The CA can without aberration continue the process of writing the constitution. The Election Commission (EC) and the government can handle the logistics and other preparations for the local polls. The argument that local elections impair the possible political cooperation among the political parties is outright unpolitical. All the forces who believe in the rules of democracy cannot harbour animosity just for the fact that people voted for one party against other.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On the contrary, local polls and the constitution writing, if managed wisely, can be mutually reinforcing and complementary processes. It is repeated in uncountable instances that without a framework of state restructuring incorporated, the constitution writing process cannot be completed. These local democratic bodies can serve as the real feedback institutions for delineations of the provinces and other administrative and electoral units. More importantly, these institutions will be the real tool to manage unrealistically spiraling ambitions of people with largely misrepresented notions of rights, inclusiveness and reservations, among many other.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It appears that all contentious issues on constitution writing will not be resolved by the sitting CA and all major leaders have categorically said that these issues will be resolved through a referendum if required. This is a clear hint that completion of constitution writing may take several years. If such a scenario is imminent, it is illogical to stop the local elections from taking place now. Suppose, even if this CA completes the constitution drafting process, the promulgation of the same is not going to be easy. But, if these legitimate institutions are in place, they can help to create an atmosphere for relatively smoother promulgation. An elected political leader is far more responsible apparatus of the state mechanism than the one left in the streets just to protest on every petty issue.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Even in the worst case scenario, say, the local elections delay the constitution writing by a few months; it is still a risk worth to be taken. With the local bodies in operation, people can feel the real strength and utility of the democracy than the distant CA or a vague constitution. It is however not to mean to undermine the importance of the constitution.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is good to know that EC has reportedly started preparation for all required legal backdrop, including the amendment in the Interim Constitution 2007 to include the provisions for local polls.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Everyone should be convinced that no democratic exercise of any fashion would weaken the democracy. A pragmatic rethinking is required on the part of the Maoists and real courage in government to translate its own promise of holding local elections into reality, sooner.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
	<em>The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</em></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-04-09',
			'modified' => '2014-06-08',
			'keywords' => 'new business age  nepal politics news & articles, nepal politics news & articles from new business age nepal, nepal politics headlines from nepal,  current and latest nepal politics news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali nepal politics economic news and events,  ongoing  nepal politics ne',
			'description' => 'The national debate on holding the local body elections -- for the Village Development Committees (VDCs), Municipalities and District Development Committees (DDCs) -- is at its high after one and half decades, but the very prospect of the same actually taking place still whirls in the rough waters. No doubt, one of the most positive outcomes of the Nepali Congress (NC)-CPN UML coalition government is that it moved positively to hold the local body elections.',
			'sortorder' => '2622',
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	(int) 11 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2771',
			'article_category_id' => '52',
			'title' => 'Agenda: Economic Restructuring',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Finance Minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat created ripples of a sort in mid-March when he pointed to the need of restructuring the economy. No doubt, this is a long pending agenda given the fact that Nepali economy is faced with stagflation-like trap for decades. But, Dr. Mahat&#39;s proposition has come so suddenly that it gives rise to two natural questions. Have we done adequate homework for such a massive restructuring? Is there enough political will to embrace the agenda of restructuring, going beyond barely managing it? And, the direction of such restructuring will equally be crucial as will be the sustainability of the transformed structure.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Prioritization of the tasks in such restructuring agenda and garnering political support for the same, are two sets of groundwork that any restructuring agenda cannot perhaps bypass. To both ends, Dr. Mahat as the finance minister has a couple of rare strengths. He understands the Nepali economy thoroughly -- its cracks and crevasses-and has a pro-private sector image. Also, he carries equally strong weaknesses; that he carries a big baggage of self-righteousness, doesn&#39;t have a professional team and hardly trusts anyone and, he is a bad politician, at least at the negotiation table.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Needless to reemphasize here, restructuring of a mixed economy that is chronically mismanaged is sure to be a daunting, painstakingly long-term process. If this is not a mere political gimmick that Dr. Mahat has no reason to indulge into, the homework needs to commence at least in two parallel fronts of the economy -- technical and political. On the technical side, there must be a dispassionate assessment of the loss incurred and persistent underperformance of the economy due to over-involvement of the government in planning, production and distribution systems. On the political front, to reduce the state involvement in functional aspects of the economy, a great deal of reorientation is imperative mainly in those political forces who are indoctrinated as communists or ardent socialists.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	A great amount of misgivings about the &#39;inevitability of state intervention and activism in economy&#39; must be dispelled, both at political or people&#39;s levels. Dr. Mahat himself needs enough courage to declare the institutions like the National Planning Commission obsolete, at least in the present form. In their present form, they act as omniscient of the needs and priorities of the populace at the grassroots. The decision on liquidating about three dozen state-owned enterprises that have acted as hungry sharks for years in the exchequer is long overdue. Only way to create public awareness on the futility to maintain status quo in these public institutions depends largely on the effective factual communication of the maladies and recurrent losses, year after year. One stroke of liquidating or privatizing the Nepal Oil Corporation would be enough to test Dr. Mahat&#39;s sincerity and courage to take-up really meaningful restructuring of Nepal&#39;s public economy.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The economy is under stress from more than one quarter. The ballooning imbalance in the country&#39;s foreign trade, dwindling absorption capacity of the financial resources and mass-migration of the working age population for low-earning jobs abroad creating labour-market distortion at home are three prominent areas that warrant top priority in the restructuring agenda.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The structural imbalances too are looming large. We spent decades lamenting on the lower-than-demand production of energy, mainly hydropower. But, despite all odds, the energy sector attracted a substantial investment and there are indications that the supply would be doubled in next four to five years. But, we became oblivious of the fact that we needed to develop adequate transmission lines to connect this power to individual houses. There are concerns of this power being wasted for lack of alternative arrangements, for example, replacing LPG cooking stoves with the electric ones to create market for the added power generation, or if possible export to India.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There is a sort of political consensus on the need of a tangible restructuring of the state when it hopefully gets federalized. The proposed agenda of economic restructuring must be a complementary process to that larger goal of spatial restructuring of the state. The restructuring of even larger scale is also required in the private sector to transform it from a mere a trade-margin capitalizer, like from gold smuggling, to employment-generator and export-promoter. Therefore, the restructuring agenda must not fizzle out as seasonal political hyperbole. It deserves more nuanced treatment to make it a fruit-bearing proposition.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-04-09',
			'modified' => '2014-06-08',
			'keywords' => 'new business age  from the editor news & articles, from the editor news & articles from new business age nepal, from the editor headlines from nepal,  current and latest from the editor news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali from the editor economic news and events,  ongoing  from the edi',
			'description' => 'Finance Minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat created ripples of a sort in mid-March when he pointed to the need of restructuring the economy. No doubt, this is a long pending agenda given the fact that Nepali economy is faced with stagflation-like trap for decades.',
			'sortorder' => '2621',
			'image' => null,
			'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00',
			'homepage' => false,
			'breaking_news' => false,
			'main_news' => false,
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			'user_id' => '0'
		)
	),
	(int) 12 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2773',
			'article_category_id' => '40',
			'title' => 'The Business For Social Benefit',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<em><span style="font-size:16px;">Social entrepreneurship in Nepal is on the way of gaining its ground over the last few years. Despite its varied aspects and differences in its definition, entrepreneurs agree it to be a form of business that helps in promoting social causes and better changes in society. &quot;Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid&quot;, a phrase coined by the late Indian academic CK Prahalad, has become popular among social entrepreneurs. But the question is: are we heading towards ensuring benefit to the bottom billions or not? In this issue, we focus on scope, opportunities and motivation for social entrepreneurs and the way forward.&nbsp;</span></em></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Siromani Dhungana</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Those at the &#39;bottom of the pyramid&rsquo; have been neglected since decades and it is time to change perceptions through which they are perceived. They should not be perceived only as recipients of aid.They are agents of development and they can be partner in entrepreneurship, says Catrin Frohlich, co-founder of Hidden Journeys who is involved in promotion of social entrepreneurship in Nepal for the last couple of years. She opines that acceptance of bottom billion as business partner opens avenue to set up social enterprises.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Social entrepreneurship embraces market-based approach as social enterprise is about innovation and making profit along with makingimpact on development of the society, she argues. It is not the rejection of profit but rather is about sharing of profit with target groups and there by helping them in enhancing their living standards, Frohlich adds.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepal needs to create jobs and job creation is not possible without enterprises. Social entrepreneurship is all about leading country towards prosperity through sustainable approaches.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong><img alt="Catrin Frohlich" src="/userfiles/images/cs1(2).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;width: 300px; height: 144px;" />Scenario of Social Entrepreneurship</strong></span></div>
<div>
	A large number of population is reeling under acute poverty despite the fact that massive resources at the local level remain unused.In such a scenario, Nepal can be a very appropriate country for venturing into social enterprises.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, it is again not an easy task to venture into social enterprises, especially in a country with relative absence of entrepreneurial aptitude. Social entrepreneurship is comparatively new phenomenon but it is gaining momentum, says Vidhan Rana of Biruwa Ventures. We have good understanding of the word social but less understanding of the word entrepreneurship, he opines. &ldquo;Social entrepreneurshipis not about establishing NGOs and distributing aid money to people in need,&rdquo; he says, adding, &ldquo;Innovative ideas to venture into business is a must to start enterprise.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Many people perceive the term social enterprise as a connotation of not-for-profit organization. The not-for-profit mantra is out-dated now, says Rana adding, &ldquo;Make profit but involve the bottom billions in business and share the profit with them. This is the philosophy behind the concept of social entrepreneurship.&rdquo; Social entrepreneurship has become a buzz word and Rana fears that this hypemight be misused by not genuine social enterprises.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This is a new domain and there is a corresponding dilemma at the policy level. While a debate on what is genuine social entrepreneurship has started, Sadhana Shrestha, executive director at TEWA and former Country Representative, in Nepal at Ashoka, accepts the prevalence of dilemma about the termamong businessmen also. While attempting to correct the prevailing notion that perceives both types of organizations synonymously, she says that NGOs and social enterprises are different. Nepal does not have laws specific to social entrepreneurship but it certainly has a category in the Company Act, which describes such companies as those that do not distribute profits (though they makes profits).&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The most encouraging part in this is the increasing involvement of young generation. Youth led organizations such as Biruwa Ventures, Entrepreneurs for Nepal (E4N), Udhyami Nepali, Hidden Journeys and ChangeFusion Nepal have been working to promote entrepreneurship including that of social entrepreneurship.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong><img alt="Sadhana Shrestha" src="/userfiles/images/cs2(2).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;width: 300px; height: 144px;" />Fight Poverty with Profitability</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&ldquo;The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits,&rdquo; by C.K. Prahalad, professor of corporate strategy at the Ross School of Business of the University of Michigan is considered as a seminal work on social entrepreneurship. The concept of &lsquo;The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid&rsquo; provided new business models targeted at providing goods and services to the poorest people in the world. Prahalad&rsquo;s concept seeks to solve global poverty by turning the bottom of the socioeconomic pyramid from victims of globalization into its beneficiaries through consumerism.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The book combined a pragmatic framework with inspirational case studies to show companies how they could develop innovative business models and find new profits by serving the world&rsquo;s five billion poorest people at the bottom of the economic pyramid (or BOP).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Prof Prahalad was in favour of private-sector led social enterprises. Responding to a question &ldquo;What are the big lessons learned since the book was first published?&rdquo; by Triple Pundit, a new-media company for highly conscious business leaders, Prahalad said:&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	First, the thesis of the book that the private sector is an integral part of the poverty alleviation process is well accepted by multilaterals, aid agencies, many NGOs and large private sector firms as well. &nbsp;Second, there is now a growing belief that the bottom of the pyramid provides an opportunity for business to &ldquo;do good and do well.&rdquo; Third, we recognize that the BOP is more than micro-consumers. &nbsp;It also represents micro producers and micro investors who can be connected to national and global markets. And the BOP can also be the source of major innovations that affect us all. &nbsp;These ideas were in the original book but have been confirmed and amplified.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Reviewing the book, Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software Architect, Microsoft says: &quot;C. K. Prahalad argues that companies must revolutionize how they do business in developing countries if both sides of that economic equation are to prosper. Drawing on a wealth of case studies, his compelling new book offers an intriguing blueprint for how to fight poverty with profitability.&quot; This book is considered a hallmark in introducing discourse and practices of private sector led social enterprises.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong><img alt="Vidhan Rana" src="/userfiles/images/cs3(2).jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;width: 300px; height: 144px;" />Evolution of the Concept &amp; Growing Concern&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Many believe that business philanthropy and social involvement of business community is linked with long rooted concept of &ldquo;Sewa Hi Paramo Dharma&rdquo; [Social Service is the Ultimate Religion]. Historical evidences suggest that not all business leaders have been content in simply performing a commercial role in society. Numerous businesspersons, industrialists and entrepreneurs have made significant contributions to their local communities.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Earlier, there were notable efforts to engage business in society via charity or social welfare activities. These were mainly inspired by religious affiliation and cultural inspirations. From mid-1970s onwards general interest in corporate social responsibility grew and this is reflected in the involvement of Nepali corporate sector in CSR activities. &nbsp;This interest was consolidated in the 1980s. As part of the general redefinition of state functions in this period, the role of business in addressing social problems became more prominent. Such political and policy developments, it is argued, have made a significant contribution towards enhancing social roles of businesses.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Social Enterprises: Sustainable Approach of Development&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Sadhana Shrestha, while stating that NGO workers should not be considered as social entrepreneurs, claims that social entrepreneurship should have some basic qualities: innovation, breakthrough ideas, sustainable and replicable model and system changing ideas.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Social entrepreneurs should give enough attention to the sustainability of their business and generally do not distribute dividend rather inject it in the business to ensure sustainability of the enterprise, she claims.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Social enterprises are businesses whose primary purpose is the common good. The main characteristics that distinguish a social enterprise from other types of businesses, non-profits and the government agencies is its sustainable approach, opines Mahabir Pun, the winner of the Ramon Magsaysay Award 2007 for his project that brought wireless Internet to rural Nepal.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Social enterprise directly addresses a difficult social need and serves the common good, either through its products and services or through the number of disadvantaged people it employs.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Challenges in Social Entrepreneurship&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The social enterprise movement was connected mainly with non-profits that used business models and earned income strategies to pursue their mission in the early days of social entrepreneurship. The understanding has become clearer now. Enterprises, whose sole purpose is to make social impact, are now considered as social enterprises. The sector, however, is not out of challenges.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Identification of business model:</strong> Business is often linked with profit in Nepal. And even the image of non-profits is not very positive. In such a situation, building positive image for social enterprises is a challenging task, says Catrin Frohlich.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Capacity building: </strong>Building capacity of aspirant social entrepreneurs is another challenge for Nepal&rsquo;s social entrepreneurial world. Capacity building initiatives should not be limited to launch of businesses, but should be continued when it comes at scaling up level, addsFrohlich.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Financing:</strong> A real social entrepreneurship is about innovation but traditional financing institutions do not always believe in innovative ideas and may deny lending money, opines Frohlich while pointing to the challenge of acquiring financial assistance for social enterprises.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Legal provision:</strong> Policy and regulatory frameworks have many grey areas. In such a context, it is feared that the word social entrepreneurship could be easily misused by non-profits and others institutions to gain undeserving reputation, says VidhanRana.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Opportunities&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The concept of social entrepreneurship is an outcome of the realization that aid recipients cannot make tremendous progress in their life compared to entrepreneurs, says Vidhan Rana. In the same vein, Frohlich also opines that despite some good works, NGO-model of development is not always in favour of the bottom billion. Despite challenges, social entrepreneurship field in Nepal is recently witnessing positive trends and receiving new opportunities as it is the best model for optimum and sustainable use of resources.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	If analysed from the perspective of national development, social entrepreneurship does not put the national economy at risk. It is a beautiful aspect of social entrepreneurship that while an individual takes all the risk of innovation, all members of the target community share the benefit.Similarly, social entrepreneurship is even more inclusiveforwomen entrepreneurs and adopting this approach can assist in making the entire development process more inclusive. Considering the present trend, it is obvious that in the coming years we&rsquo;ll see social entrepreneurship woven into the very fabric of existing disciplines and become an integral lens through which we will understand all sectors and fields of study.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Corporate Houses for Social Cause&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to a business practice that involves participating in initiatives that will have positive impact in the society. Generally, CSR activities are carried out using profit amount. CSR is a process with the aim to embrace responsibility for the company&#39;s actions and encourage a positive impact through its activities on the environment, consumers, employees and communities.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Though companies are not directly involved in social entrepreneurship, their involvement in social issues has been increasing in one or another form. In Nepal, many companies have been involved in many social activities such as Coke for water conservation, Unilever for hand washing promotion, Yeti Air tree plantation etc.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Involvement of business community in social activities is not new phenomenon. Some renowned business houses have been involved in some traditional CSR activities. Operation of eye hospital from Golchha and donation to Briddhashram (old age home) from some business families can be taken as examples to this end.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Further, some business houses have been involved in special CSR initiatives as annual events such as Asha Awards, Sports Tourism promotion, and health awareness program being carried out by Surya Nepal. There also are some companies such as NCELL that provide direct charity (e.g. school building, sukumbasi house roofing etc.) that is linked directly with their business promotion. Chaudhary Group has established a separate unit Yunus Centre to promote social entrepreneurship though it is yet to start work effectively.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Besides, recruitment of deaf staffs in the Nanglo restaurant can be taken as a good example of social entrepreneurship business. Dabur is also involved in social business as it provides help to farmers in herbal cultivation.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Future Outlook</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Positive impact made by existing social enterprises on target communities and in making profit has triggered enthusiasm in aspiring entrepreneurs. Numbers of aspirant social entrepreneurs are increasing and their conviction show that they can make money and can do things differently in the entrepreneurial world. &nbsp;Social enterprises will prove that enterprises can be financially sustainable, even profitable.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/cs4(2).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 512px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-04-10',
			'modified' => '2014-05-07',
			'keywords' => 'new business age cover story news & articles, cover story news & articles from new business age nepal, cover story headlines from nepal,  current and latest cover story news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali cover story economic news and events,  ongoing  cover story news of nepal',
			'description' => 'Social entrepreneurship in Nepal is on the way of gaining its ground over the last few years. Despite its varied aspects and differences in its definition, entrepreneurs agree it to be a form of business that helps in promoting social causes and better changes in society.',
			'sortorder' => '2620',
			'image' => null,
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	(int) 13 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2768',
			'article_category_id' => '169',
			'title' => 'The Right To Reject!',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Last September, Supreme Court of India passed a landmark judgment by opining that &quot;If right to vote is statutory, right to reject candidate is also a fundamental right of expression under Constitution&quot;. Court declared that Democracy is all about choice and if dejected with the candidates, one has every right to express displeasure by rejecting the entire lot and send a clear, unambiguous signal to Political Parties to find better alternatives. Henceforth, &ldquo;None of the above&rdquo; as an option will appear mandatorily in every ballot and voters can exercise that if needed. When Voters proclaim blanket dislikes for all, there will be re-election. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This sets my imagination flying; suppose we decree that if 50% of the turned out voters cast their vote on &ldquo;None of the above&rdquo;, parties must recall earlier candidates and sent new ones for re-election? Moreover, what if those recalled candidates would be barred from contesting for another three years? Not only that, suppose somebody stands from multiple constituency and gets expunged in one, he would be automatically disqualified even if he emerges as winner in the other? What a revolutionary power it will bestow on the common man.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	We shout about People&rsquo;s power, People&rsquo;s Democracy but ultimately, in present context, common man is nothing but a puppet dancing to the tunes of various political parties. With this option, the true power will be with us, the common man. If we dislike the candidates, all we have to do is to cast our vote on &ldquo;None of the above&rdquo; option.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In any Election, normally voter turnout varies from 50% to 65%. 50% of that is only 30% of the total voting population. So, if 30% of awakened populations are unhappy with the choices given by the Political parties, they can bring down the political parties on their knees. Taking one step forward, what if we mandate that the cost of reelection will be borne by those parties? What a shame will that be!&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Just imagine the impact. Each political party will put in candidates without any blemish. Re-election will be solely on the basis of good work. All indicted criminals, murderers, fraudsters will not be able to contest because no political party will take chance. People contesting from Multiple Electorate will be equally cautious. If they win in one constituency and Rejection verdict came in the other then they face disqualification for three years. Trend of senior leaders standing up from multiple constituencies will reduce dramatically which will bring in more honest and&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	young politicians.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Democracy is about choice and choosing to &ldquo;Reject&rdquo; is the biggest reward democracy can offer to people. In Nepal too the supreme court has already given the right to reject election candidates. Now, all the political parties of Nepal will need serious introspection and Civil Society will emerge stronger. In right democracy, freedom has to be universally upheld and protected, as Scot Howard Phillips stated aptly &ndash; &ldquo;One can&rsquo;t pick and chose which type of freedom one wants to defend. Either one defends all or against all such freedom.&rdquo;</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-24',
			'modified' => '2014-05-07',
			'keywords' => 'new business age buddha’s delight news & articles, buddha’s delight news & articles from new business age nepal, buddha’s delight headlines from nepal,  current and latest buddha’s delight news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali buddha’s delight economic news and events,  ongoing  buddha’s',
			'description' => 'All the political parties of Nepal will need serious introspection and Civil Society will emerge stronger. In right democracy, freedom has to be universally upheld and protected.',
			'sortorder' => '2619',
			'image' => null,
			'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00',
			'homepage' => false,
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			'user_id' => '0'
		)
	),
	(int) 14 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2769',
			'article_category_id' => '168',
			'title' => 'Designing Your Dreams',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Upashana Neupane</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<table align="right" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;" width="25">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>
				<img alt="Shailaja Adhikary, Managing Director, IEC College of Art and Fashion" src="/userfiles/images/be3%20(Copy).jpg" style="border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; width: 200px; height: 237px;" /></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
				<div align="center">
					<div>
						<strong>Shailaja Adhikary</strong></div>
					<div>
						Managing Director</div>
					<div>
						IEC College of Art and Fashion</div>
				</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<div>
	If &nbsp;you are passionate about designing your own imagination and flaunting the trendy designs, you can get the route by pursuing a career in the same world. IEC (Indian Education Centre) College of Art and Fashion, the pioneer in the country to introduce the course in fashion designing is providing you two courses where you can scribble your mind creatively and artistically: Bachelors in Fashion Design and Bachelors in Interior Design.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Recognising the need and addressing the passion for fashion design course in Nepal, Shailaja Adhikary, started the institution on her sole initiation. Adhikary, who is the Managing Director at the college, shares that her step to introduce a new course and that too of fashion in Nepal was not easy but says it was worth the effort. Adhikary shares she was only 21, when she started IEC realising the need in the country to set up the institution for professional fashion designing training.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	IEC was started as an institution for computer trainings and fashion designing initially. Adhikary had to include the computer courses in her institution as people then were not so much willing to join the tailoring courses as it was attributed with the negative stereotypes. &ldquo;I turned down the computer courses, when Ifelt the craze for fashion design increasing and computer slowing down&rdquo;, she recalls, &ldquo;That was the right time to gear up for the Fashion Designing course in Nepal.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>The Courses Offered</strong></span></div>
<div>
	IEC Offers Bachelors degree in two courses: Fashion Design and Interior Design. The three-year Bachelor degree is segregated into six semesters.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Fashion Designing course helps students learn draping, patternmaking, and sewing techniques in detail. Students are also provided with the opportunity to interact with the top designers of the country and abroad as they visit the college as guest speakers helping student understand and create designs that can be made public through on campus exhibitions.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Interior Designing course provides student in-depth knowledge about field and gets opportunities to collaborate and interact with leading practitioners too. The college arranges field visits to the places with interior spaces like hotels and restaurants, hospitals, residences, stores and so on. Students are also provided with internship facilities in their last semester. &ldquo;We are soon planning to send our students to India for internship&rdquo;, she shares, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a bigger platform and exposure there.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>After Graduation</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Graduates of both the courses get ample career choices. Adhikary shares that there is a huge market for the graduates and they can be consumed very fast and easy. &ldquo;Not only domestic market, students have to compete in the international arena too,&rdquo; she shares.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Adhikary who herself believe in making your own identity always suggests her students to start entrepreneurship. &ldquo;You shouldn&rsquo;t give your hard work to somebody else,&rdquo; she opines, &ldquo;Have the experience of 2-3 years to work under other organisation and then start your own business.&rdquo; Fashion Design graduates can pursue their career as costume designer, fashion consultants, fashion designer, fashion entrepreneurs, fashion photography coordinators, fashion show coordinators, fashion stylists, production supervisors, accessory designers, jewellery designers and so on.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Meanwhile, Interior Design Graduates can pursue their career as CAD (Computer-Aided Designs) designers, commercial interior designers, designer consultants, exhibition organizers, furniture designers, institutional interior designers, fashion show coordinators, lighting designers, and residential interior designers etc.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Likewise, IEC has been supporting various fashion shows and beauty contest in Nepal which is a plus point for the students. It was also the joint organiser of first Fashion Week which was first of its kind in Nepal. &ldquo;These kinds of shows provide bigger exposure to the designers&rdquo; Adhikary opines, &ldquo;They give bigger platforms to the new and talented designers in the country andneeded to be encouraged more.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Business Education" src="/userfiles/images/be1%20(Copy)(1).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 468px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong>Eligibility</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Those who have passed their +2 level in any faculty are eligible for the entrance exams taken by the college. And one must pass the entrance test to get the admission. The College is affiliated to the Vinayaka Missions University, India.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Started from 13 students, Adhikary recollects the memory of her initial days where she only had been able to make 35 students throughout the year.&ldquo;The scenario now has thoroughly changed and the fashion designing course or fashion itself is not viewed with the stereotypes&rdquo;, she shares.The college now is over flooded with the focused and determined studentswilling to pursue the courses and Adhikary is positive that the scenario will still get better.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-25',
			'modified' => '2014-05-07',
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			'description' => 'IEC, the pioneer in the country to introduce the course in fashion designing is providing you with the opportunity to scribble your mind creatively.',
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