HOME PAGE
The downfall of the domestic shoe factories started with the pandemic that forced manufacturers out of business.
- SARAHNA KHADKA
KATHMANDU,
Before the Covid pandemic, the average Nepali purchased 2.7 pairs of shoes a year, according to market research by the Footwear Manufacturers Association of Nepal.
Industry associations and manufacturers reported that despite rising demand for foreign brand-name shoes, especially in the sports and casual shoe segment, the popularity of local brands was rising by leaps and bounds.
After Covid, Nepal saw a massive youth exodus, and the manufacturers lost their key customers, dampening the growth of the burgeoning footwear sector.
The association now estimates that the average Nepali citizen purchases less than two pairs of shoes a year due to the drop in their incomes.
Amid such problems, according to the manufacturers, there has been a new phenomenon in the footwear sector—rising imports of low-cost products and growing smuggling.
“The market is now flooded with low-cost footwear. Alongside the cheaper products, smuggling has thrived. It looks like the domestic industry is now struggling to remain afloat,” said Rudra Prasad Neupane, president of the Footwear Manufacturers Association of Nepal.
“We have estimated that a staggering 50 percent of footwear in Nepal is supplied by the grey market or parallel imports. This translates to an estimated loss of Rs11 billion in taxes for the government annually.”
The association’s recent research estimates that the annual demand for footwear in Nepal is 100 million pairs, over a threefold rise from the pre-Covid demand. But despite the staggering growth in demand, domestic manufacturers are struggling to survive.
Neupane, chairman of Run Shoes, said footwear manufacturers have been switching to trendy products after the demand for traditional products has dropped.
“There is a growing demand for trekking shoes and white sneakers. We, too, have been producing new designs suitable to meet the current market demands,” Neupane said.
According to Neupane, his company produces an average of 1,000 shoes and 1,500 sandals daily, a 25 percent reduction from a few years ago. It used to manufacture up to 3,000 pairs a day. It has now halved the production. His factory employs 200 workers.
Other shoe brands are also adopting new methods to tide over the crisis.
Caliber Shoes recently collaborated with artist and singer Vek to produce a new line of footwear.
Dinesh Shrestha, regional distributor of Black Horse Shoes, said that the recurring losses have dampened their annual profit.
“The footwear consumers have dropped significantly, particularly for domestic products. The availability of cheap footwear in the market is another factor that discourages us.”
They are facing losses month after month, said Shrestha.
Exports, too, seem disappointing.
In the last fiscal year 2022-23, footwear was the only Nepal Trade Integration Strategy (NTIS) product to show a drop. Shipments fell by 12.46 percent to Rs990.84 million.
The key market of Nepali footwear is India with approximately 99 percent of the export. According to the Trade and Exports Promotion Centre, in 2015, Nepal was the third biggest trading partner of India for footwear, with an import growth rate of 317 percent over the past 5 years.
Given the dynamics of the footwear sector, the government of Nepal included the sector in NTIS in 2016 as one of the 12 priority sectors.
In July 2017, the domestic footwear industry looked promising. Nepal saw annual sales of around Rs30 billion worth of footwear, including shoes, sandals and slippers. As the market grew, the contribution of locally-made footwear to the domestic market also increased. In the fiscal year 2015-16, more than 1,500 shoe factories, established at a cost of around Rs20 billion, manufactured almost 44 million pairs of shoes, sandals and slippers. The share of Nepal-made footwear products in the domestic market surged to 50 percent, from 20 percent in 2010.
The downfall in the footwear market started with the Covid pandemic, which forced hundreds of footwear manufacturers out of business as there was no need for new shoes and slippers when people were confined to their homes during the months-long lockdowns.
When the market opened, Nepali manufacturers were surprised.
There was a significant upsurge in the imports of shoes from India after Chinese imports to Nepal almost stopped.
“The imported shoes from India were so cheap that many domestic manufacturers, particularly the smaller ones, folded up,” said Shrestha.
Shikhar Shoes, one of the leading brands, is on the verge of a collapse.
“We suffered losses of Rs20 million during the lockdown period. There is no sign of a revival,” said Ram Krishna Prasai, managing director of Shikhar Shoes.
“We had 700 employees in our heydays. Now, the workforce has reduced to 50,” he said, adding that their production capacity has shrunk to 20 percent. Prasai said that while the demand for the brand has not shrunk drastically, a severe shortage of working capital is another reason behind the poor health of footwear manufacturers.
Despite the shoes being made in Nepal, the raw materials are primarily imported from China, Singapore, India, and Malaysia. About 60 percent of raw materials are imported.
Neupane, the president of the association, said that due to the negligence in border inspection and lax implementation of rules and regulations, illegal imports have put Nepali manufacturers on the edge.
He said that the association has been lobbying foreign ambassadors to secure deals to export Nepali footwear to various countries.
“We are running a campaign called ‘Singha Durbar Bhitra Nepali Jutta’ [Nepali shoes in Singha Durbar],” said Neupane.
Singha Durbar is the central secretariat of the government. “Our campaign is focused on requesting all the civil servants, ministers and ward chairpersons to opt for Nepali shoes with their formal attire to promote the Made in Nepal brand.”
“We need protectionist measures just like in India.”
HOME PAGE
Prime minister’s party decides to field candidate for upper house leader and shun poll alliances, may seek UML’s help.
- ANIL GIRI
Kathmandu,
In perhaps the strongest sign yet of the widening gulf between the two key ruling coalition partners, the Nepali Congress and the CPN (Maoist Centre), the latter on Wednesday decided to field its own candidate for the post of National Assembly chair.
On the other hand, Nepali Congress claims that its potential candidate for the post, Krishna Prasad Sitaula, contested National Assembly membership last month following assurance from Prime Minister and Maoist Centre chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal that his party would help elect Sitaula the upper house chair.
“As many comrades suggested the party field its own candidate for the post, the Standing Committee meeting has decided accordingly,” said Agni Prasad Sapkota, spokesman for the CPN (Maoist Centre). During Tuesday’s Standing Committee meeting, almost all members reportedly called for the party to have its own candidate for the post of National Assembly chair. The election to the upper house chair is scheduled for March 12 and interested parties should file candidacy on March 7.
As the Maoist Centre has emerged as the largest party in the National Assembly after last month’s election and the chair of the National Assembly is also a member of the Constitutional Council that recommends office bearers for constitutional bodies, the Maoist Centre wants to see its representative in the prestigious post.
During Tuesday’s meeting, several Standing Committee members also voiced their apprehensions over some proposals floated in the recently concluded Mahasamiti meeting of the Nepali Congress and stated that such proposals could sow misunderstanding within the ruling alliance.
“Nepali Congress betrayed us in the upper house election, so we have to prepare our own candidate [for upper house chair],” Dahal said at Wednesday’s meeting. “We should not break the alliance at this moment but we have to have our own candidate.”
The rift between Nepali Congress and Maoist Centre, which subscribe to opposing ideologies, started widening after Champa Karki, a Maoist Centre’s candidate for the upper house, lost the election from Koshi Province. The Maoist Centre has attributed Karki’s loss to an apparent betrayal by the Nepali Congress.
“Karki lost the election due to factionalism and nepotism inside the Nepali Congress,” Dahal said at the meeting on Wednesday. “Although it [the perceived betrayal] was not done by the party [ Nepali Congress] in an organized way,” Dahal reportedly said at the party meeting
Dahal added that there is no alternative to the current ruling alliance but that some agenda items of the Mahasamiti meeting have made him suspicious, said a Standing Committee member quoting Dahal.
The Maoist Centre has expressed reservations over Congress General Secretary Gagan Thapa’s proposal against electoral alliances. Also, certain statements made by Nepali Congress Vice-president Purna Bahadur Khadka in his report regarding the decade-long Maoist insurgency, have caused disquiet in the Maoist Centre.
Congress leader Khadka, meanwhile, has met Prime Minister Dahal and assured him that the upcoming Central Working Committee meeting of the Nepali Congress will ‘rectify’ some of the proposals endorsed by the Mahasamiti.
The Maoist meeting also expressed concerns over the signature campaign by over 1,000 Mahasamiti members calling for restoration of the Hindu state. They had submitted the signatures to party president Deuba.
“I spoke to Deuba and Khadka about the Koshi vote issue and some proposals discussed at the Congress Mahasamiti,” said Dahal. “I found that Deubaji has taken them seriously.”
Despite the Maoist party’s announcement on Tuesday, Nepali Congress leaders are hopeful that the current ruling alliance will remain intact and any decisions will be made through consultationS.
“There is no alternative to the alliance, but ON the candidacy for the National Assembly chair, the ruling parties will sit soon and come up with a decision,” said Ramesh Lekhak, chief whip of the Nepali Congress.
Two general secretaries of the Nepali Congress, Thapa and Bishwa Prakash Sharma, are scheduled to meet party president Deuba on Thursday in order to discuss the dispute over the candidate for National Assembly chair, fate and future of the ruling alliance and calling the meeting of the party’s central working committee meeting.
“The election to the National Assembly chair is a litmus test for us,” Sharma told the Post, adding, “If we reach an agreement amicably, then the ruling alliance will go smoothly otherwise, there will be problems.”
“The Maoist Centre also has the option of seeking UML’s support for the National Assembly chair, and in that case we will have to quit the government,” said Sharma, adding, “By keeping all these options in mind, we will talk to the party president on Thursday.”
Out of the 59 seats, one National Assembly member will be appointed by President Ram Chandra Paudel on the recommendation of the Cabinet.
So out of the 58 seats, currently the Maoist Centre has 17, Nepali Congress 16, UML 10, CPN (Unified Socialist) eight, Janata Samajbadi Party three, and Rastriya Janamoracha and Loktantrik Samajbadi Party have one each.
According to the Maoist spokesman Sapkota, the meeting also decided that Maoist Contre will contest the upcoming national elections independently.
Sapkota said his party’s central committee and the recently concluded policy convention have already decided that the party would contest the next national elections independently. “But the decision on whether to forge alliances will be made at that specific time,” said Sapkota.
HOME PAGE
Food insecurity on farms is when the people who produce food go hungry themselves.
- KATHLEEN MERRIGAN,THE CONVERSATION
After several years of pandemic-driven price spikes at the grocery
store, retail food price inflation is slowing down. That’s good news for consumers, especially those in low-income households, who spend a proportionally larger share of their income on food.
But there’s more to the cost of food than what we pay at the store. Producing, processing, transporting and marketing food creates costs all along the value chain.
Many are borne by society as a whole or by communities and regions.
For example, farm runoff is a top cause of algae blooms and dead zones in rivers, lakes and bays. And food waste takes up one-fourth of the space in US landfills, where it rots, generating methane that warms Earth’s climate.
Exploring these lesser-known costs is the first step toward reducing them. The key is a method called true cost accounting, which examines the economic, environmental, social and health impacts of food production and consumption to produce a broader picture of its costs and benefits.
Trillions of dollars in uncounted costs
Every year since 1947, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has released an important and widely read report called The State of Food and Agriculture, known in the food sector as SOFA. SOFA 2023 examines how much more our food costs beyond what consumers pay at the grocery store.
Using true cost accounting, the report calculates that the global cost of the agrifood system in 2020 was up to$12.7 trillion more than consumers paid at retail.
That’s equivalent to about 10 percent of global gross domestic product, or $5 per person per day worldwide.
In traditional economics-speak, hidden costs are known as externalities—spillover effects from production that are caused by one party but paid for by another. Some externalities are positive. For example, birds, butterflies and insects pollinate crops at no charge, and everyone who eats those crops benefits. Others, such as pollution, are negative. Delivery trucks emit pollution, and everyone nearby breathes dirtier air.
True cost accounting seeks to make those externalities visible. To do this, scholars analyse data related to environmental, health, social and other costs and benefits, add them together and calculate a price tag that represents what food really costs.
The Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems at Arizona State University, which I direct, recently conducted a true cost accounting study of cow-calf operations in the Western US, in partnership with Colorado State University. It found that the climate costs of these operations are very high—but that solving for climate change alone could threaten the livelihoods of 70,000 ranchers and the rural communities in which they live. A true cost accounting approach can illuminate the need for multidimensional solutions.
I study sustainable food systems and am one of 150 scholars across 33 countries who worked together over several years to design and test this new methodology. Our work was led by the UN Environment Program and partially funded by the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, a coalition of philanthropic foundations.
In many ways, true cost accounting is a modern and improved version of cost-benefit analysis, a method embedded in governmental decision-making in most advanced economies around the world. This approach quantifies expected rewards and costs associated with taking a particular action and then compares them to see whether the action is likely to produce a net gain or loss for the public.
Advocates of true cost accounting assert that its more nuanced approach will address shortcomings in traditional cost-benefit analysis—particularly, failing to consider social and health externalities in depth. The hope is that because these two methods have many similarities, it should be relatively easy for governments to upgrade to true cost accounting as it becomes more widely adopted.
True costs of food vary across countries
The 2023 State of Food and Agriculture report reveals some clear patterns. Of the $12.7 trillion in worldwide hidden costs that it tallies, 39 percent are generated by upper-middle-income countries and 36 percent by high-income countries.
For wealthy countries, 84 percent of hidden costs derive from unhealthy dietary patterns, such as eating large quantities of red meat and heavily processed foods, which is associated with elevated risk of heart disease, cancer and other illnesses. Getting sick takes people away from work, so these health effects also reduce productivity, which affects the economy.
In contrast, 50 percent of the hidden costs of food in low-income countries are social costs that stem from poverty and undernourishment. SOFA 2023 estimates that incomes of poor people who produce food in low-income countries would need to increase by 57 percent for these workers to obtain sufficient revenue and calories for productive lives.
Food insecurity on farms is also an issue in the US, where the people who produce our food sometimes go hungry themselves. The food system’s reliance on undocumented and low-paid workers yields undernourished children who often are unable to learn.
The fact that many US farmworkers lack access to health insurance also generates costs, since hospitals treat them at public expense when these workers fall sick or are injured.
Food production also has environmental costs. Nitrogen runoff, ammonia emissions, deforestation, water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions combined represent about 20 percent of the global hidden costs of food production. Other environmental costs, such as those associated with species loss and pesticide exposure, are not included in the SOFA analysis.
Should food cost more?
The first question people ask me about true cost accounting is whether using it will make food more expensive. Some advocates do argue for pricing food at a level that internalises its hidden costs.
For example, a Dutch organisation called True Price works with food companies to help them charge more accurate prices. The group operates a grocery store in Amsterdam that charges conventional prices but provides receipts that also display “true” prices, reflecting the goods’ hidden costs.
Consumers are encouraged to pay these higher prices. When they do, the store shares the proceeds with two nonprofit organisations that promote land and wildlife conservation and poverty reduction in Africa.
Rather than raising prices, I believe the most effective way to address the hidden costs of food would be to change government policies that provide $540 billion in agricultural subsidies worldwide every year. Of this amount, 87 percent goes to support production systems that produce cheap food, fibre and biofuels but also generate social and environmental harms. Examples include subsidies that promote chemical fertiliser and pesticide use, overuse of natural resources and cultivation of emission-intensive products such as rice.
UN agencies have urged world leaders to redirect these subsidies to reduce negative impacts—a strategy they call “a multibillion-dollar opportunity to transform food systems.” While it may seem that eliminating subsidies would raise retail prices, that’s not necessarily true—especially if they are repurposed to support sustainable, equitable and efficient production.
Using true cost accounting as a guide, policymakers could reallocate some of these vast sums of money toward production methods that deliver net-positive benefits, such as expanding organic agriculture, agroforestry and sustainable fisheries. They also could invest in training and supporting next-generation food and agriculture leaders.
By creating transparency, true cost accounting can help shift money away from harmful food production systems and toward alternatives that protect resources and rural communities. Doing so could reduce the hidden costs of feeding the world.
NATIONAL
People have been deprived of essential services, teachers of salaries and beneficiaries of social security allowances.
- OM PRAKASH THAKUR
SARLAHI,
Disputes among the elected people’s representatives have paralysed the activities of several local units in Sarlahi, a district of Madhesh Province. The day-to-day administrative work and developmental activities have been hugely affected due to protracted disputes among the people’s representatives.
Political wrangling among local representatives has brought
operations in three local units—Haripurwa Municipality, Parsa Rural Municipality and Chandranagar Rural Municipality—to a standstill. The offices of Haripurwa and Parsa have been padlocked for the past few days while Chandranagar has yet to present the annual budget for the current fiscal year of 2023-24. There are a total of 20 local units in Sarlahi district.
Haripurwa Municipality convened its annual municipal assembly a week ago. However, the deputy mayor and some ward chairpersons have been protesting against the assembly and the budget allocation. The employees and teachers in the municipality are also in protest, demanding perks and salaries.
Binod Sah, mayor of Haripurwa Municipality, claimed to have successfully convened the annual municipal assembly. Sah and some other people’s representatives supporting him have taken initiatives to release the budget through the District Treasury Controller Office. However, Deputy Mayor Sumitra Devi Gwarin wrote to the controller office to not use the municipality’s bank account. The office work at the municipality office and the ward offices have been halted due to the disputes between two groups of the people’s representatives led by the mayor and deputy mayor respectively.
The teachers of 16 community schools in the municipality have been staging sit-ins for the past three weeks by halting their works. Studies of students preparing for the final examinations have been affected. The students appearing for the Secondary Education Exam starting March 28 are the hardest hit by the teachers’ agitation.
The protesting teachers warned that they would continue their agitation until they receive their overdue salaries. “How are we supposed to provide for our families without salaries for months? We are left in hardships due to the disputes of the people’s representatives. Our sit-in will continue until our salaries are released,” said Sanjaya Kumar Yadav, headmaster at Keshwar Garib Janata Secondary School.
Haripurwa currently does not have the chief administrative officer. The developmental activities came to a halt while the service seekers have been deprived of administrative services. Even the senior citizens are unable to receive their social security allowance due to the agitation of the municipality’s employees.
Similarly, work remains stalled for the past two weeks in Parsa Rural Municipality after a group of people’s representatives padlocked the rural municipality office. Majority of the people’s representatives have been protesting with a 19-point demand.
“It has been two weeks since the office has been padlocked, but the rural municipality chief has not taken any initiatives to address the issue. We won’t unlock the office unless our demands are addressed,” said Rakesh Ram, ward chief of Parsa-2. The employees of the rural municipality are unable to carry out their office work due to the protest. The service seekers are deprived of various services including vital registrations and recommendation to acquire citizenship and passport.
Dhirendra Raya, chairman of Parsa Rural Municipality, admits that he has not approached the disgruntled groups for resolving the problem due to his busy personal schedule. “We will hold discussions with the protesting people’s representatives and resolve the problem,” Raya assured.
The situation in the Chandranagar Rural Municipality office is even worse. Even seven months after the commencement of the current fiscal year of 2023-24, the local unit has not yet convened the village assembly and endorsed the annual budget. The employees have not received salaries while senior citizens are deprived of the elderly allowance for the past eight months.
Of the total 15 people’s representatives in the rural municipality, three support chairman Raj Kumar Mahato while 12 are with Deputy Mayor Gita Devi. The local body could not endorse the budget due to the ongoing disputes between the chairman and vice-chairman. Mahato claimed that he attempted to convene village assembly several times, but could not do so due to consistent opposition by the majority of the people’s representatives.
As per the Intergovernmental Fiscal Arrangement Act, the local-level budget for the upcoming fiscal year should have been presented by June 25. Under the Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfer Act, the local executive can spend only a third of the planned budget until the budget is passed by the local assembly.
NATIONAL
- RASTRIYA SAMACHAR SAMITI
Kathmandu,
Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka has said the Nepali Army should be capable to assess potential threats to national security arising from domestic and foreign sources.
Addressing the ‘division chief coordinating meeting of the Nepal Army’ that kicked off in Kathmandu on Wednesday, Khadka said challenges to security have increased due to factors such as geopolitical position, strategies, and competition among powerful states, and growing presence of neighbours having diverse principles and political systems on the world stage.
“The security agency must be focused on astute analysis of the unfolding situation and preparedness in the wake of activities waged internally by the cabals, and those seeking to disrupt communal harmony,” he said.
He emphasised that the Nepal Army’s contributions to the nation and its people have been widely appreciated both at the national and international levels, despite operating with limited resources.
“The prompt search and rescue operation launched by the army after the Jajarkot earthquake which I witnessed gave me confidence in the professional capacity and integrity of the Nepal Army,” he said on the occasion.
The army could be given additional responsibility to carry out development projects in difficult and distant geographies, the defense minister informed.
On the occasion, Chief of Army Staffs, Prabhu Ram Sharma, said that besides its constitutional and the National Security Policy obligations Policy, the army is involved in nature conservation, disaster response, epidemic control, and global peacekeeping efforts.
NATIONAL
District Digest
ROLPA: An elderly woman died in a house fire at Bhawang in ward 5 of Madi Rural Municipality in Rolpa on Tuesday evening. According to the District Police Office, Harikala Gharti, aged 75, died when her two-storey house caught fire. The victim was alone in the house when the incident took place. The security personnel from the Area Police Office in Ghartigaun and the locals doused the fire after some time. Detailed investigation is underway into the incident, said police.
NATIONAL
District Digest
NEPALGUNJ: As many as 60 new patients of leprosy have been reported in Banke, a western Tarai district in Lumbini province. As per the record of Shining Hospital operated by the International Nepal Fellowship, 60 leprosy patients came into contact with the institution for treatment in the current fiscal year of 2023-24. According to Mangal Tharu, chief at the health institution, 60 patients were found infected with leprosy while carrying out health check ups of 8,602 people. Nepal aims to eradicate leprosy from the country by 2030.
NATIONAL
District Digest
NEPALGUNJ: The employees of Nepalgunj Sub-metropolitan City have been protesting against Saraphat Hussein Shesh, the ward chairman of ward 5 of the municipality. The agitating employees halted their work except for essential services from Wednesday demanding action against Shesh. On Tuesday, Shesh allegedly came to the sub-metropolis office and verbally abused the employees. The protesting employees claimed that they were compelled to halt their work to protest the “atrocities” of the ward chief.
NEWS
Dengue spreading mosquitoes, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, also transmit Zika and Chikungunya virus.
- ARJUN POUDEL
KATHMANDU,
Since 2016, India has witnessed Zika outbreaks every year except in 2019 and 2020.
The risk of outbreak of the deadly virus is high in Nepal too, not only because of unrestricted cross-border movements of people from the two countries, but also due to multiple risk factors, experts say.
“Dengue spreading mosquitoes—Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus—also transmit Zika and Chikungunya virus. This means the vectors are present throughout the country,” said Dr Sher Bahadur Pun, chief of the Clinical Research Unit at the Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital.
“What is needed for the outbreak is the Zika-infected person, which could be anyone. And outbreaks of the disease in India every year and global movement of the people have also increased the risk of an outbreak in our country also.”
Zika causes microcephaly, a condition in which babies are born with underdeveloped head and brain damage. It is also linked to Guillain-Barre syndrome, a condition in which the immune system attacks the nerves causing muscle weakness and sometimes paralysis. A risk assessment survey carried out with technical and financial support of the World Health Organisation in 2018 showed that Nepal was a high-risk country for dengue and Zika outbreaks.
Two experts deployed from the UN health agency in Nepal had inspected various localities in the Kathmandu Valley and found eggs, larvae and pupae of Aedes aegypti and albopictus mosquitoes, and warned of the risk of outbreaks.
Every year, Nepal records dozens of dengue cases throughout the country. In 2022, at least 88 persons died and more than 54,000 were infected by the virus, which had spread to all 77 districts. At the time, hospitals in Kathmandu Valley were overwhelmed with dengue patients and pharmacies had run out of paracetamol, the most widely used medicine to treat fever. In 2023 also, at least 20 people had died and over 51,000 were infected with the deadly disease.
In 2019, the disease killed at least six people and more than 16,000 were hospitalised across the country. The virus had spread to 68 districts at the time.
Officials at the Ministry of Health and Population concede that the country is at high risk of outbreaks of dengue, Chikungunya and Zika viruses, due to the presence of vectors in all districts of the country. They, however, said that due to a lack of sufficient budget, they have been unable to carry out routine zika testing.
“We had carried out Zika surveillance in the past and had carried out testing on samples of people having dengue-like symptoms but results came negative,” said Dr Gokarna Dahal, chief of the Vector Control Section at the Epidemiology and Disease Control Section. “The resource crunch also prevents us from carrying out routine Zika testing.”
The World Health Organisation Nepal had provided financial as well as technical support to acquire the technology to carry out the testing of the said viruses at the time, according to officials.
Doctors say Zika virus symptoms match those of the dengue virus—mild fever, rashes, muscle pain, headache, red eyes and general feeling of discomfort. They say that health authorities should continue surveillance of the deadly disease, as regular outbreaks of the virus in India and global movements have increased the risk in the country.
Many people infected with the Zika virus show mild symptoms like fever, rashes and red eyes. Studies show that pregnant women and their foetuses are at high risk of Zika infection.
If a mother is infected with the Zika virus during pregnancy, it leads to congenital defects in the newborn, which is called microcephaly.
Zika virus was first identified in Uganda in 1947 in monkeys, according to the UN health agency. It was later detected in humans. Brazil saw the worst outbreak of the virus in 2015 and it has then spread to 24 other countries. The WHO had declared Zika outbreak an international health emergency in 2016.
NEWS
Government struggles to present federal civil service bill as public staff protested against one proposed last year.
- Post Report
KATHMANDU,
Answering queries from National Assembly members, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal said on September 4 last year that the government was in final preparations to register the federal civil service bill in Parliament.
He claimed that his government had no intention to further delay the bill. “The Cabinet will adopt the bill tomorrow [September 5] and it will be registered in Parliament very soon,” he had told the Assembly.
Five months later, appearing before the National Concerns and Coordination of the same chamber, Dahal reiterated that the government was in the final leg to register the bill in Parliament.
“The government is making final preparations to register the bill in Parliament,” he told the House Committee. For the last few months, he has made such claims on several occasions—in Parliament, at House committees and other functions.
In this period, all the provinces have been piling pressure on the Dahal administration to pass the civil service law. Led by Madhesh Province, leaders from the six other provinces came to Kathmandu several times to draw the attention of Singha Durbar to enact the law together with the one governing the police adjustment process.
On November 9, an all-party delegation from Madhesh Province issued a 30-day ultimatum to Dahal to address their six-point demand, warning of a protest if Kathmandu took no urgent steps to fully implement constitutional provisions for the smooth functioning of the provinces.
Dahal then promised to address the demands by the deadline, saying he would always support the mission to strengthen federalism. Promulgation of the Federal Civil Service Law was one of the points. As the House was in recess, Dahal even said he could forward an ordinance to the President to issue. But that didn’t happen.
On December 6, the Madhesh Provincial Assembly unanimously endorsed a resolution motion registered by the CPN-UML which said that the provinces should be allowed to exercise all the authorities delegated to them by Schedule 6 of the constitution including the setting up of their own bureaucracy and police forces. Led by the Madhesh chief minister, representatives from all the provinces submitted their joint decision to Dahal. He then sought 15 days to address them. Dahal, however, failed to abide by his commitment.
At the National Coordination Council meeting on February 7, the prime minister reiterated the commitment to enacting the laws immediately. However, it is still unclear when Dahal’s words will translate into action.
“We are waiting for the federal government to implement its commitments,” said Mohammad Samim, the internal affairs minister in Madhesh. Eight years since the promulgation of the Constitution of Nepal, the Civil Service Act is yet to be promulgated. The explicit responsibility to manage provincial police administration and provincial civil service rests with provincial governments, as per the statute.
Successive governments have not been able to present the bill for Parliament’s endorsem*nt following the pressure from civil servants. The bill drafted by the government last year had a provision for 80 percent of officer vacancies to be filled through open competition, allocating only 20 percent seats for departmental promotions. It also proposed 40 years as the maximum age for in-service employees to compete for higher positions. The civil servants resorted to a protest against the bill demanding 50 percent officer positions reserved for in-service staff and scrapping the age limit. The government succumbed to their demands.
The provincial governments want the chief administrative officer and the provincial secretary to work under them. However, neither the federal government nor civil servants want these positions to come under the provinces. They want the two positions to be managed under the federal administration.
NEWS
The state-owned power utility racked up Rs15.36 billion profit during the period, more than in any precious fiscal year.
- Post Report
KATHMANDU,
Nepal Electricity Authority has raked in remarkable profit during the first half of the current fiscal year on the back of power exports, the state-owned power utility said on Wednesday.
According to unaudited financial details, the utility racked up a profit of Rs15.36 billion excluding tax liability during the first half of this fiscal. The amount exceeds the profit it earned in any previous fiscal year.
Its profit (excluding taxes) in the fiscal year 2022-23 was Rs12.33 billion. Since fiscal year 2016-17, the NEA has been making profits after incurring losses consecutively in the previous fiscal years during the load shedding times. In 2011, for instance, its
accumulated losses of nearly Rs28 billion were written off.
Earlier, in fiscal 2021-22, its profit stood at Rs13.37 billion, which was the highest the NEA made until the figures of the current fiscal year emerged.
The profits of the first half of this fiscal year are higher by Rs4.44 billion than the same period last year, according to the NEA.
The main reasons behind the increase in profit are leakage control, increased domestic consumption and increased export earning, Kul Man Ghising, executive director of the NEA, said in a statement. “Austerity measures taken to control unwanted expenditure also contributed to the rise,” he said.
The NEA earned Rs67.28 billion in revenue during the first half of this fiscal while its expenditure stood at Rs51.92 billion.
“Even though it is a provisional figure, there will not be any major changes in it,” an official at the NEA’s accounting department said.
Despite improved profitability, however, Ghising said the profit generated by the NEA would not be enough to meet the requirement of the country to invest in the areas of generation, transmission and transmission sectors. “We will require Rs1 trillion to Rs1.2 trillion in the next few years for that purpose,” he said.
According to the state-owned body, power exports remained a significant driver of revenue generation during the first half of this fiscal, contributing as much as Rs13.38 billion. Nepal started exporting power to India in November 2021.
The southern neighbour has allowed Nepal to export as much as 632MW of electricity. A total of 1.98 billion units of electricity were sold during the first half of this fiscal. Nepal can sell in India’s day-ahead, real-time and medium-term (up to five years) markets. A bilateral agreement reached between the two countries has also opened the door for long-term power sale and purchase agreement as well.
Since December last year, NEA has also been importing power from India amounting to Rs1.98 billion. Even though Nepal exports power during the rainy season, it has to import it from India during the second half of the fiscal year. “If water levels in the rivers remain higher than last year, we will not be required to import more from India,” the official said.
Until last fiscal year 2022-23, Nepal was the net importer of electricity with the country’s net import standing at 487 gigawatt hours, according to Annual Report 2022-23.
NEA profit data
FY Profit
2016-17 Rs1.5b
2017-18 Rs3.44b
2018-19 Rs9.81b
2019-20 Rs11.75b
2020-21 Rs6.09b
2021-22 Rs13.37b
2022-23 Rs12.33b
2023-24 Rs15.36b
(Six months)
Source: Nepal Electricity Authority
NEWS
The planned facility will also produce some 300kg of hydrogen daily, which can power the plant or be used in other industrial applications.
- Cheryl Tan
SINGAPORE,
As part of its efforts to tackle climate change, Singapore will be constructing the world’s largest facility to boost the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere.
The US$20 million (S$27 million) plant, once fully operational in 2025, will be able to remove some 3,650 tonnes of CO2 from the ocean
yearly, while helping PUB to decarbonise its water treatment processes, the national water agency said on February 27.
When the seawater is pumped back into the ocean, it has the capacity to absorb more CO2 from the atmosphere.
The plan comes after two smaller pilot facilities—one in PUB’s R&D desalination plant in Tuas, and the other in the Port of Los Angeles—proved successful in removing CO2.
Both plants, which were set up in April 2023, are each able to remove some 100kg of the greenhouse gas from the ocean each day.
The technology, designed by American start-up Equatic, works by pumping seawater from adjacent desalination plants through electricity. This leads to a series of chemical reactions that split the seawater into hydrogen and oxygen. The dissolved CO2 is combined with minerals in seawater like calcium and magnesium to produce solid limestone—essentially trapping the CO2 for at least 10,000 years.
The process mimics the natural formation of seashells, and the solid calcium and magnesium-based materials can either be stored on the ocean floor, or potentially be used for construction materials if found viable.
The new plant known as Equatic-1, which will replace the one in Tuas, will demonstrate if the CO2 removal technology can work on a larger scale, to meet PUB’s targets.
The planned facility will also produce some 300kg of hydrogen daily, which can power the plant or be used in other industrial applications.
Equatic-1 is expected to begin operations in the last quarter of 2024, starting with one tonne a day, with help from a multidisciplinary team comprising researchers and technology-scaling experts from the start-up and the Institute for Carbon Management at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). This will be scaled up to 10 tonnes per day in the second quarter of 2025.
As PUB’s water treatment processes, including desalination, are energy-intensive, it is looking to invest in research and development to reduce energy use and help capture and remove CO2 from its operations. The agency has a target to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2045.
The new plant will be equipped to remove some 10 tonnes of CO2 a day—a hundred times more than each of the two existing pilot plants.
PUB said the processed seawater will be further treated to reduce any potential impact to the marine environment. “PUB and Equatic will closely monitor any environmental impact arising from the operations of the demonstration plant (Equatic-1) via an independent consultant,” said its spokesman.
Once the new facility proves successful, Equatic will scale and commercialise its technology globally, said Professor Gaurav Sant, co-founder of the start-up and director of the Institute for Carbon Management.
On a commercial scale, the plant will be able to remove some 110,000 tonnes of CO2 yearly, equivalent to the carbon emissions of 25,000 people.
A number of US start-ups are making headway in technologies to remove ocean-based carbon dioxide. For instance, California-based firm Ebb Carbon is planning to use electricity to make ocean water more alkaline, which would help absorb more CO2 from the atmosphere. It is planning to build its first small-scale plant in the Californian city of Pasadena, to remove CO2 for storage underground or use it for industrial processes.
RunningTide, based in Maine in the United States, signed an agreement with Microsoft, which aims to be carbon-negative by 2030, to remove and store some 12,000 tonnes of CO2 from the ocean by growing seaweed, which absorbs CO2 as it grows.
A 2018 report by the United Nations’ top climate science body—the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—projected that around 100 to 1,000 gigatonnes of CO2 will need to be removed by the end of the century, in order to limit global warming to 1.5 deg C.
Some methods of CO2 removal include planting new trees and using direct air capture technologies that suck CO2 from the atmosphere for permanent storage deep underground. Ocean-based means can also be used, and these involve harnessing various physical and chemical properties of the ocean to enhance its ability to store carbon. Oceans are a natural store of CO2, absorbing around 30 per cent of CO2 emissions from human activity.
However, the increased uptake of CO2 has caused warming oceans, ocean acidification and oxygen loss, destroying many marine ecosystems and habitats. This affects the ocean’s ability to continue providing food, supporting livelihoods and insulating the world from the worsening impacts of climate change.
The costs of technologies that remove CO2 from oceans still remain high, and it is unclear what their impact might be on the ocean ecosystems, or if they could still be viable at a larger scale.
The project is funded by PUB, the National Research Foundation and the Institute for Carbon Management.
Once Equatic-1 is operational, carbon credits will be generated through the process, each representing a tonne of CO2 that is removed from the atmosphere.
PUB said that the credits will be allocated to each of the three project partners according to the proportion of funding that they had put in.
Equatic has already entered into agreements with companies like Boeing for the purchase of carbon credits from future commercial plants.
PUB added that it will continue to study the potential of integrating the technology as part of the desalination process in its plants, to determine which stage of the process would provide the most benefits in terms of net carbon abatement.
For example, capturing carbon dioxide from seawater at the beginning of the desalination process could help lower the overall energy requirements of desalination.
PUB’s chief engineering and technology officer Pang Chee Meng said: “We are pleased to further our collaboration with UCLA and Equatic, to develop a solution that has potential synergies with PUB’s desalination plants.
“We firmly believe that technological advancements, delivered in partnership with academia and the private sector, hold the key to addressing the complex challenges posed by climate change.”
– The Straits Times
OPINION
Revolutionary parties like Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna adopting parliamentary politics is not new in South Asia.
- SMRUTI S PATTANAIK
As the presidential election in Sri Lanka is scheduled for the latter part of this year, the political circle is seeing new leaders rise, defeating the old ones who have nothing new to offer to the country, which has long been coping with inflation and rising prices. The emergence of Anura Kumara Dissanayake, alias AKD, has piqued people’s interest in the country at present. Dissanayake is the formidable leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)—a radical left party now transformed into a socialist force and heads the National People’s Power (NPP)—an alliance of 27 groups formed in 2019.
The JVP historically championed the cause of marginal people. After the economic crisis, which led Sri Lanka to bankruptcy and unravelled the regime of Rajapaksa, the JVP’s narrative received political currency. The Jana Aragalaya (people’s movement) could not weaken the stranglehold of the Rajapaksa regime even though Gotabaya Rajapaksa was forced to resign and subsequently leave the country. Ranil Wickremesinghe, who had previously lost Presidential elections, was indirectly elected to Parliament through the national list as the sole member elected from the United National Party and became the President. He was supported by the Rajapaksa’s party, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna. Thus, the Aragalaya failed to change the political face of Sri Lanka as the old elites were back in power. Thereupon, the Rajapaksa brothers were back, and politics seemed as usual. Given this background, Dissanayake’s appearance as a leading and popular candidate for the election is not surprising.
The NPP’s promises of equal opportunity, social justice and a corruption-free country have the ingredients to sway the Sri Lankans. Sri Lanka imposed an 18 percent value-added tax on fuel, mobile phones and computers in January this year. Things have not improved as the International Monetary Fund piloted reforms that insist on cutting the subsidies. Meanwhile, the NPP’s economic agenda promises to restructure the economy, thereby loosening the stranglehold of corrupt business people. This could help the NPP gain popularity among the public.
Transformation of JVP
The JVP was a radical left organisation led by Rohana Wijeweera, an ex-cadre of the Communist Party of Ceylon (Marxist-Leninist), which took up the issue of urban poor and rural peasants. It empathised with Tamil issues as the JVP wanted to expand its base. The contact between them and the Tamil students started at Peradeniya University in Sri Lanka. The JVP understood the concerns as Tamils protested against the 1972 constitution.
At one point, the aspirations for democratic rights of the JVP and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were the same, as both fought against the state and spoke of emancipation. However, they differed on separatism espoused by some Tamil organisations as a solution to the ethnic problem even though they agreed on self-determination. Their expansion in the North and East made them realise that the poor from both communities have similar problems.
Soon after, the Communist Party of Ceylon (Marxist-Leninist) became an ultra-nationalist organisation shedding its Marxist ideological moorings as ethnic conflict deepened. It detested foreign cultural, economic and political influence in Sri Lanka. It was at the forefront of opposing the Indian intervention in Sri Lanka under the Indo-Lanka accord.
In the early 70s and late 80s, the JVP led a violent insurrection in Sri Lanka. It saw the deaths of more than 50,000 Sri Lankans when the government countered back. Most of its front-ranking leaders were killed during the 1987-89, paving the way for a new generation of leaders to take control of its transformation to parliamentary politics. The JVP is now trying to break from its violent past by pursuing the electoral path.
JVP leaders’ India visit
The recent visit of Dissanayake and other leaders from the NPP to India on the invitation of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations gave rise to speculation in Sri Lanka about why the JVP, an anti-India party, is being courted by the Indian government. During this visit, they met important leaders and think tanks to familiarise themselves with India-Sri Lanka relations. It is also essential to consider JVP’s transformation that has led it to convince India of the promises the NPP holds if elected. The JVP, which had taken a particular position on the Tamil issue in India is transforming itself into an inclusive party.
After basing its politics on an anti-India stance, the JVP acknowledges that India cannot be ignored and says, “Our position is that we can only go forward politically and economically with some sort of agreement with India.” However, it continues to be opposed to the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987. It played a role in de-merging Northern and Eastern provinces. The two provinces were merged as part of the Indo-Lanka Accord.
It considers the Provincial Council system which was introduced as part of the Accord, as a failed system and advocates equal rights for the Tamils. However, it is unclear what constitutional package it will offer to address Tamil’s political marginalisation
issue. Given its past engagement in Sinhala nationalist politics, returning to the 1960s—when it upheld the Tamil political cause minus separatism—will take time. In the past, the JVP did not want to base its politics on the cause of plantation Tamil workers, also known as “Indian” Tamils. It is now taking up its cause to broaden the party’s base.
Broadening support base
During Aragalaya, JVP’s breakaway faction, the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP) in Sinhala, played a significant role. Though the FSP has supported grassroots JVP organisations in their struggle, it has ruled out any alliance with them due to their differing ideologies at present, even though they held talks to examine the opportunities to come together.
The JVP’s past electoral performance was far from impressive. In 1994, it had a lone member of Parliament. It won public support after joining the People’s Alliance, headed by Chandrika Kumaratunge, Sri Lanka’s former President, in 2004. The JVP was divided in 2008 over the agenda of supporting then-President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The party lost the last presidential election. It is now preparing to fight the next election, and the NPP, of which the JVP is a part, is moderating its stance. It is against the Executive Presidency, where power is concentrated in the hands of the President. The National Unity government pruned some of the powers of the executive presidency and transferred them to the Parliament, but the government of Gotabaya Rajapaksa reverted it.
The NPP aims to introduce constitutional reforms and encourage private participation to develop the tourism sector. Given Sri Lanka’s fractured polity which is yet to accommodate Tamil political aspiration, the promises of NPP of “an inclusive, democratic Sri Lankan identity” that promises accommodation of all identities appear appealing.
The transformation of revolutionary parties and the adoption of parliamentary politics is not new in South Asia. Nepal is one such instance. Thus, the JVP’s move to centrist politics appears to be imbued with the reality of geopolitics and geoeconomics—part of the aspirational politics on which the party wants to base its campaign strategy. Only time will tell whether this will lead to the party’s win. As of now, everything appears to be going right for them.
OPINION
Nepal must be warned about the dangers of excessively focusing on economic growth.
- HRIDESH GAJUREL
The alarming acceleration of global warming caused by carbon emissions from ever-expanding industrial production and mass consumption underscores a fundamental flaw in the economistic interpretation of development that puts no limit on economic growth.
Scientists warn that development based on continually expanding industrialisation and mass consumption is potentially catastrophic to humanity. Yet, most countries, including rich ones in the Global North, continue to shy away from controlling the consumption and production of carbon-intensive goods in the name of economic growth and perpetual development.
Paternalistic discourse about under-development is familiar to us all, with Nepal being labelled a least developed country by the United Nations. It is about time we recognise that there is also such a thing as “over-development”.
Over-developed countries
A country may be called “over-developed” when its economic development starts having more negative than positive impacts on society. For instance, since the 1990s, advanced economies like the United States and the United Kingdom have promoted the growth of the financial sector, including the development of complex financial instruments and markets to ensure the continuation of economic growth in the age of globalisation. However, this financialisation of the economy has only worsened economic inequality, employment insecurity and economic instability in these countries.
Moreover, over-developed countries prioritise economic growth over socio-economic, environmental and health-related concerns despite being comfortably rich.
Over-developed countries also promote consumption growth not to meet people’s needs but for economic growth, even when the environmental dangers and negative health consequences of excessive consumption are clear.
In this sense, over-development is pathological.
In her book, The Economics of Arrival, Katherine Trebeck, a political economist, argues that the idea of continuous economic growth is untenable in the age of climate change coupled with growing inequality and that “developed” countries should now recognise that they have arrived at a state of economic sufficiency.
She advises that instead of continuing to focus on economic growth, governments in such countries should now focus on the well-being of their citizens and the health of the planet, even if doing so does not maximise economic growth. In essence, Trebeck argues, very much like economist Kate Raworth in Doughnut Economics, that developed countries should avoid or reverse over-development.
Over-development in the US
The relentless and unwavering prioritisation of economic growth by Republican and Democratic governments alike has delivered little benefit to most Americans since the 1970s while the relative neglect of other pressing issues has resulted in social, political, environmental and health problems.
Real wages have plateaued in the US since the 1970s, meaning that economic growth over four decades has contributed nothing to the standard of living of the average American. None of the rewards of economic growth averaging 3 percent over four decades have gone to workers, either in the form of higher wages or in the form of greater work-life balance.
Both American and German workers worked an average of 1,812 hours per year in 1975; however, by 2015, German workers had much more leisure time, working only 1,368 hours per year on average while being paid no less than before in real terms, whereas American workers continued to toil away working 1,765 hours per year on average without getting a pay rise in real terms. This is despite the US being the richest country and the most advanced economy globally.
Economic inequality has only gotten worse since the 1970s in the US. In terms of the Gini coefficient, where zero indicates complete income equality, and one signifies maximum inequality, the US went from 0.45 in 1975 to 0.58 in 2015—a substantial worsening.
In short, the unwavering focus of the US government on maximising economic growth has been generally bad for the average American, even from a purely economic perspective. The picture becomes significantly more dire if we examine social and political factors.
There has been a shocking decline in life expectancy in the US from 79 years in 2019 to 76 years in 2023. The country is now less than in China (where it is 78 years old), which in terms of per capita GDP only ranks 72 globally. The unexpected decline in life expectancy in the US is not only due to Covid but also due to a drug overdose epidemic that has claimed countless young lives and due to increases in suicides. Experts also blame the lack of universal healthcare for the relatively low life expectancy in the US.
Political violence has risen tenfold since 2015 in the US, with much of it attributable to racial hatred and extreme polarisation in politics. Political polarisation is, in fact, so extreme there that some scholars fear that the country is on the brink of civil war. The fact that most opinion polls are indicating that Donald Trump will be re-elected as the next US president despite a disastrous first term and despite being highly unpopular suggests that the richest country in the world has pursued economic growth at the expense of societal well-being for far too long.
Lesson for Nepal
The US is arguably the epitome of over-development and a warning to aspiring countries like Nepal about the dangers of excessively focusing on economic growth.
There are also examples of rich countries that have avoided over-development. Scandinavian countries, for instance, not only have high GDP per capita but also tend to consistently lead world rankings on happiness, human development, trust in government, economic equality, gender equality, work-life balance and access to quality health and education. Historically, these countries balanced the pursuit of economic growth with highly progressive social welfare and good governance policies.
Even though Nepal would benefit from focusing on economic growth given its current economic state and widespread poverty, the example of the US shows that it also needs to lay a solid foundation for well-being and equality at the outset, like many of the social democratic countries in Europe did.
Nepal has many strengths such as its extensive social capital, high tolerance, rich cultural heritage, low violent crime, incomparable natural treasures and a good political foundation for social justice and equality in the form of the 2015 Constitution. In the throes of economic development, Nepal should be careful to preserve what it has going for it, and it should
also tackle new injustices and inequalities that will inevitably arise in the development process to ensure that the progress made is not later lost to over-development.
Gajurel is a senior principal researcher and former lecturer at the University of Queensland.
OUR VIEW
The state seeing loan shark victims in Parliament premises as a security issue should fool nobody.
Now that the government has fenced the premises of the Office of the Prime Minister, the Residence of the Prime Minister and the Parliament of Nepal, it can finally go back to sleep again. In a country that hardly has footpaths, to begin with, the government’s sealing off of its Singha Durbar, Baluwatar and Baneshwor premises is not going to make a huge difference to public convenience in the literal sense. But how long can the government live within its own cocoon, scared by the very people that have propelled it to power? How much longer can it pretend to be in deep slumber even as the voices of the loan shark victims grow louder and louder? With dozens of the victims entering the high-security premise of Parliament earlier this week in an attempt to draw its attention, the government is bent on interpreting the episode as a security issue.
Any attempt at brushing it aside as a security issue is plain stupidity. It was the sheer moral force of the unarmed victims, mostly women, that incapacitated the otherwise trigger-happy security personnel stationed at the gates of Parliament. What is of greater concern is the ineptitude of the government when it comes to providing a sense of security to the thousands of victims across the country who have been raising their voices against loan sharks. It has been almost two years since a small group of loan shark victims from Madhes first called on the government to consider their plight. Today, the protests have taken the shape of a movement, with victims from over 50 districts nationwide congregating in Kathmandu to fight for justice, apart from demonstrations in respective districts.
Not that the government is not aware of the problems of the loan shark victims. Its conservative estimate shows the victims owe Rs6 billion to loan sharks in various districts. A task force set up to deal with the loan sharking problem has received 28,000 complaints, and has freed at least 218 bighas of land from the sharks. The numbers could be much higher, as the victims opt to keep quiet for fear of retribution, which ranges from confiscation of property to physical and sexual abuse. In the deep hinterlands of Madhes and Pahaad, the loan sharking problem is quickly becoming a social and national security issue.
If there is any government that should understand the problem of loan shark victims, it is the current one led by a former guerilla commander. In their heyday, the Maoist insurgents, led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, tore illegal loan deeds and meted corporeal justice to the loan sharks in their kangaroo courts. The Maoist party has long ceded that paraphernalia of being a party of the proletariat class. However, for all the big talk that Prime Minister Dahal does about good governance, his government should understand that the rot lies deeper and that ad-hoc measures hardly scratch the surface of the problem. The only way out of the current imbroglio is for the government to deliver on its promises of bringing the loan sharks to book, provide the victims with security, and make institutional arrangements to ensure that people have better financial security and access to easy loans so that they don’t have to fall into loan sharks’ traps.
THEIR VIEW
Australia finds itself at a crossroads, with a shifting geopolitical landscape.
In the vast expanse of the Pacific, Australia finds itself at a crossroads, grappling with a shifting geopolitical landscape that demands a recalibration of its approach. The emergence of
China as a formidable player in the region has stirred the neighbours’ foundations of Australian assumptions and prompted a re-evaluation of its engagement strategy. Australia’s historical ties with the Pacific islands, often painted with paternalistic hues, face a formidable challenge in the wake of China’s assertive foray into the region.
The Pacific, once considered Australia’s backyard, no the Pacific witnesses a diplomatic tussle as China’s economic largesse entices island nations, subtly altering the geopolitical landscape. The concerns emanating from Canberra are not unfounded. China’s strategic moves, from securing resources to influencing political allegiances and seeking potential military bases, have raised eyebrows in Australia. The recent diplomatic switches of Solomon Islands, Kiribati and Nauru from Taiwan to China underscore a paradigm shift that has broader implications for regional stability. However, Australia’s response to the Chinese incursion raises questions.
Insisting on upgraded security relationships might be perceived as heavy-handed, especially when Pacific countries prioritise development over traditional hard security. The nuanced example of Tuvalu, where a security agreement was bundled with climate change assistance, demonstrates the delicate balance Australia must strike. Pacific leaders, such as the Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown, emphasise that development takes precedence as their number-one security priority, particularly in the face of climate change. Even Australia’s close ally, Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape, hesitated to invoke a security treaty with Australia during recent unrest, reflecting a reluctance to be perceived as a mere lapdog.
Australia, while unable to match China’s commercial clout, possesses substantial strengths that should not be underestimated. Its aid to the Pacific, accounting for two-fifths of all assistance, outpaces competitors. Education opportunities, technical assistance, and a sports diplomacy initiative, such as integrating Pacific rugby teams into Australian leagues, showcase a diverse and holistic engagement strategy. To counter China effectively, Australia must broaden its horizons beyond a myopic focus on security. A more comprehensive strategy that aligns with the priorities of Pacific island nations is crucial. The lesson here is clear—the Pacific’s number-one security priority is development, and Australia should recalibrate its approach accordingly.
Australia’s strength lies in its ability to offer a multifaceted engagement, with a new infrastructure-financing facility competing with China’s approach. It fosters opportunities for work and immigration, immensely popular among Pacific islanders. By aligning its strategy with the aspirations of the island states and diversifying its diplomatic toolkit, Australia can counterbalance China’s influence more effectively. In navigating the complex currents of Pacific geopolitics, Australia should draw inspiration from the Pacific itself—a vast, diverse expanse that demands adaptability and an understanding of the unique challenges faced by its island neighbours. It is time for Australia to embrace a nuanced, multifaceted approach that resonates with the aspirations of the Pacific nations it considers family.
— The Statesman(India)/ANN
MONEY
- AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
SAN FRANCISCO,
After the earthquake of ChatGPT’s phenomenal success a year ago, Silicon Valley investors have gone into overdrive with artificial intelligence, looking for the newest blockbuster idea in an ocean of hype and overpromising.
OpenAI sparked a generative AI craze with ChatGPT, which can
pen stories, create pictures, write computer code and more from simple text prompts.
Stung by the struggles of cryptocurrency and other faded Silicon Valley fads of recent years, venture capitalists have quickly doubled down on AI, a new promised land in the never-ending quest for big tech riches.
For the big investors, “if it’s not AI, it’s not worth it,” Denis Barrier, co-founder of venture capital firm Cathay Innovation told AFP after meetings with several investment fund handlers. “Funds are looking to make big moves,” Barrier said.
“And that’s pretty unlikely outside AI in the next few years.”
While layoffs and budget tightening became routine at tech companies last year, startups in the AI sector raised nearly $50 billion from investors, according to market tracker Crunchbase.
In that first wave of the AI gold rush, investment focused heavily on companies building large language models that make generative AI features possible.
A record-high $29 billion was invested in generative AI in 2023, according to PitchBook.
But building foundational models from scratch costs a fortune in computing needs and most of that money can only come from the richest of backers—such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Nvidia—and flow to a chosen few such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
This week Mistral, a buzzy French startup building its own models, secured a new investment from Microsoft after already getting financing from some of Silicon Valley’s richest investors, including Nvidia and Andreessen Horowitz, one of the sector’s most aggressive firms.
“We believe that any slowdown in AI will cost lives,” wrote the rock star venture capitalist Marc Andreessen last year in his “Techno-Optimist Manifesto.”
But scared off by the cost of entry, many venture capitalists have turned their attention to more narrowly focused AI startups that could shake up banking, healthcare, energy and other sectors.
Cathay recently invested in French biotech startup Bioptimus, which is putting AI to work creating new drugs.
While seeking out promising firms, Cathay looked at engineering skill, data access, cost controls, and an ambition to transform a sector, Barrier explained in his downtown office overlooking the San Francisco Bay. “You have to have a little faith,” Barrier said.
MONEY
- AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
HONG KONG,
Hong Kong has axed three major property transaction taxes in a bid to revive its depressed housing market, finance minister Paul Chan said in his annual budget speech on Wednesday.
The finance hub is among the world’s least affordable residential markets, but home prices retreated last year amid high interest rates and China’s economic slowdown. Chan said Hong Kong immediately scrapped three types of stamp duty, reversing measures introduced more than a decade ago to rein in speculation fuelled in part by mainland Chinese buyers.
“After prudent consideration of the overall current situation, we decide to cancel all demand-side management measures for residential properties with immediate effect,” Chan told the legislature. The cancelled taxes include stamp duties—which were once as high as 15 percent—imposed on property buyers who are not Hong Kong permanent residents and on those purchasing a second home.
“No Special Stamp Duty, Buyer’s Stamp Duty or New Residential Stamp Duty needs to be paid for any residential property transactions starting from today,” Chan said.
“We consider that the relevant measures are no longer necessary amidst the current economic and market conditions,” he said, noting that residential market sentiment became “very cautious” since the middle of last year. Hong Kong had already reduced stamp duty last October in a bid to revive the market, but the reception had been largely muted.
Flat prices fell seven percent during 2023 and transactions slid five percent, to around 43,000.
The weak housing market has also hurt public finances, with the Hong Kong government heavily reliant on land sales for revenue but only netting HK$19.4 billion ($2.5 billion) last year.
Hong Kong recorded a HK$102 billion deficit in 2023-24, with fiscal reserves falling to HK$733 billion due to “challenges posed by the epidemic and external environment”, Chan added.
Hong Kong’s economy is expected to grow between 2.5 and 3.5 percent this year, the finance chief said, aided by factors such as the US Federal Reserve’s expected interest rate cut.
“Amid a complicated and ever-changing international environment... more strenuous efforts are required to strengthen momentum of our economic recovery,” Chan said.
Hong Kong hopes to reboot its reputation as a finance capital following years of strict pandemic curbs and social unrest, with critics saying that Beijing’s ongoing political crackdown on the city has led to an exodus of talent and capital.
Chan on Wednesday pledged around HK$1 billion for tourism development, including funds for “mega events” and monthly fireworks and drone shows over the city’s Victoria Harbour.
Hong Kong last year saw about 34 million visitor arrivals, down from record levels of 65 million in 2018.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority also relaxed mortgage rules on Wednesday, allowing homebuyers to borrow more, and eased an income-related stress test. Louis Chan of Centaline Property Agency told AFP scrapping the property market curbs would bring “very positive impacts”.
“I expect the trading volume to surge by 60 to 70 percent, with some even doubling... I expect the property price to go up by three to five percent in the second quarter,” said Chan.
Deloitte China tax partner Polly Wan said the stamp duty cancellations were “welcome moves to help stabilise the property sector and boost overall economic revival”.
But economist Terence Chong at the Chinese University of Hong Kong said the impact of mortgage interest rates would outweigh that of tax cuts.
“It is the most important to create a healthily rising market because no matter how cheap a flat is, young people won’t put a major investment of their life in a depreciating asset,” Chong said.
MONEY
- AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
SAO PAULO,
Brazil called for a “new globalisation” to address poverty and climate change as it opened a meeting on Wednesday of finance ministers from the world’s top economies, but the Ukraine and Gaza wars risked overshadowing the plea.
“The global economic outlook is full of challenges,” Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad told his counterparts from the Group of 20 leading economies, opening their first meeting of the year in Sao Paulo—though he gave his speech remotely, after coming down with Covid-19.
“It is time to redefine globalization. We need to create incentives to
ensure international capital flows are no longer decided by immediate profit but by social and environmental principles,” said Haddad, a close ally of leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva and other top economic policymakers are in the Brazilian financial capital for the two-day meeting—though there are some notable absences, including the Chinese, Indian and Russian finance ministers.
Brazil, which took over the rotating presidency of the G20 from India in December, is pushing for the group to prioritize the fights against poverty and climate change, alleviating the crushing debt burdens of low-income nations, and giving developing countries more say at institutions like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Also on the agenda: increasing taxes on corporations and the super-rich. “We need to ensure the billionaires of the world pay their fair share of taxes,” said Haddad.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire backed that call, telling journalists that Paris is pushing to “accelerate” international negotiations on a minimum tax on the ultra-wealthy.
The meeting, which follows one by foreign ministers in Rio de Janeiro last week, will lay the economic policy groundwork for the annual G20 leaders’ summit, to be held in Rio in November.
But even before the G20 meeting opened, the conflict in Ukraine took centre stage. The Group of Seven countries—Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, plus the European Union—held their own meeting on the sidelines to discuss shoring up Western support for Kyiv, which is desperate for more aid as Russia’s invasion enters its third year.
Officials said the G7 finance ministers had discussed a proposal to seize an estimated $397 billion in Russian assets frozen by the West over Moscow’s military operation.
Yellen said Tuesday it was “necessary and urgent” to tap those assets to help fund Ukraine, an idea British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland have also backed.
But there were divisions among G7 members.
“I want to be very clear: We don’t have the legal basis for seizing the Russian assets now. We need to work further... The G7 must act abiding by the rule of law,” said France’s Le Maire. Ukraine has warned it is in dire need of more military and financial assistance, with a fresh $60 billion US package stalled in Congress.
“What’s really urgent is for the United States to unblock that $60 billion,” said Le Maire.
The war in Gaza was also a recurring theme at the G20 meeting, amid fears Israel’s offensive against Palestinian militant group Hamas could spiral into a wider war, with potentially catastrophic effects for the global economy. “The real economic risks today are geopolitical risks, which can block the return of growth,” said Le Maire, calling the potential expansion of the Middle East conflict a “significant risk.”
MONEY
Bizline
Kathmandu: Soaltee Hotel Limited has donated Rs7.5 million to establish children’s hospitals in Kathmandu and Damak, Jhapa, as part of its corporate social responsibility. Of the total amount, a cheque for Rs2.5 million was handed over to Dr Bhagwan Koirala, founding chairman of Kathmandu Institute of Child Health, by Dinesh Bahadur Bista, executive chairman of Soaltee Hotel Limited, on Tuesday. “This generous donation underscores the hotel’s profound commitment to advancing child healthcare services and emphasises the pivotal role of our corporate social responsibility,” the hotel said in a statement. “The collaboration exemplifies the hotel’s commitment to addressing critical healthcare challenges and fostering positive change in communities.”
MONEY
Bizline
SAN FRANCISCO: Apple has abandoned its ambitions to produce an electric car, US media reported on Tuesday, ending a struggling decade-long project. The iPhone maker had dedicated nearly 2,000 employees to its secretive car development program, Bloomberg reported, but faced an increasingly competitive electric vehicle (EV) sector. The target of “Project Titan,” beginning around 2014, was to develop a fully autonomous car, according to media reports. The decision to shut down the car project was announced internally on Tuesday, Bloomberg and The New York Times reported, citing unnamed sources. Apple had reportedly invested billions of dollars in the project. (AFP)
MONEY
Bizline
TOKYO: Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg met Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during a visit to Japan, discussing the risks of generative AI, a government spokesman said Wednesday. Zuckerberg is on a mini-tour of Asia that includes stops in Japan, India and South Korea, where he travelled on Tuesday night. The 39-year-old mixed business with pleasure while in Japan, going skiing with his family and learning about sword-making from a master craftsman. Zuckerberg and Kishida met on Tuesday and “discussed a broad range of topics including the status of AI’s technological advancement... (and) the risk surrounding generative AI”, top Japanese government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters on Wednesday. (AFP)
WORLD
The Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry reported 91 deaths in overnight Israeli bombardment in Gaza.
- AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories,
Fighting raged on Wednesday in the besieged Gaza Strip, where the reported death toll neared 30,000 as mediators insisted a truce in the Israel-Hamas war could be just days away.
The Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry reported another 91 deaths in overnight Israeli bombardment in Gaza, while UN agencies sounded the alarm on dire humanitarian conditions and food shortages.
Mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying to find a path to a ceasefire amid the bitter fighting, seeking a six-week pause in the nearly five-month war.
After a flurry of diplomacy, mediators said a deal could finally be within reach—reportedly including the release of some Israeli hostages held in Gaza since Hamas’s October 7 attack in exchange for several hundred Palestinian detainees held by Israel.
Qatar was “hopeful, not necessarily optimistic, that we can announce something” before Thursday, foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said Tuesday.
US President Joe Biden said a day earlier that “my hope is by next Monday we’ll have a ceasefire”, but “we’re not done yet”.
Ansari also cautioned that “the situation is still fluid on the ground”.
Doha has suggested the pause in fighting would come before the beginning of Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month which starts on March 10 or 11, depending on the lunar calendar.
Hamas had been pushing for the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza—a demand rejected outright by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
But a Hamas source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the deal might see the Israeli military leave “cities and populated areas”, allowing the return of some displaced Palestinians and humanitarian relief.
Israel’s military campaign following the October 7 attack has killed at least 29,954 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the latest health ministry figures.
The war was triggered by the unprecedented Hamas attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of around 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Militants also took about 250 hostages, 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including 31 presumed dead, according to Israel. Since the war began, hundreds of thousands of Gazans have been displaced within the narrow coastal territory.
Nearly 1.5 million people now packed into the far-southern city of Rafah, where Israel has warned it plans to launch a ground offensive.
Those who remain in northern Gaza have been facing an increasingly desperate situation, aid groups have warned.
“If nothing changes, a famine is imminent in northern Gaza,” the World Food Programme’s deputy executive director Carl Skau told the UN Security Council Tuesday.
His colleague from the UN humanitarian office OCHA, Ramesh Rajasingham, warned of “almost inevitable” widespread starvation.
The WFP said no humanitarian group had been able to deliver aid to the north for more than a month, accusing Israel of blocking access.
“I have not eaten for two days,” said Mahmud Khodr, a resident of Jabalia refugee camp in the north, where children roamed with empty pots.
“There is nothing to eat or drink.”
Most aid trucks have been halted, but foreign militaries have air dropped supplies over southern Gaza.
What aid does enter Gaza passes through the Rafah border crossing from Egypt, fuelling a warning from UN chief Antonio Guterres that any assault on the city would “put the final nail in the coffin” of relief operations.
Israel has insisted it would move civilians to safety before sending troops into Rafah but it has not released any details.
Egypt has warned that an assault on the city would have “catastrophic repercussions across the region”, with Cairo concerned about an influx of refugees.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Tuesday that Israel will “listen to the Egyptians and their interests”, adding that Israel “cannot conduct an operation” with the current large population in Rafah.
An AFP correspondent reported that overnight several air strikes hit the Rafah area as well as southern Gaaza’s main city Khan Yunis and Zeitun further north.
The army said it had “killed a number of terrorists and located weapons” in Gaza City’s Zeitun neighbourhood.
With domestic pressure high on Netanyahu to bring the hostages home, a group of 150 Israelis started a four-day march from Reim, near the Gaza border, to Jerusalem, calling for the government to reach a deal.
WORLD
- ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON,
President Joe Biden on Wednesday is signing an executive order aimed at better protecting Americans’ personal data on everything from biometrics and health records to finances and geolocation from foreign adversaries like China and Russia.
The attorney general and other federal agencies are to prevent the large-scale transfer of Americans’ personal data to what the White House calls “countries of concern,” while erecting safeguards around other activities that can give those countries access to people’s sensitive data.
The goal is to do so without limiting legitimate commerce around data, senior Biden administration officials said on a call with reporters.
Biden’s move targets commercial data brokers, the sometimes shadowy companies that traffic in personal data and that officials say may sell information to foreign adversaries or US entities controlled by those countries.
Most eventual enforcement mechanisms still have to clear complicated and often monthslong rulemaking processes. Still, the administration hopes eventually to limit foreign entities, as well as foreign-controlled companies operating in the US, that might otherwise improperly collect sensitive data, the senior officials said.
Data brokers are legal in the US and collect and categorize personal information, usually to build profiles on millions of Americans that the brokers then rent or sell.
The officials said activities like computer hacking are already prohibited in the US, but that buying potentially sensitive data through brokers is legal. That can represent a key gap in the nation’s national security protections when data is sold to a broker knowing it could end up in the hands of an adversary—one the administration now aims to close with the president’s executive action.
“Bad actors can use this data to track Americans, including military service members, pry into their personal lives, and pass that data on to other data brokers and foreign intelligence services,” the White House wrote in a fact sheet announcing the move. “This data can enable intrusive surveillance, scams, blackmail, and other violations of privacy.”
The order directs the Department of Justice to issue regulations that establish protections for Americans’ sensitive personal data, as well as sensitive government-related data—including geolocation information on sensitive government sites and members of the military.
The Justice Department also plans to work with Homeland Security officials to build safety standards to prevent foreign adversaries from collecting data. It will further attempt better checks to ensure that federal grants going to various other agencies, including the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, aren’t used to facilitate Americans’ sensitive data flowing to foreign adversaries or US companies aligned with them.
The senior administration officials listed potential countries of concern as China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela. But it is China—and TikTok, which has over 150 million American users and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chinese technology firm ByteDance Ltd.—that US leaders have been most vocal about. Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican who chairs the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, recently noted, “There’s no such thing as a private business in China.”
The senior administration officials stressed that the executive action was designed to work in conjunction with legislative action. So far, however, numerous bills seeking to establish federal privacy protections have failed to advance in Congress. Albert Fox Cahn, a Harvard fellow and executive director of the nonprofit Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, said Wednesday’s order doesn’t address the core issue of Americans’ exposure to rampant data collection by industry and government—and the absence of a federal privacy law.
“For most Americans, the country of greatest concern on surveillance is the US Americans are tracked every day by an increasingly invasive array of private data brokers and government agencies, transforming nearly every aspect of our digital lives into a marketing and policing tools,” he said.
WORLD
- REUTERS
SEOUL,
South Korea’s fertility rate, already the world’s lowest, continued its dramatic decline in 2023, as women concerned about their career advancement and the financial cost of raising children decided to delay childbirth or to not have babies.
The average number of expected babies for a South Korean woman during her reproductive life fell to a record low of 0.72 from 0.78 in 2022, data from Statistics Korea showed on Wednesday.
That is far below the rate of 2.1 per woman needed for a steady population and well behind the rate of 1.24 in 2015 when concerns about issues such as the cost of housing and education were lower.
Since 2018, South Korea has been the only Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) member with a rate below 1, defying the billions of dollars spent by the country to try to reverse the trend that led the population to decline for a fourth straight year in 2023.
South Korea also has the worst gender pay gap in the OECD, as Korean women bring home about two-thirds of the income then men.
“Women typically can’t build on their experience to climb higher at workplaces because they are often...the only one doing the childcare (and) often need to rejoin the workforce after extended leaves,” said Jung Jae-hoon, a professor at Seoul Women’s University.
The total fertility rate in a specific year is defined as the total number of children that would be born to each woman in her lifetime.
The total fertility rate in a specific year is defined as the total number of children that would be born to each woman in her lifetime.
“Having a baby is on my list, but there’s windows for promotions and I don’t want to be passed over,” said Gwak Tae-hee, 34, a junior manager at a Korean dairy product maker who has been married for three years.
Gwak had considered starting in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment last year to try to have a baby, but ended up volunteering for work projects to improve her career prospects.
“I don’t know about elsewhere but working two or three days a week doesn’t get you anywhere in Korean companies. I hope it’s not too late when I try next year or the year after,” Gwak said.
South Korea’s demographic crisis has become the top risk to economic growth and the social welfare system, with the country’s population of 51 million on track to halve by the end of this century.
South Korea has previously projected its fertility rate is likely to fall further to 0.68 in 2024. The capital Seoul, which has the country’s highest housing costs, had the lowest fertility rate of 0.55 last year.
Ahead of elections in April, South Korea’s major political parties vowed more public housing and easier loans to encourage childbirth, aiming to allay fears of “national extinction” as fertility rates crumble.
Being married is seen as a prerequisite to having children in South Korea, but marriages are also declining in the country.
“There are people who don’t get married but we think about why married couples choose not to have babies, and my understanding is that addressing that part is going to be the focus of our policies (to boost the birth rate),” an official at Statistics Korea told a briefing, without elaborating.
The parties’ focus on population in their election planks reflects growing alarm after spending of more than 360 trillion won ($270 billion) in areas such as childcare subsidies since 2006 has failed to reverse record low fertility rates.
South Korea is not alone in the region struggling with a rapidly ageing population. Neighbouring Japan said on Tuesday the number of babies born in 2023 fell for an eighth straight year to a fresh record low.
Japan’s fertility rate hit a record low of 1.26 in 2022, while China recorded 1.09, also a record low.
WORLD
- AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
BERLIN,
A German frigate sent to help secure merchant shipping in the Red Sea has successfully repelled an attack by Huthi rebels, the army said overnight to Wednesday.
The “Hesse” navy frigate intercepted a drone on Tuesday evening, the army said on X, formerly Twitter.
“A short time later, a second drone approached (the ship). The crew again initiated defence measures and also successfully engaged the target,” the army said.
“There was no personal injury or damage to property on the frigate,” it added.
Speaking on a visit to troops in the German town of Oberviechtach, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius confirmed the “successful shooting down of two enemy drones” by the ship. The first was detected at around 8:00 pm and the second 15 minutes later, Pistorius said.
The “Hesse” was sent to the region as part of an EU mission launched on February 19 to help protect international shipping in the Red Sea from attacks by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Huthis.
WORLD
- REUTERS
Moscow,
Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s funeral will be held in Moscow on Friday, his wife Yulia announced, but she said she was unsure if it would pass off peacefully and that plans for a civil memorial service had been blocked.
Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s spokesperson, posted on X that a service for Navalny would be held on Friday afternoon in the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God in the Moscow district of Maryino where Navalny used to live. Navalny would then be buried at the Borisovskoye cemetery, around 2.5 km away on the other side of the Moskva River. A Reuters reporter on Wednesday saw three police patrols at the snow-covered cemetery, which is located near a busy road.
Navalny’s allies accused the Kremlin of thwarting their attempts to organise a separate civil memorial service in a hall which could have accommodated more people, and of blocking plans to bury Navalny a day earlier. The Kremlin has said it has nothing to do with such arrangements. “Two people—Vladimir Putin and (Moscow Mayor) Sergei Sobyanin —are to blame for the fact that we have no place for a civil memorial service and farewell to Alexei,” Yulia, his wife, wrote on X.
“People in the Kremlin killed him, then mocked Alexei’s body, then mocked his mother, now they are mocking his memory.” The Kremlin denies any involvement in Navalny’s February 16 death at age 47 in an Arctic penal colony and his death certificate—according to his supporters - says he died of natural causes.
Russian Orthodox funeral services are usually presided over by a priest and accompanied by choral singing, with attendees gathered around the open casket of the deceased to say their farewell. The chosen church is an imposing five-domed white building in a suburb of southeastern Moscow. It was not immediately clear how the authorities would ensure crowd control.
But judging from previous gatherings of Navalny supporters—whom Russian authorities have designated as US-backed extremists—a heavy police presence is likely and the authorities will break up anything they deem to resemble a political demonstration under protest laws.
WORLD
- AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
LONDON,
Prince Harry lost a court challenge against the UK government on Wednesday over a decision to change the level of his personal security when he visits the country.
The youngest son of King Charles III launched legal action against the government after being told in February 2020 that he would no longer be given the “same degree” of publicly-funded protection when in Britain.
“The ‘bespoke’ process devised for the claimant in the decision of 28 February 2020 was, and is, legally sound,” High Court judge Peter Lane said in his 52-page judgment.
Harry sensationally left Britain in 2020 with his wife Meghan, eventually settling in California in the United States.
The prince told a hearing at London’s High Court in December that security concerns were preventing visits back to the United Kingdom.
“The UK is my home. The UK is central to the heritage of my children,” he told court in a written statement read out by his lawyers.
“That cannot happen if it’s not possible to keep them safe. “I cannot put my wife in danger like that and, given my experiences in life, I am reluctant to unnecessarily put myself in harm’s way too,” he added.
The UK Home Office said it was “pleased” with the judgment and was “carefully considering” its next steps.
“The UK Government’s protective security system is rigorous and proportionate,” a spokesperson for the Home Office said.
“It is our long-standing policy not to provide detailed information on those arrangements, as doing so could compromise their integrity and affect individuals’ security.”
Harry’s mother Princess Diana was killed in a high-speed car crash in Paris in 1997 as she tried to escape paparazzi photographers.
Lawyers for the government rejected claims that Harry was “singled out” and treated “less favourably” or that a proper risk analysis was not carried out.
James Eadie, for the interior ministry, told the court that it was decided Harry would not be provided the same level of protection as before because he had left life as a working royal and mostly lived abroad.
In May 2023, Harry lost a bid for a legal review of another government decision refusing him permission to pay for specialist UK police protection himself.
The interior ministry argued then that it was “not appropriate” for wealthy people to “buy” protective security when it had decided that it was not in the public interest for such taxpayer-funded protection. London’s Metropolitan Police also opposed Harry’s offer on the grounds that it would be wrong to “place officers in harm’s way upon payment of a fee by a private individual”.
It is one of many legal cases launched by Harry.
Earlier this month, he settled a long-running lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), whose journalists he accused of being linked to deceptive and unlawful methods, but vowed to continue his legal battles with several other UK media outlets.
Harry is one of seven high-profile people, including Elton John, bringing legal action against the publisher of the Daily Mail over allegations of unlawful information gathering.
He and actor Hugh Grant are also suing News Group Newspapers (NGN), part of Rupert Murdoch’s global media empire and publisher of The Sun and the now-defunct News Of The World tabloids, over similar claims.
However, Harry last month dropped his libel case against UK newspaper the Mail on Sunday over an article on his legal battles with the UK government.
SPORTS
Despite half-centuries from skipper Rohit Paudel (50 off 36 balls) and Dipendra Singh Airee (63 off 34 balls), the Rhinos fail to chase down 185-run target, suffering a two-run defeat in Kirtipur—their second straight loss of the series.
- Sports Bureau
KATHMANDU,
Nepal’s winless run at home continued as the Rhinos lost an absolute thriller to the Netherlands by two runs in the Nepal Tri-Nation T20I Series at the TU Cricket Ground in Kirtipur on Wednesday.
With Nepal—who were chasing 185—needing 15 runs off the last over, Dipendra Singh Airee smashed a four and a six off Roelof van der Merwe in the first two balls of the over to take Nepal closer to target.
But Timm van der Gugten and Merwe ran out Karan KC, who was attempting to take the second run, and Merwe mercilessly struck again to bowl out Airee, leaving the Rhinos needing four runs off the final two balls.
Pratish GC came to the strike but could not fish out the required runs as Nepal fell two runs short.
Airee finished his innings with 63 runs off 34 balls, cracking six boundaries and three sixes. In the process, Airee broke Kushal Bhurtel’s record for most fifty-plus scores for Nepal in T20Is. It was his ninth fifty-plus T20I score.
Skipper Rohit Paudel also gave a stellar performance by scoring a half-century. He slammed six fours and two sixes in his 36-ball 50.
Paudel added 65 runs with opener Aasif Sheikh, who made 34 runs off 23 balls, for the second wicket to steady the ship after Kushal Bhurtel departed for a duck for the second match in a row.
Paudel then added 32 runs with Kushal Malla for the third wicket before Sybrand Engelbrecht checked the run flow dismissing the duo in the space of four balls in the 12th over.
Nepal were reeling at 126-6 after Sundeep Jora (8) and Sompal Kami (0) walked back to the pavilion.
KC (11) and Airee revived Nepal’s innings putting on a 55-run for the seventh wicket but could not complete the chase.
Merwe and Engelbrecht took two wickets each for the Dutch, while Vivian Kingma, Van der Gugten and Aryan Dutta pocketed one wicket apiece.
Earlier, the Netherlands posted 184-4 in the allotted 20 overs after being invited to bat first.
The Dutch lost their opener Max O’Dowd for four runs, caught by Airee of KC in the third over.
But Michael Levitt, who was making his T20I debut, scored a fifty and shared a 62-run partnership with Engelbrecht for the second wicket to build the innings. Levit departed adding 54 runs off 36 balls in the 8.5 overs.
Engelbrecht, also a debutant, then added 46 runs with Scott Edwards for the third wicket and 61 runs with Teja Nidamanuru for the fourth wicket to take the Netherlands to a fighting total.
Engelbrecht was unbeaten on 49 runs off 38 deliveries. Edwards added a quick 33 off 16 balls, while Nidamanuru contributed 31 runs off 24 balls.
It was Nepal’s second consecutive loss series. They had lost the opening match to Namibia by 20 runs on Tuesday.
The outcome also means Nepal’s winless run at home has now stretched to four straight matches. They had won just one out of four matches in Kirtipur in the recently concluded Nepal Tri-Series of the ICC Cricket World Cup League 2.
Nepal’s 15-match winning streak at home had ended when they lost their inaugural match of the League 2 against Namibia on February 15.
Nepal play Namibia and the Netherlands in the second round of the Tri-Nation series on March 1 and March 2 respectively. The final will take place on March 5.
SPORTS
- Sports Bureau
KATHMANDU,
Sabitra Bhandari scored her 53rd international goal on Tuesday, becoming the leading women’s goal scorer of South Asia.
Bhandari, popularly known as Samba, created history during the 2024 WAFF (West Asian Football Federation) Women’s Championship semi-final match against Lebanon when she scored the equaliser in the 76th minute at the Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Sports City in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
In the process, Bhandari eclipsed India’s Ngangom Bala Devi’s record for most international goals by a South Asian woman footballer. Devi previously held the record with 52 goals to her name.
Bhandari is in the 31st position, alongside Austria’s Nina Burger, in the list of top international women’s football goal scorers.
Bhandari is also the all-time highest goal scorer in Nepalese football history.
Bhandari also leads the WAFF Championship goal tally with nine goals.
Bhandari’s equaliser set the tone for Nepal’s semi-final triumph as Preeti Rai scored a last-gasp winner to send Nepal into the final.
Nepal, who are making their first appearance in the tournament, will face three-time defending champions Jordan in the final on Thursday.
Jordan won the last three editions (Jordan 2014, Bahrain 2019 and Jordan 2022) of the biennial international women’s football competition.
However, Nepal will be without Bhandari in the title clash as the final match does not fall under the FIFA Window dates.
“Currently representing EV Guingamp in France, Sabitra contract with the club permits her to represent her country in competitions and tournaments held during FIFA window dates. While the group stage and semi-final matches of the WAFF Women’s Championship fall within the February 19-28 FIFA Window, the final on February 29 does not align with this timeframe. Consequently, according to her contractual obligations, Sabitra is not obligated to participate in the final match,” All Nepal Football Association said on its Facebook page.
“We want to clarify that Sabitra will not be available for selection in the national team for the final against Jordan,” ANFA added.
“While we acknowledge the disappointment this may cause among our fans and understand Sabitra’s absence will undoubtedly be felt, we want to reassure our fans that the team is fully prepared and committed to stepping up in her absence. Every member of the team is ready to rise to the occasion and fill the void left by Sabitra’s absence.”
MEDLEY
ARIES (March 21-April 19)
Stay grounded, dear Aries. Connect with your network in search of new opportunities. Play it safe by flying under the radar, finding value in keeping your plans under wraps until you've had a chance to iron out kinks.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20)
You'll have the power to grow beyond measure dear Taurus, bringing forth good news and potential opportunities. Be vocal about your personal goals, and help could manifest from unlikely sources. Prioritise balance and treasured relationships later tonight.
GEMINI (May 21-June 21)
Recognize the importance of optimism, focusing your internal dialogue on how much you've achieved while feeling hopeful for what's to come. Try not to overburden yourself with too many demands and complete one task before taking on another.
CANCER (June 22-July 22)
Your wishes will be heard, dear Cancer. Your playful nature becomes contagious and it'll be easy to make connections when you intend to spread joy. Just be mindful to focus on important business later in the evening today.
LEO (July 23-August 22)
You'll feel optimistic about matters of the heart and see the path ahead more clearly. You may feel torn between connecting with loved ones or laying low at home. Don't feel beholden to going out later tonight.
VIRGO (August 23-September 22)
You'll find it possible to add more to your plate without sacrificing personal balance, sweet Virgo, so don't be afraid to go after more! Avoid frustrations by leaning into grace and laughing off miscommunications, disorganisation, or mistakes
LIBRA (September 23-October 22)
Trust that the sacrifices you make now will pay off, finding empowerment in letting go and moving on. Follow that which brings you joy, seizing control of your destiny. Be mindful to pace yourself to avoid burnout.
SCORPIO (October 23-November 21)
Check-in with your needs while anticipating those of those around you, showcasing how caring you are through nurturing acts. You'll feel pulled toward the arts and creative energy. Unfortunately, you may feel called to tend to others.
SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21)
Remember to stay focused on personal goals taking time to socialise with peers who might offer helpful advice. There will be plenty going on underneath the surface later today. Consider laying low at home towards the evening.
CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19)
Your confidence spikes with each positive interaction and new opportunities could follow. Lively discussions about the state of our world could inspire humanitarian acts, though you could run into issues when trying to change minds or point fingers.
AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18)
Your heart will feel full and mind optimistic when you find gratitude in the present, dear Aquarius. You may also feel called to demonstrate appreciation through nurturing acts of kindness. You'll feel slightly more serious later today.
PISCES (February 19-March 20)
Share your thoughts and spread cheer, dear Pisces. Take a moment to pull back and tap into your gratitude letting go of financial woes to fully appreciate what you do have. You'll need to stay organised and focused.
CULTURE & LIFESTYLE
Actor and director Ingi Hopo Koinch Sunuwar discusses his favourite books, the importance of reading for everyone and how it improves an artist’s comprehension of the world.
Founder of Mamaa Arts, Ingi Hopo Koinch Sunuwar, has been active in the theatre field since 2015, working as an actor, director, writer and instructor. He has acted in more than two dozen plays like ‘Jaar’, ‘Paanch’, ‘Animal Farm’ and ‘Dayalu Rukh’, as well as movies like ‘Damaru ko Dandibiyo’.
His directorial works include ‘Damini Bhir’ and ‘Senako Cheli’. The latter even won first place in the Nepal Army Short Movie Competition in 2022 and received a special jury award in KIMFF 2022.
In an interview with Post’s Aarati Ray, Sunuwar shares his love for books and how it shapes his journey in theatre.
How significant has the role of books been in shaping your interest in theatre?
Books have been a big help in teaching me about art, society and culture. Regarding theatre, the stories and emotions from books are like a guide. We use them to imagine and show our feelings and art on stage. I firmly believe that without immersing ourselves in the world of books, our ability to present different narratives and stories on stage effectively would be limited.
When did your interest in books begin?
I started reading around 2007. Before that, I wasn’t very interested in books, possibly because the way our course books are designed made reading seem dull and tedious. It wasn’t until 2011 that I began to read vigorously.
‘Urgen ko Ghoda’ by Yug Pathak was the first novel I ever finished reading. Prior to that, I struggled to finish entire books and only read snippets. The sense of satisfaction and accomplishment spurred me to further explore and relish the world of books.
What genres do you usually read?
When I first started reading, I liked novels. As time passed, I began reading about history, politics and culture. I have a penchant for books about specific ethnicities and societies, particularly those focusing on indigenous people. I find it interesting to learn about my culture and history through books.
Generally, though, I don’t stick to just one type of book because it would limit what I can learn. I like reading different kinds of books because it helps me understand the world better.
Is there any book that has influenced you greatly?
Choosing just one book is difficult as all the books I’ve read have left a lasting impact on me. Books, to me, are like exploring unknown parts of the ocean, no matter how many times I dive in. However, if I had to pick one, it would be ‘Khana Pugos, Dina Pugos’ by Rabindra Mishra. This book instilled in me the importance of looking after ourselves and caring for those around us.
What are your thoughts on the representation of diverse individuals in Nepali literature?
While there are books touching on different communities, they often fall short of capturing the true essence and depth of those communities. This gap is also noticeable in our education system, where not all castes and communities, especially indigenous ones, are represented in the curriculum. Most of us are unfamiliar with many Nepali cultures and communities.
In contrast, foreign countries actively highlight and celebrate their ethnicities and communities. A notable example is the popular ‘Avatar’ franchise based on an indigenous community. I believe that books and literature are like mirrors reflecting our society. So, there’s a need for more books that explore Nepali culture.
How much responsibility do you think an artist or theatre director bears in correctly representing a particular culture or adaptation of a book?
When artists or theatre directors tell stories about a culture or turn a book into a play, they have a huge responsibility. It’s hard to include every detail, but we shouldn’t avoid our responsibility because it’s difficult or scary. When dealing with a book about a specific community or culture, handling the representation carefully is very important.
When I’m adapting books into plays, I always try to understand the book’s main ideas. The most important thing is to be able to correctly showcase the true spirit of the book and the culture it talks about. Despite the challenges, if we can capture the natural feeling and richness of the original material, I see that as successfully fulfilling our duty as artists and theatre directors.
Can theatre contribute to reviving our diminishing reading culture?
Absolutely. Many plays are adaptations of books and as artists, we need to thoroughly read and understand the book before bringing it to the stage. So, theatre artists usually read a lot. Beyond that, theatre can encourage the general audience to develop reading habits. I’ve seen lots of people becoming interested in reading the book that a play is based on after watching it in the theatre.
Book enthusiasts often attend plays to see how their favourite stories are brought to life on stage. So, theatre can, to some extent, help bring back the love for reading.
How can we foster a culture of reading?
Coming from an indigenous background, my family had little exposure to education. My mother and even my father, who studied only till grade 4, never had the chance or inclination to keep books in our house. However, I saw numerous books at the homes of friends whose parents were educators or had received proper education. Consequently, those friends subconsciously developed a reading habit at home.
I strongly believe that the love for reading starts at home. When someone in your family engages in reading or discusses politics and global events, you naturally learn and become interested.
How important is the habit of reading?
Developing the habit of reading books beyond the school curriculum is vital. Reading out loud can make your pronunciation and language skills better. It helps you understand different perspectives and how to relate to another. Most importantly, books help us think critically. If there is a resurgence in reading habits, our society can improve greatly.
What advice would you offer to someone who is just starting to read?
Try dedicating 10 to 15 minutes daily to reading. Begin with short stories or news articles and gradually make reading a regular habit. You might feel bored; however, it is essential to remember that beyond your academic materials, there are numerous wonderful and life-changing books worth exploring.
Ingi Hopo Koinch Sunuwar’s book recommendations
Aagoko Pidar
Author: Mithoch
Publication: Phoenix Books
Year: 2023
Mithoch discusses the changes everyone goes through in a simple and relatable fashion in ‘Aagoko Pidar’. Through different poems in this collection, he talks about consciousness, suffering and the true essence of knowledge.
Khana Pugos, Dina Pugos
Author: Rabindra Mishra
Publication: Nepalaya Publication
Year: 2012
‘Khana Pugos, Dina Pugos’ holds a special place in my heart. Mishra introduced a fresh perspective on philanthropy and journalism in this book. It taught me the significance of caring for ourselves as well as for others.
Jitko Paribhasa
Author: Sanu Sharma
Publication: Highland Publication
Year: 2010
Sharma adeptly portrays the vulnerability and resilience of a family in ‘Jitko Paribhasa’. As I read about their challenges and triumphs, I was moved by their strength and love for each other. This book teaches us about the intricacies of life and its struggles.
Mukdumko Serofero
Author: Atit Mukhiya
Publication: Sunuwar Samaj, Hongkong
Year: 2020
In ‘Mukdumko Serofero’, Mukhiya depicts the culture and rituals of Kirat Sunuwars. It serves as an excellent resource for understanding the beliefs of the Sunuwar community and exploring our connection with nature, the community’s cultural practices, lifestyle and philosophy.
Damini Bhir
Author: Rajan Mukarung
Publication: Phoenix Books
Year: 2012
I directed a play inspired by this book, so it is special for me. The novel is set during the decade-long insurgency in Nepal. It sheds light on the conditions, psychology and customs of Nepali society during this turbulent period of transition.
CULTURE & LIFESTYLE
The display marked another chapter in Maria Grazia Chiuri’s ongoing fusion of fashion and fine art at the Fashion Week.
- THOMAS ADAMSON
Paris, France
Sculptural figures resembling cane warriors, clad in billowing dresses that evoked skeletal forms, stood sentinel on Dior’s runway Tuesday, presenting a visual metaphor for the protection of vanishing cultures. The display marked another chapter in Maria Grazia Chiuri’s ongoing fusion of fashion and fine art at Paris Fashion Week.
Celebrities including Jennifer Lawrence, Maisie Williams, Elizabeth Debicki and Natalie Portman were among the audience, captivated by a collection that revisited the 1960s and the genesis of ready-to-wear at Dior. As described by the fashion house, this era was a pivotal moment “when fashion left the atelier to conquer the world.”
Here are some highlights of Tuesday’s Fall-Winter 2024 displays:
Dior 60’s art fusion: A modern tribute to freedom
The cane frame sculptural decor by Mumbai-based artist Shakuntala Kulkarni made for a dramatic armour-like backdrop for designs that celebrated the freedom and empowerment of ready-to-wear clothes for the modern woman. The collection revisited the 1960s with a fresh, contemporary lens. The collection’s footwear, with its buckled, strappy knee-high boots, directly mirrored the cane ceiling’s latticework, while elsewhere, garments paid tribute to the 60s’ iconic nipped waists and A-line silhouettes. Yet, Chiuri skillfully infused these retro elements with a modern twist, incorporating sportswear styles with round-shouldered coats that exuded a minimalist feel.
Dior’s nostalgic journey through fashion’s past
Dior’s recent showcase was a deep dive into the annals of style history, offering guests a meticulously crafted lesson in the evolution of ready-to-wear.
At the show’s heart, the Miss Dior logo took centre stage, elegantly emblazoned across an array of dresses, skirts and coats, each a testament to the brand’s rich heritage. The house provided attendees with detailed notes on the origins of ready-to-wear, spotlighting Dior’s pioneering role in the movement.
Saint Laurent’s study in sensuality and contradiction
Saint Laurent’s indoor display was a spectacle of shadow and light, drawing an illustrious crowd that included Lily Collins, Diane Kruger, Olivia Wilde, Zoe Saldana and Kate Moss. Navigating the near pitch-black venue, guests were ushered by torchlight past opulent green-gold brocade curtains, setting the stage for a show steeped in sensuality and intrigue. An opera soundtrack and the lingering scents of perfume underscored it.
Designer Anthony Vaccarello took his sensuality to new heights this season. The collection featured skin-tight, sheer silks in subtle, powdery palettes that meticulously outlined the models’ forms, reminiscent of an ‘X-ray’. Inspired by the iconic ‘naked’ gown Marilyn Monroe wore on her last public appearance, a signature for the storied house, it made for a provocative yet elegant statement where fabric seemed to melt into the skin. Contrasting this sex appeal, silk caps added a contradictory layer of covering, mystery, and class to the ensembles—alongside the allure of the gleaming statement earrings.
The show’s mood was further accentuated by adding large, black patent leather coats, introducing a rich textural contrast that broodingly mirrored the runway’s glossy, oil-slick surface.
Vogue to celebrate Paris Olympics with joint fashion show
Fashion magazine Vogue is setting the stage for a celebration of fashion and sports with a special show to herald the upcoming Paris Olympics. Under the leadership of Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, the fashion magazine announced it will host a unique gathering of France’s premier luxury brands on June 23, coinciding with International Olympic Day and setting the scene for the Games beginning just over a month later.
The “Paris (fashion show) will be a tribute to the Olympic Games,” Wintour said in a statement. “It’s a dream to make the Place Vendôme Vogue World’s home—I can’t think of a setting that better captures the city’s rich history and glamour.” This event will mark a significant moment, celebrating 100 years of French fashion alongside the spirit of the Olympics, as Paris last welcomed the Games in 1924.
Germanier channels upcycled disco glamour and cabaret chic
One brand that captures the essence of upcycling glamour with a disco twist commanded attention: Germanier. Founded by Kevin Germanier, who has become synonymous with sustainable luxury, the latest collection was an homage to the electric atmosphere of cabaret.
He masterfully intertwined his commitment to environmental consciousness with high fashion, presenting a line that was nothing short of disco-fabulous.
This season, the runway sparkled with eye-popping neons and gleaming jewels, embodying the extravagant disco era. A standout piece included a dress adorned with billowing glittered disco ribbons, creating a dynamic cascade of colour and light.
– Associated Press
