Seated in a cramped room in Kathmandu, 33-year-old Rekha* recounted her life of struggle as the sole provider of herself and her three children. Rekha grew up in Bhojpur of Koshi province, in a household struggling to make ends meet. She married a government employee at 14 but separated aContinue Reading
On March 9, thousands of people gathered at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan airport to greet Nepal’s former king, Gyanendra Shah. “Come back king, save the country. Long live our beloved king. We want monarchy,” the crowds chanted. There were rallies in other Nepali towns too where calls for the restoration of monarchyContinue Reading
On the day he returned to the U.S. presidency, Donald Trump issued an executive order freezing foreign aid for 90 days. Among the many projects impacted was a $500 million grant that was intended to develop critical infrastructure in Nepal. This funding, provided through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), aContinue Reading
While this month’s pro-monarchy rallies in Nepal have caught international attention, there has always been a level of support for monarchy in this narrow patch of South Asia. The institution was formally abolished in 2008. Even though most Nepalis agreed with the change, some were unhappy – mostly people fromContinue Reading
KATHMANDU: Nepal’s former king Gyanendra Shah was welcomed back to Kathmandu on Sunday (Mar 9) by thousands of supporters who have been staging pro-monarchy demonstrations in the Himalayan republic. The Hindu-majority nation became a secular republic in 2008 after parliament abolished the monarchy as part of a peace deal that endedContinue Reading
When the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) lifted a four-year ban on Pakistan International Airlines operating in Europe in November last year, Nepal’s aviation industry thought that the 11-year-old ban on Nepali airlines too would be lifted soon. However, that did not happen. When the European Commission issued itsContinue Reading
In the aftermath of Bangladesh’s political upheaval, Nobel laureate economist Dr. Muhammad Yunus, now the chief adviser to the interim government, has publicly expressed interest in reinvigorating the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) on a number of occasions. Yunus has expressed his intention to take steps to reviveContinue Reading
The alleged death by suicide of a Nepali student Prakriti Lamsal in India on February 16 prompted angry protests by Nepali students in India and Nepal. Lamsal was studying at the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) in India’s eastern state of Odisha. According to police, Lamsal ended her lifeContinue Reading
An executive decision by the Trump administration in Washington, D.C. to freeze foreign aid for 90 days and a potential shutdown of USAID has created ripple effects in the faraway Himalayan republic of Nepal. The decision will impact Nepal’s development, diplomacy, and geopolitics. On January 25, USAID formally contacted DhaniramContinue Reading
In recent years, green hydrogen has gained significant attention in Nepali energy discourse, emerging as a symbol of new ambition and opportunity. For Nepal, sitting on abundant water resources and with its often cited but largely untapped hydropower potential of 80 GW, the idea of channeling anticipated surplus electricity intoContinue Reading
