Corporate Lifestyle Balancing Work And Home

Nov 30, -0001 0 2 minutes 49 seconds to read

…

Richest Countries Poor In Anti-Money Laundering

Nov 30, -0001 0 3 minutes 42 seconds to read

…

Series On Top Business Colleges In Kathmandu

Nov 30, -0001 0 4 minutes 55 seconds to read

…

Learning Curve News In Brief (20 - 26 January 2014)

Nov 30, -0001 0 2 minutes 45 seconds to read

…

When It’s OK To Love Someone At The Office

Nov 30, -0001 0 2 minutes 50 seconds to read

…

Visual Edit Vol 4 Issue 3

Nov 30, -0001 0 0 seconds to read

…

Nepal Political Economic News In Brief (20 - 26 January 2014)

Nov 30, -0001 0 3 minutes 47 seconds to read

…

In Mother’s Footsteps

Nov 30, -0001 0 25 seconds to read

…

Challenges Of LDCs

Nov 30, -0001 0 4 minutes 42 seconds to read

…

What About Ethics In Politics?

Nov 30, -0001 0 3 minutes 23 seconds to read

…

Partners In Economic Growth

Nov 30, -0001 1 27 minutes 37 seconds to read

…

ACAN-AUDAN Joint Protest Against Arrest Of CAs

Nov 30, -0001 0 1 minutes 35 seconds to read

…

South Asia To See Decline In Capital Inflow: World Bank

Nov 30, -0001 0 3 minutes 29 seconds to read

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Weekly Round Up (13 - 19 January 2014)

Nov 30, -0001 0 3 minutes 25 seconds to read

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Invest In Service Sector: NRB Guv

Nov 30, -0001 0 1 minutes 18 seconds to read

…

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No Laughing Matter

The Sweet Rewards of Power

By Madan Lamsal

. . .
read more »

NEPSE

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			'title' => 'Corporate Lifestyle Balancing Work And Home',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By TC Correspondent</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Once you enter the professional world, time management becomes a major concern. On top of that, balancing work and home can often be alarming in your professional life. If one fails to manage it, the person is burdened with stresses in both spheres. It becomes hard for the person to complete professional tasks and to mingle with the family members. There is a huge probability that the person will be sandwiched by both the parties. To live a healthy and stress-free life, it is necessary to balance these two elements: work and home. It is crucial for professionals to understand that corporate lifestyle is all about time management.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Tips to balance work and home</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Understand your priorities</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Balancing work and family means that you have to be available at both the places without neglecting the other, which can often be very difficult. Thus, it is important that you understand your major priorities. At office, your work should be your major priority and while at home, your family should be your major precedence. If you try to mix work with family, you will reach nowhere.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Time management</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Time management is a crucial element in the professional world. But, it does not mean that it is limited to meeting the deadlines at office only. Time management has to be applied at the workplace as well as at home. While at office, make sure that you finish your work on time. Do not work for late hours as it can irritate your family members. Similarly, make sure you reach office on time as this can lead to disastrous consequences with your boss. Spending much of your time at home can lead to an&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	unhealthy professional life.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Stress Management&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Stress management does not mean you manage your work stress at home by spilling it on your family members. It is important to create a fine line between your professional life and your family life. This means that you should not nag your family members with your stress at work. They can do nothing about it. So,&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	don&rsquo;t spill your work frustration at them.</div>
<div>
	In the office, don&rsquo;t come with a grumpy face because you had a quarrel with your wife at home. Be calm at work, as it will help you focus properly on your tasks. If the problem at home is actually big, better take a day&rsquo;s leave at work.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Take a break</strong></span></div>
<div>
	It is agreeable that work is worship. But, this does not mean you worship work for 365 days a year. Make sure you go on vacations with family and make them feel that you equally worship family relations. This will help you take a break from the daily office environment and relax. Likewise, it will also help in strengthening your family ties.</div>',
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			'description' => 'Once you enter the professional world, time management becomes a major concern. On top of that, balancing work and home can often be alarming in your professional life. If one fails to manage it, the person is burdened with stresses in both spheres. It becomes hard for the person to complete professional tasks and to mingle with the family members. There is a huge probability that the person will be sandwiched by both the parties. To live a healthy and stress-free life, it is necessary to balance these two elements: work and home. It is crucial for professionals to understand that corporate lifestyle is all about time management.',
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			'title' => 'Richest Countries Poor In Anti-Money Laundering',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Hom Nath Gaire&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	A landmark report published last week by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has found that the richest countries in the world are failing to comply with Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing (AML/CTF) Regimes. The OECD study titled &ldquo;Measuring OECD Responses to Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries&rdquo; was published just one week after Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a US longtime authority on financial crimes, released its annual update on illicit financial outflows from the developing world. The study documented that the developed countries are highly responsible for steady increase in illicit financial flows from developing countries, most of which is being absorbed in the developed countries.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For a long time, the traditional view in the developed countries was that illegal capital flight, money laundering and terrorist financing were problems only for developing countries. Similarly, they used to say that the corrupt governments and bureaucracy as well as poor business environments in the developing countries led capital to flee to their markets and promote money laundering.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Accordingly, they were putting high pressure on developing and least developed countries like ours to obey all the Financial Action Task Force&rsquo;s (FATF) recommendations on AML-CTF.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, &ldquo;one of the most damning findings of the study is that 27 of the 34 OECD countries are either &ldquo;non compliant&rdquo; or only &ldquo;partially compliant&rdquo; with the FATF recommendations,&rdquo; reads the report. The report also shows that none of the OECD countries are &ldquo;fully compliant&rdquo; with the standards on transparency of corporate ownership information, which aims to tackle money laundering by anonymous shell companies. The study indicates that most of the developed countries, which have been receiving the largest chunk of money that vanished from the developing countries, are in a rush to collect the illicit financial flows rather than help to restrain it. While policymakers in developing countries bear some of the responsibility for this problem, this is a two-way street.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Chief economic advisor for the Ministry of Finance, Dr. Chiranjibi Nepal accepts the reality that the money drained from poor countries like Nepal is being received by the developed countries. &ldquo;The high income countries have been absorbing the illicit financial flows in the name of offshore financial system, secrecy jurisdictions and tax haven lands,&rdquo; said Nepal, suggesting that the developing countries should raise their voice collectively on FATF and other multilateral platforms.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	According to Krishna Hari Baskota, Secretary at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, although the degree of pressure on and anomalies in the developing countries in the name of ML/TF has been rising internationally, the OECD countries underscore their voice. &ldquo;However, Nepal is in a safe zone now as per the criteria set by FATF,&rdquo; said Baskota adding that this is a result of continuous efforts of Government of Nepal in policy formulation and enforcement to contain ML/TF. He further argued that the latest study should serve as a wake-up call to the world leaders regarding illicit financial flows and ML/TF.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Western nations established an offshore financial system comprised of tax havens, anonymous shell companies, and various trade-based money laundering techniques, and they have not done enough to remedy this system to date,&rdquo; said Raymond Baker President of GFI in a comment on the OECD report. According to Baker, Illicit financial flows and money laundering are the most damaging economic problem facing the global poor, and they are growing at a terrifying pace. The FATF recommendations on beneficial ownership are only a first step towards eliminating the use of anonymous &lsquo;phantom firms&rsquo; and effectively curtailing ML/TF. But the shameful reality is that every OECD member fails to comply with even these weak standards on corporate ownership transparency and most of them aren&rsquo;t even close, according to the report.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	According to the latest report of GFI, nearly USD 1 trillion drained from the developing world in 2011 with an annual growth rate of more than 10 per cent during the last decade i.e. 2002 to 2011.</div>',
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			'description' => 'A landmark report published last week by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has found that the richest countries in the world are failing to comply with Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing (AML/CTF) Regimes. The OECD study titled “Measuring OECD Responses to Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries” was published just one week after Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a US longtime authority on financial crimes, released its annual update on illicit financial outflows from the developing world.',
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			'id' => '2467',
			'article_category_id' => '151',
			'title' => 'Series On Top Business Colleges In Kathmandu',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<span style="font-size:16px;">Little Angel&rsquo;s College of Management (LACM) and Prime College are two top Business colleges in the town, which are giving their best for the aspiring management students to help them become top leaders and managers of the future. LACM with affiliation with Kathmandu University is in the education sector since1999 while Prime is recognized for providing top management education since 2002.</span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Little Angels College of Management</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Little Angels College of Management (LACM) was established in 1999 with the objective to fulfil the void that would lead Nepal towards a path of development.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The college aims to provide the country with young people who are armed with a certain set of managerial skills, to give work and production the direction, it requires for efficiency and excellence. It offers a team of experienced and dedicated teachers supporting the students at every stage of their journey.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For students who choose a career in the fast paced and constantly changing environment of the business and technological world, Little Angels&rsquo; College of Management reproduces real world challenges as best as it can in the classroom.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The College Offers the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) and the Bachelor of Business Information System (BBIS): both 120 credit, 4-year courses and Bachelor in Hotel Management (BHM) with the affiliation of highly reputed Kathmandu University. During the course, students will develop administrative and problem solving skills with a sharp knowledge of today&rsquo;s technology, preparing them for a lifetime of opportunities. For students aspiring to join Nepal&rsquo;s hospitality industry too, LA&rsquo;s Bachelor in Hospitality and Tourism Management (BHTM) is the perfect place to put your foot in the door.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td bgcolor="#E5E4E2">
				<div>
					<div>
						<div>
							<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong><img alt="Mitra Bahadur Paudel" src="/userfiles/images/lc(1).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 150px; height: 185px;" />Mitra Bandhu Poudel, Principal</strong></span></div>
						<div>
							Every college is special in their own way. A business school should focus on market demand and necessity while developing the curriculum. Business Colleges helps in producing the skilled manpower demanded by the market. Quality products with healthy competitions of the colleges ultimately help in prospering the nation. Talking about Little Angels College of Management we focus on quality at affordable price. We provide professional touch in our course. We are moving very consciously towards providing the quality education to our students. About the placement part, our students are sellable in the market. LACM has no match in that case. Currently, we are looking forward to strengthen the course we already are providing to make it and deliver it better.</div>
					</div>
				</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<div>
	<hr />
	<p>
		<strong><span style="font-size:16px;">Prime College&nbsp;</span></strong></p>
</div>
<div>
	Prime College is a renowned IT, Management and Science College which is committed to excellence. The college has been successful to establish itself to the educational arena of Nepal for the 12 years. Located at the heart of the city Naya Bazar, Kathmandu, the college is well recognized for offering world-class academic programmes and a growing array of intellectual programmes. Activities such as debate, public speaking, social welfare, event organizing, and inter-college sports activities helps students to grow in diversity both academically and intellectually.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The College is well known for its extraordinary faculties, distinguished research scholars and experts to help come this far with outstanding academic results and National Champion titles in various sports events, such as Wushu, Table Tennis and Basketball as well. The College focuses on employment prospects through the acquisition of subject knowledge and practical skills.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The college has pooled some of the best academic facilities and highly prolific faculty members. Prime offers the combination of experienced and dedicated faculties to the students such as; London based Artificial Intelligence (AI) expert Associate Professor Dr. Suresh Manandhar, Prominent IT expert of Nepal, Dr. Bhushan Shrestha, and Prof. Dr. K.D. Koirala, a prominent management and marketing expert. The college also has highly experienced and trained foreign and Nepali faculties in Hotel Management.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Courses Offered</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The College offers Plus 2 program (Management and Science streams) in affiliation with Higher Secondary Education Board (HSEB).And Bachelors program in affiliation with Tribhuvan University (TU). Bachelors program include Bachelor of Information Management (BIM), Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Information Technology (B.Sc. CSIT) and Bachelor of Business Studies (BBS).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td bgcolor="#E5E4E2">
				<div>
					<div>
						<div>
							<div>
								<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong><img alt="Naresh Prasad Shrestha" src="/userfiles/images/lc1.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 150px; height: 186px;" />Naresh Prasad Shrestha, Principal</strong></span></div>
							<div>
								One of the specialties of our college is to work in a group. Our management is moving forward with the vision of providing quality education to the students. We are motivated to work hard with the positive involvement of student and guardians from national level. We also help our students for providing employment beyond quality education. We are giving our continuous effort in the education sector. While selecting the business schools, the students should concentrate on modern education system, skills of communication and educational levels of faculty members. They should also verify whether the college will help the students in job placement after the completion of study or not.</div>
							<div>
								&nbsp;</div>
						</div>
					</div>
				</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
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			'created' => '2014-01-20',
			'modified' => '2014-01-20',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'Little Angel’s College of Management (LACM) and Prime College are two top Business colleges in the town, which are giving their best for the aspiring management students to help them become top leaders and managers of the future. LACM with affiliation with Kathmandu University is in the education sector since1999 while Prime is recognized for providing top management education since 2002.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2469',
			'article_category_id' => '154',
			'title' => 'Learning Curve News In Brief (20 - 26 January 2014)',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Pokhara University Published Rechecking/ Retotaling Results&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Pokhara University Office of the Controller of Examinations has published Rechecking/Re-totalling results spring 2013. Results of various subjects of the MBA programme of having exam centre: Uniglobe College for Kathmandu Valley and School of Business for Pokhara has been published.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Janaki Medical College Barred from Admitting Students for New Session</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepal Medical Council (NMC) has barred Janakpur-based Janaki Medical College (JMC) from admitting students in MBBS programme for the new academic session. The latest move from the regulatory authority questions the college&rsquo;s credibility. A meeting of the regulatory body on Wednesday decided to bar JMC from admitting new MBBS students stating that JMC has failed to maintain minimum standards to run the medical classes. Last year the NMC had told JMC to improve its standard and had reduced the number of annual admissions from 100 to 80. Meanwhile,JMC has filed an application demanding a review of the decision.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>CIAA Seeks Clarification from 178 Bogus Schools in Sarlahi</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has sought clarification with the 138 bogus schools in Sarlahi. A two-day field survey of all public and community schools in the district has revealed that most of the schools in the district were not operating at all as some of them even didn&acute;t have school building; while many others lacked teachers - and even principals in some cases.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The monitoring team consisted of four CIAA officials, including under secretary Ram Krishna Subedi, and a representative each from the Regional Education Directorate, District Administration Office, District Development Committee (DDC) and District Education Office (DEO).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>NELTA Graduates Felicitated</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The Nepal English Language Teaching Association (NELTA) conducted a graduation ceremony of second batch of students of &lsquo;English Access Micro scholarship Program (Access Program)&rsquo; in Maharajgunj on Tuesday. The programme was organized amid the presence of American officials, Ministry of Education (MoE) representative and NELTA executives. Access Program sows a foundation of English language and leadership skills to 13 to 16 year-olds from economically disadvantaged backgrounds through two years of after school instruction sessions.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Actions Against Three Medical Colleges&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepal Medical Council has decided to reduce BDS and MBBS seats of three different colleges for the new academic session. The names of the colleges whose seat has been cut are: Gandaki Medical College (GMC), People&rsquo;s Dental College (PDC), and MB Kedia Dental College (KDC). The Pokhara-based GMC&rsquo;s seats have been reduced to 75 from 80 while the council has reduced the BDS quotas from 75 to 60 in the Kathmandu-based PDC. The Birgunj-based KDC will have to do away with 25 allocate BDS seats.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The action has been taken stating that the colleges were not meeting the requirements for the admission of already approved seats. NMC has also approved 10 more seats to Chitwan Medical College (CMC) for its better performance.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-01-20',
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			'description' => 'Pokhara University Office of the Controller of Examinations has published Rechecking/Re-totalling results spring 2013. Results of various subjects of the MBA programme of having exam centre: Uniglobe College for Kathmandu Valley and School of Business for Pokhara has been published.',
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			'id' => '2468',
			'article_category_id' => '156',
			'title' => 'When It’s OK To Love Someone At The Office',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Rachel Feintzeig</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	To get employees to spend more time in the office, try a little tenderness.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	New research out of the University of Pennsylvania&rsquo;s Wharton School and George Mason University shows that an office culture of &ldquo;companionate love&rdquo; can lead to less worker absenteeism and increased employee satisfaction, as measured by surveys and personnel records.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Love has kind of been a taboo word,&rdquo; when it comes to work, says Sigal G. Barsade, a Wharton management professor. But &ldquo;this is where we spend most of our time.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Companionate love&ndash;as opposed to the passion associated with romantic relationships&ndash;is marked by feelings of caring, compassion and affection, says Ms. Barsade. Workers can show such love by buying a cup of coffee for a colleague who&rsquo;s been up late with a new baby or offering to cover for a co-worker during a doctor&rsquo;s appointment.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Ms. Barsade and George Mason management professor Olivia O&rsquo;Neill studied 185 employees working in a nursing home in the Northeast where managers were trying to cultivate a warm, caring environment. They found that employees in sections where co-workers showed more companionate love reported higher satisfaction, less emotional burnout and better teamwork than employees in less-demonstrative units. They were also absent from work less.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Residents of the nursing home, who were also studied, benefited too. Researchers found residents in the more loving sections had better moods and took fewer trips to the emergency room than residents of other sections.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;In response to Tina Turner&rsquo;s famously haunting lyrics, love, actually, has very much to do with it,&rdquo; the authors write in the paper, set to be published by Administrative Science Quarterly in the next few months.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Small acts of kindness and compassion in the workplace can be contagious, previous studies have found. For example, an accountant who&rsquo;s encouraged to take time off during a busy tax season to deal with a personal issue will feel more loyal to the company and will be more likely to respond compassionately when another colleague needs his help down the line.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;It turns into this virtuous cycle,&rdquo; Ms. Barsade says.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Ms. Barsade and Ms. O&rsquo;Neill also surveyed 3,201 workers across industries including engineering, financial services and higher education about the emotional cultures of their workplaces. Respondents who worked in compassionate environments reported increased job satisfaction and greater commitment to the organization, they found.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Ms. Barsade says leaders of all types of companies need to recognize that the emotional cultures of their workplaces are as important as the &ldquo;cognitive&rdquo; concepts they place front and center &ndash; like innovation or results. Executives can start by treating those around them with more compassion, she says, and also incorporate formal company-wide policies like flexible work hours.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;If as a leader you foster a culture of companionate love, you will have more satisfied employees and a better work outcome,&rdquo; she says.</div>',
			'published' => true,
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			'description' => 'New research out of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and George Mason University shows that an office culture of “companionate love” can lead to less worker absenteeism and increased employee satisfaction, as measured by surveys and personnel records.',
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	(int) 5 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2463',
			'article_category_id' => '146',
			'title' => 'Visual Edit Vol 4 Issue 3',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-01-20',
			'modified' => '2014-01-20',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'Visual Edit',
			'sortorder' => '2309',
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	(int) 6 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2461',
			'article_category_id' => '140',
			'title' => 'Nepal Political Economic News In Brief (20 - 26 January 2014)',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>&lsquo;CPN-Maoist will revolt if sidelined&rsquo;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	<img alt="Secretary of CPN-Maoist Netra Bikram Chand ‘Biplav’" src="/userfiles/images/1(6).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 115px;" />Secretary of CPN-Maoist Netra Bikram Chand &lsquo;Biplav&rsquo; has warned that his party will launch another revolt if &ldquo;attempts are made to draft the new constitution by sidelining the party. &ldquo;We will institute an alternative power and wage a revolt if we feel that the achievements of the decade-long people&rsquo;s war are at risk,&rdquo; he said while speaking at a press meet in Dhankuta on January 13. Chand said that the agenda of his party, which boycotted the second Constituent Assembly (CA) election, is to draft the much awaited new constitution for the country through an all-party round table conference. &ldquo;But if there is an agreement on ensuring the rights of oppressed, marginalised, and victimized people and workers as well as identity-based federalism then we are ready to accept the soon-to-be formed CA as it is,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>&lsquo;NC-led Govt soon&rsquo;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	<img alt="Nepali Congress (NC) President Sushil Koirala " src="/userfiles/images/2(3).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 107px;" />Nepali Congress (NC) President Sushil Koirala has said that a new NC-led government is going to be formed soon by incorporating all the political parties. Speaking at a programe in the Capital on January 14, Koirala said that talks were underway among the top leaders of the major political parties regarding government formation and that a breakthrough was expected within a few days. Koirala, who is tipped to become the next prime minister, said that the country will have a new constitution within a year. Speaking at the same programme, senior NC leader Sher Bahadur Deuba and Vice President Ram Chandra Poudel refuted rumors about bitter dispute inside the party on the prime ministerial candidate.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Dahal for Fresh Presidential Poll</strong></span></div>
<div>
	<img alt="UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal" src="/userfiles/images/3(3).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 115px;" />UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Thursday (January 16) proposed a new election of the President and Vice-president respecting the fresh mandate of the November 19 Constituent Assembly (CA) election. Presenting a political document at the party&rsquo;s Central Committee (CC) meet at the party headquarters Parisdanda, Dahal broke the party&rsquo;s silence on the presidential election. Meanwhile, Dahal in his 12-page political document, has expressed great dissatisfaction at the growing instance of &ldquo;sexual perversion&rdquo; and other maladies among the party leaders and activists. &ldquo;Party leaders and activists are becoming increasingly unrestrained due to sexual perversion and contradictory ideas about family, personal property and value system,&rdquo; Dahal has said in his dossier, without naming anyone. It must be noted that Dahal&rsquo;s own son Prakash had in 2012 abandoned his second wife and one-year-old son to &lsquo;elope&rsquo; with a married woman. Following the episode, UCPN (Maoist) suspended Prakash Dahal from party membership, but later revoked the decision.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Gautam to Resign from Bardiya Seat</strong></span></div>
<div>
	<img alt="CPN-UML Vice-chairman Bamdev Gautam" src="/userfiles/images/4.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 105px;" />CPN-UML Vice-chairman Bamdev Gautam, who was elected from Bardiya-1 and Pyuthan-1, has said he will leave the Bardiya seat. Gautam, however, expressed his commitment to remain in contact with the electorate and help them carry out development activities in the district. The UML leader was in the district to celebrate Maghi, the greatest festival of the Tharu community.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Writ against Docs&rsquo; Strike at TUTH</strong></span></div>
<div>
	As the hunger strike by senior Dr Govinda KC entered its seventh day and doctors restrict services at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) in support, a writ was filed at the Supreme Court demanding that the service be resumed. Arguing that halting the services of the hospital is against the Essential Service Act, Advocate Sunil Ranjan and Consumer Welfare Protection Forum filed the writ on January 17. The writ demands an interim order from the court to resume the hospital&rsquo;s services.</div>',
			'published' => true,
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			'description' => 'CPN-UML Vice-chairman Bamdev Gautam, who was elected from Bardiya-1 and Pyuthan-1, has said he will leave the Bardiya seat. Gautam, however, expressed his commitment to remain in contact with the electorate and help them carry out development activities in the district. The UML leader was in the district to celebrate Maghi, the greatest festival of the Tharu community.',
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	(int) 7 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2466',
			'article_category_id' => '86',
			'title' => 'In Mother’s Footsteps',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	A candidate to be the heroine in a new Nepali movie was being interviewed. The director and the producer had a condition to the actress that she cannot get married at least for another three years.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The candidate replied: &lsquo;Rather, I will never get married. I will follow in the footsteps of my mother. Like her I will always remain single.&rsquo; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;-ML</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-01-20',
			'modified' => '2014-01-20',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'A candidate to be the heroine in a new Nepali movie was being interviewed. The director and the producer had a condition to the actress that she cannot get married at least for another three years.',
			'sortorder' => '2307',
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	(int) 8 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2462',
			'article_category_id' => '145',
			'title' => 'Challenges Of LDCs',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Dr Arjun Karki</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The group of least developed countries (LDCs) was formed by the UN General Assembly in the 1970s. Back then, this group had 24 countries. There are three criteria to identify the countries that fall in the LDC group. The first criterion is the Human Assets Index (HAI). The second is the Gross National Income (GNI) and the third is Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI). The main objective of classifying countries as LDCs was to minimize their number by addressing their development challenges, alleviating poverty and mitigating other risks. But instead of decreasing, the number of LDCs has reached 49 today. What this means is the economic and development policies adopted by the international community to address the poor and the poor countries has failed. So far, the Maldives from Asia and Botswana and Cape Verde from Africa are the only three countries that have progressed from the LDC group to developing countries.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Most of the LDCs are facing political instability, internal conflicts and wars. Therefore, poverty is not the only issue for these countries. For example, Nepal, Sudan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Central African Republic and lately, Southern Sudan are facing such problems. These countries cannot resolve their political instabilities and other risks unless they iron out their economic problems. At present, the LDCs particularly lack the capabilities to tackle the challenges posed by the climate change. The latest climate change related problems are the melting of snow in the mountainous regions of Asia, rising of water level in the Pacific region and expansion of deserts and food insecurity in Africa. In this situation, LDCs cannot progress to the group of developing countries. The rules set by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are not in favour of the LDCs and the developing countries. As the WTO rules are in favour of only the developed and rich countries, the share of LDCs in global trade is less than one percent.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are two types of barriers in international trade. They are non-tariff barriers (NTBs) and tariff barriers. The LDCs are particularly affected by the NTBs. We have been demanding that the goods produced in the LDCs get a duty-free and quota-free access to the markets in Europe and the US. However, the LDCs haven&rsquo;t been able to get this right despite international commitment. NTBs like sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures put in place by the European Union and rule of origin (Nepali carpet which uses wool imported from New Zealand and Tibet is not recognized as an LDC product) pose as major challenges for the LDCs to participate in international trade.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The burden of foreign debt is another major challenge in the economic development of LDCs. The LDCs have to use more than 50 per cent of their gross domestic income to pay the interest of foreign debt alone. Therefore, in order to allow the LDCs to enter the world market, their foreign debts must be cancelled unconditionally at the earliest possible. If this happens, the LDCs can spend their national income to face the challenges related to their development.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The UN has already organized four global conferences on the LDCs. The first and second UN conference on LDCs were organized in Paris of France in 1981 and 1990, respectively. Similarly the third conferences was organized in Brussels in 2001 and the fourth conference was organized in Istanbul in May 2011. Thus, the latest UN programme to address the issues of LDCs is called the Istanbul Programme of Action. The overarching goal of the Istanbul Programme of Action is to overcome the structural challenges faced by the LDCs, to eradicate poverty, achieve internationally agreed development goals and enable half of the 49 LDCs to graduate out of this category by 2020.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Initially, Nepal had planned to graduate out of the LDC category by 2030. Truthfully speaking, that plan was not good because under the very leadership of Nepal, the commitment was expressed to graduate half of the existing LDCs out of the LDC group to the developing group. Therefore, Nepal faces a moral obligation to make a progress to the group of developing countries from the LDC group by 2020. And Nepal has made a national commitment to graduate out of the LDC group by 2022 which is a praiseworthy announcement.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, Nepal faces a number of challenges. The biggest challenge is the creation of democratic deficit. A democratic deficit (or democracy deficit) occurs when ostensibly democratic organizations or institutions (particularly governments) fall short of fulfilling the principles of democracy in their practices or operation where representative and linked parliamentary integrity becomes widely discussed. The political parties and their leaders got to enjoy the fruits of democracy and peace in Nepal. However, the Nepali people at large are still deprived of the fruits of democracy and peace. This is the biggest challenge that Nepal faces in graduating out of the LDC group.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, there is hope in the air. A new Constituent Assembly has been elected and soon we will have a new parliament. If the parliament and the elected government to be formed can tactfully address the challenges being faced by the Nepali people, then we will not have to wait till 2022 to graduate out of the LDC group.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>(Dr Karki is the international coordinator of LDC Watch. This is a TC translation of Dr Karki&rsquo;s article published in Aarthik Abhiyan on January 10.)</em></div>',
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			'description' => 'The group of least developed countries (LDCs) was formed by the UN General Assembly in the 1970s. Back then, this group had 24 countries. There are three criteria to identify the countries that fall in the LDC group. The first criterion is the Human Assets Index (HAI). The second is the Gross National Income (GNI) and the third is Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI). The main objective of classifying countries as LDCs was to minimize their number by addressing their development challenges, alleviating poverty and mitigating other risks',
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	(int) 9 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2464',
			'article_category_id' => '144',
			'title' => 'What About Ethics In Politics?',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	A conference titled &ldquo;Business Ethics for Prosperous Nepal&rdquo; has just concluded in the capital. The main idea behind the conference was to teach the importance of ethics in business to the Nepali business community. Organised by the World Forum for Ethics in Business, the conference which examined ethical practices that are sustainable and ensure profitability for businesses was well attended and was successful.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The importance of ethics in business cannot be overemphasized. Ethical behaviour can bring significant benefits to a business by attracting customers to its products, reducing labour turnover and thus increasing productivity and attracting investors and keeping the company&rsquo;s share prices high, among other ways.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But the conference evoked some simple questions: is the Nepali business community one of the segments of society that needs a lesson or two in ethics? Are the Nepali businessmen really unethical and hence need sermons on business ethics the most? What about ethical practices in the bureaucracy and politics? Ethics concern an individual&rsquo;s moral judgments about right and wrong. If so, are Nepali businessmen most wrongdoers that they are being lectured on ethics while the politicians and bureaucrats are apostles of ethics?</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Definitely not. The ethical standards of Nepali business community look higher than those of many other segments of society including the government bureaucracy and political parties. And, in fact, at the root of whatever unethical business practices we have lies in the government and politics. There are many instances where the government has been rewarding unethical practices. For one, this is reflected in the government&rsquo;s decision to waive taxes of different companies, in awarding licenses to start various businesses. This is reflected also in the actions of the government regulators of different businesses.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The situation of ethics in the country&rsquo;s politics is appalling. So much so that many find &lsquo;ethics in politics&rsquo; as contradiction. It is because of the lack of ethics in politics that people do not place much trust on the political parties and politicians. Political parties are far from maintaining transparency in their financial transactions and deals. And that is why most politicians are seen as selfish and corrupt power-players who are not responsible and who defend special interests instead of the common good. That is why Transparency International reports have repeatedly depicted politicians and bureaucrats as the most corrupt.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Ethics in politics matters the most in Nepal because it directly affects everything else including ethics in business. Lack of ethics in politics has a much wider impact than lack of ethics in business. Businesses have to sell their products or services on a daily basis. This means their ethics is being tested almost on a daily basis by the buyers as well as the employees. This is because they tend to be more ethical in their actions, behaviours and decisions. On the other hand, the ethics of politicians is challenged everyday but it is tested only through elections. Such elections are not yet regular in Nepali democracy.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The delay in the first sitting of the Constituent Assembly (CA) and forming a new government even after two months of CA election could be the latest and simplest example of the lack of ethics in Nepali politics. The episode has exposed the ethical and moral dilemmas and deficiencies of a range of actors in Nepali politics including the President, Chairman of the Council of Ministers, the major political parties which are tipped to form the new government and the parties which have been mandated by the people to sit in opposition.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The bottom line is: the political class needs to be reminded of ethics more frequently than any other segment of society. Therefore, conferences on ethics in politics are wanted more urgently than conferences on ethics in business. &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>',
			'published' => true,
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			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'A conference titled “Business Ethics for Prosperous Nepal” has just concluded in the capital. The main idea behind the conference was to teach the importance of ethics in business to the Nepali business community. Organised by the World Forum for Ethics in Business, the conference which examined ethical practices that are sustainable and ensure profitability for businesses was well attended and was successful.',
			'sortorder' => '2305',
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	(int) 10 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2443',
			'article_category_id' => '40',
			'title' => 'Partners In Economic Growth',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<span style="font-size:16px;">Multi-stakeholder Approach is the recent buzzword in development literature. How can Nepal use this approach? <strong>Achyut Wagle </strong>analyses the challenges and opportunities.</span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	When we say &#39;engaging development actors&#39; we are talking about hierarchical operational levels like local, district, sub-regional, regional, national, international and global, where each of these levels &nbsp;form a complex matrix of actual actors primarily from five sectors -- the public or government, private or business, civil society, actual beneficiaries or common people and, development partners (donors).&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The economic growth is only possible through multidimensional interactions among these different groups of actors that are defined by the recent development literature as multi-stakeholder approach of development. The scope and limitation of the roles of each of these and conflicts and/or complementarities of the interests of these actors, singly or jointly, determines both the scale and the speed of the economic growth of any country, including Nepal.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, there is a problem in the definitional level, that is, whether all players in Nepal could be covered by these five categories of development actors mentioned above. Take for example Nepal&#39;s political parties who on their own right want to be the development actors, whereas their role and influence in development domain should either come through the public sector (for those who win the election and form the government) or only as the common people or the beneficiary (until they win the next election). The face of the civil society, if it has any, is not different from that of the political parties. In international practice, donors do not figure out with separate identities, who in Nepal&#39;s case appear even more quintessential actors. These distortions have serious implications both in engaging the development actors in their due roles and also attaining the ultimate results of our development endeavours.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Actors</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>1. The Government</strong></span></div>
<div>
	It is obvious that we need government for governance, hopefully a good governance. Although Nepal is not an exception among the least developed nations that face the crisis of governance, but one additional dimension in our case is we persistently face deficiency of democracy, perhaps more acutely at present. Nepal&#39;s politics during the last six decades of modern history has invariably been dominated by the dictatorial forces of some form that didn&#39;t believe in pluralistic, competitive democracy. This has been the main source of crisis of governance in general, manifested in the form of rule of force than rule of law, poor growth of institutions and their effectiveness, haphazardly conceived and weakly implemented policies, misuse of the state power by the powerfuls, strong nexus between the crime and law enforcement, utter lack of transparency and rampant corruption in public expenditure, rise of business syndicates and, worst of all, pervasive and persistent impunity. And, the list can on, and on.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	We don&#39;t have elected local governments at the local and district levels for last one decade, for no tangible reason for this vacuum, except for the height of irresponsibility and imperviousness of the political actors of the country. It should have in fact been the first priority of all particularly after the signing of Comprehensive Peace Treaty seven years ago; as the local governments would have been the best channels to deliver the much touted about peace dividend, many of the economic rights and delivery of the public services at the grassroots. Above all, it would have provided the people at the grassroots with direct access to the state mechanism. One can only imagine at this point, how many of new generation of leaders this process would have produced and how much would it have facilitated the process of proposed federalization of Nepal.</div>
<div>
	Nepal never created democratic government institutions at sub-regional or regional levels. We have bureaucratic arrangements like regional administrators who virtually have no role in economic planning and development except for that of official messengers.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="The Engagement Matrix" src="/userfiles/images/CS2%20(Copy).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 307px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	At the national level, we have Himalayan scale of policy confusions at development governance. We still have National Planning Commission (NPC) located inside the high walls of Sigha Durbar, that mercifully distributes development to the people of far and wide corners of Nepal. We still believe that the people who live in NPC as if have divine senses to understand the exact development needs of the people living at Tinker and Olangchung Gola and ability to address them from here. The duplication of the roles between the finance ministry and NPC, the constant squabbles and ego-clashes of the mandarins in them is staple national drama. The independence of central bank has always been a mirage, as we saw ten governors in Nepal Rastra Bank in as many years. We never had and, nor will have the possibility of implementing &nbsp;an independent monetary policy of our own in foreseeable future due to &#39;pegging&#39; of Nepali currency with the Indian Rupee.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	At the international level, Nepal is gradually losing its credibility as a viable economy. We have not been able to organize the Nepal Development Forum, to interact with our international development partners, for the last one decade. Our ability to communicate about our needs with them and prioritize development areas to streamline their support has substantially reduced. &nbsp;The torch-bearers of our economic diplomacy are the political nominees typified, for example, by the recently sacked Nepali ambassador to Qatar. We may talk about FDI, but it has even stopped trickling in. We have also failed to introduce a functional mechanism to make sure that all official foreign assistance is spent through our budget, despite the fact that many of the donors are in favour of such a system.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>2. The Private Sector</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The post-1990 marked an era that tried to put the private sector in the driving seat of economic growth. The policies of liberalization, privatization and legal as well as institutional reforms initiated by the first elected government after reinstatement of democracy brought about substantial positive changes, the impact of which has withstood violent conflict of a decade. Private airlines, large private sector banks, private hospitals, multiple universities, private investment in communication, information technology and hydropower, and private participation in building infrastructures like roads and irrigation facilities are some of the exemplary outcomes of these policies.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But this encouraging trend was abruptly truncated by the armed conflict waged by the Maoists and, after seven long years after cessation of hostilities too, there is no certain sign of putting the policy of private-sector-led growth back on track. The political mayhem we are witnessing even after the second Constituent Assembly elections last month is even more disgusting to say the least.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Needless to say, three preconditions for private sector actors to come forward to contribute to economic growth are: ensured private property rights, an appropriate business climate that encourages investment and a predictable policy regime that provides &nbsp;a reasonable time horizon for conceptualizing, executing, operating and if needed closing of the businesses without being unnecessarily anxious about the safety of, as well as, return from the investment.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But, the greatest challenge to all of these aspects not only comes at the operational level but at the level of the very philosophy of the strongest of the political forces of Nepal. Confiscation of the private property, politically patronized trade unions disturbing the industrial atmosphere, politically sponsored extortions and sheer unpredictability of the public policies are true bottlenecks for the private sector investment, both foreign and domestic. Consequently, economy suffers from low level of investment and job creation, low level of private sector confidence and, as the result, massive amount of capital flight from the country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Despite all these odds, we must acknowledge the fact that the private sector has constantly been instrumental in the delivery of goods and services at the lowest possible price levels when the presence of government apparatus is as good as non-existent, and even when the armed conflict was at its height.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>3. Civil Society and NGOs</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepal&#39;s civil society and the media don&#39;t believe in a long but natural process of the outcome of their activities. The natural role of the civil society or media is to cater the common people with factual information, on the basis of which people form their opinion, and that opinion gets reflected through the ballots. Then comes change through the policies of the mandated government. But, instead, in Nepal they want to be seen as activists and instant impact makers. The NGOs and INGOs strive deliberately to slip-out from the bracket of civil society and claim themselves to be real, grassroots development partners.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The media outlets in general have grown in terms of quantity, quality and reach, whereas NGO activities have become more suspicious and slanted. A large number of INGOs are deeply engaged in spreading this or that religion. . We probably need to re-examine the extent of real contribution of many of such NGOs to the economic growth, development and social harmony of our country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>4. The Beneficiaries&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The common people both as actors and true beneficiaries of the economic growth and development efforts are at complete loss of direction. First, the people who are so far completely deprived of any form of meaningful development are not capable of even to identify and articulate their developmental needs. Let me directly quote from a woman whom I had met at Dehimandu of &nbsp;Baitadi, a year ago. In her early thirties, she looked like of fifties, who on top of a heavy load of fodder was carrying two malnourished kids and a pitcherful of water in her arms.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	When I asked her what did she looked for to ameliorate her sufferings, she first vehemently denied that she had had any suffering and then explained -- she was a happy woman as she could fetch drinking water walking just for 45 minutes whereas she had to spend some one hour in her parental home before marriage, collect fodder from the grassland half an hour away, her two kids out of six she gave birth have, fortunately, survived, her husband who worked in the Indian town of Pithoragarh visits twice a year, her mother-in-law beats her only once or twice a month, she had four cattle and enough land to feed her family for eight months in a year and rest is managed by her husband and his brother. She has plans for sending her kids to nearby school, just two hours of walk, for few years, and then they will follow their father to work in some Indian city. &#39;I am a happy woman and want nothing more,&quot; she emphasized.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	I don&#39;t think this story needs any further illustration.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Second, who know what they want, they too don&#39;t have access to the authorities or knowledge on how to communicate their demands and concerns. Even if some managed to communicate, the end result may just be the same as being idle, ab initio.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There is another extreme, where people lately have begun to obstruct the development projects claiming to have absolute ownership of the entire natural resources of their area. The process of participatory development is impeded either way.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>5. The Donors</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Unlike in other countries, donors for Nepal&#39;s case are imperatively very crucial development actors. It is but natural that the donors, particularly the bilateral ones, have their own interest or agenda in providing the financial assistance to Nepal. The nature of such interest, though, may vary from presenting a mere philanthropic face of the donor in question, influencing in certain policies, providing business to their home companies to increasing diplomatic clout.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is the responsibility of Nepal as a nation-state to identify our needs, prioritize them and explore the areas of possible engagements for the donors where their interest may be served without jeopardizing or compromising our own interests. We often degrade ourselves claiming that we cannot afford to be selective or, to say no. May be true. But we definitely can streamline the support and make them to agree to spend in our projects and programmes chosen by the national budget system.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Foreign Employment" src="/userfiles/images/CS3%20(Copy).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 330px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For years, we have tried to formulate a functional foreign aid policy but failed to conclusively frame and effectively implement it. Our absorption capacity of foreign assistance has often been below the &#39;fair&#39; mark and donors seem reluctant to increase and diversify the support mainly due to prolonged political transition and uncertainty coupled with administrative inefficiency. We have often failed to meet the capital expenditure earmarked by our own system that hardly gives incentive to major donors to augment their grant or loan portfolios.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	We often hear not only engagement but of overengaement of the donors in our development process. They are often alleged of directly interfering in policy making, selection and implementation of the projects etc. Many countries bring in their own experts and repatriate larger chunk of their support back home. Discrimination in pay for the same work between the Nepali staff of same qualification and caliber against their consultants is whopping. Probably Nepal has left more vacuum, not doing proper homework in time to make their engagement more fruitful yet unintrusive.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Dynamics and Correlations</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Let&rsquo;snow dwell briefly on a few key dynamics of Nepali economy. I will touch upon only those areas which appear to be inconsistent in pattern, look paradoxical or needed fresh looks and comparisons.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>1. Dynamics of the Human Resource and Migration</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepal&#39;s population growth rate now stands at 1.4 percent per annum according to census 2011. Without going into the boring details of numbers, &nbsp;we can say that some of the development indicators certainly show that we have made very impressive progress in terms of increasing the primary school enrollment, literacy and life expectancy, reducing child and maternal mortality rates, increasing access to health and transport services etc.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But with regard to human resource development, we are caught in a very awkward position. About one third of the working age population (or about twelve percent of the total population) has out-migrated to foreign employment, mainly in menial jobs. Better educated too, have migrated to developed countries, majority of them with a set mind to permanently settle in the destination countries.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is an interesting paradox that migrated unskilled and uneducated youths are sending their entire earning back to Nepal and the remittances thus received have saved Nepali economy for at least a decade now from potentially falling into acute balance of payment crisis. On the contrary, the educated lot is not only migrating but also taking a hefty sum, on an average forex equivalent of about 35 billion rupees every year, from the national coffers towards tuition, travel and accommodation costs.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In a rough calculation, to create a university graduate with sixteen years of education in private institution at present prices costs the nation between 5 to 6 million rupees. And, the return to the nation is clearly zero when one migrates never to come back. It is another paradox that the poor country like Nepal is investing so heavily in human resource to be used solely by the developed countries. The cost-benefit comparison shows that after such a big investment in education, it is unfeasible for them to stay in Nepal and get the cost returned given the lack of opportunities and relatively unattractive pays here.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Then, left here in Nepal are true mediocres, who have spent less, studying in community schools, compelled to be contended with low rate of return and perform far below than the average. Nepali civil service is the true mirror of this phenomenon. If the trend of migration is not reversed, very soon Nepal will lack the required human resource of both low and high end skills. This is likely to have serious repercussion in national output. A trend is already visible in sectors like metal and construction works.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Direction of Foreign Trade" src="/userfiles/images/CS4%20(Copy).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 429px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>2. Dynamics of Foreign Trade and Remittances</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepal&#39;s trade deficit stood at scary level of 500 billion rupees in the last fiscal year (2012/13). Official figures show that export to import ratio was 1:6, whereas unofficial estimates suggest that such ratio should stand at 1:10. The accompanying table is self explanatory.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In the last FY, Nepal received about 435 billion equivalent of remittances from the migrant workers. This definitely has put Nepal in comfortable level of forex reserve. But, a comparison of trade and remittance data suggests that our economy is heading to a very dangerous trend of the Dutch Disease like effect. Our consumption has been fueled by the remittance income of the households, which in turn is widening the export-import gap. Our productive sector is paralyzed for lack of power, human resource and investment. Our imports are largely consumables, perishables but hardly the production inputs. This apparently is unsustainable, dangerous trend. We need to re-identify Nepali goods that can have comparative and competitive advantage in the export market. At the same time, we must be able to diversify both export and import trade.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>3. Dynamics of Growth and Poverty</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepal&#39;s average annual GDP growth rate during the last fifteen years has remained barely at 3.5 &nbsp;percent level. But, in the same period, the headcount poverty, the percentage of the population living below $1 dollar a day poverty line at PPP has unbelievably reduced from 58 percent in 1996 to 25 percent in 2011. What we are effectively saying here is that the poverty can be reduced without growth. In other words, we are challenging the existing theories that correlate growth and poverty and suggesting a completely new economic paradigm on both growth and poverty reduction. This is impossible. The government&#39;s development literature attributes this as the effect of the increased inflow of the remittances. Again, if that is the case too, we are saying that the remittances do not contribute to the economic growth but reduce poverty. This is equivalent to proposing an absolutely new economic theory.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In countries like India and Argentina some 30 percent people still live under the poverty line. Mexico has 28 percent people under this magic line. It appears that we are very fast approaching to the United States which still has 15.1 percent people living under the poverty line, according to the World Bank data of 2011. All these are impossible and counter-intuitive arguments and one single conclusion of this is: what we are saying is not credible. On the one hand, we are saying that graduating a country from the least developed to a developing one is a highly ambitious enterprise, on the other our poverty data shows that we are already in far higher position than many of G-20 countries.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>4. Investment and Infrastructure</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The private sector investment both domestic and FDI are in declining trend. The foreign direct investment of Rs. 9.08 billion was recorded in FY 2012/13compared to Rs. 9.20 billion in the previous year. The intent of investing about Rs. 39 billion was proposed by domestic entrepreneurs in the same year, which is less by some seven percent than the previous year. Apart from this, an investment of Rs 100 billion has been proposed for the hydel projects expected to be completed in next five years.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	One of the very encouraging developments is that the private sector has more aggressively come forward to invest in infrastructure than ever, not only in power but also in the telecommunications, surface transportation and airports. There are a number of large J-V projects in hydropower like Upper Karnali, Upper Seti and Arun III, at different stages of development. Yet, they have constantly been victim of political bickerings and protracted decision making process in the bureaucracy.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/CS1%20(Copy)(1).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 367px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Very shaky political climate is main distraction to investment, both domestic and foreign.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>5. Agriculture and Manufacturing</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Our experience suggests that Nepal is not faring well in the manufacturing. Many products we tried could not compete with Indian and Chinese goods that are in instant supply and cheaper for the reasons of mass production and use mostly of their own raw materials. But on the contrary, Nepal has fared well in our niche products like hand-spun dhaaka and pashmina, handicrafts and herbs where there is our backward link in production and possibility of substantive value addition.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The manufacturing industries that use Nepali agricultural products have seemingly given better returns to investment. The commercialization of agriculture itself presents real prospects for investment, perhaps in a scale thus far not even imagined of. Off-season farming of cash-crops and commercial farming of valuable herbs can open new avenues in the agriculture sector. Added road links to provide market access should be able to attract new investment for processing, phyto-sanitation and storage facilities. But, we often get carried away by the documentary camouflages like Agriculture Perspective Plan (APP), which presented every possible good plan for agricultural growth without any mention about the land where farming would be done. This was truly a plan made to farm in the air. Just an example.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>6. The Service Sector &amp; Growth Linkage</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Two sectors, financial services and tourism have exhibited very promising trend both in terms of attracting substantial amount of investment and promising good rate of returns. The financial sector now mobilizes about Rs 1.1 trillion of deposits and Rs. 0.9 trillion as loans and investments. The growth in the sub-sectors of insurance, stocks and commodities has also been impressive. But the hard fact is, Nepal&#39;s entire banking sector even jointly doesn&#39;t have liquidity enough to finance a medium-scale hydro project of say of 200 MW. Similar is the situation of insurance companies to provide insurance cover to these projects if they opted to insure. We don&#39;t have a domestic reinsurer, yet.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Areas like transportation services have also expanded, along with the increased road networks. The tourism infrastructure is growing steadily. Health and education services by now have national reach due to private sector investment. But the issue here is: how do we make the expansion of these sectors contributory to the overall economic growth of the country? Anomalies like in these sectors have rather added new problems. For example, the over exposure of the banking credit in the real-estate has fueled inflation, created large portfolio of NPA in the industry and put &nbsp;the balance-sheet of a number of banks in a very bad shape for a number of years.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The transportation facilities can contribute more if they provided easier market access to the products and supported supply of inputs to increase the production and add value to them. But, largely, the scenario is just opposite.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>7. Choice between Improved Subsistence &amp; Prosperity</strong></span></div>
<div>
	There has been virtual explosion in small scale development initiatives like solar and micro hydro for rural electrification, NGO-led rights based development and awareness campaigns, literacy classes, skill development and self-employment schemes, community or gender-focused empowerment programmes etc. Policies of reservation, inclusion and positive discrimination are now widely debated. These definitely are good things.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But we need to link these activities with our main objective. If our prime aim is a little improvement in the bare subsistence life-style and help reduce abject poverty, these are definitely the ways we should invest and focus on. But if our aim is tangible economic growth that can also compensate to the lost opportunity of decades, we need higher degree of commitment, massive investment and multi-stakeholder engagement at all possible levels, as we discussed about. By now, it is apparent that these small things may be beautiful in facilitating poorest of the poor to live relatively a better life, but seldom enough to effectively speed-up the economic growth and overall prosperity and well-being of the entire population. When we can uplift the living standard of every citizen, universally ensure education and employment, issues of inclusion and reservations automatically become redundant.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Choice" src="/userfiles/images/CD2%20(Copy).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 413px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Engagement: Process &amp; Paradigm</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&#39;Engaging Overall Partners&#39; is a great concept and also an absolute imperative. But engaging multi-stakeholders with varying, often conflicting, interests is an equally challenging proposition. It perhaps requires a different development culture than Nepal is practicing now. We need both formal and informal common forums, factual information and access to them, effective communication amongst all stakeholders in multitude of directions, &nbsp;reasonable level of credible independent research to ascertain what is working and what is not and, of course, a unity of purpose at the macro level of objectives.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Some key components that can be instrumental in enhancing such engagement can be as follows:</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>1. Discourse</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepal utterly lacks any form of meaningful discourse, at any level on economic, financial and developmental issues, except for some media reports and limited number of seminars that take place, here and there. Such discourses should have taken place at three different arenas -- the political parties, policy making units and the academia. And, they should.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Since the political parties are the one who govern the country, the economic policy of each major one of them is important tool to make people understand their means and ends of the economic growth and development. Such policy of each party, ideally, should be framed through fully democratic debate at all levels of the respective party organizations; and reflected in their manifestoes. But, this is not at all the case. Except for a couple of leaders in each major party who understand economic issues, the entire outfits are virtually illiterate about the economy, its components and trends. Worst of all, none of these parties have understood the importance of such debate and need to initiate them sooner than later.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	At the policy making level, trained economists are rare species. A couple of recent finance ministers, for example, were undergrads in subjects other than economics. Bureaucrats have more incentive in appeasing their bosses in any possible way but professionalism. They lack refreshment trainings, more so in economic issues. The redundancy of their rusted ideas gets amply reflected in the so-called new but essentially archaic policies. It is one of the main reasons that our economic policies seldom work.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Both of the deficiencies in political and bureaucratic levels should have been bridged by the discourse at academic level. But, unfortunately, in Nepal such discourse is completely absent. A few academics who have made some name as economists have limited themselves in the role of consultants to INGOs and impartial viewpoints about national economy are non-existent. The reluctance of newer universities to institute the department of economics is indicative enough to explain the predicament.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Discourses at stakeholders&#39; level, on the topics suitably designed to them are another striking need. At the donors&#39; level, they seem to have instituted a loose network, but its effectiveness as a debate forum on the core economic issues is still beyond the public knowledge.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>2. Research</strong></span></div>
<div>
	For meaningful engagement at any level, credible data are the primary need. The factual information only can ascertain the scope of participation for each stakeholder. But, whenever we try to talk about any aspect of Nepali economy, we immediately loose thread for lack of proper data and absence of conclusions drawn out by properly analyzing them. As mentioned above, we have contradictory and unbelievable or just tentative figures even on cardinal data like GDP, inflation, unemployment and trade. All comparison and correlation conclusions, like I made above, are largely heuristic. We have no option citing whatever the government agencies like the National Planning Commission, Nepal Rastra Bank or Finance Ministry cook in the name of research and analysis. The nation hardly invests anything in research. There are not independent, credible and well-equipped institutions to carryout research in multi-dimensional aspects of the economy and its trends. Such large scale researches need substantial resources and experts right from the stage of research design to econometric analysis and interpretation of those results. There must be somebody to invest on them.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>3. Reform</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The policy and institutional reforms are other important areas that ensure participatory engagement among the development actors. The continuous process of policy reforms provide opportunity to accommodate the emerging needs, practically realized in the development processes at different levels. The institutional reforms increase the functionality of the actors and replicability of the good practices. Nepal also greatly lags behind in undertaking reforms that are due for long time. Some multi-donor sectoral approaches (SAps) in education and health sectors have delivered impressive results. If similar policy as well as institutional frameworks can be extended to include other possible actors in more sectors, that is likely to increase the portfolio efficiency.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>4. Streamlining</strong></span></div>
<div>
	It is important to understand, when we engage multiple stakeholders, it is natural to have varying interests, priorities, methodologies and objectives to come to fore. Without streamlining them, the national objective of economic prosperity is impossible to achieve. Extensive exercises of benchmarking, clustering, grading and ranking are the necessary part of this process. This can greatly reduce the duplication or omission of many of development endeavours; thereby increase the allocative efficiency of resources. A national focal point, a functional unit, not a generic large structure like a ministry, is internationally adopted practice. At times, when the government agencies try to do it, there are instances of conflicts between the different actors. Therefore, such tasks could be outsourced to some independent professional entity with established, proven credibility.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>5. &nbsp;Good Faith</strong></span></div>
<div>
	All forms of engagements are only possible if the actors are committed to support in good faith on single objectives of economic growth and development of Nepal. The source of good faith is the spirit of democracy that respects the plurality of views, culture of agreeing to disagree and readiness to be partner in the process than to be a savior or ruler. We all have our interests. Sacrifice of a small portion of it by each actor might create a large space for engagement and cooperation and also help serve our own interests better while helping others to serve their own.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>&nbsp;(Based on paper presented by the author, in IVAAN seminar, 7th Dec 2013 in Kathmandu.)</em></div>',
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			'description' => 'Multi-stakeholder Approach is the recent buzzword in development literature. How can Nepal use this approach? Achyut Wagle analyses the challenges and opportunities.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2457',
			'article_category_id' => '140',
			'title' => 'ACAN-AUDAN Joint Protest Against Arrest Of CAs',
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	<strong>--By TC Correspondent</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Association of Chartered Accountants of Nepal (ACAN) and the Auditors&rsquo; Association of Nepal (AUDAN) have announced a joint agitation against the arrest of auditors. Putting forward a four-point demand, the two organizations have asked the government to immediately release senior Chartered Accountant (CA) Gopal Kumar Agrawal and withdraw the &ldquo;fake case&rdquo; against CA Jagadish Prasad Agrawal.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Organising a press conference in the Capital on Thursday (January 16), ACAN and AUDAN have demanded the government not to arrest and/or prosecute auditors and chartered accountants just because of auditing the books of companies. Similarly, they have also demanded a clear explanation of the term &ldquo;accomplice&rdquo; mentioned in sections 121 and 127 of the Income Tax Act 2058 BS. Similarly, they have also demanded an amendment to sections 2 (e) and 7 (a) of the &ldquo;Asset (Money) Laundering Prevention Act, 2008.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	According to a press release, both ACAN and AUDAN will not issue and or certify the audit reports of insurance companies from Friday (January 17) as part of their protest programme. They have also announced to collect the Certificate of Profession (CoP) of all chartered accountants and submit them to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nepal (ICAN) on January 29. They have also announced to put on black arm band at workplace and submit memorandum to the concerned government bodies.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	They have also announced not to issue and/or certify the audit reports of banks and financial institutions from January 29, the audit reports of the institutions licensed by the Securities Board of Nepal from February 13 and the audit reports of companies listed at Nepal Stock Exchange from February 27. Similarly, they have announced not to issue and or certify the audit reports of companies partly or fully owned by the Nepal government.</div>',
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			'description' => 'The Association of Chartered Accountants of Nepal (ACAN) and the Auditors’ Association of Nepal (AUDAN) have announced a joint agitation against the arrest of auditors. Putting forward a four-point demand, the two organizations have asked the government to immediately release senior Chartered Accountant (CA) Gopal Kumar Agrawal and withdraw the “fake case” against CA Jagadish Prasad Agrawal.',
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			'title' => 'South Asia To See Decline  In Capital Inflow: World Bank',
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			'summary' => null,
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	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	South Asia along with other developing regions across the globe may face the risk of declining capital inflow, says a new World Bank report. According to the Global Economic Prospect (GEP) 2014 report, developing nations are vulnerable to the rise in interest rates, which is likely to result in the volatility of capital flow. The global lender pointed to the tapering of quantitative easing (QE) in United States as the main reason for this. In mid-December, Federal Reserve, the US central bank decided to scale back its bond buying programme- from USD 85 billion per month to USD 75 billion per month- amid the country&rsquo;s improving economic prospects.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Washington-based bank in its report warned that adverse reaction of financial markets to the ending of QE might leave the world&rsquo;s developing nations starved of capital. &ldquo;According to simulations, abrupt changes in market expectations, resulting in global bond yields increasing by 100 to 200 basis points within a couple of quarters, could lead to a sharp reduction in capital inflows to developing countries by between 50 and 80 percent for several months,&rdquo; the bank said in its report. The bank also mentioned that countries with a substantial expansion of domestic credit over the last five years, deteriorating current account balances, high levels of foreign and short-term debt and over-valued exchange rates could be more at risk in current circumstances.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The bank said that there would be moderate impact on developing nations if this adjustment happened in an orderly manner. The World Bank expects the global interest rates to rise slowly to reach 3.6 per cent by mid-2016 following an orderly trajectory regarding the process of normalisation of activity and policy in high-income countries. &ldquo;However, should the adjustment be disorderly, as it was in response to speculation about when a taper might begin during the spring and summer of 2013, interest rates could rise more quickly,&rdquo; said the report.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The report urges developing countries to implement structural reforms that would help raise the capacity of their economies, if they are to regain their pre-crisis growth rates.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<hr />
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
	<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Global Growth Picking Up</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The report informed that growth in South Asia expanded at a modest 4.6 percent in 2013, reflecting weakness in India amid high inflation, and current account and government deficits. &ldquo;Regional growth is projected to improve to 5.7 percent in 2014, rising to 6.7 percent in 2016, led mainly by recovering import demand by high-income economies and regional investment,&rdquo; says the report. &nbsp;The report, however, said that projected pickup will depend on macroeconomic stability, sustained policy reforms, and progress in reducing supply side constraints. &ldquo;The main risks to the outlook are fiscal and policy reforms going off-track; uncertainties related to elections in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and India; entrenchment of inflation expectations; and a disorderly adjustment of capital flows in response to US tapering,&rdquo; it said.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The World Bank expects a gradual increase in global growth from this year. According to the report, global growth will pick up from 2.4 per cent in 2013 to 3.2 per cent this year, and to 3.4 per cent in 2015. It believes much of the acceleration will be due to an improvement in economic conditions in high-income countries, where for the first time in five years all three of the main regions &ndash; the US, Europe and Japan &ndash; will be growing. &ldquo;Global economic indicators show improvement. But one does not have to be especially astute to see there are dangers that lurk beneath the surface. The Euro Area is out of recession but per capita incomes are still declining in several countries. We expect developing country growth to rise above 5 percent in 2014, with some countries doing considerably better, with Angola at 8 percent, China 7.7 percent, and India at 6.2 percent. But it is important to avoid policy stasis so that the green shoots don&rsquo;t turn into brown stubble,&rdquo; said Kaushik Basu, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist at the World Bank.</div>',
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			'description' => 'South Asia along with other developing regions across the globe may face the risk of declining capital inflow, says a new World Bank report. According to the Global Economic Prospect (GEP) 2014 report, developing nations are vulnerable to the rise in interest rates, which is likely to result in the volatility of capital flow. The global lender pointed to the tapering of quantitative easing (QE) in United States as the main reason for this. In mid-December, Federal Reserve, the US central bank decided to scale back its bond buying programme- from USD 85 billion per month to USD 75 billion per month- amid the country’s improving economic prospects.',
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	(int) 13 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2460',
			'article_category_id' => '140',
			'title' => 'Weekly Round Up (13 - 19 January 2014)',
			'sub_title' => '',
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			'content' => '<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Joshi Elected President of Chitwan Chamber</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Chitwan businessman Kalyan Joshi was elected the president of the Chitwan Chamber of Commerce on Jan 15 for a term of two years from the 17th General Assembly of the Chamber. The results of the election, which was held on January 14, were announced on January 15 morning. Joshi secured 933 votes while his rival Shree Bhakta Achyut Wagle received only 426 votes in the election. Elected in Joshi&rsquo;s team as the senior vice-president is Sohan Lal Pradhan. Chum Narayan Shrestha, Raju Shrestha and Chiranjibi Subedi have been elected as vice-presidents from Commerce, Industry and Commodity sectors respectively. Joshi, who was the senior vice president of the outgoing board, says that his work will be in line with the vision and mission of the Chamber.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Four New ISPs in Market</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Four new companies have been given the go-ahead to operate as internet service providers (ISPs) raising their total number to 45. According to the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA)., My Net and Lumbini Net obtained fresh permits from the NTA while Mega Broadcast and Otel Communications bought the licences held by existing ISPs, Everest Net and Zentech International, respectively. The four entrants have joined the market when demand for data services is increasing and two major telecom operators, Nepal Telecom and Ncell, are keeping a firm grip on the top slots. My Net is based in Dharan of Sunsari district while Lumbini Net is based in Tansen, Palpa. As per the NTA&rsquo;s latest Management Information Report, it has also issued Rural ISP licences to two companies, Pico Soft in Pokhara and Syangja Internet in Syangja to provide internet services in their localities. NTA charges Rs 300,000 for the ISP license, which allows service operation nationwide. The charge for Rural ISP license, which allows operation in only one village development committee, is set at Rs 100.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Tourism Workshops by PATA</strong></span></div>
<div>
	PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association) Nepal Chapter organsied workshops on Modern Destination Marketing Management and Writing Winning Proposals in the capital on Thursday. Simultaneously, it launched PATA Students&rsquo; Chapter Nepal and Friends of PATA Media Pool. Some 205 participants from tourism Industry that includes hotels, travel agencies, various tour operators, and the media fraternity and business institutions actively participated in the workshop that was set in motion by Subash Niroula, CEO of Nepal Tourism Board at Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management (NATHM), Rabi Bhawan on January 13.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Project Reports for Sunkoshi II</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The government is due to start the preparations of the detailed project report (DPR) of Sunkoshi II hydropower project, the country&acute;s largest hydropower project. The 1,111 MW reservoir-based project would be situated in the border area of Ramechhap and Solukhumbu districts. According to information officer at the Department of Electricity Development, Gokarna Raj Pantha, preparations for carrying out the DPR have been completed. &ldquo;We will soon call for bids,&rdquo; He said. The Asian Development Bank has already provided Rs 2.9 billion to prepare the DPR of the project.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>SAARC Ministerial Meet Ends</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The fifth meeting of the commerce ministers of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) member countries concluded in New Delhi, India on Friday (January 17). The two-day meeting focused on ways to bring economic prosperity to the region through trade, according to the Ministry of Commerce. A Nepali delegation led by Minister for Finance and Commerce Shanker Prasad Koirala participated in the meeting. The delegation comprised Commerce Secretary Madhav Prasad Regmi and Joint Secretaries Nawaraj Bhandari, Begendra Sharma Poudel and Toya Narayan Gyawali. Commerce Ministers of Nepal, India, Afghanistan, Bhutan, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka took part in the meeting. Representatives of chambers of commerce and industry of the SAARC region also attended the meeting.</div>',
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			'description' => 'Chitwan businessman Kalyan Joshi was elected the president of the Chitwan Chamber of Commerce on Jan 15 for a term of two years from the 17th General Assembly of the Chamber. The results of the election, which was held on January 14, were announced on January 15 morning. Joshi secured 933 votes while his rival Shree Bhakta Achyut Wagle received only 426 votes in the election. Elected in Joshi’s team as the senior vice-president is Sohan Lal Pradhan.',
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			'title' => 'Invest In Service Sector: NRB Guv',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<strong>--By TC Correspondent</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Dr Yuvraj Khatiwada" src="/userfiles/images/gor.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;width: 150px; height: 180px;" />Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), Dr Yubaraj Khatiwada has asked the private sector for investment in the service sector. Speaking at an interaction programme organized by the Birgunj Chamber of Commerce &amp; Industries (BiCCI), Dr Khatiwada said that due to capital flight in the health and education sectors, it has become necessary to invest in these sectors within the country.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;It has become necessary to invest in the country&rsquo;s service sector including health and education to stop capital flight,&rdquo; Dr Khatiwada said, &ldquo;The investment in the service sector will make the economy strong.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He also opined that the country has the right environment for investment at present. He also claimed that liquidity in the banks was quite high. &ldquo;Banks have more than Rs 100 billion which can be invested in different sectors,&rdquo; he said adding that this is the right time for investment.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He also claimed that the scarcity of Indian currency in Nepal was because of the informal trade between the countries and the non-transparent customs evaluation. &ldquo;We bring Indian currency worth Rs 5 billion annually. If all of our trade with India takes place through the formal channels, this much amount of Indian currency is enough,&rdquo; he said.</div>',
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			'description' => 'Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), Dr Yubaraj Khatiwada has asked the private sector for investment in the service sector. Speaking at an interaction programme organized by the Birgunj Chamber of Commerce & Industries (BiCCI), Dr Khatiwada said that due to capital flight in the health and education sectors, it has become necessary to invest in these sectors within the country.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2444',
			'article_category_id' => '210',
			'title' => 'Corporate Lifestyle Balancing Work And Home',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By TC Correspondent</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Once you enter the professional world, time management becomes a major concern. On top of that, balancing work and home can often be alarming in your professional life. If one fails to manage it, the person is burdened with stresses in both spheres. It becomes hard for the person to complete professional tasks and to mingle with the family members. There is a huge probability that the person will be sandwiched by both the parties. To live a healthy and stress-free life, it is necessary to balance these two elements: work and home. It is crucial for professionals to understand that corporate lifestyle is all about time management.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Tips to balance work and home</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Understand your priorities</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Balancing work and family means that you have to be available at both the places without neglecting the other, which can often be very difficult. Thus, it is important that you understand your major priorities. At office, your work should be your major priority and while at home, your family should be your major precedence. If you try to mix work with family, you will reach nowhere.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Time management</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Time management is a crucial element in the professional world. But, it does not mean that it is limited to meeting the deadlines at office only. Time management has to be applied at the workplace as well as at home. While at office, make sure that you finish your work on time. Do not work for late hours as it can irritate your family members. Similarly, make sure you reach office on time as this can lead to disastrous consequences with your boss. Spending much of your time at home can lead to an&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	unhealthy professional life.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Stress Management&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Stress management does not mean you manage your work stress at home by spilling it on your family members. It is important to create a fine line between your professional life and your family life. This means that you should not nag your family members with your stress at work. They can do nothing about it. So,&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	don&rsquo;t spill your work frustration at them.</div>
<div>
	In the office, don&rsquo;t come with a grumpy face because you had a quarrel with your wife at home. Be calm at work, as it will help you focus properly on your tasks. If the problem at home is actually big, better take a day&rsquo;s leave at work.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Take a break</strong></span></div>
<div>
	It is agreeable that work is worship. But, this does not mean you worship work for 365 days a year. Make sure you go on vacations with family and make them feel that you equally worship family relations. This will help you take a break from the daily office environment and relax. Likewise, it will also help in strengthening your family ties.</div>',
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			'created' => '2014-01-19',
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			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'Once you enter the professional world, time management becomes a major concern. On top of that, balancing work and home can often be alarming in your professional life. If one fails to manage it, the person is burdened with stresses in both spheres. It becomes hard for the person to complete professional tasks and to mingle with the family members. There is a huge probability that the person will be sandwiched by both the parties. To live a healthy and stress-free life, it is necessary to balance these two elements: work and home. It is crucial for professionals to understand that corporate lifestyle is all about time management.',
			'sortorder' => '2314',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2406',
			'article_category_id' => '91',
			'title' => 'Richest Countries Poor In Anti-Money Laundering',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Hom Nath Gaire&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	A landmark report published last week by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has found that the richest countries in the world are failing to comply with Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing (AML/CTF) Regimes. The OECD study titled &ldquo;Measuring OECD Responses to Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries&rdquo; was published just one week after Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a US longtime authority on financial crimes, released its annual update on illicit financial outflows from the developing world. The study documented that the developed countries are highly responsible for steady increase in illicit financial flows from developing countries, most of which is being absorbed in the developed countries.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For a long time, the traditional view in the developed countries was that illegal capital flight, money laundering and terrorist financing were problems only for developing countries. Similarly, they used to say that the corrupt governments and bureaucracy as well as poor business environments in the developing countries led capital to flee to their markets and promote money laundering.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Accordingly, they were putting high pressure on developing and least developed countries like ours to obey all the Financial Action Task Force&rsquo;s (FATF) recommendations on AML-CTF.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, &ldquo;one of the most damning findings of the study is that 27 of the 34 OECD countries are either &ldquo;non compliant&rdquo; or only &ldquo;partially compliant&rdquo; with the FATF recommendations,&rdquo; reads the report. The report also shows that none of the OECD countries are &ldquo;fully compliant&rdquo; with the standards on transparency of corporate ownership information, which aims to tackle money laundering by anonymous shell companies. The study indicates that most of the developed countries, which have been receiving the largest chunk of money that vanished from the developing countries, are in a rush to collect the illicit financial flows rather than help to restrain it. While policymakers in developing countries bear some of the responsibility for this problem, this is a two-way street.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Chief economic advisor for the Ministry of Finance, Dr. Chiranjibi Nepal accepts the reality that the money drained from poor countries like Nepal is being received by the developed countries. &ldquo;The high income countries have been absorbing the illicit financial flows in the name of offshore financial system, secrecy jurisdictions and tax haven lands,&rdquo; said Nepal, suggesting that the developing countries should raise their voice collectively on FATF and other multilateral platforms.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	According to Krishna Hari Baskota, Secretary at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, although the degree of pressure on and anomalies in the developing countries in the name of ML/TF has been rising internationally, the OECD countries underscore their voice. &ldquo;However, Nepal is in a safe zone now as per the criteria set by FATF,&rdquo; said Baskota adding that this is a result of continuous efforts of Government of Nepal in policy formulation and enforcement to contain ML/TF. He further argued that the latest study should serve as a wake-up call to the world leaders regarding illicit financial flows and ML/TF.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Western nations established an offshore financial system comprised of tax havens, anonymous shell companies, and various trade-based money laundering techniques, and they have not done enough to remedy this system to date,&rdquo; said Raymond Baker President of GFI in a comment on the OECD report. According to Baker, Illicit financial flows and money laundering are the most damaging economic problem facing the global poor, and they are growing at a terrifying pace. The FATF recommendations on beneficial ownership are only a first step towards eliminating the use of anonymous &lsquo;phantom firms&rsquo; and effectively curtailing ML/TF. But the shameful reality is that every OECD member fails to comply with even these weak standards on corporate ownership transparency and most of them aren&rsquo;t even close, according to the report.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	According to the latest report of GFI, nearly USD 1 trillion drained from the developing world in 2011 with an annual growth rate of more than 10 per cent during the last decade i.e. 2002 to 2011.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-01-06',
			'modified' => '2014-01-20',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'A landmark report published last week by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has found that the richest countries in the world are failing to comply with Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing (AML/CTF) Regimes. The OECD study titled “Measuring OECD Responses to Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries” was published just one week after Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a US longtime authority on financial crimes, released its annual update on illicit financial outflows from the developing world.',
			'sortorder' => '2313',
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	(int) 2 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2467',
			'article_category_id' => '151',
			'title' => 'Series On Top Business Colleges In Kathmandu',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<span style="font-size:16px;">Little Angel&rsquo;s College of Management (LACM) and Prime College are two top Business colleges in the town, which are giving their best for the aspiring management students to help them become top leaders and managers of the future. LACM with affiliation with Kathmandu University is in the education sector since1999 while Prime is recognized for providing top management education since 2002.</span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Little Angels College of Management</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Little Angels College of Management (LACM) was established in 1999 with the objective to fulfil the void that would lead Nepal towards a path of development.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The college aims to provide the country with young people who are armed with a certain set of managerial skills, to give work and production the direction, it requires for efficiency and excellence. It offers a team of experienced and dedicated teachers supporting the students at every stage of their journey.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For students who choose a career in the fast paced and constantly changing environment of the business and technological world, Little Angels&rsquo; College of Management reproduces real world challenges as best as it can in the classroom.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The College Offers the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) and the Bachelor of Business Information System (BBIS): both 120 credit, 4-year courses and Bachelor in Hotel Management (BHM) with the affiliation of highly reputed Kathmandu University. During the course, students will develop administrative and problem solving skills with a sharp knowledge of today&rsquo;s technology, preparing them for a lifetime of opportunities. For students aspiring to join Nepal&rsquo;s hospitality industry too, LA&rsquo;s Bachelor in Hospitality and Tourism Management (BHTM) is the perfect place to put your foot in the door.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td bgcolor="#E5E4E2">
				<div>
					<div>
						<div>
							<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong><img alt="Mitra Bahadur Paudel" src="/userfiles/images/lc(1).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 150px; height: 185px;" />Mitra Bandhu Poudel, Principal</strong></span></div>
						<div>
							Every college is special in their own way. A business school should focus on market demand and necessity while developing the curriculum. Business Colleges helps in producing the skilled manpower demanded by the market. Quality products with healthy competitions of the colleges ultimately help in prospering the nation. Talking about Little Angels College of Management we focus on quality at affordable price. We provide professional touch in our course. We are moving very consciously towards providing the quality education to our students. About the placement part, our students are sellable in the market. LACM has no match in that case. Currently, we are looking forward to strengthen the course we already are providing to make it and deliver it better.</div>
					</div>
				</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<div>
	<hr />
	<p>
		<strong><span style="font-size:16px;">Prime College&nbsp;</span></strong></p>
</div>
<div>
	Prime College is a renowned IT, Management and Science College which is committed to excellence. The college has been successful to establish itself to the educational arena of Nepal for the 12 years. Located at the heart of the city Naya Bazar, Kathmandu, the college is well recognized for offering world-class academic programmes and a growing array of intellectual programmes. Activities such as debate, public speaking, social welfare, event organizing, and inter-college sports activities helps students to grow in diversity both academically and intellectually.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The College is well known for its extraordinary faculties, distinguished research scholars and experts to help come this far with outstanding academic results and National Champion titles in various sports events, such as Wushu, Table Tennis and Basketball as well. The College focuses on employment prospects through the acquisition of subject knowledge and practical skills.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The college has pooled some of the best academic facilities and highly prolific faculty members. Prime offers the combination of experienced and dedicated faculties to the students such as; London based Artificial Intelligence (AI) expert Associate Professor Dr. Suresh Manandhar, Prominent IT expert of Nepal, Dr. Bhushan Shrestha, and Prof. Dr. K.D. Koirala, a prominent management and marketing expert. The college also has highly experienced and trained foreign and Nepali faculties in Hotel Management.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Courses Offered</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The College offers Plus 2 program (Management and Science streams) in affiliation with Higher Secondary Education Board (HSEB).And Bachelors program in affiliation with Tribhuvan University (TU). Bachelors program include Bachelor of Information Management (BIM), Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Information Technology (B.Sc. CSIT) and Bachelor of Business Studies (BBS).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td bgcolor="#E5E4E2">
				<div>
					<div>
						<div>
							<div>
								<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong><img alt="Naresh Prasad Shrestha" src="/userfiles/images/lc1.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 150px; height: 186px;" />Naresh Prasad Shrestha, Principal</strong></span></div>
							<div>
								One of the specialties of our college is to work in a group. Our management is moving forward with the vision of providing quality education to the students. We are motivated to work hard with the positive involvement of student and guardians from national level. We also help our students for providing employment beyond quality education. We are giving our continuous effort in the education sector. While selecting the business schools, the students should concentrate on modern education system, skills of communication and educational levels of faculty members. They should also verify whether the college will help the students in job placement after the completion of study or not.</div>
							<div>
								&nbsp;</div>
						</div>
					</div>
				</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
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			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'Little Angel’s College of Management (LACM) and Prime College are two top Business colleges in the town, which are giving their best for the aspiring management students to help them become top leaders and managers of the future. LACM with affiliation with Kathmandu University is in the education sector since1999 while Prime is recognized for providing top management education since 2002.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2469',
			'article_category_id' => '154',
			'title' => 'Learning Curve News In Brief (20 - 26 January 2014)',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Pokhara University Published Rechecking/ Retotaling Results&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Pokhara University Office of the Controller of Examinations has published Rechecking/Re-totalling results spring 2013. Results of various subjects of the MBA programme of having exam centre: Uniglobe College for Kathmandu Valley and School of Business for Pokhara has been published.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Janaki Medical College Barred from Admitting Students for New Session</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepal Medical Council (NMC) has barred Janakpur-based Janaki Medical College (JMC) from admitting students in MBBS programme for the new academic session. The latest move from the regulatory authority questions the college&rsquo;s credibility. A meeting of the regulatory body on Wednesday decided to bar JMC from admitting new MBBS students stating that JMC has failed to maintain minimum standards to run the medical classes. Last year the NMC had told JMC to improve its standard and had reduced the number of annual admissions from 100 to 80. Meanwhile,JMC has filed an application demanding a review of the decision.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>CIAA Seeks Clarification from 178 Bogus Schools in Sarlahi</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has sought clarification with the 138 bogus schools in Sarlahi. A two-day field survey of all public and community schools in the district has revealed that most of the schools in the district were not operating at all as some of them even didn&acute;t have school building; while many others lacked teachers - and even principals in some cases.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The monitoring team consisted of four CIAA officials, including under secretary Ram Krishna Subedi, and a representative each from the Regional Education Directorate, District Administration Office, District Development Committee (DDC) and District Education Office (DEO).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>NELTA Graduates Felicitated</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The Nepal English Language Teaching Association (NELTA) conducted a graduation ceremony of second batch of students of &lsquo;English Access Micro scholarship Program (Access Program)&rsquo; in Maharajgunj on Tuesday. The programme was organized amid the presence of American officials, Ministry of Education (MoE) representative and NELTA executives. Access Program sows a foundation of English language and leadership skills to 13 to 16 year-olds from economically disadvantaged backgrounds through two years of after school instruction sessions.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Actions Against Three Medical Colleges&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepal Medical Council has decided to reduce BDS and MBBS seats of three different colleges for the new academic session. The names of the colleges whose seat has been cut are: Gandaki Medical College (GMC), People&rsquo;s Dental College (PDC), and MB Kedia Dental College (KDC). The Pokhara-based GMC&rsquo;s seats have been reduced to 75 from 80 while the council has reduced the BDS quotas from 75 to 60 in the Kathmandu-based PDC. The Birgunj-based KDC will have to do away with 25 allocate BDS seats.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The action has been taken stating that the colleges were not meeting the requirements for the admission of already approved seats. NMC has also approved 10 more seats to Chitwan Medical College (CMC) for its better performance.</div>',
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			'created' => '2014-01-20',
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			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'Pokhara University Office of the Controller of Examinations has published Rechecking/Re-totalling results spring 2013. Results of various subjects of the MBA programme of having exam centre: Uniglobe College for Kathmandu Valley and School of Business for Pokhara has been published.',
			'sortorder' => '2311',
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	(int) 4 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2468',
			'article_category_id' => '156',
			'title' => 'When It’s OK To Love Someone At The Office',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Rachel Feintzeig</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	To get employees to spend more time in the office, try a little tenderness.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	New research out of the University of Pennsylvania&rsquo;s Wharton School and George Mason University shows that an office culture of &ldquo;companionate love&rdquo; can lead to less worker absenteeism and increased employee satisfaction, as measured by surveys and personnel records.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Love has kind of been a taboo word,&rdquo; when it comes to work, says Sigal G. Barsade, a Wharton management professor. But &ldquo;this is where we spend most of our time.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Companionate love&ndash;as opposed to the passion associated with romantic relationships&ndash;is marked by feelings of caring, compassion and affection, says Ms. Barsade. Workers can show such love by buying a cup of coffee for a colleague who&rsquo;s been up late with a new baby or offering to cover for a co-worker during a doctor&rsquo;s appointment.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Ms. Barsade and George Mason management professor Olivia O&rsquo;Neill studied 185 employees working in a nursing home in the Northeast where managers were trying to cultivate a warm, caring environment. They found that employees in sections where co-workers showed more companionate love reported higher satisfaction, less emotional burnout and better teamwork than employees in less-demonstrative units. They were also absent from work less.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Residents of the nursing home, who were also studied, benefited too. Researchers found residents in the more loving sections had better moods and took fewer trips to the emergency room than residents of other sections.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;In response to Tina Turner&rsquo;s famously haunting lyrics, love, actually, has very much to do with it,&rdquo; the authors write in the paper, set to be published by Administrative Science Quarterly in the next few months.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Small acts of kindness and compassion in the workplace can be contagious, previous studies have found. For example, an accountant who&rsquo;s encouraged to take time off during a busy tax season to deal with a personal issue will feel more loyal to the company and will be more likely to respond compassionately when another colleague needs his help down the line.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;It turns into this virtuous cycle,&rdquo; Ms. Barsade says.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Ms. Barsade and Ms. O&rsquo;Neill also surveyed 3,201 workers across industries including engineering, financial services and higher education about the emotional cultures of their workplaces. Respondents who worked in compassionate environments reported increased job satisfaction and greater commitment to the organization, they found.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Ms. Barsade says leaders of all types of companies need to recognize that the emotional cultures of their workplaces are as important as the &ldquo;cognitive&rdquo; concepts they place front and center &ndash; like innovation or results. Executives can start by treating those around them with more compassion, she says, and also incorporate formal company-wide policies like flexible work hours.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;If as a leader you foster a culture of companionate love, you will have more satisfied employees and a better work outcome,&rdquo; she says.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-01-20',
			'modified' => '2014-01-27',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'New research out of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and George Mason University shows that an office culture of “companionate love” can lead to less worker absenteeism and increased employee satisfaction, as measured by surveys and personnel records.',
			'sortorder' => '2310',
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	(int) 5 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2463',
			'article_category_id' => '146',
			'title' => 'Visual Edit Vol 4 Issue 3',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-01-20',
			'modified' => '2014-01-20',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'Visual Edit',
			'sortorder' => '2309',
			'image' => null,
			'article_date' => '0000-00-00 00:00:00',
			'homepage' => false,
			'breaking_news' => false,
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	(int) 6 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2461',
			'article_category_id' => '140',
			'title' => 'Nepal Political Economic News In Brief (20 - 26 January 2014)',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>&lsquo;CPN-Maoist will revolt if sidelined&rsquo;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	<img alt="Secretary of CPN-Maoist Netra Bikram Chand ‘Biplav’" src="/userfiles/images/1(6).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 115px;" />Secretary of CPN-Maoist Netra Bikram Chand &lsquo;Biplav&rsquo; has warned that his party will launch another revolt if &ldquo;attempts are made to draft the new constitution by sidelining the party. &ldquo;We will institute an alternative power and wage a revolt if we feel that the achievements of the decade-long people&rsquo;s war are at risk,&rdquo; he said while speaking at a press meet in Dhankuta on January 13. Chand said that the agenda of his party, which boycotted the second Constituent Assembly (CA) election, is to draft the much awaited new constitution for the country through an all-party round table conference. &ldquo;But if there is an agreement on ensuring the rights of oppressed, marginalised, and victimized people and workers as well as identity-based federalism then we are ready to accept the soon-to-be formed CA as it is,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>&lsquo;NC-led Govt soon&rsquo;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	<img alt="Nepali Congress (NC) President Sushil Koirala " src="/userfiles/images/2(3).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 107px;" />Nepali Congress (NC) President Sushil Koirala has said that a new NC-led government is going to be formed soon by incorporating all the political parties. Speaking at a programe in the Capital on January 14, Koirala said that talks were underway among the top leaders of the major political parties regarding government formation and that a breakthrough was expected within a few days. Koirala, who is tipped to become the next prime minister, said that the country will have a new constitution within a year. Speaking at the same programme, senior NC leader Sher Bahadur Deuba and Vice President Ram Chandra Poudel refuted rumors about bitter dispute inside the party on the prime ministerial candidate.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Dahal for Fresh Presidential Poll</strong></span></div>
<div>
	<img alt="UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal" src="/userfiles/images/3(3).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 115px;" />UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Thursday (January 16) proposed a new election of the President and Vice-president respecting the fresh mandate of the November 19 Constituent Assembly (CA) election. Presenting a political document at the party&rsquo;s Central Committee (CC) meet at the party headquarters Parisdanda, Dahal broke the party&rsquo;s silence on the presidential election. Meanwhile, Dahal in his 12-page political document, has expressed great dissatisfaction at the growing instance of &ldquo;sexual perversion&rdquo; and other maladies among the party leaders and activists. &ldquo;Party leaders and activists are becoming increasingly unrestrained due to sexual perversion and contradictory ideas about family, personal property and value system,&rdquo; Dahal has said in his dossier, without naming anyone. It must be noted that Dahal&rsquo;s own son Prakash had in 2012 abandoned his second wife and one-year-old son to &lsquo;elope&rsquo; with a married woman. Following the episode, UCPN (Maoist) suspended Prakash Dahal from party membership, but later revoked the decision.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Gautam to Resign from Bardiya Seat</strong></span></div>
<div>
	<img alt="CPN-UML Vice-chairman Bamdev Gautam" src="/userfiles/images/4.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 105px;" />CPN-UML Vice-chairman Bamdev Gautam, who was elected from Bardiya-1 and Pyuthan-1, has said he will leave the Bardiya seat. Gautam, however, expressed his commitment to remain in contact with the electorate and help them carry out development activities in the district. The UML leader was in the district to celebrate Maghi, the greatest festival of the Tharu community.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Writ against Docs&rsquo; Strike at TUTH</strong></span></div>
<div>
	As the hunger strike by senior Dr Govinda KC entered its seventh day and doctors restrict services at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) in support, a writ was filed at the Supreme Court demanding that the service be resumed. Arguing that halting the services of the hospital is against the Essential Service Act, Advocate Sunil Ranjan and Consumer Welfare Protection Forum filed the writ on January 17. The writ demands an interim order from the court to resume the hospital&rsquo;s services.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-01-20',
			'modified' => '2014-01-20',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'CPN-UML Vice-chairman Bamdev Gautam, who was elected from Bardiya-1 and Pyuthan-1, has said he will leave the Bardiya seat. Gautam, however, expressed his commitment to remain in contact with the electorate and help them carry out development activities in the district. The UML leader was in the district to celebrate Maghi, the greatest festival of the Tharu community.',
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	(int) 7 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2466',
			'article_category_id' => '86',
			'title' => 'In Mother’s Footsteps',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	A candidate to be the heroine in a new Nepali movie was being interviewed. The director and the producer had a condition to the actress that she cannot get married at least for another three years.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The candidate replied: &lsquo;Rather, I will never get married. I will follow in the footsteps of my mother. Like her I will always remain single.&rsquo; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;-ML</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-01-20',
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			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'A candidate to be the heroine in a new Nepali movie was being interviewed. The director and the producer had a condition to the actress that she cannot get married at least for another three years.',
			'sortorder' => '2307',
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	(int) 8 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2462',
			'article_category_id' => '145',
			'title' => 'Challenges Of LDCs',
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			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Dr Arjun Karki</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The group of least developed countries (LDCs) was formed by the UN General Assembly in the 1970s. Back then, this group had 24 countries. There are three criteria to identify the countries that fall in the LDC group. The first criterion is the Human Assets Index (HAI). The second is the Gross National Income (GNI) and the third is Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI). The main objective of classifying countries as LDCs was to minimize their number by addressing their development challenges, alleviating poverty and mitigating other risks. But instead of decreasing, the number of LDCs has reached 49 today. What this means is the economic and development policies adopted by the international community to address the poor and the poor countries has failed. So far, the Maldives from Asia and Botswana and Cape Verde from Africa are the only three countries that have progressed from the LDC group to developing countries.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Most of the LDCs are facing political instability, internal conflicts and wars. Therefore, poverty is not the only issue for these countries. For example, Nepal, Sudan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Central African Republic and lately, Southern Sudan are facing such problems. These countries cannot resolve their political instabilities and other risks unless they iron out their economic problems. At present, the LDCs particularly lack the capabilities to tackle the challenges posed by the climate change. The latest climate change related problems are the melting of snow in the mountainous regions of Asia, rising of water level in the Pacific region and expansion of deserts and food insecurity in Africa. In this situation, LDCs cannot progress to the group of developing countries. The rules set by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are not in favour of the LDCs and the developing countries. As the WTO rules are in favour of only the developed and rich countries, the share of LDCs in global trade is less than one percent.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are two types of barriers in international trade. They are non-tariff barriers (NTBs) and tariff barriers. The LDCs are particularly affected by the NTBs. We have been demanding that the goods produced in the LDCs get a duty-free and quota-free access to the markets in Europe and the US. However, the LDCs haven&rsquo;t been able to get this right despite international commitment. NTBs like sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures put in place by the European Union and rule of origin (Nepali carpet which uses wool imported from New Zealand and Tibet is not recognized as an LDC product) pose as major challenges for the LDCs to participate in international trade.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The burden of foreign debt is another major challenge in the economic development of LDCs. The LDCs have to use more than 50 per cent of their gross domestic income to pay the interest of foreign debt alone. Therefore, in order to allow the LDCs to enter the world market, their foreign debts must be cancelled unconditionally at the earliest possible. If this happens, the LDCs can spend their national income to face the challenges related to their development.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The UN has already organized four global conferences on the LDCs. The first and second UN conference on LDCs were organized in Paris of France in 1981 and 1990, respectively. Similarly the third conferences was organized in Brussels in 2001 and the fourth conference was organized in Istanbul in May 2011. Thus, the latest UN programme to address the issues of LDCs is called the Istanbul Programme of Action. The overarching goal of the Istanbul Programme of Action is to overcome the structural challenges faced by the LDCs, to eradicate poverty, achieve internationally agreed development goals and enable half of the 49 LDCs to graduate out of this category by 2020.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Initially, Nepal had planned to graduate out of the LDC category by 2030. Truthfully speaking, that plan was not good because under the very leadership of Nepal, the commitment was expressed to graduate half of the existing LDCs out of the LDC group to the developing group. Therefore, Nepal faces a moral obligation to make a progress to the group of developing countries from the LDC group by 2020. And Nepal has made a national commitment to graduate out of the LDC group by 2022 which is a praiseworthy announcement.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, Nepal faces a number of challenges. The biggest challenge is the creation of democratic deficit. A democratic deficit (or democracy deficit) occurs when ostensibly democratic organizations or institutions (particularly governments) fall short of fulfilling the principles of democracy in their practices or operation where representative and linked parliamentary integrity becomes widely discussed. The political parties and their leaders got to enjoy the fruits of democracy and peace in Nepal. However, the Nepali people at large are still deprived of the fruits of democracy and peace. This is the biggest challenge that Nepal faces in graduating out of the LDC group.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, there is hope in the air. A new Constituent Assembly has been elected and soon we will have a new parliament. If the parliament and the elected government to be formed can tactfully address the challenges being faced by the Nepali people, then we will not have to wait till 2022 to graduate out of the LDC group.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>(Dr Karki is the international coordinator of LDC Watch. This is a TC translation of Dr Karki&rsquo;s article published in Aarthik Abhiyan on January 10.)</em></div>',
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			'description' => 'The group of least developed countries (LDCs) was formed by the UN General Assembly in the 1970s. Back then, this group had 24 countries. There are three criteria to identify the countries that fall in the LDC group. The first criterion is the Human Assets Index (HAI). The second is the Gross National Income (GNI) and the third is Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI). The main objective of classifying countries as LDCs was to minimize their number by addressing their development challenges, alleviating poverty and mitigating other risks',
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	(int) 9 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2464',
			'article_category_id' => '144',
			'title' => 'What About Ethics In Politics?',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	A conference titled &ldquo;Business Ethics for Prosperous Nepal&rdquo; has just concluded in the capital. The main idea behind the conference was to teach the importance of ethics in business to the Nepali business community. Organised by the World Forum for Ethics in Business, the conference which examined ethical practices that are sustainable and ensure profitability for businesses was well attended and was successful.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The importance of ethics in business cannot be overemphasized. Ethical behaviour can bring significant benefits to a business by attracting customers to its products, reducing labour turnover and thus increasing productivity and attracting investors and keeping the company&rsquo;s share prices high, among other ways.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But the conference evoked some simple questions: is the Nepali business community one of the segments of society that needs a lesson or two in ethics? Are the Nepali businessmen really unethical and hence need sermons on business ethics the most? What about ethical practices in the bureaucracy and politics? Ethics concern an individual&rsquo;s moral judgments about right and wrong. If so, are Nepali businessmen most wrongdoers that they are being lectured on ethics while the politicians and bureaucrats are apostles of ethics?</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Definitely not. The ethical standards of Nepali business community look higher than those of many other segments of society including the government bureaucracy and political parties. And, in fact, at the root of whatever unethical business practices we have lies in the government and politics. There are many instances where the government has been rewarding unethical practices. For one, this is reflected in the government&rsquo;s decision to waive taxes of different companies, in awarding licenses to start various businesses. This is reflected also in the actions of the government regulators of different businesses.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The situation of ethics in the country&rsquo;s politics is appalling. So much so that many find &lsquo;ethics in politics&rsquo; as contradiction. It is because of the lack of ethics in politics that people do not place much trust on the political parties and politicians. Political parties are far from maintaining transparency in their financial transactions and deals. And that is why most politicians are seen as selfish and corrupt power-players who are not responsible and who defend special interests instead of the common good. That is why Transparency International reports have repeatedly depicted politicians and bureaucrats as the most corrupt.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Ethics in politics matters the most in Nepal because it directly affects everything else including ethics in business. Lack of ethics in politics has a much wider impact than lack of ethics in business. Businesses have to sell their products or services on a daily basis. This means their ethics is being tested almost on a daily basis by the buyers as well as the employees. This is because they tend to be more ethical in their actions, behaviours and decisions. On the other hand, the ethics of politicians is challenged everyday but it is tested only through elections. Such elections are not yet regular in Nepali democracy.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The delay in the first sitting of the Constituent Assembly (CA) and forming a new government even after two months of CA election could be the latest and simplest example of the lack of ethics in Nepali politics. The episode has exposed the ethical and moral dilemmas and deficiencies of a range of actors in Nepali politics including the President, Chairman of the Council of Ministers, the major political parties which are tipped to form the new government and the parties which have been mandated by the people to sit in opposition.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The bottom line is: the political class needs to be reminded of ethics more frequently than any other segment of society. Therefore, conferences on ethics in politics are wanted more urgently than conferences on ethics in business. &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>',
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			'created' => '2014-01-20',
			'modified' => '2014-01-20',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'A conference titled “Business Ethics for Prosperous Nepal” has just concluded in the capital. The main idea behind the conference was to teach the importance of ethics in business to the Nepali business community. Organised by the World Forum for Ethics in Business, the conference which examined ethical practices that are sustainable and ensure profitability for businesses was well attended and was successful.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2443',
			'article_category_id' => '40',
			'title' => 'Partners In Economic Growth',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<span style="font-size:16px;">Multi-stakeholder Approach is the recent buzzword in development literature. How can Nepal use this approach? <strong>Achyut Wagle </strong>analyses the challenges and opportunities.</span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	When we say &#39;engaging development actors&#39; we are talking about hierarchical operational levels like local, district, sub-regional, regional, national, international and global, where each of these levels &nbsp;form a complex matrix of actual actors primarily from five sectors -- the public or government, private or business, civil society, actual beneficiaries or common people and, development partners (donors).&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The economic growth is only possible through multidimensional interactions among these different groups of actors that are defined by the recent development literature as multi-stakeholder approach of development. The scope and limitation of the roles of each of these and conflicts and/or complementarities of the interests of these actors, singly or jointly, determines both the scale and the speed of the economic growth of any country, including Nepal.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, there is a problem in the definitional level, that is, whether all players in Nepal could be covered by these five categories of development actors mentioned above. Take for example Nepal&#39;s political parties who on their own right want to be the development actors, whereas their role and influence in development domain should either come through the public sector (for those who win the election and form the government) or only as the common people or the beneficiary (until they win the next election). The face of the civil society, if it has any, is not different from that of the political parties. In international practice, donors do not figure out with separate identities, who in Nepal&#39;s case appear even more quintessential actors. These distortions have serious implications both in engaging the development actors in their due roles and also attaining the ultimate results of our development endeavours.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Actors</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>1. The Government</strong></span></div>
<div>
	It is obvious that we need government for governance, hopefully a good governance. Although Nepal is not an exception among the least developed nations that face the crisis of governance, but one additional dimension in our case is we persistently face deficiency of democracy, perhaps more acutely at present. Nepal&#39;s politics during the last six decades of modern history has invariably been dominated by the dictatorial forces of some form that didn&#39;t believe in pluralistic, competitive democracy. This has been the main source of crisis of governance in general, manifested in the form of rule of force than rule of law, poor growth of institutions and their effectiveness, haphazardly conceived and weakly implemented policies, misuse of the state power by the powerfuls, strong nexus between the crime and law enforcement, utter lack of transparency and rampant corruption in public expenditure, rise of business syndicates and, worst of all, pervasive and persistent impunity. And, the list can on, and on.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	We don&#39;t have elected local governments at the local and district levels for last one decade, for no tangible reason for this vacuum, except for the height of irresponsibility and imperviousness of the political actors of the country. It should have in fact been the first priority of all particularly after the signing of Comprehensive Peace Treaty seven years ago; as the local governments would have been the best channels to deliver the much touted about peace dividend, many of the economic rights and delivery of the public services at the grassroots. Above all, it would have provided the people at the grassroots with direct access to the state mechanism. One can only imagine at this point, how many of new generation of leaders this process would have produced and how much would it have facilitated the process of proposed federalization of Nepal.</div>
<div>
	Nepal never created democratic government institutions at sub-regional or regional levels. We have bureaucratic arrangements like regional administrators who virtually have no role in economic planning and development except for that of official messengers.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="The Engagement Matrix" src="/userfiles/images/CS2%20(Copy).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 307px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	At the national level, we have Himalayan scale of policy confusions at development governance. We still have National Planning Commission (NPC) located inside the high walls of Sigha Durbar, that mercifully distributes development to the people of far and wide corners of Nepal. We still believe that the people who live in NPC as if have divine senses to understand the exact development needs of the people living at Tinker and Olangchung Gola and ability to address them from here. The duplication of the roles between the finance ministry and NPC, the constant squabbles and ego-clashes of the mandarins in them is staple national drama. The independence of central bank has always been a mirage, as we saw ten governors in Nepal Rastra Bank in as many years. We never had and, nor will have the possibility of implementing &nbsp;an independent monetary policy of our own in foreseeable future due to &#39;pegging&#39; of Nepali currency with the Indian Rupee.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	At the international level, Nepal is gradually losing its credibility as a viable economy. We have not been able to organize the Nepal Development Forum, to interact with our international development partners, for the last one decade. Our ability to communicate about our needs with them and prioritize development areas to streamline their support has substantially reduced. &nbsp;The torch-bearers of our economic diplomacy are the political nominees typified, for example, by the recently sacked Nepali ambassador to Qatar. We may talk about FDI, but it has even stopped trickling in. We have also failed to introduce a functional mechanism to make sure that all official foreign assistance is spent through our budget, despite the fact that many of the donors are in favour of such a system.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>2. The Private Sector</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The post-1990 marked an era that tried to put the private sector in the driving seat of economic growth. The policies of liberalization, privatization and legal as well as institutional reforms initiated by the first elected government after reinstatement of democracy brought about substantial positive changes, the impact of which has withstood violent conflict of a decade. Private airlines, large private sector banks, private hospitals, multiple universities, private investment in communication, information technology and hydropower, and private participation in building infrastructures like roads and irrigation facilities are some of the exemplary outcomes of these policies.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But this encouraging trend was abruptly truncated by the armed conflict waged by the Maoists and, after seven long years after cessation of hostilities too, there is no certain sign of putting the policy of private-sector-led growth back on track. The political mayhem we are witnessing even after the second Constituent Assembly elections last month is even more disgusting to say the least.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Needless to say, three preconditions for private sector actors to come forward to contribute to economic growth are: ensured private property rights, an appropriate business climate that encourages investment and a predictable policy regime that provides &nbsp;a reasonable time horizon for conceptualizing, executing, operating and if needed closing of the businesses without being unnecessarily anxious about the safety of, as well as, return from the investment.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But, the greatest challenge to all of these aspects not only comes at the operational level but at the level of the very philosophy of the strongest of the political forces of Nepal. Confiscation of the private property, politically patronized trade unions disturbing the industrial atmosphere, politically sponsored extortions and sheer unpredictability of the public policies are true bottlenecks for the private sector investment, both foreign and domestic. Consequently, economy suffers from low level of investment and job creation, low level of private sector confidence and, as the result, massive amount of capital flight from the country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Despite all these odds, we must acknowledge the fact that the private sector has constantly been instrumental in the delivery of goods and services at the lowest possible price levels when the presence of government apparatus is as good as non-existent, and even when the armed conflict was at its height.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>3. Civil Society and NGOs</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepal&#39;s civil society and the media don&#39;t believe in a long but natural process of the outcome of their activities. The natural role of the civil society or media is to cater the common people with factual information, on the basis of which people form their opinion, and that opinion gets reflected through the ballots. Then comes change through the policies of the mandated government. But, instead, in Nepal they want to be seen as activists and instant impact makers. The NGOs and INGOs strive deliberately to slip-out from the bracket of civil society and claim themselves to be real, grassroots development partners.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The media outlets in general have grown in terms of quantity, quality and reach, whereas NGO activities have become more suspicious and slanted. A large number of INGOs are deeply engaged in spreading this or that religion. . We probably need to re-examine the extent of real contribution of many of such NGOs to the economic growth, development and social harmony of our country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>4. The Beneficiaries&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The common people both as actors and true beneficiaries of the economic growth and development efforts are at complete loss of direction. First, the people who are so far completely deprived of any form of meaningful development are not capable of even to identify and articulate their developmental needs. Let me directly quote from a woman whom I had met at Dehimandu of &nbsp;Baitadi, a year ago. In her early thirties, she looked like of fifties, who on top of a heavy load of fodder was carrying two malnourished kids and a pitcherful of water in her arms.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	When I asked her what did she looked for to ameliorate her sufferings, she first vehemently denied that she had had any suffering and then explained -- she was a happy woman as she could fetch drinking water walking just for 45 minutes whereas she had to spend some one hour in her parental home before marriage, collect fodder from the grassland half an hour away, her two kids out of six she gave birth have, fortunately, survived, her husband who worked in the Indian town of Pithoragarh visits twice a year, her mother-in-law beats her only once or twice a month, she had four cattle and enough land to feed her family for eight months in a year and rest is managed by her husband and his brother. She has plans for sending her kids to nearby school, just two hours of walk, for few years, and then they will follow their father to work in some Indian city. &#39;I am a happy woman and want nothing more,&quot; she emphasized.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	I don&#39;t think this story needs any further illustration.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Second, who know what they want, they too don&#39;t have access to the authorities or knowledge on how to communicate their demands and concerns. Even if some managed to communicate, the end result may just be the same as being idle, ab initio.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There is another extreme, where people lately have begun to obstruct the development projects claiming to have absolute ownership of the entire natural resources of their area. The process of participatory development is impeded either way.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>5. The Donors</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Unlike in other countries, donors for Nepal&#39;s case are imperatively very crucial development actors. It is but natural that the donors, particularly the bilateral ones, have their own interest or agenda in providing the financial assistance to Nepal. The nature of such interest, though, may vary from presenting a mere philanthropic face of the donor in question, influencing in certain policies, providing business to their home companies to increasing diplomatic clout.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is the responsibility of Nepal as a nation-state to identify our needs, prioritize them and explore the areas of possible engagements for the donors where their interest may be served without jeopardizing or compromising our own interests. We often degrade ourselves claiming that we cannot afford to be selective or, to say no. May be true. But we definitely can streamline the support and make them to agree to spend in our projects and programmes chosen by the national budget system.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Foreign Employment" src="/userfiles/images/CS3%20(Copy).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 330px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For years, we have tried to formulate a functional foreign aid policy but failed to conclusively frame and effectively implement it. Our absorption capacity of foreign assistance has often been below the &#39;fair&#39; mark and donors seem reluctant to increase and diversify the support mainly due to prolonged political transition and uncertainty coupled with administrative inefficiency. We have often failed to meet the capital expenditure earmarked by our own system that hardly gives incentive to major donors to augment their grant or loan portfolios.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	We often hear not only engagement but of overengaement of the donors in our development process. They are often alleged of directly interfering in policy making, selection and implementation of the projects etc. Many countries bring in their own experts and repatriate larger chunk of their support back home. Discrimination in pay for the same work between the Nepali staff of same qualification and caliber against their consultants is whopping. Probably Nepal has left more vacuum, not doing proper homework in time to make their engagement more fruitful yet unintrusive.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Dynamics and Correlations</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Let&rsquo;snow dwell briefly on a few key dynamics of Nepali economy. I will touch upon only those areas which appear to be inconsistent in pattern, look paradoxical or needed fresh looks and comparisons.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>1. Dynamics of the Human Resource and Migration</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepal&#39;s population growth rate now stands at 1.4 percent per annum according to census 2011. Without going into the boring details of numbers, &nbsp;we can say that some of the development indicators certainly show that we have made very impressive progress in terms of increasing the primary school enrollment, literacy and life expectancy, reducing child and maternal mortality rates, increasing access to health and transport services etc.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But with regard to human resource development, we are caught in a very awkward position. About one third of the working age population (or about twelve percent of the total population) has out-migrated to foreign employment, mainly in menial jobs. Better educated too, have migrated to developed countries, majority of them with a set mind to permanently settle in the destination countries.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is an interesting paradox that migrated unskilled and uneducated youths are sending their entire earning back to Nepal and the remittances thus received have saved Nepali economy for at least a decade now from potentially falling into acute balance of payment crisis. On the contrary, the educated lot is not only migrating but also taking a hefty sum, on an average forex equivalent of about 35 billion rupees every year, from the national coffers towards tuition, travel and accommodation costs.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In a rough calculation, to create a university graduate with sixteen years of education in private institution at present prices costs the nation between 5 to 6 million rupees. And, the return to the nation is clearly zero when one migrates never to come back. It is another paradox that the poor country like Nepal is investing so heavily in human resource to be used solely by the developed countries. The cost-benefit comparison shows that after such a big investment in education, it is unfeasible for them to stay in Nepal and get the cost returned given the lack of opportunities and relatively unattractive pays here.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Then, left here in Nepal are true mediocres, who have spent less, studying in community schools, compelled to be contended with low rate of return and perform far below than the average. Nepali civil service is the true mirror of this phenomenon. If the trend of migration is not reversed, very soon Nepal will lack the required human resource of both low and high end skills. This is likely to have serious repercussion in national output. A trend is already visible in sectors like metal and construction works.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Direction of Foreign Trade" src="/userfiles/images/CS4%20(Copy).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 429px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>2. Dynamics of Foreign Trade and Remittances</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepal&#39;s trade deficit stood at scary level of 500 billion rupees in the last fiscal year (2012/13). Official figures show that export to import ratio was 1:6, whereas unofficial estimates suggest that such ratio should stand at 1:10. The accompanying table is self explanatory.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In the last FY, Nepal received about 435 billion equivalent of remittances from the migrant workers. This definitely has put Nepal in comfortable level of forex reserve. But, a comparison of trade and remittance data suggests that our economy is heading to a very dangerous trend of the Dutch Disease like effect. Our consumption has been fueled by the remittance income of the households, which in turn is widening the export-import gap. Our productive sector is paralyzed for lack of power, human resource and investment. Our imports are largely consumables, perishables but hardly the production inputs. This apparently is unsustainable, dangerous trend. We need to re-identify Nepali goods that can have comparative and competitive advantage in the export market. At the same time, we must be able to diversify both export and import trade.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>3. Dynamics of Growth and Poverty</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepal&#39;s average annual GDP growth rate during the last fifteen years has remained barely at 3.5 &nbsp;percent level. But, in the same period, the headcount poverty, the percentage of the population living below $1 dollar a day poverty line at PPP has unbelievably reduced from 58 percent in 1996 to 25 percent in 2011. What we are effectively saying here is that the poverty can be reduced without growth. In other words, we are challenging the existing theories that correlate growth and poverty and suggesting a completely new economic paradigm on both growth and poverty reduction. This is impossible. The government&#39;s development literature attributes this as the effect of the increased inflow of the remittances. Again, if that is the case too, we are saying that the remittances do not contribute to the economic growth but reduce poverty. This is equivalent to proposing an absolutely new economic theory.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In countries like India and Argentina some 30 percent people still live under the poverty line. Mexico has 28 percent people under this magic line. It appears that we are very fast approaching to the United States which still has 15.1 percent people living under the poverty line, according to the World Bank data of 2011. All these are impossible and counter-intuitive arguments and one single conclusion of this is: what we are saying is not credible. On the one hand, we are saying that graduating a country from the least developed to a developing one is a highly ambitious enterprise, on the other our poverty data shows that we are already in far higher position than many of G-20 countries.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>4. Investment and Infrastructure</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The private sector investment both domestic and FDI are in declining trend. The foreign direct investment of Rs. 9.08 billion was recorded in FY 2012/13compared to Rs. 9.20 billion in the previous year. The intent of investing about Rs. 39 billion was proposed by domestic entrepreneurs in the same year, which is less by some seven percent than the previous year. Apart from this, an investment of Rs 100 billion has been proposed for the hydel projects expected to be completed in next five years.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	One of the very encouraging developments is that the private sector has more aggressively come forward to invest in infrastructure than ever, not only in power but also in the telecommunications, surface transportation and airports. There are a number of large J-V projects in hydropower like Upper Karnali, Upper Seti and Arun III, at different stages of development. Yet, they have constantly been victim of political bickerings and protracted decision making process in the bureaucracy.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/CS1%20(Copy)(1).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 367px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Very shaky political climate is main distraction to investment, both domestic and foreign.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>5. Agriculture and Manufacturing</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Our experience suggests that Nepal is not faring well in the manufacturing. Many products we tried could not compete with Indian and Chinese goods that are in instant supply and cheaper for the reasons of mass production and use mostly of their own raw materials. But on the contrary, Nepal has fared well in our niche products like hand-spun dhaaka and pashmina, handicrafts and herbs where there is our backward link in production and possibility of substantive value addition.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The manufacturing industries that use Nepali agricultural products have seemingly given better returns to investment. The commercialization of agriculture itself presents real prospects for investment, perhaps in a scale thus far not even imagined of. Off-season farming of cash-crops and commercial farming of valuable herbs can open new avenues in the agriculture sector. Added road links to provide market access should be able to attract new investment for processing, phyto-sanitation and storage facilities. But, we often get carried away by the documentary camouflages like Agriculture Perspective Plan (APP), which presented every possible good plan for agricultural growth without any mention about the land where farming would be done. This was truly a plan made to farm in the air. Just an example.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>6. The Service Sector &amp; Growth Linkage</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Two sectors, financial services and tourism have exhibited very promising trend both in terms of attracting substantial amount of investment and promising good rate of returns. The financial sector now mobilizes about Rs 1.1 trillion of deposits and Rs. 0.9 trillion as loans and investments. The growth in the sub-sectors of insurance, stocks and commodities has also been impressive. But the hard fact is, Nepal&#39;s entire banking sector even jointly doesn&#39;t have liquidity enough to finance a medium-scale hydro project of say of 200 MW. Similar is the situation of insurance companies to provide insurance cover to these projects if they opted to insure. We don&#39;t have a domestic reinsurer, yet.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Areas like transportation services have also expanded, along with the increased road networks. The tourism infrastructure is growing steadily. Health and education services by now have national reach due to private sector investment. But the issue here is: how do we make the expansion of these sectors contributory to the overall economic growth of the country? Anomalies like in these sectors have rather added new problems. For example, the over exposure of the banking credit in the real-estate has fueled inflation, created large portfolio of NPA in the industry and put &nbsp;the balance-sheet of a number of banks in a very bad shape for a number of years.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The transportation facilities can contribute more if they provided easier market access to the products and supported supply of inputs to increase the production and add value to them. But, largely, the scenario is just opposite.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>7. Choice between Improved Subsistence &amp; Prosperity</strong></span></div>
<div>
	There has been virtual explosion in small scale development initiatives like solar and micro hydro for rural electrification, NGO-led rights based development and awareness campaigns, literacy classes, skill development and self-employment schemes, community or gender-focused empowerment programmes etc. Policies of reservation, inclusion and positive discrimination are now widely debated. These definitely are good things.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But we need to link these activities with our main objective. If our prime aim is a little improvement in the bare subsistence life-style and help reduce abject poverty, these are definitely the ways we should invest and focus on. But if our aim is tangible economic growth that can also compensate to the lost opportunity of decades, we need higher degree of commitment, massive investment and multi-stakeholder engagement at all possible levels, as we discussed about. By now, it is apparent that these small things may be beautiful in facilitating poorest of the poor to live relatively a better life, but seldom enough to effectively speed-up the economic growth and overall prosperity and well-being of the entire population. When we can uplift the living standard of every citizen, universally ensure education and employment, issues of inclusion and reservations automatically become redundant.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Choice" src="/userfiles/images/CD2%20(Copy).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 413px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Engagement: Process &amp; Paradigm</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&#39;Engaging Overall Partners&#39; is a great concept and also an absolute imperative. But engaging multi-stakeholders with varying, often conflicting, interests is an equally challenging proposition. It perhaps requires a different development culture than Nepal is practicing now. We need both formal and informal common forums, factual information and access to them, effective communication amongst all stakeholders in multitude of directions, &nbsp;reasonable level of credible independent research to ascertain what is working and what is not and, of course, a unity of purpose at the macro level of objectives.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Some key components that can be instrumental in enhancing such engagement can be as follows:</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>1. Discourse</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepal utterly lacks any form of meaningful discourse, at any level on economic, financial and developmental issues, except for some media reports and limited number of seminars that take place, here and there. Such discourses should have taken place at three different arenas -- the political parties, policy making units and the academia. And, they should.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Since the political parties are the one who govern the country, the economic policy of each major one of them is important tool to make people understand their means and ends of the economic growth and development. Such policy of each party, ideally, should be framed through fully democratic debate at all levels of the respective party organizations; and reflected in their manifestoes. But, this is not at all the case. Except for a couple of leaders in each major party who understand economic issues, the entire outfits are virtually illiterate about the economy, its components and trends. Worst of all, none of these parties have understood the importance of such debate and need to initiate them sooner than later.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	At the policy making level, trained economists are rare species. A couple of recent finance ministers, for example, were undergrads in subjects other than economics. Bureaucrats have more incentive in appeasing their bosses in any possible way but professionalism. They lack refreshment trainings, more so in economic issues. The redundancy of their rusted ideas gets amply reflected in the so-called new but essentially archaic policies. It is one of the main reasons that our economic policies seldom work.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Both of the deficiencies in political and bureaucratic levels should have been bridged by the discourse at academic level. But, unfortunately, in Nepal such discourse is completely absent. A few academics who have made some name as economists have limited themselves in the role of consultants to INGOs and impartial viewpoints about national economy are non-existent. The reluctance of newer universities to institute the department of economics is indicative enough to explain the predicament.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Discourses at stakeholders&#39; level, on the topics suitably designed to them are another striking need. At the donors&#39; level, they seem to have instituted a loose network, but its effectiveness as a debate forum on the core economic issues is still beyond the public knowledge.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>2. Research</strong></span></div>
<div>
	For meaningful engagement at any level, credible data are the primary need. The factual information only can ascertain the scope of participation for each stakeholder. But, whenever we try to talk about any aspect of Nepali economy, we immediately loose thread for lack of proper data and absence of conclusions drawn out by properly analyzing them. As mentioned above, we have contradictory and unbelievable or just tentative figures even on cardinal data like GDP, inflation, unemployment and trade. All comparison and correlation conclusions, like I made above, are largely heuristic. We have no option citing whatever the government agencies like the National Planning Commission, Nepal Rastra Bank or Finance Ministry cook in the name of research and analysis. The nation hardly invests anything in research. There are not independent, credible and well-equipped institutions to carryout research in multi-dimensional aspects of the economy and its trends. Such large scale researches need substantial resources and experts right from the stage of research design to econometric analysis and interpretation of those results. There must be somebody to invest on them.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>3. Reform</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The policy and institutional reforms are other important areas that ensure participatory engagement among the development actors. The continuous process of policy reforms provide opportunity to accommodate the emerging needs, practically realized in the development processes at different levels. The institutional reforms increase the functionality of the actors and replicability of the good practices. Nepal also greatly lags behind in undertaking reforms that are due for long time. Some multi-donor sectoral approaches (SAps) in education and health sectors have delivered impressive results. If similar policy as well as institutional frameworks can be extended to include other possible actors in more sectors, that is likely to increase the portfolio efficiency.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>4. Streamlining</strong></span></div>
<div>
	It is important to understand, when we engage multiple stakeholders, it is natural to have varying interests, priorities, methodologies and objectives to come to fore. Without streamlining them, the national objective of economic prosperity is impossible to achieve. Extensive exercises of benchmarking, clustering, grading and ranking are the necessary part of this process. This can greatly reduce the duplication or omission of many of development endeavours; thereby increase the allocative efficiency of resources. A national focal point, a functional unit, not a generic large structure like a ministry, is internationally adopted practice. At times, when the government agencies try to do it, there are instances of conflicts between the different actors. Therefore, such tasks could be outsourced to some independent professional entity with established, proven credibility.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>5. &nbsp;Good Faith</strong></span></div>
<div>
	All forms of engagements are only possible if the actors are committed to support in good faith on single objectives of economic growth and development of Nepal. The source of good faith is the spirit of democracy that respects the plurality of views, culture of agreeing to disagree and readiness to be partner in the process than to be a savior or ruler. We all have our interests. Sacrifice of a small portion of it by each actor might create a large space for engagement and cooperation and also help serve our own interests better while helping others to serve their own.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>&nbsp;(Based on paper presented by the author, in IVAAN seminar, 7th Dec 2013 in Kathmandu.)</em></div>',
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			'description' => 'Multi-stakeholder Approach is the recent buzzword in development literature. How can Nepal use this approach? Achyut Wagle analyses the challenges and opportunities.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2457',
			'article_category_id' => '140',
			'title' => 'ACAN-AUDAN Joint Protest Against Arrest Of CAs',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<strong>--By TC Correspondent</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Association of Chartered Accountants of Nepal (ACAN) and the Auditors&rsquo; Association of Nepal (AUDAN) have announced a joint agitation against the arrest of auditors. Putting forward a four-point demand, the two organizations have asked the government to immediately release senior Chartered Accountant (CA) Gopal Kumar Agrawal and withdraw the &ldquo;fake case&rdquo; against CA Jagadish Prasad Agrawal.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Organising a press conference in the Capital on Thursday (January 16), ACAN and AUDAN have demanded the government not to arrest and/or prosecute auditors and chartered accountants just because of auditing the books of companies. Similarly, they have also demanded a clear explanation of the term &ldquo;accomplice&rdquo; mentioned in sections 121 and 127 of the Income Tax Act 2058 BS. Similarly, they have also demanded an amendment to sections 2 (e) and 7 (a) of the &ldquo;Asset (Money) Laundering Prevention Act, 2008.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	According to a press release, both ACAN and AUDAN will not issue and or certify the audit reports of insurance companies from Friday (January 17) as part of their protest programme. They have also announced to collect the Certificate of Profession (CoP) of all chartered accountants and submit them to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nepal (ICAN) on January 29. They have also announced to put on black arm band at workplace and submit memorandum to the concerned government bodies.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	They have also announced not to issue and/or certify the audit reports of banks and financial institutions from January 29, the audit reports of the institutions licensed by the Securities Board of Nepal from February 13 and the audit reports of companies listed at Nepal Stock Exchange from February 27. Similarly, they have announced not to issue and or certify the audit reports of companies partly or fully owned by the Nepal government.</div>',
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			'description' => 'The Association of Chartered Accountants of Nepal (ACAN) and the Auditors’ Association of Nepal (AUDAN) have announced a joint agitation against the arrest of auditors. Putting forward a four-point demand, the two organizations have asked the government to immediately release senior Chartered Accountant (CA) Gopal Kumar Agrawal and withdraw the “fake case” against CA Jagadish Prasad Agrawal.',
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			'id' => '2453',
			'article_category_id' => '137',
			'title' => 'South Asia To See Decline  In Capital Inflow: World Bank',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	South Asia along with other developing regions across the globe may face the risk of declining capital inflow, says a new World Bank report. According to the Global Economic Prospect (GEP) 2014 report, developing nations are vulnerable to the rise in interest rates, which is likely to result in the volatility of capital flow. The global lender pointed to the tapering of quantitative easing (QE) in United States as the main reason for this. In mid-December, Federal Reserve, the US central bank decided to scale back its bond buying programme- from USD 85 billion per month to USD 75 billion per month- amid the country&rsquo;s improving economic prospects.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Washington-based bank in its report warned that adverse reaction of financial markets to the ending of QE might leave the world&rsquo;s developing nations starved of capital. &ldquo;According to simulations, abrupt changes in market expectations, resulting in global bond yields increasing by 100 to 200 basis points within a couple of quarters, could lead to a sharp reduction in capital inflows to developing countries by between 50 and 80 percent for several months,&rdquo; the bank said in its report. The bank also mentioned that countries with a substantial expansion of domestic credit over the last five years, deteriorating current account balances, high levels of foreign and short-term debt and over-valued exchange rates could be more at risk in current circumstances.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The bank said that there would be moderate impact on developing nations if this adjustment happened in an orderly manner. The World Bank expects the global interest rates to rise slowly to reach 3.6 per cent by mid-2016 following an orderly trajectory regarding the process of normalisation of activity and policy in high-income countries. &ldquo;However, should the adjustment be disorderly, as it was in response to speculation about when a taper might begin during the spring and summer of 2013, interest rates could rise more quickly,&rdquo; said the report.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The report urges developing countries to implement structural reforms that would help raise the capacity of their economies, if they are to regain their pre-crisis growth rates.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<hr />
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
	<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Global Growth Picking Up</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The report informed that growth in South Asia expanded at a modest 4.6 percent in 2013, reflecting weakness in India amid high inflation, and current account and government deficits. &ldquo;Regional growth is projected to improve to 5.7 percent in 2014, rising to 6.7 percent in 2016, led mainly by recovering import demand by high-income economies and regional investment,&rdquo; says the report. &nbsp;The report, however, said that projected pickup will depend on macroeconomic stability, sustained policy reforms, and progress in reducing supply side constraints. &ldquo;The main risks to the outlook are fiscal and policy reforms going off-track; uncertainties related to elections in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and India; entrenchment of inflation expectations; and a disorderly adjustment of capital flows in response to US tapering,&rdquo; it said.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The World Bank expects a gradual increase in global growth from this year. According to the report, global growth will pick up from 2.4 per cent in 2013 to 3.2 per cent this year, and to 3.4 per cent in 2015. It believes much of the acceleration will be due to an improvement in economic conditions in high-income countries, where for the first time in five years all three of the main regions &ndash; the US, Europe and Japan &ndash; will be growing. &ldquo;Global economic indicators show improvement. But one does not have to be especially astute to see there are dangers that lurk beneath the surface. The Euro Area is out of recession but per capita incomes are still declining in several countries. We expect developing country growth to rise above 5 percent in 2014, with some countries doing considerably better, with Angola at 8 percent, China 7.7 percent, and India at 6.2 percent. But it is important to avoid policy stasis so that the green shoots don&rsquo;t turn into brown stubble,&rdquo; said Kaushik Basu, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist at the World Bank.</div>',
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			'description' => 'South Asia along with other developing regions across the globe may face the risk of declining capital inflow, says a new World Bank report. According to the Global Economic Prospect (GEP) 2014 report, developing nations are vulnerable to the rise in interest rates, which is likely to result in the volatility of capital flow. The global lender pointed to the tapering of quantitative easing (QE) in United States as the main reason for this. In mid-December, Federal Reserve, the US central bank decided to scale back its bond buying programme- from USD 85 billion per month to USD 75 billion per month- amid the country’s improving economic prospects.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2460',
			'article_category_id' => '140',
			'title' => 'Weekly Round Up (13 - 19 January 2014)',
			'sub_title' => '',
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			'content' => '<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Joshi Elected President of Chitwan Chamber</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Chitwan businessman Kalyan Joshi was elected the president of the Chitwan Chamber of Commerce on Jan 15 for a term of two years from the 17th General Assembly of the Chamber. The results of the election, which was held on January 14, were announced on January 15 morning. Joshi secured 933 votes while his rival Shree Bhakta Achyut Wagle received only 426 votes in the election. Elected in Joshi&rsquo;s team as the senior vice-president is Sohan Lal Pradhan. Chum Narayan Shrestha, Raju Shrestha and Chiranjibi Subedi have been elected as vice-presidents from Commerce, Industry and Commodity sectors respectively. Joshi, who was the senior vice president of the outgoing board, says that his work will be in line with the vision and mission of the Chamber.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Four New ISPs in Market</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Four new companies have been given the go-ahead to operate as internet service providers (ISPs) raising their total number to 45. According to the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA)., My Net and Lumbini Net obtained fresh permits from the NTA while Mega Broadcast and Otel Communications bought the licences held by existing ISPs, Everest Net and Zentech International, respectively. The four entrants have joined the market when demand for data services is increasing and two major telecom operators, Nepal Telecom and Ncell, are keeping a firm grip on the top slots. My Net is based in Dharan of Sunsari district while Lumbini Net is based in Tansen, Palpa. As per the NTA&rsquo;s latest Management Information Report, it has also issued Rural ISP licences to two companies, Pico Soft in Pokhara and Syangja Internet in Syangja to provide internet services in their localities. NTA charges Rs 300,000 for the ISP license, which allows service operation nationwide. The charge for Rural ISP license, which allows operation in only one village development committee, is set at Rs 100.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Tourism Workshops by PATA</strong></span></div>
<div>
	PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association) Nepal Chapter organsied workshops on Modern Destination Marketing Management and Writing Winning Proposals in the capital on Thursday. Simultaneously, it launched PATA Students&rsquo; Chapter Nepal and Friends of PATA Media Pool. Some 205 participants from tourism Industry that includes hotels, travel agencies, various tour operators, and the media fraternity and business institutions actively participated in the workshop that was set in motion by Subash Niroula, CEO of Nepal Tourism Board at Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management (NATHM), Rabi Bhawan on January 13.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Project Reports for Sunkoshi II</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The government is due to start the preparations of the detailed project report (DPR) of Sunkoshi II hydropower project, the country&acute;s largest hydropower project. The 1,111 MW reservoir-based project would be situated in the border area of Ramechhap and Solukhumbu districts. According to information officer at the Department of Electricity Development, Gokarna Raj Pantha, preparations for carrying out the DPR have been completed. &ldquo;We will soon call for bids,&rdquo; He said. The Asian Development Bank has already provided Rs 2.9 billion to prepare the DPR of the project.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>SAARC Ministerial Meet Ends</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The fifth meeting of the commerce ministers of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) member countries concluded in New Delhi, India on Friday (January 17). The two-day meeting focused on ways to bring economic prosperity to the region through trade, according to the Ministry of Commerce. A Nepali delegation led by Minister for Finance and Commerce Shanker Prasad Koirala participated in the meeting. The delegation comprised Commerce Secretary Madhav Prasad Regmi and Joint Secretaries Nawaraj Bhandari, Begendra Sharma Poudel and Toya Narayan Gyawali. Commerce Ministers of Nepal, India, Afghanistan, Bhutan, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka took part in the meeting. Representatives of chambers of commerce and industry of the SAARC region also attended the meeting.</div>',
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			'description' => 'Chitwan businessman Kalyan Joshi was elected the president of the Chitwan Chamber of Commerce on Jan 15 for a term of two years from the 17th General Assembly of the Chamber. The results of the election, which was held on January 14, were announced on January 15 morning. Joshi secured 933 votes while his rival Shree Bhakta Achyut Wagle received only 426 votes in the election. Elected in Joshi’s team as the senior vice-president is Sohan Lal Pradhan.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2459',
			'article_category_id' => '140',
			'title' => 'Invest In Service Sector: NRB Guv',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<strong>--By TC Correspondent</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Dr Yuvraj Khatiwada" src="/userfiles/images/gor.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;width: 150px; height: 180px;" />Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), Dr Yubaraj Khatiwada has asked the private sector for investment in the service sector. Speaking at an interaction programme organized by the Birgunj Chamber of Commerce &amp; Industries (BiCCI), Dr Khatiwada said that due to capital flight in the health and education sectors, it has become necessary to invest in these sectors within the country.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;It has become necessary to invest in the country&rsquo;s service sector including health and education to stop capital flight,&rdquo; Dr Khatiwada said, &ldquo;The investment in the service sector will make the economy strong.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He also opined that the country has the right environment for investment at present. He also claimed that liquidity in the banks was quite high. &ldquo;Banks have more than Rs 100 billion which can be invested in different sectors,&rdquo; he said adding that this is the right time for investment.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He also claimed that the scarcity of Indian currency in Nepal was because of the informal trade between the countries and the non-transparent customs evaluation. &ldquo;We bring Indian currency worth Rs 5 billion annually. If all of our trade with India takes place through the formal channels, this much amount of Indian currency is enough,&rdquo; he said.</div>',
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			'description' => 'Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), Dr Yubaraj Khatiwada has asked the private sector for investment in the service sector. Speaking at an interaction programme organized by the Birgunj Chamber of Commerce & Industries (BiCCI), Dr Khatiwada said that due to capital flight in the health and education sectors, it has become necessary to invest in these sectors within the country.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2444',
			'article_category_id' => '210',
			'title' => 'Corporate Lifestyle Balancing Work And Home',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By TC Correspondent</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Once you enter the professional world, time management becomes a major concern. On top of that, balancing work and home can often be alarming in your professional life. If one fails to manage it, the person is burdened with stresses in both spheres. It becomes hard for the person to complete professional tasks and to mingle with the family members. There is a huge probability that the person will be sandwiched by both the parties. To live a healthy and stress-free life, it is necessary to balance these two elements: work and home. It is crucial for professionals to understand that corporate lifestyle is all about time management.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Tips to balance work and home</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Understand your priorities</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Balancing work and family means that you have to be available at both the places without neglecting the other, which can often be very difficult. Thus, it is important that you understand your major priorities. At office, your work should be your major priority and while at home, your family should be your major precedence. If you try to mix work with family, you will reach nowhere.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Time management</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Time management is a crucial element in the professional world. But, it does not mean that it is limited to meeting the deadlines at office only. Time management has to be applied at the workplace as well as at home. While at office, make sure that you finish your work on time. Do not work for late hours as it can irritate your family members. Similarly, make sure you reach office on time as this can lead to disastrous consequences with your boss. Spending much of your time at home can lead to an&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	unhealthy professional life.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Stress Management&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Stress management does not mean you manage your work stress at home by spilling it on your family members. It is important to create a fine line between your professional life and your family life. This means that you should not nag your family members with your stress at work. They can do nothing about it. So,&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	don&rsquo;t spill your work frustration at them.</div>
<div>
	In the office, don&rsquo;t come with a grumpy face because you had a quarrel with your wife at home. Be calm at work, as it will help you focus properly on your tasks. If the problem at home is actually big, better take a day&rsquo;s leave at work.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Take a break</strong></span></div>
<div>
	It is agreeable that work is worship. But, this does not mean you worship work for 365 days a year. Make sure you go on vacations with family and make them feel that you equally worship family relations. This will help you take a break from the daily office environment and relax. Likewise, it will also help in strengthening your family ties.</div>',
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			'created' => '2014-01-19',
			'modified' => '2014-01-27',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'Once you enter the professional world, time management becomes a major concern. On top of that, balancing work and home can often be alarming in your professional life. If one fails to manage it, the person is burdened with stresses in both spheres. It becomes hard for the person to complete professional tasks and to mingle with the family members. There is a huge probability that the person will be sandwiched by both the parties. To live a healthy and stress-free life, it is necessary to balance these two elements: work and home. It is crucial for professionals to understand that corporate lifestyle is all about time management.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2406',
			'article_category_id' => '91',
			'title' => 'Richest Countries Poor In Anti-Money Laundering',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Hom Nath Gaire&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	A landmark report published last week by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has found that the richest countries in the world are failing to comply with Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing (AML/CTF) Regimes. The OECD study titled &ldquo;Measuring OECD Responses to Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries&rdquo; was published just one week after Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a US longtime authority on financial crimes, released its annual update on illicit financial outflows from the developing world. The study documented that the developed countries are highly responsible for steady increase in illicit financial flows from developing countries, most of which is being absorbed in the developed countries.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For a long time, the traditional view in the developed countries was that illegal capital flight, money laundering and terrorist financing were problems only for developing countries. Similarly, they used to say that the corrupt governments and bureaucracy as well as poor business environments in the developing countries led capital to flee to their markets and promote money laundering.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Accordingly, they were putting high pressure on developing and least developed countries like ours to obey all the Financial Action Task Force&rsquo;s (FATF) recommendations on AML-CTF.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, &ldquo;one of the most damning findings of the study is that 27 of the 34 OECD countries are either &ldquo;non compliant&rdquo; or only &ldquo;partially compliant&rdquo; with the FATF recommendations,&rdquo; reads the report. The report also shows that none of the OECD countries are &ldquo;fully compliant&rdquo; with the standards on transparency of corporate ownership information, which aims to tackle money laundering by anonymous shell companies. The study indicates that most of the developed countries, which have been receiving the largest chunk of money that vanished from the developing countries, are in a rush to collect the illicit financial flows rather than help to restrain it. While policymakers in developing countries bear some of the responsibility for this problem, this is a two-way street.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Chief economic advisor for the Ministry of Finance, Dr. Chiranjibi Nepal accepts the reality that the money drained from poor countries like Nepal is being received by the developed countries. &ldquo;The high income countries have been absorbing the illicit financial flows in the name of offshore financial system, secrecy jurisdictions and tax haven lands,&rdquo; said Nepal, suggesting that the developing countries should raise their voice collectively on FATF and other multilateral platforms.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	According to Krishna Hari Baskota, Secretary at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, although the degree of pressure on and anomalies in the developing countries in the name of ML/TF has been rising internationally, the OECD countries underscore their voice. &ldquo;However, Nepal is in a safe zone now as per the criteria set by FATF,&rdquo; said Baskota adding that this is a result of continuous efforts of Government of Nepal in policy formulation and enforcement to contain ML/TF. He further argued that the latest study should serve as a wake-up call to the world leaders regarding illicit financial flows and ML/TF.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Western nations established an offshore financial system comprised of tax havens, anonymous shell companies, and various trade-based money laundering techniques, and they have not done enough to remedy this system to date,&rdquo; said Raymond Baker President of GFI in a comment on the OECD report. According to Baker, Illicit financial flows and money laundering are the most damaging economic problem facing the global poor, and they are growing at a terrifying pace. The FATF recommendations on beneficial ownership are only a first step towards eliminating the use of anonymous &lsquo;phantom firms&rsquo; and effectively curtailing ML/TF. But the shameful reality is that every OECD member fails to comply with even these weak standards on corporate ownership transparency and most of them aren&rsquo;t even close, according to the report.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	According to the latest report of GFI, nearly USD 1 trillion drained from the developing world in 2011 with an annual growth rate of more than 10 per cent during the last decade i.e. 2002 to 2011.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-01-06',
			'modified' => '2014-01-20',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'A landmark report published last week by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has found that the richest countries in the world are failing to comply with Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing (AML/CTF) Regimes. The OECD study titled “Measuring OECD Responses to Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries” was published just one week after Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a US longtime authority on financial crimes, released its annual update on illicit financial outflows from the developing world.',
			'sortorder' => '2313',
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	(int) 2 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2467',
			'article_category_id' => '151',
			'title' => 'Series On Top Business Colleges In Kathmandu',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<span style="font-size:16px;">Little Angel&rsquo;s College of Management (LACM) and Prime College are two top Business colleges in the town, which are giving their best for the aspiring management students to help them become top leaders and managers of the future. LACM with affiliation with Kathmandu University is in the education sector since1999 while Prime is recognized for providing top management education since 2002.</span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Little Angels College of Management</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Little Angels College of Management (LACM) was established in 1999 with the objective to fulfil the void that would lead Nepal towards a path of development.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The college aims to provide the country with young people who are armed with a certain set of managerial skills, to give work and production the direction, it requires for efficiency and excellence. It offers a team of experienced and dedicated teachers supporting the students at every stage of their journey.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For students who choose a career in the fast paced and constantly changing environment of the business and technological world, Little Angels&rsquo; College of Management reproduces real world challenges as best as it can in the classroom.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The College Offers the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) and the Bachelor of Business Information System (BBIS): both 120 credit, 4-year courses and Bachelor in Hotel Management (BHM) with the affiliation of highly reputed Kathmandu University. During the course, students will develop administrative and problem solving skills with a sharp knowledge of today&rsquo;s technology, preparing them for a lifetime of opportunities. For students aspiring to join Nepal&rsquo;s hospitality industry too, LA&rsquo;s Bachelor in Hospitality and Tourism Management (BHTM) is the perfect place to put your foot in the door.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td bgcolor="#E5E4E2">
				<div>
					<div>
						<div>
							<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong><img alt="Mitra Bahadur Paudel" src="/userfiles/images/lc(1).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 150px; height: 185px;" />Mitra Bandhu Poudel, Principal</strong></span></div>
						<div>
							Every college is special in their own way. A business school should focus on market demand and necessity while developing the curriculum. Business Colleges helps in producing the skilled manpower demanded by the market. Quality products with healthy competitions of the colleges ultimately help in prospering the nation. Talking about Little Angels College of Management we focus on quality at affordable price. We provide professional touch in our course. We are moving very consciously towards providing the quality education to our students. About the placement part, our students are sellable in the market. LACM has no match in that case. Currently, we are looking forward to strengthen the course we already are providing to make it and deliver it better.</div>
					</div>
				</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<div>
	<hr />
	<p>
		<strong><span style="font-size:16px;">Prime College&nbsp;</span></strong></p>
</div>
<div>
	Prime College is a renowned IT, Management and Science College which is committed to excellence. The college has been successful to establish itself to the educational arena of Nepal for the 12 years. Located at the heart of the city Naya Bazar, Kathmandu, the college is well recognized for offering world-class academic programmes and a growing array of intellectual programmes. Activities such as debate, public speaking, social welfare, event organizing, and inter-college sports activities helps students to grow in diversity both academically and intellectually.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The College is well known for its extraordinary faculties, distinguished research scholars and experts to help come this far with outstanding academic results and National Champion titles in various sports events, such as Wushu, Table Tennis and Basketball as well. The College focuses on employment prospects through the acquisition of subject knowledge and practical skills.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The college has pooled some of the best academic facilities and highly prolific faculty members. Prime offers the combination of experienced and dedicated faculties to the students such as; London based Artificial Intelligence (AI) expert Associate Professor Dr. Suresh Manandhar, Prominent IT expert of Nepal, Dr. Bhushan Shrestha, and Prof. Dr. K.D. Koirala, a prominent management and marketing expert. The college also has highly experienced and trained foreign and Nepali faculties in Hotel Management.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Courses Offered</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The College offers Plus 2 program (Management and Science streams) in affiliation with Higher Secondary Education Board (HSEB).And Bachelors program in affiliation with Tribhuvan University (TU). Bachelors program include Bachelor of Information Management (BIM), Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Information Technology (B.Sc. CSIT) and Bachelor of Business Studies (BBS).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td bgcolor="#E5E4E2">
				<div>
					<div>
						<div>
							<div>
								<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong><img alt="Naresh Prasad Shrestha" src="/userfiles/images/lc1.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 150px; height: 186px;" />Naresh Prasad Shrestha, Principal</strong></span></div>
							<div>
								One of the specialties of our college is to work in a group. Our management is moving forward with the vision of providing quality education to the students. We are motivated to work hard with the positive involvement of student and guardians from national level. We also help our students for providing employment beyond quality education. We are giving our continuous effort in the education sector. While selecting the business schools, the students should concentrate on modern education system, skills of communication and educational levels of faculty members. They should also verify whether the college will help the students in job placement after the completion of study or not.</div>
							<div>
								&nbsp;</div>
						</div>
					</div>
				</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-01-20',
			'modified' => '2014-01-20',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'Little Angel’s College of Management (LACM) and Prime College are two top Business colleges in the town, which are giving their best for the aspiring management students to help them become top leaders and managers of the future. LACM with affiliation with Kathmandu University is in the education sector since1999 while Prime is recognized for providing top management education since 2002.',
			'sortorder' => '2312',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2469',
			'article_category_id' => '154',
			'title' => 'Learning Curve News In Brief (20 - 26 January 2014)',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Pokhara University Published Rechecking/ Retotaling Results&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Pokhara University Office of the Controller of Examinations has published Rechecking/Re-totalling results spring 2013. Results of various subjects of the MBA programme of having exam centre: Uniglobe College for Kathmandu Valley and School of Business for Pokhara has been published.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Janaki Medical College Barred from Admitting Students for New Session</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepal Medical Council (NMC) has barred Janakpur-based Janaki Medical College (JMC) from admitting students in MBBS programme for the new academic session. The latest move from the regulatory authority questions the college&rsquo;s credibility. A meeting of the regulatory body on Wednesday decided to bar JMC from admitting new MBBS students stating that JMC has failed to maintain minimum standards to run the medical classes. Last year the NMC had told JMC to improve its standard and had reduced the number of annual admissions from 100 to 80. Meanwhile,JMC has filed an application demanding a review of the decision.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>CIAA Seeks Clarification from 178 Bogus Schools in Sarlahi</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has sought clarification with the 138 bogus schools in Sarlahi. A two-day field survey of all public and community schools in the district has revealed that most of the schools in the district were not operating at all as some of them even didn&acute;t have school building; while many others lacked teachers - and even principals in some cases.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The monitoring team consisted of four CIAA officials, including under secretary Ram Krishna Subedi, and a representative each from the Regional Education Directorate, District Administration Office, District Development Committee (DDC) and District Education Office (DEO).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>NELTA Graduates Felicitated</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The Nepal English Language Teaching Association (NELTA) conducted a graduation ceremony of second batch of students of &lsquo;English Access Micro scholarship Program (Access Program)&rsquo; in Maharajgunj on Tuesday. The programme was organized amid the presence of American officials, Ministry of Education (MoE) representative and NELTA executives. Access Program sows a foundation of English language and leadership skills to 13 to 16 year-olds from economically disadvantaged backgrounds through two years of after school instruction sessions.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Actions Against Three Medical Colleges&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepal Medical Council has decided to reduce BDS and MBBS seats of three different colleges for the new academic session. The names of the colleges whose seat has been cut are: Gandaki Medical College (GMC), People&rsquo;s Dental College (PDC), and MB Kedia Dental College (KDC). The Pokhara-based GMC&rsquo;s seats have been reduced to 75 from 80 while the council has reduced the BDS quotas from 75 to 60 in the Kathmandu-based PDC. The Birgunj-based KDC will have to do away with 25 allocate BDS seats.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The action has been taken stating that the colleges were not meeting the requirements for the admission of already approved seats. NMC has also approved 10 more seats to Chitwan Medical College (CMC) for its better performance.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-01-20',
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			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'Pokhara University Office of the Controller of Examinations has published Rechecking/Re-totalling results spring 2013. Results of various subjects of the MBA programme of having exam centre: Uniglobe College for Kathmandu Valley and School of Business for Pokhara has been published.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2468',
			'article_category_id' => '156',
			'title' => 'When It’s OK To Love Someone At The Office',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Rachel Feintzeig</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	To get employees to spend more time in the office, try a little tenderness.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	New research out of the University of Pennsylvania&rsquo;s Wharton School and George Mason University shows that an office culture of &ldquo;companionate love&rdquo; can lead to less worker absenteeism and increased employee satisfaction, as measured by surveys and personnel records.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Love has kind of been a taboo word,&rdquo; when it comes to work, says Sigal G. Barsade, a Wharton management professor. But &ldquo;this is where we spend most of our time.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Companionate love&ndash;as opposed to the passion associated with romantic relationships&ndash;is marked by feelings of caring, compassion and affection, says Ms. Barsade. Workers can show such love by buying a cup of coffee for a colleague who&rsquo;s been up late with a new baby or offering to cover for a co-worker during a doctor&rsquo;s appointment.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Ms. Barsade and George Mason management professor Olivia O&rsquo;Neill studied 185 employees working in a nursing home in the Northeast where managers were trying to cultivate a warm, caring environment. They found that employees in sections where co-workers showed more companionate love reported higher satisfaction, less emotional burnout and better teamwork than employees in less-demonstrative units. They were also absent from work less.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Residents of the nursing home, who were also studied, benefited too. Researchers found residents in the more loving sections had better moods and took fewer trips to the emergency room than residents of other sections.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;In response to Tina Turner&rsquo;s famously haunting lyrics, love, actually, has very much to do with it,&rdquo; the authors write in the paper, set to be published by Administrative Science Quarterly in the next few months.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Small acts of kindness and compassion in the workplace can be contagious, previous studies have found. For example, an accountant who&rsquo;s encouraged to take time off during a busy tax season to deal with a personal issue will feel more loyal to the company and will be more likely to respond compassionately when another colleague needs his help down the line.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;It turns into this virtuous cycle,&rdquo; Ms. Barsade says.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Ms. Barsade and Ms. O&rsquo;Neill also surveyed 3,201 workers across industries including engineering, financial services and higher education about the emotional cultures of their workplaces. Respondents who worked in compassionate environments reported increased job satisfaction and greater commitment to the organization, they found.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Ms. Barsade says leaders of all types of companies need to recognize that the emotional cultures of their workplaces are as important as the &ldquo;cognitive&rdquo; concepts they place front and center &ndash; like innovation or results. Executives can start by treating those around them with more compassion, she says, and also incorporate formal company-wide policies like flexible work hours.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;If as a leader you foster a culture of companionate love, you will have more satisfied employees and a better work outcome,&rdquo; she says.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-01-20',
			'modified' => '2014-01-27',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'New research out of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and George Mason University shows that an office culture of “companionate love” can lead to less worker absenteeism and increased employee satisfaction, as measured by surveys and personnel records.',
			'sortorder' => '2310',
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	(int) 5 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2463',
			'article_category_id' => '146',
			'title' => 'Visual Edit Vol 4 Issue 3',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-01-20',
			'modified' => '2014-01-20',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'Visual Edit',
			'sortorder' => '2309',
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	(int) 6 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2461',
			'article_category_id' => '140',
			'title' => 'Nepal Political Economic News In Brief (20 - 26 January 2014)',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>&lsquo;CPN-Maoist will revolt if sidelined&rsquo;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	<img alt="Secretary of CPN-Maoist Netra Bikram Chand ‘Biplav’" src="/userfiles/images/1(6).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 115px;" />Secretary of CPN-Maoist Netra Bikram Chand &lsquo;Biplav&rsquo; has warned that his party will launch another revolt if &ldquo;attempts are made to draft the new constitution by sidelining the party. &ldquo;We will institute an alternative power and wage a revolt if we feel that the achievements of the decade-long people&rsquo;s war are at risk,&rdquo; he said while speaking at a press meet in Dhankuta on January 13. Chand said that the agenda of his party, which boycotted the second Constituent Assembly (CA) election, is to draft the much awaited new constitution for the country through an all-party round table conference. &ldquo;But if there is an agreement on ensuring the rights of oppressed, marginalised, and victimized people and workers as well as identity-based federalism then we are ready to accept the soon-to-be formed CA as it is,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>&lsquo;NC-led Govt soon&rsquo;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	<img alt="Nepali Congress (NC) President Sushil Koirala " src="/userfiles/images/2(3).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 107px;" />Nepali Congress (NC) President Sushil Koirala has said that a new NC-led government is going to be formed soon by incorporating all the political parties. Speaking at a programe in the Capital on January 14, Koirala said that talks were underway among the top leaders of the major political parties regarding government formation and that a breakthrough was expected within a few days. Koirala, who is tipped to become the next prime minister, said that the country will have a new constitution within a year. Speaking at the same programme, senior NC leader Sher Bahadur Deuba and Vice President Ram Chandra Poudel refuted rumors about bitter dispute inside the party on the prime ministerial candidate.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Dahal for Fresh Presidential Poll</strong></span></div>
<div>
	<img alt="UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal" src="/userfiles/images/3(3).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 115px;" />UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Thursday (January 16) proposed a new election of the President and Vice-president respecting the fresh mandate of the November 19 Constituent Assembly (CA) election. Presenting a political document at the party&rsquo;s Central Committee (CC) meet at the party headquarters Parisdanda, Dahal broke the party&rsquo;s silence on the presidential election. Meanwhile, Dahal in his 12-page political document, has expressed great dissatisfaction at the growing instance of &ldquo;sexual perversion&rdquo; and other maladies among the party leaders and activists. &ldquo;Party leaders and activists are becoming increasingly unrestrained due to sexual perversion and contradictory ideas about family, personal property and value system,&rdquo; Dahal has said in his dossier, without naming anyone. It must be noted that Dahal&rsquo;s own son Prakash had in 2012 abandoned his second wife and one-year-old son to &lsquo;elope&rsquo; with a married woman. Following the episode, UCPN (Maoist) suspended Prakash Dahal from party membership, but later revoked the decision.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Gautam to Resign from Bardiya Seat</strong></span></div>
<div>
	<img alt="CPN-UML Vice-chairman Bamdev Gautam" src="/userfiles/images/4.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 105px;" />CPN-UML Vice-chairman Bamdev Gautam, who was elected from Bardiya-1 and Pyuthan-1, has said he will leave the Bardiya seat. Gautam, however, expressed his commitment to remain in contact with the electorate and help them carry out development activities in the district. The UML leader was in the district to celebrate Maghi, the greatest festival of the Tharu community.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Writ against Docs&rsquo; Strike at TUTH</strong></span></div>
<div>
	As the hunger strike by senior Dr Govinda KC entered its seventh day and doctors restrict services at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) in support, a writ was filed at the Supreme Court demanding that the service be resumed. Arguing that halting the services of the hospital is against the Essential Service Act, Advocate Sunil Ranjan and Consumer Welfare Protection Forum filed the writ on January 17. The writ demands an interim order from the court to resume the hospital&rsquo;s services.</div>',
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			'description' => 'CPN-UML Vice-chairman Bamdev Gautam, who was elected from Bardiya-1 and Pyuthan-1, has said he will leave the Bardiya seat. Gautam, however, expressed his commitment to remain in contact with the electorate and help them carry out development activities in the district. The UML leader was in the district to celebrate Maghi, the greatest festival of the Tharu community.',
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	(int) 7 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2466',
			'article_category_id' => '86',
			'title' => 'In Mother’s Footsteps',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	A candidate to be the heroine in a new Nepali movie was being interviewed. The director and the producer had a condition to the actress that she cannot get married at least for another three years.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The candidate replied: &lsquo;Rather, I will never get married. I will follow in the footsteps of my mother. Like her I will always remain single.&rsquo; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;-ML</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-01-20',
			'modified' => '2014-01-20',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'A candidate to be the heroine in a new Nepali movie was being interviewed. The director and the producer had a condition to the actress that she cannot get married at least for another three years.',
			'sortorder' => '2307',
			'image' => null,
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	(int) 8 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2462',
			'article_category_id' => '145',
			'title' => 'Challenges Of LDCs',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Dr Arjun Karki</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The group of least developed countries (LDCs) was formed by the UN General Assembly in the 1970s. Back then, this group had 24 countries. There are three criteria to identify the countries that fall in the LDC group. The first criterion is the Human Assets Index (HAI). The second is the Gross National Income (GNI) and the third is Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI). The main objective of classifying countries as LDCs was to minimize their number by addressing their development challenges, alleviating poverty and mitigating other risks. But instead of decreasing, the number of LDCs has reached 49 today. What this means is the economic and development policies adopted by the international community to address the poor and the poor countries has failed. So far, the Maldives from Asia and Botswana and Cape Verde from Africa are the only three countries that have progressed from the LDC group to developing countries.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Most of the LDCs are facing political instability, internal conflicts and wars. Therefore, poverty is not the only issue for these countries. For example, Nepal, Sudan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Central African Republic and lately, Southern Sudan are facing such problems. These countries cannot resolve their political instabilities and other risks unless they iron out their economic problems. At present, the LDCs particularly lack the capabilities to tackle the challenges posed by the climate change. The latest climate change related problems are the melting of snow in the mountainous regions of Asia, rising of water level in the Pacific region and expansion of deserts and food insecurity in Africa. In this situation, LDCs cannot progress to the group of developing countries. The rules set by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are not in favour of the LDCs and the developing countries. As the WTO rules are in favour of only the developed and rich countries, the share of LDCs in global trade is less than one percent.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are two types of barriers in international trade. They are non-tariff barriers (NTBs) and tariff barriers. The LDCs are particularly affected by the NTBs. We have been demanding that the goods produced in the LDCs get a duty-free and quota-free access to the markets in Europe and the US. However, the LDCs haven&rsquo;t been able to get this right despite international commitment. NTBs like sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures put in place by the European Union and rule of origin (Nepali carpet which uses wool imported from New Zealand and Tibet is not recognized as an LDC product) pose as major challenges for the LDCs to participate in international trade.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The burden of foreign debt is another major challenge in the economic development of LDCs. The LDCs have to use more than 50 per cent of their gross domestic income to pay the interest of foreign debt alone. Therefore, in order to allow the LDCs to enter the world market, their foreign debts must be cancelled unconditionally at the earliest possible. If this happens, the LDCs can spend their national income to face the challenges related to their development.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The UN has already organized four global conferences on the LDCs. The first and second UN conference on LDCs were organized in Paris of France in 1981 and 1990, respectively. Similarly the third conferences was organized in Brussels in 2001 and the fourth conference was organized in Istanbul in May 2011. Thus, the latest UN programme to address the issues of LDCs is called the Istanbul Programme of Action. The overarching goal of the Istanbul Programme of Action is to overcome the structural challenges faced by the LDCs, to eradicate poverty, achieve internationally agreed development goals and enable half of the 49 LDCs to graduate out of this category by 2020.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Initially, Nepal had planned to graduate out of the LDC category by 2030. Truthfully speaking, that plan was not good because under the very leadership of Nepal, the commitment was expressed to graduate half of the existing LDCs out of the LDC group to the developing group. Therefore, Nepal faces a moral obligation to make a progress to the group of developing countries from the LDC group by 2020. And Nepal has made a national commitment to graduate out of the LDC group by 2022 which is a praiseworthy announcement.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, Nepal faces a number of challenges. The biggest challenge is the creation of democratic deficit. A democratic deficit (or democracy deficit) occurs when ostensibly democratic organizations or institutions (particularly governments) fall short of fulfilling the principles of democracy in their practices or operation where representative and linked parliamentary integrity becomes widely discussed. The political parties and their leaders got to enjoy the fruits of democracy and peace in Nepal. However, the Nepali people at large are still deprived of the fruits of democracy and peace. This is the biggest challenge that Nepal faces in graduating out of the LDC group.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, there is hope in the air. A new Constituent Assembly has been elected and soon we will have a new parliament. If the parliament and the elected government to be formed can tactfully address the challenges being faced by the Nepali people, then we will not have to wait till 2022 to graduate out of the LDC group.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>(Dr Karki is the international coordinator of LDC Watch. This is a TC translation of Dr Karki&rsquo;s article published in Aarthik Abhiyan on January 10.)</em></div>',
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			'description' => 'The group of least developed countries (LDCs) was formed by the UN General Assembly in the 1970s. Back then, this group had 24 countries. There are three criteria to identify the countries that fall in the LDC group. The first criterion is the Human Assets Index (HAI). The second is the Gross National Income (GNI) and the third is Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI). The main objective of classifying countries as LDCs was to minimize their number by addressing their development challenges, alleviating poverty and mitigating other risks',
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	(int) 9 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2464',
			'article_category_id' => '144',
			'title' => 'What About Ethics In Politics?',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	A conference titled &ldquo;Business Ethics for Prosperous Nepal&rdquo; has just concluded in the capital. The main idea behind the conference was to teach the importance of ethics in business to the Nepali business community. Organised by the World Forum for Ethics in Business, the conference which examined ethical practices that are sustainable and ensure profitability for businesses was well attended and was successful.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The importance of ethics in business cannot be overemphasized. Ethical behaviour can bring significant benefits to a business by attracting customers to its products, reducing labour turnover and thus increasing productivity and attracting investors and keeping the company&rsquo;s share prices high, among other ways.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But the conference evoked some simple questions: is the Nepali business community one of the segments of society that needs a lesson or two in ethics? Are the Nepali businessmen really unethical and hence need sermons on business ethics the most? What about ethical practices in the bureaucracy and politics? Ethics concern an individual&rsquo;s moral judgments about right and wrong. If so, are Nepali businessmen most wrongdoers that they are being lectured on ethics while the politicians and bureaucrats are apostles of ethics?</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Definitely not. The ethical standards of Nepali business community look higher than those of many other segments of society including the government bureaucracy and political parties. And, in fact, at the root of whatever unethical business practices we have lies in the government and politics. There are many instances where the government has been rewarding unethical practices. For one, this is reflected in the government&rsquo;s decision to waive taxes of different companies, in awarding licenses to start various businesses. This is reflected also in the actions of the government regulators of different businesses.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The situation of ethics in the country&rsquo;s politics is appalling. So much so that many find &lsquo;ethics in politics&rsquo; as contradiction. It is because of the lack of ethics in politics that people do not place much trust on the political parties and politicians. Political parties are far from maintaining transparency in their financial transactions and deals. And that is why most politicians are seen as selfish and corrupt power-players who are not responsible and who defend special interests instead of the common good. That is why Transparency International reports have repeatedly depicted politicians and bureaucrats as the most corrupt.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Ethics in politics matters the most in Nepal because it directly affects everything else including ethics in business. Lack of ethics in politics has a much wider impact than lack of ethics in business. Businesses have to sell their products or services on a daily basis. This means their ethics is being tested almost on a daily basis by the buyers as well as the employees. This is because they tend to be more ethical in their actions, behaviours and decisions. On the other hand, the ethics of politicians is challenged everyday but it is tested only through elections. Such elections are not yet regular in Nepali democracy.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The delay in the first sitting of the Constituent Assembly (CA) and forming a new government even after two months of CA election could be the latest and simplest example of the lack of ethics in Nepali politics. The episode has exposed the ethical and moral dilemmas and deficiencies of a range of actors in Nepali politics including the President, Chairman of the Council of Ministers, the major political parties which are tipped to form the new government and the parties which have been mandated by the people to sit in opposition.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The bottom line is: the political class needs to be reminded of ethics more frequently than any other segment of society. Therefore, conferences on ethics in politics are wanted more urgently than conferences on ethics in business. &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-01-20',
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			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'A conference titled “Business Ethics for Prosperous Nepal” has just concluded in the capital. The main idea behind the conference was to teach the importance of ethics in business to the Nepali business community. Organised by the World Forum for Ethics in Business, the conference which examined ethical practices that are sustainable and ensure profitability for businesses was well attended and was successful.',
			'sortorder' => '2305',
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	(int) 10 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2443',
			'article_category_id' => '40',
			'title' => 'Partners In Economic Growth',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<span style="font-size:16px;">Multi-stakeholder Approach is the recent buzzword in development literature. How can Nepal use this approach? <strong>Achyut Wagle </strong>analyses the challenges and opportunities.</span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	When we say &#39;engaging development actors&#39; we are talking about hierarchical operational levels like local, district, sub-regional, regional, national, international and global, where each of these levels &nbsp;form a complex matrix of actual actors primarily from five sectors -- the public or government, private or business, civil society, actual beneficiaries or common people and, development partners (donors).&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The economic growth is only possible through multidimensional interactions among these different groups of actors that are defined by the recent development literature as multi-stakeholder approach of development. The scope and limitation of the roles of each of these and conflicts and/or complementarities of the interests of these actors, singly or jointly, determines both the scale and the speed of the economic growth of any country, including Nepal.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, there is a problem in the definitional level, that is, whether all players in Nepal could be covered by these five categories of development actors mentioned above. Take for example Nepal&#39;s political parties who on their own right want to be the development actors, whereas their role and influence in development domain should either come through the public sector (for those who win the election and form the government) or only as the common people or the beneficiary (until they win the next election). The face of the civil society, if it has any, is not different from that of the political parties. In international practice, donors do not figure out with separate identities, who in Nepal&#39;s case appear even more quintessential actors. These distortions have serious implications both in engaging the development actors in their due roles and also attaining the ultimate results of our development endeavours.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Actors</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>1. The Government</strong></span></div>
<div>
	It is obvious that we need government for governance, hopefully a good governance. Although Nepal is not an exception among the least developed nations that face the crisis of governance, but one additional dimension in our case is we persistently face deficiency of democracy, perhaps more acutely at present. Nepal&#39;s politics during the last six decades of modern history has invariably been dominated by the dictatorial forces of some form that didn&#39;t believe in pluralistic, competitive democracy. This has been the main source of crisis of governance in general, manifested in the form of rule of force than rule of law, poor growth of institutions and their effectiveness, haphazardly conceived and weakly implemented policies, misuse of the state power by the powerfuls, strong nexus between the crime and law enforcement, utter lack of transparency and rampant corruption in public expenditure, rise of business syndicates and, worst of all, pervasive and persistent impunity. And, the list can on, and on.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	We don&#39;t have elected local governments at the local and district levels for last one decade, for no tangible reason for this vacuum, except for the height of irresponsibility and imperviousness of the political actors of the country. It should have in fact been the first priority of all particularly after the signing of Comprehensive Peace Treaty seven years ago; as the local governments would have been the best channels to deliver the much touted about peace dividend, many of the economic rights and delivery of the public services at the grassroots. Above all, it would have provided the people at the grassroots with direct access to the state mechanism. One can only imagine at this point, how many of new generation of leaders this process would have produced and how much would it have facilitated the process of proposed federalization of Nepal.</div>
<div>
	Nepal never created democratic government institutions at sub-regional or regional levels. We have bureaucratic arrangements like regional administrators who virtually have no role in economic planning and development except for that of official messengers.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="The Engagement Matrix" src="/userfiles/images/CS2%20(Copy).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 307px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	At the national level, we have Himalayan scale of policy confusions at development governance. We still have National Planning Commission (NPC) located inside the high walls of Sigha Durbar, that mercifully distributes development to the people of far and wide corners of Nepal. We still believe that the people who live in NPC as if have divine senses to understand the exact development needs of the people living at Tinker and Olangchung Gola and ability to address them from here. The duplication of the roles between the finance ministry and NPC, the constant squabbles and ego-clashes of the mandarins in them is staple national drama. The independence of central bank has always been a mirage, as we saw ten governors in Nepal Rastra Bank in as many years. We never had and, nor will have the possibility of implementing &nbsp;an independent monetary policy of our own in foreseeable future due to &#39;pegging&#39; of Nepali currency with the Indian Rupee.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	At the international level, Nepal is gradually losing its credibility as a viable economy. We have not been able to organize the Nepal Development Forum, to interact with our international development partners, for the last one decade. Our ability to communicate about our needs with them and prioritize development areas to streamline their support has substantially reduced. &nbsp;The torch-bearers of our economic diplomacy are the political nominees typified, for example, by the recently sacked Nepali ambassador to Qatar. We may talk about FDI, but it has even stopped trickling in. We have also failed to introduce a functional mechanism to make sure that all official foreign assistance is spent through our budget, despite the fact that many of the donors are in favour of such a system.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>2. The Private Sector</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The post-1990 marked an era that tried to put the private sector in the driving seat of economic growth. The policies of liberalization, privatization and legal as well as institutional reforms initiated by the first elected government after reinstatement of democracy brought about substantial positive changes, the impact of which has withstood violent conflict of a decade. Private airlines, large private sector banks, private hospitals, multiple universities, private investment in communication, information technology and hydropower, and private participation in building infrastructures like roads and irrigation facilities are some of the exemplary outcomes of these policies.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But this encouraging trend was abruptly truncated by the armed conflict waged by the Maoists and, after seven long years after cessation of hostilities too, there is no certain sign of putting the policy of private-sector-led growth back on track. The political mayhem we are witnessing even after the second Constituent Assembly elections last month is even more disgusting to say the least.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Needless to say, three preconditions for private sector actors to come forward to contribute to economic growth are: ensured private property rights, an appropriate business climate that encourages investment and a predictable policy regime that provides &nbsp;a reasonable time horizon for conceptualizing, executing, operating and if needed closing of the businesses without being unnecessarily anxious about the safety of, as well as, return from the investment.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But, the greatest challenge to all of these aspects not only comes at the operational level but at the level of the very philosophy of the strongest of the political forces of Nepal. Confiscation of the private property, politically patronized trade unions disturbing the industrial atmosphere, politically sponsored extortions and sheer unpredictability of the public policies are true bottlenecks for the private sector investment, both foreign and domestic. Consequently, economy suffers from low level of investment and job creation, low level of private sector confidence and, as the result, massive amount of capital flight from the country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Despite all these odds, we must acknowledge the fact that the private sector has constantly been instrumental in the delivery of goods and services at the lowest possible price levels when the presence of government apparatus is as good as non-existent, and even when the armed conflict was at its height.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>3. Civil Society and NGOs</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepal&#39;s civil society and the media don&#39;t believe in a long but natural process of the outcome of their activities. The natural role of the civil society or media is to cater the common people with factual information, on the basis of which people form their opinion, and that opinion gets reflected through the ballots. Then comes change through the policies of the mandated government. But, instead, in Nepal they want to be seen as activists and instant impact makers. The NGOs and INGOs strive deliberately to slip-out from the bracket of civil society and claim themselves to be real, grassroots development partners.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The media outlets in general have grown in terms of quantity, quality and reach, whereas NGO activities have become more suspicious and slanted. A large number of INGOs are deeply engaged in spreading this or that religion. . We probably need to re-examine the extent of real contribution of many of such NGOs to the economic growth, development and social harmony of our country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>4. The Beneficiaries&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The common people both as actors and true beneficiaries of the economic growth and development efforts are at complete loss of direction. First, the people who are so far completely deprived of any form of meaningful development are not capable of even to identify and articulate their developmental needs. Let me directly quote from a woman whom I had met at Dehimandu of &nbsp;Baitadi, a year ago. In her early thirties, she looked like of fifties, who on top of a heavy load of fodder was carrying two malnourished kids and a pitcherful of water in her arms.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	When I asked her what did she looked for to ameliorate her sufferings, she first vehemently denied that she had had any suffering and then explained -- she was a happy woman as she could fetch drinking water walking just for 45 minutes whereas she had to spend some one hour in her parental home before marriage, collect fodder from the grassland half an hour away, her two kids out of six she gave birth have, fortunately, survived, her husband who worked in the Indian town of Pithoragarh visits twice a year, her mother-in-law beats her only once or twice a month, she had four cattle and enough land to feed her family for eight months in a year and rest is managed by her husband and his brother. She has plans for sending her kids to nearby school, just two hours of walk, for few years, and then they will follow their father to work in some Indian city. &#39;I am a happy woman and want nothing more,&quot; she emphasized.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	I don&#39;t think this story needs any further illustration.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Second, who know what they want, they too don&#39;t have access to the authorities or knowledge on how to communicate their demands and concerns. Even if some managed to communicate, the end result may just be the same as being idle, ab initio.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There is another extreme, where people lately have begun to obstruct the development projects claiming to have absolute ownership of the entire natural resources of their area. The process of participatory development is impeded either way.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>5. The Donors</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Unlike in other countries, donors for Nepal&#39;s case are imperatively very crucial development actors. It is but natural that the donors, particularly the bilateral ones, have their own interest or agenda in providing the financial assistance to Nepal. The nature of such interest, though, may vary from presenting a mere philanthropic face of the donor in question, influencing in certain policies, providing business to their home companies to increasing diplomatic clout.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is the responsibility of Nepal as a nation-state to identify our needs, prioritize them and explore the areas of possible engagements for the donors where their interest may be served without jeopardizing or compromising our own interests. We often degrade ourselves claiming that we cannot afford to be selective or, to say no. May be true. But we definitely can streamline the support and make them to agree to spend in our projects and programmes chosen by the national budget system.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Foreign Employment" src="/userfiles/images/CS3%20(Copy).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 330px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For years, we have tried to formulate a functional foreign aid policy but failed to conclusively frame and effectively implement it. Our absorption capacity of foreign assistance has often been below the &#39;fair&#39; mark and donors seem reluctant to increase and diversify the support mainly due to prolonged political transition and uncertainty coupled with administrative inefficiency. We have often failed to meet the capital expenditure earmarked by our own system that hardly gives incentive to major donors to augment their grant or loan portfolios.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	We often hear not only engagement but of overengaement of the donors in our development process. They are often alleged of directly interfering in policy making, selection and implementation of the projects etc. Many countries bring in their own experts and repatriate larger chunk of their support back home. Discrimination in pay for the same work between the Nepali staff of same qualification and caliber against their consultants is whopping. Probably Nepal has left more vacuum, not doing proper homework in time to make their engagement more fruitful yet unintrusive.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Dynamics and Correlations</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Let&rsquo;snow dwell briefly on a few key dynamics of Nepali economy. I will touch upon only those areas which appear to be inconsistent in pattern, look paradoxical or needed fresh looks and comparisons.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>1. Dynamics of the Human Resource and Migration</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepal&#39;s population growth rate now stands at 1.4 percent per annum according to census 2011. Without going into the boring details of numbers, &nbsp;we can say that some of the development indicators certainly show that we have made very impressive progress in terms of increasing the primary school enrollment, literacy and life expectancy, reducing child and maternal mortality rates, increasing access to health and transport services etc.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But with regard to human resource development, we are caught in a very awkward position. About one third of the working age population (or about twelve percent of the total population) has out-migrated to foreign employment, mainly in menial jobs. Better educated too, have migrated to developed countries, majority of them with a set mind to permanently settle in the destination countries.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is an interesting paradox that migrated unskilled and uneducated youths are sending their entire earning back to Nepal and the remittances thus received have saved Nepali economy for at least a decade now from potentially falling into acute balance of payment crisis. On the contrary, the educated lot is not only migrating but also taking a hefty sum, on an average forex equivalent of about 35 billion rupees every year, from the national coffers towards tuition, travel and accommodation costs.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In a rough calculation, to create a university graduate with sixteen years of education in private institution at present prices costs the nation between 5 to 6 million rupees. And, the return to the nation is clearly zero when one migrates never to come back. It is another paradox that the poor country like Nepal is investing so heavily in human resource to be used solely by the developed countries. The cost-benefit comparison shows that after such a big investment in education, it is unfeasible for them to stay in Nepal and get the cost returned given the lack of opportunities and relatively unattractive pays here.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Then, left here in Nepal are true mediocres, who have spent less, studying in community schools, compelled to be contended with low rate of return and perform far below than the average. Nepali civil service is the true mirror of this phenomenon. If the trend of migration is not reversed, very soon Nepal will lack the required human resource of both low and high end skills. This is likely to have serious repercussion in national output. A trend is already visible in sectors like metal and construction works.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Direction of Foreign Trade" src="/userfiles/images/CS4%20(Copy).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 429px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>2. Dynamics of Foreign Trade and Remittances</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepal&#39;s trade deficit stood at scary level of 500 billion rupees in the last fiscal year (2012/13). Official figures show that export to import ratio was 1:6, whereas unofficial estimates suggest that such ratio should stand at 1:10. The accompanying table is self explanatory.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In the last FY, Nepal received about 435 billion equivalent of remittances from the migrant workers. This definitely has put Nepal in comfortable level of forex reserve. But, a comparison of trade and remittance data suggests that our economy is heading to a very dangerous trend of the Dutch Disease like effect. Our consumption has been fueled by the remittance income of the households, which in turn is widening the export-import gap. Our productive sector is paralyzed for lack of power, human resource and investment. Our imports are largely consumables, perishables but hardly the production inputs. This apparently is unsustainable, dangerous trend. We need to re-identify Nepali goods that can have comparative and competitive advantage in the export market. At the same time, we must be able to diversify both export and import trade.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>3. Dynamics of Growth and Poverty</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepal&#39;s average annual GDP growth rate during the last fifteen years has remained barely at 3.5 &nbsp;percent level. But, in the same period, the headcount poverty, the percentage of the population living below $1 dollar a day poverty line at PPP has unbelievably reduced from 58 percent in 1996 to 25 percent in 2011. What we are effectively saying here is that the poverty can be reduced without growth. In other words, we are challenging the existing theories that correlate growth and poverty and suggesting a completely new economic paradigm on both growth and poverty reduction. This is impossible. The government&#39;s development literature attributes this as the effect of the increased inflow of the remittances. Again, if that is the case too, we are saying that the remittances do not contribute to the economic growth but reduce poverty. This is equivalent to proposing an absolutely new economic theory.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In countries like India and Argentina some 30 percent people still live under the poverty line. Mexico has 28 percent people under this magic line. It appears that we are very fast approaching to the United States which still has 15.1 percent people living under the poverty line, according to the World Bank data of 2011. All these are impossible and counter-intuitive arguments and one single conclusion of this is: what we are saying is not credible. On the one hand, we are saying that graduating a country from the least developed to a developing one is a highly ambitious enterprise, on the other our poverty data shows that we are already in far higher position than many of G-20 countries.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>4. Investment and Infrastructure</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The private sector investment both domestic and FDI are in declining trend. The foreign direct investment of Rs. 9.08 billion was recorded in FY 2012/13compared to Rs. 9.20 billion in the previous year. The intent of investing about Rs. 39 billion was proposed by domestic entrepreneurs in the same year, which is less by some seven percent than the previous year. Apart from this, an investment of Rs 100 billion has been proposed for the hydel projects expected to be completed in next five years.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	One of the very encouraging developments is that the private sector has more aggressively come forward to invest in infrastructure than ever, not only in power but also in the telecommunications, surface transportation and airports. There are a number of large J-V projects in hydropower like Upper Karnali, Upper Seti and Arun III, at different stages of development. Yet, they have constantly been victim of political bickerings and protracted decision making process in the bureaucracy.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/CS1%20(Copy)(1).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 367px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Very shaky political climate is main distraction to investment, both domestic and foreign.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>5. Agriculture and Manufacturing</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Our experience suggests that Nepal is not faring well in the manufacturing. Many products we tried could not compete with Indian and Chinese goods that are in instant supply and cheaper for the reasons of mass production and use mostly of their own raw materials. But on the contrary, Nepal has fared well in our niche products like hand-spun dhaaka and pashmina, handicrafts and herbs where there is our backward link in production and possibility of substantive value addition.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The manufacturing industries that use Nepali agricultural products have seemingly given better returns to investment. The commercialization of agriculture itself presents real prospects for investment, perhaps in a scale thus far not even imagined of. Off-season farming of cash-crops and commercial farming of valuable herbs can open new avenues in the agriculture sector. Added road links to provide market access should be able to attract new investment for processing, phyto-sanitation and storage facilities. But, we often get carried away by the documentary camouflages like Agriculture Perspective Plan (APP), which presented every possible good plan for agricultural growth without any mention about the land where farming would be done. This was truly a plan made to farm in the air. Just an example.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>6. The Service Sector &amp; Growth Linkage</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Two sectors, financial services and tourism have exhibited very promising trend both in terms of attracting substantial amount of investment and promising good rate of returns. The financial sector now mobilizes about Rs 1.1 trillion of deposits and Rs. 0.9 trillion as loans and investments. The growth in the sub-sectors of insurance, stocks and commodities has also been impressive. But the hard fact is, Nepal&#39;s entire banking sector even jointly doesn&#39;t have liquidity enough to finance a medium-scale hydro project of say of 200 MW. Similar is the situation of insurance companies to provide insurance cover to these projects if they opted to insure. We don&#39;t have a domestic reinsurer, yet.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Areas like transportation services have also expanded, along with the increased road networks. The tourism infrastructure is growing steadily. Health and education services by now have national reach due to private sector investment. But the issue here is: how do we make the expansion of these sectors contributory to the overall economic growth of the country? Anomalies like in these sectors have rather added new problems. For example, the over exposure of the banking credit in the real-estate has fueled inflation, created large portfolio of NPA in the industry and put &nbsp;the balance-sheet of a number of banks in a very bad shape for a number of years.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The transportation facilities can contribute more if they provided easier market access to the products and supported supply of inputs to increase the production and add value to them. But, largely, the scenario is just opposite.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>7. Choice between Improved Subsistence &amp; Prosperity</strong></span></div>
<div>
	There has been virtual explosion in small scale development initiatives like solar and micro hydro for rural electrification, NGO-led rights based development and awareness campaigns, literacy classes, skill development and self-employment schemes, community or gender-focused empowerment programmes etc. Policies of reservation, inclusion and positive discrimination are now widely debated. These definitely are good things.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But we need to link these activities with our main objective. If our prime aim is a little improvement in the bare subsistence life-style and help reduce abject poverty, these are definitely the ways we should invest and focus on. But if our aim is tangible economic growth that can also compensate to the lost opportunity of decades, we need higher degree of commitment, massive investment and multi-stakeholder engagement at all possible levels, as we discussed about. By now, it is apparent that these small things may be beautiful in facilitating poorest of the poor to live relatively a better life, but seldom enough to effectively speed-up the economic growth and overall prosperity and well-being of the entire population. When we can uplift the living standard of every citizen, universally ensure education and employment, issues of inclusion and reservations automatically become redundant.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Choice" src="/userfiles/images/CD2%20(Copy).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 413px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Engagement: Process &amp; Paradigm</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&#39;Engaging Overall Partners&#39; is a great concept and also an absolute imperative. But engaging multi-stakeholders with varying, often conflicting, interests is an equally challenging proposition. It perhaps requires a different development culture than Nepal is practicing now. We need both formal and informal common forums, factual information and access to them, effective communication amongst all stakeholders in multitude of directions, &nbsp;reasonable level of credible independent research to ascertain what is working and what is not and, of course, a unity of purpose at the macro level of objectives.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Some key components that can be instrumental in enhancing such engagement can be as follows:</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>1. Discourse</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepal utterly lacks any form of meaningful discourse, at any level on economic, financial and developmental issues, except for some media reports and limited number of seminars that take place, here and there. Such discourses should have taken place at three different arenas -- the political parties, policy making units and the academia. And, they should.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Since the political parties are the one who govern the country, the economic policy of each major one of them is important tool to make people understand their means and ends of the economic growth and development. Such policy of each party, ideally, should be framed through fully democratic debate at all levels of the respective party organizations; and reflected in their manifestoes. But, this is not at all the case. Except for a couple of leaders in each major party who understand economic issues, the entire outfits are virtually illiterate about the economy, its components and trends. Worst of all, none of these parties have understood the importance of such debate and need to initiate them sooner than later.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	At the policy making level, trained economists are rare species. A couple of recent finance ministers, for example, were undergrads in subjects other than economics. Bureaucrats have more incentive in appeasing their bosses in any possible way but professionalism. They lack refreshment trainings, more so in economic issues. The redundancy of their rusted ideas gets amply reflected in the so-called new but essentially archaic policies. It is one of the main reasons that our economic policies seldom work.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Both of the deficiencies in political and bureaucratic levels should have been bridged by the discourse at academic level. But, unfortunately, in Nepal such discourse is completely absent. A few academics who have made some name as economists have limited themselves in the role of consultants to INGOs and impartial viewpoints about national economy are non-existent. The reluctance of newer universities to institute the department of economics is indicative enough to explain the predicament.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Discourses at stakeholders&#39; level, on the topics suitably designed to them are another striking need. At the donors&#39; level, they seem to have instituted a loose network, but its effectiveness as a debate forum on the core economic issues is still beyond the public knowledge.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>2. Research</strong></span></div>
<div>
	For meaningful engagement at any level, credible data are the primary need. The factual information only can ascertain the scope of participation for each stakeholder. But, whenever we try to talk about any aspect of Nepali economy, we immediately loose thread for lack of proper data and absence of conclusions drawn out by properly analyzing them. As mentioned above, we have contradictory and unbelievable or just tentative figures even on cardinal data like GDP, inflation, unemployment and trade. All comparison and correlation conclusions, like I made above, are largely heuristic. We have no option citing whatever the government agencies like the National Planning Commission, Nepal Rastra Bank or Finance Ministry cook in the name of research and analysis. The nation hardly invests anything in research. There are not independent, credible and well-equipped institutions to carryout research in multi-dimensional aspects of the economy and its trends. Such large scale researches need substantial resources and experts right from the stage of research design to econometric analysis and interpretation of those results. There must be somebody to invest on them.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>3. Reform</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The policy and institutional reforms are other important areas that ensure participatory engagement among the development actors. The continuous process of policy reforms provide opportunity to accommodate the emerging needs, practically realized in the development processes at different levels. The institutional reforms increase the functionality of the actors and replicability of the good practices. Nepal also greatly lags behind in undertaking reforms that are due for long time. Some multi-donor sectoral approaches (SAps) in education and health sectors have delivered impressive results. If similar policy as well as institutional frameworks can be extended to include other possible actors in more sectors, that is likely to increase the portfolio efficiency.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>4. Streamlining</strong></span></div>
<div>
	It is important to understand, when we engage multiple stakeholders, it is natural to have varying interests, priorities, methodologies and objectives to come to fore. Without streamlining them, the national objective of economic prosperity is impossible to achieve. Extensive exercises of benchmarking, clustering, grading and ranking are the necessary part of this process. This can greatly reduce the duplication or omission of many of development endeavours; thereby increase the allocative efficiency of resources. A national focal point, a functional unit, not a generic large structure like a ministry, is internationally adopted practice. At times, when the government agencies try to do it, there are instances of conflicts between the different actors. Therefore, such tasks could be outsourced to some independent professional entity with established, proven credibility.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>5. &nbsp;Good Faith</strong></span></div>
<div>
	All forms of engagements are only possible if the actors are committed to support in good faith on single objectives of economic growth and development of Nepal. The source of good faith is the spirit of democracy that respects the plurality of views, culture of agreeing to disagree and readiness to be partner in the process than to be a savior or ruler. We all have our interests. Sacrifice of a small portion of it by each actor might create a large space for engagement and cooperation and also help serve our own interests better while helping others to serve their own.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>&nbsp;(Based on paper presented by the author, in IVAAN seminar, 7th Dec 2013 in Kathmandu.)</em></div>',
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			'description' => 'Multi-stakeholder Approach is the recent buzzword in development literature. How can Nepal use this approach? Achyut Wagle analyses the challenges and opportunities.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2457',
			'article_category_id' => '140',
			'title' => 'ACAN-AUDAN Joint Protest Against Arrest Of CAs',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<strong>--By TC Correspondent</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Association of Chartered Accountants of Nepal (ACAN) and the Auditors&rsquo; Association of Nepal (AUDAN) have announced a joint agitation against the arrest of auditors. Putting forward a four-point demand, the two organizations have asked the government to immediately release senior Chartered Accountant (CA) Gopal Kumar Agrawal and withdraw the &ldquo;fake case&rdquo; against CA Jagadish Prasad Agrawal.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Organising a press conference in the Capital on Thursday (January 16), ACAN and AUDAN have demanded the government not to arrest and/or prosecute auditors and chartered accountants just because of auditing the books of companies. Similarly, they have also demanded a clear explanation of the term &ldquo;accomplice&rdquo; mentioned in sections 121 and 127 of the Income Tax Act 2058 BS. Similarly, they have also demanded an amendment to sections 2 (e) and 7 (a) of the &ldquo;Asset (Money) Laundering Prevention Act, 2008.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	According to a press release, both ACAN and AUDAN will not issue and or certify the audit reports of insurance companies from Friday (January 17) as part of their protest programme. They have also announced to collect the Certificate of Profession (CoP) of all chartered accountants and submit them to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nepal (ICAN) on January 29. They have also announced to put on black arm band at workplace and submit memorandum to the concerned government bodies.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	They have also announced not to issue and/or certify the audit reports of banks and financial institutions from January 29, the audit reports of the institutions licensed by the Securities Board of Nepal from February 13 and the audit reports of companies listed at Nepal Stock Exchange from February 27. Similarly, they have announced not to issue and or certify the audit reports of companies partly or fully owned by the Nepal government.</div>',
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			'description' => 'The Association of Chartered Accountants of Nepal (ACAN) and the Auditors’ Association of Nepal (AUDAN) have announced a joint agitation against the arrest of auditors. Putting forward a four-point demand, the two organizations have asked the government to immediately release senior Chartered Accountant (CA) Gopal Kumar Agrawal and withdraw the “fake case” against CA Jagadish Prasad Agrawal.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2453',
			'article_category_id' => '137',
			'title' => 'South Asia To See Decline  In Capital Inflow: World Bank',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	South Asia along with other developing regions across the globe may face the risk of declining capital inflow, says a new World Bank report. According to the Global Economic Prospect (GEP) 2014 report, developing nations are vulnerable to the rise in interest rates, which is likely to result in the volatility of capital flow. The global lender pointed to the tapering of quantitative easing (QE) in United States as the main reason for this. In mid-December, Federal Reserve, the US central bank decided to scale back its bond buying programme- from USD 85 billion per month to USD 75 billion per month- amid the country&rsquo;s improving economic prospects.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Washington-based bank in its report warned that adverse reaction of financial markets to the ending of QE might leave the world&rsquo;s developing nations starved of capital. &ldquo;According to simulations, abrupt changes in market expectations, resulting in global bond yields increasing by 100 to 200 basis points within a couple of quarters, could lead to a sharp reduction in capital inflows to developing countries by between 50 and 80 percent for several months,&rdquo; the bank said in its report. The bank also mentioned that countries with a substantial expansion of domestic credit over the last five years, deteriorating current account balances, high levels of foreign and short-term debt and over-valued exchange rates could be more at risk in current circumstances.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The bank said that there would be moderate impact on developing nations if this adjustment happened in an orderly manner. The World Bank expects the global interest rates to rise slowly to reach 3.6 per cent by mid-2016 following an orderly trajectory regarding the process of normalisation of activity and policy in high-income countries. &ldquo;However, should the adjustment be disorderly, as it was in response to speculation about when a taper might begin during the spring and summer of 2013, interest rates could rise more quickly,&rdquo; said the report.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The report urges developing countries to implement structural reforms that would help raise the capacity of their economies, if they are to regain their pre-crisis growth rates.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<hr />
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
	<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Global Growth Picking Up</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The report informed that growth in South Asia expanded at a modest 4.6 percent in 2013, reflecting weakness in India amid high inflation, and current account and government deficits. &ldquo;Regional growth is projected to improve to 5.7 percent in 2014, rising to 6.7 percent in 2016, led mainly by recovering import demand by high-income economies and regional investment,&rdquo; says the report. &nbsp;The report, however, said that projected pickup will depend on macroeconomic stability, sustained policy reforms, and progress in reducing supply side constraints. &ldquo;The main risks to the outlook are fiscal and policy reforms going off-track; uncertainties related to elections in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and India; entrenchment of inflation expectations; and a disorderly adjustment of capital flows in response to US tapering,&rdquo; it said.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The World Bank expects a gradual increase in global growth from this year. According to the report, global growth will pick up from 2.4 per cent in 2013 to 3.2 per cent this year, and to 3.4 per cent in 2015. It believes much of the acceleration will be due to an improvement in economic conditions in high-income countries, where for the first time in five years all three of the main regions &ndash; the US, Europe and Japan &ndash; will be growing. &ldquo;Global economic indicators show improvement. But one does not have to be especially astute to see there are dangers that lurk beneath the surface. The Euro Area is out of recession but per capita incomes are still declining in several countries. We expect developing country growth to rise above 5 percent in 2014, with some countries doing considerably better, with Angola at 8 percent, China 7.7 percent, and India at 6.2 percent. But it is important to avoid policy stasis so that the green shoots don&rsquo;t turn into brown stubble,&rdquo; said Kaushik Basu, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist at the World Bank.</div>',
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			'description' => 'South Asia along with other developing regions across the globe may face the risk of declining capital inflow, says a new World Bank report. According to the Global Economic Prospect (GEP) 2014 report, developing nations are vulnerable to the rise in interest rates, which is likely to result in the volatility of capital flow. The global lender pointed to the tapering of quantitative easing (QE) in United States as the main reason for this. In mid-December, Federal Reserve, the US central bank decided to scale back its bond buying programme- from USD 85 billion per month to USD 75 billion per month- amid the country’s improving economic prospects.',
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	(int) 13 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2460',
			'article_category_id' => '140',
			'title' => 'Weekly Round Up (13 - 19 January 2014)',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Joshi Elected President of Chitwan Chamber</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Chitwan businessman Kalyan Joshi was elected the president of the Chitwan Chamber of Commerce on Jan 15 for a term of two years from the 17th General Assembly of the Chamber. The results of the election, which was held on January 14, were announced on January 15 morning. Joshi secured 933 votes while his rival Shree Bhakta Achyut Wagle received only 426 votes in the election. Elected in Joshi&rsquo;s team as the senior vice-president is Sohan Lal Pradhan. Chum Narayan Shrestha, Raju Shrestha and Chiranjibi Subedi have been elected as vice-presidents from Commerce, Industry and Commodity sectors respectively. Joshi, who was the senior vice president of the outgoing board, says that his work will be in line with the vision and mission of the Chamber.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Four New ISPs in Market</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Four new companies have been given the go-ahead to operate as internet service providers (ISPs) raising their total number to 45. According to the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA)., My Net and Lumbini Net obtained fresh permits from the NTA while Mega Broadcast and Otel Communications bought the licences held by existing ISPs, Everest Net and Zentech International, respectively. The four entrants have joined the market when demand for data services is increasing and two major telecom operators, Nepal Telecom and Ncell, are keeping a firm grip on the top slots. My Net is based in Dharan of Sunsari district while Lumbini Net is based in Tansen, Palpa. As per the NTA&rsquo;s latest Management Information Report, it has also issued Rural ISP licences to two companies, Pico Soft in Pokhara and Syangja Internet in Syangja to provide internet services in their localities. NTA charges Rs 300,000 for the ISP license, which allows service operation nationwide. The charge for Rural ISP license, which allows operation in only one village development committee, is set at Rs 100.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Tourism Workshops by PATA</strong></span></div>
<div>
	PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association) Nepal Chapter organsied workshops on Modern Destination Marketing Management and Writing Winning Proposals in the capital on Thursday. Simultaneously, it launched PATA Students&rsquo; Chapter Nepal and Friends of PATA Media Pool. Some 205 participants from tourism Industry that includes hotels, travel agencies, various tour operators, and the media fraternity and business institutions actively participated in the workshop that was set in motion by Subash Niroula, CEO of Nepal Tourism Board at Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management (NATHM), Rabi Bhawan on January 13.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Project Reports for Sunkoshi II</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The government is due to start the preparations of the detailed project report (DPR) of Sunkoshi II hydropower project, the country&acute;s largest hydropower project. The 1,111 MW reservoir-based project would be situated in the border area of Ramechhap and Solukhumbu districts. According to information officer at the Department of Electricity Development, Gokarna Raj Pantha, preparations for carrying out the DPR have been completed. &ldquo;We will soon call for bids,&rdquo; He said. The Asian Development Bank has already provided Rs 2.9 billion to prepare the DPR of the project.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>SAARC Ministerial Meet Ends</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The fifth meeting of the commerce ministers of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) member countries concluded in New Delhi, India on Friday (January 17). The two-day meeting focused on ways to bring economic prosperity to the region through trade, according to the Ministry of Commerce. A Nepali delegation led by Minister for Finance and Commerce Shanker Prasad Koirala participated in the meeting. The delegation comprised Commerce Secretary Madhav Prasad Regmi and Joint Secretaries Nawaraj Bhandari, Begendra Sharma Poudel and Toya Narayan Gyawali. Commerce Ministers of Nepal, India, Afghanistan, Bhutan, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka took part in the meeting. Representatives of chambers of commerce and industry of the SAARC region also attended the meeting.</div>',
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			'created' => '2014-01-20',
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			'description' => 'Chitwan businessman Kalyan Joshi was elected the president of the Chitwan Chamber of Commerce on Jan 15 for a term of two years from the 17th General Assembly of the Chamber. The results of the election, which was held on January 14, were announced on January 15 morning. Joshi secured 933 votes while his rival Shree Bhakta Achyut Wagle received only 426 votes in the election. Elected in Joshi’s team as the senior vice-president is Sohan Lal Pradhan.',
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			'title' => 'Invest In Service Sector: NRB Guv',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<strong>--By TC Correspondent</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Dr Yuvraj Khatiwada" src="/userfiles/images/gor.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;width: 150px; height: 180px;" />Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), Dr Yubaraj Khatiwada has asked the private sector for investment in the service sector. Speaking at an interaction programme organized by the Birgunj Chamber of Commerce &amp; Industries (BiCCI), Dr Khatiwada said that due to capital flight in the health and education sectors, it has become necessary to invest in these sectors within the country.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;It has become necessary to invest in the country&rsquo;s service sector including health and education to stop capital flight,&rdquo; Dr Khatiwada said, &ldquo;The investment in the service sector will make the economy strong.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He also opined that the country has the right environment for investment at present. He also claimed that liquidity in the banks was quite high. &ldquo;Banks have more than Rs 100 billion which can be invested in different sectors,&rdquo; he said adding that this is the right time for investment.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He also claimed that the scarcity of Indian currency in Nepal was because of the informal trade between the countries and the non-transparent customs evaluation. &ldquo;We bring Indian currency worth Rs 5 billion annually. If all of our trade with India takes place through the formal channels, this much amount of Indian currency is enough,&rdquo; he said.</div>',
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			'description' => 'Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), Dr Yubaraj Khatiwada has asked the private sector for investment in the service sector. Speaking at an interaction programme organized by the Birgunj Chamber of Commerce & Industries (BiCCI), Dr Khatiwada said that due to capital flight in the health and education sectors, it has become necessary to invest in these sectors within the country.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2444',
			'article_category_id' => '210',
			'title' => 'Corporate Lifestyle Balancing Work And Home',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By TC Correspondent</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Once you enter the professional world, time management becomes a major concern. On top of that, balancing work and home can often be alarming in your professional life. If one fails to manage it, the person is burdened with stresses in both spheres. It becomes hard for the person to complete professional tasks and to mingle with the family members. There is a huge probability that the person will be sandwiched by both the parties. To live a healthy and stress-free life, it is necessary to balance these two elements: work and home. It is crucial for professionals to understand that corporate lifestyle is all about time management.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Tips to balance work and home</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Understand your priorities</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Balancing work and family means that you have to be available at both the places without neglecting the other, which can often be very difficult. Thus, it is important that you understand your major priorities. At office, your work should be your major priority and while at home, your family should be your major precedence. If you try to mix work with family, you will reach nowhere.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Time management</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Time management is a crucial element in the professional world. But, it does not mean that it is limited to meeting the deadlines at office only. Time management has to be applied at the workplace as well as at home. While at office, make sure that you finish your work on time. Do not work for late hours as it can irritate your family members. Similarly, make sure you reach office on time as this can lead to disastrous consequences with your boss. Spending much of your time at home can lead to an&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	unhealthy professional life.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Stress Management&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Stress management does not mean you manage your work stress at home by spilling it on your family members. It is important to create a fine line between your professional life and your family life. This means that you should not nag your family members with your stress at work. They can do nothing about it. So,&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	don&rsquo;t spill your work frustration at them.</div>
<div>
	In the office, don&rsquo;t come with a grumpy face because you had a quarrel with your wife at home. Be calm at work, as it will help you focus properly on your tasks. If the problem at home is actually big, better take a day&rsquo;s leave at work.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Take a break</strong></span></div>
<div>
	It is agreeable that work is worship. But, this does not mean you worship work for 365 days a year. Make sure you go on vacations with family and make them feel that you equally worship family relations. This will help you take a break from the daily office environment and relax. Likewise, it will also help in strengthening your family ties.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-01-19',
			'modified' => '2014-01-27',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'Once you enter the professional world, time management becomes a major concern. On top of that, balancing work and home can often be alarming in your professional life. If one fails to manage it, the person is burdened with stresses in both spheres. It becomes hard for the person to complete professional tasks and to mingle with the family members. There is a huge probability that the person will be sandwiched by both the parties. To live a healthy and stress-free life, it is necessary to balance these two elements: work and home. It is crucial for professionals to understand that corporate lifestyle is all about time management.',
			'sortorder' => '2314',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2406',
			'article_category_id' => '91',
			'title' => 'Richest Countries Poor In Anti-Money Laundering',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Hom Nath Gaire&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	A landmark report published last week by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has found that the richest countries in the world are failing to comply with Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing (AML/CTF) Regimes. The OECD study titled &ldquo;Measuring OECD Responses to Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries&rdquo; was published just one week after Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a US longtime authority on financial crimes, released its annual update on illicit financial outflows from the developing world. The study documented that the developed countries are highly responsible for steady increase in illicit financial flows from developing countries, most of which is being absorbed in the developed countries.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For a long time, the traditional view in the developed countries was that illegal capital flight, money laundering and terrorist financing were problems only for developing countries. Similarly, they used to say that the corrupt governments and bureaucracy as well as poor business environments in the developing countries led capital to flee to their markets and promote money laundering.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Accordingly, they were putting high pressure on developing and least developed countries like ours to obey all the Financial Action Task Force&rsquo;s (FATF) recommendations on AML-CTF.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, &ldquo;one of the most damning findings of the study is that 27 of the 34 OECD countries are either &ldquo;non compliant&rdquo; or only &ldquo;partially compliant&rdquo; with the FATF recommendations,&rdquo; reads the report. The report also shows that none of the OECD countries are &ldquo;fully compliant&rdquo; with the standards on transparency of corporate ownership information, which aims to tackle money laundering by anonymous shell companies. The study indicates that most of the developed countries, which have been receiving the largest chunk of money that vanished from the developing countries, are in a rush to collect the illicit financial flows rather than help to restrain it. While policymakers in developing countries bear some of the responsibility for this problem, this is a two-way street.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Chief economic advisor for the Ministry of Finance, Dr. Chiranjibi Nepal accepts the reality that the money drained from poor countries like Nepal is being received by the developed countries. &ldquo;The high income countries have been absorbing the illicit financial flows in the name of offshore financial system, secrecy jurisdictions and tax haven lands,&rdquo; said Nepal, suggesting that the developing countries should raise their voice collectively on FATF and other multilateral platforms.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	According to Krishna Hari Baskota, Secretary at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, although the degree of pressure on and anomalies in the developing countries in the name of ML/TF has been rising internationally, the OECD countries underscore their voice. &ldquo;However, Nepal is in a safe zone now as per the criteria set by FATF,&rdquo; said Baskota adding that this is a result of continuous efforts of Government of Nepal in policy formulation and enforcement to contain ML/TF. He further argued that the latest study should serve as a wake-up call to the world leaders regarding illicit financial flows and ML/TF.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Western nations established an offshore financial system comprised of tax havens, anonymous shell companies, and various trade-based money laundering techniques, and they have not done enough to remedy this system to date,&rdquo; said Raymond Baker President of GFI in a comment on the OECD report. According to Baker, Illicit financial flows and money laundering are the most damaging economic problem facing the global poor, and they are growing at a terrifying pace. The FATF recommendations on beneficial ownership are only a first step towards eliminating the use of anonymous &lsquo;phantom firms&rsquo; and effectively curtailing ML/TF. But the shameful reality is that every OECD member fails to comply with even these weak standards on corporate ownership transparency and most of them aren&rsquo;t even close, according to the report.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	According to the latest report of GFI, nearly USD 1 trillion drained from the developing world in 2011 with an annual growth rate of more than 10 per cent during the last decade i.e. 2002 to 2011.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-01-06',
			'modified' => '2014-01-20',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'A landmark report published last week by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has found that the richest countries in the world are failing to comply with Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing (AML/CTF) Regimes. The OECD study titled “Measuring OECD Responses to Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries” was published just one week after Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a US longtime authority on financial crimes, released its annual update on illicit financial outflows from the developing world.',
			'sortorder' => '2313',
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	(int) 2 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2467',
			'article_category_id' => '151',
			'title' => 'Series On Top Business Colleges In Kathmandu',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<span style="font-size:16px;">Little Angel&rsquo;s College of Management (LACM) and Prime College are two top Business colleges in the town, which are giving their best for the aspiring management students to help them become top leaders and managers of the future. LACM with affiliation with Kathmandu University is in the education sector since1999 while Prime is recognized for providing top management education since 2002.</span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Little Angels College of Management</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Little Angels College of Management (LACM) was established in 1999 with the objective to fulfil the void that would lead Nepal towards a path of development.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The college aims to provide the country with young people who are armed with a certain set of managerial skills, to give work and production the direction, it requires for efficiency and excellence. It offers a team of experienced and dedicated teachers supporting the students at every stage of their journey.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For students who choose a career in the fast paced and constantly changing environment of the business and technological world, Little Angels&rsquo; College of Management reproduces real world challenges as best as it can in the classroom.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The College Offers the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) and the Bachelor of Business Information System (BBIS): both 120 credit, 4-year courses and Bachelor in Hotel Management (BHM) with the affiliation of highly reputed Kathmandu University. During the course, students will develop administrative and problem solving skills with a sharp knowledge of today&rsquo;s technology, preparing them for a lifetime of opportunities. For students aspiring to join Nepal&rsquo;s hospitality industry too, LA&rsquo;s Bachelor in Hospitality and Tourism Management (BHTM) is the perfect place to put your foot in the door.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td bgcolor="#E5E4E2">
				<div>
					<div>
						<div>
							<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong><img alt="Mitra Bahadur Paudel" src="/userfiles/images/lc(1).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 150px; height: 185px;" />Mitra Bandhu Poudel, Principal</strong></span></div>
						<div>
							Every college is special in their own way. A business school should focus on market demand and necessity while developing the curriculum. Business Colleges helps in producing the skilled manpower demanded by the market. Quality products with healthy competitions of the colleges ultimately help in prospering the nation. Talking about Little Angels College of Management we focus on quality at affordable price. We provide professional touch in our course. We are moving very consciously towards providing the quality education to our students. About the placement part, our students are sellable in the market. LACM has no match in that case. Currently, we are looking forward to strengthen the course we already are providing to make it and deliver it better.</div>
					</div>
				</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<div>
	<hr />
	<p>
		<strong><span style="font-size:16px;">Prime College&nbsp;</span></strong></p>
</div>
<div>
	Prime College is a renowned IT, Management and Science College which is committed to excellence. The college has been successful to establish itself to the educational arena of Nepal for the 12 years. Located at the heart of the city Naya Bazar, Kathmandu, the college is well recognized for offering world-class academic programmes and a growing array of intellectual programmes. Activities such as debate, public speaking, social welfare, event organizing, and inter-college sports activities helps students to grow in diversity both academically and intellectually.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The College is well known for its extraordinary faculties, distinguished research scholars and experts to help come this far with outstanding academic results and National Champion titles in various sports events, such as Wushu, Table Tennis and Basketball as well. The College focuses on employment prospects through the acquisition of subject knowledge and practical skills.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The college has pooled some of the best academic facilities and highly prolific faculty members. Prime offers the combination of experienced and dedicated faculties to the students such as; London based Artificial Intelligence (AI) expert Associate Professor Dr. Suresh Manandhar, Prominent IT expert of Nepal, Dr. Bhushan Shrestha, and Prof. Dr. K.D. Koirala, a prominent management and marketing expert. The college also has highly experienced and trained foreign and Nepali faculties in Hotel Management.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Courses Offered</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The College offers Plus 2 program (Management and Science streams) in affiliation with Higher Secondary Education Board (HSEB).And Bachelors program in affiliation with Tribhuvan University (TU). Bachelors program include Bachelor of Information Management (BIM), Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Information Technology (B.Sc. CSIT) and Bachelor of Business Studies (BBS).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="10" width="99%">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td bgcolor="#E5E4E2">
				<div>
					<div>
						<div>
							<div>
								<span style="font-size: 14px;"><strong><img alt="Naresh Prasad Shrestha" src="/userfiles/images/lc1.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 150px; height: 186px;" />Naresh Prasad Shrestha, Principal</strong></span></div>
							<div>
								One of the specialties of our college is to work in a group. Our management is moving forward with the vision of providing quality education to the students. We are motivated to work hard with the positive involvement of student and guardians from national level. We also help our students for providing employment beyond quality education. We are giving our continuous effort in the education sector. While selecting the business schools, the students should concentrate on modern education system, skills of communication and educational levels of faculty members. They should also verify whether the college will help the students in job placement after the completion of study or not.</div>
							<div>
								&nbsp;</div>
						</div>
					</div>
				</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
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			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'Little Angel’s College of Management (LACM) and Prime College are two top Business colleges in the town, which are giving their best for the aspiring management students to help them become top leaders and managers of the future. LACM with affiliation with Kathmandu University is in the education sector since1999 while Prime is recognized for providing top management education since 2002.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2469',
			'article_category_id' => '154',
			'title' => 'Learning Curve News In Brief (20 - 26 January 2014)',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Pokhara University Published Rechecking/ Retotaling Results&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Pokhara University Office of the Controller of Examinations has published Rechecking/Re-totalling results spring 2013. Results of various subjects of the MBA programme of having exam centre: Uniglobe College for Kathmandu Valley and School of Business for Pokhara has been published.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Janaki Medical College Barred from Admitting Students for New Session</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepal Medical Council (NMC) has barred Janakpur-based Janaki Medical College (JMC) from admitting students in MBBS programme for the new academic session. The latest move from the regulatory authority questions the college&rsquo;s credibility. A meeting of the regulatory body on Wednesday decided to bar JMC from admitting new MBBS students stating that JMC has failed to maintain minimum standards to run the medical classes. Last year the NMC had told JMC to improve its standard and had reduced the number of annual admissions from 100 to 80. Meanwhile,JMC has filed an application demanding a review of the decision.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>CIAA Seeks Clarification from 178 Bogus Schools in Sarlahi</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has sought clarification with the 138 bogus schools in Sarlahi. A two-day field survey of all public and community schools in the district has revealed that most of the schools in the district were not operating at all as some of them even didn&acute;t have school building; while many others lacked teachers - and even principals in some cases.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The monitoring team consisted of four CIAA officials, including under secretary Ram Krishna Subedi, and a representative each from the Regional Education Directorate, District Administration Office, District Development Committee (DDC) and District Education Office (DEO).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>NELTA Graduates Felicitated</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The Nepal English Language Teaching Association (NELTA) conducted a graduation ceremony of second batch of students of &lsquo;English Access Micro scholarship Program (Access Program)&rsquo; in Maharajgunj on Tuesday. The programme was organized amid the presence of American officials, Ministry of Education (MoE) representative and NELTA executives. Access Program sows a foundation of English language and leadership skills to 13 to 16 year-olds from economically disadvantaged backgrounds through two years of after school instruction sessions.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Actions Against Three Medical Colleges&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepal Medical Council has decided to reduce BDS and MBBS seats of three different colleges for the new academic session. The names of the colleges whose seat has been cut are: Gandaki Medical College (GMC), People&rsquo;s Dental College (PDC), and MB Kedia Dental College (KDC). The Pokhara-based GMC&rsquo;s seats have been reduced to 75 from 80 while the council has reduced the BDS quotas from 75 to 60 in the Kathmandu-based PDC. The Birgunj-based KDC will have to do away with 25 allocate BDS seats.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The action has been taken stating that the colleges were not meeting the requirements for the admission of already approved seats. NMC has also approved 10 more seats to Chitwan Medical College (CMC) for its better performance.</div>',
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			'description' => 'Pokhara University Office of the Controller of Examinations has published Rechecking/Re-totalling results spring 2013. Results of various subjects of the MBA programme of having exam centre: Uniglobe College for Kathmandu Valley and School of Business for Pokhara has been published.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2468',
			'article_category_id' => '156',
			'title' => 'When It’s OK To Love Someone At The Office',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Rachel Feintzeig</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	To get employees to spend more time in the office, try a little tenderness.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	New research out of the University of Pennsylvania&rsquo;s Wharton School and George Mason University shows that an office culture of &ldquo;companionate love&rdquo; can lead to less worker absenteeism and increased employee satisfaction, as measured by surveys and personnel records.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;Love has kind of been a taboo word,&rdquo; when it comes to work, says Sigal G. Barsade, a Wharton management professor. But &ldquo;this is where we spend most of our time.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Companionate love&ndash;as opposed to the passion associated with romantic relationships&ndash;is marked by feelings of caring, compassion and affection, says Ms. Barsade. Workers can show such love by buying a cup of coffee for a colleague who&rsquo;s been up late with a new baby or offering to cover for a co-worker during a doctor&rsquo;s appointment.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Ms. Barsade and George Mason management professor Olivia O&rsquo;Neill studied 185 employees working in a nursing home in the Northeast where managers were trying to cultivate a warm, caring environment. They found that employees in sections where co-workers showed more companionate love reported higher satisfaction, less emotional burnout and better teamwork than employees in less-demonstrative units. They were also absent from work less.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Residents of the nursing home, who were also studied, benefited too. Researchers found residents in the more loving sections had better moods and took fewer trips to the emergency room than residents of other sections.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;In response to Tina Turner&rsquo;s famously haunting lyrics, love, actually, has very much to do with it,&rdquo; the authors write in the paper, set to be published by Administrative Science Quarterly in the next few months.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Small acts of kindness and compassion in the workplace can be contagious, previous studies have found. For example, an accountant who&rsquo;s encouraged to take time off during a busy tax season to deal with a personal issue will feel more loyal to the company and will be more likely to respond compassionately when another colleague needs his help down the line.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;It turns into this virtuous cycle,&rdquo; Ms. Barsade says.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Ms. Barsade and Ms. O&rsquo;Neill also surveyed 3,201 workers across industries including engineering, financial services and higher education about the emotional cultures of their workplaces. Respondents who worked in compassionate environments reported increased job satisfaction and greater commitment to the organization, they found.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Ms. Barsade says leaders of all types of companies need to recognize that the emotional cultures of their workplaces are as important as the &ldquo;cognitive&rdquo; concepts they place front and center &ndash; like innovation or results. Executives can start by treating those around them with more compassion, she says, and also incorporate formal company-wide policies like flexible work hours.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;If as a leader you foster a culture of companionate love, you will have more satisfied employees and a better work outcome,&rdquo; she says.</div>',
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			'description' => 'New research out of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and George Mason University shows that an office culture of “companionate love” can lead to less worker absenteeism and increased employee satisfaction, as measured by surveys and personnel records.',
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			'id' => '2463',
			'article_category_id' => '146',
			'title' => 'Visual Edit Vol 4 Issue 3',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-01-20',
			'modified' => '2014-01-20',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'Visual Edit',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2461',
			'article_category_id' => '140',
			'title' => 'Nepal Political Economic News In Brief (20 - 26 January 2014)',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>&lsquo;CPN-Maoist will revolt if sidelined&rsquo;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	<img alt="Secretary of CPN-Maoist Netra Bikram Chand ‘Biplav’" src="/userfiles/images/1(6).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 115px;" />Secretary of CPN-Maoist Netra Bikram Chand &lsquo;Biplav&rsquo; has warned that his party will launch another revolt if &ldquo;attempts are made to draft the new constitution by sidelining the party. &ldquo;We will institute an alternative power and wage a revolt if we feel that the achievements of the decade-long people&rsquo;s war are at risk,&rdquo; he said while speaking at a press meet in Dhankuta on January 13. Chand said that the agenda of his party, which boycotted the second Constituent Assembly (CA) election, is to draft the much awaited new constitution for the country through an all-party round table conference. &ldquo;But if there is an agreement on ensuring the rights of oppressed, marginalised, and victimized people and workers as well as identity-based federalism then we are ready to accept the soon-to-be formed CA as it is,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>&lsquo;NC-led Govt soon&rsquo;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	<img alt="Nepali Congress (NC) President Sushil Koirala " src="/userfiles/images/2(3).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 107px;" />Nepali Congress (NC) President Sushil Koirala has said that a new NC-led government is going to be formed soon by incorporating all the political parties. Speaking at a programe in the Capital on January 14, Koirala said that talks were underway among the top leaders of the major political parties regarding government formation and that a breakthrough was expected within a few days. Koirala, who is tipped to become the next prime minister, said that the country will have a new constitution within a year. Speaking at the same programme, senior NC leader Sher Bahadur Deuba and Vice President Ram Chandra Poudel refuted rumors about bitter dispute inside the party on the prime ministerial candidate.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Dahal for Fresh Presidential Poll</strong></span></div>
<div>
	<img alt="UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal" src="/userfiles/images/3(3).jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 115px;" />UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Thursday (January 16) proposed a new election of the President and Vice-president respecting the fresh mandate of the November 19 Constituent Assembly (CA) election. Presenting a political document at the party&rsquo;s Central Committee (CC) meet at the party headquarters Parisdanda, Dahal broke the party&rsquo;s silence on the presidential election. Meanwhile, Dahal in his 12-page political document, has expressed great dissatisfaction at the growing instance of &ldquo;sexual perversion&rdquo; and other maladies among the party leaders and activists. &ldquo;Party leaders and activists are becoming increasingly unrestrained due to sexual perversion and contradictory ideas about family, personal property and value system,&rdquo; Dahal has said in his dossier, without naming anyone. It must be noted that Dahal&rsquo;s own son Prakash had in 2012 abandoned his second wife and one-year-old son to &lsquo;elope&rsquo; with a married woman. Following the episode, UCPN (Maoist) suspended Prakash Dahal from party membership, but later revoked the decision.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Gautam to Resign from Bardiya Seat</strong></span></div>
<div>
	<img alt="CPN-UML Vice-chairman Bamdev Gautam" src="/userfiles/images/4.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 100px; height: 105px;" />CPN-UML Vice-chairman Bamdev Gautam, who was elected from Bardiya-1 and Pyuthan-1, has said he will leave the Bardiya seat. Gautam, however, expressed his commitment to remain in contact with the electorate and help them carry out development activities in the district. The UML leader was in the district to celebrate Maghi, the greatest festival of the Tharu community.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Writ against Docs&rsquo; Strike at TUTH</strong></span></div>
<div>
	As the hunger strike by senior Dr Govinda KC entered its seventh day and doctors restrict services at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) in support, a writ was filed at the Supreme Court demanding that the service be resumed. Arguing that halting the services of the hospital is against the Essential Service Act, Advocate Sunil Ranjan and Consumer Welfare Protection Forum filed the writ on January 17. The writ demands an interim order from the court to resume the hospital&rsquo;s services.</div>',
			'published' => true,
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			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'CPN-UML Vice-chairman Bamdev Gautam, who was elected from Bardiya-1 and Pyuthan-1, has said he will leave the Bardiya seat. Gautam, however, expressed his commitment to remain in contact with the electorate and help them carry out development activities in the district. The UML leader was in the district to celebrate Maghi, the greatest festival of the Tharu community.',
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	(int) 7 => array(
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			'id' => '2466',
			'article_category_id' => '86',
			'title' => 'In Mother’s Footsteps',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	A candidate to be the heroine in a new Nepali movie was being interviewed. The director and the producer had a condition to the actress that she cannot get married at least for another three years.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The candidate replied: &lsquo;Rather, I will never get married. I will follow in the footsteps of my mother. Like her I will always remain single.&rsquo; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;-ML</div>',
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			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'A candidate to be the heroine in a new Nepali movie was being interviewed. The director and the producer had a condition to the actress that she cannot get married at least for another three years.',
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	(int) 8 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2462',
			'article_category_id' => '145',
			'title' => 'Challenges Of LDCs',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Dr Arjun Karki</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The group of least developed countries (LDCs) was formed by the UN General Assembly in the 1970s. Back then, this group had 24 countries. There are three criteria to identify the countries that fall in the LDC group. The first criterion is the Human Assets Index (HAI). The second is the Gross National Income (GNI) and the third is Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI). The main objective of classifying countries as LDCs was to minimize their number by addressing their development challenges, alleviating poverty and mitigating other risks. But instead of decreasing, the number of LDCs has reached 49 today. What this means is the economic and development policies adopted by the international community to address the poor and the poor countries has failed. So far, the Maldives from Asia and Botswana and Cape Verde from Africa are the only three countries that have progressed from the LDC group to developing countries.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Most of the LDCs are facing political instability, internal conflicts and wars. Therefore, poverty is not the only issue for these countries. For example, Nepal, Sudan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Central African Republic and lately, Southern Sudan are facing such problems. These countries cannot resolve their political instabilities and other risks unless they iron out their economic problems. At present, the LDCs particularly lack the capabilities to tackle the challenges posed by the climate change. The latest climate change related problems are the melting of snow in the mountainous regions of Asia, rising of water level in the Pacific region and expansion of deserts and food insecurity in Africa. In this situation, LDCs cannot progress to the group of developing countries. The rules set by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are not in favour of the LDCs and the developing countries. As the WTO rules are in favour of only the developed and rich countries, the share of LDCs in global trade is less than one percent.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are two types of barriers in international trade. They are non-tariff barriers (NTBs) and tariff barriers. The LDCs are particularly affected by the NTBs. We have been demanding that the goods produced in the LDCs get a duty-free and quota-free access to the markets in Europe and the US. However, the LDCs haven&rsquo;t been able to get this right despite international commitment. NTBs like sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures put in place by the European Union and rule of origin (Nepali carpet which uses wool imported from New Zealand and Tibet is not recognized as an LDC product) pose as major challenges for the LDCs to participate in international trade.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The burden of foreign debt is another major challenge in the economic development of LDCs. The LDCs have to use more than 50 per cent of their gross domestic income to pay the interest of foreign debt alone. Therefore, in order to allow the LDCs to enter the world market, their foreign debts must be cancelled unconditionally at the earliest possible. If this happens, the LDCs can spend their national income to face the challenges related to their development.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The UN has already organized four global conferences on the LDCs. The first and second UN conference on LDCs were organized in Paris of France in 1981 and 1990, respectively. Similarly the third conferences was organized in Brussels in 2001 and the fourth conference was organized in Istanbul in May 2011. Thus, the latest UN programme to address the issues of LDCs is called the Istanbul Programme of Action. The overarching goal of the Istanbul Programme of Action is to overcome the structural challenges faced by the LDCs, to eradicate poverty, achieve internationally agreed development goals and enable half of the 49 LDCs to graduate out of this category by 2020.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Initially, Nepal had planned to graduate out of the LDC category by 2030. Truthfully speaking, that plan was not good because under the very leadership of Nepal, the commitment was expressed to graduate half of the existing LDCs out of the LDC group to the developing group. Therefore, Nepal faces a moral obligation to make a progress to the group of developing countries from the LDC group by 2020. And Nepal has made a national commitment to graduate out of the LDC group by 2022 which is a praiseworthy announcement.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, Nepal faces a number of challenges. The biggest challenge is the creation of democratic deficit. A democratic deficit (or democracy deficit) occurs when ostensibly democratic organizations or institutions (particularly governments) fall short of fulfilling the principles of democracy in their practices or operation where representative and linked parliamentary integrity becomes widely discussed. The political parties and their leaders got to enjoy the fruits of democracy and peace in Nepal. However, the Nepali people at large are still deprived of the fruits of democracy and peace. This is the biggest challenge that Nepal faces in graduating out of the LDC group.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, there is hope in the air. A new Constituent Assembly has been elected and soon we will have a new parliament. If the parliament and the elected government to be formed can tactfully address the challenges being faced by the Nepali people, then we will not have to wait till 2022 to graduate out of the LDC group.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>(Dr Karki is the international coordinator of LDC Watch. This is a TC translation of Dr Karki&rsquo;s article published in Aarthik Abhiyan on January 10.)</em></div>',
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			'article_category_id' => '144',
			'title' => 'What About Ethics In Politics?',
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			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	A conference titled &ldquo;Business Ethics for Prosperous Nepal&rdquo; has just concluded in the capital. The main idea behind the conference was to teach the importance of ethics in business to the Nepali business community. Organised by the World Forum for Ethics in Business, the conference which examined ethical practices that are sustainable and ensure profitability for businesses was well attended and was successful.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The importance of ethics in business cannot be overemphasized. Ethical behaviour can bring significant benefits to a business by attracting customers to its products, reducing labour turnover and thus increasing productivity and attracting investors and keeping the company&rsquo;s share prices high, among other ways.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But the conference evoked some simple questions: is the Nepali business community one of the segments of society that needs a lesson or two in ethics? Are the Nepali businessmen really unethical and hence need sermons on business ethics the most? What about ethical practices in the bureaucracy and politics? Ethics concern an individual&rsquo;s moral judgments about right and wrong. If so, are Nepali businessmen most wrongdoers that they are being lectured on ethics while the politicians and bureaucrats are apostles of ethics?</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Definitely not. The ethical standards of Nepali business community look higher than those of many other segments of society including the government bureaucracy and political parties. And, in fact, at the root of whatever unethical business practices we have lies in the government and politics. There are many instances where the government has been rewarding unethical practices. For one, this is reflected in the government&rsquo;s decision to waive taxes of different companies, in awarding licenses to start various businesses. This is reflected also in the actions of the government regulators of different businesses.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The situation of ethics in the country&rsquo;s politics is appalling. So much so that many find &lsquo;ethics in politics&rsquo; as contradiction. It is because of the lack of ethics in politics that people do not place much trust on the political parties and politicians. Political parties are far from maintaining transparency in their financial transactions and deals. And that is why most politicians are seen as selfish and corrupt power-players who are not responsible and who defend special interests instead of the common good. That is why Transparency International reports have repeatedly depicted politicians and bureaucrats as the most corrupt.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Ethics in politics matters the most in Nepal because it directly affects everything else including ethics in business. Lack of ethics in politics has a much wider impact than lack of ethics in business. Businesses have to sell their products or services on a daily basis. This means their ethics is being tested almost on a daily basis by the buyers as well as the employees. This is because they tend to be more ethical in their actions, behaviours and decisions. On the other hand, the ethics of politicians is challenged everyday but it is tested only through elections. Such elections are not yet regular in Nepali democracy.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The delay in the first sitting of the Constituent Assembly (CA) and forming a new government even after two months of CA election could be the latest and simplest example of the lack of ethics in Nepali politics. The episode has exposed the ethical and moral dilemmas and deficiencies of a range of actors in Nepali politics including the President, Chairman of the Council of Ministers, the major political parties which are tipped to form the new government and the parties which have been mandated by the people to sit in opposition.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The bottom line is: the political class needs to be reminded of ethics more frequently than any other segment of society. Therefore, conferences on ethics in politics are wanted more urgently than conferences on ethics in business. &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-01-20',
			'modified' => '2014-01-20',
			'keywords' => 'the corporate weekly from Nepal, nepali corporate events – news – interviews – reviews, nepali corporate focus, nepali corporate status and news, news from nepali corporate industry, corporate happenings – events – news from nepal',
			'description' => 'A conference titled “Business Ethics for Prosperous Nepal” has just concluded in the capital. The main idea behind the conference was to teach the importance of ethics in business to the Nepali business community. Organised by the World Forum for Ethics in Business, the conference which examined ethical practices that are sustainable and ensure profitability for businesses was well attended and was successful.',
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	(int) 10 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2443',
			'article_category_id' => '40',
			'title' => 'Partners In Economic Growth',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<span style="font-size:16px;">Multi-stakeholder Approach is the recent buzzword in development literature. How can Nepal use this approach? <strong>Achyut Wagle </strong>analyses the challenges and opportunities.</span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	When we say &#39;engaging development actors&#39; we are talking about hierarchical operational levels like local, district, sub-regional, regional, national, international and global, where each of these levels &nbsp;form a complex matrix of actual actors primarily from five sectors -- the public or government, private or business, civil society, actual beneficiaries or common people and, development partners (donors).&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The economic growth is only possible through multidimensional interactions among these different groups of actors that are defined by the recent development literature as multi-stakeholder approach of development. The scope and limitation of the roles of each of these and conflicts and/or complementarities of the interests of these actors, singly or jointly, determines both the scale and the speed of the economic growth of any country, including Nepal.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, there is a problem in the definitional level, that is, whether all players in Nepal could be covered by these five categories of development actors mentioned above. Take for example Nepal&#39;s political parties who on their own right want to be the development actors, whereas their role and influence in development domain should either come through the public sector (for those who win the election and form the government) or only as the common people or the beneficiary (until they win the next election). The face of the civil society, if it has any, is not different from that of the political parties. In international practice, donors do not figure out with separate identities, who in Nepal&#39;s case appear even more quintessential actors. These distortions have serious implications both in engaging the development actors in their due roles and also attaining the ultimate results of our development endeavours.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Actors</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>1. The Government</strong></span></div>
<div>
	It is obvious that we need government for governance, hopefully a good governance. Although Nepal is not an exception among the least developed nations that face the crisis of governance, but one additional dimension in our case is we persistently face deficiency of democracy, perhaps more acutely at present. Nepal&#39;s politics during the last six decades of modern history has invariably been dominated by the dictatorial forces of some form that didn&#39;t believe in pluralistic, competitive democracy. This has been the main source of crisis of governance in general, manifested in the form of rule of force than rule of law, poor growth of institutions and their effectiveness, haphazardly conceived and weakly implemented policies, misuse of the state power by the powerfuls, strong nexus between the crime and law enforcement, utter lack of transparency and rampant corruption in public expenditure, rise of business syndicates and, worst of all, pervasive and persistent impunity. And, the list can on, and on.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	We don&#39;t have elected local governments at the local and district levels for last one decade, for no tangible reason for this vacuum, except for the height of irresponsibility and imperviousness of the political actors of the country. It should have in fact been the first priority of all particularly after the signing of Comprehensive Peace Treaty seven years ago; as the local governments would have been the best channels to deliver the much touted about peace dividend, many of the economic rights and delivery of the public services at the grassroots. Above all, it would have provided the people at the grassroots with direct access to the state mechanism. One can only imagine at this point, how many of new generation of leaders this process would have produced and how much would it have facilitated the process of proposed federalization of Nepal.</div>
<div>
	Nepal never created democratic government institutions at sub-regional or regional levels. We have bureaucratic arrangements like regional administrators who virtually have no role in economic planning and development except for that of official messengers.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="The Engagement Matrix" src="/userfiles/images/CS2%20(Copy).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 307px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	At the national level, we have Himalayan scale of policy confusions at development governance. We still have National Planning Commission (NPC) located inside the high walls of Sigha Durbar, that mercifully distributes development to the people of far and wide corners of Nepal. We still believe that the people who live in NPC as if have divine senses to understand the exact development needs of the people living at Tinker and Olangchung Gola and ability to address them from here. The duplication of the roles between the finance ministry and NPC, the constant squabbles and ego-clashes of the mandarins in them is staple national drama. The independence of central bank has always been a mirage, as we saw ten governors in Nepal Rastra Bank in as many years. We never had and, nor will have the possibility of implementing &nbsp;an independent monetary policy of our own in foreseeable future due to &#39;pegging&#39; of Nepali currency with the Indian Rupee.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	At the international level, Nepal is gradually losing its credibility as a viable economy. We have not been able to organize the Nepal Development Forum, to interact with our international development partners, for the last one decade. Our ability to communicate about our needs with them and prioritize development areas to streamline their support has substantially reduced. &nbsp;The torch-bearers of our economic diplomacy are the political nominees typified, for example, by the recently sacked Nepali ambassador to Qatar. We may talk about FDI, but it has even stopped trickling in. We have also failed to introduce a functional mechanism to make sure that all official foreign assistance is spent through our budget, despite the fact that many of the donors are in favour of such a system.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>2. The Private Sector</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The post-1990 marked an era that tried to put the private sector in the driving seat of economic growth. The policies of liberalization, privatization and legal as well as institutional reforms initiated by the first elected government after reinstatement of democracy brought about substantial positive changes, the impact of which has withstood violent conflict of a decade. Private airlines, large private sector banks, private hospitals, multiple universities, private investment in communication, information technology and hydropower, and private participation in building infrastructures like roads and irrigation facilities are some of the exemplary outcomes of these policies.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But this encouraging trend was abruptly truncated by the armed conflict waged by the Maoists and, after seven long years after cessation of hostilities too, there is no certain sign of putting the policy of private-sector-led growth back on track. The political mayhem we are witnessing even after the second Constituent Assembly elections last month is even more disgusting to say the least.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Needless to say, three preconditions for private sector actors to come forward to contribute to economic growth are: ensured private property rights, an appropriate business climate that encourages investment and a predictable policy regime that provides &nbsp;a reasonable time horizon for conceptualizing, executing, operating and if needed closing of the businesses without being unnecessarily anxious about the safety of, as well as, return from the investment.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But, the greatest challenge to all of these aspects not only comes at the operational level but at the level of the very philosophy of the strongest of the political forces of Nepal. Confiscation of the private property, politically patronized trade unions disturbing the industrial atmosphere, politically sponsored extortions and sheer unpredictability of the public policies are true bottlenecks for the private sector investment, both foreign and domestic. Consequently, economy suffers from low level of investment and job creation, low level of private sector confidence and, as the result, massive amount of capital flight from the country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Despite all these odds, we must acknowledge the fact that the private sector has constantly been instrumental in the delivery of goods and services at the lowest possible price levels when the presence of government apparatus is as good as non-existent, and even when the armed conflict was at its height.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>3. Civil Society and NGOs</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepal&#39;s civil society and the media don&#39;t believe in a long but natural process of the outcome of their activities. The natural role of the civil society or media is to cater the common people with factual information, on the basis of which people form their opinion, and that opinion gets reflected through the ballots. Then comes change through the policies of the mandated government. But, instead, in Nepal they want to be seen as activists and instant impact makers. The NGOs and INGOs strive deliberately to slip-out from the bracket of civil society and claim themselves to be real, grassroots development partners.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The media outlets in general have grown in terms of quantity, quality and reach, whereas NGO activities have become more suspicious and slanted. A large number of INGOs are deeply engaged in spreading this or that religion. . We probably need to re-examine the extent of real contribution of many of such NGOs to the economic growth, development and social harmony of our country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>4. The Beneficiaries&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The common people both as actors and true beneficiaries of the economic growth and development efforts are at complete loss of direction. First, the people who are so far completely deprived of any form of meaningful development are not capable of even to identify and articulate their developmental needs. Let me directly quote from a woman whom I had met at Dehimandu of &nbsp;Baitadi, a year ago. In her early thirties, she looked like of fifties, who on top of a heavy load of fodder was carrying two malnourished kids and a pitcherful of water in her arms.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	When I asked her what did she looked for to ameliorate her sufferings, she first vehemently denied that she had had any suffering and then explained -- she was a happy woman as she could fetch drinking water walking just for 45 minutes whereas she had to spend some one hour in her parental home before marriage, collect fodder from the grassland half an hour away, her two kids out of six she gave birth have, fortunately, survived, her husband who worked in the Indian town of Pithoragarh visits twice a year, her mother-in-law beats her only once or twice a month, she had four cattle and enough land to feed her family for eight months in a year and rest is managed by her husband and his brother. She has plans for sending her kids to nearby school, just two hours of walk, for few years, and then they will follow their father to work in some Indian city. &#39;I am a happy woman and want nothing more,&quot; she emphasized.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	I don&#39;t think this story needs any further illustration.</div>
<div>
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<div>
	Second, who know what they want, they too don&#39;t have access to the authorities or knowledge on how to communicate their demands and concerns. Even if some managed to communicate, the end result may just be the same as being idle, ab initio.</div>
<div>
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<div>
	There is another extreme, where people lately have begun to obstruct the development projects claiming to have absolute ownership of the entire natural resources of their area. The process of participatory development is impeded either way.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>5. The Donors</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Unlike in other countries, donors for Nepal&#39;s case are imperatively very crucial development actors. It is but natural that the donors, particularly the bilateral ones, have their own interest or agenda in providing the financial assistance to Nepal. The nature of such interest, though, may vary from presenting a mere philanthropic face of the donor in question, influencing in certain policies, providing business to their home companies to increasing diplomatic clout.</div>
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<div>
	It is the responsibility of Nepal as a nation-state to identify our needs, prioritize them and explore the areas of possible engagements for the donors where their interest may be served without jeopardizing or compromising our own interests. We often degrade ourselves claiming that we cannot afford to be selective or, to say no. May be true. But we definitely can streamline the support and make them to agree to spend in our projects and programmes chosen by the national budget system.</div>
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<div>
	<img alt="Foreign Employment" src="/userfiles/images/CS3%20(Copy).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 330px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
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<div>
	For years, we have tried to formulate a functional foreign aid policy but failed to conclusively frame and effectively implement it. Our absorption capacity of foreign assistance has often been below the &#39;fair&#39; mark and donors seem reluctant to increase and diversify the support mainly due to prolonged political transition and uncertainty coupled with administrative inefficiency. We have often failed to meet the capital expenditure earmarked by our own system that hardly gives incentive to major donors to augment their grant or loan portfolios.</div>
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	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	We often hear not only engagement but of overengaement of the donors in our development process. They are often alleged of directly interfering in policy making, selection and implementation of the projects etc. Many countries bring in their own experts and repatriate larger chunk of their support back home. Discrimination in pay for the same work between the Nepali staff of same qualification and caliber against their consultants is whopping. Probably Nepal has left more vacuum, not doing proper homework in time to make their engagement more fruitful yet unintrusive.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Dynamics and Correlations</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Let&rsquo;snow dwell briefly on a few key dynamics of Nepali economy. I will touch upon only those areas which appear to be inconsistent in pattern, look paradoxical or needed fresh looks and comparisons.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>1. Dynamics of the Human Resource and Migration</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepal&#39;s population growth rate now stands at 1.4 percent per annum according to census 2011. Without going into the boring details of numbers, &nbsp;we can say that some of the development indicators certainly show that we have made very impressive progress in terms of increasing the primary school enrollment, literacy and life expectancy, reducing child and maternal mortality rates, increasing access to health and transport services etc.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But with regard to human resource development, we are caught in a very awkward position. About one third of the working age population (or about twelve percent of the total population) has out-migrated to foreign employment, mainly in menial jobs. Better educated too, have migrated to developed countries, majority of them with a set mind to permanently settle in the destination countries.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is an interesting paradox that migrated unskilled and uneducated youths are sending their entire earning back to Nepal and the remittances thus received have saved Nepali economy for at least a decade now from potentially falling into acute balance of payment crisis. On the contrary, the educated lot is not only migrating but also taking a hefty sum, on an average forex equivalent of about 35 billion rupees every year, from the national coffers towards tuition, travel and accommodation costs.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In a rough calculation, to create a university graduate with sixteen years of education in private institution at present prices costs the nation between 5 to 6 million rupees. And, the return to the nation is clearly zero when one migrates never to come back. It is another paradox that the poor country like Nepal is investing so heavily in human resource to be used solely by the developed countries. The cost-benefit comparison shows that after such a big investment in education, it is unfeasible for them to stay in Nepal and get the cost returned given the lack of opportunities and relatively unattractive pays here.</div>
<div>
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<div>
	Then, left here in Nepal are true mediocres, who have spent less, studying in community schools, compelled to be contended with low rate of return and perform far below than the average. Nepali civil service is the true mirror of this phenomenon. If the trend of migration is not reversed, very soon Nepal will lack the required human resource of both low and high end skills. This is likely to have serious repercussion in national output. A trend is already visible in sectors like metal and construction works.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Direction of Foreign Trade" src="/userfiles/images/CS4%20(Copy).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 429px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>2. Dynamics of Foreign Trade and Remittances</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepal&#39;s trade deficit stood at scary level of 500 billion rupees in the last fiscal year (2012/13). Official figures show that export to import ratio was 1:6, whereas unofficial estimates suggest that such ratio should stand at 1:10. The accompanying table is self explanatory.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In the last FY, Nepal received about 435 billion equivalent of remittances from the migrant workers. This definitely has put Nepal in comfortable level of forex reserve. But, a comparison of trade and remittance data suggests that our economy is heading to a very dangerous trend of the Dutch Disease like effect. Our consumption has been fueled by the remittance income of the households, which in turn is widening the export-import gap. Our productive sector is paralyzed for lack of power, human resource and investment. Our imports are largely consumables, perishables but hardly the production inputs. This apparently is unsustainable, dangerous trend. We need to re-identify Nepali goods that can have comparative and competitive advantage in the export market. At the same time, we must be able to diversify both export and import trade.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>3. Dynamics of Growth and Poverty</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepal&#39;s average annual GDP growth rate during the last fifteen years has remained barely at 3.5 &nbsp;percent level. But, in the same period, the headcount poverty, the percentage of the population living below $1 dollar a day poverty line at PPP has unbelievably reduced from 58 percent in 1996 to 25 percent in 2011. What we are effectively saying here is that the poverty can be reduced without growth. In other words, we are challenging the existing theories that correlate growth and poverty and suggesting a completely new economic paradigm on both growth and poverty reduction. This is impossible. The government&#39;s development literature attributes this as the effect of the increased inflow of the remittances. Again, if that is the case too, we are saying that the remittances do not contribute to the economic growth but reduce poverty. This is equivalent to proposing an absolutely new economic theory.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In countries like India and Argentina some 30 percent people still live under the poverty line. Mexico has 28 percent people under this magic line. It appears that we are very fast approaching to the United States which still has 15.1 percent people living under the poverty line, according to the World Bank data of 2011. All these are impossible and counter-intuitive arguments and one single conclusion of this is: what we are saying is not credible. On the one hand, we are saying that graduating a country from the least developed to a developing one is a highly ambitious enterprise, on the other our poverty data shows that we are already in far higher position than many of G-20 countries.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>4. Investment and Infrastructure</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The private sector investment both domestic and FDI are in declining trend. The foreign direct investment of Rs. 9.08 billion was recorded in FY 2012/13compared to Rs. 9.20 billion in the previous year. The intent of investing about Rs. 39 billion was proposed by domestic entrepreneurs in the same year, which is less by some seven percent than the previous year. Apart from this, an investment of Rs 100 billion has been proposed for the hydel projects expected to be completed in next five years.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	One of the very encouraging developments is that the private sector has more aggressively come forward to invest in infrastructure than ever, not only in power but also in the telecommunications, surface transportation and airports. There are a number of large J-V projects in hydropower like Upper Karnali, Upper Seti and Arun III, at different stages of development. Yet, they have constantly been victim of political bickerings and protracted decision making process in the bureaucracy.</div>
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<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/CS1%20(Copy)(1).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 367px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
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	Very shaky political climate is main distraction to investment, both domestic and foreign.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>5. Agriculture and Manufacturing</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Our experience suggests that Nepal is not faring well in the manufacturing. Many products we tried could not compete with Indian and Chinese goods that are in instant supply and cheaper for the reasons of mass production and use mostly of their own raw materials. But on the contrary, Nepal has fared well in our niche products like hand-spun dhaaka and pashmina, handicrafts and herbs where there is our backward link in production and possibility of substantive value addition.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The manufacturing industries that use Nepali agricultural products have seemingly given better returns to investment. The commercialization of agriculture itself presents real prospects for investment, perhaps in a scale thus far not even imagined of. Off-season farming of cash-crops and commercial farming of valuable herbs can open new avenues in the agriculture sector. Added road links to provide market access should be able to attract new investment for processing, phyto-sanitation and storage facilities. But, we often get carried away by the documentary camouflages like Agriculture Perspective Plan (APP), which presented every possible good plan for agricultural growth without any mention about the land where farming would be done. This was truly a plan made to farm in the air. Just an example.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>6. The Service Sector &amp; Growth Linkage</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Two sectors, financial services and tourism have exhibited very promising trend both in terms of attracting substantial amount of investment and promising good rate of returns. The financial sector now mobilizes about Rs 1.1 trillion of deposits and Rs. 0.9 trillion as loans and investments. The growth in the sub-sectors of insurance, stocks and commodities has also been impressive. But the hard fact is, Nepal&#39;s entire banking sector even jointly doesn&#39;t have liquidity enough to finance a medium-scale hydro project of say of 200 MW. Similar is the situation of insurance companies to provide insurance cover to these projects if they opted to insure. We don&#39;t have a domestic reinsurer, yet.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Areas like transportation services have also expanded, along with the increased road networks. The tourism infrastructure is growing steadily. Health and education services by now have national reach due to private sector investment. But the issue here is: how do we make the expansion of these sectors contributory to the overall economic growth of the country? Anomalies like in these sectors have rather added new problems. For example, the over exposure of the banking credit in the real-estate has fueled inflation, created large portfolio of NPA in the industry and put &nbsp;the balance-sheet of a number of banks in a very bad shape for a number of years.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The transportation facilities can contribute more if they provided easier market access to the products and supported supply of inputs to increase the production and add value to them. But, largely, the scenario is just opposite.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>7. Choice between Improved Subsistence &amp; Prosperity</strong></span></div>
<div>
	There has been virtual explosion in small scale development initiatives like solar and micro hydro for rural electrification, NGO-led rights based development and awareness campaigns, literacy classes, skill development and self-employment schemes, community or gender-focused empowerment programmes etc. Policies of reservation, inclusion and positive discrimination are now widely debated. These definitely are good things.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But we need to link these activities with our main objective. If our prime aim is a little improvement in the bare subsistence life-style and help reduce abject poverty, these are definitely the ways we should invest and focus on. But if our aim is tangible economic growth that can also compensate to the lost opportunity of decades, we need higher degree of commitment, massive investment and multi-stakeholder engagement at all possible levels, as we discussed about. By now, it is apparent that these small things may be beautiful in facilitating poorest of the poor to live relatively a better life, but seldom enough to effectively speed-up the economic growth and overall prosperity and well-being of the entire population. When we can uplift the living standard of every citizen, universally ensure education and employment, issues of inclusion and reservations automatically become redundant.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Choice" src="/userfiles/images/CD2%20(Copy).jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 413px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Engagement: Process &amp; Paradigm</strong></span></div>
<div>
	&#39;Engaging Overall Partners&#39; is a great concept and also an absolute imperative. But engaging multi-stakeholders with varying, often conflicting, interests is an equally challenging proposition. It perhaps requires a different development culture than Nepal is practicing now. We need both formal and informal common forums, factual information and access to them, effective communication amongst all stakeholders in multitude of directions, &nbsp;reasonable level of credible independent research to ascertain what is working and what is not and, of course, a unity of purpose at the macro level of objectives.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Some key components that can be instrumental in enhancing such engagement can be as follows:</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>1. Discourse</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Nepal utterly lacks any form of meaningful discourse, at any level on economic, financial and developmental issues, except for some media reports and limited number of seminars that take place, here and there. Such discourses should have taken place at three different arenas -- the political parties, policy making units and the academia. And, they should.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Since the political parties are the one who govern the country, the economic policy of each major one of them is important tool to make people understand their means and ends of the economic growth and development. Such policy of each party, ideally, should be framed through fully democratic debate at all levels of the respective party organizations; and reflected in their manifestoes. But, this is not at all the case. Except for a couple of leaders in each major party who understand economic issues, the entire outfits are virtually illiterate about the economy, its components and trends. Worst of all, none of these parties have understood the importance of such debate and need to initiate them sooner than later.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	At the policy making level, trained economists are rare species. A couple of recent finance ministers, for example, were undergrads in subjects other than economics. Bureaucrats have more incentive in appeasing their bosses in any possible way but professionalism. They lack refreshment trainings, more so in economic issues. The redundancy of their rusted ideas gets amply reflected in the so-called new but essentially archaic policies. It is one of the main reasons that our economic policies seldom work.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Both of the deficiencies in political and bureaucratic levels should have been bridged by the discourse at academic level. But, unfortunately, in Nepal such discourse is completely absent. A few academics who have made some name as economists have limited themselves in the role of consultants to INGOs and impartial viewpoints about national economy are non-existent. The reluctance of newer universities to institute the department of economics is indicative enough to explain the predicament.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Discourses at stakeholders&#39; level, on the topics suitably designed to them are another striking need. At the donors&#39; level, they seem to have instituted a loose network, but its effectiveness as a debate forum on the core economic issues is still beyond the public knowledge.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>2. Research</strong></span></div>
<div>
	For meaningful engagement at any level, credible data are the primary need. The factual information only can ascertain the scope of participation for each stakeholder. But, whenever we try to talk about any aspect of Nepali economy, we immediately loose thread for lack of proper data and absence of conclusions drawn out by properly analyzing them. As mentioned above, we have contradictory and unbelievable or just tentative figures even on cardinal data like GDP, inflation, unemployment and trade. All comparison and correlation conclusions, like I made above, are largely heuristic. We have no option citing whatever the government agencies like the National Planning Commission, Nepal Rastra Bank or Finance Ministry cook in the name of research and analysis. The nation hardly invests anything in research. There are not independent, credible and well-equipped institutions to carryout research in multi-dimensional aspects of the economy and its trends. Such large scale researches need substantial resources and experts right from the stage of research design to econometric analysis and interpretation of those results. There must be somebody to invest on them.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>3. Reform</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The policy and institutional reforms are other important areas that ensure participatory engagement among the development actors. The continuous process of policy reforms provide opportunity to accommodate the emerging needs, practically realized in the development processes at different levels. The institutional reforms increase the functionality of the actors and replicability of the good practices. Nepal also greatly lags behind in undertaking reforms that are due for long time. Some multi-donor sectoral approaches (SAps) in education and health sectors have delivered impressive results. If similar policy as well as institutional frameworks can be extended to include other possible actors in more sectors, that is likely to increase the portfolio efficiency.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>4. Streamlining</strong></span></div>
<div>
	It is important to understand, when we engage multiple stakeholders, it is natural to have varying interests, priorities, methodologies and objectives to come to fore. Without streamlining them, the national objective of economic prosperity is impossible to achieve. Extensive exercises of benchmarking, clustering, grading and ranking are the necessary part of this process. This can greatly reduce the duplication or omission of many of development endeavours; thereby increase the allocative efficiency of resources. A national focal point, a functional unit, not a generic large structure like a ministry, is internationally adopted practice. At times, when the government agencies try to do it, there are instances of conflicts between the different actors. Therefore, such tasks could be outsourced to some independent professional entity with established, proven credibility.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>5. &nbsp;Good Faith</strong></span></div>
<div>
	All forms of engagements are only possible if the actors are committed to support in good faith on single objectives of economic growth and development of Nepal. The source of good faith is the spirit of democracy that respects the plurality of views, culture of agreeing to disagree and readiness to be partner in the process than to be a savior or ruler. We all have our interests. Sacrifice of a small portion of it by each actor might create a large space for engagement and cooperation and also help serve our own interests better while helping others to serve their own.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>&nbsp;(Based on paper presented by the author, in IVAAN seminar, 7th Dec 2013 in Kathmandu.)</em></div>',
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			'description' => 'Multi-stakeholder Approach is the recent buzzword in development literature. How can Nepal use this approach? Achyut Wagle analyses the challenges and opportunities.',
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	(int) 11 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2457',
			'article_category_id' => '140',
			'title' => 'ACAN-AUDAN Joint Protest Against Arrest Of CAs',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<strong>--By TC Correspondent</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Association of Chartered Accountants of Nepal (ACAN) and the Auditors&rsquo; Association of Nepal (AUDAN) have announced a joint agitation against the arrest of auditors. Putting forward a four-point demand, the two organizations have asked the government to immediately release senior Chartered Accountant (CA) Gopal Kumar Agrawal and withdraw the &ldquo;fake case&rdquo; against CA Jagadish Prasad Agrawal.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Organising a press conference in the Capital on Thursday (January 16), ACAN and AUDAN have demanded the government not to arrest and/or prosecute auditors and chartered accountants just because of auditing the books of companies. Similarly, they have also demanded a clear explanation of the term &ldquo;accomplice&rdquo; mentioned in sections 121 and 127 of the Income Tax Act 2058 BS. Similarly, they have also demanded an amendment to sections 2 (e) and 7 (a) of the &ldquo;Asset (Money) Laundering Prevention Act, 2008.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	According to a press release, both ACAN and AUDAN will not issue and or certify the audit reports of insurance companies from Friday (January 17) as part of their protest programme. They have also announced to collect the Certificate of Profession (CoP) of all chartered accountants and submit them to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nepal (ICAN) on January 29. They have also announced to put on black arm band at workplace and submit memorandum to the concerned government bodies.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	They have also announced not to issue and/or certify the audit reports of banks and financial institutions from January 29, the audit reports of the institutions licensed by the Securities Board of Nepal from February 13 and the audit reports of companies listed at Nepal Stock Exchange from February 27. Similarly, they have announced not to issue and or certify the audit reports of companies partly or fully owned by the Nepal government.</div>',
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			'description' => 'The Association of Chartered Accountants of Nepal (ACAN) and the Auditors’ Association of Nepal (AUDAN) have announced a joint agitation against the arrest of auditors. Putting forward a four-point demand, the two organizations have asked the government to immediately release senior Chartered Accountant (CA) Gopal Kumar Agrawal and withdraw the “fake case” against CA Jagadish Prasad Agrawal.',
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	(int) 12 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2453',
			'article_category_id' => '137',
			'title' => 'South Asia To See Decline  In Capital Inflow: World Bank',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	South Asia along with other developing regions across the globe may face the risk of declining capital inflow, says a new World Bank report. According to the Global Economic Prospect (GEP) 2014 report, developing nations are vulnerable to the rise in interest rates, which is likely to result in the volatility of capital flow. The global lender pointed to the tapering of quantitative easing (QE) in United States as the main reason for this. In mid-December, Federal Reserve, the US central bank decided to scale back its bond buying programme- from USD 85 billion per month to USD 75 billion per month- amid the country&rsquo;s improving economic prospects.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Washington-based bank in its report warned that adverse reaction of financial markets to the ending of QE might leave the world&rsquo;s developing nations starved of capital. &ldquo;According to simulations, abrupt changes in market expectations, resulting in global bond yields increasing by 100 to 200 basis points within a couple of quarters, could lead to a sharp reduction in capital inflows to developing countries by between 50 and 80 percent for several months,&rdquo; the bank said in its report. The bank also mentioned that countries with a substantial expansion of domestic credit over the last five years, deteriorating current account balances, high levels of foreign and short-term debt and over-valued exchange rates could be more at risk in current circumstances.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The bank said that there would be moderate impact on developing nations if this adjustment happened in an orderly manner. The World Bank expects the global interest rates to rise slowly to reach 3.6 per cent by mid-2016 following an orderly trajectory regarding the process of normalisation of activity and policy in high-income countries. &ldquo;However, should the adjustment be disorderly, as it was in response to speculation about when a taper might begin during the spring and summer of 2013, interest rates could rise more quickly,&rdquo; said the report.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The report urges developing countries to implement structural reforms that would help raise the capacity of their economies, if they are to regain their pre-crisis growth rates.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<hr />
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
	<span style="font-size:16px;"><strong>Global Growth Picking Up</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The report informed that growth in South Asia expanded at a modest 4.6 percent in 2013, reflecting weakness in India amid high inflation, and current account and government deficits. &ldquo;Regional growth is projected to improve to 5.7 percent in 2014, rising to 6.7 percent in 2016, led mainly by recovering import demand by high-income economies and regional investment,&rdquo; says the report. &nbsp;The report, however, said that projected pickup will depend on macroeconomic stability, sustained policy reforms, and progress in reducing supply side constraints. &ldquo;The main risks to the outlook are fiscal and policy reforms going off-track; uncertainties related to elections in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and India; entrenchment of inflation expectations; and a disorderly adjustment of capital flows in response to US tapering,&rdquo; it said.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The World Bank expects a gradual increase in global growth from this year. According to the report, global growth will pick up from 2.4 per cent in 2013 to 3.2 per cent this year, and to 3.4 per cent in 2015. It believes much of the acceleration will be due to an improvement in economic conditions in high-income countries, where for the first time in five years all three of the main regions &ndash; the US, Europe and Japan &ndash; will be growing. &ldquo;Global economic indicators show improvement. But one does not have to be especially astute to see there are dangers that lurk beneath the surface. The Euro Area is out of recession but per capita incomes are still declining in several countries. We expect developing country growth to rise above 5 percent in 2014, with some countries doing considerably better, with Angola at 8 percent, China 7.7 percent, and India at 6.2 percent. But it is important to avoid policy stasis so that the green shoots don&rsquo;t turn into brown stubble,&rdquo; said Kaushik Basu, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist at the World Bank.</div>',
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			'description' => 'South Asia along with other developing regions across the globe may face the risk of declining capital inflow, says a new World Bank report. According to the Global Economic Prospect (GEP) 2014 report, developing nations are vulnerable to the rise in interest rates, which is likely to result in the volatility of capital flow. The global lender pointed to the tapering of quantitative easing (QE) in United States as the main reason for this. In mid-December, Federal Reserve, the US central bank decided to scale back its bond buying programme- from USD 85 billion per month to USD 75 billion per month- amid the country’s improving economic prospects.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2460',
			'article_category_id' => '140',
			'title' => 'Weekly Round Up (13 - 19 January 2014)',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Joshi Elected President of Chitwan Chamber</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Chitwan businessman Kalyan Joshi was elected the president of the Chitwan Chamber of Commerce on Jan 15 for a term of two years from the 17th General Assembly of the Chamber. The results of the election, which was held on January 14, were announced on January 15 morning. Joshi secured 933 votes while his rival Shree Bhakta Achyut Wagle received only 426 votes in the election. Elected in Joshi&rsquo;s team as the senior vice-president is Sohan Lal Pradhan. Chum Narayan Shrestha, Raju Shrestha and Chiranjibi Subedi have been elected as vice-presidents from Commerce, Industry and Commodity sectors respectively. Joshi, who was the senior vice president of the outgoing board, says that his work will be in line with the vision and mission of the Chamber.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Four New ISPs in Market</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Four new companies have been given the go-ahead to operate as internet service providers (ISPs) raising their total number to 45. According to the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA)., My Net and Lumbini Net obtained fresh permits from the NTA while Mega Broadcast and Otel Communications bought the licences held by existing ISPs, Everest Net and Zentech International, respectively. The four entrants have joined the market when demand for data services is increasing and two major telecom operators, Nepal Telecom and Ncell, are keeping a firm grip on the top slots. My Net is based in Dharan of Sunsari district while Lumbini Net is based in Tansen, Palpa. As per the NTA&rsquo;s latest Management Information Report, it has also issued Rural ISP licences to two companies, Pico Soft in Pokhara and Syangja Internet in Syangja to provide internet services in their localities. NTA charges Rs 300,000 for the ISP license, which allows service operation nationwide. The charge for Rural ISP license, which allows operation in only one village development committee, is set at Rs 100.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Tourism Workshops by PATA</strong></span></div>
<div>
	PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association) Nepal Chapter organsied workshops on Modern Destination Marketing Management and Writing Winning Proposals in the capital on Thursday. Simultaneously, it launched PATA Students&rsquo; Chapter Nepal and Friends of PATA Media Pool. Some 205 participants from tourism Industry that includes hotels, travel agencies, various tour operators, and the media fraternity and business institutions actively participated in the workshop that was set in motion by Subash Niroula, CEO of Nepal Tourism Board at Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management (NATHM), Rabi Bhawan on January 13.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Project Reports for Sunkoshi II</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The government is due to start the preparations of the detailed project report (DPR) of Sunkoshi II hydropower project, the country&acute;s largest hydropower project. The 1,111 MW reservoir-based project would be situated in the border area of Ramechhap and Solukhumbu districts. According to information officer at the Department of Electricity Development, Gokarna Raj Pantha, preparations for carrying out the DPR have been completed. &ldquo;We will soon call for bids,&rdquo; He said. The Asian Development Bank has already provided Rs 2.9 billion to prepare the DPR of the project.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>SAARC Ministerial Meet Ends</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The fifth meeting of the commerce ministers of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) member countries concluded in New Delhi, India on Friday (January 17). The two-day meeting focused on ways to bring economic prosperity to the region through trade, according to the Ministry of Commerce. A Nepali delegation led by Minister for Finance and Commerce Shanker Prasad Koirala participated in the meeting. The delegation comprised Commerce Secretary Madhav Prasad Regmi and Joint Secretaries Nawaraj Bhandari, Begendra Sharma Poudel and Toya Narayan Gyawali. Commerce Ministers of Nepal, India, Afghanistan, Bhutan, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka took part in the meeting. Representatives of chambers of commerce and industry of the SAARC region also attended the meeting.</div>',
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			'description' => 'Chitwan businessman Kalyan Joshi was elected the president of the Chitwan Chamber of Commerce on Jan 15 for a term of two years from the 17th General Assembly of the Chamber. The results of the election, which was held on January 14, were announced on January 15 morning. Joshi secured 933 votes while his rival Shree Bhakta Achyut Wagle received only 426 votes in the election. Elected in Joshi’s team as the senior vice-president is Sohan Lal Pradhan.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2459',
			'article_category_id' => '140',
			'title' => 'Invest In Service Sector: NRB Guv',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<strong>--By TC Correspondent</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="Dr Yuvraj Khatiwada" src="/userfiles/images/gor.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px;width: 150px; height: 180px;" />Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), Dr Yubaraj Khatiwada has asked the private sector for investment in the service sector. Speaking at an interaction programme organized by the Birgunj Chamber of Commerce &amp; Industries (BiCCI), Dr Khatiwada said that due to capital flight in the health and education sectors, it has become necessary to invest in these sectors within the country.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&ldquo;It has become necessary to invest in the country&rsquo;s service sector including health and education to stop capital flight,&rdquo; Dr Khatiwada said, &ldquo;The investment in the service sector will make the economy strong.&rdquo;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He also opined that the country has the right environment for investment at present. He also claimed that liquidity in the banks was quite high. &ldquo;Banks have more than Rs 100 billion which can be invested in different sectors,&rdquo; he said adding that this is the right time for investment.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He also claimed that the scarcity of Indian currency in Nepal was because of the informal trade between the countries and the non-transparent customs evaluation. &ldquo;We bring Indian currency worth Rs 5 billion annually. If all of our trade with India takes place through the formal channels, this much amount of Indian currency is enough,&rdquo; he said.</div>',
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			'description' => 'Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), Dr Yubaraj Khatiwada has asked the private sector for investment in the service sector. Speaking at an interaction programme organized by the Birgunj Chamber of Commerce & Industries (BiCCI), Dr Khatiwada said that due to capital flight in the health and education sectors, it has become necessary to invest in these sectors within the country.',
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FOREX

Currency	Unit	Buy	Sell
U.S. Dollar	1	121.23	121.83
European Euro	1	131.65	132.31
UK Pound Sterling	1	142.47	143.18
Swiss Franc	1	124.29	124.90
Australian Dollar	1	71.69	72.05
Canadian Dollar	1	83.90	84.32
Japanese Yen	10	10.94	11.00
Chinese Yuan	1	17.17	17.26
Saudi Arabian Riyal	1	32.27	32.43
UAE Dirham	1	33.01	33.17
Malaysian Ringgit	1	27.36	27.50
South Korean Won	100	9.77	9.82

Update: 2020-03-25 | Source: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB)

Bullion

Fine Gold	1 tola	77000.00
Tejabi Gold	1 tola	76700.00
Silver	1 tola	720.00

Update : 2020-03-25

Source: Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers' Association

Petroleum

Petrol	1 Liter	106.00
Diesel	1 Liter	95.00
Kerosene	1 Liter	95.00
LP Gas	1 Cylinder	1375.00